From Fenix 7 to 8... or Apple Watch?

No - I charge every Sunday for about 2 hours. One charge cycle per week. I could probably go about 10 days but prefer to charge on a weekly cycle. No way you could do that with an Apple Watch.

A little feedback from me. I love my Garmin Fenix ​​8 solar 51mm, the battery is truly remarkable, the heart rate sensor is very accurate. The MIP screen is pure bliss.

Afterwards, in terms of interface fluidity, I think it could be better. The sports features provided by Garmin are really very useful and well thought out. Currently, I have a small problem with blood oxygen, it doesn't work well.

Afterwards, I also love my Apple Watch Ultra 2 which works perfectly like a rock and the data is very reliable, afterward, the battery unfortunately only lasts 3 days.

Regular Apple Watch over time then Apple Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Ultra 2 user here. Since day 1. I’m deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem but sold my Apple Watch Ultra 2 and got a 47mm amoled Fenix 8 and haven’t looked back. Absolutely love it. ZERO problems or issues. Garmin health metrics and activities are all built in and around the watch (SCUBA too!) where they are an afterthought or an unusable 3rd party app on the AW (everything I found to emulate Garmin on the AW is subscription and not very good). I already have a phone and having a smaller screen version of the phone on my wrist wasn’t the selling point and a fraction of the health metrics and activity tracking. Sure, it was nice to have the cellular on your watch and leave your phone behind but that was a rarity and battery life suffered. Hope that helps and good luck. 

What do you use on the Fenix that you don't get on the Apple Watch? For me, anything involving maps, auto-rerouting (navigation in general) and any connected devices like straps and power meters are an instant no-go on the Apple Watch due to patchy or no support.

If you're just tracking basic runs stats like pace, distance and recovery, then an Apple Watch will be fine. Go for it, but just be prepared to deal with unexpected frustration like struggling to use the touch screen in the rain or waking up and seeing the watch at 10% battery when it was 40% the night before (shocking for Garmin customers). You'll probably also find that you'll end up with at least 2 yearly subscriptions - WorkOutdoors and Athlytic to get close to having the same sort of functionality that Garmin give you for free.

Also, why are you upgrading? What does the Fenix 7 not do that The Fenix 8 can for you? Is it diving, voice assistant integration etc? If it's not obvious then don't buy it. You'll end up spending over $1,000 and likely have buyer's remorse because you use the very same features in the 8 that you were using on the 7. If you're looking at spending money for a bit of a dopamine hit, take yourself on a holiday instead. Trust me, you'll get more out of it.

Oh and remember that the majority of people in this forum are customers that for whatever reason are upset with their experience with Garmin. Regular folk who have had no issue with their watch are not on these forums, they're out there training and adventuring - hence why you get a lot of rage in these sorts of posts.

I agree. When I had F7X Sapphire Solar, I did not participated at all in forum and I was not interested in any problems. I was happy user. With F8 I was slapped in my face with issue directly first day after unpacking. I've replaced basically for the new look with titan colour bezel, that is less outdoor design. 

My take is Apple watch is for "cool" influencers, and the like. Fenix is for sports people. You make your choice! There is no better or worse there is just better for purpose, you make your purpose, depending on your priorites.

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For me, I have every iteration of the Fenix since the Fenix 3 and also have a Cronos and a Marq 2 Aviator. In 9 years I have had 1 hardware issue, screen colour on the Fenix 6 changed, which was resolved with a new watch under warranty. They have all done what I required of them without issue. For me the Fenix 8 is the level of iterative upgrade that I expected having experience with the previous versions. I have the F8 47mm Amoled moving from the F7SS (47mm), The size of the screen is a significant improve and I also like the new interface. For my use the metrics all work as advertised with no HW or SW issues through all of the updates to date. I have really liked all of my Fenixes to date and i would still have to say that for me the F8 is the best so far. In the meantime I have had a couple AWs but never really found a use for them and found the charging frequency a bit of a wind up. I wear the F8 24/7 and have a habit of charging once a week but could probably stretch it to 2 weeks if my activity rate is down.

With regard to the connect+ subscription, you lose nothing by not taking it. The vast majority of people will not need it, no need to sweat over it.

I also have a fenix 8 51 mm amoled and everything works very well.