When it comes to fitness watches, the AMOLED vs. MIP debate remains polarizing. Many athletes will pick MIP displays as the hill they chose to die on (figuratively speaking). While dimmer and harder to read, MIP displays also use far less battery, making them a preferred choice for endurance athletes on multi-day races.
Yet technological advances have a way of upsetting the status quo.
I’ve long been in the MIP camp myself, but after testing several of this fall’s new releases from Garmin, Suunto, and Coros, I’m hesitant to admit that I’ve become a bit of an AMOLED convert. Fitness watch batteries last a lot longer than they once did — even with brighter AMOLED screens. And once you’ve used maps with AMOLED…it’s just hard to go back to MIP.
There’s no doubt that MIP screens will always last longer, and they remain the best choice for prolonged expeditions or ultramarathons. But that’s simply not what most people are doing most of the time. Brands have taken note — and their new releases reflect it.
AMOLED Dominates Market
In case you’re wondering, both of these types of displays are acronyms. AMOLED stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode, while MIP means Memory-in-Pixel. Without getting into the technological weeds, MIP displays are a step up from the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) on the G-SHOCK watches of my youth. But they’re far less vivid than the AMOLED displays that are now standard on smartphones and other modern devices.
Looking at the market broadly, fitness watches with MIP-based displays have clearly begun to take a backseat to their brighter AMOLED cousins.
Finnish brand Suunto made its last watch with a MIP screen in 2023, and has no plans to make any more. It’s all AMOLED from here on out, a brand representative told GearJunkie. The brand’s newest release, the Suunto Race 3S, sports one of the most gorgeous AMOLED displays I’ve seen, and the brand’s attention to detail in the UX design brings out the best of its features.
Garmin still offers plenty of MIP-based watches, but it’s also clear that AMOLED is becoming the preferred choice. The latest model of the brand’s flagship watch, the Garmin Fenix 9, rolled out this year with a vivid AMOLED screen. The only way to get it with MIP is to pay a few extra hundred dollars for the solar-powered version.
Then there’s Coros, a brand that has carved a growing niche in the market by focusing on a few core features. Many Coros models still offer only MIP screens. However, its newest model, the Coros Pace 4 Pro, offers even more brightness than the Garmin Fenix 9.
“Consumers seem to prefer AMOLED, so the market is going that direction,” a Coros spokesperson told GearJunkie. “With watches that can last weeks with that display type, there’s less of an argument for MIP — unless you’re doing ultra marathons.”
Battery Life
When it comes to fitness watches, measuring battery life is a bit complicated. There are a variety of ways to clock it, as most watches offer multiple modes that affect the battery differently. If we’re just talking “normal use” — as in a few hours-long activities a week, in addition to daily use — all three of these watches will last about two weeks.
However, there’s a more important metric in the context of the AMOLED vs. MIP debate: the maximum battery life with continuous use of GPS. That’s important for endurance athletes trying to measure their personal bests over long distances.
These are the GPS stats on the newest releases from Garmin, Suunto, and Coros:
- Coros Pace 4 Pro: Single-Frequency GPS (Up to 60 hours); Dual-Frequency GPS Mode (Up to 45 hours)
- Suunto Run 3s: Single-Frequency GPS (Up to 45 hours); Dual-Frequency GPS: (Up to 38 hours)
- Garmin Fenix 9 51mm: Normal GPS mode (Up to 54 hours); Max Accuracy GPS mode (Up to 45 hours)
To be clear, there are other modes on these models that use GPS sparingly, resulting in significant increases to battery life. But all three of these watches still offer roughly two full days of continuous GPS use — even with the brighter AMOLED screens. For some perspective, the average finishing time of the 108-mile UTMB — one of the hardest trail races in the world — is around 40 hours. So even though the Coros and Suunto models above are geared more for daily runners than endurance athletes, they still have enough GPS battery life for a 100-mile race.
