Nike watch vs Garmin

[ronpfid]

Curious how others who use their Series 2 for fitness feel about the experience?

First, I love the watch itself. Screen is great, and as a 'smartwatch' it's awesome.
I had a few Garmin watches in the past (FR235 and Vivoactive HR), watch to watch, the Apple Watch wins, but the Garmin app vs Apples Activity App, oh man, Garmin's app destroys it. I wish Apple with kill or update that cheesy activity app and improve it... a lot.

Lately I don't even bother using my applewatch for activity anymore, the health and activity apps are so annoying to use.
* Everything is nested deep into sub-sub-sub menu's and separated
* No HR graph with activity? Man, that is a huge oversight!

I wish they'd squish all that into one smooth app that showed everything, easily. Having to go into health, vitals, heart rate, find the time point where the workout started, and click to view each HR data point... what are they thinking!

OK, just had to vent on this, the watch is so awesome, if they'd fix the stupid app it could actually beat other fitness trackers overall

I find myself temped to sell my watch to fund another Garmin, just so I can have the Garmin app and Garmin website to view all my data points, calories (active and resting), smoothly integrated with myfitness pal....
But I love the bright screen and reliable notifications on the applewatch....

 

[doogald]

I wear my Garmin (FR220) when I run, with the Apple Watch on my right wrist, to track activity, gather notifications (while I am listening to podcasts on the iPhone - I hate when the audio stream in interrupted by notification tones), etc. Occasionally I have it track my run as well, mostly so I can use it as a backup watch, including on a treadmill. The Garmin sits in a drawer otherwise.

I agree with a lot of your points. I understand the default of keeping health data private, and not allowing sharing to other sites that can give better analysis of data as a default, but I wouldn't mind having the option to share the data for my workouts to better third party apps.

By the way, the app HeartWatch can create a graph of heart rate during activity. I'll attach an example from the last time I used the workout app on my watch.

Apple is a pretty smart company - let's see if they improve things.

 

[ronpfid]

Oh cool, I'll try to see my HR during a workout like that, thanks for the tip, I'll check out that app.

I don't share my data, I just wish apple's app would put it all nicely on a screen like Garmin's app does, daily HR graph, that screen that comes up and shows steps, calories, exercise, all in one spot, it's so nice. I gave up with the apple app, what a pain to find stuff in it with everything nested deeply in different catagories.

 

[ronpfid]

Something like this would be awesome hint hint APPLE!!!

 

[RobertP1]

Curious how others who use their Series 2 for fitness feel about the experience?

First, I love the watch itself. Screen is great, and as a 'smartwatch' it's awesome.
I had a few Garmin watches in the past (FR235 and Vivoactive HR), watch to watch, the Apple Watch wins, but the Garmin app vs Apples Activity App, oh man, Garmin's app destroys it. I wish Apple with kill or update that cheesy activity app and improve it... a lot.

Lately I don't even bother using my applewatch for activity anymore, the health and activity apps are so annoying to use.
* Everything is nested deep into sub-sub-sub menu's and separated
* No HR graph with activity? Man, that is a huge oversight!

I wish they'd squish all that into one smooth app that showed everything, easily. Having to go into health, vitals, heart rate, find the time point where the workout started, and click to view each HR data point... what are they thinking!

OK, just had to vent on this, the watch is so awesome, if they'd fix the stupid app it could actually beat other fitness trackers overall

I find myself temped to sell my watch to fund another Garmin, just so I can have the Garmin app and Garmin website to view all my data points, calories (active and resting), smoothly integrated with myfitness pal....
But I love the bright screen and reliable notifications on the applewatch....

I think that Apple has to look at the demographics they are trying to reach. I think for a vast majority of people just "closing the rings" daily is about all they need from an activity tracker. I have the Nike Series two and it is great for my painful bi-weekly attempts at a three mile run. It sounds like you need much more than that. The Fenix 5 looks amazing but is overkill for most people. Just my 2 cents

 

[eyecrispy]

I think that Apple has to look at the demographics they are trying to reach. I think for a vast majority of people just "closing the rings" daily is about all they need from an activity tracker. I have the Nike Series two and it is great for my painful bi-weekly attempts at a three mile run. It sounds like you need much more than that. The Fenix 5 looks amazing but is overkill for most people. Just my 2 cents

I would love more stats. If Apple wants the more serious athlete to use the watch then more stats would really help that.

 

[RobertP1]

I would love more stats. If Apple wants the more serious athlete to use the watch then more stats would really help that.

I would love a few more stats also. again, it goes back to the target audience. I don't know if Apple is actively seeking more serious athletes. There are a lot more weekend warriors than hardcore athletes which gives Apple a larger customer base. But I totally agree that the Garmin is much more advanced features for the athlete.

 

[eyecrispy]

I would love a few more stats also. again, it goes back to the target audience. I don't know if Apple is actively seeking more serious athletes. There are a lot more weekend warriors than hardcore athletes which gives Apple a larger customer base. But I totally agree that the Garmin is much more advanced features for the athlete.

