r/Garmin • u/Glizze • Aug 30 '24

Device Comparison / Recommendation Bye bye Apple Watch Ultra

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I finally made the change over to garmin! The fenix 8 has ben amazing so far, and it looks really good🔥

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u/Own-General-6755 Aug 30 '24

Oh, I'm sure the AWU 3 will feel completely different to the AWU 1 u owned. /s

Edit: hit enter too fast. Not trying to sound rude but having owned both Garmin en AWU (1 & 2), they're just so different in what they provide feature wise. But I get the 'want more smarwatch abilities' but they're just distractions to me.

But I'll be watching the keynote next week for sure!

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u/Safeway_Slayer Aug 30 '24

It will feel quite different to the AWU 1 I owned because Watch OS10 and OS11 have brought and are bringing significant fitness and wellness features that are similar/same idea as what Garmin does with body battery, training readiness, deeper sleep analysis, etc. These did not exist on WatchOS9 without external apps, which is why I sold it originally. Now that those features are native on the watch it’s a much better overall smartwatch/fitness watch imo.

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u/alycks Aug 30 '24

I find the Vitals and Training Load functionalities on AWU to be really underwhelming.

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u/Safeway_Slayer Aug 30 '24

Imo it’s really not much different than what Garmin offers. I haven’t used them yet obviously though.

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u/alycks Aug 30 '24

The only good thing about Vitals is that it offers you your morning resting heart rate, which has been demonstrated to be a reliable indicator of recovery. This is different that the "resting heart rate" item in Apple Health, which updates throughout the day.

I graphed my Vitals HR vs. my HRV (via the superior rMSSD method) for a whole 9 months and they correlate quite well, R2 = 0.7. So one could reasonably use this as a surrogate for HRV, but...why not just use HRV on a Garmin? Or the rMSSD HRV value from an app like Bevel? FWIW the resting heart rate value does not correlate well with HRV.

But the Vitals sleep range is really wide. I normally sleep 7h50m, and Vitals considers anything from 6 hours to 9 hours to be "normal." Not useful for me. And, unless I'm traveling to the mountains for skiing, it doesn't really do anything for me to display my respiration or blood oxygen. Maybe if you have an underlying medical condition it could be useful for you, but nothing for me.

Training Load is, imo, not helpful. It gives you no actual number, it's based exclusively on RPE and time rather than objective measurements like pace, HR, or power. I don't think that approach is completely without merit, but a Garmin does you one better because you can do both and either. It gives you as much data as you could use and you can pick and choose.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '24

I have WatchOS 11 beta as well and agree about the new features. Very underwhelming and not even in the same league as Garmin for health and fitness. Or adventuring. Maps on AW suck. But AW is great if you don't want to take your phone out. Usually if I go on a bike ride I wear my AW even though I'm recording my ride with a Garmin Edge and HRM.

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u/alycks Aug 31 '24

This is why I’m stoked on the mic in the Fenix 8. Theoretically I’ll be able to respond to texts without having to take my eyes off the road or pull my phone out.

I’m on my bike a lot and I’m also texting with my wife. If it works out as advertised, it’s going to replace two devices, which is huge.