Yeah, it’s their fault. It’s a bug in their software, look at the forums. I had the Fenix 8 for 3 weeks and returned it because of this issue. I went back to my Epix Pro that works just fine. I had the Fenix 8 51 MM AMOLED with running 1 hr a day, pulse ox turned off, and in gesture mode, I only got 5-6 days of battery life. Garmin logged my watch to try and figure out the issue. Don’t say it was just my watch, the forums are full of the same issue. Quit pretending the AWU isn’t a great watch, I’ve trained for triathlons using Garmin and AWU and both are excellent. Have a great day!
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The AW Ultra suddenly seems like a bargain now with Garmins silly pricing
- Thread starter dj1891
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Perfect, I was looking at the Roam V2. Had Edge 520. Thanks for the reply.
So my Garmin arrived and now I understand why all these Garmin folks make such a big deal about battery life, because Garmin watches are a pain to charge. These things have no wireless charging and you have to use some weird connector that is located at the bottom of the watch. And it's a really annoying cable + connector that only Garmin uses.
Compare this to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, which you simply put on a super nice MagSafe Wireless charger while you take a shower without any effort or pain at all.
Compare this to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, which you simply put on a super nice MagSafe Wireless charger while you take a shower without any effort or pain at all.
Good choice.
As my V1 is working perfectly, I found no reason to upgrade it to a V2 on BF. But still got two more days.
Have the Roam now since 5 years or so and did not have one issue with it. Coming from an Edge 820 this was a big relief. 820 was a nightmare concerning all the bugs. Crashes in the middle of nowhere, etc.
Yeah the smoothness of the Apple Watch charger is easily my favourite device charger. In the morning before my run I have a charger in the kitchen and can snap it on while having a coffee and changing clothes. Quick top up is enough and out the door
Since you cannot be a “serious athlete” if you don’t use a Garmin, I thought I give it a try by using it on a bike ride.
This thing really offered no added value at all. It is probably why pro cyclists like Tadej Pogacar uses a Wahoo Element Bolt and not a Garmin Fenix on the bike.
To be fair, I only have the Apple Watch with me for emergency calls only so I can leave my iPhone at home. This is not something you can do with a Garmin as it doesn’t have cellular.
But one cool feature of Garmin is that you can actually use it as a heart rate monitor with devices like a Wahoo Element Bolt or Zwift, which is simply a pain to do with the Apple Watch. Yes I know, a heart rate strap is more accurate, but if you are too lazy to put it on, you can also use this watch.
This thing really offered no added value at all. It is probably why pro cyclists like Tadej Pogacar uses a Wahoo Element Bolt and not a Garmin Fenix on the bike.
To be fair, I only have the Apple Watch with me for emergency calls only so I can leave my iPhone at home. This is not something you can do with a Garmin as it doesn’t have cellular.
But one cool feature of Garmin is that you can actually use it as a heart rate monitor with devices like a Wahoo Element Bolt or Zwift, which is simply a pain to do with the Apple Watch. Yes I know, a heart rate strap is more accurate, but if you are too lazy to put it on, you can also use this watch.
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After reading 12 pages of back and forth discussion, here is my biased take on Apple vs Garmin discussion.
1. Battery life on Garmin lasts more than AW. But for those who can charge before sleep and during shower, battery life management is a matter of routine for AW users. Marathons or 50miler runs on AW S10 should be more than ok.
My personal experience, for my AW S10 GPS, I also use it for sleep tracking, so brush before bed is when it gets charged for 10-15 minutes and I am good to go for the night. Brush and shower in the morning gets the top up needed. Rinse and repeat, don't have to worry about battery life.
2. Heart rate sensors on AW performs better than Garmin's, AWU Dual GPS also seems to perform better than Garmin tracking, but they are so close, should not be an issue. Wrist HRs has issues with accuracy depending on fit that changes from day to day.
3. Garmin has far more detailed native health metrics data, but with unvalidated/uncorrelated accuracy. AW has apps to supplement what Apple is missing, and many of the apps are single developer apps that have excellent health metrics data, that tells me how having health metrics is not a resource intensive feature that Garmin markets so heavily to consumers.
4. Garmin has very specific tools/feature for a particular sport. AW can supplement this with apps, but might not have all the features that are in native Garmin watch.
5. Garmin watches are bigger, thicker and heavier than AW, it is a consideration when sleep tracking, some sports or even tight fitting long sleeve clothes.
