Better than the Fenix 9? Why the Garmin Enduro 4 isn’t the best choice for everyone

Garmin boasts an extensive smartwatch portfolio and recently expanded the lineup with the Enduro 4 (available on Amazon). The Fenix series serves as a useful benchmark for understanding the Enduro position: like its Fenix siblings, the Enduro line consists of feature-rich multisport watches capable of standalone offline navigation. However, as the moniker implies, the Enduro’s primary differentiator is extreme battery life. For casual athletes not embarking on multi-day treks or ultramarathons, this translates mostly to a luxury of convenience, drastically reducing charging frequency.

In a comprehensive deep dive, DC Rainmaker pitted the Enduro 4 against the Enduro 3, highlighting clear revisions to both the case design and strap system. Under the hood, internal storage has doubled to 64 GB. While primarily intended for map management, 32 GB was already more than sufficient for most users. Beyond capacity, the Enduro 4 delivers a welcome performance bump: RAM has expanded by 50%, and it adopts the same updated processor found in the Garmin Fenix 9 platform.

While DC Rainmaker noted faster overall loading times, these performance gains are most pronounced in synthetic benchmarks or edge cases, such as rendering exceptionally complex, long-distance routes directly on the device. Real-world differences will likely amount to a matter of seconds. More impactful for daily use are smoother map zooming and the introduction of a slightly tilted perspective map view.

Consequently, an upgrade from the Enduro 3 to the Enduro 4 may often be difficult to justify for current owners. Prospective buyers might also want to evaluate whether the Fenix 9 is the more compelling package. Unlike the 51 mm-only Enduro 4, the Fenix 9 (available on Amazon) comes in multiple case sizes and adds hardware extras like a microphone and dedicated diving capabilities. On the flip side, the Enduro 4 retains a memory-in-pixel (MiP) display over AMOLED. Though MiP tech has become increasingly rare across the smartwatch market, it maintains a dedicated following for good reason.