Why LTT ignors Garmin smartwatches?

[Commodus]

I can't presume to know Linus' mind, my hunch is that watches like those from Garmin and Polar aren't really well-suited to LTT.

 

To make the most of them, you need to be committed to fitness or outdoor activity — maybe even a pro athlete. It's a bit difficult to explain why VO2 Max and cadence should matter to someone who isn't cycling or running every day. Someone who just wants to log their workouts? An Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch is more than enough.

 

As smartwatches, they typically don't complete well. Basic notifications, few if any third-party apps, limited music playback...you get the idea. They're specialized devices that just happen to include a few general-purpose features.

[nielsblack]

I signed up for the forum just to find this discussion, hoping that someone had advice on a good replacement for the pebble, as I feel like I'm in the exact same boat as Linus. I took another look at the Garmin lineup, and for myself the big turnoff is their size and design. They are twice the size of the pebble time (by volume), and their designs look to be marketed more towards the military/extreme sports demographics than the geek/fashion crowd.

 

I've been using an amazfit bip s for the past year, and while the battery life and e-ink screen is great and it shows calls and notifications fine, the interface and interactive features are severely lacking. I miss the polished interface of the pebble, how easy it was to quickly control music playback on my phone, and all the (quality) watchface options.

[Middcore]

1 hour ago, Commodus said:

I can't presume to know Linus' mind, my hunch is that watches like those from Garmin and Polar aren't really well-suited to LTT.

 

To make the most of them, you need to be committed to fitness or outdoor activity — maybe even a pro athlete. It's a bit difficult to explain why VO2 Max and cadence should matter to someone who isn't cycling or running every day. Someone who just wants to log their workouts? An Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch is more than enough.

 

As smartwatches, they typically don't complete well. Basic notifications, few if any third-party apps, limited music playback...you get the idea. They're specialized devices that just happen to include a few general-purpose features.

 

Arguably Gamers Nexus would find the Garmin stuff more in their wheelhouse since Steve does mountain biking, but they don't really do "smart" devices at all, it's strictly PC stuff there. 

[LAwLz]

2 hours ago, Commodus said:

To make the most of them, you need to be committed to fitness or outdoor activity — maybe even a pro athlete. It's a bit difficult to explain why VO2 Max and cadence should matter to someone who isn't cycling or running every day. Someone who just wants to log their workouts? An Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch is more than enough.

 

As smartwatches, they typically don't complete well. Basic notifications, few if any third-party apps, limited music playback...you get the idea. They're specialized devices that just happen to include a few general-purpose features.

I think the argument being made here is that a Garmin watch would be better at the basic things Linus want it to do. 

Linus, and many other people, don't want or need to install third party apps on their smartwatch. They just want it to log some basic readings like heart rate, maybe some basic music controls, and showing the time and notifications. 

 

All the other functions just drains the battery and goes unused most of the time. 

 

The argument is that the Garmin does what people want, and it does it better than popular smartwatches like the Apple watch and Galaxy Watch.

[Thaldor]

IMO Garmin, Polar and Suunto are in a different product segment compared to Samsung, Apple, Huawei and others, same as Diesel, TAG Heuer and other more "classical" watch makers jumping into the Wear OS market are in their own segment. And with product segment I mainly mean pretty much different target group and so feature set and use.

 

Someone like Linus wouldn't probably review those watches from the correct angle and his audience mostly wouldn't get much out of a video about them from the correct angle. See the Louis Vuitton earbuds video, those earbuds are not made for techies or audiophiles or sports people, they are made for someone with too much money and the LV-logo is their life.

You would probably get a video where Garmin MARQ is put against Samsung Galaxy and Apple Watch and demolished because it's $1500 and up, requires own app, doesn't have option for LTE and work as a phone on your wrist, it's being limited to what Garmin develops for it and that it doesn't "even" have a touch screen. In that light, it's going to be a video "Stupid expensive stuff, but we don't judge you if you buy it". They wouldn't give much care for the 12 day battery life, the built-in maps and location tracking, the very accurate biometrics or that some more expensive models have a wristband that can withstand you hanging from it, because those are not "techie" features.

 

Pretty much same as you would ask a offroad racing channel to review a compact "shopping cart" car. They know how to use it, how it works and all about it but their and their audiences angle for it would be completely different from what it is made to be.

[LogicalDrm]

Many angles presented here. Let me add yet another. Pebble was the first smart watch Linus did review. Because they were first real actual smart watch on the market. Followed by Apple, Samsung and others. The classic tech companies. That trend, be it with laptops or other stuff has continued, with occasional dip with "fashion" branded stuff like Louis Vuitton.

