Garmin MiP smartwatches could disappear for good, according to CEO

MiP displays still have plenty of fans in 2026. No wonder, as a look at the Fenix 9 Pro ($1,099 on Amazon) shows. The version with an AMOLED panel achieves a battery life of around one week with the always-on display enabled, while the Fenix 9 Pro Solar with a MiP display lasts three weeks even without using the solar cells, or 34 days with solar charging. The Garmin Enduro 4 can even achieve effectively unlimited battery life, provided there is sufficient daylight.

Despite these battery life advantages, Garmin is using AMOLED displays in more and more models, offering substantially higher contrast and more vibrant colors than MiP. Garmin's CEO Brad Trenkle has now commented on this trend in an interview with TechRadar. According to Trenkle, MiP still has advantages in terms of power consumption, but the gap is gradually closing. Once the battery life of AMOLED smartwatches has fully caught up with models featuring MiP displays, the company plans to retire the reflective LCDs.

As a look at the current Forerunner series shows, with all models from the affordable Forerunner 70 to the expensive Forerunner 970 offered exclusively with AMOLED screens, MiP fans have a steadily shrinking selection. Brad Trenkle suggests that it would theoretically be possible to combine an AMOLED panel with solar cells to further extend battery life, but the company's CEO has not yet commented on specific plans for such a product.