Garmin tactix 7 AMOLED

During my time in Japan, I decided to upgrade from my previous smartwatch, the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar Tactical Edition, to the Garmin tactix 7 AMOLED, primarily because of a single feature that I was missing on the Instinct: An electrocardiogram.

To me, the Instinct 2X with its transflective Memory-In-Pixel display and solar charging capability was the perfect smartwatch. Coming from an Apple Watch that would be little more than a paperweight when left without a smartphone connection, and that would require recharging on a nearly nightly basis, the Instinct 2X Solar Tactical Edition had pretty much everything that I could ask for, except an ECG feature. While in Japan, however, I decided to check that box by profiting from the weak Japanese Yen and upgrade to a different Garmin watch that has an integrated ECG.

At that time the Garmin fēnix 8 just launched and it was similarly priced in its 51mm AMOLED and Solar variants, while neither the tactix 8 AMOLED nor the Instict 3 50mm Solar was out yet – let alone a 3X Solar Tactical successor. While I could have gone for the fēnix 8, I actively decided against it and went the extra mile of searching for an electronics store that would still have the older tactix 7 AMOLED in stock. My arguments for going with the tactix were the following:

• Longer battery life in smartwatch mode without always-on display (Up to 31 days on the tactix, Up to 29 days on the fēnix)
• Titanium bezel and rear cover
• Lighter (case only: 59g) than all variants of the fēnix (Stainless Steel case only: 74g, Titanium case only: 64g)
• No built-in microphone – yes, for me a wearable without a microphone is a good thing!
• Stealth mode, to turn off the storage and sharing of GPS position, and all wireless communication on the watch
• Night vision mode
• Kill switch
• Aviation features:
  • Worldwide airport database
  • 3-axis compass with HSI
  • Multiple time zones with Zulu/UTC
  • NEXRAD on moving map
  • Moving Map with aviation airports, navaids, roads, bodies of water and more
  • Worldwide NAVAID and Intersection database
  • In-flight Pulse Ox
  • Meteorological Aerodrome Report
  • Terminal Aerodrome Forecast
• Improved recovery time analysis
• Built-in ground contact time and balance for running
• Reference point setting/tracking
• Preloaded road and trail maps
• Wind meter compatibility
• Both, a nylon as well as a silicone strap
• An additional green LED flashlight besides the white light

Even though the water/diving features on the fēnix are nice to have, I value the tactical features and the longer battery life of the tactix more.

Daily driver

Over the past six months, I have been wearing and using the tactix 7 AMOLED nearly 27/7. I might however not be the typical user, as I don’t normally have either Bluetooth or WiFi enabled on the watch, except for performing system updates every once in a while.

Talking about battery life: The battery life of the Garmin tactix 7 AMOLED is impressive, to say the least. With GPS enabled, but WiFi and Bluetooth turned off most of the time, I can get 28 days of battery life, which is similar to what I was able to get out of the Instinct 2X Solar Tactical Edition. Not only does the AMOLED smartwatch get nearly the same battery life as a comparable device with a transflective MIP display, but it basically blows every other (AM)OLED competitor out of the water. In comparison, looking back to the time I used an Apple Watch makes me feel like I was a caveman dealing with Neanderthal technology. Given the need to charge the smartwatch pretty much on a nightly basis, it rendered the device completely unsuitable for gaining insights into sleep habits, quality, and the body’s recovery state and energy levels. Every metric that the Apple Watch was recording was worth nothing without the insights that come from resting phases.

Speaking of which, I wear the tactix at night as well. While the watch might seem clunky with its 51mm in diameter and its 14.9 mm in thickness, it really isn’t. I’m a 6'1" person with average wrists and I barely notice the watch, physically or visually. It’s round and flat enough to not get stuck in places and, unlike the slightly too sturdy nylon band, the additional silicone band that it brings is comfortable enough for wearing the watch 24/7 – even though it looks like we shouldn’t even if we think it’s safe.

One gripe that I have with the tactix is the Nap feature. I don’t know why, but for some reason, the watch either won’t track naps at all or it won’t alert when a timed nap is ending. I’m probably holding it wrong or something, but that specific feature hasn’t been working at all for me. According to Garmin, sleep sessions longer than 3 hours escape the definition of taking a nap and are simply classified as sleep, but even with shorter naps the watch never really tracked anything, let alone produce valuable insights or even just have them show up in the Naps glance.

