Apple Watch Ultra vs Garmin Epix: Why I Ditched the Apple Watch

How did we get here? I’m going to take you through a rollercoaster: how I went from thinking the Apple Watch Ultra was the best thing since sliced bread to looking elsewhere. Here’s the full video.

This video is not sponsored. I made it because so many of you suggested I should try a Garmin, and a lot of you have been following the journey.

How the Apple Watch Ultra lost me

I was extremely happy with it at the start. I fell for Apple’s reverse psychology, the idea that you have to be an ultramarathon runner or an elite athlete to want this watch, and I bought it. I’m not running marathons or climbing Everest. I’m as standard-dad as they come. Judging by that video, plenty of you were in the same boat.

After about a month I started having battery issues. Not everyone did, but it was bad enough for me to notice, and when I said so it turned out a lot of people were seeing it too. A fresh install and removing some of the auto-installed apps seemed to help for a while before it drifted back.

Then watchOS 9.2 arrived and that update was the best one for me. The battery problems went away, notifications were consistent, everything worked, and it gave me confidence in the watch again.

We’re on 9.5.1 now and I’m getting no more than two full days. If I’m fairly active and sleep tracking, two days maximum, maybe three if I’m quiet and skip sleep tracking. For what this watch costs, and for something sold on being an extreme watch, two days is not going to get you very far.

The other thing is the data. The more I used it to track exercise, the more I realised I was missing things. It’s all there if you go looking. But the Workout app hasn’t changed enough, and with watchOS 10 it looks like Apple is making the Watch Ultra an even better smartwatch, not necessarily a better sports watch.

There’s also my own setup to blame. I mostly carry Android phones now, so I had to get a burner iPhone 13 mini just to sync the watch. That’s not Apple’s fault, it’s my preference. But it’s a real cost of ownership if you’re not all-in.

If you are staying with the Apple Watch, look at Athlytic and Work Outdoors. Both give you far more than the standard Workout app.

Enter the Garmin

After my six-months review and my lukewarm feelings, a lot of you asked why I didn’t try a Garmin. It’s a lot of money to throw at a watch and I was reluctant to spend hundreds more. Then one of you was kind enough to send me one just to try. Lee, you’re an absolute legend, and your gesture is what opened my eyes to Garmin.

This is the Fenix 6X Pro Titanium Solar, and it’s an absolute menace in the best way. Built like a tank, gorgeous, and it somehow makes the Watch Ultra look a little childish. Wearing it makes me feel like I could run marathons and climb Everest, which I cannot.

So why did I say the Fenix wasn’t the answer for me? Because of the Epix 2. There’s a lot I prefer on the Garmin, but I couldn’t get used to the memory-in-pixel display. It’s plenty bright, and sunlight actually makes it look brighter, which is counterintuitive and clever. If you’ve never used a smartwatch with that kind of display you’ll be fine with it. After years of Apple Watches, I found it hard to go back to something less bright and less colourful. The Epix gives me the deeper blacks and the colour, and it looks a little less aggressive, which is a preference thing.

And the Epix doesn’t have the Fenix battery, but who needs a month? I’m not going into the wilderness for a month. Anything past four or five days is a bonus, and I’m getting six.

What the Garmin still can’t do

Here’s the rollercoaster part. For what Garmin watches cost, they offer surprisingly little on the smartwatch side. Let me rephrase: there are enough smartwatch features, they’re just not polished, and some flat out don’t work.

I also asked fellow creator Pete, who’s been trying a Garmin too:

But for £700, I was kind of expecting something a little more than what to me, feels a little like a modern version of the classic Casio watch. It almost feels as though this is what one of the best smart watches would look like today if Apple hadn’t created the Apple Watch.

I have to agree. At this price more is needed on the software side.

Take contactless. Barclays is one of the most popular banks in the UK and it doesn’t work with Garmin Pay, so I’ve accepted that I can’t pay with my watch.

That’s not all. I have a lot of smart home and car kit that I use daily: starting my car from the Watch Ultra, opening the garage door, picking Philips Hue scenes, plus utilities like 1Password. Then the elephant in the room, phone calls. It isn’t a feature you think about until you go for a run without your phone and something important comes in. And there’s the social side of the Apple Watch, competing with friends and family, which is genuinely fun.

Even the basics can be a slog. Adding music to the Garmin is a rigmarole. It was easier on the Fenix somehow, but on the Epix it kept asking me to install Garmin Express on my computer, and even then it didn’t work properly. That interface is poor.

Having said all that, look at the Garmin dashboard for the data and insights you actually care about. It’s far better. Everything in one place, well structured. That’s something I’d been missing on the Apple Watch, and the watch itself surfaces those data points more clearly too. If you’re training for something, you want to see progress in the most concise way possible.

So what did I decide?

The ecosystem is a real problem, I won’t pretend otherwise. I use Android phones, and it’s been good having things sync between phone and watch, but I still use MacBooks and plenty of other Apple devices, and controlling lights or unlocking a computer is where the Garmin falls short. Those are compromises, and there’s genuine merit in the ecosystem if you care about it.

So ask yourself which you care about more: the all-singing ecosystem, or excellent sports and exercise data with a battery that lasts. For a lot of people the answer is both, and the Watch Ultra gives you enough of each. That’s a perfectly good place to land.

What this taught me is that the Apple Watch Ultra is 100% the better smartwatch, no question, and the Garmin, Fenix or Epix, is the better sports watch. I’d love Apple to bring more sports-watch thinking to the Ultra, starting with battery management. And I’d love Garmin to step up on software, because you’re paying a lot for what you get there. At the very least, give me a cellular option.

For now, the Garmin Epix 2 is my everyday watch and the Watch Ultra comes out when I’m not training. Lee, thank you again for opening my eyes to this.