Apple watch series 6 v Garmin vivoactive

[Danando1993]

Currently I own a garmin vivoactive watch which is 3 or 4 years old, I use it mainly for daily activity tracking, tracking a run / sport every couple of days and sleep tracking. Those are the only things I use it for, I don't use it for notifications, calls, music etc.

Now the battery is starting to worsen, I'm only getting a few days before having to charge it and that is with certain features turned off and the screen brightness turned down.

Which has got me thinking do I finally go back to an Apple watch? I had the first version and I thought it was pretty useless. I know its had massive improvements since but I suppose I still see it as an expensive utility or side tool. My question is how truly useful is it in day to day life? like actual practical use. When I first got my garmin it lasted 7-8 days without needing to be charged, the fact I might get a day? out of an apple watch is quite the put off.

I would love to be sold on the Apple watch and for it to handle my current uses whilst also introducing me to new ways to use a smart watch in my life.

 

[bricktop_at]

To me these battery life discussions are strange and I really don’t understand it.
From an AW you normally get a full day of normal use including training (in my case never less).
There’s always time to put it on the charger to get through the day. Some people charge it parallel to their phone and some snap it on while getting ready in the morning or on other occasions.

And what many often seem to forget is that you get a watch with countless ways of usage and customization (Apps, watch faces, complications,…). Plus, it‘s perfectly integrated with your phone.

I usually put my S6 on the charger with about 30% battery left after 22 hours of use (and usually about half an hour to an hour of training with GPS) and I have everything turned on - so use it the way it‘s supposed to ;-)
The same goes for my other two, S4 and S5.

 

[PaladinGuy]

I honestly think there’s a lottery on how good of a battery you get in Apple Watches. My Series 5 has been much worse with battery life than my 4, 3, 2 or 0. The health of the battery has also dropped much faster, which isn’t surprising considering that the battery depletes much faster. Yes. I can get through the day, but if I put it on as soon as I get up and charge it at bed time it will be under 20% (maybe even lower). To get around this, I sleep with my series 4 and usually leave it on until about 10am and then switch to my series 5.

To be honest, I’m not sure I could get by with only one Apple Watch anymore unless they substantially improve battery life. I just do not want to have to pay such close attention to my watch and whether the battery will make it until the end of the day.

On the positive side, you get a TON more functionality from the Apple Watch than you do from Garmin. It’s just more useful relatively speaking. The only advantage you have with Garmin is some more in depth health metrics (depending on the model Garmin you have).

 

[Danando1993]

To me these battery life discussions are strange and I really don’t understand it.
From an AW you normally get a full day of normal use including training (in my case never less).
There’s always time to put it on the charger to get through the day. Some people charge it parallel to their phone and some snap it on while getting ready in the morning or on other occasions.

And what many often seem to forget is that you get a watch with countless ways of usage and customization (Apps, watch faces, complications,…). Plus, it‘s perfectly integrated with your phone.

I usually put my S6 on the charger with about 30% battery left after 22 hours of use (and usually about half an hour to an hour of training with GPS) and I have everything turned on - so use it the way it‘s supposed to ;-)
The same goes for my other two, S4 and S5.

I understand that there is always a time in the day to quickly top up on charge but as someone who is probably a bit obsessive I feel like charging time equals lost tracking. No doubt the fact you can do so much and have multiple levels of customisation is the upside to an aw however for the price I would expect more than a day of battery.

 

[Danando1993]

I honestly think there’s a lottery on how good of a battery you get in Apple Watches. My Series 5 has been much worse with battery life than my 4, 3, 2 or 0. The health of the battery has also dropped much faster, which isn’t surprising considering that the battery depletes much faster. Yes. I can get through the day, but if I put it on as soon as I get up and charge it at bed time it will be under 20% (maybe even lower). To get around this, I sleep with my series 4 and usually leave it on until about 10am and then switch to my series 5.

To be honest, I’m not sure I could get by with only one Apple Watch anymore unless they substantially improve battery life. I just do not want to have to pay such close attention to my watch and whether the battery will make it until the end of the day.

On the positive side, you get a TON more functionality from the Apple Watch than you do from Garmin. It’s just more useful relatively speaking. The only advantage you have with Garmin is some more in depth health metrics (depending on the model Garmin you have).

