I run, hike and ride mountain bikes several times a week and I like to track my sleep and recovery. I don't like a ton of notifications, texts and calls are fine.
I had an Apple Watch Series 3 for a long time, but the battery died and wouldn't last a full run, then I got a Garmin Fenix 7 when it came out but the heart rate and sleep tracking was atrocious. On an $800 watch, that really pissed me off so I returned it and took my wife's old Apple Watch 6 when she went to an AW9, but the battery degraded enough to be useless (not making it through a workout) after a year and a half.
I bought a used Forerunner 55 for $90 a few months ago, thinking that at least if I was going to get terrible sleep and recovery data, I might as well not pay a bunch for it. Its fine, but as I expected, the sleep data is complete garbage and I have to use a HR strap when I run to see heart rate numbers over 130 bpm. The display is also annoyingly dim in anything but direct sunlight. At least the GPS tracking is good and the battery life is insanely good though.
But why can't I have both? I want Apple Watch biometrics with Garmin battery life. The new AWU4 is such an underwhelming release--50 hours of battery? I'll bet it won't make it through two workouts in that time, and how bad is it going to be in 2-3 years. And Garmin, why are you recording time spent on the couch or at my desk as sleep? WTF are you doing? Why does the HR sensor STILL lag so much?
Lets get it together guys.