Being totally objective here on AW vs Garmin...

[zerozoneice]

I get what you are saying. But you completely ignore smartwatch aspect of Apple watch. Then why the comparison?

well, depends on how one defines smartwatch.
i can tell you i ignore the same smartwatch aspects (notifications, music, social) of the Epix2 which i ignore for the AW as well, so that balances out my scenario.

Keep in mind that accuracy of heart rate sensor on Garmin watches is significantly lower than Apple watches.

yes, a bit lower but i wouldn't say significantly. The new generation of sensors is pretty much neck-in-neck for normal activities (running, walking, biking, swimming), but as with all wrist-based sensors they fall a bit behind cheststraps in repeated changes of HR (like reps exercises from what i read).

Come to think of it, if Apple comes up with a week-long battery in normal use, i would still hesitate to switch back due to the native app mess. I mean when testing both, after fiddling with 3 apps just to see my sleep stats, stress levels (hmm where is that on the AW?), workout data..i lost my patience. Even the way graphs are displayed in Health drives me mad, they are vertical bars hourly based, showing high/low values. Dunno, maybe it's just me but i don't like the presentation layer of health/fitness data in Apple native apps.

Fitbit comes close to Garmin in app simplicity and concise-ness, but since they introduced a subscription-based model for "premium" analysis, i gave up on them. It's like microtransactions/loot boxes in games, horrible IMHO.

I think the choice of a watch depends primarly on the phone we have. For Androids there's more choices out there, but for iPhones there's only 2-3 serious contenders: AW, Garmin, maybe Fitbit (old ones since Pixel Watch doesn't support iOS at all). Everything else is half-baked iOS support (see Huawei Health app, Samsung Health app, etc...), missing features all over the place.

One weird thing i love about the AW is the vibration pattern It's like a wave-like pattern, feels like a tap on the wrist. Garmin on the other hand is more...agricultural BRRWWWZZZZZZZ. Done.

 

[alongdingdong]

The only reason i am chosing the Ultra over a garmin is being able to call from the device, i like to be off social media/internet as much as possible and basically have a dumbphone on my wrist.

When garmin has this, i will move over to garmin, their sport related matrics and batterylife making the applewatch a toy.

 

[DMG35]

Only thing I'd challenge you on here is battery life. You aren't getting 12-16 days unless you turn a lot of features off on the Epix 2. I've owned one and with everything on the max battery life is up to 6 days. That's still impressive but let's not mislead people with the "12-16 days of battery life with everything on" as that's simply not true. You have to turn off the AOD to get that type of battery life, which to me isn't keeping everything on.

I really enjoyed the Epix 2 and wrote about here in this forum. The Ultra smokes it though in my opinion and I'd choose it any day over the Epix 2 now.

 

[zerozoneice]

That's still impressive but let's not mislead people with the "12-16 days of battery life with everything on" as that's simply not true. You have to turn off the AOD to get that type of battery life, which to me isn't keeping everything on.

yes, true, AOD off. SpO2 measurements during sleep only, as well.
12 days with those settings.
However AOD is not worth for me since the wrist-turn activation of the display works very good and i don't need to have the display on when i'm not looking at it...if you know what i mean

 

[Mo 1959]

I wear both 😆. I have my Garmin Epix on one wrist and an Apple Watch 7 on the other. I pretty much use the Garmin for all exercise and health stats and the Apple Watch is just for notifications and the occasional call when I don't bother with my phone.

Like zerozoneice, I leave the AOD off as the display shows immediately on lifting my wrist which is plenty. I exercise a couple of hours per day and get a solid week out of the Garmin.

 

[Fthree]

Keep in mind that accuracy of heart rate sensor on Garmin watches is significantly lower than Apple watches.

i keep seeing people say this and the reality that ive seen with my garmin and AW is they are neck and neck in that department. Trust me i have been looking for every excuse to pick up the ultra and use it over my garmin every single one haven't really found a good one other than being able to communicate yet.

 

[haruhiko]

Only fellow cyclist can relate mate
Similar setup with yours, I am choose 530 over other touchscreen models such as 830/1030 due well...button operation.

