Garmin Fenix 8 vs Apple Watch Extremely 2

• The very best total professional smartwatch for health

  Garmin fēnix 8 AMOLED

  The Garmin fēnix 8 AMOLED blends smartwatch and journey watch options into one extremely superior wearable with a vibrant AMOLED show. It includes a microphone and speaker to take calls and use voice instructions proper in your wrist, plus an expansive record of coaching and navigation instruments. 

  Execs

  • Rugged construct
  • Spectacular battery life
  • Extremely correct well being and health information

  Cons

  • Laggy efficiency
  • Voice assistant feels undercooked

• 

  various for iPhone devotees

  Apple Watch Extremely 2

  The Apple Watch Extremely 2 is a premium smartwatch targeted on providing in-depth health monitoring and a for much longer battery life than a standard Apple Watch. As of 2024 it additionally is available in a black titanium end.

  Execs

  • Show is vivid and delightful
  • Gesture controls are useful
  • Integration with iPhone is unbeatable

  Cons

  • Battery life is not that lengthy
  • Missing in navigation and hardcore health options

Why are you trying to buy a “Professional” smartwatch? It is the primary query you need to ask your self earlier than spending upwards of $800 on one thing you put on in your wrist. Are you shopping for it only for the additional battery life and premium supplies or are you a severe athlete who truly wants the additional abilities solely one in all Apple or Garmin’s high-end watches can present?

The Garmin Fenix 8 is a small however welcome improve to the corporate’s premium smartwatch line (now combining the Fenix and the Epix), including in a microphone and audio system, together with entry to voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant immediately out of your watch. It is now a more in-depth comparability to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, a equally rugged smartwatch that Apple’s aimed toward severe athletes and followers of the outside.

Simply because these “Professional” watches share many options on paper does not imply they’re minimize from the identical material. Now that the Garmin’s new watch is out, we will put it face to face with Apple’s. Here is how the Garmin Fenix 8 and the Apple Watch Extremely 2 evaluate, which smartwatch comes out on prime, and which you need to choose relying in your reply to my first query.

Worth, availability, and specs

Each watches can get costly, quick

Garmin initially introduced its new Fenix line in August 2024. The Fenix 8 is definitely one in all a number of choices the corporate is now promoting, together with the cheaper $799 Fenix E, which does not have a built-in flashlight, microphone, or audio system, the $1,099.99 Fenix 8 Photo voltaic, which makes use of a transflective Reminiscence-in-Pixel show and contains built-in photo voltaic panels to remain charged for longer, and a number of sizes of the Fenix 8 AMOLED (43mm, 47mm, and 51mm), which begin at $999.99.

The 47mm Fenix E is probably the most just like the Apple Watch Extremely 2 by way of worth, however the Fenix 8 AMOLED is a greater comparability due to its built-in audio system, microphones, and AMOLED display.

The Apple Watch Extremely 2 was launched in Sept. 2023, alongside the Apple Watch Series 9 and iPhone 15. In 2024, somewhat than announce an Extremely 3, Apple introduced that the Collection 10’s new sleep apnea detection characteristic could be obtainable on the $799 Extremely 2, and the watch would come in a new black titanium finish.

The Apple Watch Extremely 2 options the S9 SiP, which helps issues like on-device Siri and gesture controls. It additionally has a show that may attain 3000 nits of brightness. Past that, the Extremely 2 is the unique Extremely. Garmin to an identical tact with the Garmin Fenix 8. The one new additions are the audio system, microphone, and improved sturdiness for diving. The remainder of the modifications are largely constructed round what these few {hardware} tweaks allow. It is a very comparable Fenix to the one Garmin launched earlier than. For a comparability between the remainder of the watches’ specs, take a look at the desk beneath:

• 	Garmin fēnix 8 AMOLED	Apple Watch Extremely 2
  Model	Garmin	Apple
  Coronary heart Price Monitor	Sure	Electrical and optical
  Coloration Display	Sure	3000nits
  Battery Life	As much as 16 days (7 days always-on) for 47mm mannequin	As much as 72 hours
  Lens Materials	Corning Gorilla Glass or sapphire crystal	Sapphire
  Case Materials	fiber-reinforced polymer with metallic rear cowl	Titanium
  Case measurement	43mm, 47mm, or 51mm	49mm
  Show	AMOLED	1,185 sq mm, 410×502 pixel decision, 3000 nits 49mm
  Connectivity	Bluetooth, ANT+, Wi-Fi	GPS & Mobile
  Well being sensors	Coronary heart fee monitor, thermometer, pulse ox monitor, barometric altimeter, compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient mild sensor	Physique temperature, Blood oxygen, Optical coronary heart fee, Electrical coronary heart fee, 86dB siren, Depth Gauge
  Dimensions	47 x 47 x 13.8 mm (47mm mannequin)	49 x 44 x 14.4mm
  Weight	Chrome steel: 80 g, Titanium: 73 g (47mm mannequin)	61.3g
  Cell funds	Sure	Apple Pay

