It immediately decide that it was still not even close to being able to replace my Garmin. A phoenix has been with me across deserts over mountains and throughout my fitness journey, its quite simply unbeatable and then send it back. But this took me by surprise, and just three months later had become my daily watch in my last video on this. I had to admit that apple had finally produced a smart watch that was of actual use for somebody other than the odd person just wanting to make contactless payments for their plant based, wrap in Starbucks and then check their step count for the day. This was of use to athletes, so where does that leave me today? Well much to the light of all the Garmin Fanboys and the disappointment of one or two vegans in Starbucks. Ive changed my mind Music, but not quite in the way. You might think when I made that last video three months ago, explaining that I now wore the Apple all the time, I made it very clear that it was not the better sports watch. This is a Garmin Fenix 7x. It is, in my opinion, the best sports watch you can buy today. However, it did do some things that the Garmin simply could not do, and those things were important enough to me that I forgave its weaknesses in other areas. It does the job, but just in short, its an iPhone on your wrist, and that is beneficial enough to me that Ill put up with looking like a bit of a geek wearing the thing now in that video.
I also made it clear that the particular requirements that I have for a watch may be very different to yours, and so, while the Apple watch perfect for me, it might be completely useless to you. For example, some people said they couldnt. Think of anything worse than going out for a run and having your phone with you, they wanted that time to be undisturbed. They didnt want people to be able to get hold of them. They wanted the bask in the Tranquility of silence as they exercised. I have a whole bag of with your name on it: theyre, probably the sort of people that take a daily cold plunge and do breath work, and that is fine, its not the watch for them. So what has changed for me? Well, not that much. I still think the Garmin is by far the better sports watch and I think the Apples ability to let me leave my actual phone at home and go out running with just this. Yet still have telephone be able to get and send texts stream, music, GPS. Its all incredibly useful, so, for example, when I recently ran across the Welsh mountains, where a mobile phone in your kit bag was a requirement anyway, and my watch needed to be a foolproof tracking device. No question on with a Garmin. But when I go for my evening, 10K jog around the block with the dog and theres, nothing more to track than distance and time while listening to a bit of Springsteen, the apple is perfect.
But what is different now is that, having had both watches Ive obviously focused a lot of attention on what they do best and as Ive explained, thats pretty clear cut, but Ive also spent quite a bit of time. Looking looking at the extra features that they both offer in order to try and see which one does those better, if I pick one of these, am I then going to be missing out on something buried deep in the menu options of the other that I cant Live without, if I knew about it, so Ive watched every 20 things you didnt know about the Apple watch, videos and 10 coolest features of the Garmin videos. I become expert in the tiny things that set these apart from each other and Ive decided. I just dont care when Im halfway up a hill and want to know how much further to go, because I cant see because of the freezing fog. The Garmin will tell me, and it will be accurate – and I like that and when Im in the gym doing 20 minutes on the rower, and I want to tell Siri to start playing the next track. Once Ive sent a text to Jen saying Ill be home soon, so stick on the sauna. The Apples got it covered and I like that, but when it comes to which one tells me that I got sufficient REM, sleep or my heart rate variability indicate. So I should be working out with extra enthusiasm today or when my pulse ox levels suggest whatever pulse ox levels suggest Im just not interested.
I spent weeks going through a bunch of different apps on the Apple watch to try and replicate the Garmin body battery features, and I got bogged down in the Garmin stamina prediction settings and in the end I just found myself thinking. What are you doing? Youre, almost 50 years old, did you wake up feeling? Good? Yes, do you feel energetic? Yes, do you have a spare hour? Yes, good, go to the gym. You dont need permission from one of these first. Maybe if I was a high level athlete wanting to extract every last ounce of performance, I might be more inclined to pay in more attention to such things, but even then heres. A good example. Ive done a VO2 test in a laboratory hooked up to enough Tech to send a man to the Moon. Ive also had my VO2 max estimated by my almost thousand pound Garmin over many hours of it assessing my physiological metrics. I then ran around a track for 12 minutes. Looked at my results on a chart invented in 1955 and got the same number. I didnt need the tech and even then what is the VO2 number that I did get tell me anyway, that for a big old lump I was quite quick at running a relatively short distance. I know that here I am at my local Duck Pond winning my age group, foreign ER ducks in a 10k race with 500 meters to go someone bigger and fatter than me comes past.
All is not well. There are some things I just dont need technology to help me work out. Interestingly, I made a video recently about how my dog, who doesnt wear any sports tracking device because hes a dog he still loves going for a run. He doesnt track any metric when he exercises he just runs and has a lot of fun that video had a bunch of people saying that they had also abandoned their obsession with tracking every last detail of their exercise and were just finding simple enjoyment in the activity. Rather than the data they called it naked running, hey honey. I like the idea so much that Jen and I are doing a run tomorrow. Just like that. The first time I will ever have run a race without a watch on now. That is very unlikely to be my normal approach to running. In fact, today I did park run where I was aiming to get a very specific time, so I was watching my watch intently, but it will be nice to know that I can just run data free sometimes so what does that mean? I do now with regards picking between these two and as I explain this I am aware I am speaking as somebody that obviously owns both devices, so I will conclude by picking just one. My recommendation is not going to be by both. That said, I use both as I need to which actually means that both of them spend most of their time sat on charge.