Totally prefer head unit compared with smartwatch. They utilitarian, easy to get a glance whenever I am crunching those VAMs on hills or catching a PR on a certain segment. Garmin Connect app really laid a data nicely, even I can figured out how I can get the best of my peak performance time. KOM time, I say

I am mostly do MTB especially on night times, besides the cycling gear I am also splurging a lot on bike light. The Giant HL1800 one have ANT+ connectivity which is also paired with head unit to control the lighting modes, that's why head unit is irreplaceable, at last for me. The only sucks about Garmin Edge is obviously micro-USB port

Never have AW at all, but I am seriously consider get AWU as my first smartwatch, Ti appearance is really nice, exclude from my cycling activity AWU should be great in my book, especially for hiking.

Nice gear mate! I’m thinking of getting a front light with ANT+ connection too, any recommendations?

Here is my road bike 😁😁😁

 

[PatrickNSF]

Only thing I'd challenge you on here is battery life. You aren't getting 12-16 days unless you turn a lot of features off on the Epix 2. I've owned one and with everything on the max battery life is up to 6 days. That's still impressive but let's not mislead people with the "12-16 days of battery life with everything on" as that's simply not true. You have to turn off the AOD to get that type of battery life, which to me isn't keeping everything on.

I really enjoyed the Epix 2 and wrote about here in this forum. The Ultra smokes it though in my opinion and I'd choose it any day over the Epix 2 now.

The Epix is a great watch, but I was only getting about 5 days battery life. (I keep AOD activated on all my watches, and Garmin’s wrist activation isn’t nearly as good as Apple’s).

 

[Fozziebear71]

Keep in mind that accuracy of heart rate sensor on Garmin watches is significantly lower than Apple watches.

I wear an Apple Watch on my left wrist and a Garmin on my right wrist. Have for years. The heart rates are basically identical.

 

[driekraaien]

I wore a Venu 2 Plus (which has the latest Garmin sensor) side by side with an AW8 for 10 nights and the minimum recorded HR on the Venu was consistently lower compared to the AW. My Swim 2 on the other hand (which has an older sensor) almost perfectly agrees with the AW. No idea why, I’ve seen some similar reports of other users. Different watch, sensor and firmware combinations seem to result in varying levels of accuracy. I think Garmin would be better off with a (way) smaller range of watches and firmware to support.

 

[zerozoneice]

I wore a Venu 2 Plus (which has the latest Garmin sensor) side by side with an AW8 for 10 nights and the minimum recorded HR on the Venu was consistently lower compared to the AW. My Swim 2 on the other hand (which has an older sensor) almost perfectly agrees with the AW. No idea why, I’ve seen some similar reports of other users. Different watch, sensor and firmware combinations seem to result in varying levels of accuracy. I think Garmin would be better off with a (way) smaller range of watches and firmware to support.

don't forget that AW doesn't take measurements every second or even minute (esp. in sleep mode), so it may have missed some of those lows. Anyways, there are differences also in what they both define as RHR, with Garmin taking more sleep average RHR, while Apple uses all-day values as reference, thus generating a higher RHR value for the day.
Again, not medical grade devices both of them, but yes, AW is regarded as probably the most accurate/consistent in HR readings (compared to chest-straps) out there.

Data is only as good as what you make (and display) of it, right? I just love the simplicity (wait, shouldn't that be an Apple thing?) and structure of Garmin Connect:



Guess it's telling me to stop wasting time online and go out for a run or something

Don't get me started on how Connect doesn't play nice with a lot of other health devices out there, like weight scales, etc...it has its own dark side, but hey...everyone tries to lure you into their exclusive ecosystem, right?

Connect is THE competitive advantage of Garmin and they know it. I searched months for a 3rd party app in the Apple ecosystem that even half-resembles Connect, to no avail. Even paid ones. Nothing. Again, my view on this based on my needs (as blabbered in OP). I got tired and frustrated to keep switching every morning between 2-3 (native) apps, then check out maybe a 3rd party also just to get a damn overview of everything. The web dashboard of Connect is even more complex, i rarely use it but good to know it's there.

 

[usmaak]

One major drawback for me when I travel with just my Garmin is the inability to reply to texts (which is supported on Android).

When I got my first iPhone (2 weeks ago lol), I had no intention of getting an Apple Watch. This was the biggest reason why I decided to give it a try. I don't know if Apple or Garmin is responsible, but notifications on my Venu have been dumbed down quite a bit. I can't respond, I can't dismiss by swiping down. I could on my old Samsung phone. To test, I disconnected the Venu from my iPhone and added it back to my old Samsung and all of the old features came back. When I reconnected it to my iPhone, they disappeared again.

