Garmin Fenix 9 microLED possible: AUO unveils planned display upgrades

The Garmin Fenix 8 Pro microLED was meant to offer the brightest display of any smartwatch – thanks to microLEDs, the smartwatch achieves an impressive brightness of 4,500 nits, ensuring flawless readability even in sunlight. However, at launch, the Fenix 8 Pro microLED was not only extremely expensive, with a list price of $2,000, but also one millimeter thicker, and with the always-on display enabled, it offers a battery life of just four days, compared to the AMOLED model's 15 days.

Probably not least for these reasons, Garmin decided against offering a Fenix 9 ($999 on Amazon) with a microLED display. However, Garmin's microLED supplier AU Optronics now suggests, as part of its announcement of financial results for the third quarter of 2026, that microLED screens for smartwatches are far from finished. AUO has confirmed that it is already working with customers on new microLED smartwatches, and that a new Gen 4.5 production line is scheduled to begin operating as early as the first half of 2027.

This should not only increase production capacity but also help lower prices. According to AU Optronics, it is on track to halve microLED costs every two years. This would allow Garmin to launch a new model at a significantly lower price in September 2027, two years after the launch of the Fenix 8 Pro microLED. These new panels are also expected to receive upgrades in terms of thickness and power consumption, but it will likely be some time before microLED displays can match OLED panels in these areas.