Hey guys,
A BIT OR PRELUDE TO UNDERSTAND WHERE I AM COMING FROM:
I am comparing my Epix 2 with my Pixel Watch to try to decide whether it is worth keeping the 900 EUR watch, or should I sell it and keep the Pixel Watch that I have. However, since everyone has different expectations from their watch, I will state mine. I am a 30 y/o dude, who is working in Tech business (aka most of the day I am quite stationary, sitting at the desk at work) and my primary fitness workouts (3-5 days a week, depends on my available time) involve weightlifting with HIITs in between days (I very rarely run, which is I believe quite opposite of majority of you). My expectations from watch are that they offer good enough smartwatch features (I dont need to reply to messages, but I want to clearly see them on watch), for fitness profiles I expect cool insights and accuracy with Strength / Weightlifting workouts, but I would prioritize the watch that has best Health & Wellness tracking (sleeping, stress management, heart rate, insights into how to improve my fitness / health).
Yesterday I tested them both with some Low Intensity / High Impact workout (intervals, weights, bodyweights), and both shown pretty much same results for Heart Rate zones and Heart rate averages. I also took them to sleep this night - I was pretty surprised that they both shown similar results. The biggest difference was that Epix detected Deep sleep in different stages than Pixel (for instance, Epix detected longer interval of deep sleep at once, while Pixel had more unique intervals throughout the night), but the total amount was about the same. Same goes for the heart rate (Epix recorded average 1bpm more through entire night) and the sleep score was the same. One thing I don't agree with Pixel is my 'Readiness Score', it says its Low and that I should rest - Garmin says that I am at Prime. Not sure why Pixel reports that, maybe I only wear it for too little time (3 nights / 4 days) and HRV is not accurate? No clue, but it always gives me low readiness, while I am definitely rested up and not sore at all.
Below I will only list Epix cons, as it is Epix's forum. Feel free to ask me if you are curious something about Pixel.
EPIX CONS FROM MY PERSPECTIVE (MY EXPECTATIONS):
1. One thing that I noticed with my Epix is that it does not detect Steps indoor at all. For instance, I am working mostly from Home Office and I receive the warning for 'Move' at about same time on both watches. I stood up and measured my steps, by counting them moving through the rooms. Pixel was suprisingly spot on (maybe 1 step difference in total of cca. 50 steps), but Garmin didn't move its step counter at all. I then read online that you would need to move your hand quite forcefully to count it as moving - this is a bit of shame, since such movement doesn't feel natural at all, especially at home. Also, I like the Pixel's interface for the reminder - as it shows you how much steps it expects you to do and how far off are you from the goal for that hour, while Epix only says 'Move'.
2. I understand the intent of Garmin to be sports watch, hence the battery life is important and one of the important factors on battery life is the Display quality. However, once you see Pixel or Apple Watch displays - man, it is hard for me to put those away. The quality is crisp and the animations are soo smooth (scrolling, moving,..). I wish Garmin will lin future would be able to offer watch like Epix with one version of it to be 'Pro' and the other 'Athlete'. Where Pro would have better display quality and animations, and some more smartwatch features - by sacrificing battery life. This would be similar to Venu 2 Plus, which I also owned before Epix 2, but that watch did not have the 'premium' feel of smartwatch features like Apple Watch or Pixel yet it also did not have all the cool fitness / health features like Epix 2 has. That is why Venu 2 Plus is not a good alternative (at least with the current version).
3. What probably surprised me the most is one quite simple thing - Map navigation throughout cities, because I thought this is where Garmin comes from (navigation). I was traveling for work to Paris last week and I brought the watch with me. Since I do not know Paris well, I had to use Google Maps to help me navigate the streets to my destinations. I set up everything on my phone and realized, that I can't utilize my Epix 2 for this. Instead I had to pull out my Phone everytime I wanted to check whether I am on track. I assume there is a workaround on Garmin, where I would need to abuse some of the 'Hiking' or 'Run' workouts? But as far as I recall, I couldn't enter an address into the Maps? Anyway, this is something that Pixel Watch does pretty well, when I set up navigation on Phone, it will instantly mimic it on my Watch, so I didn't to pull out my phone all the time.
3. I also do not like that Epix is still 'active' even if I am not wearing it. Lets say I go shower or put the watch off for some time. I can hear it vibrate for every notification that I receive on mobile, even if I am not wearing it. Pixel does not do that, which I prefer.
4. This one is minor, but I also noticed that Epix is very sensitive to some vibrations - when I don't wear it, the display keeps lighting up. For instance, I have it now next to keyboard while I type this and I keep seeing the display turning on as I type on keyboard. A bit annoying, but not a big issue though.
5. Not directly connected with Epix 2, but rather Garmin - I feel like it is a very slow moving engine in terms of development of new major features. I believe that Mobile App / Web App could be updated to be more modern (even though Web App states 'modern' in URL). I would love if Garmin could also put some focus on Health & Wellness insights a bit more (e.g. Fitbit gives you almost daily some insights about your patterns, even if I wear it only for few days, compared to Epix 2 which I have for few months), if it detects some bad sleep score and if you enter your calories in-take .. it might suggest you to not eat soo late to get better sleep, etc. I do love the Beta Programs (I am enrolled), and I can see they are working on new versions, but it is hardly clear what is the focus of next release - what is the roadmap of new features instead of bug fixes? Will there be like major OS releases, like Pixel is expected to have with every year? I think Garmin has strong advantage that they have been in game for quite a while and have he metrics available, maybe it would be cool to focus on providing more new features with the metrics they have.
This is what I have so far as for the cons. Note please that these are only the cons, meaning that with everything else I really do enjoy Epix 2 (battery life, ability to create workouts and launch them from watch, ability to split sets on the watch for strength training, decent sleep tracking, etc etc).
I will share my one biggest downside of Pixel Watch - surprisingly, it is not battery life (I don't mind charging it daily) - it is actually the small form-factor. From my perspective, if it would be bigger, I think I wouldn't be doing any comparisons at all, because Pixel watch does stuff that I expect from it good enough (although Garmin does few things definitely better in fitness department!), but also has great WearOS and display quality. However, since it is quite small, I always kinda grab Epix 2 first to put on my arm if I go outside, as it looks better on my arm. Hence, I am contemplating back and forth between them. And since Epix 2 is not a cheap watch, I am trying to decide whether it is worth keeping it as a 'non-primary watch', and put it on during my workouts or when I go hiking or something like that.
I was wondering though, for any of my Cons listed above, do you guys maybe know if there are some solutions? E.g. for steps inaccuracy? Or my watch reacting to notifications even if it's not worn?
