Garmin Descent G1 vs WHOOP 4.0
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: 2022
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: 2021
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Garmin Descent G1 is a robust dive computer and outdoor GPS smartwatch designed for recreational divers and active individuals, built for durability and reliable tracking. It offers precise tracking for dive-specific metrics, alongside comprehensive tracking for steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes. Its activity profiles cater to both underwater and topside sports, providing essential data for monitoring performance in various environments.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The WHOOP 4.0 is a unique health and fitness tracker focused on providing in-depth physiological insights rather than just activity counts. It continuously tracks key metrics like heart rate, calories burned, and activity duration. Instead of traditional workout modes, it measures "Strain" based on cardiovascular exertion, offering a personalized view of your daily physical load.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: This device provides continuous wrist-based heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, and detailed sleep analysis for insights into daily well-being and recovery. The integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, useful for assessing acclimatization at altitude and contributing to dive planning and safety.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: This device excels in continuous physiological monitoring, capturing data on heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, respiratory rate, and skin temperature. It uses this data to provide comprehensive insights into recovery, sleep quality, and overall health trends, going beyond basic tracking to offer a deeper understanding of your body.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 offers strong battery life, providing up to 25 hours in dive mode and up to 14 days in smartwatch mode, ensuring sufficient power for multiple dives and consistent daily tracking without frequent recharging.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The WHOOP 4.0 features a battery life of up to 5 days on a single charge, designed for continuous wear. A convenient sliding battery pack allows for charging while wearing the device, minimizing downtime and ensuring uninterrupted data collection.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Sleep tracking on the Descent G1 monitors sleep stages and provides valuable insights into sleep quality, contributing to a better understanding of recovery essential for both athletic performance and dive readiness.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: Advanced sleep tracking is a core strength of the WHOOP 4.0, meticulously analyzing sleep stages (light, deep, and REM sleep) and providing a detailed Sleep Score. It offers personalized sleep coaching based on your circadian rhythm and recovery needs, helping you optimize your sleep for performance.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Descent G1 provides accurate outdoor activity tracking and basic mapping capabilities on the surface. This GPS functionality is also integrated into dive logging for recording entry and exit points, enhancing the utility for documenting dive locations.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The WHOOP 4.0 does not have built-in GPS. It can utilize connected GPS via a paired smartphone to track outdoor activities and distance, but its primary focus is on physiological strain rather than precise location tracking during workouts.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 supports a variety of multisport and individual workout modes, including dedicated profiles for diving (single-gas, multi-gas, freediving), swimming, running, biking, hiking, and strength training, providing relevant metrics for each activity.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: Instead of discrete workout modes, the WHOOP 4.0 tracks "Strain" across all activities, providing a single metric for daily exertion. You can log specific activities in the app for context, but the focus is on the overall physiological load rather than individual workout types.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities such as swimming, running, and cycling through its Move IQ feature, ensuring these basic movements are captured in your activity log alongside detailed dive data.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The device automatically detects workouts based on increases in heart rate and physiological strain, logging them within the WHOOP app without requiring manual initiation. This seamless recognition contributes to an accurate measure of daily Strain.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization, dive log management, and smart notifications.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The WHOOP 4.0 works with both iOS and Android devices, connecting via Bluetooth to the WHOOP app for data syncing and detailed analytics.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central for topside activity and health tracking, while the Garmin Dive app is specifically designed for detailed dive log management, analysis, and sharing, providing a complete ecosystem for both fitness and diving data.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The WHOOP app is the central interface for the WHOOP 4.0 experience, providing in-depth analysis of recovery, strain, and sleep data. It offers personalized insights, coaching recommendations, and community features, requiring a paid membership to access the full range of analytics and features.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Beyond its primary focus on diving and sports, the Descent G1 includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It also features essential utilities like a compass, barometric altimeter, and thermometer, valuable for outdoor navigation and environmental awareness.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The WHOOP 4.0 is designed for continuous physiological monitoring and recovery analysis and does not include traditional smartwatch features such as notifications for calls, texts, or apps. Its functionality is entirely focused on health and performance data visible within the app.
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: With a robust water resistance rating to 100 meters (10 ATM) and built-in dive computer functionality, the Descent G1 is specifically designed for scuba diving, freediving, and other underwater activities, providing essential dive data and safety features for recreational use.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: With a water resistance rating of up to 10 meters, the WHOOP 4.0 is suitable for swimming and showering, designed for continuous wear throughout various activities and environments.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 features a sunlight-readable, monochrome display with good contrast, optimized for visibility in various lighting conditions, including underwater and bright sunlight. While not a color screen, it provides clear and easy-to-read data.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The WHOOP 4.0 has no display on the device itself. All health and performance data, insights, and analytics are viewed exclusively through the comprehensive WHOOP app on a paired smartphone.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The device utilizes a user-friendly interface with a combination of buttons, designed for easy navigation and access to features both on land and underwater, prioritizing reliable operation in challenging conditions over touchscreen complexity.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The device is designed for minimal interaction on the wrist, with a simple, comfortable band for continuous wear. The user experience is centered around the intuitive and data-rich WHOOP app, making tracking effortless once set up.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 features a rugged and durable design built for the demands of outdoor activities and diving. It maintains a comfortable fit for all-day wear and dives, balancing robust construction with practical wearability.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The WHOOP 4.0 features a sleek and minimalistic design, worn as a lightweight band or integrated into apparel. Its focus is on comfort and discretion for continuous wear, utilizing durable materials for all-day and all-night tracking.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor is a key feature, allowing for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels during sleep and at altitude, providing crucial data for assessing physiological status and contributing to dive safety considerations.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: The WHOOP 4.0 includes an SpO2 sensor for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels, primarily as part of its comprehensive sleep and recovery analysis. This data contributes to a more complete picture of physiological well-being.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: It is important to note that the Garmin Descent G1 does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: It is important to note that the WHOOP 4.0 does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress, contributing to overall well-being and focus, important for both athletic and diving performance.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: Stress is implicitly tracked and analyzed through the WHOOP 4.0's continuous monitoring of heart rate variability (HRV) and its impact on daily Strain and Recovery scores, providing insights into how daily stressors affect your physiological state.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Body Battery energy monitoring feature provides insights into the body's energy reserves based on activity, stress, and sleep data, helping users understand their physiological readiness for training or the need for rest. This is a key feature for optimizing recovery, essential for demanding sports and diving activities.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: Recovery tracking is a core strength of the WHOOP 4.0. It provides a personalized daily Recovery score based on sleep quality, heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, and respiratory rate, offering actionable insights to help users optimize rest and performance.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all core features and data tracked by the Descent G1, including its dive computer functionalities and access to the Garmin Connect and Garmin Dive apps, are available without an additional subscription fee, providing comprehensive value for a capable and rugged dive-focused smartwatch.
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: ✅ A mandatory paid WHOOP membership (subscription) is required to access the data, insights, and features within the WHOOP app. The membership fee covers access to the platform and analytics, as the device itself is typically included with the membership
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: $799.99
Check Garmin Descent G1 Price *2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: $30/month subscription for access to WHOOP’s health tracking, analytics, and personalized insights.
Check WHOOP 4.0 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you