Nike watch vs Garmin

[doogald]

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.

I agree with you that the AW is a poor running watch, for many of the reasons you list, but there is a solution (not a great one) to that particular issue - turn on water mode on the Series 2/Nike+ watch just after you start the run. It means a turn of the crown at the end of the run to turn it off, but at least there's that.

But, yes, the watch should use physical button presses for workout mode, or at least have the option. Then long-press the buttons to go home or to the dock, etc.

 

[eyecrispy]

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

I'm a runner. Have never used Garmin bc they're so freakin ugly. I should probably give in and just give it a try. I put up with the Apple Watch for running. It's not great but it does ok -- just ok. I am really hoping that Apple improves it. I've never experienced a phantom press that ends my workout. Man, that would tick me off.

 

[ronpfid]

I can see that happening, I get phantom presses that stop the timer when it's running sometimes, open my calendar, change watch faces... etc.
I've had a few Garmins, the screens are dimmer, I kinda liked the looks of the forerunners though, maybe I'm weird lol But their app and being able to see everything in a webbrowser, man that is NICE!

 

[Mac Guy]

. Man, that would tick me off.

I see what you did there.

 

[StraightlineBoy]

I'm a runner. Have never used Garmin bc they're so freakin ugly. I should probably give in and just give it a try. I put up with the Apple Watch for running. It's not great but it does ok -- just ok. I am really hoping that Apple improves it. I've never experienced a phantom press that ends my workout. Man, that would tick me off.

I used to agree with you about the looks of Garmin watches however I think the newest models such as the FR935 are fine, not a work of art but fine.

 

[StraightlineBoy]

I agree with you that the AW is a poor running watch, for many of the reasons you list, but there is a solution (not a great one) to that particular issue - turn on water mode on the Series 2/Nike+ watch just after you start the run. It means a turn of the crown at the end of the run to turn it off, but at least there's that.

But, yes, the watch should use physical button presses for workout mode, or at least have the option. Then long-press the buttons to go home or to the dock, etc.

I'll give the water mode a try, thanks

 

[eve6er69]

I'm a runner. Have never used Garmin bc they're so freakin ugly. I should probably give in and just give it a try. I put up with the Apple Watch for running. It's not great but it does ok -- just ok. I am really hoping that Apple improves it. I've never experienced a phantom press that ends my workout. Man, that would tick me off.

With garmin using the round design on the forerunner and Fenix versions, I feel that they are better looking than the Apple Watch. I will warn you, if you're a runner you will fall in love with the farming the first workout you do. The amount of details you get from your workout is just crazy.

 

[eve6er69]

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

I have to agree with you on the touchscreen side of things. I believe when I was looking at the Garmin lineup when I was trying to figure out what to buy. There was one with a touchscreen and I immediately said NOPE! If I were running or doing a crazy workout I would want a actual button rather than possibly hitting the stop workout button accidentally and hating myself and the Watch all day. Lol.

 

[rangerdeyo]

Well I consider myself a runner and a fitness enthusiast, and I love my Watch. I use the MapMyRun app, which requires a hard press to pull up a pause or resume option for my runs. Pushing pause gives you the option to end your run. I also wear the watch while I hike, swim, do yoga or any other workout. So I can track almost anything I choose to do.

My only issue with the app is I still need to carry my phone which I really dont care about. When I swim, I can use the stock workout app.

 

[StraightlineBoy]

I have to agree with you on the touchscreen side of things. I believe when I was looking at the Garmin lineup when I was trying to figure out what to buy. There was one with a touchscreen and I immediately said NOPE! If I were running or doing a crazy workout I would want a actual button rather than possibly hitting the stop workout button accidentally and hating myself and the Watch all day. Lol.

Yeah the 630 is the touchscreen one and it's definitely NOT the one that I want. Maybe it's coincidence but every watch that Garmin has released since the 630 has had buttons rather than a touchscreen.

 

[StraightlineBoy]

With garmin using the round design on the forerunner and Fenix versions, I feel that they are better looking than the Apple Watch. I will warn you, if you're a runner you will fall in love with the farming the first workout you do. The amount of details you get from your workout is just crazy.

Yes, my old Garmin 920XT measures cadence, vertical oscillation and stride length from an accelerometer in the chest strap and while people generally maybe don't care about those figures I can see that in the past year my stride length has improved by 10%+ whilst maintaining my cadence meaning that I'm running more efficiently which is something an Apple Watch can't tell you.

 

[ronpfid]

Thats true, the AW seems more similar to fitness watches, rather than hardcore running watches, that actually suits me better (the general scope), I do a little running, weightlifting, biking, cardio, etc. That's why I'd love the app format of Garmin but using the AW. It's nice to have all data on one screen with details with one click. click workout, see HR graph so you can see how your HR ramped up and where it was at during the workout, instead of picking health, vitals, HR, show all data, date, then a big long string of times with each HR next to it. I dont' even bother looking.

