My series 4 apple watch was purchased something like 4 years ago, just to help with running. With the release of the new Ultra and the battery on my trusty friend starting to show signs of wear, I was seriously considering an upgrade. That was, until a great deal on a Garmin 6s watch swooped in and I “took a bite”.

This post serves as a recount my personal experience with the two, since they are truly different devices. TL;DR: I can see myself bouncing between the two, depending on what exactly is going in my life, slightly leaning toward the fenix device atm.

But why not Ultra?

To my personal liking: it’s too large and less visually appealing. The entry level strap also makes me ponder. Then there is the price point: Ultra is not cheap. You can get a 6s at less than half the price. Granted - it’s a very different device and I’ll talk about this soon, but essentially I concluded Ultra to be too bulky for my “every day” and less functional for my sports needs.

The interesting points in Ultra for me were:

  1. dive watch. This is cool. I’d love to have a secondary dive watch to be my daily regular one. But turns out this one doesn’t really work out of the box: only freedive does… kinda. For the rest you’d need a 3rd party app and that would need a sub at extra $$/mo. Ugh… I guess I can get a used dive watch with a 1-time investment and check the “backup” box. My bag of gear in PNW isn’t light to begin with, so this would be barely noticeable.

  2. Satellite SOS. Em… not available standalone. I carry a SpotX with me, should I go deep into the boonies, so having my watch cover that “extra safety device” would be awesome. It works, but with a phone only and a lot of “conditions”. I sense this technology might be where I need it to bee in some time, but it’s definitely not there now.

  3. Improved battery, new complication screen with compass, altitude and point navigation. On point, but the fenix 6s device does the same or slightly “better”, at half the price.

So is this fenix so awesome?

It is quite a remarkable device. I’ll talk about things I like now, but garmin fans may skip to the things I do not, below.

  1. much more health data. Out of the box, additional to sleep time, steps and Vo2Max garmin would tell you much more about your sleep(REM/stress/deep breakdown), altitude acclimation, training load and status as well provide something they call “body battery” and HRV, both of which I found very helpful in adjusting my training.

  2. much better sports tracking. This might be a no-brainer, since garmin was designed as such, but it’s just a “night and day” situation. The amount of thought that went into designing each activity watch screen shows and delights. You’d have different measures and dials for different kinds of sports and the number of supported activities is also quite remarkable. Getting data out of garmin is quite easy too. Using stock Apple activities required me to use RunGap(for a sub $$/mo) to export my data to Strava. I’ve been using Strava(app on iWatch) lately to mitigate that, yet Strava had it’s limitations on battery life and functionality as well. Basically you get most things you purchase Strava sub for, free with stock garmin watch software. Sweet.

  3. ANT+ for detailed sensor metrics. Later Apple watch models can do similar via BT, but that is much less power efficient and then not all data is transmitted. ANT+ is native to garmin watches which makes pairing it with sensors a breathe.

  4. much better running/marathon/training support. I initially got the Apple watch to train for a marathon. It helped a lot, but I was struggling to keep my run schedules and progress. Stock software doesn’t do anything to help and Strava turned out to be of little help as well. Things are much different with Garmin: you can select training from one of the top two world(US?) coaches and the watch would tailor your workouts for the week based on how you did last time/week. It would also be capable to “see” how much you de-trained if you had to pause and adjust accordingly. You can map you runs with RacePro, switch to treadmill, or do an alternate type of run for the workout very easily and with very little disruption. All of that is free, btw and nicely kept in one place. Garmin simply takes a lot fo the thinking and planning out of your mind, letting you focus on the training itself. Fantastic!

  5. web dashboard and daily stats in the app. The app does need some getting used to and this would be a small segway to the next section, but once you do - it’s a very useful summary of your workout and day. The web interface is even more elaborate and nicer to look at. With garmin you can even pull the stats to your PA/SmartHome if you really want to(I haven’t yet). The Apple Health counterpart is nice too, but I find it even harder to navigate and find the things(health stats) I’m searching for ever so often. Both do a good job of feeding you “insights” now and then, should the software notice “a change of trend”.

