- What's up. This is Ali Tariq here
from SMARTBikeTrainers.com.
The Apple Watch is one of the best smart watches out there,
and without a doubt, it's the most popular watch,
but is it the best fitness watch?
How does it compare to a proper fitness watch
like Garmin or Polar?
So, if you're a runner, cyclist, a triathlete,
and looking for a new watch as a gift this holiday season,
or for yourself, which one should you pick?
Both have their strengths and weaknesses,
and there are plenty of reasons you would opt
for one over the other.
I get this question a lot.
So, I decided to make this video,
and I'm just gonna send this video
to anyone who asks this question in the future,
and maybe you will too.
So, to simply start things off,
the Apple Watch works only with the iPhone,
so, if you are an Android user, then sad to say,
the Apple Watch is not an option for you.
And, on that note, if you find this video helpful,
please take a quick second to hit the 'Like' button.
It does help the channel, and the video quite a bit,
and I really appreciate it.
So, a fitness watch usually has a GPS chip set,
an optical heart rate sensor.
I think this is becoming more of a standard now
with most fitness watches.
And, along with an accelerometer and a gyroscope,
they can track all kind of things you do on a
day-to-day basis, and give you a ton of insight
into your day and how active you have been.
How many calories you have consumed,
and a bunch of other metrics.
The Apple Watch has a pretty good GPS,
and I found it to work very well.
Also, most other fitness watches have
a very good GPS tracking these days.
Some better than others, depending on the brand and watch.
The Apple Watch has one of the best
optical heart rate sensors in the market.
It tracks heart rate very well,
it can also measure the oxygen level of your blood
on demand, directly from your wrist.
These features are also available on other fitness watches.
Most fitness watches measure heart rate,
and now even blood oxygen as well.
Most of the new Garmin watches measure
oxygen level as well.
This feature came to Garmin with the
Garmin Fenix®5X, but then Garmin added it to
the remainder of their line up, such as the vivoactive,
and the Forerunner series.
With all this data,
your watch can track the quality of your sleep,
heart rate variability, recovery,
and monitor certain health indicators.
Even though the Apple Watch is mostly known
for closing your rings,
the watch can do a lot more than that.
For example, it can track your sleep,
and gives you basic sleep information,
like what time you went to bed, and when you woke up.
Respiratory rate during sleep,
and heart rate.
It can even wake you up by slightly tapping on your wrist.
I don't usually like to sleep, or wear a watch
during sleep, but this feature had me wearing
my Apple Watch all the time now,
and I think it's an underrated feature
that does not get mentioned a lot.
However, when it comes to sleep tracking,
other fitness watches can dive deeper into your sleep data,
and give you a ton of insights, such as
the quality of your sleep,
if you are recovered from your previous workout,
and gives you workout recommendation
based on how well you are recovered.
The Apple Watch does not go that deep into your sleep data,
however, there are apps out there that can do that,
but then, you are left
navigating the Apple Watch app world.
The Apple Watch offers basic workout metrics,
and workout functionalities.
You will see your running metrics,
such as workout time, speed, heart race, pace,
and elevation, the ability to start,
stop and pause a workout.
The watch can also detect when you start the workout,
and prompts you if you want to record your activity.
However, the Apple Watch lacks some functionalities.
For example, you can't create intervals,
and follow a structured workout.
This is where a dedicated fitness watch really shines.
Some fitness watches allow you to create your workout
in advance, and then it will walk you through
each interval set.
Some can sync to third party apps like training peaks,
for example, and import your workout for the day
and walk you through each interval set.
Some, like Garmin for example,
can coach you to run a 5K race
or a marathon.
And, this brings us to third party sensors.
Most fitness watches allow you to pair to
third party devices using Bluetooth or ANT+.
This allows you to pair an external heart rate sensor
if you do not want to use the optical heart rate sensor
on the watch, or pair a running,
or a cycling power meter,
or a cadence sensor.
The Apple Watch does not have that functionality
out of the box, but some third party apps
help you to do that, so, you are left on your own
to figure that out on the Apple Watch.
And the Apple Watch is not compatible
with the ANT+ sensors.
The Apple Watch does have direct integration
with the Peloton bike and Apple Fitness Plus,
where other fitness watches don't.
As for racing, running 5K, or running a marathon,
the Apple Watch is pretty good.
However, when it comes to the longer stuff,
like an ultra-marathon, then the battery might be a limiter.
And, when it comes to multi-sports,
specifically triathlon racing,
the Apple Watch is not even an option.
That option does not even exist on the watch
without again, relying on third party apps,
and figuring this stuff out yourself,
and in most cases it doesn't work very well.
Other fitness watches have multi-sport activity
built in that will track swimming, biking and running,
and transition times.
Some like the Huawei rival watch will even detect
which leg of a triathlon race you are on.
Another important feature you will find with fitness watches
is nutrition and drink reminders that you can set up.
So, you are reminded to eat and drink at certain intervals,
which is useful, particularly for long course racing,
or even long days of training.
The battery life on fitness watches varies,
but most will get you through a week or longer
with one charge.