The Fenix 8 and Extremely 2 do not change designs that already work

Apple and Garmin are delivery watches which can be equivalent to their predecessors

In terms of model, you do not go to Garmin’s high-end smartwatches or Apple’s Extremely for one thing that might be described as “trendy.” These are rugged gadgets that, for probably the most half, put their performance above their look. That is not a nasty factor.

The Garmin Fenix 8 includes a spherical show with a thick titanium or chrome steel physique (with elective sapphire entrance glass), and is available in a number of sizes relying on how massive a display and the way massive a wrist you might have. The 43mm possibility must be ok for most individuals, however you may go as much as 51mm in the event you’re on the lookout for the biggest potential possibility, even bigger than the 49mm Apple Watch Extremely 2.

The Fenix 8 has a touchscreen that can allow you to management a majority of the smartwatch along with your finger, however there are many buttons too: three on the left aspect of the watch that management energy, scrolling via menus, and issues like notifications and music controls, and two on the correct aspect that allow you to management exercise monitoring and entry voice assistants.

The Apple Watch Extremely 2 is a bit more stripped down as compared. Apple’s smartwatch has an OLED display that is flush with the physique of the watch, and formed extra like a rounded sq. than a circle. Meaning the watches’ interfaces are a little bit bit simpler to learn and in addition that the Extremely 2 is appropriate with the Apple Watch bands that Apple and third-party accent makers have made previously.

There isn’t any getting round it, the Apple Watch Extremely 2 is thick, identical to the Fenix 8, although it has an easier set of buttons to deal with. On one aspect there’s the Digital Crown used for navigating interfaces and activating Siri, and a aspect button that launches into Management Middle or Apple Pay. And on the opposite aspect is the Motion Button, which might be assigned as a shortcut for launching a selected exercise and some different choices.

Which watch design works higher for you’ll rely totally on style. I believe there’s an actual allure to a spherical show, however both manner, you are going to be coping with a heavier smartwatch than what you’d get for just a few hundred {dollars} much less.

Apple runs circles round Garmin in software program simplicity, not performance

The Garmin Fenix 8 can do greater than the Apple Watch Extremely 2, so long as you care about health

Apple makes higher designed software program than Garmin, however Garmin is keen to let the Fenix 8 do greater than Extremely 2. Sure, Garmin makes you shift via a number of layers of interfaces and menus simply to make use of its watch, but it surely’s nonetheless an informative, if a bit complicated, working system.

It is price it for all the info Garmin surfaces and for all of the various things the watch can monitor, although. The Fenix 8’s Glances display surfaces extra frequent issues like altimeter readings or coronary heart fee variance, but additionally actually, actually particular information factors like the placement of your canine or the subsequent gap in your golf sport. That is on prime of notifications out of your smartphone and all of the well being and health options you may presumably need.

The addition of the speaker and microphone array implies that the Fenix 8 also can entry voice assistants, an on-device assistant that controls the watch, beginning a exercise or adjusting settings, and a cellphone assistant that requires a connection to your smartphone and an web connection to work. In our evaluate, we discovered the cellphone assistant works properly, however oddly, solely offers you audio suggestions — visible outcomes are nonetheless displayed in your cellphone.

Apple’s strategy to watchOS is as simple to know because the iPhone’s iOS, with some added depth the place it issues. The primary display of the working system is the watch face, with a stack of widgets or a extra conventional app launcher, a scroll or press of the Digital Crown away. Apple’s closely depending on apps, in that you will have to launch one to see or do something significant on the watch. Glanceable data is proscribed to problems on a watch face or widgets within the sensible stack.

The Apple Watch Extremely 2 is extra selective within the well being and health options it affords, but additionally has extra of a wealthy app ecosystem than the Garmin. It is extra of a little bit iPhone in that manner. That is a helpful manner to consider the software program of the Garmin Fenix 8 in comparison with the Apple Watch Extremely 2. Garmin’s watches grew from hardcore health and GPS trackers into smartwatches. The Apple Watch began as a smartwatch — emphasis on the sensible — and is simply now making an attempt to do a number of the hardcore health monitoring and navigation duties that Garmin has been doing for years.

