Garmin Epix (Gen 2) vs Garmin Forerunner 745
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): 2022
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 745: 2020
🏃 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 Forerunner 745: The Garmin Forerunner 745 is a purpose-built GPS smartwatch for runners and triathletes, offering detailed tracking of steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with daily goals. It provides advanced running dynamics and performance monitoring tools essential for serious training.
❤️ 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 Forerunner 745: This device features continuous heart rate monitoring, advanced physiological metrics including VO2 max estimation, training status, and training load focus. It also tracks respiration rate, providing a comprehensive view of an athlete's health and recovery.
🔋 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 Forerunner 745: The Forerunner 745 offers up to 1 week of battery life in smartwatch mode. For GPS-intensive activities, it provides up to 16 hours of tracking, which is sufficient for most races and training sessions.
😴 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 Forerunner 745: Advanced sleep monitoring is included, analyzing sleep stages (light, deep, and REM) and incorporating a Pulse Ox sensor to monitor blood oxygen levels during sleep, offering valuable data for assessing recovery and overall well-being.
📍 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 Forerunner 745: Equipped with built-in GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo, the Forerunner 745 provides highly accurate outdoor activity tracking without needing a paired smartphone. It delivers precise pace, distance, and route data critical for accurate training logs and race performance analysis.
🏋️ 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 Forerunner 745: The Forerunner 745 supports a wide range of workout modes tailored for running, biking, swimming, triathlon, and more, with real-time statistics displayed during activities and advanced metrics for post-workout analysis.
💫 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 Forerunner 745: The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities like walking and running through its Move IQ feature, ensuring seamless recording of these basic movements within the overall training log.
🍎 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 Forerunner 745: The Forerunner 745 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications.
📲 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 Forerunner 745: Synchronization with the robust Garmin Connect app is fundamental, providing detailed analysis of training data, performance metrics, and health statistics. The app allows for creating and downloading workouts, accessing training plans, and connecting with the Garmin community.
💡 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 Forerunner 745: Beyond its primary focus on sports, the Forerunner 745 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 with support for streaming services, enabling phone-free training with music.
💦 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 Forerunner 745: With a water resistance rating of 50 meters (5 ATM), the Forerunner 745 is suitable for swimming and showering, making it a reliable device for triathletes and swimmers to track their aquatic training segments.
⌚ 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 Forerunner 745: The Forerunner 745 features a sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) color display. While not as vibrant as AMOLED, this display technology offers excellent readability in direct sunlight and is highly power-efficient.
👌 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 Forerunner 745: The device utilizes a five-button interface, which is preferred by many athletes for reliable operation during intense workouts or in various weather conditions. The user interface is designed for quick and easy access to training data and key features.
✨ 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 Forerunner 745: The Forerunner 745 features a compact and durable design with a comfortable silicone band, optimized for a secure fit during intense training sessions and suitable for all-day wear.
🩸 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 Forerunner 745: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels during sleep and spot-checks throughout the day, providing valuable data related to acclimatization and recovery.
💖 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 Forerunner 745: It is important to note that the Garmin Forerunner 745 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 Forerunner 745: The Forerunner 745 tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress and promote recovery.
🩹 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 Forerunner 745: The device provides advanced recovery insights, including recovery time advisor, training status, and training load focus, helping athletes understand the impact of their training and optimize their recovery strategies to prevent overtraining.
💳 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 Forerunner 745: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Forerunner 745 are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality or advanced training analysis.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): $999.99
Check Garmin Epix (Gen 2) Price *2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 745: $499.99
Check Garmin Forerunner 745 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you