Do you read the Garmin forums? Tons and tons of complaints about SOFTWARE on EVERY variation of watches. Outdoor models have more complaints than the Sports division and yes they have different developers working in each division. SOFTWARE is the problem at Garmin, the hardware is great. Compare the complaints in Garmin Forums to this site, it's a massive difference.
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The AW Ultra suddenly seems like a bargain now with Garmins silly pricing
- Thread starter dj1891
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I do read them as I own a Fenix 7XSS myself. Reading complaints about equipment and software interactions or with edge case software scenarios there read no different than battery drain issues with complications, podcasts and playlists not downloading, smart stack problems and so on here. I also own an Apple Watch series 8 that I "play" with sometimes.
On the software side, here is a fun one. Design a route on your maps app on your iPhone. Now see if you can do that with your Mac or iPad. When you design and save it to your iPhone how can you tell if it is on your watch? Can you share this route with any other Apple user be it iPhone or Apple Watch?
These forums are full of all manner of software problems not just from Apple but from people writing apps for Apple Watch. The number of threads I see where people are turning off major features, removing apps and everything else just to try to eliminate battery drain is astonishing.
It is Apple that increasingly has a software problem. Sometimes it is bugs but other times it is just lack of development or poor design. Using the Apple Watch for hourly temps now is a terrible ugly joke and they haven't fixed it after breaking it years ago. Boy is it ever fun to read white text on a yellow background on a ring and trying to see how many degrees it will be around 2 PM. I guess I could switch to conditions where it will show me a little sun with a cloud at a size smaller than emojis in the texting app on my iPhone and see how informative that would be. Before it used to be a nice list on a black background. Apple still does something somewhat usable for the ten day forecast but often the background makes it less legible. That's just one example of course. There are loads more.
Garmin has serious athletes doing extreme things with their devices
The bar is set much higher than the vast majority of Apple Watch buyers
Except for ME( and many other users report the same) the HR on Garmin was way off. So for ME, it equaled garbage in garbage out. And if you NEED a Garmin to consider whether or not you are a serious athlete well....
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. All of my Garmin & AW side by side testing has shown mostly indistinguishable results. Truthfully, with both of them, a chest strap is more desirable for better and more consistent HR data when doing activities (that's what I do). How that it's Winter where I am, it's especially true as I keep my watch on the outside of clothing during activities (not in contact with skin)
I did not say this
I said that Garmin has serious athletes doing extreme things with their devices
I did not say those athletes "NEED a Garmin to consider themselves serious", as you indicated
See the difference?
They are very serious athletes, irrespective of device choice.
There are many very serious athletes using AWU's also! And Coros, etc
Anecdotally, when you spend anytime in the Garmin discussion ecosystem, you simply see and read about usage cases that are usually more serious fitness, niche and activity focused than what one sees in AW discussions. It's subjective, but that's been my observation over the years.
Mostly I can see people complaining about Apple Watch’s battery life when they are rarely doing sports. They are running 10k or less. I am running 70-100k a week and I have no issues with the watch at all. Again: the garmin is lying with the battery life. The maximum battery life is 4-5 days. With my Apple Watch 2-3 days. Wow. What a huge difference. When I am doing a long run: 30 Minuten before the run I put it on the charger. That’s all. But I have accurate sensors. And not a fake device
And about seriousness: On my garmin Epix 2 pro I cannot press a button under water. Wow! Didn’t expect this. Because it will be broken after that. Replaced. So serious. Wow. Amazing 🤣
And about seriousness: On my garmin Epix 2 pro I cannot press a button under water. Wow! Didn’t expect this. Because it will be broken after that. Replaced. So serious. Wow. Amazing 🤣
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As a workout app developer, I can tell you that we also have a lot of people on AW who need more data than NASA to go to Mars...
Some requests are hard to believe
You have Garmin Fenix users who can't run more than 5 km footing, and people with an AW Series 4 who run marathon in 2:30 ...
The watch doesn't make run faster or longer
I get over 2 weeks battery life on my Fenix 8 AMOLED. No idea where you get the figure of 4-5 days from. AW2 was giving me 2 days max
And on my Epix Pro 51, my music downloaded to the watch keeps cutting out. I will charge my Ultra 2 every 2 days so I can listen to UNINTERRUPTED music while working out. No watch is perfect so pick your poison.
If uninterrupted music was that important I’d have my phone with me. Having to charge a watch every 2 days in 2024 is ridiculous and there are only AW users that will defend it. All other watches give you much longer.
Luke I said, pick your poison. I prefer to workout without my phone on me. I have LTE on my watch. Garmin not having LTE on ANY available model in 2024 is ridiculous. See how it works. Pick your poison.
It’s 2024 and the music player on Garmin‘s flagship model can’t even change playback speed for podcasts/audiobooks. Let alone the usability of the player is 2003 style and it can’t even sync to a podcast app on your phone.
