Garmin - fēnix 7 Pro Solar

Apple Watch charges about 3x faster, so charge it for the 10 mins you take a shower. Garmin is about the same in that regard. They both charge for about 10mins a day to sustain you forever. They’re about equal. The only real advantage would be if you have no access to charger for multiple days, but how often would that be realistically? You charge your phone every day, it’s not that much more of a hassle to charge your watch especially at 5 watts which is crazy fast. And i have a fenix 7pro, but tbh battery isn’t great on it for long activities. 18 holes of golf demolishes my battery. AWU drains way less during long activities from what I’ve seen (I’m only a week in though).

Used 965 or if you want flashlight and ecg a used fenix 7 pro.

I’ve used both. Awu and fenix 7pro and i went back to the fenix. Gps was more accurate and hr data was the same. Overnight hrv on garmin was much more useful (since apple doesn’t distinguish overnight). Lastly garmin connect is 100x better than Apple health and fitness. I was expecting a lot more from the awu from what i read and was very unimpressed. If it were better i would deal with the crappy battery life.

Fenix 7 pro gets 36 hours of GPS, Enduro goes even longer. This is far more than you will get from a phone and recharging takes far less power than a phone. There is absolutely no comparison (and let's not even get started on GPS accuracy between Strava app on a phone and a dedicated GPS watch).

You can get a Fenix 7 Pro for less than that from John Lewis at the moment. It depends what you want from the watch. If you want sturdy and looks good then go for a Fenix, if you want lighter then go Forerunner. You won't get a Fenix 8 in that budget but the 7 Pro is still very good for the money.

Garmin Fenix 7 Pro - I do not want to be charging every day or so! I also do a lot of cycling and walking so it's perfect for my lifestyle.

Garmin has an activity for Ice Skating. I use that.

Your watch will barely measure jackshit while playing. You need to couple it with a chest strap. Period. I've used just the watch (Garmin fenix 7pro). It's just not responsive enough in terms of live tracking. It measured me getting into the 120bpm range for a few minutes here and there. You'll finish the session, read the data and know intuitively it's not accurate. With the chest strap however, it tracks your heart rate by the millisecond. If you're in that range, it will measure it that way. You'll finish your session and look at the data and it will match what you felt from an exertion standpoint. Garmin has an activity for ice skating so I use that. But yeah, even when someone tell me their average/top bpm for a run, it's almost worthless data with no chest strap. In the chest of running, it tracks mapping and time and does it's best at HR.

an entire month battery life.. without solar. The screen has more contrast than the fenix 7 pro. Has all the features on connect that you would on the fenix. The only "bad" thing about it is it uses elevate 4 instead of the 5. I'd trade for a instinct 3 if I didnt already have the fenix. I hike a lot as well and tracking with the fenix doesnt last as long as the instinct.

Yes, but get the 7 Pro NOT the regular 7

I used 245,955,255,745,265,965,fenix7pro. I also have AWU.

I have a Fenix ​​7Pro, 265, and AWU1. I also used a 965 before. Unless you have a specific use or design preference, most Garmin watches are similar.

I have both - Fenix 7pro and AWU1. Have a Coros Apex Pro too if that matters. The Coros stays in a desk drawer. The Fenix I use for running workouts (it’s paired with Stryd pod). Strength workouts and everything else - AWU for the win. I can do without the Fenix, but like the way it displays the running info 🤷🏻‍♂️ If I had to give up the Garmin or it died, it wouldn’t bother me.

I’ve used both the Fenix 7 Pro Solar and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. In my experience, the automatic workout detection on the Ultra 2 was far better. The Fenix rarely detected workouts, only a few times and I started to suspect my unit was defective. Things got concerning when the Fenix 7 Pro started flagging abnormal ECG results. A few ECG readings showed AFib, and a couple of times it even alerted me for low BPM around 30, which sent me into panic mode and straight to the ER. Fortunately, all my medical reports came back normal. The doctor even reviewed the AFib readings from the Garmin Connect app and said the data wasn’t accurate and the ECG graph wasn’t valid. I reported this to Garmin and eventually got a warranty replacement approved. Since then, I’ve been a little hesitant to wear it, and I’ve even stopped wearing the Ultra 2 as well. Honestly, life feels pretty calm but the downside is unable to track my weight training and fitness score. I know that one piece could be defective, but lost confidence on the product :( Anyone had similar experience? Is AUW 3 is more accurate in health and fitness tracking? Also another biggest concern is Trade-ins, Garmin do not support trade-in but Apple does.

Great insight. I mainly went with Garmin because of the longer battery life, that’s one area where the Apple Watch Ultra 3 still falls short. My main goal is to track fitness and health reliably. But after my recent experience with inaccurate readings, I’m honestly confused about which device to trust going forward.

I'm also coming from a FR245 non-music, but went with the Fenix 7 Pro Solar, as it was 43% cheaper than the FR970. The 245 still is a very decent watch that's perfectly usable in 2026.

I’m thinking of moving to the 955, I have the fenix 7 pro 47mm and it’s to big and heavy, the hr sensor sticks out and it’s cutting my skin. The 955 has everything the fenix does I think minus the flashlight