4 ms·

They could have eaten Garmin's lunch here. Instead, they released an interesting smartwatch that still cannot compete with the Fenix in terms of battery life.

hnburnsy 4y ago
Just posted this in another thread... Until they do something about battery life I don't see how Garmin watch users would bother switching. Apple Watch Ultra... >The battery life can reach 36 hours of battery life. There will be a new battery optimization feature as well coming later this fall. With this setting on, you can reach 60 hours of battery life. From Garmin... >Luckily for you, Garmin watch batteries last a long time — and we mean a long time. At minimum, you should be getting up to 5 days of battery life before having to recharge, and at maximum you could be getting up to 50 days. (No, that is not a typo – the Garmin Enduro™ boasts up to 50 days in smartwatch mode — or 65 if you’re using solar charging.)
- zimpenfish 4y ago
  "It’s important to know that this chart only depicts smartwatch mode." You don't get anywhere near 5 days in full GPS tracking mode.
  - parkingrift 4y ago
    That’s technically true, but I can’t think of a scenario where you would be doing GPS tracking 24/7. If you went on a multi-day hike and intentionally tracked it as an outdoor walk I suppose this would do it, but you otherwise wouldn’t use the watch in that way.
    - zimpenfish 4y ago
      > I can’t think of a scenario where you would be doing GPS tracking 24/7. I've done several 24 hour runs (where my Fenix 3 needed charging during the event) and there's also the 100 milers which most people take >24 hours to complete. But these are rare events for people to be doing, I will grant you that.
      - parkingrift 4y ago
        Interesting. I’ve never heard of a 100 miler or a 24 hour run. I have so many questions.
- rcarr 4y ago
  Bought a Fenix 7x two weeks ago, charged to max the day I got it and haven't charged it since. The watch says I've still got 8 days battery remaining. Absolutely love it.
izacus 4y ago
Fenix arguably has worse screen though (transreflective with backlight). Epix 2, with its OLED though... still lasts for 5 days easily. Such a great job on Garmin's side.
- rcarr 4y ago
  Call me old fashioned but I've not looked at my Fenix since I've had it and really thought "Oh I wish this screen was better, I'd be willing to trade 2 and half weeks of battery life for a better one." There are people (I'm assuming like yourself?) who do however and that is perfectly fine we all have different needs and requirements and what is great is that Garmin have made watches for BOTH sets of people. I'm an Apple fan but why they refuse to make a watch with a lower quality screen and a massively improved battery life absolutely baffles me. I don't know anyone who is sports focussed who would choose one. I trained with a local triathlon club a couple of years ago and almost everyone had a Garmin, I don't recall seeing anyone with an Apple watch and I doubt much has changed. I can't believe they still don't have some kind of Body Battery/Strain/Training Readiness metric built in as standard and that you have to download a third party app to access this kind of data. Whoop, who seemed to pioneer this as far as I can tell, released their first band in 2015. 7 years later and Apple still haven't included it as standard, and for a device that they heavily market as being great for fitness. Absolutely ridiculous.
kemayo 4y ago
I suspect they are eating Garmin's lunch, although (to stretch the metaphor) we have to define the ingredients of said lunch. Let's stipulate that there's fairly few people who outright need the Fenix's 18 days of battery life. People who go on multi-week off-grid hikes are uncommon. These people will still buy the Garmin. However, the existence of the Ultra is going to suck up the probably much larger group of people who like the Apple Watch but feel they need something a bit tougher for sports or with enough battery for a weekend of hiking. Instead of buying a second watch for activities, they'll buy the fancier version of their existing watch that they can just wear all the time. I thus strongly suspect that Apple is peeling off the larger part of the active-watch market here, using their existing status as the maker of the most-popular smartwatch to spread in to the new segment just by being able to say "we can do some of that now, and y'all already know you like us elsewhere".
- parkingrift 4y ago
  I don’t go on multi-week off-grid hikes but I still switched to the Fenix from an Apple Watch. I don’t want to charge my watch every day, and I want to be able to wear it 24/7 to track sleeping and other metrics. Simple as that. The killer feature of a watch for me is battery life.
  - okdood64 4y ago
    > I want to be able to wear it 24/7 to track sleeping What do you do with sleep tracking data?
    - milkytron 4y ago
      Personally, I use it to determine what habits to avoid or which ones to adopt in order to feel more rested. I had always heard the common dos and don'ts for how to improve sleep. But never really felt that motivated to improve it. Once I started tracking my sleep, I realized how bad certain habits were having on my sleep, and ultimately how I felt the following day. Being able to quantify sleep quality provided me with data that I can use to try to make myself healthier and learn about my own body. Sure, I could make the same changes without having that data. But personally I wouldn't be as motivated to continue with certain habits. Others may differ. But the same also applies for me with fitness activities and other health metrics. Seeing progression and improvement encourages healthy habits. And having the data from it is just a way to measure progress or regressions.
alistairSH 4y ago
I used to have a Garmin FR645. Until the case cracked where the watch band rods go. Replaced it with an Apple Watch 7 about 6 months ago because I wanted better integration into the rest of my Apple ecosystem. The 1.5 day battery is pretty bad - I toss it on a charger most nights (sleep tracking wasn’t particularly useful for me - I use it occasionally, but don’t need it nightly). Anyway, the Ultra with the 60 hour battery makes the watch useful over a camping weekend, where I currently leave the AW7 at home and go watchless. That’s a pretty big improvement and big selling point. If I had an AW5 or 6, I’d probably upgrade. Maybe I’ll get an Ultra for Christmas or an anniversary.

