Garmin - Enduro 3

That month doesn't include hours of tracking each day. That will cut it down to about a week or less. (Source: Garmin Enduro 3 owner)

No, Enduro 3 has the longest battery of all of them. "Better" is relative and what do you mean by "performance oriented"? It will help if you can describe what kind of activities you want to do and what expectations you have from the watch.

I had an Enduro 3 from the release date up until December, and I loved mine, but was disappointed with the battery life. From charge to charge, I was only getting 18 or so days with activity tracking. I picked up the Fenix 8 51mm AMOLED, and I’m somehow getting about a week more of battery life. I feel like Garmin has given up on MIP. The Enduro 3 was supposed to be the king of battery life, but I didn’t find the case. You can find tons of complaints on this of people saying MIP battery life is nowhere near what Garmin claims and somehow AMOLED is spot on. 

I feel like with quick charging the Apple Watch battery is no longer a big deal, just plug the watch when you take a morning dump + shower and it's good to go for the next 24h when you're done. And that's with the ones with bad battery life, with Ultra you can do it every 2-3 days instead of daily. And while Garmin is great for fitness, AW is so much better at being a smartwatch (so much smoother, so much better notification handling/app availability etc) that I genuinely think it's a better pick for a lot of people now. I'd only go for Garmin if you're really a serious runner (3/4 times a week) or truly need mapping. Let's not even mention the fact that AWU3 starts at 799$, and Garmin equivalent is ~1200$. Or Apple Watch 11 (399$) vs Venu 4 (549$). And I'm saying it as Enduro 3 owner, who's relatively happy with the purchase.

Which new running metrics are?I rhink enduro 3/fenix8 have all of them.

True, I get about a month on the Enduro 3 and I use GPS activities quite often like MTB for example. Its insane!

You are correct BUT despite the cool features its the frequent charging that made me ditch ANY smartwatch… The Enduro is the only one that does not make me feel that way, that said im fully dedicated to sports features.

My almost 10 year old Forerunner 735XT lasts longer than that, even if I keep it on during showers and record my commute to work and back every day. Newer, more powerful Garmin watches, like the Enduro 3 or Instinct 3, are even more impressive.

You can't know, what updates other watches may get though. I can buy a Garmin Enduro 3 right now just for the features it has, but it would be very wishful thinking to buy an Apple Watch right now, hoping it will get a feature I want in the future. In other words, if I compare watch A and watch B, I will look at what they can do at purchase and not buy the one with less features/worse specs because maybe in the future it will have more/better features than the other.

I have an E3 but want to try the 970. I still have my T7 Pro and great after 3 years but wanted less weight on my wrist.

Hahah yeah f Garmin at this point. Always been a fan but damn these last few years are going down steadily. Love my E3 and T7 pro before but woof this is awful

Enduro 3 is sure hard to beat. I had Fenix 8 47mm AMOLED but I traded for the Enduro as I wanted longer battery life. I didn't care about the mic and speakers. The Enduro is very light for it's size, has amazing battery life, and I think has better buttons.

If someone is just working out for a 30-60 min a few times a week, sure, it doesn't matter. Many people pursue outdoor activities where they are measuring GPS, elevation, HR, etc. pretty much all day, often multiple days in a row. Canyoneering, backpacking, multipitch climbing, ultramarathons, mountaineering, backcountry hunting, ironman triathlons, etc. In those instances, battery life is a very real issue and the 970 (along with most other AMOLED watches) falls short. I agree that having both is crazy though. If someone needs the battery life, just keep the Enduro and call it a day.