Garmin Epix (Gen 2) vs Samsung Galaxy Watch 6
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): 2022
2️⃣ Samsung Galaxy Watch 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is a sophisticated Wear OS smartwatch delivering enhanced performance and comprehensive activity tracking. It accurately records steps, calories burned, heart rate, and distance, providing advanced fitness insights and detailed metrics for over 90 workout modes. Its capabilities support users in monitoring and improving their fitness across a wide range of activities.
❤️ 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: This device is a powerful health management tool, featuring continuous heart rate monitoring, SpO2 blood oxygen monitoring, ECG functionality for detecting signs of irregular heart rhythms, and advanced stress tracking. A key capability is the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) sensor for body composition measurements, offering deeper insights into overall physical health beyond simple weight tracking.
🔋 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: The Galaxy Watch 6 typically offers up to 40 hours (2 days) of battery life on a single charge, depending on usage and selected features. This provides sufficient power for daily use with activity tracking and smart features, though more demanding use cases may require more frequent charging.
😴 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: Detailed sleep tracking on the Galaxy Watch 6 monitors sleep stages (light, deep, and REM), sleep duration, and provides a comprehensive Sleep Score and analysis through the Samsung Health app. It also tracks blood oxygen levels and detects snoring during sleep, offering valuable insights into sleep quality and potential sleep disorders, contributing to better sleep hygiene.
📍 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: With built-in GPS, the Galaxy Watch 6 accurately tracks outdoor activities like running, cycling, and hiking independently of a paired smartphone. It provides precise route mapping, pace, and distance data, essential for monitoring performance and navigating during outdoor workouts.
🏋️ 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: The Galaxy Watch 6 supports over 90 workout modes, covering a wide spectrum of physical activities from running and cycling to swimming, strength training, yoga, and more. Users can select specific modes to receive tailored real-time statistics and in-depth 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: The smartwatch features automatic exercise recognition for common activities such as walking, running, cycling, and swimming. This ensures that workouts are logged seamlessly, even if the user forgets to manually start tracking, providing a more complete and accurate record of physical activity.
🍎 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: Running Wear OS Powered by Samsung, the Galaxy Watch 6 offers broad compatibility primarily with Android smartphones. Full functionality, including features like ECG and BIA, is optimized when paired with a Samsung Galaxy phone running the Samsung Health Monitor app.
📲 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: Leveraging the Google Play Store, the Galaxy Watch 6 provides access to a vast ecosystem of third-party apps, enhancing its capabilities for fitness, productivity, communication, and entertainment. The Samsung Health app serves as a central hub for reviewing detailed health data, body composition analysis, and setting wellness goals.
💡 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: As a full-featured smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch 6 provides comprehensive smart capabilities, including on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, emails, and apps. It supports Google Assistant and Bixby for voice commands, Google Wallet and Samsung Pay for contactless payments, and allows for music streaming and calls directly from the watch (LTE models).
💦 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: With a 5 ATM water resistance rating, the Galaxy Watch 6 is suitable for swimming and showering, making it a durable companion for everyday wear and aquatic activities. It is capable of tracking swimming workouts with relevant metrics.
⌚ 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: The Galaxy Watch 6 features a bright and vibrant Super AMOLED display with high resolution. This display offers excellent clarity and readability in various lighting conditions, including direct sunlight, making it easy to view stats, notifications, and app content.
👌 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: The device offers an intuitive user interface with a combination of the responsive touchscreen, physical side buttons, and a digital rotating bezel for easy navigation through apps and menus. The Wear OS platform provides a familiar and user-friendly experience, enhanced by Samsung's customizations.
✨ 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: The Galaxy Watch 6 features a sleek and refined design with an aluminum case. It offers a comfortable fit for all-day wear and comes with easily interchangeable bands for personalization, balancing aesthetic appeal with functional design for both fitness and daily use.
🩸 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: Equipped with an SpO2 sensor, the Galaxy Watch 6 allows for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels during sleep and exercise. This feature provides valuable data for assessing respiratory health and overall well-being, contributing to a more complete health profile.
💖 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: The Galaxy Watch 6 supports ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality through the Samsung Health Monitor app, allowing users to record a 30-second ECG to detect signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). This feature provides valuable heart health data that can be shared with healthcare professionals.
🧘 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: The Galaxy Watch 6 tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability. It offers guided breathing exercises through the Samsung Health app to help users manage stress and promote relaxation, contributing to mental well-being.
🩹 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: Recovery insights are provided through the Samsung Health app based on analyzed sleep patterns, workout performance, body composition data, and heart rate variability, helping users understand their body's readiness for further activity and optimize rest and recovery strategies.
💳 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 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: No subscription is required to access the core features and data tracked by the Galaxy Watch 6 through the Samsung Health app and Wear OS. Some premium features within specific third-party apps downloaded from the Google Play Store may require a separate subscription.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): $999.99
Check Garmin Epix (Gen 2) Price *2️⃣ Samsung Galaxy Watch 6: $450.00
Check Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you