Compared to the Pioneer 965, it has 15 new sports profiles including outdoor snowboarding, pickles, and even some racing. The list isn’t as extensive as the Fenix 8, though, which tracks surfing and now serves as a full-scale dive for entertaining scuba and freelance. It does feel like the lack is just a distinction between pioneers and fenix lines, as software updates can do that.
Fortunately, the map functionality has been cribly crimped from Fenix 8 and is excellent. It comes with a lot of terrain maps. These maps are colorful, bright and easy to navigate by pinching and tapping. A new feature is round trip routing, with correction (in theory). If you are in an unfamiliar city, you can tell the watch that you want to do a 5-mile run, which will give you a loop. If you accidentally turn or see something beautiful that you want to see, it will be re-layout smoothly so that while reaching the target distance (within reason, of course).
It’s a good idea, but I can never make it work. If I leave the route, the entire watch will crash and I have to power it. Hopefully this is something Garmin can fix in future software updates (update approximately once a month). On the plus side, I found GPS performance to be accurate, even in trees, cliffs and tall buildings.
A lot of competition
Photo: Brent Rose
It is worth mentioning that Garmin also launched a new mid-range pioneer 570. It has shorter battery life, lower material (Gorilla Glass 3 vs. Sapphire, Sapphire, aluminum Bezel vs. Titanium vs. Titanium), with 8 GB vs. 32 GB, no memory memory, no built-in mapping, and no flash. You get speakers and microphones, though, and you can choose from a 42mm display instead of just 47mm, which is great for those with smaller wrists.
That being said, many of these features are available on Fenix 8. Fenix8 has more expensive materials, such as complete titanium alloys. Some of the same hardware, such as microphones and speakers, and better battery life. Some features are currently unavailable, such as running tolerance, but these features come from a huge new software update just announced by Garmin.
The Fenix 8 is more expensive than the ex 970, but it’s also much older. If the Fenix 8 starts selling occasionally, it’s no slightest to get it. The Forerunner 970 is a quality watch with premium features that will give you a lot of insight and help if you want to go to a professional, but if you don’t, that can be too high and you’ll enjoy surfing occasionally.
