tl;dr my doubts about whether the 2nd gen AW are as reliable as what I was used to with a Garmin tipped-the-scales towards me getting a newer Garmin for jogging. However, I'd still be interested in an AW for everyday use casually and in work.
I've previously owned the 405 and 610 models of the Garmin Forerunners and while they had their flaws they were manageable. In my experience, the older USB Ant sticks (used to upload data to computer) were a mare to sync but the most recent iteration of the Ant sticks are more robust and work well. The GPS seemed to take time to lock-on, but I just learnt to turn the watch on earlier and leave it near the window while I warmed-up. Then the heart-rate band wouldn't be good to start with unless I'd been sure to properly wet the contacts; so common-sense stuff where-by you learn to work with a device so it gets the right results.
Now I don't really jog much (though have aspirations of improving) but when I do I like to have the confidence that the time and effort I'm going into with these work-arounds is worth it (i.e. the device delivers) and I found that the Garmin’s did, so for that reason I've just ordered a 630 for the newer screen/heart-rate strap and of course it's a "smart" watch so will be cool to sync it with my iPhone.
I had been considering just using an AW but after reading DC Rainmakers AW review (http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/02/apple-watch-review.html) from earlier this year part of his summary was quite damming:
"But on the flip side, as a fitness device – the Apple Watch isn’t terribly good at fitness. At least not by any objective measure. Not cost, not features, not accuracy, and not reliability. "
Fast-forward to The Verge review and it sounds okay on the GPS front:
However, it later says that the heart-rate sensors are the same as 1st gen and therefore the DCR review comes back into play. If I've understood correctly, it’s also more difficult to get your fitness information off an AW.
Of course, as with the Garmin’s I'm sure I could learn to use the AW over time to get optimal results, but sometimes it’s a case of better-the-devil-you-know and as I'm after a replacement watch for jogging sooner rather than later I opted to go for another Garmin.
Now the jogging watch is sorted I can focus now on getting a nice shiny watch for wearing casually, so I'm still planning to drop-by an Apple Store later this year and see what they're like in the flesh! :-D
I've previously owned the 405 and 610 models of the Garmin Forerunners and while they had their flaws they were manageable. In my experience, the older USB Ant sticks (used to upload data to computer) were a mare to sync but the most recent iteration of the Ant sticks are more robust and work well. The GPS seemed to take time to lock-on, but I just learnt to turn the watch on earlier and leave it near the window while I warmed-up. Then the heart-rate band wouldn't be good to start with unless I'd been sure to properly wet the contacts; so common-sense stuff where-by you learn to work with a device so it gets the right results.
Now I don't really jog much (though have aspirations of improving) but when I do I like to have the confidence that the time and effort I'm going into with these work-arounds is worth it (i.e. the device delivers) and I found that the Garmin’s did, so for that reason I've just ordered a 630 for the newer screen/heart-rate strap and of course it's a "smart" watch so will be cool to sync it with my iPhone.
I had been considering just using an AW but after reading DC Rainmakers AW review (http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/02/apple-watch-review.html) from earlier this year part of his summary was quite damming:
"But on the flip side, as a fitness device – the Apple Watch isn’t terribly good at fitness. At least not by any objective measure. Not cost, not features, not accuracy, and not reliability. "
Fast-forward to The Verge review and it sounds okay on the GPS front:
However, it later says that the heart-rate sensors are the same as 1st gen and therefore the DCR review comes back into play. If I've understood correctly, it’s also more difficult to get your fitness information off an AW.
Of course, as with the Garmin’s I'm sure I could learn to use the AW over time to get optimal results, but sometimes it’s a case of better-the-devil-you-know and as I'm after a replacement watch for jogging sooner rather than later I opted to go for another Garmin.
Now the jogging watch is sorted I can focus now on getting a nice shiny watch for wearing casually, so I'm still planning to drop-by an Apple Store later this year and see what they're like in the flesh! :-D