
25 in Fitness Trackers
Apple - Watch Series 6
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Reddit Reviews:
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Based on 1 year's data from Mar 17, 2026 How it works
Liked most:
76
7
"the fact that they integrate to the Apple Watch simply cannot be understated for me, I couldn’t go back to Garmin now, it is just so much part of my life now. ... Tracking weightlifting workouts, nutrition and other stuff, analysis of the data, send messages to HomePod, changing NC automatically, sending emails …."
"I unlock my computer and phone with it."
"If the device is something you’ll be wearing throughout the day and you find use out of the smart features, you will have a better experience using the Apple watch day to day. ... The Apple Watch is hands down the best all purpose watch on the market and it isn’t even close (if you’re an iPhone user, obviously)."
51
17
"It’s well known that Apple has the best optical hr in the business and has since the series 4."
"The later AW is best in class for non chest straps. ... For daily fitness, Apple Watch is just better IMO. ... It being the most accurate heart rate tracker not a chest strap makes it the best fitness tracker to me. ... Maybe I should say it's the best workout recorder because it records the most accurate heart rate data. ... I just really like the AW for every day fitness more so than what Coros or Garmin can provide. ... Executing a training plan I've set out for myself and recording the results. Results being the duration and heart rate data during the planned workouts. I then upload that data to Training Peaks and use Training Peaks to keep up with my training load over time. So the every day fitness part is executing and recording my workouts. ... Apple Watch is data recording. Together they are tracking my fitness."
"I also validate my heart rate with a cheststrap occasionally and I will say that the watch is very accurate up until going beyond 175 bpm."
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38
"It’s also pretty well established that AW has the best motion tracking which shows up when you use the swim feature for distance. ... In swimming, it’s not even close. 100% of garmins worn during our pool swims are incorrect, regardless of swimmer level. ... Every single Garmin incorrectly reported swim distance vs manual counting. Freestyle 4000m in 25m pool."
"I had an Apple Watch, replaced it with a garmin forerunner for 1 month it was the worst! So inaccurate and when I’d swim in pools it would so often double count my lengths… I went back to Apple Watch"
"Does an excellent job of recording sessions"
42
5
"the Apple Watch cellular model lets you leave your phone behind. ... Perfect for activities like running."
"Being able to run with my Watch only connected to cellular service is soooo freeing. ... I have music and podcasts available to keep me entertained and getting audio cues from Runna for my running plan is just perfection."
"With the cellular plan on my watch I don’t bring my phone with me."
8
1
"my AW alerted me to heart irregularities that sent me to the ER and findings of a small heart attack and a secondary artery in my heart with 99% blockage. I am AW for life now."
"The heart monitoring capabilities alone are second-to-none."
"needed a bit more like the ECG to make sure I’m not relapsing. ... It was cardiologist that pushed me in this direction as well. ... the AW just gives me a bit more insight and monitoring moving forward now."
Disliked most:
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14
"If you are in long sleeves in the rain, you need to lock the touchscreen to prevent accidental touches. But that prevents you from using the touchscreen without holding to unlock for a few seconds. So if you are doing intervals, it can be hard to end the interval quickly."
"I already got sick and tired of touch screens with my Apple Watch ... Dripping sweat, rain and sleeves really screw with touch screens ... where I live we have like 6 months worth of snow so needing to take off my gloves and disable a screen lock before being able to pause my workout is an annoying PITA."
