Garmin Epix (Gen 2) vs Garmin Approach S70
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): 2022
2️⃣ Garmin Approach S70: 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 Garmin Approach S70: The Garmin Approach S70 is a premium GPS golf smartwatch expertly designed for serious golfers, while also offering robust activity tracking capabilities for a comprehensive view of daily movement. It accurately records steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes. Beyond golf, it supports profiles for various activities like running, cycling, and swimming, allowing for detailed tracking on and off the course.
❤️ 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 Garmin Approach S70: This device provides continuous wrist-based heart rate monitoring using Garmin’s latest sensor technology, stress tracking, and advanced sleep analysis for insights into daily well-being and recovery. It includes Pulse Ox for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, contributing to a more complete picture of overall health alongside its sports-specific features. Health Snapshot allows for a quick assessment of key health metrics.
🔋 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 Garmin Approach S70: The Approach S70 offers impressive battery life, providing up to 16 days in smartwatch mode and up to 20 hours with continuous GPS tracking during golf rounds. This ensures sufficient power for multiple rounds of golf and consistent daily wear and activity tracking.
😴 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 Garmin Approach S70: Advanced sleep tracking on the Approach S70 monitors sleep stages (light, deep, and REM), sleep duration, and provides a detailed sleep score and insights through the Garmin Connect app. It helps users understand their recovery quality, essential for performance both on and off the golf course.
📍 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 Garmin Approach S70: Equipped with multi-band GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo) and preloaded with over 43,000 full-color CourseView maps worldwide, the Approach S70 provides highly accurate distance measurements to greens, hazards, and layups without needing a paired smartphone. Its precise GPS is also utilized for tracking other outdoor activities with detailed route mapping.
🏋️ 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 Garmin Approach S70: While primarily focused on golf with extensive features like Virtual Caddie, PlaysLike Distance, and Green Contour data (with subscription), the Approach S70 supports additional activity profiles including walking, running, cycling, swimming, and strength training, providing relevant metrics for these general fitness pursuits.
💫 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 Garmin Approach S70: The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities like walking and running through its Move IQ feature, ensuring these basic movements are captured in your activity log seamlessly, complementing its detailed golf and workout tracking capabilities.
🍎 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 Garmin Approach S70: The Approach S70 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for seamless data synchronization, golf score tracking, and smart notifications, integrating its golf and fitness data with the Garmin Connect ecosystem.
📲 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 Garmin Approach S70: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central to the Approach S70 experience for health and general activity tracking. The Garmin Golf app is specifically designed for detailed golf performance analysis, scorecards, and interaction with the golf community, providing a complete ecosystem for golfers.
💡 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 Garmin Approach S70: Beyond its extensive golf and fitness features, the Approach S70 includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It supports Garmin Pay for contactless payments, allows for music storage and control from streaming services, and offers access to the Connect IQ store for additional apps and watch faces.
💦 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 Garmin Approach S70: With a robust water resistance rating of 50 meters (5 ATM), the Approach S70 is suitable for swimming and showering, making it a durable companion for everyday wear and various water activities, including tracking pool swimming workouts, without impacting its golf functionality.
⌚ 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 Garmin Approach S70: The Approach S70 features a stunning 1.4-inch AMOLED touchscreen display (on the 47mm model; 1.2-inch on the 42mm) with a high resolution of 454x454 pixels. This vibrant color display offers exceptional clarity, deep blacks, and excellent brightness, ensuring unparalleled readability in various lighting conditions, including bright sunlight on the golf course, enhancing the visual experience for mapping and data.
👌 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 Garmin Approach S70: The device offers a user-friendly touchscreen interface complemented by three physical buttons, designed for easy navigation and quick access to golf features, activity tracking data, and smart functionalities with minimal distraction during a round. The interface balances complexity with ease of use for both on-course and off-course activities.
✨ 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 Garmin Approach S70: The Approach S70 features a sleek and stylish design with a premium ceramic bezel, offering a comfortable fit for all-day wear, both on and off the golf course. Its lightweight build (56g for the 47mm) and durable materials ensure suitability for extended use, balancing a premium aesthetic with functional design.
🩸 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 Garmin Approach S70: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for on-demand spot checks and continuous monitoring of blood oxygen saturation levels during sleep and at altitude. This feature provides valuable data for assessing physiological well-being, complementing its sports and health tracking capabilities.
💖 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 Garmin Approach S70: It is important to note that the Garmin Approach S70 does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
🧘 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 Garmin Approach S70: The Approach S70 tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress, contributing to mental focus and overall well-being, which can be beneficial on the golf course.
🩹 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 Garmin Approach S70: 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 activity, including a round of golf or other workouts. This is a key feature for optimizing recovery and performance.
💳 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 Garmin Approach S70: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all core features and data tracked by the Approach S70, including access to over 43,000 preloaded golf courses and advanced metrics through Garmin Connect and Garmin Golf apps, are available without an additional subscription fee for basic functionality. Optional features like Green Contours data in the Garmin Golf app may require a paid Garmin Golf membership (subscription).
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): $999.99
Check Garmin Epix (Gen 2) Price *2️⃣ Garmin Approach S70: $599.99
Check Garmin Approach S70 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you