Garmin Fenix 8 Solar: Smartwatch teardown reveals old technology

A recent teardown of the Garmin Fenix 8 Solar has revealed details of the internals of the smartwatch. The Fenix 8 Solar, described as a premium multisport wearable, was launched alongside the Fenix 8 AMOLED and Fenix E smartwatches in August 2024.

Ferhad Fidan of F Tipi Blog has recently shared details of a teardown of the Fenix 8 Solar 51 mm watch (curr. $1,199.99 at Amazon). The newer wearable has some features that are identical to those of the Fenix 7X Solar smartwatch. These include the Sharp LS014B7DD01 memory-in-pixel (MIP) display module and the main NXP i.MX RT500 (MRT595SFFOC) processor. Other elements which appear to be the same are the Ambiq Micro Apollo 3 sensor hub chip and the Silicon Labs RS9116-B00 dual-mode WiFi and Bluetooth chip.

Upgrades for the Fenix 8 Solar compared to the Fenix 7X are the new Synaptics SYN4778 multi-band GNSS chip, bringing support for GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo and other satellite navigation systems. Also shown are new microphone and speaker, which were not present in the older model. Plus, you can see the larger 618mAh battery, though its manufacturer remains unclear. Other tweaks seem to be the STMicroelectronics S4-420 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, and the 32 GB Foresee eMMC storage chip.

The teardown shows that, at its core, the Garmin Fenix 8 Solar smartwatch is very similar to the newer Fenix 7X Solar. However, there are new hardware elements, such as the speaker and microphone, which bring features like voice commands and voice messaging. Plus, there is a range of extra features in the latest UI, which is exclusively available on the latest generation watches.