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Garmin epix Pro (Gen 2) Review: The 47mm AMOLED All-Rounder
By Mike Shilling, Recovery & Training Editor · Updated 14 August 2026
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The Garmin epix Pro (Gen 2) is the watch that finally put a proper AMOLED screen on Garmin's top-end multisport platform without stripping anything out to get there. Same sensors as the fenix line, same maps, same training analysis, plus a screen that looks like it belongs to this decade and an LED torch on the case that turns out to be far more useful than it sounds. At around £350 for the 47mm standard edition it now sits well below its launch price, which makes it the best value premium Garmin on Amazon UK right now.
How we review
This review draws on Garmin's published specifications, verified owner reviews on Amazon UK and long-term testing published by trusted running and outdoor outlets. We have not run our own year-long test of this exact unit, so we report the findings that recur across sources rather than one-off opinions. Price and availability were checked on 14 August 2026 and change frequently.
Who it is for
Someone who trains across several sports and wants one watch that does all of them without excuses. Runners get wrist-based running power, pacing modes, hill score and endurance score. Cyclists get proper power meter support and mapping. Swimmers, skiers, golfers and gym users all get dedicated profiles. Garmin describes the epix Pro as a multisport watch with an AMOLED display, up to 16 days of battery life, a built-in flashlight and 24/7 health monitoring, which is an unusually accurate summary from a marketing page.
Who should skip it: anyone who runs three times a week on the road and looks at pace and distance. That person is spending twice what they need to, and a Forerunner does the job. Our best Garmin watch guide sorts the range by what people actually use.
| Display | 1.3in always-on AMOLED with steel bezel |
|---|---|
| Battery, smartwatch mode | Up to 16 days |
| GNSS | Multi-band with SatIQ automatic switching |
| Maps | Preloaded TopoActive, plus golf courses and ski resorts |
| Torch | Built-in LED with variable intensity and strobe |
| Training | Hill score, endurance score, training readiness, HRV status |
| Health | 24/7 heart rate, Pulse Ox, advanced sleep tracking, morning report |
| Running | Wrist-based running power, advanced pacing modes |
| Payments | Garmin Pay contactless |
| Sizes | 42mm, 47mm and 51mm |
| Price | Around £352 at the time of writing |
The screen, and what it costs you
An always-on AMOLED at 1.3 inches is a different experience from Garmin's older transflective panels. Text is crisp, maps are legible at a glance, and the watch looks like a watch rather than a piece of survey equipment. Indoors and at night it is a straightforward improvement.
The bill arrives as battery life. Garmin's 16-day smartwatch figure assumes conservative settings, and running always-on display with a few hours of GPS a week lands most people somewhere between 8 and 11 days. That is still comfortably more than any Apple or Samsung watch manages, so the complaint is relative rather than absolute. Switch to gesture wake and you claw back several days.
Direct sunlight is the one place the older screens still win. AMOLED handles bright light well but a transflective panel gets better the brighter it becomes, which is why fenix owners doing all-day hill days often stay put.
Training features worth the money
Hill score and endurance score arrived with this generation and both earn their place. Hill score rates your climbing strength and tracks it over months, which is genuinely useful if you live somewhere with gradients. Endurance score pools training from every sport you log rather than running alone, so cycling and rowing count towards it.
Training readiness combines sleep, HRV status, recovery time and acute load into a single morning number. Treat it as a nudge rather than gospel and it works well. Under it all sits Garmin's advanced sleep tracking and morning report, which is the feature most owners end up checking first every day.
On heart rate, apply the usual caveat. Validation work published in BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine found wrist-worn monitors correlate strongly with reference measures during walking and running, and that holds for steady efforts. Sharp intervals and cold hands are where optical sensors slip, so pair a strap for threshold work.
Pros
- Bright 1.3in always-on AMOLED that makes maps genuinely readable
- Built-in LED torch with variable brightness, more useful than it sounds
- Full TopoActive mapping preloaded, plus golf and ski maps at no extra cost
- Hill score and endurance score add real long-term training context
- Multi-band GNSS with SatIQ keeps tracks clean without wrecking battery
- Garmin Pay, music storage and a deep Connect IQ ecosystem
- Now around £350, roughly half its launch price
Cons
- Always-on AMOLED costs several days of the quoted 16-day battery
- No solar charging, unlike the fenix models it shares a platform with
- 47mm case is chunky on smaller wrists and the 42mm loses battery to compensate
- Superseded by newer models, so software attention will taper off
- Wrist-based rep counting in the gym remains hit and miss
Against the alternatives
The Garmin fenix 8 is the newer, more expensive answer, and it is a better watch in absolute terms with a brighter screen, a speaker and a mic. It also costs substantially more, and the training features you will actually use every week are near identical.
Coming from the other direction, the Garmin Forerunner 965 offers the same AMOLED and mapping in a lighter plastic case for less money. If you never scrape your watch on rock and you mostly run, the 965 is the smarter purchase. The epix Pro justifies itself with the steel bezel, the torch and the durability.
Using the watch to hit the NHS baseline of 150 minutes of moderate activity plus strengthening on two days a week does not require anything at this price, and it is worth being clear about that. This is a watch for people already training seriously who want better data about it.
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Frequently asked questions
Is the Garmin epix Pro Gen 2 still worth buying?
At around £350 it is one of the best value premium Garmins on sale, because it is essentially a fenix 7 Pro with an AMOLED screen at a price the newer fenix models do not approach. You lose nothing meaningful in training features. What you give up against the fenix line is solar charging and the very longest battery figures.
What is the difference between the epix Pro and the fenix 7 Pro?
The screen, mostly. The epix Pro uses a 1.3 inch always-on AMOLED panel and the fenix 7 Pro uses a transflective memory-in-pixel display with solar charging. Both share the same sensors, mapping, training metrics and flashlight. Pick the epix Pro if you want a screen that looks modern indoors, the fenix if you want the longest possible battery on solar.
How long does the epix Pro Gen 2 battery last?
Garmin quotes up to 16 days in smartwatch mode for the 47mm model, which in real use means roughly 8 to 11 days for someone training five hours a week with the always-on display enabled. Turning off always-on and using gesture wake pushes it back towards the quoted figure.
Does the epix Pro have a torch?
Yes, and it is one of the most useful features Garmin has ever added. The built-in LED flashlight has variable intensities and a strobe mode, and it is bright enough to find a key in a dark porch or make you visible on an unlit road. Runners who use it once tend to stop considering watches without one.
Is the epix Pro Gen 2 good for the gym as well as running?
It handles strength work better than most multisport watches. Rep counting is imperfect and always will be from the wrist, but the strength profile logs sets, reps and rest sensibly, and you can build workouts in Garmin Connect and follow them on the wrist. Wrist-based running power and HRV status are the standout training features.
Which size epix Pro should I buy?
The 47mm is the sensible default for most wrists and the version reviewed here. The 42mm suits smaller wrists and takes a real battery hit; the 51mm buys the longest battery and looks enormous on anyone under about 18cm wrist circumference. Measure your wrist before you decide.
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