The Polar Ignite 2, for example, has up to
20 hours of battery life in training mode,
with GPS and heart rate tracking,
and can get you up to five days in watch mode.
Some of the other higher-end Garmin watches or churros
can get you a very long time, many, many days,
80 days or 120 days with some of the
Garmin watches with solar.
On the other hand, Apple says the Apple Watch
has up to 18 hours of battery life,
and normal use, counting for a 16-minute workout,
so, expect to charge your Apple Watch every day.
The Apple Watch beats everyone
with fall and accident detection.
When the Apple Watch detects a fall during an activity,
it will give you the option to dismiss an alert,
if you are okay, or call emergency.
If your watch detects that you have been
immobile for about a minute,
it will make a call to emergency service automatically,
and inform them of your location.
After that call ends, the watch will inform
your emergency contacts next, with your location
and letting them know that your watch detected
a hard fall and dialed emergency services for you.
Other fitness watches have a similar feature,
but they will call your emergency contacts
rather than emergency service.
Some devices only provide location tracking
and your whereabouts only.
Now, I don't know about you, but my emergency contact
is probably gonna be also working out
while I'm working out, or maybe sleeping because
they happen to workout super early in the morning,
before anyone is awake, or maybe at work.
And, I am certain that they are not checking my whereabouts
every minute while I'm out riding on the weekend
for three to five hours, to make sure that I'm still moving.
This brings us to phone integration.
The Apple Watch just works flawlessly with the iPhone.
It's always connected, notifications show up,
your workout uploads instantly, and you can use Siri
on your watch to do all kinds of things like,
reply to text messages, turn the TV on,
or check if the doors were locked.
Where Apple missed the boat though,
they have you navigating through three different apps.
You have the health app, fitness app,
and then the watch app.
Each one does certain things related to fitness,
health, app permissions and things related to the watch.
Other fitness watches, like Garmin or Polar,
only have you on one app, and everything is done
within that app, making it easier to manage the watch
and everything that it does.
However, you'll find yourself, a lot of times,
dealing with syncing issues
and having to re-sync with your phone.
Workouts can take time to upload sometimes,
even though fitness watches support notifications,
and some smart features.
Sometimes these notifications work and sometimes they don't,
and in most cases, you can take action directly
from your watch if you need to reply to a message,
or take a phone call.
There is no Siri option either,
or an alternative to Siri in most of these watches.
And, this brings us to music.
Most of you probably like to listen to music
when working out.
Some fitness watches offer music control,
and that's what it is.
Just basic music control.
Basically, it works like a remote control.
As long as the phone is nearby, and your fitness watch
is successfully paired and connected,
you can pause, play, skip and adjust volume.
Some watches offer music source, so you can
run with your watch only if you don't want to
take your phone with you, but in most cases,
it's limited to Spotify.
The Apple Watch can control music or any media playing
on your phone, such as music, podcasts or YouTube videos.
It also offers music storage from Apple Music and Spotify.
You can also download podcasts as well,
so, you can go running and not have to
worry about carrying your phone with you.
If you have the Apple Watch with cellular service,
then you are not tied to your phone and no longer
need to worry about storing music or podcasts,
and it will just stream it through cellular network.
The Apple Watch is easy to shop for.
You have three versions. The 41 millimeter version,
the 45 millimeter version and the SE version which lacks
ECG and the blood oxygen meter.
All of these come with GPS only
or GPS with cellular,
where Garmin and other fitness watches have so many
different models, it makes it so hard to find
the watch for you.
Garmin alone, has 40 different watches.
40 different watches.
Here's the thing about the Apple watch,
it is the most popular watch, and I think
it's the best marked watch.
I used it for all kinds of things.
I'm constantly using the timer, for example.
I also use it to manage smart devices in my house,
reply to text messages, take phone calls,
and things like that.
However, when it comes to fitness,
it's a pretty good fitness watch.
It's pretty good at tracking things,
like the GPS works well, for example,
the optical heart rate sensor is very good.
It knows when you start running,
or start a cycling activity.
It will show your pace, distance, calories,
and you will find yourself
getting sucked into closing your rings
on a daily basis.
However, it lacks certain things that might be important
to athletes, like you cannot pair an external sensor,
like a power meter, for example.
It does not do laps, so, if you have certain
interval sets that you want to do, or a workout,
you're not gonna be able to do that without
looking for a third party app.
If you are a triathlete, it doesn't do multi-sport,
if you are looking for a watch to race with,
and the battery is weak when comparing it to
most fitness watches out there.
Personally, I only use mine for running,
and on the bike, I like to have it on for
fall detection feature, and make it easy for me
to glance at notifications, or quickly reply
to a text message without having to pull out my phone.
Okay, I want to hear from you. What do you think?
Do you use the Apple Watch? Or a fitness watch?
Let me know in the comments.
Okay, there you have it.
Hopefully you find this video helpful.
I will leave links below in the description
to some of my favorite fitness watches,
and if you decide to buy any,
it will help support the channel, and I appreciate it.
Please take a quick second to hit the 'Like' button.
Also, subscribe if you have made it this far in this video
and haven't subscribed yet. Thank you for watching,
and see you in the next video.
(digital chime)
(electrical sound effect)