6. Software on Garmin is rudimentary compared to AW. Seen in screen animation, maps, voice assistance, LTE connectivity, feature integration etc.
7. Smartwatch features on Garmin is lacking and is not natively integrated with the phone, so lot of more issues and steps to deal with to make it work well.
Feel free to poke holes at this.
I recently upgraded from AW S7 to S10 and also bought a Forerunner 265, but 265 will go back, and I cannot deal with two watches. S10 does most things that I need it to do well (with WOD & health metrics app), but other things not so well. It's a compromise, one that works for me.
1. Battery life on Garmin lasts more than AW. But for those who can charge before sleep and during shower, battery life management is a matter of routine for AW users. Marathons or 50miler runs on AW S10 should be more than ok.
My personal experience, for my AW S10 GPS, I also use it for sleep tracking, so brush before bed is when it gets charged for 10-15 minutes and I am good to go for the night. Brush and shower in the morning gets the top up needed. Rinse and repeat, don't have to worry about battery life.
2. Heart rate sensors on AW performs better than Garmin's, AWU Dual GPS also seems to perform better than Garmin tracking, but they are so close, should not be an issue. Wrist HRs has issues with accuracy depending on fit that changes from day to day.
3. Garmin has far more detailed native health metrics data, but with unvalidated/uncorrelated accuracy. AW has apps to supplement what Apple is missing, and many of the apps are single developer apps that have excellent health metrics data, that tells me how having health metrics is not a resource intensive feature that Garmin markets so heavily to consumers.
4. Garmin has very specific tools/feature for a particular sport. AW can supplement this with apps, but might not have all the features that are in native Garmin watch.
5. Garmin watches are bigger, thicker and heavier than AW, it is a consideration when sleep tracking, some sports or even tight fitting long sleeve clothes.
6. Software on Garmin is rudimentary compared to AW. Seen in screen animation, maps, voice assistance, LTE connectivity, feature integration etc.
7. Smartwatch features on Garmin is lacking and is not natively integrated with the phone, so lot of more issues and steps to deal with to make it work well.
Feel free to poke holes at this.
I recently upgraded from AW S7 to S10 and also bought a Forerunner 265, but 265 will go back, and I cannot deal with two watches. S10 does most things that I need it to do well (with WOD & health metrics app), but other things not so well. It's a compromise, one that works for me.
Seems to be a pretty good sum up in my view - not even touching the price point though that was the headline of the thread
To add a point, Garmin works better with other devices. For example, I can directly change the resistance of my smart trainer on a Garmin but on an Apple Watch I am not able to do this (unless there is a hidden option that I have not found yet).
Also the Garmin can be used as a heart rate monitor for other devices which I believe is also not possible on an Apple Watch. I heard about a workaround to get it working with Zwift but based on my experience this workaround is very unstable.
Also the Garmin can be used as a heart rate monitor for other devices which I believe is also not possible on an Apple Watch. I heard about a workaround to get it working with Zwift but based on my experience this workaround is very unstable.
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So went for a run today with my son. Sort of our version of a Turkey Trot. I decided to double wrist with an Apple Watch 8 and my Fenix 7xSS. The training plan called for nested intervals which the native Apple app cannot do. I created the workout on the Apple Watch but had to basically enter it twice due to the lack of nesting.
15 min warm up
Do this 2 times
Repeat 3 times
15 sec sprint
3 min recovery
5 min jog
10 min cool down.
So decided to do this with my son and he developed a hitch in his side. On the Garmin you can discontinue the workout and it will continue the activity as an open activity. It saves as the one run.
On the Apple Watch you cannot do this. You can apparently start a new activity within that activity and it can be an open run but it saves it two separate activities. Stranger though is when you go back to outdoor run, the structured workout is now the DEFAULT workout. You can't unselect it any fashion and go back to open run as the default workout. You have to hit the three dots, go back down to wherever open run is now and select it and start a workout. This is the most absurd quirk I've ever seen in a workout app. After you start an open workout for run that becomes the default again but basically the default is whatever you did last. I find this an exceedingly strange UI behavior.
Apple Watch gave a distance shorter than the Garmin watch. I find this to always be true. It also didn't lock and record HR for the first 2-3 minutes of the run so that was missing from the average for the run.
The Apple Watch was also a "fussy" experience. It has to tell me I was leaving my phone in my car. It had to complain at me that the it thought the external speaker I was using was too high on volume. It had to tell me rings were closing.
