Android Central: Garmin watches are better

NorthCascades

Here's yet another love letter to Garmin. What makes this one notable is that it's from a place that's crazy about Samsung and Android watches.

https://www.androidcentral.com/i-gave-general-purpose-smartwatches-and-got-garmin-running?amp

It lists several reasons the guy finally gave up on that platform, got a Garmin, and didn't look back. It's written by a runner, although the points apply to anyone who's exercise is important to them.

Some of the reasons given were: consistently better GPS, better insight because of that (pace being important for running), superiority of buttons compared to touch screen (which they say was a big surprise), drastically better battery life, better app integration, useful watch faces, and good enough smartwatch functionally given its usefulness for training.

As far as buttons go (personal experience, not touched on in the article) I can do things like skip a song or change the volume without looking at the watch when I need to.

ritzvin

Yeah.. I had tried a regular smart watch for training back before buying my first Garmin. The interfaces for the companion apps to the smartphone tracking app (Endomondo, etc) all sucked (couldn't get all the fields I needed and arranged in a useful way), and the gps wasn't as good, and as phones aged they didn't necessarily have enough memory for gps tracking + music simultaneously for hours, and one of these would crash (sometimes in the middle of a race).

clocklady

I bought a Garmin Instinct to track everyday activity level as well as walking, hiking, running, biking and indoor strength training workouts. I love it. I've had a few different wearable smart watches and this is my favorite by far.

mullanphylane

I won't knock Garmins. They're good tools. However, they cost a lot more than I can afford for something that the less expensive tool does.

Granted, my $26.00 V2 fitness tracking watch does not have GPS, but it does count steps fairly accurately, checks my heart rate continuously, and has other function such as a pretty accurate blood pressure reading that my cardiologist wants me to use.

Not sure what is meant by better GPS. GPS accuracy is not normally a function of the receiver for civilian non-commercial applications, although some more expensive ones (especially in small sizes such as are found in watches and phones) will hang on to a signal under more adverse conditions than one in a less expensive watch. Signal strength can be limited by number of satellites in range, cloud cover and other weather conditions, electromagnetic interference, and natural or man-made structures. There are a number of areas near me (St Louis, MO, USA) where no phone or watch can grab or hang on to a strong enough signal from enough satellites.

Garmins are good, no doubt about it, but not a panacea for the hard work necessary to improve.

deannalfisher

Ehh I had a polar v800 for several years and I wish garmin had some of its features (ie being able to have more than 2 repeats in a interval set - on my polar was able able to set up to 6 so I could rotate through a run/walk interval that started at 3/1 and work its way down to :30/1 before repeating the entire set

Garmin (at least on my 920xt) It also has no way to let you know if yo exceed your HR zones while trying to do intervals (ie if I wanted to do a Z2 run - I can set it as timed interval or pace interval but not a HR interval)

tmbg1

I love my Garmin Vivofit! It's not a watch I know but it's awesome!

ritzvin

deannalfisher wrote: »

Ehh I had a polar v800 for several years and I wish garmin had some of its features (ie being able to have more than 2 repeats in a interval set - on my polar was able able to set up to 6 so I could rotate through a run/walk interval that started at 3/1 and work its way down to :30/1 before repeating the entire set

Garmin (at least on my 920xt) It also has no way to let you know if yo exceed your HR zones while trying to do intervals (ie if I wanted to do a Z2 run - I can set it as timed interval or pace interval but not a HR interval)

Training intervals were unfortunately something that lost a lot of functionality in the move from the computer software (that they discontinued) to the Garmin Connect server. Unfortunately, I have to use the old software if I want to set up detailed intervals the way I like.

glassyo

tmbg1 wrote: »

I love my Garmin Vivofit! It's not a watch I know but it's awesome!

I just bought a vivofit 4 but am still on the fence about it. Mostly because the screen is so small and I'm always on my tablet when doing a walking dvd (which I do a lot) so I miss out on steps/calories. And I'd kinda like gps on it. But the price was right! 😀

BrianSharpe

I've been using Garmins since I started running consistently and wouldn't consider anything else. But then again as a triathlete what I need may not be the same as you do.....

deannalfisher

ritzvin wrote: »

deannalfisher wrote: »

Ehh I had a polar v800 for several years and I wish garmin had some of its features (ie being able to have more than 2 repeats in a interval set - on my polar was able able to set up to 6 so I could rotate through a run/walk interval that started at 3/1 and work its way down to :30/1 before repeating the entire set

Garmin (at least on my 920xt) It also has no way to let you know if yo exceed your HR zones while trying to do intervals (ie if I wanted to do a Z2 run - I can set it as timed interval or pace interval but not a HR interval)

Training intervals were unfortunately something that lost a lot of functionality in the move from the computer software (that they discontinued) to the Garmin Connect server. Unfortunately, I have to use the old software if I want to set up detailed intervals the way I like.

ugh! if i could have them fix anything that would be it - but i also find garmin connect to be not intutive and easy to use - either on my phone or my computer

yirara

I like the functionality, but I don't want to wear a huge, bulky thing on my wrist (I have tiny wrists). I'm not happy that Fitbit was bought by google, but I will likely stay with them and get a Charge 3 as soon as I get a good deal because that's a fairly small device.

ritzvin

I wish they'd fix the course part too. If they won't add the ability to auto - generate turn cues, at least give us the ability to import from RideWithGPS or elsewhere without deleting all the cues it created. (being able to load a course by BT instead of by computer and cable ahead of time would be so convenient). And metrics on a selected segment of an activity would be nice.

deannalfisher

ritzvin wrote: »

I wish they'd fix the course part too. If they won't add the ability to auto - generate turn cues, at least give us the ability to import from RideWithGPS or elsewhere without deleting all the cues it created. (being able to load a course by BT instead of by computer and cable ahead of time would be so convenient). And metrics on a selected segment of an activity would be nice.

yes i could do that on my polar as well - i miss it - better features but customer service was ehhh, compared to garmin - it was really a flip of a coin