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After 10 days, what I miss about my Apple Watch 4, and don't miss.

DCeremuga
over 5 years ago

I had some real hang ups about coming back to a Fenix after I moved from my Trusty Fenix 3Hr to an AW4 Cellular.  I'm 54 and my eyes are borderline needing reading glasses, and the screen on the Fenix 3Hr was a bit too small, dull and hard to read at times.  So, I tried the AW.  

Let me tell you, for a year I simply LOVED the thing.   So why did I bother switching?  Here you go:

When I started swimming laps and doing Aqua Fitness, I always had to lock the AW screen with the water lock.  So in essence, it was just a display and that's it.  You cannot interact with the watch.   Boy was that annoying.   You cannot leave the touch screen enabled when in water, it's a disaster.  

The short battery life.  It wasn't a bad adjustment considering all of the things I could do with the watch.  I would get about 1.25 days which would include sleep tracking about about 3 hours (only running using the GPS) of exercise activities.   But, if I forgot to charge the watch in the morning at work, I had to find time to charge it before my afternoon routine, or I was dead in the water.

The cheap build.  The thing felt light, cheap and like a toy on my wrist.  I missed the rugged build of the Fenix.  BUT, surprisingly the AW is a well built watch.  I never took it off.  Also liked that I could wear a magnetic loop band.  I cannot wear one of those with this Fenix 6x Pro.  It wouldn't hold it, and it would look stupid.

I miss basically having the whole Apple ecosystem on my wrist.  I often just left my phone at home.  For a whole day.  I just didn't need it.  I could respond to inquiries, call people and the sound quality was fantastic.  The Bluetooth on the watch is second to none in range and ease of pairing.  The screen on the AW is very bright and easy to read.  I didn't have any items on the device that I had to do the "OLD MAN" squint to read.  

I miss the ability to set a larger font. 

Now, having the Fenix 6x Pro with Gorilla Glass has made a world of difference.  The Sapphire, while strong, dims the screen and makes it difficult to read for me.  The glass is nice.  I can read things very easily without having to use the backlight at full brightness.  I run it at maybe 30%.   I only get about 4 days battery life, but that's using 3 hours a day workouts, Everything enabled 24/7.   4 days to me feels like an eternity.  

Over all I ONLY miss the connected features of the Applewatch.   That's it.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I have been tempted to move to a AW for years, now that the AW5 has Always on Display I briefly considered it. But then the Fenix 6 Pro is brilliant. A few bugs here and there but to have the single ecosystem with everything stored in Connect is fantastic. AW would require you to store data all over the place and usually to track some sports you Are forced to purchase monthly subscriptions. No thanks. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Gr4z

    I forgot to mention how much I hate iTunes and how difficult it can be to transfer music.  Everything revolves around that hatchet job of a software.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Gr4z

    Oh yeah, Garmin does the same thing with your data through Garmin Connect.  I'm sure they make a mint selling all that data.   it's a revenue stream.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I have both watches (for the time being). AW is obviously better at health features. My wife fell three days ago and the watch caught the fall and offered to notify emergency services (not necessary). The EKG feature and high/low HR alerts on the watch are great. GPS and heart rate accuracy between the two watches is very similar/reliable... meaning... not very. Obviously the screen is far superior on the AW. Receiving and making phone calls on the watch? Really? Battery on the Garmin is superior to the AW. So? Charge every night, unless you tend to participate in multi day/week excursions. Sleep tracking? IMO this is useless...a gimmick. The science indicates much more is needed than HR for accurate analysis. If you are interested in the minutia of running (again questionable authenticity) then the Garmin is for you. Garmin at twice the price? I think I just convinced myself what to do.

  • +1 over 5 years ago

    I’ve written long posts before on the two of these, in different places, so not this time.  I have both.

    It really comes down to how committed you are to working out.  If it’s a serious thing for you, you go Garmin.  If you are fitness-orientated, want to take better care of yourself, value the smart stuff, then you go AW.  

    I’m on the F6x at the moment and I miss being able to answer the phone, having reminders on my wrist, Siri (really miss Siri, even if it misses), Gymaholic, podcasts actually syncing and accurate weather / temperatures.  On the other hand, I’m back in workout mode, and it’s no contest between the two.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to DCeremuga

    The only data Garmin sells is auto navigation data, and you have to agree to let them do that, or they won't. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to bakewell
    bakewell said:
    Battery on the Garmin is superior to the AW. So? Charge every night, unless you tend to participate in multi day/week excursions.

    That right there was the major dealbreaker for me and the AW. I refuse to pull out a battery pack and charge my watch every few hours during a long hike or a weekend backpacking trip. That's simply not going to work for me. Besides, I get annoyed enough as it is that I have to charge my phone every night, I don't want yet another device I have to do that for.

    The Fenix (especially my 6X) is never going to die on me during an activity, even if I forget to charge it before I go. An AW is lucky if it'll last an entire short hike. Considering I mostly bought a smartwatch for long hikes, that's not acceptable to me. But everyone has different uses/needs, so it's nice that there's a lot of variety, and AW certainly does seem to fulfill most peoples' needs, just not mine.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to bakewell

    I think the AW is a superior over all device.  The running seemed more reliable and mileage more correct on the AW.  A set run of mine is exactly 4.83 miles.  The AW constantly gave 4.78, while the Garmin continues to say 4.45 miles.  Yes, the GPS is on for both types.  The Apple GPS map is pretty darned clean and follows the roads, while the Garmin GPS is so far off, it's crazy.

    The main reason for the Garmin is looks, battery, and no damn touch screen.  I love using buttons.   I'm missing some of the more accurate functions on the AW.  Apple has 1 smart watch and has all their focus on making it the best.  Garmin has over a dozen with different hardware.  No way you will get the same level of perfection.

    Sticking with the Garmin for now but my AW5 just came in and i'm going to give it a shot on my other arm. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to C.sco

    The only "excursion" i want to make is to my hotel room or home  :)   I'm not much of an outdoor lover.  Kind of the anti-Fenix type of person that the marketing people are shooting for.  I love the look and functionality.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to DCeremuga
    DCeremuga said:
    The main reason for the Garmin is looks, battery, and no damn touch screen.

    I think Garmin also has vastly better data/metrics, for people who want that. If oyu're not much of an outdoor lover, it's probably not really something you'd care about, but for outdoor adventurers it's really, really nice to have all that information on your watch. Whenever I go for a hike, there's so much data for me to look at on my watch, it makes my head spin Slight smile But I'm a data lover, so naturally I'm drawn to Garmin. Many people are happy only knowing their time, distance, and heart rate, and maybe a couple other bits of data, but I loves me some data overload!