Too bad Garmin watches are so unsightly. That's why I like the AW. I can make it work for nearly any occasion. Can't say the same for the Garmin.

 

[RobertP1]

Too bad Garmin watches are so unsightly. That's why I like the AW. I can make it work for nearly any occasion. Can't say the same for the Garmin.

That is very true. The Garmin look exactly like what they are. The AW can be made to work in any occasion.

 

[eyecrispy]

That is very true. The Garmin look exactly like what they are. The AW can be made to work in any occasion.

I have itty bitty lady wrists and man do the Garmins look hideous on me. Lol. They need to hire better designers to have a look at the form factors of their devices.

 

[Spencerdl]

I believe the objection of Apple and the Apple Watch is not necessarily to please one group, but to please the overall "majority".

 

[ronpfid]

I guess what I'm saying is, the apple watch itself is GREAT, it gathers the same data as the Garmin Vivoactive HR I had, plus it does a LOT LOT more, and it's better looking, and the screen is a million times better. The only issue, is how they 'show us' the data on the phone.

Even a non serious athlete would appreciate the data much more if it was all right 'there' instead of nested deeply in submenu's and divided between two seperate apps.

Finding HR data on the health app is ridiculous, then having the activity app separate is weird too. Then you have a separate 'watch' app. All that should be one app, that's the one thing Garmin did very well, is that. I'd love to use my apple watch with the Garmin app, then it would be perfect for mild fitness to hardcore fitness and athletes.

When you open the Garmin Connect app on your phone, the screen that shows has your sleep, basal calories burned so far, active calories burned so far, heart rate, consumed calories if you link to my fitness pal, and any workouts you've done. One press and you can view each of those in detail. See an HR graph, etc, or a graph of your sleep, no digging though menu's. Apple should just mock that setup, then the watch could reach it's potential for this stuff.

 

[Spencerdl]

I guess what I'm saying is, the apple watch itself is GREAT, it gathers the same data as the Garmin Vivoactive HR I had, plus it does a LOT LOT more, and it's better looking, and the screen is a million times better. The only issue, is how they 'show us' the data on the phone.

Even a non serious athlete would appreciate the data much more if it was all right 'there' instead of nested deeply in submenu's and divided between two seperate apps.

Finding HR data on the health app is ridiculous, then having the activity app separate is weird too. Then you have a separate 'watch' app. All that should be one app, that's the one thing Garmin did very well, is that. I'd love to use my apple watch with the Garmin app, then it would be perfect for mild fitness to hardcore fitness and athletes.

When you open the Garmin Connect app on your phone, the screen that shows has your sleep, basal calories burned so far, active calories burned so far, heart rate, consumed calories if you link to my fitness pal, and any workouts you've done. One press and you can view each of those in detail. See an HR graph, etc, or a graph of your sleep, no digging though menu's. Apple should just mock that setup, then the watch could reach it's potential for this stuff.

It seems that you are very happy with you choice of a smartwatch. ENJOY.

 

[ronpfid]

It seems that you are very happy with you choice of a smartwatch. ENJOY.

This though is about the App's to see data, not the watch, the watch would be much better if the phone app was improved 10x better.

 

[Mac Guy]

I have itty bitty lady wrists

I guess handcuffs would slide right off you unless they were Xtra furry.

 

[eyecrispy]

I guess handcuffs would slide right off you unless they were Xtra furry.

Hilarious. Totally.

 

[eve6er69]

Never used the Apple Watch for working out but I can agree that the garmin app is amazing. I use a fr235 daily. The reason I chose it over the Apple Watch is that I don't have to charge the Garmin for a week and a half. I love love love the Watch itself and it's stats from a run are insane.

 

[ronpfid]

It a shame, the Nike watch 'can' do almost as much as a Garmin, it's just the freaken app on the phone

 

[StraightlineBoy]

I've had a full 6 months now with a Nike edition Apple Watch and I've started looking into selling it and getting a Garmin.

The thing is that as I see it, there's no one Smart Watch that truly does it all, you've got to pick what's most important to you. The Apple Watch beats Garmin (any Garmin) in many ways but the Apple Watch is a poor watch for runners - and I'm a runner and that's what is important to me. Yeah some of you will run with one but that doesn't make it the best. There's one major problem - the touchscreen, which is unreliable if there's any moisture anywhere near it, whether that be from sweaty fingers or from rain. There's nothing quite like running for an hour and finding that a phantom press of the touchscreen ended your workout quite some time ago. Until touchscreen technology improves, sports watches need physical buttons. Garmin also have Apple beaten on battery life and being able to have the time always present on the display. I'll miss Apple Pay on the watch, I'll miss the interactive notifications, I'll miss a watch that has music playback and some other stuff, but right now, all of these things are just nice to have (for me) whereas the top-notch running stuff is essential

 

[KevinC120]

This one depends on how you are going to use it. I would say in the true fitness tracker wearables, Garmin has more experience in the industry but Nike always puts together a nice product. Fashion wise, I would go with Nike but a real fitness nut should go with Garmin.