Garmin Descent X50i

Garmin Descent X50i dive computer

The X50i is what happens when Garmin stops trying to make a dive computer that also passes as a watch. This is a dive computer first. The 3 inch AMOLED touchscreen is the largest Garmin has put on one, and in poor visibility that is the difference between reading your deco obligation and guessing at it.

It runs SubWave sonar, so you can message your buddy underwater, see their depth and tank pressure, and track up to eight divers with T2 transmitters fitted. For an instructor running a group, or a dive team that wants to keep tabs on each other in low visibility, nothing else in our dive computers range does that.

Twelve gas configurations and oxygen from 5 to 100 percent mean it will take you through trimix training without needing replacing.

• 3 inch AMOLED touchscreen, the largest on any Garmin dive computer
• Touch and button navigation, both usable in gloves
• SubWave sonar messaging, buddy tracking for up to 8 divers
• Air, nitrox and trimix, oxygen 5 to 100 percent, 12 gas configurations
• DiveView maps with over 4,000 dive sites preloaded
• Up to 30 hours in dive mode
• Sapphire lens, leakproof buttons, titanium or stainless case

Why divers choose the Descent X50i

The screen is the reason to buy it

Three inches of AMOLED sounds like a spec-sheet detail until you are at 30 metres in green water with a hood on. Everything on a watch-style computer is a compromise on display size. The X50i refuses that compromise, and if you have ever squinted at deco information you already know what that is worth.

Team awareness, not just buddy awareness

Most air integration tells you about your own gas. SubWave tells you about everyone's. Instructors, dive guides and technical teams get a live picture of where people are and how much gas they have left, which changes how you manage a group rather than just how you manage yourself.

It will not be outgrown

Twelve gas configurations, hypoxic trimix support and full decompression handling mean this computer covers everything short of a rebreather primary. Buying it as an advanced recreational diver means you are not shopping again when you start technical training.

Servicing and setup are handled here

Gas configuration on a twelve-mix computer is where people make expensive mistakes. Every dive computer we sell can be serviced in-house at our UK dive centre, and we will sit down and set your mixes and conservatism with you before you dive it.

Features that matter underwater

Touch and button navigation

Touchscreens are fine on the surface and unreliable in thick gloves. The X50i gives you both, so you can drive it by touch topside and by button at depth. Set your preference before the dive rather than fighting the interface in the water.

SubWave sonar messaging

Preset messages travel acoustically between compatible units without line of sight. Depth, tank pressure and rough diver distance come with it. Practise the send-and-acknowledge sequence somewhere shallow before you rely on it.

DiveView maps and GPS

Over 4,000 dive sites are preloaded, with bathymetric detail. Surface GPS marks your entry and exit, which is genuinely useful for shore diving somewhere unfamiliar and for finding the same spot again next season.

Build quality that survives boat life

Sapphire lens and leakproof buttons. Neither is exciting, both are the reason a computer survives five years of being knocked against cylinders and rinsed in salt water.

Who the X50i is for

• Divers who want the largest, clearest display available on a wrist computer
• Instructors and dive guides who want live awareness of a group
• Divers heading into trimix and multi-gas technical diving
• Anyone who has struggled to read a smaller computer in poor visibility
• Divers who want GPS and dive site mapping as standard

Who it may not be for: if you want something discreet enough to wear with a shirt every day, the Descent Mk3i in 43mm is the better call. If you dive recreational air twice a year, this is far more computer than you need.

We compared it against the rest of the current field in our X50i review, including where the extra screen size costs you in wearability.

Specifications

Buying the X50i

If display size is what has frustrated you about every dive computer you have owned, this is the answer, and there is currently nothing else on the market that combines this screen with SubWave team tracking.

It is a lot of computer. For recreational air diving it is overkill and we would steer you to the G2. For instructors, technical divers, and anyone who dives regularly in UK visibility, it earns its price on the first dive you can actually read.