 

Garmin is not classic technology company (nor are Suunto (compasses and sport gear), Polar (hearth rate monitors for medical use and sports), or other such brands). They may now offer same product lines, but their roots are heavily on other areas. With Garmin in GPS and other navigational stuff for recreational and professional use. Back in the day (2008-2010) we used Garmin outdoor GPS devices for educational purposes in mapping and sampling. Garmin was big in early car navigation too, at least in Europe. So I think thats the primary reason. They aren't kind of company that would hit LMGs radar unless specifically brought up by someone in community, something going viral or company approaching them specifically. And considering what kind of audience Garmin targets, its unlikely they meet very soon.

 

* I do have Garmin watch in daily use, before that I had normal Seiko. While I did not purchase the watch myself, I don't see them being at that much higher price point compared to similar ones from Samsung etc. They are just targeted and marketed as sports watches over smart watches.

[zaocovik]

On 4/26/2022 at 6:33 PM, nielsblack said:

I signed up for the forum just to find this discussion, hoping that someone had advice on a good replacement for the pebble, as I feel like I'm in the exact same boat as Linus. I took another look at the Garmin lineup, and for myself the big turnoff is their size and design. They are twice the size of the pebble time (by volume), and their designs look to be marketed more towards the military/extreme sports demographics than the geek/fashion crowd.

 

I've been using an amazfit bip s for the past year, and while the battery life and e-ink screen is great and it shows calls and notifications fine, the interface and interactive features are severely lacking. I miss the polished interface of the pebble, how easy it was to quickly control music playback on my phone, and all the (quality) watchface options.

 

On 4/26/2022 at 10:19 PM, Thaldor said:

IMO Garmin, Polar and Suunto are in a different product segment compared to Samsung, Apple, Huawei and others, same as Diesel, TAG Heuer and other more "classical" watch makers jumping into the Wear OS market are in their own segment. And with product segment I mainly mean pretty much different target group and so feature set and use.

 

Someone like Linus wouldn't probably review those watches from the correct angle and his audience mostly wouldn't get much out of a video about them from the correct angle. See the Louis Vuitton earbuds video, those earbuds are not made for techies or audiophiles or sports people, they are made for someone with too much money and the LV-logo is their life.

You would probably get a video where Garmin MARQ is put against Samsung Galaxy and Apple Watch and demolished because it's $1500 and up, requires own app, doesn't have option for LTE and work as a phone on your wrist, it's being limited to what Garmin develops for it and that it doesn't "even" have a touch screen. In that light, it's going to be a video "Stupid expensive stuff, but we don't judge you if you buy it". They wouldn't give much care for the 12 day battery life, the built-in maps and location tracking, the very accurate biometrics or that some more expensive models have a wristband that can withstand you hanging from it, because those are not "techie" features.

 

Pretty much same as you would ask a offroad racing channel to review a compact "shopping cart" car. They know how to use it, how it works and all about it but their and their audiences angle for it would be completely different from what it is made to be.

Maybe solution is to look at something more sensible like vívoactive® 4S It is a smaller watch with shorter battery life and more reasonable priced( 250u$ on amazon)(300€ in Europe ) it has touch screen. Only reason I am not buying it right now is it does not have open water swimming tracker, but i guess that will not be an issue for most folks .

And Swim 2 does not have Garmin Pay

https://www.amazon.com/Garmin-vívoactive-Smaller-Sized-Smartwatch-Monitoring/dp/B07W8ZMXG5?th=1

 

And now i Found a major flaw in Garmin lineup: it has no native Badminton app

 

 

[zaocovik]

12 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Many angles presented here. Let me add yet another. Pebble was the first smart watch Linus did review. Because they were first real actual smart watch on the market. Followed by Apple, Samsung and others. The classic tech companies. That trend, be it with laptops or other stuff has continued, with occasional dip with "fashion" branded stuff like Louis Vuitton.

 

Garmin is not classic technology company (nor are Suunto (compasses and sport gear), Polar (hearth rate monitors for medical use and sports), or other such brands). They may now offer same product lines, but their roots are heavily on other areas. With Garmin in GPS and other navigational stuff for recreational and professional use. Back in the day (2008-2010) we used Garmin outdoor GPS devices for educational purposes in mapping and sampling. Garmin was big in early car navigation too, at least in Europe. So I think thats the primary reason. They aren't kind of company that would hit LMGs radar unless specifically brought up by someone in community, something going viral or company approaching them specifically. And considering what kind of audience Garmin targets, its unlikely they meet very soon.

 

* I do have Garmin watch in daily use, before that I had normal Seiko. While I did not purchase the watch myself, I don't see them being at that much higher price point compared to similar ones from Samsung etc. They are just targeted and marketed as sports watches over smart watches.

I do agree with you but something like vívoactive® 4S would be something that Linus would like. And that why I am trying to expand the knowledge

[LogicalDrm]

24 minutes ago, zaocovik said:

I do agree with you but something like vívoactive® 4S would be something that Linus would like. And that why I am trying to expand the knowledge

Only way to get it on to list is to post into video suggestion thread linked earlier. The list is long.