Fenix 6 Comparison To Apple Watch Series 5

Former Member over 6 years ago

I have been using Garmin devices since April of 2015, and my first Garmin device was the vivoactive. As more and more advanced features have been added to these devices over the years I have been wondering lately...

Do I really needs all these features?

I am not an advanced athlete or anything. I'm just an OldAssDude trying to stay active, and all these new metrics i just think are becoming too much lately.

I got an Apple Watch Series 5 the other day because I heard the series 4 and series 5 are much better in fitness than previous versions. I tried the original, series 2, and series 3, and was not impressed with the fitness features, but since I could get this added to my mobile account for 19 bucks a month, and I have 14 days to return it if I'm not happy with it, so I figured I would give it a try.

Since getting it I have been wearing it along with my fenix 6X so I can test daily activity along with my daily workouts, and compare the data. The main things I will be looking for are...

Steps

Calories

Heart Rate

GPS Tracks

GPS Distance

This is day 3 and so far I am impressed with the Apple Watch. I have done a few workouts so far and the heart rate monitor seems to be even more accurate than the fenix 6X, and even the GPS seems to be a little more accurate as well.

Daily activity tracking seems to be very close to what I am seeing on the fenix 6X as well.

my only real concern is battery life. I will have to see if I can get used to charging this thing every night, but I have to charge my phone every night anyway, so it should not be that big a deal.

I will continue to wear them both daily to determine if I can get used to not having all the advanced features and charging daily, but so far I am still liking it.

Time will tell.

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0 Former Member over 5 years ago

This would be another good alternative...

fitbit versa 2. Only $149.00

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Plus the screen is very nice...

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Well I returned the fitbit because the heart rate was doing weird stuff and the connected GPS did not work very well, but I really did like the screen on it...

I exchanged the fitbit for the Venu. It has a nicer screen, but does not have all that crazy advanced high level athlete fitness crap like the fenix 6 does. It just has VO2max, body battery, stress, and respiration rate.

I don't need 3 layers of cardio fitness level, performance condition, recovery, training effect, or any of that junk that does not seem to work right anyway...

Did intervals today and it worked very well too.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to mustakoira

Ha... got ya beat by a decade (I'm 62).

Have you tried the Venu?

So far I'm digging it.

0 DontGetTheSwiss over 5 years ago

I didn't realize this thread is still going but since it is, thought I'd revisit.

I'm going to have cataract surgery in February. That pretty much means no serious workouts that month, which greatly limits the depth that my 6X Solar brings to the table. Also, I finally found some cheap access to a cell network for the AW, from the last place you'd think to look, Comcast. So, it's back on the table largely because it's just better for a casual training regimen (aka, walking in my case).

Anyways, this all triggered some thoughts that, because it's the internet, and I can, here goes.

1) After a couple of months not a nick or scratch on the 6X Solar.

2) The screen is so much clearer than the sapphire I can't imagine going back.

3) Solar charging is almost useless, doubly so in the winter.

4) I don't get anywhere near 21 days of battery life. Not sure what eats it, maybe too bright, stress widget, but it's about a week plus of life. PulseOx cuts that to about 4 days. I'm not using it much for workouts as I've had the gunk.

5) Apparently the AW battery life is better after a couple of updates but still not close to a Fenix.

6) I gave up on Spotify, and took the free 6 months of Apple Music. Fought a war with Apple podcasts, but mostly have it working, so I load podcasts with the cable once/week. Syncing across my IOS and OSX devices is still spotty, Overcast was much better, but I can live with it.

7) The Stress tool seems more alive, or variable. Maybe it's because I've been sick but I think they tweaked it. I like it better.

8) Sleep is still bad. Read in bed for an hour and it still counts you as sleeping. AutoSleep gets that right 100% of the time, every time, but eats up 10% of your battery.

9) Pulse has been good on the Garmin on my last couple of runs.

Anyways, just wanted to toss that out there.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Ok... Venu started doing weird stuff, the worst being when I went to save an activity and the watch rebooted and lost my workout.

THAT CAN NEVER HAPPEN GARMIN!!!

So guess what???

I'm back to the AW5... hahahaha.

Got the non cellular Nike edition.

You can all laugh at me now.... I am.

0 alphasportstv over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Happy I went back to AW5 2 months ago...Venu is a POS

0 7187100 over 5 years ago

let's just say i'm doing a stop-over with 6X Sapphire before AW6 gets released this year.
Better battery hopefully, native sleep tracking and i'm out of here..

0 alphasportstv over 5 years ago in reply to 7187100

I hear you. I only really use A W for fitness so battery is not a huge issue

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Unknown said:
You can all laugh at me now.

No one's laughing. You've switched so many times between manufacturer's and devices that we're just shaking our heads now. It's the same ole' song and dance with you. This new watch is the greatest. Nope, it sucks. On to the next one. You're AW5 will miss a text message and you'll get pissed and buy something different. You've tried more watches than DCRainmaker in the last couple of months.