Looking for advice/feedback on moving to a Garmin watch - but don't know which one

JustAnotherSaver

I know @Emmia you have a Fenix 6, which is one I'm considering so you could have some feedback on this? But I'm also looking at the Forerunner 945 or perhaps its replacement

Or even any other Garmin that ticks the boxes. The Fenix 7 is a bit dear so while it may be suitable I'd probably say not that until the price comes down.

Basically I have a Galaxy Watch 3 & I like it but as far as fitness tracking goes, it's a bit lacking for someone like me (bit of a stat freak).

I bought a Forerunner 735XT at a decent price to see how I'd get on with a Garmin. There's certainly things it does that I like but also things that I don't like.

Activities I would require it to track:

Cycling outdoor

Swimming (pool)

Gym machines - stair stepper, stationary bike, treadmill, elliptical - as a minimum. Other machines would be beneficial but those are my go to machines.

Walking/hiking.

SWIMMING:

I don't know if the dearer Garmin watches track differently to the FR735XT but i think the 735 is good with one exception - it doesn't break down lengths. I'd like the new Garmin to do this as my Galaxy Watch 3 does.

GW3 tells me what stroke each length was (usually gets them right but not always). What time each length was - so if i decide to go all out on length 15 say then it'll tell me the duration for that length whereas the 735XT only tells me that I swam 500mtrs and it took me X-long to do it which I don't like.

SLEEP TRACKING:

Is an important feature and potentially a deal breaker. I'd say the GW3 is fairly accurate. It breaks things down well - awake, REM, light, deep, start & end.

The 735XT gets start & end right but the finer details I'm not convinced by.

I appreciate it doesn't have detailed sleep tracking (doesn't do REM) whereas other Garmin's do, but I also question how accurate these Garmin's are. I saw a video (THINK it was DC Rainmaker) where it mentioned sleep tracking & whoever it was - they only got a short amount of sleep, yet the Garmin says they got a ton of deep sleep and REM. From personal experience that's unlikely & from reading Matthew Walker's book recently - Why We Sleep, again I'd say it's unlikely to be accurate.

My GW3 will say I spent a total of 45mins awake whereas my 735XT will say I spent 5 minutes awake.

I don't know how accurate 45mins is but I know with all the getting up to go pee & then struggling to get back to sleep, 5 minutes is certainly wrong.

I wouldn't want an expensive Garmin to just record sleep any old way just so it ticks the sleep tracking box. I'd want it to be somewhere near accurate.

NOTIFICATIONS / PAY / FIND PHONE:

My GW3 will get notifications for things like email, text, whatsapp & i can then read them on the watch. Would be helpful if the Garmin could do this (phone is a Galaxy S10 & i'll probably stay with Android). Not sure if they can?

Contactless payment - I can do this with my GW3. Be nice if the Garmin could also but this one certainly isn't a deal breaker.

GW3 also has find my phone feature which I tend to use a bit If in bluetooth range it'll sound off the ringer. Really would be helpful if the Garmin did this also, though would you need to have Garmin Connect running constantly in the background for this - & therefore draining phone battery?

BATTERY:

Which brings us on to battery - I highly doubt the Garmin will be a problem here. I get 2 days off a single charge with my GW3. If I go on a 2hr bike ride then my % will drop to about 60%. I'm sure the Garmin's are better than this? My 735XT has a decent battery life.

WATCH FACE:

The 735XT has shown me that if I do go Garmin then the watch CANNOT be black & white. It would need a coloured face.

BODY BATTERY:

Perhaps gimmicky but I've read about it this week and like I said earlier, i'm a bit of a stat freak and I really like the idea of this feature on the Garmin's, though don't know which ones have it and which don't.

SIZE:

I have the 45mm version of the GW3. I wouldn't like to go too much bigger. I believe some of the Garmin's are over 50mm? Probably going to be a bit too big is that.

Those are the obvious ones for me. There's probably more but the post is already long enough. Much appreciated for anyone who's stuck with me throughout it

Grumpy_chap

I like the Garmin fitness trackers and wouldn't have anything else.
I don't have any of the models you mentioned.
FWIW, swimming is the death of it in my experience.