It wasn't a terrible or unacceptable experience. It just was a second tier experience.
15 min warm up
Do this 2 times
Repeat 3 times
15 sec sprint
3 min recovery
5 min jog
10 min cool down.
So decided to do this with my son and he developed a hitch in his side. On the Garmin you can discontinue the workout and it will continue the activity as an open activity. It saves as the one run.
On the Apple Watch you cannot do this. You can apparently start a new activity within that activity and it can be an open run but it saves it two separate activities. Stranger though is when you go back to outdoor run, the structured workout is now the DEFAULT workout. You can't unselect it any fashion and go back to open run as the default workout. You have to hit the three dots, go back down to wherever open run is now and select it and start a workout. This is the most absurd quirk I've ever seen in a workout app. After you start an open workout for run that becomes the default again but basically the default is whatever you did last. I find this an exceedingly strange UI behavior.
Apple Watch gave a distance shorter than the Garmin watch. I find this to always be true. It also didn't lock and record HR for the first 2-3 minutes of the run so that was missing from the average for the run.
The Apple Watch was also a "fussy" experience. It has to tell me I was leaving my phone in my car. It had to complain at me that the it thought the external speaker I was using was too high on volume. It had to tell me rings were closing.
It wasn't a terrible or unacceptable experience. It just was a second tier experience.
After spending a few days as a new Garmin user, I must say I do like it. The comment I made before buying was indeed correct, it's simply comparing a Kindle versus an iPad. A Kindle is better at reading than an iPad, but that doesn't mean that a Kindle is a better device than an iPad as an iPad is a much more capable device.
For those that don't know, recently a female cyclist crashed during a race and nobody knew what happened to her. It was only after the race they found her by luck. But it was too late, she died. If she had an Apple Watch, she would still be alive today due to fall detection + she could have also called for help herself if the fall detection didn't work.
And this is the ultimate reason why the Apple Watch Ultra 2 will remain my main watch.
But for those who don't care about safety (i see many people who workout ignore all traffic laws), then this doesn't apply to you obviously.
I will still keep this Garmin as it is a very good sports watch (but not a smartwatch) in the end. I'm still not sure how to use it because I dislike being forced to bring my iPhone with me. I can probably cancel my subscription to apps like Athlytic, because Garmin has all these metrics for free.
For those that don't know, recently a female cyclist crashed during a race and nobody knew what happened to her. It was only after the race they found her by luck. But it was too late, she died. If she had an Apple Watch, she would still be alive today due to fall detection + she could have also called for help herself if the fall detection didn't work.
And this is the ultimate reason why the Apple Watch Ultra 2 will remain my main watch.
But for those who don't care about safety (i see many people who workout ignore all traffic laws), then this doesn't apply to you obviously.
I will still keep this Garmin as it is a very good sports watch (but not a smartwatch) in the end. I'm still not sure how to use it because I dislike being forced to bring my iPhone with me. I can probably cancel my subscription to apps like Athlytic, because Garmin has all these metrics for free.
The AWU 2 provides a better running experience than the Series 8 does, and is probably the more appropriate watch to compare to the fenix.
Since it's very cold, I wore long sleeves and gloves. And somehow, the workout got cancelled with edge of my gloves pushing against the buttons during the exercise (or maybe due to a bug)?
Fine, then you would think Garmin has an auto-detect feature like the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has right .... right? Nope, once a workout is cancelled, with Garmin you are screwed and records nothing. Atleast with the Apple Watch Ultra 2, it would still record some parts of the workout based on the auto-detect feature.
Apple their workout auto-detection runs circles around Garmin their "MoveIQ" or whatever it is called.
Fine, then you would think Garmin has an auto-detect feature like the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has right .... right? Nope, once a workout is cancelled, with Garmin you are screwed and records nothing. Atleast with the Apple Watch Ultra 2, it would still record some parts of the workout based on the auto-detect feature.
Apple their workout auto-detection runs circles around Garmin their "MoveIQ" or whatever it is called.
Had this with my Garmins too when I was doing commute (no bike computer on my commute bike) and had gloves on.
If I remember correctly, you can lock the Garmin for exactly that reason.
The same is true for the Apple Watch, as I got more cases with the AW than with Garmin. Because of that I always activate a "Water Lock" on the AW after starting a workout.
You can lock a Garmin as well.
