Description

Up to 57 days on a charge. That’s the biggest reason to go Solar.

The Garmin fēnix 9 Pro Solar is the fēnix 9 Pro with a Power Sapphire solar lens and a transflective MIP display in place of AMOLED. It pairs with your Alpha 300/300i, Alpha 200i, Alpha 200 Plus, Alpha 10, or Pro 550 Plus for the same wrist-based dog tracking: dog name, distance, direction, and on-point or treed alerts.

Solar or AMOLED: The MIP screen is not as vivid and the maps are not as sharp. What you get instead is a display that gets easier to read the brighter it is outside, and a battery that keeps charging while you hunt. The AMOLED wins indoors and at night. The MIP wins at noon in an open field, and it lasts.

Battery: The 47mm runs 21 days in smartwatch mode, 34 days with solar. The 51mm runs 30 days, 57 days with solar. Expedition mode on the 51mm stretches to 124 days with solar. Garmin figures that on three hours a day outside in 50,000 lux conditions. If you are running dogs several days a week, you live in that window.

inReach or standard: Both sizes come either way. The inReach models add two-way satellite messaging, LTE voice calls, LiveTrack, Garmin Locate, satellite weather, and interactive SOS to the 24/7 staffed Garmin Response center, none of it needing your phone. An active plan is required and LTE coverage is not available everywhere.

Same Pro hardware underneath: Full titanium case and bezel, white, red and green LED flashlight, 64GB of memory, 10 ATM with a 40 meter dive rating, speaker and microphone, and preloaded multicontinent TopoActive maps.

Sizes: 47mm at 84 grams, 51mm at 102 grams. Both run thicker than the AMOLED models, 15.8mm and 16.6mm, because of the solar lens. There is no 43mm solar.

Compatible handhelds for dog tracking: Alpha 300/300i, Alpha 200/200i, Alpha 200 Plus, Alpha 10, Alpha XL, Astro 430, and Pro 550 Plus. Dog name, distance, direction, and on-point or treed alerts come through the dog tracking widget.

Our take: Buy this one if charging is the part that annoys you. Guides, trappers, houndsmen running multi-day trips, anyone who has had a watch quit on day four of a week-long hunt. You give up screen quality to get there and you will notice it the first time you look at a map in the truck. If you mostly hunt weekends and want the best display Garmin makes, get the fēnix 9 Pro instead. If you do not need inReach or solar at all, the fēnix 9 is the simpler buy.

Additional information