Garmin Fenix 8 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Choose between the two sports watches

The Garmin Fenix 8 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 are two watches with similar aims: to be the watches you strap on for hikes, treks, and long runs out on the trails, while also being pretty handy in between that adventure time.

We’ve thoroughly tested both watches across the team and know what the Fenix and Ultra are capable of. These are two standout outdoor smartwatches, which makes picking between the two all that more difficult.

Yet, for their similarity in objective, these are also two very different watch experiences. Garmin’s flagship outdoor watch delivers industry-leading battery life in an AMOLED display, a wide range of case sizes and options, and a sports tracking experience with greater breadth and depth.

It lags behind the Ultra in the smart features, AMOLED quality, and, depending on which Fenix 8 you’re considering, affordability.

These are some key differences, but there’s plenty more to understand about these two watches if you’re trying to pick between them. We break it all down below.

Specs comparison

Price and versions

Neither of these outdoor smartwatches aren’t cheap. But, if you want the most affordable, it’s the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is available for $799/£799, while the Garmin Fenix 8 is a little pricier and starts at £949/$999. It also smashes through the four-figure mark and reaches $1,199/£1,039 if you opt for the biggest size option.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 comes in just one size: 49mm. Notably, as we’ll discuss more below, that comes with Bluetooth and LTE as standard.

The Fenix 8, meanwhile, comes with either an AMOLED screen or one of Garmin’s more traditional transflective, memory-in-pixel ones. The latter offers additional solar charging support to provide a small boost to the battery, too – again, more on that later.

The Fenix 8 Solar comes in 47mm and 51mm sizes, while the Fenix 8 AMOLED is available in 42mm, 47mm, and 51mm options. The most affordable Fenix 8 AMOLED is still considerably more expensive than the Ultra 2.

So, the Fenix 8 gives you size options, but the Watch Ultra 2 is the cheaper buy.

Winner: Apple Watch Ultra 2 for price; Fenix 8 for options

Design, display, and build 

Let’s start with the obvious design difference: the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is square and the Fenix 8 is round. Beyond that, both have the materials and rugged nature that make them more equipped to withstand some rough and tumble.

On the sizing front, these are both big watches to wear. The 49mm Watch Ultra 2 sits between the 47mm and 51mm size options available for the Fenix 8. So, if you want a smaller watch, you can grab the 42mm Fenix 8 AMOLED (there isn’t a 42mm Fenix 8 Solar option).

Both use titanium to offer a high-grade look and lighter feel compared to the likes of stainless steel and aluminum. Garmin does also have the Fenix 8 in a stainless steel bezel, too, however, if you prefer that look in exchange for some added weight over the titanium model. We’ve tried both, and we’ve never noticed much of a difference either way.

The bigger size on the wrist is something we’ve grown to get used to, and, while the Ultra 2 feels the more manageable, especially compared to the 51mm Fenix 8 (pictured below), they do soak up plenty of space.

From an interaction and navigation point of view, Garmin gives you five leak-proof physical buttons – much more than Apple. The Ultra 2 features a larger button that can be mapped to offer quick access to features like its back-to-start navigation mode or third-party apps, as well as the classic Digital Crown/Side Button combination.

There are AMOLED touchscreens on both watches, and they’re two of the best available in brightness, vibrancy, and sharpness. Apple offers much more on the brightness front (3,000 nits of peak brightness) and we’d estimate slightly more on the sharpness front, but both are high-quality displays and are very responsive to touch input.

When it comes to straps, you, again, have plenty of options. Apple offers a range of strap materials to suit your preferred adventures, and they’re very easy to remove and replace. It’s a similar story for Garmin, though it mainly bundles the Fenix with a silicone one. It does offer optional extra, too, if you prefer the feel of silicon or metal. Whichever you choose, none of these first-party bands come cheap.

One extra you’ll find on the Fenix 8 case is the LED flashlight. This can operate at a range of brightness levels, and can also be set to stay constant, strobe, or pulsate. Apple has a torch mode as well, but that works by illuminating the bright watch display and isn’t anywhere near as effective – either as a phone torch replacement or a safety feature.

A note on waterproofing: the Fenix 8 and Ultra 2 are watches built for similar adventures underwater. Both are fit to be submerged in water up to 100 meters depth. In addition to that, both include depth sensors and can be used for recreational diving up to 40 meters depth.

Winner: Draw

Smart features and OS

From a smartwatch point of view, we’ve found the Apple Watch Ultra 2 to offer the slickest experience. And while the two watches match up in many areas, Apple’s smartwatch feels like the more complete package.

One huge factor here, though, is your smartphone. The Ultra 2 may bring smarter features, but it only works with iPhones, while the Fenix plays nice with Android and iOS. So, if you’re an Android user, there’s only one option: Garmin.

If you opt for the Fenix 8, you’ll enjoy good notification support, music features that let you store audio from services like Spotify, contactless payments via Garmin Pay, and access to Garmin’s Connect IQ storefront.

The Watch Ultra 2 simply offers more. It does all of the above and also gives you the option of cellular connectivity for more standalone appeal, richer and more actionable notification support, a smart assistant, and a vastly bigger app store that’s worth regularly tapping in to.