Yep absolutely you cannot argue with the additional functionality but like you said I hate the idea of being precious over what I'm doing or how I use a device because of the impact on the battery life for the day.

another thought I’ve had is how you can pay double the money let’s say for a better finish of Apple Watch but nothing changes in regards to the battery life. I imagine buying a Hermes version for instance for £1000+ but having the same battery life as a base model… it doesn’t quite sit right with me especially as it is essentially a side device to an iPhone.

that being said I’ll be keeping an eye on this years update

 

[bricktop_at]

.

another thought I’ve had is how you can pay double the money let’s say for a better finish of Apple Watch but nothing changes in regards to the battery life. I imagine buying a Hermes version for instance for £1000+ but having the same battery life as a base model… it doesn’t quite sit right with me especially as it is essentially a side device to an iPhone

True, but on the inside it‘s all the same, so no surprise there really.

 

[bricktop_at]

I understand that there is always a time in the day to quickly top up on charge but as someone who is probably a bit obsessive I feel like charging time equals lost tracking.

Do it like me: Get two or more 😜

 

[Abbyjack]

Yep absolutely you cannot argue with the additional functionality but like you said I hate the idea of being precious over what I'm doing or how I use a device because of the impact on the battery life for the day.

another thought I’ve had is how you can pay double the money let’s say for a better finish of Apple Watch but nothing changes in regards to the battery life. I imagine buying a Hermes version for instance for £1000+ but having the same battery life as a base model… it doesn’t quite sit right with me especially as it is essentially a side device to an iPhone.

that being said I’ll be keeping an eye on this years update

FWIW I was a garmin fan for quite some time and the vivoactive 4 gave me about a week between charges.
Last Apr. I picked up an AW6 on ebay and have been using it ever since. I like the way it integrates with
my 8+ but the activity tracking isn't as good as the garmin app on my pc. (Just MHO)
If you can find a reasonably priced good condition AW6 I would recommend you give it a go.
BTW I get about 2 days on a full charge.

 

[Danando1993]

FWIW I was a garmin fan for quite some time and the vivoactive 4 gave me about a week between charges.
Last Apr. I picked up an AW6 on ebay and have been using it ever since. I like the way it integrates with
my 8+ but the activity tracking isn't as good as the garmin app on my pc. (Just MHO)
If you can find a reasonably priced good condition AW6 I would recommend you give it a go.
BTW I get about 2 days on a full charge.

The vivoactive is a solid watch and tracker, my version is the 3 and it’s served me well. Two days with the aw6 sounds promising! I wouldn't expect the activity tracking to be as good but I could lI’ve with that for the greater functionality in other areas.

How is sleep tracking on the latest aw?

 

[Abbyjack]

The vivoactive is a solid watch and tracker, my version is the 3 and it’s served me well. Two days with the aw6 sounds promising! I wouldn't expect the activity tracking to be as good but I could lI’ve with that for the greater functionality in other areas.

How is sleep tracking on the latest aw?

I haven't actually compared the tracking between the two but it seems to be pretty good. Check out the app autosleep to get an idea of what it would look like on the phone. I like it. 😊
I should have added that I don't use AOD so that would definitely affect the time between charges.

 

[DontGetTheCheese]

The two infrastructures are remarkably equal in most respects. Likely, the GPS will be a little bit better on the Garmin, the HRM more accurate on the Apple Watch, one is smarter than the other, one gets better battery life. Garmin Connect does a better job of tracking and organizing key fitness metrics, although Apple Health has literally everything you do in it, but limited to being phone only and a clusterduck to organize.

I go back and forth, Fenix vs AW, and battery is an issue on the AW. It will easily go a day but it will need up to an hour to charge and I find I sometimes forget to put it on because of that.

Search for posts by me, I've written long comparisons of the two. Generally, I lean AW in my analysis, but wind up staying in the Garmin world because I'm more fitness orientated. But, at the Vivoactive level, I'd be wearing an AW, most likely.

 

[Abbyjack]

The two infrastructures are remarkably equal in most respects. Likely, the GPS will be a little bit better on the Garmin, the HRM more accurate on the Apple Watch, one is smarter than the other, one gets better battery life. Garmin Connect does a better job of tracking and organizing key fitness metrics, although Apple Health has literally everything you do in it, but limited to being phone only and a clusterduck to organize.

