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Top Pros
Top Cons
Reddit Reviews
BruceWayneKenobiSounds like you don't need the best and newest to get all the features you need here. Most of the watches you're being recommended will be perfect for you, yes. But any older Fenix/Tactix will work for you too. In fact, I'm still using my Fenix 6x Solar, does literally everything you outlined here besides the stealth mode, jump master, etc. A Tactix 7 or event Tactix Delta will achieve all you need. Just a side note, best battery = MIP display. Don't think you can get a stealth mode (night vision) with an MIP display, that's reserved for the amoled versions. Good luck on your search!
Dowcastle-medicMine is a garmin 6x pro I think and I have fallen twice while walking my dogs on a muddy hillside. Both times I got the warning that it was going to send an emergency message if I didn’t cancel within 30 seconds or some such. I believe it sends the message to the person I said to not to 911 but haven’t tried it that far.
FormerIncome6352I would say it is not correct comparison. You need to compare Apple Watch with Garmin Fenix. Standard model (not AMOLED) last 24 days. X version - from 30 days. I'm using 6X Pro Solar Titanium and even after 2 years of using it is keeping 30 days on one charge. Neither Apple nor Samsung can bring me the same experience
I would say it is not correct comparison. You need to compare Apple Watch with Garmin Fenix. Standard model (not AMOLED) last 24 days. X version - from 30 days. I'm using 6X Pro Solar Titanium and even after 2 years of using it is keeping 30 days on one charge. Neither Apple nor Samsung can bring me the same experience
hakapesI had the same experience with the F8. My F6X Pro does it faster...
E3 is a sweet spot currently, best tech, great screen, none of the additional non-useful features. I wouldn't get the F7 line or E2, I dont like the screens. Even if cheaper, I would skip those. If you don't need maps, I3 50mm Solar Tactical is even a better choice. Tip: get a Garmin Ultrafit band for the I3. I have I2, F6XPro, I3 Crossover Amoled Tactical. They all look rugged and big. My F6XPro has a lot of scratches on the bezel, like someone who is out there and does it. Nobody cares what I wear, except some other people in the office who also wear some badass Garmin.
Watches are good. Issues are / were: 1000 Usd watches with bugs even after a year 1000-2000 Usd watch needing a 10 usd / month for Connect+, and 10 Usd/month for LTE LTE is locked to Garmin software and Garmin provider MIP Screen visibility got worse, Amoled is not always on Since the Fenix 6X Pro generation, price has doubled, new features are minuscule, production/quality issues. And compared to 5 years ago, when the 6X Pro generation came out, niw there is competition. Cheaper, faster, or both. If you are new, you don't care. If you had been with Garmin for many years, it feels a lot of things are taken away, and the asking price is higher.
That price range works well for older models. Watches that came out after Fenix 8 (Sep 2024) cost significantly more than before, Garmin just increased prices. Best is to get an older model on discount, as in the past years not much significant new was added. They track the same way, and bugs are still corrected. For sports, any of these fitness watch type of devices excel for running, cycling, swimming. Other sports kinda work, but for example to detect repetitions can have mistakes, treadmil relies on distance data entered, etc. For payment, you need NFC among the watch features. I prefer full button control, especially during sports. Almost all Garmin watches can control music on your phone. The "Music" models can download music onto your phone, and play offline from the watch to your earbuds. My 5 year old Fenix 6X Pro can do this, and I never used it. For good heart rate, get a Polar H10 strap. The best wrist heart rate will never be as good as a poor strap. For more sport oriented: Garmin Foreunner 255 can do all you want, except touchscreen. It has also an 255S version, smaller. Forerunner 955 has maps. Maps are useful for creating courses, running circuits on your phone, and the watch navigates you along. This is most useful for running in nature. If you want a more smartwatch style: Venu 3S or Vivoactive 5 can work. They are more touch screen operated. They are less practical to start stop exercise, as they need using the touchscreen. But they have a nice amoled screen. You can also have a look at Garmin Instinct 2 non-solar version. It is a Casio G-style look, has no NFC. You can get probably 2-3 years out of your watch before it fails, or battery gets poor. 4 years is not uncommon, and several people on reddit are using 5-6 without issues. Garmin usually offers a discount on a new watch, if the warranty expired, and you want repair (they dont really repair watches). Our Venu 2S died after 3 years, 6X Pro after 3.5 years, my colleague's FR945 after 2.5 years. For cycling, most people get a dedicated head unit for cycling, to complement the watch.
jjfmcCan’t speak for the 8 but I’d be shocked if it can’t. My 6X Pro can do 12 hours without even trying.
K34RYI had a F6XPro switched to AWU2 and was so underwhelmed. Waiting for a slight price drop in new F8Pro and will be heading back to Garmin as soon as I can. AWU2 looks nice but the battery is such a huge let down.
This will be me soon. Moved from F6xPro to AWU2 and apart from looking pretty it is dreadful. Hoping to pick up F8pro in the near future.
It’s more battery related than aesthetics. The AWU2 looks nice but is massively let down by battery and what I feel to be a dependence on purchasing 3rd party apps to come close to Garmin. The F6xPro I have is bomb proof in terms of durability, and whilst the UI is a bit clunky compared to Apple, works just fine for fitness tracking. To be truthful, I thought I would use the smart phone features on AWU2 more, but notifications quickly become annoying.
M___HI have a Fenix 8 prefer the chunkier feel to the forerunner series. Had a 6x pro before this, loved both would recommend a Fenix for tri.