Cancelling a workout accidentally is quite difficult on a Garmin. That requires a lot of movement through menu. Probably you accidentally went to the main clock screen by long pressing Start/Stop (?). In this case you can go back to the workout by pressing Start/Stop again.
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I’ve often dabbled with this idea. This runner you speak of what is their routine ? Just a simple watch ? They run entirely off feel ? I assume they don’t bring a phone in case of emergencies?
As cool as this story is, it really doesn't seem too bad to enjoy at least some of the digital assistance of the GPS/Smart watches - if you don't train for anything specific or to run a program towards a marathon with sessions in specific paces and distances - fair enough. If you run to keep healthy and go for example 10K a day - maybe the need to track it isn't as big
That’s true. And I think any gps watch is completely enough for getting better. Especially the AWU is such a great watch for that purpose.
If the rumors are true and AWU3 is getting 5G, satellite messaging and blood pressure monitoring, the technology gap to a Fenix will increase very much. They do not even have LTE on the flagship model yet and I suppose won't get soon. The LTE stuff on 945LTE was lousy and crippled.
(Please spare me telling that you carry a phone anyway. I prefer not taking my phone with me for runs.).
Btw, when looking at the Fenix 8 forum: a lot of bugs that have been there since release and still not fixed. But new players there telling the folks that their problems are not real ("I took a photo of my Fenix 8 in darkness and look, you can't tell me that you can barely read yours. I can").
(Please spare me telling that you carry a phone anyway. I prefer not taking my phone with me for runs.
).Btw, when looking at the Fenix 8 forum: a lot of bugs that have been there since release and still not fixed. But new players there telling the folks that their problems are not real ("I took a photo of my Fenix 8 in darkness and look, you can't tell me that you can barely read yours. I can"
).AWU 3 i starting to sound pretty damn cool already - I'm ready for a fall upgrade if they get some of it done. A tad smaller bezels and it would look next-gen as well.If the rumors are true and AWU3 is getting 5G, satellite messaging and blood pressure monitoring, the technology gap to a Fenix will increase very much. They do not even have LTE on the flagship model yet and I suppose won't get soon. The LTE stuff on 945LTE was lousy and crippled.
(Please spare me telling that you carry a phone anyway. I prefer not taking my phone with me for runs.
Regarding the phone on runs - I hate it as well - the LTE in my Ultra is such a great tech addition when out on runs where it is nice my wife can get in contact if needed
Well, I must say I am now converted to Garmin. I'm going to replace my Wahoo Element Bolt v2 with the Garmin Edge 1050 too for cycling.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, i can replace everything with apps and actually get better quality than what Garmin has to offer... but it's simply the ease of use.
For example, I wake up and see exactly my workout for the morning. If it's a cycling workout, I simply jump on the smart trainer and the watch is already automatically connected and uses ERG mode to ensure I'm putting out the correct power numbers through out the entire structured workout.
Before this, I had to:
- go to my computer
- start your app (Zwift, Trainerroad, MyWhoosh, .... )
- pair your smart trainer with the app
- go to your calendar and see what you have to do
- select the workout
- select which route
- connect to Airplay to stream it from the computer to your TV
Yeah, yeah, yeah, i can replace everything with apps and actually get better quality than what Garmin has to offer... but it's simply the ease of use.
For example, I wake up and see exactly my workout for the morning. If it's a cycling workout, I simply jump on the smart trainer and the watch is already automatically connected and uses ERG mode to ensure I'm putting out the correct power numbers through out the entire structured workout.
Before this, I had to:
- go to my computer
- start your app (Zwift, Trainerroad, MyWhoosh, .... )
- pair your smart trainer with the app
- go to your calendar and see what you have to do
- select the workout
- select which route
- connect to Airplay to stream it from the computer to your TV
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I tried a lot of things to carry a phone with me and none of the solutions (belts and stuff) was something I want to have on each run.
As cellular still has quite a few white spots here in Germany (sad but true), having satellite messaging as a fallback when something really bad is happening is something.
And blood pressure monitoring, even if it would only indicate tendency and not absolute values will be great. Even guys doing intensive sports can have undetected high blood pressure.
Really looking forward to upgrade. This year did not make much sense for me upgrading a titanium AWU2 to a black AWU2. ;-)
He has just a 10€ stopwatch for races...
He only runs at feel.
To be honest, who needs to watch at heart rate while running, every one is able to know if he is too fast.