Garmin Epix (Gen 2) vs Fitbit Charge 6
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): 2022
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: 2023
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Garmin Epix (Gen 2) is a high-performance multisport GPS smartwatch designed for serious athletes and outdoor enthusiasts, featuring a stunning AMOLED display. It offers comprehensive activity tracking, including steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with personalized daily goals. Its extensive activity profiles and advanced performance metrics are tailored for a wide range of sports and adventures, providing detailed insights into every workout.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The Fitbit Charge 6 is a highly accurate fitness tracker that monitors steps, distance, calories burned, and active zone minutes. It helps users stay in optimal heart rate zones to maximize workout efficiency. The tracker also measures real-time pace and distance, making it ideal for walking, running, and cycling.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): This device provides continuous heart rate monitoring, advanced physiological metrics including VO2 max estimation, performance condition, and training status. It also tracks respiration rate, Pulse Ox for blood oxygen saturation, and offers detailed sleep analysis, delivering critical health and recovery data essential for optimizing training and overall well-being.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: Equipped with continuous heart rate tracking, the Charge 6 provides real-time heart rate alerts for high and low readings. It includes SpO2 monitoring to measure blood oxygen levels, stress tracking, and a Daily Readiness Score, which evaluates recovery based on sleep, heart rate variability, and activity levels.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) offers up to 16 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 42 hours with continuous GPS tracking. While the vibrant AMOLED display impacts battery life compared to MIP displays, it still provides sufficient duration for multi-day activities and extensive training.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The battery lasts up to 7 days under standard use. Features like continuous GPS tracking and always-on display may reduce battery life to around 5 days. The device supports fast charging, ensuring minimal downtime.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Advanced sleep monitoring on the Epix (Gen 2) tracks detailed sleep stages and utilizes the Pulse Ox sensor to monitor blood oxygen levels during sleep. This provides valuable data for assessing recovery quality and informing training decisions, especially important for athletes managing demanding training loads.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The advanced sleep tracking system analyzes light, deep, and REM sleep stages, providing insights into sleep quality and disturbances. The Smart Wake function uses vibration alarms to wake users at the best time in their sleep cycle for a more refreshed feeling.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Equipped with advanced built-in GPS capabilities, the Epix (Gen 2) provides highly accurate outdoor activity tracking and navigation without requiring a paired smartphone. It supports multiple satellite systems and offers detailed preloaded mapping features, essential for exploring remote areas and navigating complex routes.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The built-in GPS accurately tracks outdoor activities like running, cycling, and hiking without needing a smartphone connection. Users can view route, pace, and elevation data directly on the tracker and in the Fitbit app.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) supports an extensive range of multisport and individual workout modes, including running, biking, swimming, hiking, trail running, skiing, strength training, and more. Its customizable profiles and extensive real-time data screens provide comprehensive metrics for performance analysis across diverse activities.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: With over 40 workout modes, the Charge 6 supports various exercises, including HIIT, weightlifting, yoga, swimming, running, and cycling. It offers live heart rate zone updates during workouts to optimize training intensity.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities like walking and running through its Move IQ feature, ensuring seamless recording of basic movements within the overall activity log, even during varied training days.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The SmartTrack feature detects and records walking, running, cycling, swimming, and elliptical workouts automatically, ensuring no activity goes untracked.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The tracker syncs with Android and iOS devices via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It also integrates with Google services, such as Google Maps and Google Wallet, for navigation and contactless payments.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central to the Epix (Gen 2) experience, providing in-depth analysis of all tracked data, performance metrics, training insights, and recovery recommendations. The app allows for creating and syncing detailed training plans, courses, and customizing device settings.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The Fitbit app provides detailed insights into activity, heart health, sleep, and stress levels. Users can sync their data with third-party platforms like Strava, MyFitnessPal, and Apple Health for an all-in-one fitness experience.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Beyond its primary focus on sports and outdoor performance, the Epix (Gen 2) includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications, Garmin Pay for contactless payments, and on-device music storage with support for streaming services, offering convenience during training and daily use.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: Stay connected with smart notifications for calls, texts, emails, and apps. The tracker supports Google Wallet for contactless payments and YouTube Music controls (Android-only).
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): With a robust water resistance rating of 100 meters (10 ATM), the Epix (Gen 2) is engineered to withstand swimming, showering, and various water activities, making it suitable for serious water sports and providing durability in wet environments.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: With a 5 ATM rating, the Charge 6 is water-resistant up to 50 meters, making it suitable for swimming, showering, and water sports. The tracker automatically records swim workouts, tracking laps, duration, and calories burned.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) features a stunning AMOLED display with high resolution, offering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and exceptional brightness. This touchscreen display provides excellent readability in various lighting conditions, including direct sunlight, enhancing the visual experience for mapping and data review.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The 1.04-inch AMOLED touchscreen features sharp resolution and high brightness, ensuring clear visibility even in direct sunlight. The haptic side button enhances navigation for quick access to key features.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The device offers a dual interface with reliable buttons and a responsive touchscreen, providing flexible and easy navigation through menus, data screens, and mapping features during both activities and daily use. The user interface is designed for intuitive operation and quick access to critical information.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: Designed with intuitive touch controls and a responsive side button, the Charge 6 is easy to navigate. The Fitbit app provides clear data visualization, making health and fitness tracking simple and effective.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) features a premium and durable design with a high-quality titanium bezel and stainless steel or DLC coating, built to withstand extreme conditions while maintaining a comfortable fit for all-day wear and extended outdoor use. The design balances robust construction with aesthetic appeal.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The lightweight, slim design ensures comfortable all-day wear. The aluminum case pairs with interchangeable bands available in silicone, leather, and woven fabric, allowing for a customizable look.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for on-demand spot checks and continuous monitoring of blood oxygen saturation levels, particularly valuable for acclimatization at altitude, monitoring sleep quality, and assessing overall physiological status during demanding activities.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The SpO2 sensor measures blood oxygen levels during sleep and activity, helping monitor respiratory health and potential sleep disturbances.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): It is important to note that the Garmin Epix (Gen 2) does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The Charge 6 includes ECG (Electrocardiogram) monitoring, allowing users to check for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and share reports with healthcare providers.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress and promote mental well-being alongside physical training and recovery.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The tracker monitors stress levels throughout the day and offers guided breathing exercises to help users relax and manage stress more effectively.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The device provides advanced recovery insights, including a daily readiness score, recovery time advisor, training status, and training load focus, offering detailed guidance to help athletes understand their recovery needs and optimize their training schedule to prevent overtraining and improve performance.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: The Daily Readiness Score provides insights into whether the body is ready for intense activity or needs rest, based on sleep, activity levels, and heart rate variability.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Epix (Gen 2) are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality or advanced training analysis, providing comprehensive value for a premium device.
2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: ✅ Basic features are free, while advanced insights like Daily Readiness Score, sleep analytics, and long-term health trends require a Fitbit Premium subscription ($9.99/month or $79.99/year). A 6-month free trial is included with the purchase.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): $999.99
Check Garmin Epix (Gen 2) Price *2️⃣ Fitbit Charge 6: $159.95
Check Fitbit Charge 6 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you