Garmin epix Pro (Gen 2), 51 mm, Glass, Slate Grey, Black

Product Information

Note that with the Epix series (or any AMOLED watch from any company), if cycling with it, you’ll really need to be leaving it on your wrist. Sure, you can put it on your handlebars – and I’ve done that – but the display will automatically turn off when not on-wrist (even with always-on mode). On bumpier roads, it’ll actually stay on most of the time, but if you’re on beautiful smooth pavement, it’ll turn off to save battery and the display. Garmin says this is required to prevent a burn-in situation going wrong if left for many hours untouched. Though, I suspect if you’re a cyclist doing multi-hour workouts frequently, you’re probably going to have a dedicated bike computer. That’s especially true of new features like the flashlight and discovering its multiple modes, or enabling the red shift mode that turns the screen and interface red. It’s a similar story for the busy Garmin Connect app and the separate Connect IQ Store app that you need on your phone to add more watch faces, data fields, widgets and a small collection of apps. Training Status: This is looking at your acute load, HRV status, load focus, and VO2Max trends. This one is less about should you train, and more about how you’re training. Meaning, are you doing too much high intensity, or too much low intensity? That’s what’ll give you an unproductive status. In other words, how would a coach look at your training log, ignoring most other life/feeling type metrics. If you want one of the most premium sports watches around, there will also be the usual Sapphire versions available for a small markup when the Epix 2 Pro likely arrives in late May or mid-June.

Best Garmin watch faces 2023: Our top picks to download Best Garmin watch faces 2023: Our top picks to download

That’s changed now. With the Epix Pro & Fenix 7 Pro, the company has added 30 new highly requested profiles – with the bulk of them more simplistic. These are primarily used for categorization purposes, and don’t have any sport-specific data behind them. You can customize them as you see fit, like in the past, but there might not be unique metrics. Garmin says the goal is that they’ll look at usage data for these sport profiles, and then figure out which ones make sense to build out more fully with added data. The problem is that I’ve had numerous days where the Endurance Score changes simply haven’t made sense. One in particular was where I did a 2 hour trail run (with huge elevation gain) and the score literally did nothing (moved from 8,075 to 8,077). Yet, later that same day I did a super chill/easy 30-minute openwater swim, and it spiked from 8,077 to 8,114. Why? The heart rate showed a reasonably low value – yet Endurance Score had a major pop. The high price stings too, but there’s so much longevity in a product like this that it’s unlikely you’d need to upgrade for years. Garmin’s platform logs everything and shows your trends and key performance information, such as VO2 Max, so you can measure your improvements over time. Equally, if you own a first-generation Epix Pro, there’s not a lot here to convince you to upgrade. Recovery time: This looks at your Recovery time in hours (based on workouts, but can be sped up with good recovery)Onto the features that will come to the first Epix Gen 2 and we’re now getting new mapping features like the ability to view weather overlaid on maps like temperature, rain, and wind. The built-in LED flashlight that first debuted on the Fenix 7X is now available on all size variations of the Epix Pro 2, with it built directly into the top of the case. One of our hour-long Zone 2 runs saw the score bump by a few points, for example, and another virtually identical run (in time and HR averages) saw it improve by 40 points. A week-on-week increase in miles also saw it go down.

Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) Review: Better Than Apple | WIRED

In itself, this is a little odd, because the new world of Unified Training Status should mean that it's ready from the get-go, as we've been logging data on Garmin watches for years. While I’m not out there pushing my limits, other members of the Digital Trends team have been. If you’re a bit sportier, replacing your Apple Watch with a Garmin can be a legitimately great idea. Is it overkill? Andy Boxall/Digital Trends Each of the components are weighted in varying ways, and against varying timeframes. Here’s the run-down:Generally speaking, though, we've found you'll get around 5-6 days of decent use with the Epix Pro's always-on display turned on, with the option to extend that to around 14-16 days if you turn it off.

