Garmin's New fēnix GPS Watch Guides Hikers, Outdoors Enthusiasts

Garmin has had remarkable success with GPS enhanced sports watches over the past few years, with popular running and golf watches. I can't say that backpacking and hiking are logical extensions of the watch line, since there are many nice mapping handhelds for these categories, but Garmin has taken the plunge with its new fēnix outdoor watch. The fēnix is designed for "mountaineers, hikers, cyclists, hunters and backpackers. fēnix provides comprehensive navigation and tracking functionalities as well as trip information to guide adventurers," states Garmin. The fēnix "allows users to plan trips and create routes, record waypoints, such as campsites or points of interest, and record GPS bread crumb trails on the move (tracklogs). Adventurers can navigate to coordinates, along a track or route, towards waypoints, geocaches or along any other selected bearing. A navigation arrow provides clear directional guidance and the TracBack function can guide one back along a previously recorded tracklog. This provides adventurers peace of mind knowing they're never 'lost'." The fēnix is to sell for $399, and to be available for sale this fall. Image © Garmin