The Garmin Fenix 8 has hit the early Black Friday sales — here’s why I’d buy it instead of the Fenix 9
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Nick has been a journalist since 2012 and has spent most of that time writing about health and fitness for a variety of publications. Nick spent nine years working on the Coach magazine and website before moving to the fitness team at Tom’s Guide in 2024. Nick is a keen runner and also the founder of YouTube channel The Run Testers , which specialises in reviewing running shoes, watches, headphones and other gear. Nick has covered all aspects of health and fitness throughout his career, interviewing experts and celebrities, trying fitness classes and running marathons, all in the name of providing readers with the information they need to get the most out of an active lifestyle. Nick ran his first marathon in 2016 after six weeks of training for a magazine feature and subsequently became obsessed with the sport. He now has PBs of 2hr 25min for the marathon and 15min 30sec for 5K, and has run 16 marathons in total, as well as a 50-mile ultramarathon. Nick runs 60-90 miles a week and races regularly with his club, which gives him a lot of opportunity to test out running gear: he has tested and reviewed hundreds of pairs of running shoes, as well as fitness trackers, running watches, sports headphones, treadmills, and all manner of other kit. Nick is also a qualified Run Leader in the UK. Nick is an established expert in the health and fitness area and along with writing for several publications, including Live Science , Expert Reviews , Wareable , Coach and Get Sweat Go , he has been quoted on The Guardian and The Independent . Nick graduated from the University of York in 2010 with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and worked in the NHS for three years, during which time he completed his NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at News Associates in London. Before starting on Coach and moving into health and fitness, Nick worked as a football journalist and lived in Kathmandu, Nepal for two years.
The Garmin Fenix 9 and Fenix 9 Pro watches launched recently and that means you can expect some seriously good deals on the Garmin Fenix 8 and Fenix 8 Pro in the Black Friday sales this year.
I’ve tested every Fenix and Epix model since the Fenix 5 Pro and will be keeping a sharp eye on older models of the watch in the sales, and a great deal on the Garmin Fenix 8 has already appeared on Amazon.
You can get the 47mm model of the Garmin Fenix 8 for $755 at Amazon right now, which is very close to its lowest price ever of $749.
There aren't widespread deals on the entire Fenix 8 line-up as yet this Black Friday, but the 47mm watch is reduced to $755 at Amazon right now. Stock is low though, so this deal might not be available for long. View Deal
This seems to be the only model of the Garmin Fenix 8 reduced so heavily right now, and the catch is that at the time of writing only 18 watches are left in stock , so you’ll have to move with alacrity to take advantage of this deal.
I ran two marathons with the Garmin Fenix 8 during my testing of the watch, and it’s undoubtedly a superb option for amateur athletes and adventurers.
It has a durable and attractive design, reliably accurate sports tracking, extensive training analysis and best-in-class maps and navigation features.
More importantly, it has almost all the key features available on the newer Fenix 8 Pro and Fenix 9 watches. These include almost all of the new software features that arrived on the Fenix 9, which are rolling back to the Fenix 8 through updates.
The new watches have some exclusive extras though, with the most important being the LTE and satellite connectivity available on the Fenix 8 Pro and Fenix 9 Pro.
There are also some design upgrades on the Fenix 9 Pro, which has a full titanium case, and other minor updates, but having tested all of these watches I’d say the Fenix 8 largely matches the new models in all the main areas aside from connectivity, and it comes in so much cheaper thanks to this deal I think it’s definitely a better value buy.