Comparing Epix vs. Pixel Watch

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?

Top Replies

All Replies

0 jaamgans over 2 years ago

1) never had that as an issue always been really reliable for me. Of course pushing a trolley/stroller often does result in no steps - and this is pretty much standard for all watches (just do a search on it). Perhaps it could be a bit more sensative but then it will pick up more phantom steps - noticed that its really good at not counting steps while in slow moving traffic, while washing up etc. Unless you are holding your arms pretty level or keeping them dead against your side while walking you step count should be fine.

Would take Garmin's readiness score over Fitbit every day of the week due to what each one is including, and I prefer how Garmin has more sections to their score giving you more info/suggestion than Fitbit's score (don't forget after 6 months you will need to pay for this service on Fitbit - for Garmin its always free):

Fitbit: https://www.fitbit.com/global/us/technology/daily-readiness-score

Garmin: https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/garmin-technology/running-science/physiological-measurements/training-readiness/

2) having had a variety of watches AMOLED and transflective I find the Epix's screen has more than enough resolution and brightness - maybe side to side there is a difference to pixel but if you aren't directly comparing I suspect you will soon forget the difference. Based on what the Epix is it really cannot afford to reduce battery life, and I think that to make it like that wouldn't generate enough customers - for them there is the V2 range. [Life is all about compromise]

3) Set a hotkey combo to DND and problem resolved. But yes hear what you are saying and its a valid point to a degree, but in same vein there are times when its off my wrist and I am glad it is still notifying me i.e. set an alarm on the watch that isn't on my phone for example or a notification comes through and see it on my watch so know whether I want to pick up my phone or not. So maybe DND is best option. Or perhaps should should send a feature request where users have an option as to whether it should notifiy if off the wrist or not.

Navigation - there are 3rd party apps that provide text directions from your phone when running google maps; or you can use the "Around Me" feature on your watch - but is limited to short distances; or install Garmin Explorer on your phone - as you can search using an address on that - create a waypoint - sync to your watch and then use your watch to navigate to that waypoint (agree clunky though reasonably quick - almost as quick as setting up google navigation on your phone, and then opening on the Pixel, though still clunky when compared to Pixel's seemless use of google maps -but an option if you don't regualry require this function).

4) personally don't mind, would rather that and it comes up quick when I do pick it up. Had some wear os watches in the past which wouldn't always properly wake up or take ages.

5) "very slow moving engine in terms of development of new major features" --> really are you kidding me - compared to Google and wear os they are blistering fast. Wear os still has issues with GA (took them 5 years to get to the state its in and for years it wasn't working). The watch firmware is updated once to twice a year - who knows how often fitness/health algorithms are updated. In fact most major change is moving people onto fitbit platform for health which has been known and expected since the launch of wear os 3.0 2 years ago. Garmin is dropping 4 major updates a year among a host of other bug fixes. Recent feature updates over last year - Stamina, Power for running on the wrist, Major change to strength app (prefer old one - but a lot of heavy users wanted current implementation - which I really think Garmin could have done better); morning report, acute load (from 7DL), training readiness, race widget, HRV status, Jet Lag feature coming, 7 day suggested workouts for running/cycling, how HRV status can now enable training status without prior required running/cycling VO2max, ability to set most settings and tracking data screens via phone app, and don't forget that the underlying algorithms are often regularly tweaked in these updates [And dont forget the Venu 2 Plus has just got ECG]. Very few brands ine the smartwatch arena provide a roadmap of where they are going - probably the best at this is Apple and even they are closed mouth - reason is you don't want to let the competition know new features you are working on as that way you can lose a potential competative advantage - that is just good common business sense - so road map features are usually just what you are doing to keep up with the competition to stop customers jumping ship - and yes Garmin could possibly do a better job here against Apple, as really Polar, Coros and Suunto are generally just tryiing to play catch up. Could they improve the app - yes they really could make it more modern, but could be difficult considering they detailed level the app goes into and its connectivity to web too (which pretty much everyone else has abandoned) which may limit some options - think it would be more difficult/challenging to provide the level of detail they do in a more modern/slick interface - but who knows maybe that is in the works as they are continuously updating and improving.

Further insights - I sort of agree with you, but again am in 2 minds about that - as while it would be nice to get more specific insight than we get, some of those insights that Fitbit and Apple provide can be very misleading as there are so many drivers that can be influcing those metrics that the potential insight could be very wrong - take your example - sure it could be your late night snack but equally you could be getting ill and that could be the actual driver rather than your snack/'meal. I do like how garmin provides a wealth of support (website/app) around their metrics so that you can read up about how they work and what the drivers are, where they often provide suggestions on cause and how to improve them - leaving you to diagnose based on your knowledget, your baseline and your known info (especially as watches don't generally have all of this). Garmin support - in app go to a widget i.e. sleep - when in main screen press menu (on android 3 vertical dots top right) - press help to get support details about sleep. And they also produce a massive summary info about all the features they provide under Garmin technology where they provide the app detail and more for health, running, cycling, maps, golf, dive: https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/garmin-technology/health-science/ if you ever want to know about a feature this is always my first stop. You can then of course google a issue for additional support i.e. "Garmin Steps Inaccurate" and click on the Garmin support links: https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=z1TfJCqajl8ZEZey72gg98

Final point - Garmini's are designed to be worn continuously as its and integrated eco system where health, fitness and training metrics influence one another - thus by not wearing it continuoulsy you are potentially compromising some of your metrics - a prime example is the trianing readiness as one of the metrics is your Stress history - if not wearing it continuoulsy it doesn't have a full stress history and this missing metric may impact your training readiness score i.e. if you wore your watch and stress history is poor that would bring down you training score, but if not there watch cannot factor that into your training score and thus may reflect it as much higher than it really should be.