hnburnsy 4y ago

Just posted this in another thread... Until they do something about battery life I don't see how Garmin watch users would bother switching. Apple Watch Ultra... >The battery life can reach 36 hours of battery life. There will be a new battery optimization feature as well coming later this fall. With this setting on, you can reach 60 hours of battery life. From Garmin... >Luckily for you, Garmin watch batteries last a long time — and we mean a long time. At minimum, you should be getting up to 5 days of battery life before having to recharge, and at maximum you could be getting up to 50 days. (No, that is not a typo – the Garmin Enduro™ boasts up to 50 days in smartwatch mode — or 65 if you’re using solar charging.)

zimpenfish 4y ago
"It’s important to know that this chart only depicts smartwatch mode." You don't get anywhere near 5 days in full GPS tracking mode.
- parkingrift 4y ago
  That’s technically true, but I can’t think of a scenario where you would be doing GPS tracking 24/7. If you went on a multi-day hike and intentionally tracked it as an outdoor walk I suppose this would do it, but you otherwise wouldn’t use the watch in that way.
  - zimpenfish 4y ago
    > I can’t think of a scenario where you would be doing GPS tracking 24/7. I've done several 24 hour runs (where my Fenix 3 needed charging during the event) and there's also the 100 milers which most people take >24 hours to complete. But these are rare events for people to be doing, I will grant you that.
    - parkingrift 4y ago
      Interesting. I’ve never heard of a 100 miler or a 24 hour run. I have so many questions.
rcarr 4y ago
Bought a Fenix 7x two weeks ago, charged to max the day I got it and haven't charged it since. The watch says I've still got 8 days battery remaining. Absolutely love it.

izacus 4y ago

Fenix arguably has worse screen though (transreflective with backlight). Epix 2, with its OLED though... still lasts for 5 days easily. Such a great job on Garmin's side.

rcarr 4y ago
Call me old fashioned but I've not looked at my Fenix since I've had it and really thought "Oh I wish this screen was better, I'd be willing to trade 2 and half weeks of battery life for a better one." There are people (I'm assuming like yourself?) who do however and that is perfectly fine we all have different needs and requirements and what is great is that Garmin have made watches for BOTH sets of people. I'm an Apple fan but why they refuse to make a watch with a lower quality screen and a massively improved battery life absolutely baffles me. I don't know anyone who is sports focussed who would choose one. I trained with a local triathlon club a couple of years ago and almost everyone had a Garmin, I don't recall seeing anyone with an Apple watch and I doubt much has changed. I can't believe they still don't have some kind of Body Battery/Strain/Training Readiness metric built in as standard and that you have to download a third party app to access this kind of data. Whoop, who seemed to pioneer this as far as I can tell, released their first band in 2015. 7 years later and Apple still haven't included it as standard, and for a device that they heavily market as being great for fitness. Absolutely ridiculous.

kemayo 4y ago

I suspect they are eating Garmin's lunch, although (to stretch the metaphor) we have to define the ingredients of said lunch. Let's stipulate that there's fairly few people who outright need the Fenix's 18 days of battery life. People who go on multi-week off-grid hikes are uncommon. These people will still buy the Garmin. However, the existence of the Ultra is going to suck up the probably much larger group of people who like the Apple Watch but feel they need something a bit tougher for sports or with enough battery for a weekend of hiking. Instead of buying a second watch for activities, they'll buy the fancier version of their existing watch that they can just wear all the time. I thus strongly suspect that Apple is peeling off the larger part of the active-watch market here, using their existing status as the maker of the most-popular smartwatch to spread in to the new segment just by being able to say "we can do some of that now, and y'all already know you like us elsewhere".

parkingrift 4y ago
I don’t go on multi-week off-grid hikes but I still switched to the Fenix from an Apple Watch. I don’t want to charge my watch every day, and I want to be able to wear it 24/7 to track sleeping and other metrics. Simple as that. The killer feature of a watch for me is battery life.
- okdood64 4y ago
  > I want to be able to wear it 24/7 to track sleeping What do you do with sleep tracking data?
  - milkytron 4y ago
    Personally, I use it to determine what habits to avoid or which ones to adopt in order to feel more rested. I had always heard the common dos and don'ts for how to improve sleep. But never really felt that motivated to improve it. Once I started tracking my sleep, I realized how bad certain habits were having on my sleep, and ultimately how I felt the following day. Being able to quantify sleep quality provided me with data that I can use to try to make myself healthier and learn about my own body. Sure, I could make the same changes without having that data. But personally I wouldn't be as motivated to continue with certain habits. Others may differ. But the same also applies for me with fitness activities and other health metrics. Seeing progression and improvement encourages healthy habits. And having the data from it is just a way to measure progress or regressions.

alistairSH 4y ago

I used to have a Garmin FR645. Until the case cracked where the watch band rods go. Replaced it with an Apple Watch 7 about 6 months ago because I wanted better integration into the rest of my Apple ecosystem. The 1.5 day battery is pretty bad - I toss it on a charger most nights (sleep tracking wasn’t particularly useful for me - I use it occasionally, but don’t need it nightly). Anyway, the Ultra with the 60 hour battery makes the watch useful over a camping weekend, where I currently leave the AW7 at home and go watchless. That’s a pretty big improvement and big selling point. If I had an AW5 or 6, I’d probably upgrade. Maybe I’ll get an Ultra for Christmas or an anniversary.