I go back and forth, Fenix vs AW, and battery is an issue on the AW. It will easily go a day but it will need up to an hour to charge and I find I sometimes forget to put it on because of that.

Search for posts by me, I've written long comparisons of the two. Generally, I lean AW in my analysis, but wind up staying in the Garmin world because I'm more fitness orientated. But, at the Vivoactive level, I'd be wearing an AW, most likely.

Would agree with everything except the HR accuracy. Maybe just me or my watch but on more than one occasion I have had some rather strange results. One time when going for a walk after about 3 blocks I looked at the watch and the HR was 0! It wasn't recording any activity where it would normally around 100 bpm. It started a short while after that and seemed to be working properly. Another time at about the same point in my walk it showed 145 bpm and a few seconds later 120. For the most part it seems to work fairly well but I never had that kind of problem with the garmin.

 

[SkiHound2]

To me these battery life discussions are strange and I really don’t understand it.
From an AW you normally get a full day of normal use including training (in my case never less).
There’s always time to put it on the charger to get through the day. Some people charge it parallel to their phone and some snap it on while getting ready in the morning or on other occasions.

And what many often seem to forget is that you get a watch with countless ways of usage and customization (Apps, watch faces, complications,…). Plus, it‘s perfectly integrated with your phone.

I usually put my S6 on the charger with about 30% battery left after 22 hours of use (and usually about half an hour to an hour of training with GPS) and I have everything turned on - so use it the way it‘s supposed to ;-)
The same goes for my other two, S4 and S5.

Regarding battery life it's largely not an issue for me, but there are folks who do things like multi-day treks where they don't have electricity. Longer battery life is important to some folks and it's one area where the current Apple Watch is simply not very strong.

 

[Danando1993]

The two infrastructures are remarkably equal in most respects. Likely, the GPS will be a little bit better on the Garmin, the HRM more accurate on the Apple Watch, one is smarter than the other, one gets better battery life. Garmin Connect does a better job of tracking and organizing key fitness metrics, although Apple Health has literally everything you do in it, but limited to being phone only and a clusterduck to organize.

I go back and forth, Fenix vs AW, and battery is an issue on the AW. It will easily go a day but it will need up to an hour to charge and I find I sometimes forget to put it on because of that.

Search for posts by me, I've written long comparisons of the two. Generally, I lean AW in my analysis, but wind up staying in the Garmin world because I'm more fitness orientated. But, at the Vivoactive level, I'd be wearing an AW, most likely.

I would always go with a garmin over an aw for anything fitness related as I’m pretty sure it would be more accurate in all aspects. I personally don’t need some of the more advanced features of a fenix 6 or forerunner etc hence why I am leaning to trying the aw again for the better overall smart watch functions.

thanks I’ll have a read!

 

[Danando1993]

Regarding battery life it's largely not an issue for me, but there are folks who do things like multi-day treks where they don't have electricity. Longer battery life is important to some folks and it's one area where the current Apple Watch is simply not very strong.

for the money of an aw I would just expect a better battery life and really hope they manage to give this years a solid days worth of use without it having to be charged.

 

[DontGetTheCheese]

Well, the thing is,

• Garmin isn't better at HRM unless you use it with a strap. The AW is effectively best in class. It's really not close in my opinion.
• Garmin is possibly better at GPS, but again, if it is, it isn't by much.
• SPO2 is kind of crazy at times on the Garmin. I don't have a sure sense of the AW's accuracy but it makes more sense than the Fenix does.
• Strength workouts, if you go through an app, are better on the AW although native support is close to non-existant on the AW.
• 3rd party integration of devices is probably better on the Garmin. But the app store stomps all over whatever it is that Garmin is offering these days.
• There are lot of other problems on Garmin. Contactless payments aren't reliable, podcasts come over misnamed, headphones drop connection, unless I wear the watch on the wrong wrist, and the list could go on. Not that the Apple podcast ecosystem is anything but a disaster too.
• VO2 max on the AW is dumb bad, Garmin is sort of in the ball park but does weird things too.

For the record, I'm a top-end Fenix 6 Solar owner. For the Vivoactive, it would be an AW every time.