Heartrate seems to be pretty spot on. The GPS between the two devices differs, sometimes by quite a bit. But one thing I have noticed about the Apple Watch is that it is consistent. I can walk the same path over and over and get the exact same results. I have never been able to do that with the Venu. Calories totals generally differ by around 200 calories per day, with the Apple Watch being the lower one.

So I am trying the Apple Watch. I really like it as a smart watch but I miss some of the fitness features of the Venu. I have a few days left to decide which I want to use before my return period to Best Buy is up.

 

[driekraaien]

don't forget that AW doesn't take measurements every second or even minute (esp. in sleep mode), so it may have missed some of those lows. Anyways, there are differences also in what they both define as RHR, with Garmin taking more sleep average RHR, while Apple uses all-day values as reference, thus generating a higher RHR value for the day.

Connect is THE competitive advantage of Garmin and they know it. I searched months for a 3rd party app in the Apple ecosystem that even half-resembles Connect, to no avail. Even paid ones. Nothing. Again, my view on this based on my needs (as blabbered in OP). I got tired and frustrated to keep switching every morning between 2-3 (native) apps, then check out maybe a 3rd party also just to get a damn overview of everything. The web dashboard of Connect is even more complex, i rarely use it but good to know it's there.

I looked at the individual measurements taken during nighttime and filtered out incidental or sudden low values that seemed very out of place. It could be due to timing, but if that’s the case I would expect the AW to record the same lower values at least on some occasions.

I agree with you on Connect. Apple’s Health app feels like an unorganized mess if you’re used to GC. I hope this will be improved in the future. I’ll keep tracking cycling and swimming with my Edge and Swim (on GC) and sync it with the Health app afterwards. For daily health tracking I’ve switched to Apple, but not for app reasons..

 

[DontGetTheCheese]

I've written a half-dozen long comparisons. Owner of AW4-7, now Ultra. Garmin 5, 5X, 6X Solar, Marq Athlete (terrible), and Epix. As the OP said, they're just different.

I can't run right now, plantar and peroneal tendon, so all of the running metrics don't matter. At the same time, I have something like 7 watch faces on the AW and I'm not really using them either.

I'm gonna do a quick comparison.

1. Garmin obviously wins the battery life war, but, the Ultra gets the AW over the hurdle. Ie., can I work out and not have to charge, which it does.
2. Apple health kind of sucks for organizing data, Garmin is definitely better.
3. HRV on the AW is funky. The new Garmin snapshot is likely better..
4. There is no real comparison on the Apple side to things like the body battery, stress, etc. Athlytic kind of sucks in my opinion.
5. Reliability is spotty on Garmin. I've been through too much to trust them.
6. I like both the feel and looks of Garmin better. The AW, sometimes digs into the wrist.
7. Cellular is weird. I don't use it in any obvious ways (messages, calls, etc.) but the connection means things work better, like telling Siri to open the garage when my wi-fi might be weak.
8. Reminders, some of the other smart features are massively better on the AW vs Garmin.
9. Garmin has some cool features like PacePro, ClimbPro, etc.
10. Yes, you almost always have your phone fairly close.

Right now I'm wearing an Ultra. I can see changing, when I get healthy, but right now, sticking with the Ultra.

 

[azhava]

I wore a AW S0 for a year, then went to Garmin for the next 5 years (FR935 and Fenix 6 Pro) before switching back to an AW S8 this year.

IMO, Apple's Achilles' heel is their software. I was able to configure what metrics I saw in Garmin Connect, and what order I saw them in. Apple Health doesn't allow me to do that, they're ordered alphabetically and that's it. The AW has all the sensors any Garmin watch has, they just need to come up with a better app to present the information. And that's not a very high bar to clear - even though Connect is better, Garmin software is glitchy and they often break five things for every one thing they fix in a software update.

Sleep tracking was less reliable on the Garmin. There's no way to manually tell it when you're going to bed or waking up, it "guesses" it from the watch sensors and doesn't always do a good job of it. There were plenty of times when my Garmin showed me asleep at 9:30 pm when I was actually sitting using my computer from 9:30 until midnight (or later). Heart rate got better on the Fenix, but it was baaad on the 935 - it worked fine for all-day/non-workout tracking, but if I didn't wear a chest strap while running/cycling, it wasn't much better than a random number generator. Shortly before I got my AW8, my Fenix started giving me weird sleep HR readings - I'd have spikes at 200+ bpm in the middle of my sleep. The Stress measurement was useful and tracked pretty well with what I did during the day, but I found the "Body Battery" to be largely useless - it didn't usually correlate at all with how I actually felt.

