Yes, Garmin does make smartwatches with touchscreen functionality. Not all Garmin smartwatches, however, have touchscreen functionality. Vivoactive 3 and 4 series, Fenix 7, Epix (gen) 2, Tactix 7 series and Venu 2 series smartwatches do have touchscreen functionality. Fenix 6, Forerunner 945, Descent, MARQ, and the Instinct series watches do not have touchscreen functionality. The most surprising omission of the touchscreen functionality is in the Fenix 6 smartwatch series. It is not clear why the Garmin Fenix 6 series smartwatches do not have a touchscreen feature. We look at the Garmin watches that have touchscreen functionality. We also give you the list of Garmin smartwatches that do not have touchscreen functionality.
Garmin watches with touchscreen
The following Garmin smartwatches have touchscreen functionality.
- Garmin Vivoactive 4 with Touchscreen
Garmin Vivoactive 4 replaces Garmin Vivoactive 3 series smartwatches. The Vivoactive 4 and 4S come with touchscreen functionality. Incidentally, the Vivoactive 3 series watches also had touchscreen functionality.
- Garmin Venu 2 series with touchscreen
The Venu 2 series smartwatches have inbuilt touchscreen functionality. The following models of the Venu 2 series smartwatches have touchscreen:
- Venu 2
- Venu 2S
- Venu 2 Plus
- Venu 2 Sq Edition
- Venu 2 Music Edition
All these Venu series Garmin smartwatches have a touchscreen.
- Garmin Fenix 7
Fenix 7 series smartwatches have touchscreen functionality. This is a feature improvement over the Fenix 6 series watches. Fenix 6 range did not have a touchscreen feature.
The following watch models of Fenix 7 have touchscreen:
- Fenix 7S Standard Edition
- Fenix 7S Solar Edition
- Fenix 7S Sapphire Solar Edition
- Fenix 7 Standard Edition
- Fenix 7 Solar Edition
- Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar Edition
- Fenix 7X Solar Edition
- Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar Edition
- Epix (Gen) 2
The Garmin Epix 2 series smartwatch has the touchscreen feature. The following Epix 2 models have the touchscreen feature:
- Garmin Epix 2 Sapphire Black
- Garmin Epix 2 Sapphire White
- Garmin Epix 2 Slate Steel
All these 3 variants of the Epix 2 series smartwatches have a touchscreen.
- Garmin Tactix 7 Smartwatch Series
The Tactix 7 series smartwatches do have touchscreen functionality. The following models of the Tactix 7 series smartwatches from Garmin have touchscreen:
- tactix® 7 – Standard Edition
- tactix® 7 – Pro Edition
- tactix® 7 – Pro Ballistics Edition
The good thing about the touchscreen function on Garmin watches is that it can be turned on or off as per user discretion. Many triathletes prefer to disable the touchscreen feature when they are training.
The touchscreen feature on Garmin smartwatches can be turned off through the following process:
- To temporarily enable or disable the touchscreen, hold DOWN and START.
- To enable or disable the touchscreen during general use, activities, or sleep, hold MENU, select System > Touch, and select an option.
Garmin watches without touchscreen
Apart from the smartwatches mentioned above, the following Garmin smartwatches do not have touchscreen functionality:
- Fenix 6 series smartwatches
- MARQ smartwatch series
- ENDURO series
- Garmin Instinct series smartwatches
- Garmin Descent series watch
All these watches are special purpose watches. It is underwhelming to know that the Fenix 6 misses touchscreen functionality across all the models.
Does Garmin have a cellular watch?
Cellular watches allow you to make use of eSim to connect to the network through the smartwatch. It allows you to use the smartwatch without the need of carrying the paired smartphone everywhere. Cellular smartwatches allow you to make calls from the smartwatch directly. The feature comes in handy when you want to make emergency calls in the event of a hard fall. The fall detection feature on smartwatches can make calls to the emergency medical services if the smartwatch is cellular and the service provider is supported in the area.
Unfortunately, Garmin does not have many watch models that support cellular networks. Forerunner 945 LTE is the only smartwatch model that has cellular model. You can connect to available cellular services right through the Forerunner 945 LTE model. Other smartwatch series from Garmin, including the Fenix series, do not have any cellular or LTE models.
The LTE model was expected to be introduced in the Fenix 7 series that was recently launched. However, Fenix 7 also does not have the LTE variant. LTE or cellular variants could be very useful for hikers and runners. You would have cellular connectivity right through the watch. Apple Watches and Samsung smartwatches come in multiple LTE or Cellular models for direct network connectivity from the watch. We do hope that Garmin will integrate cellular or LTE connectivity with the future smartwatch variants of Garmin.
Summary
Garmin has multiple watches with touchscreen functionality that can be enabled or disabled through the watch operating system. Vivoactive 4, Venu 2 series, Fenix 7 series and the Tactix series smartwatches have touchscreen functionality. On a similar note, Garmin does have cellular model in the Forerunner 945 series smartwatch. We expect more LTE options to be made available by Garmin in the near future.
You may also like to read more about the following content related to Garmin smartwatches:
- Does Vivoactive 4 have Pulse Oximeter?
- Garmin Vivoactive 4 vs Apple Watch SE
- Boot Loops on Fenix 6?
- Garmin Fenix 6 – Your Questions
- Apple Watch SE vs Garmin Venu 2 Plus
- Garmin Venu 2 vs Garmin Venu Sq
Helen Kurt is a geeky nerd who loves to cover the wearables space. She has over 5 years of experience in the smartwatch domain. You can reach her on email at [email protected].