The AW Ultra suddenly seems like a bargain now with Garmins silly pricing

[MarkX]

Hmmm, also the best Trail Runner of all time, Kilian Jornet, was running with a Suunto watch. But he was so fast, he did not need a big battery.

I'm pretty sure he's a brand ambassador for Coros so I doubt he was wearing a Suunto!

He used to be Suunto but that was a few years ago.

 

[Zelegorm]

Even they don't seem to be using Garmin - with a lot of the pro's using COROS

Or Suunto. Because if battery would be so important then I would never use a garmin 😃 watch

 

[NME42]

I'm pretty sure he's a brand ambassador for Coros so I doubt he was wearing a Suunto!

He used to be Suunto but that was a few years ago.

So next will be Polar then?

 

[quarq]

I'm in the 70-100K a week myself with 3.877 km in 2024 so almost 75 km a week in average and even the peak weeks in the marathon blocks above 100K has been completely fine with the AWU battery

That's where I was at peak marathon training before Valencia. I've dropped that since to recover.
This is off topic.. My apologies, but do you generally keep about the same mileage and do a shorter marathon block ? Or do you do the standard build from low mileage to peak ?

 

[AnthroMatt]

Happy new year everyone!!
I dont understand why you argue?
Ex user garmin for 7 years(f3,f5,f5 plus,f6x,f7x,edge 1030,power pedals and hrm zones)
Now Ultra 2 , edge 1030 and hrm

Garmin is a big sport company and Apple the biggest tech company

Garmin fenix watch is a more dedicated sport watch with a plethora of metrics and battery(most metrics useless for big mass)
Apple watch is a smartwatch with all the sport activities and 80% of fenix metrics(also most of them are useless metrics)

after many years with garmin i prefer the ultra 2 as the biggest event to participate atm is olympic triathlon distance and i dont care about battery life.

If apple with the ultra 3 manage to get the battery to 4 days will take a lot of people from garmin.

The arguing is because people think anything positive about a device they chose not to buy/use is an attack on them personally for choosing something different. Almost no one needs a smartwatch/sports watch/or even a mechanical watch with clocks being as ubiquitous as they are now. So if my wife, my daughter, my stepsons all want an AW, cool. If I want a Garmin, cool. If you have no use for a Garmin, no big deal to me. If I decide to switch back to an AW in a year or two, that isn’t proof Garmin sucks or Apple is better. People need to relax and just be satisfied with what they have.

A cheap Motorola Android phone is sufficient for probably 80% of smartphone users, but we look down on cheap devices because our fancy Apples and Samsungs are objectively better…even if they are overkill for most of us.

 

[xDKP]

That's where I was at peak marathon training before Valencia. I've dropped that since to recover.
This is off topic.. My apologies, but do you generally keep about the same mileage and do a shorter marathon block ? Or do you do the standard build from low mileage to peak ?

I have been training for two marathons a year for the last couple of years, with a winter/spring block ending with a May race and September/October for the second block. I would say the rest-time after a marathon is usually where mileage goes down for a month and then slow starts again and this time already hitting 90K before end of December (May race)

My coach say the focus early is to build the base - so fast paces, but not as many as later but mileage and increasing the internal engine

 

[quarq]

I have been training for two marathons a year for the last couple of years, with a winter/spring block ending with a May race and September/October for the second block. I would say the rest-time after a marathon is usually where mileage goes down for a month and then slow starts again and this time already hitting 90K before end of December (May race)

My coach say the focus early is to build the base - so fast paces, but not as many as later but mileage and increasing the internal engine

Thanks for this.
Last marathon block, I started the block already doing 70km a week.. Then I did a 18 week Daniel's block. The marathon was Dec 1. Looking at my numbers and just how I felt, I think I peaked late September. VO2max went down and the half marathon paces during training were harder and harder to reach.. I think the mistake was to not include the ramping up to 70km a week as part of the block.. Ok, enough off topic. Thanks again for your insight.

 

[xDKP]

Thanks for this.
Last marathon block, I started the block already doing 70km a week.. Then I did a 18 week Daniel's block. The marathon was Dec 1. Looking at my numbers and just how I felt, I think I peaked late September. VO2max went down and the half marathon paces during training were harder and harder to reach.. I think the mistake was to not include the ramping up to 70km a week as part of the block.. Ok, enough off topic. Thanks again for your insight.

Well might be off topic but love discussing running 😁😁

 

[NME42]

Another Fenix 8 user with not so good battery life even though he/she has switched off almost everything and is not even using GPS:

„With this huge battery drain the Apple Watch Ultra I had before was similar with more going on beside sports…“

Maybe holding it wrong, @Zelegorm?