Now, if Im going for a run around the block, Ill grab the Apple, a short 10K, probably the Garmin, medium distance, probably the Apple real long distance run where carrying a telephone is normally part of the rules. Anyway, probably gon na go with the Garmin again multiple different types of cardio in the gym Apple watch, with the work Outdoors app that tracks. All that perfectly. I love using it for that were going to meet mates in the pub probably a Seiko thats, a rough Pub G Shock out for dinner Amiga out for dinner somewhere rough. I dont go out for dinner to places that are rough. Sat in the house. Doing nothing buckle up no watch. There is nothing happening to my body while watching Netflix and eating chili Doritos with a homemade avocado dip that I need to track with a watch. Somebody asked me a good question the other day. How do I collate the data from both so Im, currently using training Peaks only for cardio? Somebody also asked how I track my lifting workouts. I have a little notebook and I write stuff down in that. If I need to they said: oh dont use the rep counted feature on the watches, then no, I dont do you know what the rep counting feature on a watch is like on my car. If I move my fingers like this in front of the stereo, some camera sensor thing turns the volume up or down.
I think this mutes it, and this turns it up. I dont know there is a button as well, though, on off up down, because your Tech has a feature. Doesnt mean you need to use the feature, and I do understand the temptation to use the feature when I got the car. I sat on the drive for an hour. Learning all the hand signals. I look like Matthew, Broderick and Project X chatting with the chimps Google it anyway back to cardio that I do track. My Apple watch sends results to training Peaks. My Garmin the same zwift on the bike, the same and Im then currently using exr on the rowing machine again sends the data to training Peaks. So all my information is there and I have to say it is liberating to not be tied to a watch. 24. 7, for the first time in years, theres a tiny part of me that still sees the appeal of one device being all me. 24, 7 still, especially when I put the Garmin on and it pings up with information about how my training is off track or my Readiness state is low because it doesnt know those things because its not with me most of the time and momentarily, I think, would Be nice if it knew me better, but I ignore that I tell it Im going for a run and I get on with it so bottom line. My recommendation hasnt really changed since the last video.
If you simply want the best sports watch, you can get no question. It is still the Garmin. If you need the telephone on your wrist capabilities of a smart watch, the Apple watch Ultra is the best you can get for that. If I could only have one, it would still probably be the Apple simply because there are so many things. The Apple can do that the Garment just cant and theyre things I use on a regular, almost daily basis. In contrast, the Garmin definitely does some things better than the apple looks like a decent sports watch for one, but those are things that it is doing better than the Apple they arent necessarily things. The Apple cant do at all the only thing the Garmin really does for me that the app will just cant is Monitor and track me on a long distance or extreme event, where the information is pretty Mission. Critical, if Im doing any sort of event lasting more than a few hours, a 50k race, definitely a 100K Ultra Im using the Garmin Im running a downloaded map on it all the data. I need right where I want it, and I know it will just work. The Apple might do it, but its starting to get seriously out of its depth. In my opinion, and if nothing else, I dont want to be 10 hours deep into a race. I dont have to start checking things like battery life. In fact, if I only had the apple and was doing a 100K race, Id borrow a Garmin from somebody to do the race.
So three months ago I said that it was Apple for me, 99 of the time, but now I have really settled on probably 50 Apple, 20 Garmin, the rest of the time, a regular watch or nothing at all. As always, I reserve the right to change my mind. This channel is only ever about what I am up to right now. If, in the future, a different bit of Kit will suit my needs better or my needs change. Ill update you accordingly and to finish a few people asked last time if I was paid by Apple to stop wearing the Garmin. The answer is no get a grip. I buy my watches with my money and if I was creating a video for Apple, where I said, as I did in that last video, I dont know who Id recommend this for four apart from people that, like coffee shops, avocados and counting their steps, and me Im not sure theyd consider they got their moneys worth so no either way apple and organ probably even know who I am. However, if they are listening heres what they could do to change, how I use their devices Garmin need to do whatever needs to happen. To make this thing operate on the mobile phone network, I mean if they could do that. Just take my money Apple, I mean theyve got somewhere to go, really they could just start off by just making it look cooler. I was at a family meal recently I look around the table and I realized that more than half the people there had Apple watches on these arent athletes.
If theres a lot of tracking their steps Id, be surprised, theyre, probably more excited about the possibility of having a picture of their Cocker shitsu on the screen saver than anything else, its got a picture of my dog on it. If Apple could just make their watch. Look actually sporty. That would be amazing. I wanted to look at home on Arnolds wrist, not just Uncle Arnolds wrist.oEmN6JiDGF0
