Apple Watch Series 10 vs Garmin Forerunner 265
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: 2024
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: 2023
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Watch Series 10 offers an advanced fitness tracking system that measures steps, calories burned, distance traveled, active minutes, and elevation changes. It automatically tracks daily movement and provides real-time heart rate zone updates to optimize workouts. The Move, Exercise, and Stand rings help users stay motivated by closing daily activity goals.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The Garmin Forerunner 265 is engineered for runners and athletes, offering precise tracking of steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with personalized daily goals. It provides advanced running dynamics, giving users deeper insights into their form and performance.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: Designed with comprehensive health tracking, the watch continuously monitors heart rate, blood oxygen levels (SpO2), and skin temperature. It includes high and low heart rate alerts, irregular heart rhythm detection, and AFib history tracking, providing crucial health insights. The Heart Rate Variability (HRV) feature assesses cardiovascular health trends over time.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: This device features continuous heart rate monitoring, VO2 max estimation for assessing cardiovascular fitness, advanced running dynamics including ground contact time and vertical oscillation, and respiration tracking for a comprehensive view of physiological data.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Watch Series 10 delivers up to 18 hours of battery life in normal use and up to 36 hours in Low Power Mode. Fast charging allows it to reach 80% in around 45 minutes, ensuring minimal downtime between charges.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The Forerunner 265 offers impressive battery life, providing up to 13 days in smartwatch mode and up to 20 hours with continuous GPS tracking, ensuring sufficient power for extended training periods.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The watch tracks sleep stages (light, deep, and REM), offering personalized insights into sleep patterns. It also monitors respiratory rate and blood oxygen levels during sleep to detect potential disturbances, such as sleep apnea.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: Advanced sleep monitoring is included, tracking detailed sleep stages and incorporating a Pulse Ox sensor to monitor blood oxygen levels during sleep. This provides valuable data for assessing sleep quality and recovery.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: With precise dual-frequency GPS (L1 + L5 bands), the Apple Watch Series 10 delivers accurate location tracking for outdoor activities like running, cycling, and hiking. It provides real-time pace, elevation, and route mapping in the Apple Fitness app.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Forerunner 265 provides accurate outdoor activity tracking without requiring a paired smartphone. It delivers precise pace, distance, and route data essential for runners and cyclists.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The watch supports over 100 workout types, including HIIT, strength training, swimming, cycling, rowing, and yoga. Advanced metrics such as stride length, ground contact time, running power, and vertical oscillation help athletes optimize performance.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The Forerunner 265 supports a wide array of workout modes beyond running, including biking, swimming, cardio, and strength training, with real-time statistics displayed during activities for performance monitoring.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Watch Series 10 automatically detects workouts such as walking, running, cycling, swimming, and elliptical sessions, ensuring that activities are logged even if users forget to start tracking.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities such as walking and running, ensuring seamless recording of these basic movements for a complete activity log.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: Seamlessly integrates with iPhone (iOS 17 or later) via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It syncs with Apple Health and supports third-party fitness apps like Strava, MyFitnessPal, and Nike Run Club.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The Forerunner 265 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Fitness+ app provides guided workouts, live metrics, and personalized fitness plans. Users can also sync with third-party wellness apps, including meditation and recovery tracking platforms.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app provides users with detailed analysis of activity data, performance metrics, and health statistics. The app allows for goal setting, training plan customization, and access to a large online community.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: In addition to fitness tracking, the Apple Watch Series 10 includes smart notifications for calls, texts, and apps. It supports Siri voice commands, Apple Pay for contactless payments, and music streaming via Apple Music and Spotify. The SOS Emergency Call feature provides enhanced safety by detecting severe falls and crashes, automatically notifying emergency contacts if needed.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: Beyond its athletic focus, the Forerunner 265 includes practical smart features such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It supports Garmin Pay for contactless payments and allows for on-device music storage.
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: With a WR50 rating, the watch is water-resistant up to 50 meters, making it suitable for pool swimming, water workouts, and showering. It also tracks swimming metrics, including stroke count, distance, and pace.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: With a water resistance rating of 50 meters (5 ATM), the Forerunner 265 is suitable for swimming and showering, making it a durable companion for triathletes and those who incorporate swimming into their training.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The ultra-bright LTPO OLED Retina display offers sharp colors, deep blacks, and excellent visibility in direct sunlight. The always-on display ensures users can quickly check the time, notifications, and health data without raising their wrist.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The Forerunner 265 features a vibrant AMOLED color touchscreen display, providing excellent readability in various lighting conditions, including bright sunlight, for clear visibility of data and maps.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The watch features a responsive touchscreen, a Digital Crown for precise scrolling, and haptic feedback for smooth navigation. With customizable watch faces, users can personalize their interface based on preference.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The device offers a user-friendly interface with a combination of traditional buttons and touchscreen navigation, providing quick and easy access to features and data during workouts and daily use.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Watch Series 10 features a lightweight yet durable titanium or aluminum case with interchangeable bands. It is available in multiple sizes and finishes, ensuring a comfortable fit for all-day wear.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The Forerunner 265 features a lightweight and comfortable design with a soft silicone band, making it ideal for extended wear during training and everyday activities.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The built-in SpO2 sensor continuously measures blood oxygen levels, providing real-time insights into respiratory and overall health, especially useful during sleep and high-altitude activities.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for monitoring blood oxygen levels during sleep, providing valuable data related to sleep quality and acclimatization.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The ECG app allows users to take electrocardiograms (ECGs) on demand, detecting signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). Results can be shared with healthcare professionals for further analysis.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: It is important to note that the Garmin Forerunner 265 does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: With Mindfulness and Breathe apps, the watch offers guided breathing sessions and stress-level assessments. It tracks heart rate variability (HRV) to indicate periods of high or low stress.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The Forerunner 265 includes stress tracking based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress levels throughout the day.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Recovery Insights feature provides data on heart rate recovery time, sleep quality, and fatigue levels, helping users determine when to train or rest. Apple Fitness+ offers personalized recommendations based on recovery status.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: The Body Battery energy monitoring feature provides insights into the body's energy reserves based on activity, stress, and sleep data, helping users optimize training and recovery strategies. It also offers a Training Status feature to assess overall training effectiveness.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: ✅ The watch provides core health and fitness features for free, but Apple Fitness+ (optional, $9.99/month or $79.99/year) offers guided workouts, advanced training insights, and exclusive content.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: A key advantage of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Forerunner 265 are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: $399.00
Check Apple Watch Series 10 Price *2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 265: $449.99
Check Garmin Forerunner 265 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you