Garmin has introduced new voice features to its Fenix line, with the ability to make calls, summon your phone’s smart assistant, record voice notes and access watch features hands-free. Apple does all of that and more, so that’s not an area where Garmin is the superior smartwatch.

Apple’s interface feels easier to get to grips with, too. While Garmin has more physical buttons, it does feel like it’s still toying around with making the most of having a touchscreen on its watches, and now a color screen to make it feel a bit more like smartwatches like the Ultra 2.

Winner: Apple Watch Ultra 2

Battery life

There’s only one winner here, and that’s Garmin. Whether you go for the smallest Fenix 8 model or opt for AMOLED or the solar versions, you’ll get more battery life between charges.

Apple states the Watch Ultra 2 should last up to 36 hours in normal use and can go up to 72 hours in its Low Power Mode. That’s pretty much what we’ve experienced in our testing, using it with and without the screen set to always-on and using features like GPS. It’s a smartwatch that can comfortably get through a couple of days.

With the Fenix 8, well, it’s a very different story. Again, we’ve used a mix of the screen set to always-on and the raise-to-wake function, and it’s gone for weeks. If you look across the sizes, the Fenix 8 can last anywhere from 29-48 days.

When it comes to GPS performance, the story is similar. Apple states 12 hours of GPS battery life, while Garmin’s Fenix can hit over 60 hours – and can also go for longer if you opt for a solar display and use the watch in locations with consistent direct sunlight.

The bottom line is that every Fenix 8 model can outlast the Watch Ultra 2.

Winner: Garmin Fenix 8

Tracking performance

These watches are primarily pitched as great watches for outdoor lovers – and also offer everything you could want to track activities outside of hikes and climbs.

Performance-wise, these are two of the best we’ve tested for tracking activities like runs (trail and road), hikes, swims (pool and open water), and even home workouts. They’re not perfect in all departments, but, on the whole, it’s a solid experience across the board.

On the outdoor front, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 offers some of the strongest GPS accuracy performance we’ve seen on a sports watch, and, like the Garmin, features the latest dual-frequency GPS mode. This aims to boost accuracy in challenging locations like tracking near tall buildings and deeply wooded areas. The Garmin performed well here, too, and, if you crave GPS accuracy, these have you covered.

When you turn to them for maps and navigation, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has the benefit of offering native mapping support, as well as alternative mapping support through a host of great Apple Watch apps. That native support is geared more towards hikers, but some apps can give you something more running-centric, for example.

Garmin, meanwhile, has arguably the richest and most detailed mapping support across a range of activities. That extends to navigation, too, where it’s a bit more fully fledged out of the box compared to Apple.

In terms of helping you explore, letting you upload routes to follow, and offering great touchscreens to view maps on, they both do a great job. You might just need to work a bit harder to get that on the Apple compared to the Garmin watch.

If you care about heart rate accuracy, particularly on the sports tracking front, we’d say it’s a similar story for both of these watches. They aren’t the most accurate for high-intensity training, but, for steadier-paced workouts, the data is pretty reliable on the whole. Both offer the ability to pair up external heart rate monitors and it’s easy to do that, too. We’ve used a range of straps from Garmin, Polar, Wahoo, and Coros, and they’ve paired just fine on the Fenix and the Ultra 2.

In the training features and analysis, the Fenix 8 offers more, assessing your readiness to train, suggesting your ideal recovery time, and closely monitoring training volume. You will need to search out additional apps for the Watch Ultra 2 to delve deeper into your training data. Apple has recently introduced new training load insights through watchOS 11 that have been knocking around on Garmin watches for some time.

What Apple has in its favor in tracking is what it offers in terms of integration with Apple’s own Fitness+ platform. If you want a smartwatch that works for home-style workouts, it has that in its favor. You can build and follow workouts and training plans for running and cycling on the Fenix 8, but it’s a slightly slicker experience on the Ultra 2.

Health tracking is a win for Apple over Garmin, too, if that’s something you want from your smartwatch. While both can reliably track heart rate and monitor sleep with skin temperature insights, the Ultra 2’s ECG readings are much more wide-ranging. The Fenix 8 is capable of ECGs, but, at the time of writing, these are only approved for use in the US.

Third-party app developers can also make use of Apple’s onboard sensors to offer further health insights. This seems less of a priority for Garmin on the Fenix 8. Yet, it can still track things like blood oxygen (which you can’t do on the Ultra 2 due to the ongoing ban on the Blood Oxygen app) offer women’s health tracking like Apple, and ping you with abnormal heart rate alerts. But it’s not the main reason you’d want to grab the Fenix over the Ultra 2.

Winner: Draw

Verdict

That’s our take on how the Fenix 8 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 compare in the key areas. So, which one should you buy? Here’s our take.

Choose the Garmin Fenix 8 if… you want an outdoor watch and smartwatch that offers weeks of battery life and plenty of native training and analysis features.

Choose the Apple Watch Ultra 2… if you’re an iPhone user and want a great smartwatch experience with solid tracking and access to apps that can improve that overall tracking experience.

The post Garmin Fenix 8 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Choose between the two sports watches appeared first on Wareable.

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