Personally, I haven’t had the time for too many multi-day adventures this year. I think I’m like most people: I might be outside all day cycling, hiking, or paddling — but I’m usually back home within 24 hours. Along the way, I’ve become accustomed to the major advantage of a brighter screen, and I don’t want to give it up.
Display Comparison
At this point, many MIP-screen loyalists will say: Who cares? MIP screens still last way longer.
That’s true. And if you want to use GPS continuously on a five-day expedition, you’ll probably want to get a MIP. For me, however, there’s one thing above all else that makes AMOLED preferable: mapping. This is the function that I think most separates a “fitness watch” from a “smart watch.” Because let’s face it, even with a large-display watch, you only have a couple of inches of visual real estate. Understanding your position at a glance becomes highly valuable when you’re trying to stay “in the zone,” and it’s just so much easier with an AMOLED screen.
Historically, the conventional wisdom has been that MIP screens are easier to see in direct sunlight than AMOLED screens. That may have been true at one point, but not anymore. An AMOLED screen is still easier to see, and I’ve spent enough sunny days with these watches here in Georgia to prove that point.
Because of the improved clarity, I spend less time looking at them than I do with a MIP watch. I love my Coros Apex 4, and will continue to defend it as perhaps the best all-around fitness watch out there. However, I realized, during a comparison test with the Coros Pace 4 Pro, that I don’t have to look at its map for nearly as long to understand my location. I don’t just do prescribed trails, either. My outdoor hijinks include exploration by bicycle or purposely getting lost on trails. I can read AMOLED maps so much faster because of the greater depth and visual clarity.
To be clear, not all AMOLED screens are the same. Brightness is measured in “nits,” and our three example models have some decent range.
- Coros Pace 4 Pro: 3,500 nits
- Garmin Fenix 9: 3,000 nits
- Suunto Run 3s: 2,000 nits
However, judging only by nits doesn’t tell the whole story. For starters, I haven’t noticed a huge difference in screen quality among these three watches, despite their varying brightness levels. In fact, I’d say Suunto’s watch has perhaps the most beautiful display, though this might be because it offers a more aesthetically pleasing UX. And fewer nits can also result in more battery life. In my testing, I actually found that Suunto used the least battery on my bike rides and trail runs — even beating out the Fenix.
Daily Life/Technical Features
Maps aren’t the only reason to love AMOLED displays, though. Most fitness watches offer complex graphs and metrics to track our health and training. Suunto, Garmin, and Coros all offer sleep, heart rate, and activity summaries that are simply much easier to understand on AMOLED.
That’s especially important with Garmin, which offers a greater depth of features than any other fitness brand out there. I don’t use a lot of those features nearly as much as GPS tracking my outdoor activities.
However, I have grown to appreciate the sleep and heart rate tracking, as well as some other health features. And I’ve realized that I pay more attention to them on the AMOLED watches because they’re simply easier to read and digest at a glance.
Caveats and Conclusions
There is one reason, however, that I still sometimes prefer an old-school MIP display to AMOLED: screen fatigue.
At this point, it’s almost trite to acknowledge our collective exhaustion with looking at screens. AMOLED, after all, is the same uber-bright display that we see on most smartphones and computers. Many of us go outside to escape our digital lives, and an AMOLED watch can often feel too much like looking at an iPhone when that’s precisely the feeling we’d like to avoid. GJ Contributor Sean Galaway made this point in his review of the Garmin Enduro 3, and I frequently see this argument in Reddit threads debating AMOLED vs. MIP. And it’s something that I can relate to as well.
For example, I love mountaineering in the Colorado Rockies. And if I were planning a multi-day trip to the San Juans tomorrow, I’d likely take my Coros Apex 4. Not because of the battery life (my Fenix 9 would work just fine), but because I don’t want to feel even slightly distracted by my watch’s vivid colors when I’m in a beautiful place for days at a time.
But in nearly every other part of my outdoor life, I’ll opt for AMOLED.