Battery life is obviously much better on the Garmin devices, but that's because of the display and functions of the watch. If Watch OS was as simple as Garmin's OS, battery life on an AW would be much longer (at the cost of a much more feature-crippled watch). I would usually get a week out of my Fenix, using GPS 3 days for golf (3-4 hours each) and 2-3 running/cycling workouts per week. I charge my AW daily, but I've discovered that it's actually an advantage - I paid less attention to the charge on my Garmin watches since they lasted so long, and there were plenty of times I left home without realizing I didn't have enough charge to even make it through a workout. I kept a charging cable in my car, but since Garmins don't quick charge it sometimes didn't give me enough battery to make it through. I charge my AW every night while I'm on the computer, so it always has enough battery to get me through my workout and a full day of use.

To me, software is all that's holding the AW back. Sure, longer battery life would be nice, but give me a better app than Garmin Connect with more configurability and metrics (bonus points for a web interface so I can view it on my computer instead of just my watch/phone) and I'd be perfectly happy.

 

[Fthree]

I wore a AW S0 for a year, then went to Garmin for the next 5 years (FR935 and Fenix 6 Pro) before switching back to an AW S8 this year.

IMO, Apple's Achilles' heel is their software. I was able to configure what metrics I saw in Garmin Connect, and what order I saw them in. Apple Health doesn't allow me to do that, they're ordered alphabetically and that's it. The AW has all the sensors any Garmin watch has, they just need to come up with a better app to present the information. And that's not a very high bar to clear - even though Connect is better, Garmin software is glitchy and they often break five things for every one thing they fix in a software update.

Sleep tracking was less reliable on the Garmin. There's no way to manually tell it when you're going to bed or waking up, it "guesses" it from the watch sensors and doesn't always do a good job of it. There were plenty of times when my Garmin showed me asleep at 9:30 pm when I was actually sitting using my computer from 9:30 until midnight (or later). Heart rate got better on the Fenix, but it was baaad on the 935 - it worked fine for all-day/non-workout tracking, but if I didn't wear a chest strap while running/cycling, it wasn't much better than a random number generator. Shortly before I got my AW8, my Fenix started giving me weird sleep HR readings - I'd have spikes at 200+ bpm in the middle of my sleep. The Stress measurement was useful and tracked pretty well with what I did during the day, but I found the "Body Battery" to be largely useless - it didn't usually correlate at all with how I actually felt.

Battery life is obviously much better on the Garmin devices, but that's because of the display and functions of the watch. If Watch OS was as simple as Garmin's OS, battery life on an AW would be much longer (at the cost of a much more feature-crippled watch). I would usually get a week out of my Fenix, using GPS 3 days for golf (3-4 hours each) and 2-3 running/cycling workouts per week. I charge my AW daily, but I've discovered that it's actually an advantage - I paid less attention to the charge on my Garmin watches since they lasted so long, and there were plenty of times I left home without realizing I didn't have enough charge to even make it through a workout. I kept a charging cable in my car, but since Garmins don't quick charge it sometimes didn't give me enough battery to make it through. I charge my AW every night while I'm on the computer, so it always has enough battery to get me through my workout and a full day of use.

To me, software is all that's holding the AW back. Sure, longer battery life would be nice, but give me a better app than Garmin Connect with more configurability and metrics (bonus points for a web interface so I can view it on my computer instead of just my watch/phone) and I'd be perfectly happy.

I have had more issues with my ultra thinking im still asleep in the last couple weeks than i have with my garmin in 5 years. I have been mid workout a few times and the ultra asks if id like to start my day? There are alot of people complaining about garmin being "glitchy" I have yet to see this. Please give an example of a glitch within connect maybe I am missing something.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Buy what works best for you and be happy!

 

[zerozoneice]

to be fair, neither Apple nor Garmin detect daytime naps.

 

[Fthree]

to be fair, neither Apple nor Garmin detect daytime naps.

the one thing gamin does do is change body battery status when you rest.

 

[zerozoneice]

the one thing gamin does do is change body battery status when you rest.

true, you immediately see the effect of resting

 

[theotherphil]

I wear an Apple Watch on my left wrist and a Garmin on my right wrist. Have for years. The heart rates are basically identical.

