I can’t believe it took me a year to realise this… But I
am glad I finally realised… that it’s foolish to try and compare
this ABSOLUTE GEM of a smartwatch with something like the Apple Watch Ultra.
So unless it’s really necessary, I am not gonna do that today.
Today, I want to take you through what it’s been like using the Garmin Epix Pro Gen 2… From
the perspective of someone who is fairly active… but pretty much an average dad.
I do a bit of running, maybe 20-30K a week,
some weight training but… definitely not what you’d call an elite athlete.
And a quick disclaimer before we start, I think it’s important to be transparent.
I did not buy this Epix Pro myself, Garmin sent this to me to try it out,
and I have to send it back to them… but Garmin are not compensating me
in any way to make this video and had no say in the content.
This video does a have a sponsor though, and that is Welltory.
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and personally I just love how accurate the information is based on how I’m feeling.
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Before we allow ourselves to geek out a little bit on the specs, I am going to
try and talk about this watch with you as if you were my mate and we were down at the pub.
From a design perspective, this is a beautiful watch. I have it next to the Apple Watch Ultra
and the Fenix 7X Pro here so you have an idea. But to me, this is the best looking of them all.
For a lot of people, looks don’t matter when it comes to
such an advanced fitness tracking device… and I totally get that.
But to me, who wears this on a day-to-day basis, it’s important that it looks good,
depending on what I am wearing.
The most surprising thing about this watch.. given this size… It’s how comfortable it is.
I don’t have huge wrists and sure, depending on the shirt I am wearing
it can get a little uncomfortable, but most of the time, I don’t even notice its there.
Sure, it’s heavier than my Epix Gen 2, but to give you an idea… I sleep with it on, most weekdays!
Mainly because I like to track my sleep and we will talk about that in a little bit.
This leather strap makes it look so elegant whilst at the same time,
still maintaining that rustic and almost aggressive look.
Love that!
This watch is packed full of features,
and has pretty much everything you need from a Health and Fitness tracking perspective.
There is no way I could talk about every single feature in a video,
but here is a useful table for you with some of the main features of this watch.
We will talk about the software aspect throughout the video, but just last month
March 2024 Garmin released quite a big update and what caught my eye was the Sleep Coach feature.
This helps you find the right balance between training and resting and as
someone who doesn’t have a very regular sleep pattern I am finding this really useful.
As I mentioned earlier, I do sleep with it on most weekdays and it’s been pretty
accurate in terms of correlating how I feel and the data points that we get here.
Honestly… No one really needs to be told by a piece of tech that they
are tired and should rest. You know how you feel!
But I really like to drill down into the data and see how a particular level of exercising,
the time I went to bed… how stressed I was that day made a difference to my sleep.
So having that data is really important.
The other update that caught my eye,
but I don’t really use it is the automatic switching between activities.
This will be awesome if you’re doing triathlon for example. Basically you can just focus on the race,
and the watch will take care of recording the splits between swimming, cycling and running.
And that works even on a track that you never went to before.
If you know the channel you know that I prefer to
actually use the products that I review, outside the studio…
One of the big questions that I personally had was
how much better the sensor is on the Epix Pro, in comparison with the Epix Gen 2.
And as you can see here, at least with the Apple Watch Ultra, you know,
it seems to be very consistent in how quickly it catches up with my heart rate
I still think having a proper heart rate monitor, will be even more accurate,
but for the majority of people I think that will be good enough.
Alright, let’s go back to the run!
In my experience in the last 3-4 months, the Epix Gen 2 usually takes anywhere
between 20-30 seconds to register an increase or decrease in my heart rate.
Everyone is different of course, but the Epix Pro was more like 3 to 5 seconds,
never more than 10 seconds, very similar to what I see on the Apple Watch Ultra.
This is not a comparison video, but the the Apple Watch Ultra… 9 times out of ten.. seemed
to display… pretty much what I was feeling, so I’m quite happy with the Epix Pro accuracy here.
And it makes sense right, comparing it with the Epix Gen 2 here, the main difference (outside
the bigger display and casing materials of course…) is that upgraded heart rate sensor…
I was just anything this video and realised that uh,
I wanna make sure there's something clear when I say about the heart rate accuracy.
As you can see here, it's a bit of a ridiculous test, right?
The accuracy itself. The rate reading is accurate across
pretty much every watch that have tried so far.
But for me, what's not the same is the the kind of the the speed
at which he recognises changes so for example,
if you run a mile and you immediately stop you kind of you know, start to cool down a bit.
I think the Epix Gen 2 or Epix standard as some people call it.
It's a little bit slower.
Sometimes 20 to 30 seconds slower to recognise that change in heart rate. Whereas the Epix Pro
and the apple watch as well to be fair, are a little bit quicker to recognise
that change in heart rate. I hope that made sense anyway.
And if that heart rate delay alone… is important to you,
then I’d say the investment in the Epix Pro is worth it, because it’s noticeably better.
That said… a heart rate monitor… chest strap is about 100 quid (or 100 dollars) so
even if you bought the Epix Gen 2 and the strap, you’d be saving some money there.
