Is the Epix 2 still a good buy?

what is the purpose of your message?

Hi John,

Thank you for your reply.

Perhaps I didn't formulate the question well enough.
I would be interested in the users' point of view (your point of view) as to whether the watch really has as many bugs in everyday use as you read here and whether these still exist with the current 17.20 software. I would lean towards an Epix 2 rather than an Apple Watch, as I have so far considered this to be the more mature platform for outdoor activities, but with all the supposed bugs I wonder whether Garmin has enough developers or the right developers, as such bugs should no longer occur after such a long time?

Among other things, I fear that as soon as the latest model is on the market, the software will soon receive no more fixes or updates and logically priority will be given to working on the newer model and I would expect an absolutely mature model at the price and after the time (2 years+).

Have I been able to answer my question or concerns?

If you base your buying decisions on forums like this one (official brand forum), you might as well not buy anything ever again. Why don't you try it out? You can always return it.

Yes, maybe I should do that, thanks for your response

The firmware on the watches is under continuous development to improve and add new features. Stick to a well working firmware and then you are good. I want the latest features and I am willing to accept an occasional bug.

Garmin is far more innovative then Apple in that sense. Both hardware and firmware is innovated on a regular basis, and the system is much more open to adding for example your own maps at no additional costs.Even older devices still receive updates. The Epix gen 2 is on the market for several years and is regularly receiving updates.

I am extremely happy with the watch, since it fits my lifestyle very much. I run a lot, I work out and I travel regularly to new places. Using my phone and Garmin Explore I make a course with waypoints in the area where I am going to. And I mostly follow instructions on the watch. And if I miss a direction, the watch calculates the route to the next waypoint.

It all boils down to what kind of person you are. Does the brand fit you? If you prefer a locked in and expensive ecosystem like Apple, then do that. If you want more level of freedom, choose Garmin.

To be honest, I feel more attracted to Garmin, otherwise I could have bought an Apple Watch in the last few years, but to this day I'm not entirely clear where exactly the added value lies, I was simply unsettled by the reports here in the forum. For an outsider who just wants to find out more, this gives a rather frightening picture of a product that doesn't seem very sophisticated at first glance, so I wanted to ask here.
I don't really want to install lots of different software on the AW, but would rather use a complete framework (like Garmin) including full offline routing functionality.

That brings me to the next question:
I assume that the Topo Active Map (the one I get with the watch) makes no difference in the nature of the trail (like with Gaia GPS or Komoot)?
Example: I'm mountain biking in the mountains and deviate from my originally planned tour because I want to discover new trails. After a while, I realize that the weather is deteriorating rapidly and I urgently need a new route to leave the mountain (perhaps on the other side of the mountain). I can't create a route online because I have no cell phone reception. But I also can't ride trails with S4 or S5 on my bike. Does Garmin take the selected activity into account when selecting trails for route planning, as Gaia GPS or Komo do?

I use Garmin Explore on my phone, and that works well offline too. The other questions, I cannot answer.

Forget oled watches for cycling once there is no true AOD option.

Besides firmwares continuos bugs I’m have been successfully using F1, F5 and now F7X 

For cycling the watch indicates when there is a fork and which direction to follow. Always on  I never use, and I do not use the map for directions.

Do you mean that you mount the watch on the handlebars and then want to use it as car GPS? In that case a phone is a far better option.

The question for me is whether the phone will still be necessary on the handlebars, or whether the watch on the wrist won't do the job perfectly