Fitness/GPS watch input wanted

[Casey]

What’s the good Garmin to get nowadays?

I've been wearing the Epix 2 since April 2022. It replaced a Fenix 5 that I'd been wearing daily since March 2017, and was getting a little long in the tooth. I'm happy with it. It has just enough phone connectivity for me—I can't reply to text messages with it, but I can at least see them, see who's calling, etc. and decide whether I want to pull my phone out of my pocket. Where the watch really shines is with fitness tracking. It has a ton of capability for various exercise activities, suggested workouts, and collects all kinds of data, if you're into that. The AMOLED display does eat into battery life a little, but if you mess around with the settings, you can easily get 5-6 days of use out of it before needing to recharge it. Definitely pricey, but I expect it to last me just as long as my Fenix, so it was worth the investment to me. If you're an eligible buyer, Strohman Enterprise offers a decent discount—that's where I buy most of my Garmin products.

[pangloss]

I have a three year old 245, which I have loved. If I were going to replace it tomorrow, I'd probably get a 265. Running features are most important to me. I'd also like an Instinct 2 Solar. Going up the product line: latest Fenix or maybe 965. Garmin has lots of good choices

If you are going to use this on the trail and outside if cell phone coverage, pay attention to which GPS watches talk to the Garmin GPS app. I'm pretty sure the instinct does. I have a Garmin inReach, so this function isn't as important to me, but it would be a major selling point if I didn't have the inReach.

Sent from my moto g power (2021) using Tapatalk

[RoyGBiv]

Not sure if these are good deals, but, REI has them on their annual sale for $200-off...

Fenix for $700: https://www.rei.com/product/211693/g...4225_e30b6631d

Epix for $800: https://www.rei.com/product/211628/g...4225_f30b68499

[DallasBronco]

I've had good luck with my Forerunner 955, but I mostly use it for running, hiking, and walks. I can't really speak to the other exercise types. Acquires a GPS signal very fast, and syncs with my phone quickly.

[Eugene]

I went with one of the Garmin VivoMove series which they call a 'hybrid' smart watch. I figured anything more would be another distraction and I'm not interested in trying to read and respond to messages on a watch sized screen. The Vivonove has mechanical hands and a small display. I disable notifications for every app on my phone except anything my family would contact me on so those are the only notifications I get on the watch. Lets me glance down at the watch and know if/how important the message is. Does the basic heart/sleep tracking and can do workout tracking as well.

[Nephrology]

I'm normally not into smart watches but definitely can't recommend FitBit. I have a Charge 4 that I am wearing as part of a research study and it kinda sucks. Way over-estimates both heartrate and steps.

[Chance]

Anyone have experiences with brands other than Garmin? Polar and Suunto seem to have some good options as well.

[Rocky Racoon]

Anyone have experiences with brands other than Garmin? Polar and Suunto seem to have some good options as well.

Coros is gaining traction among trail runners. I know a couple of serious runners that chose it over Garmin.

https://coros.com/watches

Polar and Suunto have been left by the wayside, it seems.

[El Cid]

Anyone have experiences with brands other than Garmin? Polar and Suunto seem to have some good options as well.

After getting a Suunto Core around 2014 or 2015 that could only be read in perfect lighting conditions I swore them off as an option. Supposedly they fixed that but it’ll be a long time before I try them.

[DallasBronco]

Anyone have experiences with brands other than Garmin? Polar and Suunto seem to have some good options as well.

I had the original version of the Coros Apex, and I really like it. I just picked up the Apex 2 Pro. I haven't run with it yet, but I hope that it removes some of the irritating things about my Forerunner 955. The way the Forerunner calculates Training Readiness and HRV depend heavily on your sleep. I don't sleep that well but function fine, so the constant low numbers for TR and HRV are very demotivating, and I hope that Coros removes those problems.