Any of you fine Fenix users considering move to Apple watch?

With the release of the Epix2, I'm sure interest in the Apple Watch vs Fenix will wane a tad. Yes, it still lacks phone calling capability, access to Siri or Hey Google, and ECG, and AW slams it on pricing. On the other hand, Epix has much better battery life, better mapping, buttons as well as touch screen, better sport profiles and fitness monitoring. 

I moved from Apple to F6. If Apple ever makes a more Outdoors fit watch and design wise more sturdy/rugged (less “metro”) I’d go back in a heartbeat. Fenix -and supporting apps software  are a complete JOKE! I’m aaaalmost willing to sacrifice battery life…  

I agree on all points. Just saying the Epix2 ups the ante for Garmin with a great touch Amoled screen, and buttons that I find good for most uses. AW also has more apps but, currently, their integration as outdoor tools is not as good as on Fenix 6. And then there's battery life.

Here, I'm comparing my F6S Pro to my wife's AW7. Yesterday we went xcountry skiing. Mine tracked it perfectly, giving me 11.51 km over a course that is listed at 11.6 on the club map. the AW7 was around 9.5. Also, during the ski, I had heaps more data points to check out while skiing, and the map. When you're done, the AW provides a better data summary on the watch, while I get more in GC. 

Price, where AW has a huge advantage, will probably decide a lot of people in its favor. It's hard to justify spending twice as much for Epix2 or AW7, especially if you have an iphone.

I was asking myself whether I need 20+ data fields on the watch, was constantly checking my pace, hr, etc. If you are not a pro or a really serious athlete, I believe the AW is good enough. I was a Garmin user since forerunner 305 and edge 705.

I think Fenix especially if Sapphire will be your faithful companion for all the occasions, robust, long lasting, with integrated maps without being dependant on a Smartwatch and with nfc too. I won't go back to "smartwatches" (for now at least) 

I don’t like AW. Looks like a toy to me. Besides, the battery life doesn’t cover my needs. No, but thanks. No AW for me.

Isn't the main reason for apple watch market share is the amount of marketing they did to promote their products in the first place? I'm not exactly sure about other places but I see tons of advertisement about the AW prior to its release and none about the Garmin noting that I believe I pretty much never seen any Garmin watch advertisement for any of its watch.

I do not own many smart watch but I have had a few smart bands made by the chinese. Now I own a 6X Sap and I don't regret getting it even though I am not a 'metrics driven runner'. Reason being I am only looking for a rugged watch that can last me as long as it can with a single charge.

The appeal of the AW is just the integration into its ecosystem and it's 'looks' that makes people feel better and the lack of knowledge of a better fitting watch for their use case?

Just like how some people here changing from AW to F or FR. I'm sure they had their reasons for choosing the AW in the first place or not choosing the F or FR first. In fact I believe if you are not someone who is 'metrics driven', there is no need for a watch in the first place as a phone is probably more than enough. That said, the huge market share for the AW should not be a good indicator of the people being into the AW just because and more due to the fact of the lack of knowledge for a watch that suits their use case.

The slight advantage with getting an AW is the way apple reduced a simple functionality from their current product and added another product with a integrated functionality to 'increase or improve' the way their products works, an example would be IPhone not having a fingerprint unlock which makes people wanting to get an AW to use the watch to unlock. In a sense, spending hundreds to get the AW for a simple unlock feature that can be integrated to work with the phone than having a chip or module that will cost probably about $50 increase in the overall price is just genius on Apple part.

I personally do not like Apple as I find their products working like a jail cell environment and you the prisoner limited to what they can provide. If you want a simple tracking device, it would be much more cost efficient to actually get a chinese smart band as my experience with it was excellent at only $50+ and they can track your sleep regardless of time(even in the afternoon) and give you information about it, apps that can track certain activities like running, swimming, etc. and their battery life can last up to a couple of weeks.

I am definitely not happy about the 6X Sap as they have lots of bugs in them and features that aren't that nice. An example would be how they would region lock their products and that seriously S*** big time as with the current times, people aren't just limited to a single region and may be from multiple region but the lock means the features and use of the watch isn't complete like language.

As much as I hate how Garmin does things, there's just no way I will complain about it because they are throwing everything inside a single device and wants it to work on every other platforms. That would be ridiculous to have this kind of expectation just because it cost nearly a thousand. If that is the case, your expectation for a full on Apple ecosystem should be way higher if you are using an iphone which cost $1199(IPhone 13 Pro 256) and a watch(AW7) which cost $399 compared to a 6X Pro(Solar) which cost about $799.
Apple in this case will definitely excel but that just because their products are all smaller component of the bigger ecosystem that works together to complement each other at a higher cost price and a huge team behind to support their products.

In all I would not buy any apple products as that will just suck you inside their ecosystem and not able to get out easily once you are used to it.

