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Health and Fitness Features of Garmin vs Apple Watch

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by (120 points)
How do the health and fitness features of a Garmin watch stack against the ones secured by the Apple watch?

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by (460 points)
Garmin watches come with an OS that is health-centric with features like basic resting pulse, HRV, sleep score, altitude adaptation as well as its so-called body battery, among others. Although the Apple ecosystem offers the same features, many may not be integrated into the device and are accessible through other applications only.
by (100 points)
One of the deciding factors that I sold my Apple Watch Ultra 2 was like you said, I have my phone on me all the time so I don't need my watch to replicate that. But, mainly I can raise my wrist and see all my health metrics in real time right there on the main screen whereas apple watch you have to dig through to find simple things like your steps and for every health metric it doesn't show, you have to download yet another app. Even then it only updates your health metrics every 15 minutes and not in real time.
by (100 points)
Nice simple content and very fair comparison. I'm an apple user overall. Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad.... I have used the Apple Watch since its first generation release. Having said all of that I switched to a Garmin Epix 2 when I started running long distances and needed mapping for backcountry skiing. To your point, the Garmin does not come close to Apple for Smartwatch capabilities if that is your main reason and primary use, but if its for sports training/fitness I have not found a better watch than Garmin, period. Great battery life is just a bonus on top of the watch itself is kinda of a motivator for your fitness training.
by (100 points)
Garmin fenix 7x ...at least 14 days...honestly I could not ever think to change it for an apple....there is more: the environment of Garmin app is another level. If you are an athlete you can set running rep choosing distances for several intervals and variable types of recovery. It means you have a real coach with you. In addition you get a quite accurate premonition of your stamina that can be useful to adjust the work out when your condition is great or a bit low. To sum up Apple is a great Smart watch (for apple mobile only) with some interesting feature for sport lovers, Garmin is a sport watch (for android and apple) with some nice features as smart watch.
by (100 points)
iOS and Android (and whatever they are called on watches for marketing purposes) are simply not suited as sports watch operating systems (they are also not suited as smartwatch operating systems but that's another matter). Besides the obvious issue of battery life, they have another major flaw: the UI, which must be suited to both regular, non-sport users and sport users. The two categories have very different needs. For sports you need physical buttons, you need shortcuts and behaviors which you simply cannot simulate using a generic smartwatch touchscreen UI. Garmin has built their watches from the ground up with sports in mind, and it shows.
by (100 points)
I’m with you I wish we could mush the two together. I’m an apple guy too. I love the smart watch features that Apple has. I use it a lot. I used to switch back-and-forth so often that it would drain my bank account. Every time a new model would come out I get that, put the older Apple or Garmin down but right now I have the ultra apple too and I’m stuck with it. I’m hoping with the new update that’s coming out with new health features that it will compete even better with the Garmin. Garmin I think we’ll always have the better battery, and if I went on more weekend type of hikes where I needed that battery relied on that battery I would have to go, but I have never done an overnight hike because of my job and I don’t take vacations so I think I’ll stick with my Apple Watch. Thank you for your content rock on brother.
by (100 points)
Garmin is nice if you dont mind bad heart rate accuracy. Better use HR belt with it.
by (100 points)
Great content
BUT:
I think I read over 100 comments here and couldn’t find an answer for a couple of concerns I have before switching back from AW to Garmin (I used to have a Garmin with an android phone it was PERFECT, but then got an IPhone and realized that some of the garmin features won’t work automatically if the Connect App is not open, so it was quite annoying trying to find my phone from the Garmin watch because it “wasn’t pair”).
Anyways, my questions are:
1. What HR sensor is best, Garmin or AW?
2. Can I answer calls from a Garmin watch without having the Connect App open? Equally, can I find the IPhone without having the app open?
3. Can I read WhatsApp/Teams/Outlook notifications? To do that, does the Connect app need to be open on the IPhone?

I think Garmin is 100% better sport watch than any other, but still, the “smart” actions I mentioned above are important to me… so not sure what to do! Hope someone can help!
by (100 points)
I like Garmin products and would prefer a Garmin watch for all the reasons you mentioned.  But I have an Apple Watch for what I believe is the better crash detection and 911 notification features.
by (100 points)
The hardware of the AWU is far superior to the Garmin, its a shame that Apple didnt package all the data together and present it in a more interpretable manner like Garmin. Take sleep score on Garmin for instance, Apple just gives you a breakdown of sleep stages but it doesnt really tell you if you had quality sleep... Apple has to step up! Besides making things pretty, make things meaningful!
by (100 points)
Garmin is just good for one's health, period
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