Because a lot of the software features that we got on the Epix Pro,
are now rolling back to the Epix Gen 2 as well.
But I am curious to know this, because I am quite new to the Garmin world really…
What would be the main reason for you to go to the Epix Pro instead of the Epix Gen 2?
The other main difference between the two is the flashlight. This is awesome little upgrade,
with a super bright light here.
Personally it’s not something I’ve used a whole lot,
but every time I do use it I am glad it’s there!
We will talk about the battery life which is also a big upgrade but before that,
something else I noticed is better is the accidental touches when in water.
With the Epix Gen 2 I was getting accidental touches, even whilst in the shower.
And it’s not completely gone with the Pro, but it happens a lot less from what I can tell.
Initially I was a little cautious about the leather strap but after a couple of
runs in the rain I decided it was fine. I don’t shower with it on every time but
I’d say I’ve done that at least once a week.
We are getting a very natural patina look that you get with
anything made of leather, but nothing crazy.
The display is without a doubt, my favourite thing about this watch. I used to have this
misconception about Garmin watches that the displays weren’t bright enough.
As you can see here, in many different situations the display is plenty bright and
very easy to read. Really vibrant colours… where they need to be and very sharp.
Now something that you might appreciate… is the fact that
you don’t need to look at the display when you’re running.
The buttons are really nice and tactile and you get a strong
haptic feedback as well if you want to pause your workout for example.
It’s one of the things that I really disliked about the Apple Watch Ultra.
And I know you can configure the Action Button to do certain things, but to pause a workout,
just using Apple’s own workout app you have to swipe to pause and that’s not ideal.
Something that I think Garmin does really well is give you raw data.
There is a nice app now that you can have on your phone and it’s been getting
better and better, and there’s a tonne of insights too when you go to the Garmin Connect…
It’s really amazing, you can create different dashboards in there and
track pretty much anything you want, and customise these views to suit your preference.
I love this approach. It can get confusing though if you have multiple health trackers, for instance
right now I’ve been trying this Ultrahuman ring and all this data can get a little overwhelming.
Especially when I was trying to move away from the Apple
ecosystem and having multiple smartwatches, it’s a nightmare.
Luckily we can use 3rd party apps like today’s sponsors Welltory
which will make sense of it all and display it in a beautiful way for us.
But if you already have a simplified setup,
and you don’t mind logging into the browser version every now and then…
Then Garmin Connect can be all you need really...the data is beautiful,
and without a doubt the most complete I’ve ever seen.
They’ve literally got everything in there there.
One of the things that made me even consider Garmin, was the battery performance.
I 100% take it for granted now and I don’t think I could ever go back to something like
an Apple Watch Ultra until they get to a point where they last more than 2 days.
I can’t tell you how nice it is not to have to worry about charging the battery every other day.
We are all different and I do appreciate that some people
will just leave their watch charging while they take a shower or overnight…
but for the longest time, I wanted to wear the watch to track my sleep as well,
and not having to worry about the battery makes a big difference for me!
Now… Not to sound too dismissive about Garmin’s amazing battery…
But after about 7 to 10 days…not many people should care really.
So if you are considering the Epix Gen 2 instead of the Pro…
because of the battery alone, have a think about what your tolerance is.
For me I have to charge it once every 3 weeks
right nw which insane versus once every 2 weeks on the Epix Gen 2.
Lots of positive things, but what about the things that I don’t like about this watch?
I think for me it has to be software update experience.
I am definitely past comparing this to an Apple Watch or any other smartwatch,
but I do think Garmin needs to simplify things for us.
Here is an example…
This what I actually had to do just to get Spotify to work.
First you try to download the app via Garmin Connect. Nah.
Garmin Connect will tell you that there’s a software update and to install the music app,
you need to update the watch software first, via Garmin Express.
Which is on a computer, not on your smartphone.
And that is not straightforward either.
It took about 20 minutes for some reason, just to
download and install Maps. And I had no choice on the matter.
Even though all I wanted was music, I HAD… to go through this software update and install Maps.
I think you can avoid the maps being installed, but you have
to ready the small print and it’s not very intuitive.
So yes… I’d love if Garmin removed that step and just allowed us to
manage all software updates… via one single app.
Then maybe we can just schedule the update to happen overnight. Like most things do these days.
I’d love it if we could just download the updates
on the phone… and let the watch install them later.
Once I got music installed, it was fine.
Bluetooth connection to AirPods is simple enough and it stays connected during my sessions,
which usually start with a 30 minutes 5K run and another 30 to 60 minutes of weight training.
This watch is a serious, serious watch. To me, the display alone, especially in this
Sapphire Crystal model… makes this a fantastic option for many people. Extremely durable.
Like with my Epix Gen 2, the GPS accuracy is insane on this watch, regardless of
where I am and the battery life is one of those things that I simply don’t worry about anymore.
I love what Garmin are doing, they keep innovating in this space like the latest
smart blood presser monitor, which looks incredible really.
I do wish we see quicker improvements on the software side of things,
but I appreciate having better data and insights over a super polished User interface.
Make sure you are subscribed for my Fenix 7X Pro review and I hope to see you soon!
Stay fit!