‘I’ve used the Garmin Epix Pro for a year, I don’t think I’ll buy an Apple Watch again’

After using the Garmin Epix Pro for a year, here’s my thoughts

For the past year, I’ve been using the Garmin Epix Pro Gen 2 watch to track my running, health, and fitness, as well as the occasional phone notification – and honestly, I don’t think I’ll go back, despite owning an Apple Watch previously.

In a world where we’re always attached to our phones, I’ve been disconnecting myself from them throughout 2025, and honestly, it’s been a refreshing experience, which Garmin is more suited towards. Another big thing is battery life.

Most modern smartwatches have poor battery life and don’t offer much beyond a visually appealing screen and internals that drain the battery. This was a massive annoyance with my Apple Watch Ultra, and now, I can safely enjoy weeks of battery life with my Garmin.

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The Garmin Epix Pro Gen 2 comes with a bright, always-on AMOLED display, a robust sapphire lens, and a titanium bezel. It’s available in 42mm, 47mm, and 51mm sizes. I decided to go with the 51mm model, which has slightly better battery life.

The watch also comes with advanced health tracking features (HRV, Sleep, Hill/Endurance Score), multi-band GPS, and one of my favourite features: a built-in LED flashlight. Never did I think that a built-in flashlight would be useful, I was wrong.

I’ve used it to find my way around my house at night, track down lost items and let me run at night without needing to attach a flashlight to my head. After a year, here’s my full review on why shoppers might want to consider an Apple Watch:

Pros

• Great fitness tracking features
• Amazing battery life
• Pre-loaded maps and useful compatibility with Spotify and Strava
• Built-in LED flashlight is super useful
• Bright always-on AMOLED screen

Cons

• Price can be expensive
• Interface is a bit dated

Coming back to the battery life, it’s something that really needs shouting about. I tend to turn my always-on display off and I easily get three weeks of battery life without trying. It’s a brilliant device for battery and perfect for those who hate having to charge their device.

When it comes to fitness tracking, it has been a brilliant companion. It easily lets me download running routes from Strava, downloads all my Spotify playlists and connects to my headphones without cutting out.

When it comes to running, it has been extremely accurate in terms of GPS and tracking, without a single error. Garmin also tracks things like HRV and sleep, which is a nice addition, but I don’t tend to get caught up in it too much.

One of my biggest problems with Garmin, however, is the navigation. My initial review found that the interface was quite dated and difficult to navigate, but over time, I’ve grown accustomed to it.

There’s also the crashing. During an 11km run, I attempted to save the run data, but it crashed, and the data did not appear after syncing. To fix this was a frustratingly slow process, but eventually it did show on Strava and Garmin Connect. The good news this has only happened once.

Conclusion

For the past year, I couldn’t have been happier with the Epix Pro. It has been an absolute workhorse in terms of fitness tracking as well as a super useful health tracking tool and occasional flashlight to find my lost items.

However, as I noted, this is less of a smartwatch and more of a fitness tracker. Apple fans might want to consider the SE for £199 from Currys if they are deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem, or the Apple Watch Ultra 3 for £719 on Very, for those who want a larger screen and improved battery life.

There are also plenty of other Garmin models, as the Epix Pro can be expensive. The good news is that the Epix Pro is cheaper than ever and H Samuel is selling it on sale here for £369.99 for the 47mm version.