Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs Garmin Epix pro 2 vs Fenix 7 pro

my other half is insisting on buying me a garmin/apple watch for Christmas. I have no need for this as there is nothing wrong with my garmin venu or my wear out huawai gt2, but she insists.

her plan was to buy me a apple watch ultra 2, but I told her no because i had heard the battery is dreadful (my current garmin easily lasts a week and the huawai lasts at least 2wks). I told her if anything i would prefer another garmin, but it anything it would be a fenix 7.

I then started to look into it and compared the fenix 7 (and its itirations)  to the epix pro and i’m leaning towards the epix now because of the screen, and in the biggest screen the battery seems similar to the fenix 7.

my sports include mtb, gravel and a bit of turbo training. i wear it all the time including sleep. i find the smart capabilities of the venu enough at the minute unless i’m missing something massive not going apple ultra – i have an iphone.

can anyone enlighten me, experiences or advice on which to chose, epix pro/fenix 7…../apple ultra 2

I’ve no real experience of any of the others, but i do have a ‘normal’ Apple Watch. I like it very much, but i am fully into he apple ecosystem, across the family as well, and it makes total sense for that and as a phone free ride tracking tool.

If you are not into apple, get something else.

Hopefully others can contribute on the options you gave!

I’m a Garmin fan with a few devices…just on battery life alone, I’d be swerving away from the Apple.
The Garmin is more of a tracker of all things with some smart bits and the Apple is more a smart thing that can track stuff.
If you can be close to a power source daily (or every second day) then Apple is a choice.
Garmin isn’t without negatives though, so although I’m really not into the Apple product, the Garmin isn’t an absolute dead cert either.
Saying that, my Fenix 6 Pro has been brilliant and I’m not really looking to change it, so I’m probably not the best person for opinion.
The Garmin does look big on a wrist unless the wrist is big…I couldn’t see me wearing the largest one as it looks to be even wider than my wrist is, however, the detail is clearer to read.

I have an Apple Ultra 2. Doesn’t sound like you want one so not going to try and sell you on it, but in case you are interested a full day of use eats about 40% of battery, which is more than double what I need as I’m not a weirdo so just put it to charge at night rather than stressing over that fact it won’t last a week.

Not sure if the Garmin watches have a GSM eSIM in to be able to do calls/messages independent of a phone. So there might be that in favour of  Apple if it’s of interest.

Garmin Epix Gen 2 sapphire titanium, non pro, is currently £529 on John Lewis.

The Pro brings a hardware torch, ECG and faster charging. Apart from that it seems most updates are software so you could save a good chunk and get most of the performance.

Unless you need massive battery life I’d take the Epix for the screen all day long.

P.S. the ECG is currently region locked to US and needs some GPS hack to enable it, unless you travel to the US and do it there.

If was doing Ironmans, expiditions and ultra-run I’d buy a garmin. I’m not so I’d get the ultra. 

I’m not convinced there is a one size fits all here. I use Garmin for sports – various bike mounted ones, and an Instinct Crossover for off bike outdoorsy stuff.  Apple 9 as daily watch, so much ‘smarter’ than any other offerings if you are Apple integrated. 

Maybe ask her for 2 … 🤪

i’ve never had an apple watch, so can someone tell me what i’m missing on the smart side? my garmin and huawai both send me through notifications from my phone, tell me who’s callings, who’s messaged, what it says, emails. it tracks my steps, heart rate and activities.

bearing in mind that i am not going to take out a 2nd sim for the apple, what does apple do that i’m not current? genuine question.

Fenix 7 pro here and it’s super awesome. Can’t compare to the others sorry! I love the battery life. 

Find the epix useful for training- just given my daughter my Apple Watch as it didn’t work for me. They have recently updated power meter compatibility which might make it workable but battery was v poor and not up to recording longer events 

The apple watch has an esim, so you can set it up for your current number (I think) and then you don’t need your phone with you as you can look like Michael Knight and talk to KITT.

40% battery usage is a vast improvement, but I’m not really sold on this idea of needing to daily charge (or 2-daily charge)…I don’t like it on my phone, but it seems the way unless I get rid of the smartphone bit.

Seeing as you are not adverse to a HUAWEI , have you looked at the Ultimate ( expedition or voyage )?

i’ve never had an apple watch, so can someone tell me what i’m missing on the smart side?

Not loads. You obviously get notifications, and you can write out replies to messages either by Siri or with a weird on-screen keyboard (which I never do). It’s got a remote control for your iphone’s camera which works really well, but it’s not something I use often. You can control music / podcasts on it. Oh, and I can ping my phone when I’ve lost it which is really useful.

But by far and away the thing I use it for most is for Siri. It’s so much easier using Siri on your wrist IMHO; I use it all the time for timers, making lists, reminders etc. Barely ever use Siri on my phone.

I do have the eSim version of the Apple Watch, and I did briefly get a subscription for it (IIRC it was £7/mo extra). It’s a cool feature but I rarely went anywhere without my phone (If I was out riding I wanted my phone as a camera), so I cancelled the sub. If I did a lot of running or some other sports where carrying a phone is annoying, I’d strongly consider it.

I’m similar to superficial above

Although use the camera remote on my apple watch, plus strava and recording fitness stuff

Use it for Siri and music a lot 

Oh, and apple pay!

I used to have an Apple Watch (not ultra though), spent a year with an older fenix 5 and have recently upgraded to a 7 pro after considering an epix pro. A few fairly random thoughts:

They are all great options. They will all do the job for most people and the best option depends on your specific use cases and personal preferences. I like to do fairly long events. Longest so far is 20 hours but I’d like to option to maybe go twice as long as that in future. So I wanted something that would do GPS recording for over 50 hours (to allow a margin of error and for battery degradation over time). That’s a pretty specific use case that won’t apply to most people though. 

The large Garmin watches are pretty large and heavy. Too large for my skinny wrists and they rub on that little bone on my wrist. So, for me, they are too large for every day wear and too large/heavy to be comfortable on a longer event. 

The most contentious point is probably the screen. Most people think the epix screen is better. I disagree, but again it’s just personal preference. I don’t want to wear a small phone/computer on my wrist and like a watch to look like a watch. To me that means a passive screen that is always on. Often I just have a simple analogue watch face and I think the fenix can look quite classy like that. I want to be able to sneak a look at the time in a meeting without it lighting up and letting everyone know what I’m doing and I really don’t want my watch to glow in the dark unless I’ve specifically pressed a button. But most people prefer the brighter colours of the epix. I’d just say that a swatch watch (remember those) is more colourful than a Rolex. Doesn’t make it better though. 

How important the charging is depends on your schedule and what you want it to do I think. I have a fairly chaotic schedule so just sticking it one charge every now and then (about once a week) while I have a shower suits me. But if you have a more regular routine there might be a slot in your day when you could charge the watch, so battery life might not be an issue. If you don’t care about sleep tracking you can just charge overnight of course. 

Hope that helps. 

Garmin all the way Apple great but not really a sports watch.