If you happen to want that deep integration along with your smartphone, otherwise you want your smartwatch to do and entry all the identical issues your smartphone can, watchOS and the Apple Watch Extremely 2 is perhaps a greater match. The Garmin Fenix 8 covers all a very powerful issues a smartwatch ought to do, but it surely’ll by no means have the extent of integration with a smartphone that an Apple Watch and an iPhone have.

The Fenix 8’s well being and health monitoring runs laps across the Apple Watch Extremely 2

So many exercises tracked, a number of well being components measured

Garmin has collected a wealth of exercise monitoring and navigation options in its a number of many years of making wearables. There’s fundamentals like sleep monitoring, exercise monitoring, or coronary heart fee monitoring, but additionally a rising record of extra sophisticated or particular metrics, together with Coaching Readiness, which measures your restoration, Coaching Standing, a measurement in the event you’re coaching successfully, and an Endurance Rating, which describes your potential “to maintain extended effort.”

The Fenix 8 has a coronary heart fee sensor, a pulse oximeter, and the same old assortment of a compass, accelerometer, gyroscope, and altimeter. Mixed, Garmin’s capable of monitor a number of totally different sports activities and exercise varieties, on prime of offering issues like GPS navigation and topographic maps.

Apple’s record of well being and health options touches on the identical basic themes, however is extra restricted as compared. The Apple Watch Extremely 2 can monitor your coronary heart fee, coronary heart fee variance, take an ECG, and do sleep monitoring. There’s exercise monitoring for a choose group of exercises, with extra in-depth options for issues like working, biking, and diving. It has the fundamentals that most individuals will want, however won’t go in-depth sufficient for probably the most severe athletes.

Apple does embrace some distinctive well being and security options like Crash Detection, Irregular Coronary heart Rhythm Notifications, and as of watchOS 11, Sleep Apnea Detection, that Garmin does not have, however whether or not that makes it price shopping for over the Garmin Fenix 8 may differ drastically from individual to individual.

The distinction between the battery lifetime of the Garmin Fenix 8 and Apple Watch Extremely 2 is nice

We’re speaking about days somewhat than hours

In our exams of the Apple Watch Extremely 2, we had been capable of squeeze greater than Apple’s promised 36 hours of battery life. If something, the corporate is conservative with its smartwatch battery life estimates, it is potential to even blow previous the 72 hours Apple guarantees when Low Energy Mode is enabled. However that pales compared to what’s potential on the Garmin Fenix 8.

With the Garmin Fenix 8, battery life extends into the times, not hours. With the always-on show characteristic disabled, we had been capable of get 16 days of battery life, handily trumping the Extremely 2’s two days. That falls to seven days when the always-on show is enabled, however that is nonetheless improbable battery life in comparison with mainly each different smartwatch on the market.

The Garmin Fenix 8’s battery efficiency might be tweaked additional if you use it solely as a GPS navigation system, and that is actually the purpose. It is a way more versatile instrument than the Apple Watch Extremely 2, even when it behaves like much less of a “pc.”

Which smartwatch is best for you?

There are apparent similarities between the Garmin Fenix 8 and the Apple Watch Extremely 2 by way of the multipurpose function they function smartwatches, however the particulars matter. The Garmin Fenix 8 won’t be a dramatic enchancment on its predecessors, but it surely’s completely a greater health system than the Apple Watch Extremely 2, and relying on what stuff you’re fascinated about protecting monitor of, a greater well being instrument too.

Garmin fēnix 8 AMOLED

The Garmin fēnix 8 AMOLED blends smartwatch and journey watch options into one extremely superior wearable with a vibrant AMOLED show. It includes a microphone and speaker to take calls and use voice instructions proper in your wrist, plus an expansive record of coaching and navigation instruments. 

The place the Apple Watch Extremely 2 wins is its integration with the iPhone, and its potential as a tool that may run apps in its personal proper. Apple would possibly push the envelope with new well being monitoring options down the street too, but it surely stays to be seen whether or not one thing like optical blood stress monitoring makes its manner again to the Apple Watch Extremely 2 particularly.

Apple Watch Extremely 2

The Apple Watch Extremely 2 is a premium smartwatch targeted on providing in-depth health monitoring and a for much longer battery life than a standard Apple Watch. As of 2024 it additionally is available in a black titanium end.

Which brings us again to the query I posed at first. Why are you making an attempt to purchase one in all these “Professional” smartwatches? If it is for the premium well being and health monitoring options, spend a bit extra and purchase the Garmin Fenix 8. You will recognize simply how a lot it is capable of do. If it is for extra premium supplies and an extended battery life (and also you personal an iPhone), the Apple Watch Extremely 2 goes to be your only option.