Another thing I noticed is regarding the watch faces. While the pre-installed watch faces function fairly decent, every third-party watch face that I tried has a noticeable lag to it. I assume this is due to the Monkey C stack, that Garmin is using for third-party apps, which probably doesn’t perform as well as the native watch faces that come with the firmware.

AMOLED vs MIP

The biggest difference between my previous Instinct and the tactix is the display. While both technologies have pros and cons, in my opinion, the MIP is still the superior display for a smartwatch that focuses on outdoor/tactical use and isn’t a mere fashion item. And it appears that many active Garmin users agree: Many posts point out how the AMOLEDs simply aren’t for the outdoorsy people that usually buy into Garmin watches, to begin with.

I remember very well how I managed to recharge the Instinct during extensive outdoor periods, using solely the integrated solar cells, while still able to read the time and various other metrics without having to wake up the display by flicking my wrist first. The MIP not only keeps battery consumption at a minimum, making an always-on display possible while still retaining an endless battery life, but it is also easy enough to read in bright environments. And even if you don’t care too much about battery life and are willing to sacrifice a few days of the runway on the always-on AMOLED, you might end up with burn-in fragments after even a relatively short time.

To me, the AMOLED while nice looking is ultimately a downgrade from the MIP display. To others, the AMOLED variants might be the preferred choice however.

But what about the main reason that made me switch to the tactix to begin with? What about the …

Electrocardiogram

Apart from the tactix having a high-resolution display and a few more tricks up its sleeve here and there, the primary reason for me to switch from the Instinct 2X was the ECG. Unfortunately, I would not recommend the tactix, or any other ECG-capable Garmin smartwatch for purely the ECG feature. Let me explain.

The Good

The ECG is really useful for taking on-the-spot readings, whether it’s during or after workout sessions, while doing outdoor activities, or even just when commuting. It’s relatively fast to launch the app – if it’s the first app in your favorites list, you press the top right button, press it again, and then keep your index finger on the top right button while touching and keeping your thumb on the bottom left button – and it only takes 30 seconds to record.

The Bad

Unfortunately, the ECG result can only be viewed on the watch directly after finishing the recording. It’s not possible to recall earlier recordings and view them on the watch. For that, a smartphone connection with the Garmin app is required, which leads to the ECG recording being uploaded to Garmin’s cloud. That’s not great at all, from a privacy perspective.

Another letdown is the fact that the ECG app solely checks for AFib and doesn’t show things like missed beats, occasional PVC, and other abnormalities. Other portable ECGs (see alternatives) do so. I don’t know whether that’s a technical limitation for a single-lead ECG of that form factor, or whether it is simply an implementation detail, though.

Last but not least, the integration of the ECG feature could have been significantly tighter with the monitoring features that the smartwatch has. For instance, the tactix 7, like most Garmin smartwatches, will notify you of (too) low or high heart rates. Garmin could have made it so that users could simply touch the top right and bottom left buttons to start an automatic ECG recording during such an event. This would make sense, as the event might be arrhythmia-induced Tachycardia that might be worth exploring. However, instead, the user has to press the bottom right button to get rid of the notification, and then go the usual way to open the ECG app and start a recording, losing precious time and hence information.

The Ugly

The tactix, as well as other higher-end Garmin models all come with the ECG feature, meaning the watches have the electronics and software that are necessary to record a single-lead electrocardiogram. However, in the enshittified world of today, just because the product you paid for comes with specific electronics and software, doesn’t mean that you can actually use those. Just because your BMW comes with all electronics necessary to heat your seats, doesn’t mean that you can just use seat heating. Garmin is no exception to this ever-so-widespread behavior, unfortunately.

While Garmin doesn’t charge a dedicated subscription fee for the ECG app – yet – the feature only works in specific countries. And while I want to assume that this has more to do with regulation than with corporate greed, I nevertheless don’t accept that as an excuse when paying well over $1000 for a smartwatch. As of today, the Garmin ECG feature is only available in 40 out of the 195 countries that we recognize. And even though Garmin doesn’t sell this device in all of the 195 countries, it’s nevertheless infuriating how they actively block people from using this feature in 80% of the world. Even more so, when, like in my case, the watch was purchased in Japan – which is not supported in the ECG app – but nevertheless comes with the exact same electronics and software as in all the supported countries.