I’m fully invested in the Garmin world. Had multiple devices, and their customer service is exemplary, even with out of warranty issues. I currently have a Fenix 8 and absolutely love it. Costly, but it does everything I want and more. My previous watch was a 6x and I had some issues with malfunctions - Garmin replaced it no questions asked 3 times. Eventually got there! For their customer service alone, I’m all In with garmin. For tri you cannot go wrong with a Fenix, enduro, or forerunner. All great bits of kit. Some of the slightly older forerunners are available for great prices too now the new models out
mordac_the_preventerFunnily enough, I have exactly the opposite experience with Apple vs Garmin. I find my Apple Watch (AW10) to be accurate, and my Garmin Watch (Fenix 6x Pro) to be less accurate (but useful in other ways). My Apple Watch will reliably count my lengths correctly if I’m training. Garmin will occasionally drop a length. My Apple Watch will reliably measure my OWS distance accurately - if I’m doing a swim that has a known distance - point to point along a river or across a lake - my Apple Watch will show a plausible distance and the map will not show anything unexpected, but the Garmin watch will often show a higher distance (normally about 10% higher, but occasionally more) and the GPS track will often show zig-zags on the track, or will have unbelievable straight line segments (sometimes cutting across land). On the other hand, the Garmin watch has physical buttons that can be used while swimming, even when wearing gloves, the battery life is amazing (over 24h of swim tracking, whilst the Apple Watch can only do about 6 hours - but up to maybe 9 hours in power save mode), and the display is much larger and thus much easier to read. I’ve not noticed a difference in heart rate readings, but both watches seem to show similar readings
Any GPS swim watch should do. I get very good results with my Apple Watch and less good (but still ok) results with my Garmin watch. If you want an “extra” device to track your swim you could try the free Strava app on your phone - I’ve used this on longer swims where I wasn’t sure if the watch would last. I’ve since worked out how to extend the recording time on my Apple Watch, so this isn’t an issue for me any more.
I’ve been using an Apple Watch for pool and open water swimming for about 6 years. You hear people doing the “Apple Watch Isn’t Waterproof” thing every now and then (also the “Apple wont repair water damaged watches”, which is also untrue). Try the thing that you have and see if it suits you. I’ve used AW4, AW6 and currently have an AW10, they’ve all worked well for me. I recently started used a Garmin watch too (Fenix 6x Pro) - it has some significant advantages (better battery life for really long swims) but also some disadvantages (sometimes comical inaccuracy).
At the moment I’m comparing my Apple Watch with a Garmin Fenix 6x Pro that I bought recently. On most swims the Garmin will record a distance about 20-25% higher than the Apple Watch. There are a few swims that I do that I can easily verify the distance on a map (eg where we swim along a river from one bridge to another) and for those, the Apple Watch normally gets the distance about right, so I think generally the Garmin overestimates distance. I don’t see why the watches should give different distance though - like someone else commented, GPS is easily accurate enough to measure distances like this to within a few feet. Both watches might be trying to measure some kind of “effective distance”, eg swimming 1 mile upstream should count for more than 1 mile downstream, but I’ve never seen that written down anywhere. If you really care how far you’ve swum, record your swim with a watch, but then manually measure the GPS track on a real map.
I have a Garmin Watch (Fenix 6x Pro) and an Apple Watch (Series 10) and they both have pros and cons. The Garmin watch has amazing battery life (over a week of wearing it, over 24 hours of GPS recording), and it’s easy to read, and it has physical buttons that you can use with wet hands. It’s not very accurate though - for me it often adds 10% or more to my distance, snd and a swimming buddy often sees 50% to 100% extra on his Garmin watch - so it reports a 1500m swim as 3000m. It’s also quite a heavy/bulky watch. The Apple Watch has a shorter battery life (less than 24h of normal use, less than 6 hours of GPS recording). The touch screen is almost unusable with wet hands, the only reliable action is pause/resume (by pressing both buttons simultaneously). However, the GPS is almost always spot on - any time that I’ve been able to verify the distance, like on a river swim, or point to point along the coast, it’s been very close to the distance as measured on the map. If I was buying a new watch right now I’d probably look at an Apple Watch Ultra, but they’re pretty expensive and I’m going to hang on to my existing watches for now.
I have a Garmin Watch (Fenix 6x Pro) and an Apple Watch (Series 10) and they both have pros and cons. The Garmin watch has amazing battery life (over a week of wearing it, over 24 hours of GPS recording), and it’s easy to read, and it has physical buttons that you can use with wet hands. It’s not very accurate though - for me it often adds 10% or more to my distance, snd and a swimming buddy often sees 50% to 100% extra on his Garmin watch - so it reports a 1500m swim as 3000m. It’s also quite a heavy/bulky watch. The Apple Watch has a shorter battery life (less than 24h of normal use, less than 6 hours of GPS recording). The touch screen is almost unusable with wet hands, the only reliable action is pause/resume (by pressing both buttons simultaneously). However, the GPS is almost always spot on - any time that I’ve been able to verify the distance, like on a river swim, or point to point along the coast, it’s been very close to the distance as measured on the map. If I was buying a new watch right now I’d probably look at an Apple Watch Ultra, but they’re pretty expensive and I’m going to hang on to my existing watches for now.
Rankings by Use Case
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Best for Running performance & coaching
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Best for Sleep quality tracking
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