Heart rate, elapsed time, distance, and, above all, your own pace or speed: specific sports watches and the Apple Watch show numerous metrics during training.
Despite the variety of information, there is often only time for a glance when running, swimming, or cycling. When hiking, there is more time for it and the information is no less interesting the greater the distance and the greater the gradient. That’s why we used the Adventure Walk Thuringia, organized by Laufszene Events, to take a closer look at the watch face of the Garmin Watch Ultra and the Garmin Forerunner 965 during the activity.
Preparation: Importing the GPX route to the smartwatch
A hike often begins with finding a beautiful destination and planning a route. For guided events, the route is predetermined but unknown. So the next step is to import the route.
In this case, there is a GPX file and a Komoot link for the route. The Komoot app is available for both Apple Watch and Garmin, where you can install it on your device through the Garmin connect IQ app. Without Komoot, you upload the GPX route to the Files app on your iPhoConnectsend it to the Garmin Connect app via the Share menu. Among other things, this displays a preview of the elevation profile and optionally activates shutdown notifications.
Apple doesn’t offer GPX import for navigating with Apple Maps, for example. The only option here is to use third-party providers like Outdooractive or Komoot.
The preparation also includes a look at the display fields, which can be customized for both. On your Apple Watch, open the Training app, select Hiking, and use the three-dot menu to access settings and change Hiking Training Views. You can choose information about distance and speed. Apple also displays altitude and heart rate information if you want. With Garmin, data pages can be changed on the watch or in the app. There are a variety of fields for stopwatch, distance, altitude, pace, speed, and other metrics like running efficiency and cadence.
Garmin surpasses Apple not only in navigation
The Komoot app on the Apple Watch offers little more than rudimentary step-by-step instructions, time, distance, and average pace. The “Training” application adds the current altitude, as well as the altitude meters traveled and the altitude profile for the last 30 minutes.
Apple Watch App Training
Während der Aktivität Wandern weist die Watch App Training under other information about the rhythm of time.
A note here: since Komoot only works on the Watch when the iPhone is nearby, it’s advisable to use Komoot on the iPhone and not the Watch if the Training app is active there at the same time. Running both apps in parallel on the watch can sometimes cause the workout app to close prematurely.
The Forerunner 965 more than satisfied the thirst for information: in the terrain, for example when trail running or mountain biking, the Forerunner 965 not only displays inclines and inclines in figures, but also graphically. For example, on a route with an altitude difference of approximately 600 meters, one diagram shows the distance and altitude difference for the current climb or descent and another the current position on the overall route. These screens will help you pace yourself and motivate you with visible progress.
Battery life and diagrams for speed, altitude, and more.
After seven and a half hours, including two half-hour breaks, the goal was reached and the Forerunner 965’s battery was down to 70 percent and the Watch’s down to 40 percent. That’s not a bad thing for the Guard; However, the Watch Ultra has a more powerful battery than the Apple series models.
The watch shows a summary of the activity, while the training app on the iPhone saves the log permanently. Shows altitude, pace, and heart rate profile diagrams, only the map can be enlarged. We didn’t change the default setting of taking the time after each kilometer on either device; 5 km sections would have been enough for 32 km. Apple shows time, pace, and heart rate per kilometer, and Garmin time, pace, and distance. The latter makes sense if you set a specific time for lap tracking, which is possible with Garmin.
Garmin offers graphs of pace, cadence, altitude, aerobic and anaerobic training effect, temperature, heart rate, and time spent in different heart rate zones. In landscape format, another value of altitude, pace, temperature, cadence, or heart rate, for example, speed through the altitude profile, can be superimposed on the diagrams.
Apple Fitness App
The training log overview lists the most important values.
Apple and Garmin records differ slightly in terms of duration and pace (min/km) or speed (km/h): the Forerunner automatically pauses recording when you stop. Apple only offers this for outdoor running and cycling. When walking, the watch does not stop and can therefore reduce the average speed. Therefore, we paused the Apple Watch recording manually during breaks, which caused slight deviations in the total distance.
GPS route and heart rate comparison
We also wanted to look back at how well the two manufacturers match up when it comes to GPS and heart rate measurements.
Garmin allows you to export in several formats after you log in to connect.garmin.com. Apple allows you to export “all health data” through the Health app’s user menu (in the overview at the top right), which also contains a training routes folder. Alternatively, you can extract the route through third-party apps like HealthFit.
Ideally, a heart rate sensor would have validated the heart rate, which would have been inconvenient for seven hours. However, the values of both watches are almost identical.
As for the GPS, both behaved harmoniously on all ups and downs. There were no major errors. In the total distance of 32 km, we only found one section where Garmin had lost the GPS signal for a few meters.
Apple Watch Ultra and Garmin Forerunner 965 path
Recording of the route on Apple and Garmin is carried out in a parallel fashion for almost the entire route.
Garmin remains the specialist, the Apple Watch the all-rounder
When it comes to sports activities, Garmin cannot be surpassed by Apple. Not with built-in tools, and even with third-party applications, it is difficult to find convenient functions at this scale.
However, what specialists like Garmin lack is the ability to point to a destination spontaneously and easily. Therefore, when we had to return by public transport, only Apple could help us with the press of a button: “Hey Siri, navigate to the station”, we wouldn’t want to do without it.
Keynote USA News
For Latest Apple News. Follow @Keynote USA News on Twitter Or Google News.
![Upgrade your AirPods with must-have accessories [Video]](https://keynoteusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Upgrade-your-AirPods-with-must-have-accessories-Video-150x150.jpg "Upgrade your AirPods with must-have accessories [Video]")