 

[Zelegorm]

Another Fenix 8 user with not so good battery life even though he/she has switched off almost everything and is not even using GPS:

„With this huge battery drain the Apple Watch Ultra I had before was similar with more going on beside sports…“

Maybe holding it wrong, @Zelegorm?

Definitely holding it wrong. Like me 😂🤣

 

[NME42]

Definitely holding it wrong. Like me 😂🤣

All of them, it seems.
Another happy customer:

I have the Fenix 8, and ever since installing 12.35, battery drain has been terrible. 30% or more / day - even when barely doing anything. Previously it was the 5-10% range / day.

Maybe Garmin should advise how to hold the watch correctly.

 

[NME42]

Another not 100% happy Fenix 8 user:

I'm on 12.35 and this is still happening - my watch restarted 4 times during the workout. I got to Garmin from Apple Watch Ultra and the difference in software quality is truly shocking.

 

[Zelegorm]

Good to know that I am not the only one. ☺️

 

[MarkX]

Seems there are unhappy AWU2 owners too!

apple watch ultra 2 constantly rebooting

After dealing with the new apple watch ultra 2 for almost a month. I have noticed that it kept on restarting itself and I had to constantly unlock it. Called apple care and was given an appt for the Genius bar at the store but they only gave me the option of returning the watch and rebuying a new one since it had not been 30 days of purchase. well left happy thinking that this was the fix but since that day (only been 4 days) the new one keeps doing the same thing.

 

[xDKP]

Seems there are unhappy AWU2 owners too!

apple watch ultra 2 constantly rebooting

After dealing with the new apple watch ultra 2 for almost a month. I have noticed that it kept on restarting itself and I had to constantly unlock it. Called apple care and was given an appt for the Genius bar at the store but they only gave me the option of returning the watch and rebuying a new one since it had not been 30 days of purchase. well left happy thinking that this was the fix but since that day (only been 4 days) the new one keeps doing the same thing.

Haven't heard of this before to be honest - is this you or are you quoting someone else?

 

[MarkX]

Haven't heard of this before to be honest - is this you or are you quoting someone else?

It's a post from Apple Discussions.

 

[rbart]

Seems there are unhappy AWU2 owners too!

apple watch ultra 2 constantly rebooting

After dealing with the new apple watch ultra 2 for almost a month. I have noticed that it kept on restarting itself and I had to constantly unlock it. Called apple care and was given an appt for the Genius bar at the store but they only gave me the option of returning the watch and rebuying a new one since it had not been 30 days of purchase. well left happy thinking that this was the fix but since that day (only been 4 days) the new one keeps doing the same thing.

Incredible !!!
You have found an AW with an issue !!

 

[MarkX]

Incredible !!!
You have found an AW with an issue !!

I know, it's shocking!

 

[NME42]

I know, it's shocking!

Absolutely. Guess I sell my AWU2 and buy a Fenix 8.

Oh, also shocking:

I’m having the same problem. I have owned a lot of fenix’s over the years and know how to optimize battery. With very conservative settings I can’t even get a week of life, and that’s without gps activities. Spend a lot of money upgrading from a Fenix 7, which had way better battery life.


or this from today:

Same problem here since a few days. Nothing changed compared to previous months.

It's unacceptable that a 1.3K€ watch required to turn off all its features (for which all of us bought this watch) in order to try to solve the drain issue.

I really would stay with Garmin for its great sport features, but I'm seriously thinking to go back to Apple Watch Ultra, for which a lot of developers are improving its features and reports, and which recharge battery in flash times (i.e. during a shower).

 

[MarkX]

Absolutely. Guess I sell my AWU2 and buy a Fenix 8.

Oh, also shocking:

I’m having the same problem. I have owned a lot of fenix’s over the years and know how to optimize battery. With very conservative settings I can’t even get a week of life, and that’s without gps activities. Spend a lot of money upgrading from a Fenix 7, which had way better battery life.


or this from today:

Same problem here since a few days. Nothing changed compared to previous months.

It's unacceptable that a 1.3K€ watch required to turn off all its features (for which all of us bought this watch) in order to try to solve the drain issue.

I really would stay with Garmin for its great sport features, but I'm seriously thinking to go back to Apple Watch Ultra, for which a lot of developers are improving its features and reports, and which recharge battery in flash times (i.e. during a shower).

There's loads of people complaining of poor battery life on their Ultra 2 also but I suppose as you're not looking for that info it's not real!

