“Transflective Display vs OLED: Why Stamina Wins in Garmin Watches”

Stamina wins

What did I get myself into again… They say I have “to defend my all-time favorite vintage weird retro displays at Garmins”. After all, it can’t end other than a pub fight in which everyone has their own truth. But why not, I have experience with both.

We had a similar debate (albeit more focused on specific models) in the last Week Live:

I tested the first watch of this brand with an OLED display – the Venu model. An interesting attempt. When they introduced the Vena 2 a year later and declared a longer life, I wasn’t afraid to buy them immediately. Sure, it’s pretty, colorful, contrasty, and I could laugh at a colleague who was wearing transflective display Garmins back then (ironically, he’s the same one defending OLED on the opposite half).

But it eats the battery. When you turn on the always-on display, you will find yourself at a third of the endurance of a comparable watch with the classic. Or you can annoy yourself with endlessly reactivating the extinguished OLED, but still only get to about 60% of the battery life. After a year with Venu 2, I found out that I simply don’t need those dyes. I preferred function over effect.

One more argument for the washing machine – OLED automatically means touch control, and I hold another (careful, weird and retro) opinion that sports watches should be controlled by buttons. You just can’t reliably swipe or hit virtual buttons while running or cycling – you need to grab your wrist, press a few buttons with a distinct click by memory, and continue to pay attention to the surrounding terrain. It must be said, however, that Garmin handled the combination of touch and button control perfectly – I had no problem even with the two-button Venu, with the new Fénixes, Epixes, Forerunners and others, the control is even better.

I’m not going to blindly praise the transflective display. It has its drawbacks, it suffers from poor contrast in the semi-darkness of the room, you can’t do without the backlight after dark (with a button or the same gesture that activates a switched-off OLED), but it’s great outside and I don’t have to turn it on every time I look at it. It also has a lower resolution than OLEDs of the same size, but this is perhaps only a problem when comparing the maps on Fénix and Epix watches directly.

Nevertheless, for me at the moment, with my needs (priority is sports and battery life), the transflective display wins.

Filip Cone

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