Apple - it can replicate a lot of what a Garmin Epix offers from a health, fitness and training perspective, but you are going to have to use a host of 3rd party apps to accomplish this (quite a few cost upfront and or require a subscription), and these are all seperate apps, and are not integrated with apple health or apple fitness or with each other - so have to use multiple apps to view and the metrics are standalone - they aren't influencing or being influenced by other metrics. If all you do is running there may be a better case to jump due to apple's recent software release which does make the AW from a pure running perspective much more comparable to Garmin.

So I think looking at your case profile - it comes down to style (Pixel - you prefer its style/smoothness) vs substance (Epix's huge array of features it provides).

0 David Epix over 2 years ago in reply to jaamgans

Thanks for your contribution, it was a lengthy reply, but I did read it through. I felt the need to come back and reply here just to notify everyone that I decided to go with AW Ultra at the end and traded-in my Epix. Having an iPhone, Macbook, AirPods, ... AW Ultra after a bit of research made sense to me.

I did some research online and it seems AW Ultra is consistently displaying accurate measurements for Heart Rate and Sleep Tracking - comparing them to more 'state of the art' trackers like Polar H10 and Dreem. It's GPS accuracy is also not that bad. (source: Apple Watch Ultra : Scientific Long-term Review - YouTube in this video he compares different smartwatches to the two devices I mentioned before. I did check on the reference devices and they indeed tend to be a reliable measurement in each category).

I am actually not a 'runner', but I do mostly weightlifting (Strength workouts) either at home or at gym. I rarely do anything else that would require me to have a tracker active.

I have to say, so far, AW Ultra suits me well! It does not have that nice Strength workout on watch, where you can insert reps etc., but as you mentioned there are 3rd party apps that are really good with this. Also, the Apple Ecosystem works really well altogether.

I do have to agree with you that I had to download quite few apps in order to get the 'wholesome' picture of my wellness and fitness. While Garmin integrates most of it in one App, these separate Apps feels more useable and you can see insights better. I have it now for 3 days and they seem to reliably show how I feel and give me suggestions.

The Apps I use so far:
- Athlytic

- AutoSleep

- HeartWatch

- Centr (this is actually Fitness App that I use, but it integrates well with AW, so I mention it here)

- Probably I will have to get something like Strength App .. but so far, this is what I managed and getting used to

You are also correct that there are some fees to those Apps to get full features, but they are one time payments of around 5 EUR per App, so it's not that hurting, if they provide me with good insights. Good thing is, that you can customize those Apps to take Apple Health measurements instead of their own, as I do tend to trust more Apple's own integration.

I will be testing a bit more the Sleep Tracking Apps. AutoSleep might provide me with tad too much details, so would be nicer to see something more straightforward instead (looking at Pillow App atm).

I do wish Apple would in future expand their own Apple Health to provide more insights and details, but some users speculate this won't happen due to lots of Apps could be then obsolete (although it happened in past).

TLDR:
I somehow ended up with AW Ultra after few more research and reviews. I think Pixel is a good watch, but it is noticeable that it is 1st gen + its also very small (might give it to wife instead). Epix is great sports watch for most of you people on Garmin Forums as I believe you are more active Outdoors than I am, fully utilizing the data Garmin provides on such activities, which are not comparable to competitors. However, for pure Strength / HIIT workouts, there are no major differences between any sport watches to be honest, as long as they measure Heart Rate and provide you the Zones and estimated Recovery.

0 jaamgans over 2 years ago in reply to David Epix

If interested this is what FitGear Hunter has to say - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svgx7nmD0h0 - his focus is purely from crossfit /HIIT and is purely based on the activity and training aspect of the watch.

And unlike QS who has major testing flaws, at least he bases his recommendations on a usuable data set (i.e. usually plus 30 days compared to QS 3-5 days - which reallly isn't enough to give a good baseline).

Either way I am sure the Ultra will work great for you. In regards to fitness with Apple, Garmin, Polar (not so much Coros/Suunto) I am not sure its possible to go "wrong" as such - just moe a case of which fits better.

0 Former Member over 2 years ago in reply to clonetrooper

Great discussion. In my case I decided to stay with Epix . Yeah it might offer more that what I need. But I like the week battery life for tracking workouts ( walk , running, strength workouts).

AWU should have more than 2 day battery life in my opinion. Apple does have good ecosystem but having one app to view all the stats is wonderful.

0 David over 2 years ago in reply to Former Member

For me, the AWU lasts at least 2 days, so far. Will see how long will it go, 48% percent so far. I do have AOD on OFF and I do a daily workout. Could be that AoD is big factor and GPS (if you are doing running workouts - mine are at home / gym).

I think I am more of an outlier here in Garmin community, that is why AWU is probably better for me. I also noticed people I know who have Garmin (I found them through Garmin Connect) are all active in outdoor exercises (running, cycling, MB, hiking), but those that are working out in gyms have rarely Garmin Watch (not necessarily Apple Watch, some have no watch, some have Whoops, some use different providers). And this is fine. It's just good that we all learn to understand our needs, at the end, these gadgets are not necessarily cheap, so it is good to find the one you have most benefit from.