The “not so awesome” garmin parts :)

In short, Garmin is a great smart watch sensor/device package, whereas Apple Watch is a great smart watch software organizer package. Most of below is attributed to garmin software and UX/UI. Something very “fixable” and yet so hard to get “right”.

  1. almost all interaction with Garmin watch is clunky and rigid. You really get used to ease of doing things on Apple watch: touch, swipe and tap away, almost never use the crown/button. Things are exactly the opposite on 6s(7s has a touch screen so maybe things are better there, but I doubt it: UI needs to change as well): you use buttons a lot and you really need to learn them all. They do a decent job with hints, but many times you’re left clueless, choosing a button by instinct, hoping it’d do the right thing. Sometimes it does. There are parts of the watch I’d never stumble into, less I watched some “training video” or actually read a manual. It’s that intuitive. You learn to minimize your interaction with the watch and just avoid using anything other then the “current screen”.

  2. watch faces customization is a nightmare. On the Apple watch I have a few “faces” that organize information, depending on what I need at any given moment. Switching between them is a swipe away. Not so much on garmin: getting faces is possible and you can even somewhat configure them, but it’s quite a lot of time and clicks. And there’s no way to quickly change a face on the go(I’m aware of). So people either stick to the stock one, or get “another one” that pretty much includes every possible bit of data the watch can produce on the home screen. This works okay-ish with the larger models, but looks absolutely awefull with the smaller ‘S’ model I have and like. And(all these data updates) drain battery too.

  3. charging sucks. Okay, so you probably do not have to do that every day now, and only every 3-4 days, if you do a couple activities a day, but still, getting that custom port(!) charger attached to the thing is… underwhelming. And internet has it - the stock wire gets loose over time and you need to buy a custom one. And yes - it vibrates while charging on notifications, so your charging might be disrupted by that. No more throwing your watch on a pad/support for 20 minutes and picking it up after shower: need to carefully charge it for 2-4 hrs in a secure spot. Okay.

  4. credit card NFC support is… present. Like, I’ve set it up, and it does work, but it’s easier for me to use my phone for payment then to use my watch: you need to enter a pass code every time, using watch buttons. If you make a mistake you need to do it all over again. Compare to pulling out your phone and having the thing on with a face-unlock.

  5. small utility software things are quite cumbersome to use, if available at all. I’ve gotten used to setting a timer/alarm or checking my ToDo list on a watch. Also asking Siri for something ever so often or getting directions. Most of these are not really an option on garmin watch. Like, there is a timer, but setting one up is so many clicks on the watch, that I’d rather ask my phone Siri to do it. There is an alarm, but so many clicks to get to it. There are world clocks but… you get it: yes - it’s easier for me to use all of these on my phone then my watch. fenix 6s is smart, but it’s usable smart only for sports and sports-related smarts.

  6. on that vibration(s)…. they are quite annoying. I guess I’m spoiled by the apple watch’s pleasant haptics: there are different styles and you can discern meaning just from the feel of the vibration on your wrist. Garmin fenix has only 1. The one it uses for anything that happens: reached a goal? there it is. calendar notification? there it is. alarm? there it is. Reached a workout milestone? Same strong pronounced vibration. Less the phone had dnd modes of suppressing notifications - sleeping would be next to impossible wearing the thing. In the end, this vibration thing might be the tipping point forcing me to go back to apple watch.

Wrap up.

In my world Apple Watch still stands out as a distinctly pleasant to use software smart watch. In terms of UI/UX for consumer features garmin is still quite far behind. And if you’re in the Apple ecosystem there are even more integrations to be enjoyed(music, driving, security, continuity… the list goes on) and missed if switched to garmin.

At the same time, for me there’s no denying sports and activity/health tracking on fenix 6s is outstanding. Apple Watch is catching up with Ultra, but similarly has years of development and, maybe, patents to work through. If your focus is precision training - get a fenix and an HRM.

If giving up Apple ecosystem hurts too much, there’s probably a middle ground to be found by connecting an HRM to your new apple watch and getting a better 3rd party sports tracking app. Haven’t tried that route yet though :).

PS: looking at fenix 7s, I see quite a few of my concerns addressed. Should they change the haptics and make and even better charging port in the 8+ model… that would be a hard to pass one :)