In order to enable the ECG feature while being in Japan, I, therefore, had to change the country of my Garmin burner account to one of the supported countries and use a GPS location faker app on my phone to simulate the device being in that country. Only then I was able to successfully activate the ECG app. Once activated, the app works regardless of the actual physical location of the watch. At least at the time of writing, it seems like Garmin is not requesting the smartwatch’s GPS location for activation, but that might be something that they could potentially do in future updates to prevent people from using this feature in places where – for whatever reason – the ECG app is not available.

Long story short, this experience humbled my excitement about the tactix, as well as all the other Garmin smartwatches with ECG – a feature exclusive to their premium $900+ watches, with two exceptions (Venu 3 and Venu 3S for $449.99). While I am technically capable of working around the limitations, many others might not be. And just like myself, people might not visit the web page of the smartwatch, click the ECG feature to go to the ECG sub-page, then scroll to the bottom to click a link that leads to the supported countries sub-sub-page, only to see that their country might not be in that list. And Garmin is far from being the only tech company following such business practices. For example, Apple and Samsung also release individual features only within specific countries/markets.

I feel like there should be regulation against these business practices. The place you reside in – or just happen to be in when you purchase the device, as it was for me – should not have an impact on the features you’re being offered. If regulation prohibits manufacturers from rolling out a feature to specific places, they should either be forced to work it out, or make it 100% obvious and on top of that reduce the product price to compensate for the lack of the feature. If I don’t get to use a specific feature like 20% of the world does, whether that’s due to regulatory BS or any other reason, then I would like to not pay for the development and integration of that feature into the product. Why are companies allowed to charge the same price for a product that does A, B, and C in, let’s say Italy, but only does A and B in Switzerland? As a matter of fact, the official price for the tactix on Garmin Italy is EUR 1299.99; In their Swiss shop, it is CHF 1299.90, which translates to EUR 1386.23. Effectively, people in Switzerland pay more for the same product but get less, because they are blocked from using one of its main features (the ECG).

Alternatives

While there isn’t a truly portable alternative to what smartwatch manufacturers offer with the integrated single-lead ECGs, there are alternatives that are still compact enough to fit any pocket. Those devices, while larger, are usually more accurate than smartwatches. One (in)famous example is Kardia, a company that sells portable, multi-lead ECG devices for a premium – and a subscription on top. However, you can find subscription-free portable ECG monitors from other less-known manufacturers like EMAY, who are not only cheaper due to year-round sale offers on various platforms, but also won’t require you to upload your ECG recordings to someone else’s computer (the cloud).

Only after I had purchased the tactix and went through the trouble of hacking my way around the ECG limitation I found alternatives that are similarly or even more accurate, less costly, and still relatively portable. And apart from a handful of exceptions, none of those alternatives required faking the GPS location or a monthly subscription just to see your recordings.

Verdict

The Garmin tactix 7 AMOLED is an amazing piece of hardware. Paired with the rest of the Garmin ecosystem – HR bands, bow sights, speed sensors, etc – the tactix can be a powerful extension for all sorts of activities. Unlike most consumer products, the Garmin watch has some unique features that make it ideal for users who require pinpoint navigation and situational awareness, even in remote or complex environments. However, many of the features are also available on models like the Instinct 2X Solar Tactical, which is available for less than 50% of the cost of a tactix 7 AMOLED.

If you value the materials that the tactix brings – e.g. sapphire crystal rather than Power Glass™, titanium rather than fiber-reinforced polymer – or any of the specialized features like advanced sleep monitoring, aviation features including Garmin’s jet lag adviser, safety features like incident detection, and a wider variety of on-screen information and widgets, then the tactix is a great choice. If, on the other hand, you can do without the bells and whistles and are fine with the more puristic package that you get in an Instinct 2X, then Garmin’s ECG feature should definitely not be the reason to pay the premium. Instead, have a look at the dedicated portable ECG monitors that are available and stick to the (already expensive enough) non-ECG watches.