Emmia

JustAnotherSaver said:

I know @Emmia you have a Fenix 6, which is one I'm considering so you could have some feedback on this? But I'm also looking at the Forerunner 945 or perhaps its replacement

I have a Fenix 6SPro- I've had it for a little over a year, and it replaced a TomTom Spark 3 - I've not had/tried other Garmin watches so I can't compare the forerunner or other Garmin watches.

Or even any other Garmin that ticks the boxes. The Fenix 7 is a bit dear so while it may be suitable I'd probably say not that until the price comes down.

Basically I have a Galaxy Watch 3 & I like it but as far as fitness tracking goes, it's a bit lacking for someone like me (bit of a stat freak).

I bought a Forerunner 735XT at a decent price to see how I'd get on with a Garmin. There's certainly things it does that I like but also things that I don't like.

Activities I would require it to track:

Cycling outdoor

Swimming (pool)

Gym machines - stair stepper, stationary bike, treadmill, elliptical - as a minimum. Other machines would be beneficial but those are my go to machines.

Walking/hiking.

I have used my Garmin for walking, running, pilates, spin, weights and swimming (pool) it does open water as well - I don't bike outdoors so I can't comment on that - but the GPS works well for both running and walking so I'd expect it to work equally well for outdoor biking, and I can't see there would be an issue in relation to HR monitoring.

In terms of gym machines, it works for pilates and spin and has options for things like running machines, indoor rowing and eliptical trainers - so I think this would cover most things.

SWIMMING:

I don't know if the dearer Garmin watches track differently to the FR735XT but i think the 735 is good with one exception - it doesn't break down lengths. I'd like the new Garmin to do this as my Galaxy Watch 3 does.

GW3 tells me what stroke each length was (usually gets them right but not always). What time each length was - so if i decide to go all out on length 15 say then it'll tell me the duration for that length whereas the 735XT only tells me that I swam 500mtrs and it took me X-long to do it which I don't like.

For swimming the fenix 6S counts lengths pretty accurately, as well as overall distance, strokes, time metrics, HR - my TomTom also counted lengths and distance, but the Fenix is a step up metrics wise.

SLEEP TRACKING:

Is an important feature and potentially a deal breaker. I'd say the GW3 is fairly accurate. It breaks things down well - awake, REM, light, deep, start & end.

The 735XT gets start & end right but the finer details I'm not convinced by.

I appreciate it doesn't have detailed sleep tracking (doesn't do REM) whereas other Garmin's do, but I also question how accurate these Garmin's are. I saw a video (THINK it was DC Rainmaker) where it mentioned sleep tracking & whoever it was - they only got a short amount of sleep, yet the Garmin says they got a ton of deep sleep and REM. From personal experience that's unlikely & from reading Matthew Walker's book recently - Why We Sleep, again I'd say it's unlikely to be accurate.

My GW3 will say I spent a total of 45mins awake whereas my 735XT will say I spent 5 minutes awake.

I don't know how accurate 45mins is but I know with all the getting up to go pee & then struggling to get back to sleep, 5 minutes is certainly wrong.

I wouldn't want an expensive Garmin to just record sleep any old way just so it ticks the sleep tracking box. I'd want it to be somewhere near accurate.

I wear my Fenix most nights, and overall I find it's assessment pretty accurate on terms of the quality of sleep, duration, depth, periods of REM vs deep sleep, HR, respiration etc.

You need to bear in mind its a watch, and not a research sleep lab though, where you'd be hooked up to machines and I'd expect that to be fully accurate

NOTIFICATIONS / PAY / FIND PHONE:

My GW3 will get notifications for things like email, text, whatsapp & i can then read them on the watch. Would be helpful if the Garmin could do this (phone is a Galaxy S10 & i'll probably stay with Android). Not sure if they can?

Contactless payment - I can do this with my GW3. Be nice if the Garmin could also but this one certainly isn't a deal breaker.

GW3 also has find my phone feature which I tend to use a bit If in bluetooth range it'll sound off the ringer. Really would be helpful if the Garmin did this also, though would you need to have Garmin Connect running constantly in the background for this - & therefore draining phone battery?

The Garmin's major weakness in the UK is payments, and you should check the list of supported banks on their website if this is critical - I'm content without this feature, but others may not be.

Find my phone works well, sounding noisily even if the phone is on silent.

