It’s no secret that wearable technology has taken the world by storm in recent years. With options ranging from fitness trackers to full-blown smartwatches, there’s a device to suit just about every need and budget. In this comparison guide, we’ll take a look at three of the most popular wearables on the market today: the Whoop fitness tracker, the Apple Watch, and the Garmin smartwatch. We’ll compare and contrast their features and functionality to help you decide which one is right for you.
Here is a Comparison guide between the Whoop fitness tracker, Apple Watch, and Garmin smartwatches.
1. Calorie Tracking
All three devices viz. Apple Watch, Garmin, and Whoop can track your daily calorie. However, the difference lies in the method that they adopt in doing that.
Apple Watch is designed to count your total active calorie burnt, completely ignoring whether or not those calories were burnt as a part of a regular workout regime or due to chores that you performed. To see the number of active calories that you burnt, you can access Apple’s Fitness app which is indicated by the “Move” icon. Apple Watch doesn’t count the total calorie burnt which is the sum of your Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR) and active calories. So, you will be doing the calculations yourself to get a detailed breakdown.
Garmin allows you to know the total calories burnt. You can see it in the Heath Stats Menu via either the Garmin Connect App or the Garmin Connect website. Further, you will also be able to see the BMR and active calories breakdown easily.
With Whoop, you will need to access the dashboard of the Whoop App to see the total calorie count. Further, it will show the active calorie burnt for the workouts it tracked or those that you add manually. So, it ignores the active calories burnt due to daily activities.
2. Activity Tracking
Apple Watch is built using some of the best sensors for fitness tracking. Consequently, it offers a number of workout and sports modes. In addition to that, it can easily and accurately track your steps, jogs, biking, and swimming with astonishing accuracy. Last but not the least, you can always pair an external heart rate monitor with Apple Watch to get more accurate data to fit your purpose.
Garmin watches are also capable of tracking multiple activities and workouts on their own like Apple Watches. But, they go one step further as they also track stress levels and your breathing which affects the stress level. The Body Battery Management feature tells you the best time to start your workout and relax.
Whoop is way different from Apple and Garmin Smartwatches when it comes to activity tracking. As it is a screenless fitness tracker, it is designed to automatically track your workout and activities with sheer accuracy. But, there aren’t multiple predesigned sports and workout modes provided. It rather focuses on its cutting-edge triaxial sensor which is meant to provide trustworthy data and is target athletes and sportspeople.
3. Sleep Tracking
The sleep tracking feature on Apple Watch is not the best one among the smartwatches and fitness devices available. It tracks your sleep in a general way without any detailing. To get a detailed sleep analysis report, you will need to download a third-party sleep-tracking app from the iOS App Store.
Garmin is above Apple Watch when it comes to Sleep tracking. It is designed to offer detailed insights into your sleep cycle and quality. It will also assess the deep sleep (non-REM sleep) along with resting heart rate to provide the user with a complete picture of his or her sleeping pattern.
Apart from its excellent motion sensor, sleep tracking is one of the key USPs of the Whoop tracker. It provides a similar level of information as compared to Garmin Watches at a quite affordable price. The sleep assessment algorithm is different compared to Garmin and Apple Watch. In addition, it also tracks your actual time in bed, spikes in heart rate during sleep, respiratory rate, etc.
4. Companion App or Software
Apple Watch comes with WatchOS and thus you will need an iPhone to get the most out of it. With iPhone, the experience is blissful. There are multiple apps that work with an Apple Watch. The Watch app itself along with Apple Fitness and Apple Health app provides a great experience to the user. It offers tons of customizability, and health stats and keeps a track of your healthy habits.
Garmin devices come with the infamous Garmin Connect app which is readily available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store. The app is well built and provides an easy experience for the user. Apart from the incredibly streamlined health and fitness tracking, it also comes with other utility features like Garmin Pay and LivTrack to keep your social life going.
Since the Whoop tracker doesn’t have a screen of its own, the Whoop app is the only place to get details of your workouts and activities. The app comes with a user-friendly “Overview” dashboard to get a coarse idea of your fitness. Further, you can swipe to get much more detailed data about your stress, sleep, and recovery. The Swipe Up feature provides you with weekly trends along with detailed graphs. Another excellent section is the “Coaching” screen, where you can see your performance report and get your hand on sleep guidance and heart monitor. It is designed in an elegant manner that appeals to the normal user and medical practitioner alike.
5. Design
Apple Watch comes with an OLED screen which is quite legible even under bright sunlight. It works like a perfect companion to your iPhone as it can do almost everything that you can do with the apps on your iPhone. The rotating Digital crown along with a physical side button allows the user to navigate through the apps or get a detailed analysis of their fitness tracking. It is made up of premium materials like stainless steel, titanium, and aluminum.
Garmin has a wide range of smartwatches and fitness trackers to offer and they come in all shapes and sizes with different design aesthetics. There are few that are designed for challenging outdoors whereas the others are for athletes and everyday joes. You can see a design for yourself depending on which series of smartwatches you find fascinating from Garmin.
Whoop is particularly unique when it comes to design as it comes without a screen. It looks like a basic but sturdy fitness tracker. The device is extremely lightweight and can be an excellent choice for users who are particular about any distractions on their wrists.
6. Battery
Apple Watch Series 8 can be used for 18 hours (36 hours on Low Power Mode) on a single charge as claimed by Apple. But, this can vary depending on your usage. It takes around 2.5 hours to get a 100 percent charge on the latest Apple Watch.
The Battery life of Garmin Watches varies from one series to another. Garmin Forerunner 645 offers a battery life of 7 days without GPS and 5 hours with GPS whereas Garmin Fenix 6 can last up to 14 days without GPS and up to 36 hours with GPS on a single charge, All other Garmin watches lie somewhere between these two extremes.
Whoop 4.0 offers a battery life of 5 days on a single charge.
7. Price
Apple Watch Series 8 starts at $399.
Garmin starts at around $199 and can go up to $1500 depending on the model you are looking for.
Whoop comes for free but you will need to purchase a monthly or annual subscription to use it. You will need to pay $30 if you plan to commit for at least a year.
