Garmin Fenix 6 just got a juicy software update, especially for cyclists

The pinnacle of Garmin’s smartwatches, the Fenix 6, is getting a substantial software update, which brings a slew of new features and improvements. Some of those include better fitness tracking algorithms and brand new sports tracking profiles, mostly centered around cycling. (via TizenHelp)

What does the new Fenix 6 update have?

New sports profiles

Just a week ago, Garmin shared the 2021 Garmin Connect Fitness report, which showed that a new craze was emerging in exercising—gravel cycling. Apparently, the daily pandemic life has made us desire more raw nature experiences when it comes to working out.

On that note, a lot of the Fenix 6 software update in question consists of new additions and improvements circling this topic. For example, there are now new cycling profiles like a bike tour, bike commute, road bike, Cyclocross, and most thematically to the aforementioned fact—gravel cycling!

What’s more, as e-bikes and e-MTB (electric mountain bikes) have become increasingly popular, it comes as no surprise that Garmin has added profiles for those two as well. Supposedly, they will work similarly to those introduced with the Apple Watch Series 7 in 2021.

But it is not just cyclists that will benefit from the new Garmin Fenix 6 update. Fans of HIIT (high-intensity interval training), tennis, padel, pickleball, and snowshoeing are also getting their very own profile to track their performance with.

Fenix 6 quality of life and algorithm improvements

While the new sports profiles make up the larger part of the new Garmin Fenix 6 update, there are also some other touches here and there that make it a better smartwatch. The most significant one is the refinement of the altitude acclimation and lactate threshold algorithms.

For a better user experience, Garmin has also added some new alerts like when you are moving too much during a SpO2 measurement. Another example is the new low battery alert for when music is being synched.