Pro and Epix Pro to see which is I used the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro and Epix Pro to see which is

Next, there’s Hill Score, which is all about running/hiking/walking. No cycling is accounted for here. Hill Score has two core components to it, based on climbs with gradients of 2% or greater: Next, there’s the AMOLED touchscreen on the Epix series. The touchscreen comes in three sizes, with the Epix Pro using the same display as the previous Epix: Load Focus: This shows which categories your training efforts have fallen into, over the last 4 weeks. These include Anaerobic, High Aerobic, and Low Aerobic. Basically, you need to have an even training diet to get faster. Simply running hard/all-out every day won’t make you faster. It’ll just get you injured and slower. Acute Load: This is looking at your last 7 days of load, except the load now burns off dynamically. Meaning, a hard training day 7 days ago is far less impactful to the score than a hard training day yesterday. Previously this was called 7-Day Load, now it’s Acute Load. While most of the time I can decode and fully understand the various metrics Garmin makes, this time with these two metrics – I’m still a bit in doubt. If we look at things like Training Readiness, or even the often quirky Training Status – I can generally understand the methodology behind how they arrived at a score. Sure, I might not agree with that coaching philosophy (since, it is in effect a coaching philosophy) – I can at least connect the dots and say ‘Sure, that’s not my cup of tea, but it’s a largely valid cup of tea’.Here’s the full list of sports profiles available on the Epix Pro & Fenix 7 Pro (note: the last few show up under ‘sports’, so I added them here too): We're still putting these two devices head-to-head, and early suggestions do indicate that the Epix Pro is a little better at keeping up with a chest strap's accuracy, but the differences are very minor. As in the past, you can save roughly 20 different sensors to the watch, as well as give them unique names. You can further enable/disable as you see fit (as well as delete). Note that in general, for dual-ANT+/Bluetooth Smart sensors (like power meters), you’ll want to use the ANT+ side, since it not only gives you unlimited channels on that sensor – but more importantly has more data in the stream than the Bluetooth equivalents. Only if you run into some sort of interference/connectivity issue with your environment should you swap over to the Bluetooth side.

Garmin epix™ | Premium Outdoor Smartwatch Garmin epix™ | Premium Outdoor Smartwatch

Garmin’s also adding a feature that was previously only available on the Fenix 7X and is adding features to its already impressive mapping skills. So is the Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) an epic watch and is it a watch Epix owners should be envious of? Here’s our take. Design and screen This is really useful for those training for distance events, as the individual metrics don’t quite communicate how ready you are to go the distance. I enjoyed getting to grips with mine, although I was disappointed by just how low my Endurance score actually was once generated – serves me right for taking a month off running! Both watches have impressive battery life (not as impressive as the Enduro 2, but still) and will last for weeks between charges. Even the smallest models will outlast most multisport watches made only just a few years ago, thanks to the algorithm updates and features such as SatIQ, which automatically switches between different satellite modes to conserve power without sacrificing accuracy. When it comes to sensors, the new units keep the same set of ANT+ & Bluetooth sensors as the existing Fenix 7/Epix units: Once your workout is complete, you can tap to pause it, and then again to save it. From there, you’ll see your efforts, including an outline of the map, training load, heart rate, and more. I did feel like things got a bit slower here somehow, in terms of enumerating some of these charts for longer workouts (e.g., 3-5hrs+). Just a few seconds, but something I don’t remember seeing in the past.

Maps for New Regions

Sure, all of this is great and useful digging around in your tent – and I used it that way last summer in the Enduro 2 numerous times. However, it’s frankly just the most useful in day-to-day scenarios – such as when travelling in new hotel rooms and trying to find your way around at night. If you're interested in the full, detailed analysis of what the Epix Pro offers, we'd suggest jumping over to our in-depth Epix 2 review. And you can see a breakdown of all the minor changes in our full Epix 2 and Epix Pro comparison. For further context, my Endurance Score the last 1.5 months or so has floated in the 8,000-8,200 range on about 8-14 hours of training per week, mostly in the Zone 2 (HR/Z2) realm. Sometimes higher or lower in duration or intensity, but that’s the rough realm. Meanwhile, my wife’s score has been in the 9,000-9,200 realm as she peaks her training for an endurance event later in June. Her training load is in the 12-15 hours/week range – again, heavily focused on the Z2 intensity. HRV Status: This is measuring your HRV values constantly while you sleep, and then comparing it against your 3-week baseline, up to a 90-day rolling window baseline. A single night of drinking doesn’t tank this score, but three nights of partying won’t keep you in the green.