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Fenix 6 Comparison To Apple Watch Series 5

Former Member
Former Member over 5 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.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to tess

    Tess, this semi pro athlete has just ditched his Fenix 6 after owning every Fenix model. Guess what, the Apple Watch is better! The battery will be better come September. Apple are saturating the market. They don’t care about garmin as they’re expanding without pulling in garmins customers.... that will happen and garmin continue to fail and let their customers down. When Apple want to encroach into this market, they will! For me, I’m done with garmin and will more people be soon. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Just checking in, what are you using now? 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    I like you am an older (55yo) who works out 7 days a week and don't need the extra metrics, in fact the VO2 thing pisses me off as well.  It tells me I have a VO2 of 33 and a fitness age of a 73yo.  Sorry, I don't many 73 year olds that hike 2 miles a day, bike approx 2000 miles a year, and play mens ice hockey 2 nights a week.  I have owned the Apple Watch 3 and 4, Garmin original Vivoactive, vivoactive 4, Fenix 3, 4, 5, 6X pro and the Tactix Delta.  While I will agree with you that my Apple Watch 4 did a great job with the fitness tracking, probably better in GPS vs all except the Delta (which was identical) and Heart Rate (also very close to the Delta and Vivoactive 4, but far better than all other Garmin models)  I have chosen to stick with the Tactix Delta.  Why when it costs 3 times as much you might ask?  3 very important factors for me.  #1 the ecosystem.  I like the Garmin app and Garmin Connect online (Apple does not have online).  I like that all my data is in one place unlike Apple is in 2, Health and Activity.  I still do connect Garmin to Apple Heath so all my stats are there as well.  Both connect well to Mapmyrun and Myfitnesspal.  #2 the battery life.  I hate packing chargers for weekend getaways and it is so nice to not worry about charging my Tactix Delta for a 3 day getaway, knowing I have enough battery to make it through the weekend including GPS workouts and sleep tracking.  and now for me the biggest one... #3 the looks.  I absolutely hate the square look of the apple watch!!  I love the look of the large round watch on my wrist of my Garmin Tactix Delta.  Just feels "manly" to me.  Just my opinions, but thought I would share.  Like another comment stated, there is no perfect watch, only a watch that works best for you.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I think Apple doesn't upload your data to Apple cloud while Garmin uploads it to their servers. 

    If someone has more info, I would be interested.

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

    No Apple does not have a cloud service like Garmin. As a longtime Android user who got sick of Garmin's watch nonsense (even tho' I do like their cloud service), I bought an AW5, and an old iphone to interface with it, and installed the RunGap application for iOS which now allows me to record activities on AW and rebroadcast them to virtually any cloud fitness service, in my case Garmin and SportTracks. I still use Edge bike computers which seem immune from Garmin's watch approach, but I use AW for everything else...as soon as I save an exercise it is instantly redirected to all of my designated target servers, works perfectly. FWIW I have recently migrated back to iphone almost fulltime so that eliminates the need to have 2 phones.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Wow! Quite a comment there. Apple isnt? Is that what you’re saying?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to DCeremuga

    I don't know what to make of the metrics you seem to be generating. I don't work out nearly as much as you, but have worked out consistently for over 45 years (I'm 65), so have a very good feel for my fitness level. About 20 years ago, I was lab tested at VO2 max 62. My Fenix 6s Pro pegged me at 49 last month, shortly before I took a fall and tore my shoulder ACL. After a month of inactivity, it now says I'm 46. I believe both are quite close, perhaps a little low, maybe five per cent off. No complaints. No complaints with the watch except garmin pay, which my bank doesn't use. No AW envy either, since I use a Oneplus 7 phone. BTW, my wife's Samsung Active watch is bizzarely inaccurate, hardly even in the ballpark for distance, calories or heart rate.