Like I said: if you are not sporting then yes. Turn on highest accuracy for GPS. Turn on oxygen. Turn on AOD. Like I do with my AWU. I am not talking about listening music. This watch is empty before you are back home. The problem with garmin is: Bad Sensors. Bad display quality. Everyone turns everything off. Doing no sports. Then you are right. Start doing sports. Then you will see you great battery life melting down 🤣. The stupiest thing is that the garmin watch will not learn bout your behavior. If I am sporting every day. How can this watch still think that it will last 15 days?
I tell you why: crappy device
You make a really good point about the usage cases. On Garmin forums I’ll read edge case problems like this…
”I’m using my Fenix 8 for turn by turn navigation on my bike with a power meter and bike radar. After climb pro has been used, it seems like the turn by turn prompts for the route quit working even though it will still show the route and my position on it.”
It is 2024 and Apple still offers no proper on watch navigation for any activity beyond walks and only if you create the route in their maps application and switch back and forth. Apple cannot connect with bike radar nor use it with your phone via the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch has no means of showing you the upcoming elevation changes on the watch.
Also speaking of things you can’t sync between watch and phone how about creating a workout on your phone and sending it to your watch. It’s 2024 and Apple REMOVED that ability back in Watch OS 10 and never added it back.
Also with regard to syncing, can you sync routes from your iPad to your watch, or your Mac to your watch or even use those to create routes for your watch? Can you review your Fitness effforts on your Mac or honestly have them sync all the time to your iPad? It’s a mess with the Health app and what syncs and what doesn’t, etc.
Even when it comes to music and podcast syncing with Apple Watch the answer to that is most of the time it mostly works. I’ll have new playlists and I’ll have 30 out of 50 songs downloaded and it just starts skipping. Why did it stop? Who knows. Why did my podcasts decide I haven’t listened to that one show recently enough and stop downloading even though I set it to download, who knows. Many people purchase cellular service to basically cover for the syncing shortfall. It’s a lot of money and subscriptions including for on device hardware like diving via Oceanic+ which Apple hasn’t addressed natively for over two years now.
Oh, and yes it is 2024…..
I use footpath. Footpath is so much better than Garmin navigation. Easy to use. It’s 2024
I was using the Apple Map routing stuff while running. No issues.
There is also Footpath which is excellent.
True, but who is doing "serious" biking/cycling with a watch - no matter which brand? Especially when doing navigation?
I am doing road biking and all of my folks (and me too) are using bike computers (Garmin Edge, Wahoo Roam/Bolt).
There never was an offering from Apple to create workouts on the iPhone, only on the Watch itself.
With watchOS 10 they introduced an API for 3rd party providers like TrainingPeaks, FinalSurge and there are plenty other apps (not from Apple) to create workouts. Not missing anything here.
Sure. Created a route on my Mac and synced it to my watch to run it with no iPhone nearby.
Apple Maps iOS 18 lets you create custom routes — here's how to do it
Create your own path with upgraded Apple Maps
Worked like a charm.
I use runalyze and seldomly look into Health or Fitness app. Don't like these apps.
I am using Overcast since years and have no issues syncing podcasts to my Watch.
True, some of the apps I mentioned are 3rd party and require subscriptions. But I like having a choice and the amount I pay for these apps is quite low over a year and I like supporting independent creative software developers like the ones from Footpath or Overcast.
In reality it is about 4 days with 1 hour GPS activity per day and without listening to music/podcasts and a reduced AOD:
Fenix 8 Amoled 47mm - Battery Drain - fēnix 8 Series - Wearables - Garmin Forums
A dedicated community for Garmin users to ask questions, provide answers, and share feedback.
forums.garmin.com
Yes. Turn oxygen on and do not use SAT-IQ what does not work well for my purpose : Wood and hills.In reality it is about 4 days with 1 hour GPS activity per day and without listening to music/podcasts and a reduced AOD:
Fenix 8 Amoled 47mm - Battery Drain - fēnix 8 Series - Wearables - Garmin Forums
A dedicated community for Garmin users to ask questions, provide answers, and share feedback.
My experience is 3-4 days. But that doesn’t really matter because it’s not that huge jump what you would expect from a garmin watch. Because that’s the only argument for a garmin I don’t see it as an argument anymore.
We are not comparing 15 days to 2-3. weeks are comparing 4-5 days to 2-3.
What a shame for garmin
As a former Garmin user I never understood this battery life fetish thing. Did not matter for me if my watch was empty after 4 or 6 days.
The only annoying thing was this strange charging cable that regularly was broken or not charging because the charging port had debris in.
Speaking of 2024: no wireless charging, not even USB-C on the flagship model…
GPS at highest quality every day for a couple of hours. And yes I get 15 days. Turn everything on with an AW2 and you won’t get 2 days. Try doing a 24 bike ride with AW2, you’ll be depending on your cycle computer.