Garmin will keep MIP watches while they still outlast AMOLED, its COO says

Garmin COO Brad Trenkle told TechRadar that battery life is still the main reason MIP screens stay in the lineup, per Gadgets & Wearables. AMOLED has caught up a lot, he said, but the gap “has not completely converged,” and until it does Garmin doesn't expect MIP to go away entirely. The Enduro 4 is the clearest case. It keeps a solar MIP display and runs up to 36 days as a smartwatch, or up to 90 with enough sun. MIP screens use the light around them, so bright sunshine makes it easier to read.

Trenkle was also asked whether solar charging could work on AMOLED, which would take away one more reason to keep MIP. He pointed to Garmin's crystalline silicon cells, which can sit in a ring around the display instead of over the screen, so they don't hurt image quality. Garmin hasn't announced a solar AMOLED watch. MIP models stay for now, on a battery lead that gets smaller with each AMOLED generation.