Garmin Epix (Gen 2) vs WHOOP 4.0
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): 2022
2️⃣ WHOOP 4.0: 2021
🏃 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Epix (Gen 2): It is important to note that the Garmin Epix (Gen 2) 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Epix (Gen 2): $999.99
Check Garmin Epix (Gen 2) 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