AW Ultra thoughts?

They need to support external sensors (power meter for example) in their own workout app. 

Then I would really think about switching. But we'll see. I ordered it anyway as I also use an Apple Watch as my daily watch beside

the Garmin. And I want that bigger screen and battery. 

Looks awesome, and the apple watch is already a great device. But I'd not want to rely on Apple Maps for anything that matters, saying that as a mainly apple device user. And I prefer Garmins in-depth customisation and metrics.

Thats true. For hiking I used the WorkOutdoors app. OSM and beautiful smooth map view. But no navigation prompts. Only route path view. Apple is slowly closing the gap. But I think still years behind Garmin in Sports and outdoor navigation. 

I was thinking about it…but…not sure we can have the whole free map package for the whole planet  on the watch. And the possibility to edit parameters, personal view when running, and autonomy still far beyond Garmin. Garmin is also bundling everything in one single app…that is pretty cool. So…let’s keep our Garmin for a while

The AW Ultra is going to convert plenty of people who were on the fence on getting a more sports based watch to train with. If it also used external sensors like power meters and speed/cadence sensors I would switch on the spot.
Have Garmin level capabilities with the best smart watch available? Sign me up! I can deal with charging the phone every 2 days or so. I take my F7 off to shower anyhow so I can just as easily put on the charger during that time.

I am not going to be participating in multi day hikes or 50 mile runs. I run, bike, swim, and the most I can currently do is a sprint tri. If apple is to be believed about it being able to last a full Iron Man then it will last much longer than I can.

As you mentioned, im hoping this will push garmin a little harder.  While i dont particularly care for a speaker on my watch, its impressive that its able to meet/get very similar ruggedness ratings even with something like a speaker built in. also i hope some day garmin will more willingly include cellular options for their devices. Also as companies like tmobile and the iphone 14 push some form of satellite abilities on mobile devices then maybe one day we can get a garmin/inreach mini hybrid like device. 

IMHO, the ugliest watch out there (I consider the AW quite nice looking but this ultra is a butchery of Ive's design). Plus, 36h of battery life: NO thank you.

Seems I’m a minority but I’m doing daily sport and having body battery, training status etc. is a key selling point for me. For this to work I need to wear my watch and not charge it. I had smart watches before my first garmin and I can’t suite myself to add another charging routine to my schedule. I don’t care if it works one or two days without charging, it’s just not good enough. Hence my 945 needed to much charging in my view. I also don’t care for smart features at all tbh, it’s destroying my attention when I work and it’s blocking recovery when chilling. Also I want my head free when doing training. Also when doing multi day trips I don’t want to take care of such stuff, I want to enjoy the trip and don’t care about charging. 

Exactly, at least Samsung has included reverse charging in their S series, I hate dragging 50 cables for a week travel. So, I charge the F7x and I know that based on the way I use it (daily gps ~2h) I will still have juice when I return.

I hope the AWU serves as a wake up call for Garmin. They badly need to rethink software engineering and testing. This has been going on for years now with Garmin, at least with the fitness devices. While the AWU is not yet a real competitor, it might become one if Apple decides to put offline maps/routing in their watches. May take a while though, 2 years at least.