This has been proven to be false a number of times by the Quantified Scientist on YouTube. The Apple Watch optical HR is the best in the business and is approx 99% accurate against a chest strap. The best Garmin right now is the Instinct 2 which is approx 83% accurate against a chest strap.

The Fenix 7 is approx 73% and the Epix 2 is a paltry 68%. I've had every model of Fenix, including the Epix 2 and have had to use a chest strap if I wanted any sort of accuracy (and therefore useful metrics). This lack of accuracy from the Garmin Optical HR has a number of implications for the usefulness of their all day metrics such as "Stress" and "Body Battery", which is exclusively recorded from their OHR sensor.

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheQuantifiedScientist

Using the AW, there are useful apps such as "HealthFit" which gives much better health metrics than Apple and will also upload any workout on the AW to pretty much any service you use including strava, Final Surge, 2Peak, Komoot, Runalyze, Suunto, Connect, Training Peaks, Today's plan as well as a number of cloud storage services. I personally use intervals.icu website with which HealthFit will sync to. Intervals.icu is way, way better than connect for analysing data and planning workouts etc.

Intervals.icu

 

[rcarter3636]

the one thing gamin does do is change body battery status when you rest.

I do wish Apple would give us some kind of credit for a day off of workouts.
We hear all of the time how a day of rest is good for you…..Apple must not agree!

 

[Fthree]

This has been proven to be false a number of times by the Quantified Scientist on YouTube. The Apple Watch optical HR is the best in the business and is approx 99% accurate against a chest strap. The best Garmin right now is the Instinct 2 which is approx 83% accurate against a chest strap.

The Fenix 7 is approx 73% and the Epix 2 is a paltry 68%. I've had every model of Fenix, including the Epix 2 and have had to use a chest strap if I wanted any sort of accuracy (and therefore useful metrics). This lack of accuracy from the Garmin Optical HR has a number of implications for the usefulness of their all day metrics such as "Stress" and "Body Battery", which is exclusively recorded from their OHR sensor.

View attachment 2098373

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheQuantifiedScientist

Using the AW, there are useful apps such as "HealthFit" which gives much better health metrics than Apple and will also upload any workout on the AW to pretty much any service you use including strava, Final Surge, 2Peak, Komoot, Runalyze, Suunto, Connect, Training Peaks, Today's plan as well as a number of cloud storage services. I personally use intervals.icu website with which HealthFit will sync to. Intervals.icu is way, way better than connect for analysing data and planning workouts etc.

Intervals.icu

While i truly believe his information when I wear both my fenix 7x and my ultra they display essentially (within 1-2 beats) the same HR data at all times except for yesterday during a run when my ultra had my HR at 180 and my fenix had it at 145 (145ish was def correct).

 

[PatrickNSF]

While i truly believe his information when I wear both my fenix 7x and my ultra they display essentially (within 1-2 beats) the same HR data at all times except for yesterday during a run when my ultra had my HR at 180 and my fenix had it at 145 (145ish was def correct).

I believe I get decent HR data while running with my Garmin (and comparable to my AW), though I swapped my Fenix/Epix for a 955. I do better with the lighter and smaller Forerunners.

Sleep data is a whole different story. I’ve been comparing the AW running watchOS 9 to my Garmin and the results differ greatly, with Garmin generally missing most times I wake up in the middle of the night and the AW getting those right. To the extent Garmin factors in sleep when calculating its recovery data, it has me questioning how good that information really is.

 

[zerozoneice]

While i truly believe his information when I wear both my fenix 7x and my ultra they display essentially (within 1-2 beats) the same HR data at all times except for yesterday during a run when my ultra had my HR at 180 and my fenix had it at 145 (145ish was def correct).

Imagine my amazement when my Nokia/Whithings Scale shows the exact BPM as on the watch, during a weight measurement

@PatrickNSF both Venu 2 and Epix 2 pick up perfectly my awake times, as well as sleep start/end, but so did the AW..so no big difference there from what i noticed.

@theotherphil yeah i know the guy's videos, they seem scientific enough. But explain this: how come Fitbits which lie around the middle of HR sensor accuracy, end up having almost the best sleep analysis accuracy? Also Huawei Watch GT3 Pro 43mm vs 46mm different accuracies despite most likely same sensor generation?

Let's not veer too much OT tho..