Garmin makes some of the most well-equipped timepieces to accompany you on your journey through the great outdoors. And now the company is iterating on its popular smartphone-enabled wearables with a more high-end model that packs features of both conventional and smart watches. In fact, Garmin is no stranger to connected-timepieces and with its latest release, the Tactix Charlie, hopes to blend its tactical and multipart features into a single wearable offering enhanced mapping, heart-rate monitoring and more.
The Tactix Charlie packs many of the typical features you’d expect from a smartwatch like text, email and calendar alerts, fitness tracking and 24/7 heart rate monitoring. Tactix Charlie works with both iPhone and Android and it also features a black titanium rear cover and an always-on, 1.2-inch display with a domed sapphire lens.
But the big draw for the Tactix Charlie however is its robust array of mapping and navigation features. The watch comes pre-packed with digital topographic maps, but users will also have the ability to download additional types of maps to suit their needs. Tactix Charlie comes with 16GB of available storage, meaning that even the most serious globetrotters should have plenty of space available.
Aside from just keeping tabs on your location, the Tactix Charlie smartwatch can also project waypoint calculation for getting time estimates for your journey. Its built-in navigation is based around an array of sensors headlined by its GPS and GLONASS support as well as a 3-axis compass, gyroscope and barometric altimeter. This helps make tracking speedier and much more reliable than other watches in Garmin’s lineup.
The rugged smartwatch can dive down to depths of up to 100 meters, double that of the Apple Watch Series 3. Battery life for the Tactix Charlie clocks in around 12 days when in it’s in smartwatch mode, but decreases to just 20 hours when fully utilizing its GPS functionality. Garmin’s UltraTrac power-saving mode extends the battery life even more.
Unfortunately, all of these features will add up to a pretty costly retail price, as Garmin’s latest will launch sometime in Q2 of 2018 for $749.99. While some will definitely find the Tactix Charlie’s feature set appealing at its steep price point, it certainly isn’t geared to the mass market of watch owners. And for Garmin, that’s probably not the hardest pill to swallow. It has a variety of other durable smartwatches at much more affordable prices, but if you want the latest and greatest in terms of connected and outdoor-ready wearables, the Tactix Charlie might be the best way to go.
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