As a Garmin watch user, I don't mind the bulk, it's mostly the general _shape_ of the Apple Watch that kills me. It's shaped in such a way that it just sorta knocks into things in weird ways.
I'm ultimately still very glad I ditched the Apple Watch in lieu of a more fitness oriented watch but still like to keep an eye on what they're doing. Looks like a decent upgrade for someone that hasn't upgraded in several generations.
I think it depends entirely on what you want to do.
Do you want a smart watch or fitness watch? I think if you want a real smart watch you're better off with something else, like an Apple Watch.
If you're looking for fitness, I think the Forerunner series is a great starting point. What you'd want to do is look at what you _want_ to do and then go look at the specs for each watch.
For example, if you want to see maps on your watch and get turn-by-turn, that's not available on all watches, and you'll have to move way up the range to get it.
If you want to run, do strength training, monitor your heart rate all day, sleep score, HRV, etc. Those are usually available on all devices.
Their training readiness is another interesting option, that's only available on the higher end watches. Same with endurance score, and a few others.
I have an Instinct 2X because I really like the battery life (40 days just as a watch, I get around 30 or so with a workout every day). The 2X is a pretty big watch though, at 50mm. There are 2 and 2S models that are smaller though.
Usually the sizing goes S for small, just a number for the middle range size, and X for larger size.
With the Forerunner you get more features as you go up the number range. So 1xx, 2xx, and 9xx are the more common model ranges.
I think for most people the 255/265 are pretty good starting points and can often be had at pretty nice prices on sale. I think I paid $250 for my Instinct on a sale recently, might have been $350.
If the Enduro 3 was available at the time I might have gone with that.
Another option is looking at Coros, I think bang for buck, they're the better option usually. The Pace 3 is a stellar watch at that price range. My only complaint with Coros is they don't do ANT+ and that's a feature I kind of want/need since I have a number of devices greater than the typical bluetooth stream count (usually they max out at 2 bluetooth connections simultaneously). But if Garmin ditches MIP displays, I'm switching to Coros.
Edit: Also, based on Garmin's pricing for the Fenix 8 and Enduro 3, I'm really afraid to see the pricing for new models going forward. $800+ for a fitness watch is nuts. The other models are likely to come in under that, but, Enduro 3 went down in price (weirdly) but the Fenix 8 is up rather significantly over the Fenix 7 and Epix that it replaces.
The problem is more little mini watch apps are adding more functionality / touchable area, to the point it's hard on my older 41mm (I think? Maybe 40?) watch to touch some of the touch areas.
I'm guessing most devs use the giant size watches.
Even Apple themselves are guilty of ridiculously small touch targets these days. Hold the side button until the emergency screen comes up. I defy you to hit the “power off” button on a 40mm watch on the first try. Hell, I have a hard enough time on my AW Ultra with these old eyes.
agreed : it's worse when your display has a hardware failure, you remember how to try turning it off, and you screw up and trigger an emergency instead, which i've done.
Even the biggest Apple Watch screen is still tiny by any reasonable metric.
They aren't filling the extra space with "distractions", they are giving you space for an extra widget or two and making it marginally less painful to type.
It's partially the general UX of charging a watch. I find it easy to put my iPhone on a stand next to my bed every night, but for some reason I find it annoying to take off my watch and put it on the same stand. Both devices generally need the same amount of effort to charge but ones more of a burden.
Maybe I just want to do it less because I'm wearing it not carrying it in a pocket or having it sit next to me somewhere.
Yea, this was the one "feature" I've wanted. My S8 is still working just fine, so no upgrade this year, but I'm glad they're trimming it back after several years of slight increases.
Thick wrist watches are in style every few decades, nothing says "wealth" in just about any century quite like "big chonky arm jewelry". I personally wouldn't have minded more battery rather than thinner. 18 hours still seems far too short compared to competitors, especially with a growing emphasis on sleep tracking. (Though I appreciate that claims here that charging time went down even further with this thinner model.)