Notifications also work well, and you can decide to block notifications on an app by app basis, I mostly use it for Signal and texts, but WhatsApp also shows up

You can also decline calls and respond to messages with pre-programned responses which are customisable. 

BATTERY:

Which brings us on to battery - I highly doubt the Garmin will be a problem here. I get 2 days off a single charge with my GW3. If I go on a 2hr bike ride then my % will drop to about 60%. I'm sure the Garmin's are better than this? My 735XT has a decent battery life.

The bigger the watchface, the longer the battery - fully charged with HR monitoring on and 90 mins of recordable activity a day, I get 3 days between charges (mine is the smallest size though and doesn't have solar... I slightly regret not pushing the budget to get solar) my husband has the medium size, with solar and his goes on for much longer - probably 5+ days between charges


WATCH FACE:

The 735XT has shown me that if I do go Garmin then the watch CANNOT be black & white. It would need a coloured face.

It is a coloured face, but it isnt OLED on the Fenix 6, so less vibrant than an apple watch for example. There are  other garmins with more colour e.g. the Venu, Epix (which has AMOLED)

BODY BATTERY:

Perhaps gimmicky but I've read about it this week and like I said earlier, i'm a bit of a stat freak and I really like the idea of this feature on the Garmin's, though don't know which ones have it and which don't.

Fenix 6 have body battery, it seems to look at the amount and quality of sleep vs the amount of activity you've done - its probably the most gimmicky feature, but interesting.

SIZE:

I have the 45mm version of the GW3. I wouldn't like to go too much bigger. I believe some of the Garmin's are over 50mm? Probably going to be a bit too big is that.

Bigger watchface = more battery life, have a look at the sizes online. Fenix 6 comes in 3 sizes.

Those are the obvious ones for me. There's probably more but the post is already long enough. Much appreciated for anyone who's stuck with me throughout it

Comments above

JustAnotherSaver

Thanks for the replies guys.

After this I found contact for Garmin themselves & asked them in a little shorter detail actually. They recommended a few. FR 945, 745, Fenix 6 and another, Epix perhaps. I'd need to check.

Appreciate the comment regards sleep and accept that it's not going to be 100% on the nose.

HOWEVER

The other day I wore the 735XT to bed. I had a late one - it was 11:20pm when I went to bed.

I've been wearing them on each wrist for comparison purposes.

Anyway, my Samsung recorded I went to sleep at 11:33pm. Reasonably accurate I'd say. I'll give it that anyway.

The Garmin ...... think it said about 8:12pm!!

It'd been out before, by no more than 30mins but this was a million miles out.

Garmin confirmed though that REM tracking aside, the more premium watches have better detection.

Emmia

The Guardian publishes pretty in-depth reviews on smartwatches / sportwatches fairly regularly, which may be worth a look.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/smartwatches

The Epix is the most recently reviewed.

Grumpy_chap

I just noticed the OP also queried Garmin Pay.  I find that a very useful feature but not many banks are supported so I use a Curve card to interface.  Very easy.

JustAnotherSaver

Yeah if/when I go Garmin I'd just get a curve card.

I have enough accounts as it is, 1 more wont kill me.

Since they've only just released the Fenix 7 i'm going to hold off for the FR 955 at least & go from there. If it's a good price & a good watch then maybe. If i'm priced out then hopefully the 955 will drop the 945's price.

Emmia

I should probably add that I developed a skin issue with the silicone strap that was originally supplied with my Garmin, so I upgraded to an official metal Garmin strap a few months ago, which wasn't cheap (£179.99 *cough*), but has solved the problem. 

*cheaper, third-party straps are available, but I'm wary as I also have a nickel allergy, and this can definitely be an issue with less expensive 'knock-off' options...

JustAnotherSaver

Wow £180 for a watch strap?

And I thought Apple were bad for inflating prices.

Thankfully I don't have an issue with silicone straps.

I'm not a fan of the Apple-style ones where you tuck the strap inside the other strap because then it just pulls on my arm hair which is annoying.

The metal strap I bought for my GW3 feels cheap, although that's because it was cheap. Not sure I could bring myself to part with damn near £200 though

I've bought other silicone ones which are too bulky. Then another strap which was advertised as 'soft' on the back of the strap that came with my Garmin FR735XT but when it arrived, ok it wasn't hard like a rock but I certainly wouldn't classify it as 'soft'.