For your question of AW vs Garmin,

You will not regret getting the AW if you aren't 'Metrics driven', loves the looks of AW(somewhat minimalist), is already too deep into Apple's ecosystem with no intention of leaving the ecosystem anytime soon, and don't mind the hassle of frequent charging.

If battery is one of your top priority then choose Garmin as their focus is mainly on the metrics and not the function therefore it should give you more juice per charge. But do note that since Garmin is by itself a 'ecosystem' within a single device, don't expect it to play nice on everything or other systems so do lower your expectations as bugs and issues are pretty common if you took a look around the forums.

Xhryo said:

I am definitely not happy about the 6X Sap as they have lots of bugs in them and features that aren't that nice.

You said it. I've been using Garmin watches for long enough (since 2013 :/) to see that they aren't going to change how they approach software, bugs and the user experience. Why would they? We buy their products regardless.

Most people like pretty walled gardens and simplicity. Just look at how the most popular social networks (like Instagram) don't let you post links or text, just images and video. All you get is "link in bio", unless you're a store that wants to pay money for the privilege of posting links to products. Ppl are also somehow happy with subscribing to a million streaming services (hello, Cable 2.0), as long as they can share accounts with their friends, because the convenience outweighs any of the of the perceived disadvantages (like your favorite content suddenly being moved to the latest new streaming service.)

Speaking of Garmin user woes, here's an example of a frustrating perceived downgrade between Garmin generations. My 935 was able to launch a widget during an actiivity. My 945 LTE gives me the following error message: "Cannot Launch While Recording Activity". This seems to be by design, since they want to the trouble of writing a relevant error message. But the 945 LTE has more RAM and CPU than the 935....

Apple is overpriced and they want you to stay in their walled garden, but the also care about design, usability and aesthetics. And they usually fix their bugs.

Garmin is overpriced and they want you to stay in their ecosystem, because:

1) it's what you're used to

2) it's what your running/cycling/outdoors friends use

3) It has niche features and design that Apple doesn't

I bet reasons 1 and 2 are stronger than any of us want to admit. (I tell myself I need the 5 buttons because I run all year, including in the cold weather, but I haven't even *tried* running with an Apple Watch. I don't hear any complaints from people who do, although they're def in the minority of "serious" runners, for now.)

With Garmin I just see the same ridiculous kinds of bugs and weird design decisions over and over again, especially as a hobbyist Connect IQ developer.

Just look at these forums -- sure, Garmin has their own hosted forums instead of using something like FB, which is nice for our privacy and for other reasons. What isn't nice is the 3rd-party forum software they chose, which has a ton of bugs and usability issues. some which will probably never be fixed. Just try posting from mobile and see how much you enjoy that. Or how about how the related topics sidebar overlaps the thread text. I guess this isn’t meant to be an enjoyable community. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I find it pretty hilarious that Garmin managed to choose forum software that kind of mirrors the same kind of issues their own software has (despite there being several other popular modern forum platforms, like Discourse and NodeBB, which avoid a lot of the problems seen with this platform.)

Oh, and when they migrated to this platform, they broke all the links to existing threads. They even broke a link to a thread cited in one of their own developer blogs. Ofc, they also broke the link to the developer blog itself. So you can’t access the forum thread from the blog post, and you can’t access the blog post from the thread.

The best part is that the broken links are mostly abbreviated (with no way to see the original link), so in some cases it's difficult or even impossible to search for the original content.

FlowState said:

Or how about how the related topics sidebar overlaps the thread text.

I encountered this problem. Seems to be how they integrate the software and their server on the backend. If I click the direct link to the response I will see overlaps but if I enter this thread then there's no such problems. Could be Garmin saving on cost meant for better software integration? Or maybe a lack of manpower to optimize their servers. We will probably never know.

Being a non apple user I will not step into this hell hole just to find myself paying more than what it is actually worth unless the aesthetics is really something that is worth paying for which usually is a no. I don't see any security within their systems considering there's still vulnerabilities found for their OS and the wall is probably their excuse of securing more funds coming in and locking everybody in.

I'm sure every system have their own fair share of problems and it how much backing does the system receive from that makes the problem seems insignificant. Google have its fair share of problems with their android but they are usually fixed pretty quickly because its Google and Apple the same but smaller scale company like Garmin, well their price tier are about the same but the size of the company is probably not anywhere close which means the debugging are slower to nothing before they are rolled out.

It will definitely come down to how much you believe a feature, function, system or even the brand itself is worth paying for and this is highly subjective per person.

That said I'm still very happy spending a thousand for the 6X Sap and I don't regret it even with all the missing and broken features as the amount I will have to pay to get into the Apple ecosystem will snowball to more than what I am paying for now and in the event of any bad encounters, I am free to let go and pick the next thing that I had my eyes on than to be stuck within a wall with it's limited offerings.