 

[Zelegorm]

As we know the only advantage for having a garmin is the battery life. It’s not. Like my experience it’s fake battery life. I have to turn off nearly everything to reach a suitable battery life on garmin. That’s the point. The battery life is shorter in a Apple Watch. That’s what we all know. But there is no issue with that. Because I load it in the morning before leaving the house. That’s enough for all my use cases.

In fact I haven’t understood the point: Garmin is so much better in terms of battery life. It’s not. No permanent connection for getting the information that I have phone call. Fall detection without a phone. Wow 😮. I have to darken my display. I have to turn off all the useful stuff to reach a suitable battery life. Bad algorithms if you you are a sleeper with the need of less than 7 hours. An App Store like 1980. no real useful apps. Working against 3rd party companies like Stryd because they want to push their own power. In the end it’s a very stupid watch. Not better than my garmin forerunner 305.

If you want battery life: Don’t chose a garmin. If you want accuracy: don’t chose a garmin.

 

[NME42]

If you want battery life: Don’t chose a garmin. If you want accuracy: don’t chose a garmin.

If you want bad software quality and a watch that crashes when doing workouts, choose a Garmin.

 

[MarkX]

As we know the only advantage for having a garmin is the battery life. It’s not. Like my experience it’s fake battery life. I have to turn off nearly everything to reach a suitable battery life on garmin. That’s the point. The battery life is shorter in a Apple Watch. That’s what we all know. But there is no issue with that. Because I load it in the morning before leaving the house. That’s enough for all my use cases.

In fact I haven’t understood the point: Garmin is so much better in terms of battery life. It’s not. No permanent connection for getting the information that I have phone call. Fall detection without a phone. Wow . I have to darken my display. I have to turn off all the useful stuff to reach a suitable battery life. Bad algorithms if you you are a sleeper with the need of less than 7 hours. An App Store like 1980. no real useful apps. Working against 3rd party companies like Stryd because they want to push their own power. In the end it’s a very stupid watch. Not better than my garmin forerunner 305.

If you want battery life: Don’t chose a garmin. If you want accuracy: don’t chose a garmin.

Well that was amusing .

Your experience isn't my experience.

 

[AnthroMatt]

Well that was amusing .

Your experience isn't my experience.

Because these people have (likely) never used a Garmin and pull their anecdotes from websites where people go to complain. Just like how you and I could go hunting for AW complaints on Apple Discussions or Reddit (or here!). Happy, satisfied customers rarely go online to praise things unless they are also knocking something else at the same time. Sort of like how some Garmin users will say they won't ever consider an AW bc they are square. While I agree that square watches are stupid looking compared to those with round faces, that is hardly reason alone to not consider a watch if it does everything else you'd need.

I turned nothing off on my Fenix 8 AMOLED and easily got 12 days of battery life with AOD. But the real reality, for me, is that having a watch with maps is worthless. In my line of work, I can't deal with a screen that small. So I sent back my Fenix 8 and bought an Instinct 3 and a GPSMap 67i for roughly the cost of a new AWU2 and much less than I paid for the Fenix. I want a watch to track vitals, give me my GPS coordinates, and tell me the time. AW can't do PulseOx in the USA anymore because they stole tech.

I don't need or want a phone in my watch. I certainly don't need to read impossibly shrunken emails (AW) that are illegible on a watch screen (HTML). I don't need to respond to texts from a watch. Is it nice? Sure. Apple won't permit it on non-Apple devices though, so oh well. I care more about battery life than the ability to send a text from a watch. Obviously others feel differently, and that is OK. In my line of work, sometimes charging personal devices is not an option on multi-day deployments, so the "just charge it while you are getting ready in the morning" comments mean little to me.

Also, if you charge a watch every day, after a year the battery is going to be on the decline. Most Garmin devices can last 3-4 years before the battery takes a serious hit because their battery isn't subject to as many charge cycles. Apple shills also like to point out that you need to download multiple apps for Garmin watches when really you only NEED one app, though most people will get at least Connect and Connect IQ. But if someone on the Garmin side says "my watch does this, this, and this. Can an AW do that?," all of the Apple fans just say "yeah, you just need to download these 4 apps." So what is the difference?

I suppose the internet would be a much more boring place if everyone just used what they found to be best for them without crapping all over the alternatives.

 

[AnthroMatt]

If you want bad software quality and a watch that crashes when doing workouts, choose a Garmin.

In all the years (12?) that I have some sort of fitness wearable, I've had a Garmin crash twice and an Apple Watch Ultra (1st gen) crash once during workouts. The Garmin devices never lost data after the crash. The AW did. But my point is that it's not a common enough occurrence with either device and therefore shouldn't be a deciding factor for one or the other.