"the Apple interface being badly interfered with by water/and clothing contact in heavy rain. ... I lost a trail marathon stats and mapping etc mid run. ... It was frankly infuriating"
I’m not as hardcore as you. Doing fairly intense, compared to the average 71 year old, but I do exercise very rigorously for over an hour everyday. I’m tracking what is happening especially for endurance in improving general health and stamina. I do pool exercise and needed to have a watch that could last 6 to 8 hours per week every week. I went through my Series 6 with 5 replaced watches (I kept AppleCare) every year. So the Ultra Series has better water redistance and battery life. In can appreciate your comment about heart rate. I have seen problems with outlier measurements. There are one or two times, very intermittent. I’ll get a recorded heart rate reading about double the rest of the recorded HR. My anecdotal observation is it tends to happen in the pool. If I see the reading I will tighten the bad a bit and it doesn’t seem to continue. This happened on my old Series 6 and it has happened on my Ultra 3. It probably comes down to the intent of the design combined with the use case. If I go to my doctor every office visit begins with vitals being taken. It’s a snapshot in time. If a reading is about of whack they may repeat it in a few minutes once or twice, another slice of time. All Apple Watch products are really good at monitoring trends over time. You can setup alerts snd there are apps that can do additional analysis using the collected data. I look at trends events there too low and too high. The outliers do not really impact trend data. The other thing about trend data is knowing when your trend data occurs. I had a heart rate that would go below 40 bps in the 15 to 30 minutes before I wake-up in the morning. I got an alert that I was able to tell that to my Primary doc and Cardiologist. They suggested a change that needed to monitor for another couple of weeks. In my use case, the heart rate monitoring capability is 100% effective. It’s so effective I have the entire days HR data displaying in a compilation a full view of yesterday’s data and to date of the current day. Tap the graph and I can drill into the data, even the outline events. I’m not sure if the watch face comes from the heart health app I have or it’s in the Apple Watch stock watch faces. I have been enrolled the multi-year Apple Heart & Movement Study. The study has found that the Apple Watch sensor is accurate to within 5 bpm (beats per minute) for 98% of the time when users are in sedentary (or resting) mode, and reaches 99.7% accuracy with an error margin of 10bpm. The sensor’s heart rate accuracy varies: * 96% for outdoor cycling, * 87% while walking, * 88% while running, and * 91% during high-intensity workouts, with a 5 bpm error margin when recording in the foreground. Starting with the Apple Watch Series 6, accuracy has improved significantly. * Data from 480 participants logging 21,000 hours shows 89% accuracy (within a 5 bpm error margin) in the background, compared to 72% in older models.
Had AW 6, 7, 10... Had Garmin Fenix 7 somewhere between AW... Now with Garmin instinct 3. ALl has pros and cons. none is perfect. For me it's great to switch from time to time... I would happily do the same between iphone and android, but the cost of switch in terms of software is crazy...
I’m switching from S6 to UW3. The battery life is main motivation. I’m also a fitness enthusiast between running, gym and martial arts. I wear my watches all the time including to bed. The extra battery life is gold in my view. Plus the looks is great too.
I have an Apple Watch 6 which is probably like 5 years old, I run with it on cinematic mode and stream music from my phone which seems to help. I ran 2hrs earlier today and still have 75% battery.
Had a quite similar journey Series 6 to Fenix 7S to Ultra 3
Let me preface this by saying that I already know that this is stupid, lol. I have 2 AW's, a 5 series, and a 6SE. They both only last for about 2hrs or so when I use them during my runs to listen to music. If i plan to run for about 3hrs, I take the 2nd watch with me and throw it on when the first watch dies.
I’m still rocking with S6.
Here, here. Me too. Went from an AW6 to an Instinct 2 and eventually to a used Enduro. Couldn't be happier. I get weeks on a charge, health tracking is great, and it has all of the smarts I want but is an excellent timepiece and less of a distraction. (Bonus: new Instinct 2 + used Enduro 1 cost less than a new base model Apple Watch.) I also find the Garmin/Apple Health integration to be pretty solid. Rarely have I gone from something from Apple to something from another company and been this happy with the change.
I have an Apple Watch (6, now 11) and Garmin 965, that I both use for sports (marathon running) and daily life. At one point I used the Apple Watch for daily life and running, and the Garmin for running only (yeah 2 watches). Afterwards I changed and used the Garmin for everything, and the Apple watch for running and sleep only. The reason I went for Garmin daily, was to identify myself as an athlete. However, the metrics you get from Garmin (readiness) is something you can have with an Apple watch as well, with apps like Bevel, Athlytic or The Outsiders. Today, I'm back at the Apple Watch for daily usage, for convenience of apps and voice commands. And to use my phone less. I think it just comes down to what you need most. Garmin is focused on "sports", while an Apple watch is more seen as lifestyle, yet can do similar things with tweaking & apps. However, to comment on the battery life, any Garmin will give you way more than an Apple Watch. I don't remember when I last charged my Garmin, while my Apple Watch was charged this morning. Also, a Garmin will be better for connecting external data sources, customizable data fields, navigation while you're out and about.
I'm interested in purchasing an Apple Watch Ultra. Though I am wondering if it is worth it to buy the 3 or just save money and go for the 2. I currently wear the Series 6 and it's durability has been astounding thus far. I'd like to upgrade and would prefer to have something even more durable now that I work outside. I landscape but also paint and power wash. My initial reason for first purchasing an Apple Watch in 2021 was because I had started going to the gym. I still do on a regular basis and enjoy completing all my rings each day. I also enjoy hiking as my friends and I travel specifically for this reason. I would also like to reduce my screen time, and would feel more comfortable leaving my phone behind at times if I know I'm still able to keep in contact with people via my watch. And any accessory recommendations would be met with gratitude. Any advice would be very much appreciated, thank you.