 

[StraightlineBoy]

From my point of view I have no loyalty to any of the brands only to what's right for me and as long as people are making informed buying decisions then I have no issue with that. I have devices from both Apple and Garmin and keep up to date with all of the various brands so like to think I've got a good balanced view. From my point of view, the advanced running features from Garmin are the selling point. Overall it is a less capable Smart Watch but the thing that it's device names suggest it should do well (the forerunners) it completely nails. Anyone who looked at Garmin a few years ago should maybe look again...they've moved on from ropey looking watches with dismal software (perhaps Apple potentially moving into their market has forced them to step up).

 

[eyecrispy]

From my point of view I have no loyalty to any of the brands only to what's right for me and as long as people are making informed buying decisions then I have no issue with that. I have devices from both Apple and Garmin and keep up to date with all of the various brands so like to think I've got a good balanced view. From my point of view, the advanced running features from Garmin are the selling point. Overall it is a less capable Smart Watch but the thing that it's device names suggest it should do well (the forerunners) it completely nails. Anyone who looked at Garmin a few years ago should maybe look again...they've moved on from ropey looking watches with dismal software (perhaps Apple potentially moving into their market has forced them to step up).

I may have to take a look at Garmin. I love my AW bc of the other features and apps. Like I've stated in previous posts, i do want more running features.

 

[ronpfid]

Love to squeeze these into one watch! Once you use the Garmin app, you'll love it for running for sure. The screen isn't bright and nice like the AW, the notifications are non interactive and not as nice, you can still get them though, and calendar stuff, the weather and all that. It's just not a bright little smart phone on your wrist, but for exercise, their awesome.

 

[StraightlineBoy]

I may have to take a look at Garmin. I love my AW bc of the other features and apps. Like I've stated in previous posts, i do want more running features.

Just to prove that I'm not just praising Garmin as I'm about to get a new one, don't get excited about apps on a Garmin. The last time I checked there's very few and they don't do much; I think there's promise of much more to come in the future but they weren't a factor in my decision because I think the AW is well ahead here.

 

[StraightlineBoy]

Love to squeeze these into one watch! Once you use the Garmin app, you'll love it for running for sure. The screen isn't bright and nice like the AW, the notifications are non interactive and not as nice, you can still get them though, and calendar stuff, the weather and all that. It's just not a bright little smart phone on your wrist, but for exercise, their awesome.

You're right if you jammed all of the features into one watch you'd have something truly great. If you added physical buttons to AW and beefed up the running app then you'd be pretty much there. Garmin would have more to do because they'll never have the deep system integration that the AW will have into iOS. The only question then would be choosing between a bright screen like the AW has, or a dimmer but always on screen like Garmin because I think a bright, always on screen may not be possible (with decent battery life) yet.

 

[StraightlineBoy]

Just to prove that I'm not just praising Garmin as I'm about to get a new one, don't get excited about apps on a Garmin. The last time I checked there's very few and they don't do much; I think there's promise of much more to come in the future but they weren't a factor in my decision because I think the AW is well ahead here.

Oh just to clarify here, there's the Garmin app and there's Garmin apps. The Garmin app on iPhone is very good. It syncs the data from the Garmin watch up to the cloud and shows a lot of detailed information. Garmin apps (apps that run on a Garmin) are I believe (please correct me if you know otherwise) really limited and really basic and aren't a reason to buy a Garmin. That might change in the future but not yet and probably won't be to any great degree.

 

[ronpfid]

I agree!

Yes, the Garmin connect app on the phone is the one that is 300x better than Apple's watch/heath/activity apps. The 'apps' you can load on the watches are kinda iffy. I tried a bunch of them, most don't do quite what you think or work quite right, or are just super basic. A few aren't too bad, but their just things like adding a stopwatch or some type of other workout. For me though, it's the Connect App that apple needs to emulate. That way, the data is there, easy to see, and worth looking at.

 

[eyecrispy]

I agree!

Yes, the Garmin connect app on the phone is the one that is 300x better than Apple's watch/heath/activity apps. The 'apps' you can load on the watches are kinda iffy. I tried a bunch of them, most don't do quite what you think or work quite right, or are just super basic. A few aren't too bad, but their just things like adding a stopwatch or some type of other workout. For me though, it's the Connect App that apple needs to emulate. That way, the data is there, easy to see, and worth looking at.

I wouldn't expect much from their apps, to be honest. I know that when it comes to apps, the AW wins out. That said, there are a lot of crummy apps for AW.