I ditched my Apple Watch for a Garmin. Here’s why

It’s also pretty thick, and the bump with all the sensors always digs into my wrist and leaves an indentation. It was not a pleasant feeling. Also, when I go for a run (5K and 10K most of the time), after a couple of minutes, I feel like my left hand is much heavier than my right hand. I ended up holding my keys in my right hand to offset the weight difference.

I know this sounds crazy, but if you try the Garmin Vivoactive, you will notice the difference immediately. This thing weighs only 23 grams (half the weight of the Apple Watch), and even with the silicone strap attached, it’s only 36 grams. This makes a huge difference, at least for me. I can barely feel the watch there.

Furthermore, the Garmin Vivoactive 5 takes regular 20mm bands, so you can easily replace the silicone one with a nylon or a fabric one and shave another couple of grams off. The bottom of the watch is nearly flush with the body, and this helps a lot, as well.

Now, I know that some people complain about the build quality of the Vivoactive 5, calling it a toy (actually, here in Bulgaria we had these bags of snacks with children’s toys inside, and one of my colleagues called the Vivoactive “a snacks watch”). But I don’t mind, the watch looks sleek and classic with its rounded shape and two side buttons.

Oh, my God! The battery life!

Four days of battery life with always on and extensive sport and sleep tracking? Check!

Don’t you just hate when you see the “Low battery” warning on any gadget? The term “battery anxiety” is a very real one. I used to charge my Apple Watch at least twice a day – once in the morning after I’d slept with the watch (it’d be at 50–60%, which can’t last for the rest of the day), and another time in the evening in order to be sure the watch wouldn’t die during the night and mess up the sleep tracking.

You can say what you want about charging and making it a habit, but prior to the Apple Watch, I rocked a Withings ScanWatch, and it lasted two weeks on a single charge. That’s how a watch is supposed to be.

The first day with the Vivoactive 5, when I glanced over the battery indicator and saw it at 80%, I felt utter joy. I kid you not! Not having to take off my watch twice a day was a major relief and piece of mind. I’m consistently getting 4 days out of it, and I do some sort of training every single day, whether it’s a run, weight training, badminton, hiking, or whatever.

So, I really like how invisible this watch is. I can barely feel it on my hand, and I don’t have to think about charging it twice a day. These two reasons alone are more than enough (for me) to never look back, let alone with regret, about ditching the Apple Watch. But there’s more.

Sports tracking done the right way

Sensors are doing their job and Body Battery is a great idea!

I know Apple Health is good, and it has this elaborate algorithm that tracks some really weird metrics (time spent on one foot, walking asymetry). I’m not saying these are irrelevant, but I much more like the Body Battery idea that Garmin uses.For those of you unfamiliar with Garmin devices, it’s a composite metric that tracks your overall energy level throughout the day. It takes into account things such as heart rate variability, stress levels, sleep quality, activity, and more.

The basic idea is that you sleep to replenish your Body Battery, and you actively deplete it during the day doing different things (stressing out at work, comes to mind). It’s a very organic and intuitive idea, I think that’s how humans operate on a daily basis.

How accurate is it? I have no idea, but I can tell that when my Body Battery is low, I feel like crap, and after a good night’s sleep, when it shows 90+, I feel great.

Add to this Garmin’s expertise in sport tracking (there’s a huge variety of sports and workouts you can track with the Vivoactive 5), and you’ll get the picture.

Platform independent

Now, this one can be a bit controversial because it actually triggered the change for me. My iPhone 13 mini kept dying in the middle of the day (awful battery life), and I decided to go back to a bigger Android phone (5,600 mAh silicon-carbon battery, I’ll let you guess the brand and the model).

So, I really couldn’t use the Apple Watch with this phone. The Garmin Connect app, on the other hand, is available on iOS and Android with no missing or different features. It’s a huge plus not to be stranded in an ecosystem.

Initially, I was forced to make this switch, but as it turned out, it was for the best, hence this article.

The Price

Last but not least, comes the price. The Apple Watch 8 (or its successor with similar specs) starts at $399, the specific model I was using cost $449 at launch. The Garmin Vivoactive 5, on the other hand, retails for $299, and $150 is not a small difference.

Conclusion

That’s my girlfriend, she’s got one too!

First, there’s no mic or a loudspeaker on the Vivoactive 5, and there are some rare cases where I would’ve wanted to quickly take a call just to say I’m gonna call later or whatever. Second, another rare scenario would be when I want to type a response without taking out my phone. The Apple Watch can do this, while the Garmin relies on predefined responses.

But overall, the Vivoactive 5 does everything that’s important to me, and it does it well. It shows the time (always-on mode), it tracks everything I need monitored, I can use it as a NFC proxy to pay on POS terminals, and it lasts for days without hurting my wrist in the process. So, I don’t think I’m going back to the Apple Watch anytime soon.

What do you think about this? Any similar experience/story you wanna share? Or have I missed something going from the Apple Watch to the Garmin and singing the praises of the latter? Let me know in the comments below.