this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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I want to like smart glasses. And wearable tech in general. Too bad it's all entirely centralized, monetized, and exploited for political gain.
I love wearables as well and I'm deeply bothered by apple having the best smart watch in terms of sensor quality. Almost all wearables are locked behind one app or an other, the whole scene kind of blows.
I have a Garmin watch and I can't see any benefit for my usage from an Apple watch. Quick reminder that Garmin watches have 10/15 days battery life and decent privacy 😀.
10 / 15 days! No way. I have owned multiple garmin watches over the years and none of them have ever lasted 10 days, even when brand new. Even if you don't actually use them for recording activities I can't see them ever lasting that long.
My current watch is admittedly 4 years old at this point so I expect some degradation but I average 3 recorded activities a day and the battery will last 3 days at the absolute best and that is running it down to like 2%
I like garmin hardware but struggle to believe anyone is getting 10 days or more from a single charge!
A solar Instinct can go for weeks. With gps tracking 3-5 hours a week.
Just had a look at this, interesting, although it is bolstering its battery life with solar power.
Do you have real world experience with it? Does it last as long as it claims? I have to charge mine every 2 - 3 days as it is right now.
Mine is a newer 2X Solar. The solar definitely helps (although obviously only when the sun is out, winter training might not be similar). I have just over 40% remaining after a few weeks and like 3.5 hours of gps tracking time. Im definitely sold on the solar part. My only Apple Watch comparisons are the first few generations but HR seems similar to those (good enough to be useful but probably not as good as a real chest strap).
Part of it might be the simple screen which I like - feels like gshock.
Appreciate the replies and definitely going to look into this watch a little bit more. I like the aesthetic of it and the fact it still has buttons as that is an absolute must for me.
It seems like I record more activities than the average person so probably can't get as much life out of it but even one extra day is a 50% improvement over what I get right now!
Bear in mind that the instinct line isn't a full smart watch. It's focussed on fitness stuff, and suffers outside of that.
They do have a full smart watch line though I think?
That suits me, I couldn't care less about the smart watch crap that is included on most of their watches, I have it for the fitness tracking. So even better!
routinely get nearly two weeks out of my Venu 3
Are you not recording any activities / using any GPS?
Obviously everyone has different use cases and experiences so I don't want to disregard other experiences it just seems so far out of reach for me compared to the experiences I have had across 5 or 6 different models of their watches over the years.
I have mostly used different iterations of the forerunner range and a Vivosmart which was fucking trash IMO.
I get a week out of my 2 year old first gen instinct solar no problem. Normally 2 hours of GPS and 6-7 hours of live heart rate broadcasting.
If your outside in the summer, the solar makes a decent difference I think. Useless in the winter though (except if it's snowy maybe).
I use it as a step counter and a sleep tracker every night (with plugin), don't use any of the built-in activities though
That makes more sense I guess as I know the GPS is a major battery drain. Maybe that model is also better with battery in general as I know for sure none I have ever owned would last that long just using it as you do. :)
It is the gps, took mine on a trip to peru and forgot the charger. Lasted the whole week starting at ~60% until the final day when we did a hike to machu pichu and I started tracking the activity, and it went from 10% to empty in an hour.
Mine is a Venu 2, 3 years old, and it lasts 11 to 12 days. I record activities 3 times a week only though.
Judging by all the replies it seems like the Venu watches have exceptionally good battery life in comparison to all the forerunner models I have had!
I've always taken for granted all Garmin watches had equivalent battery life, good to know.
Sensor quality for heartrate is really good on the apple watch. There are a few studies about it. Garmin is really solid from what I can see though and ya, amazing battery life.
Do you have a heart issue? Because if not, its like having a thermometer, still know when you have a temperature, but real time tracking. Asking because my girlfriend does have a heart issue, and there is really no other reason for it to be "the best."
Apple watch hits 98% agreement with the polar h10 while Garmin is only about 80%. It's kind of a big difference. Sure most don't really need it but that 18% means it can practically be used for medical studies, the Garmin not so much.
I hate apple but I was really impressed with the watch.
Impressive, but ultimately no difference. And it cannot be used clinical studies as a primary endpoint. It is being evaluated for use as a secondary endpoint.
All I can say is that the heart sensor is good enough for my usage (running, cycling, sleep monitoring).
I use Gadgetbridge for my CMF Watch 3 Pro and I have only noticed minor issues.
When I learnt about the concept I was immediately in. Even just the option to remind me of people's names would be life-changing, not to mention all the other information and reminders and whatnot not only at my fingertips but right into my eyeballs.
And then Google's glasses came out and were a data privacy nightmare and that day I think I lost another bit of my childhood innocence.
Same. I gave up on the tech future a long time ago.
Wearables could thrive in an open environment. But meta is currently the only big player and I don't think they have the will and corporate capability to open themselves up. They will play in their walled garden and that will cut down on creativity and innovation.