All I care about is whether or not it works with Airpods?
Only 4 hours rated battery life when using the full feature set? Ugh, that’s probably less than 3 hours in real life use by the second year of ownership.
Other than it’s (assumably) significantly cheaper, there’s really no reason to buy this over an Apple Watch.
Other than it’s (assumably) significantly cheaper, there’s really no reason to buy this over an Apple Watch.
Would honestly depend on what you’re using it for. If you’re using the Apple Watch for calling for example, then that makes sense.
But, if you’re more fitness/sport focused (or want sleep tracking or even offline Spotify), then the VA3M-LTE would make more sense.
(Ignoring price for the moment, since it’s unknown, but certainly will be far less expensive than the Apple Watch Series 4 LTE)
Well there is currently offline Apple Music and offline Pandora, and you can stream Spotify and Apple Music over LTE. I think in a couple of months all three platforms will be about equal as for those capabilities. Apple Music for some reason does not let you stream your custom playlists. They also suck, but that’s another story.
I think if we were talking about a fictional 945 with cellular and music, then the conversation might be different. The VA3 though is a running watch, and the Apple Watch is a pretty damn good running watch now. Previous versions not so much. At this point the Apple Watch actually gets better battery life than the VA3 when using it for actual sports, something everyone, including myself, have been crapping all over Apple for since day 1.
How is the GPS performance on the new AW4 in comparison to a current Garmin running/tri watch?
The Apple Watch is a pretty damn good running watch now. Previous versions not so much. At this point the Apple Watch actually gets better battery life than the VA3 when using it for actual sports, something everyone, including myself, have been crapping all over Apple for since day 1.
How is the GPS performance on the new AW4 in comparison to a current Garmin running/tri watch?
The AW is still mediocre as a fitness device. It’s big problem is GPS accuracy blows. Apple samples GPS less frequently to lower battery demand, and it makes up the missing GPS data. And, it will retroactively make up GPS data from the start of an activity until it gets a lock. If AW attempted to equal GPS accuracy of good fitness’s devices, the battery life would be a fraction of its current state.
VA3 crushes AW as a fitness device.
For context, I have an AW 4 and have had an AW 2 and AW 0. I use a 735XT for fitness.
I disagree. I have an Apple Watch 4 also and I think it’s pretty good. I actually just sold my 735 which is what I was using. I had a Series 2 AW and it was way off, but not now. Apple does smooth out the maps too much but that’s just the display. The totals are pretty damn accurate and if you send it to Training Peaks or Connect or something (I don’t like Strava) it looks fine.
Also someone (DCR or Desfit, can’t remember) said it was the best optical HR out there.
And if we’re comparing to the VA3 Cellular, it actually gets better battery life.
Either way the AW is a 100x better smart watch for the other 23 hours of the day.
Also someone (DCR or Desfit, can’t remember) said it was the best optical HR out there.
It probably wasn’t DCR. He’s the one who called out AW’s fabricated HR and GPS data during the start of an activity. (And fabricated GPS throughout an activity.) That review is one of his funniest.
Either way the AW is a 100x better smart watch for the other 23 hours of the day.
Agree 100%. I wear my AWS4 all day, except for workouts and races, when I use a Garmin. And, I wear a Fitbit 24/7 for activity and sleep tracking. AW sucks at those two functions as well.
I think you’re thinking of the Apple Watch 1-3 reviews from DCR. From the AW4:
“On one hand, in most scenarios (hard or easy), the Apple Watch seems to outperform the best GPS devices out there today. It doesn’t seem to matter on the sport, it’s more stable in a large number of scenarios.â€
And
“And as a result, accuracy has improved – at least once you get past that first minute. And the GPS sensor (or again, algorithms) is also improved, in many cases producing better results than Garmin, Suunto, or Polar’s latest wares.â€
Apple does Apple stuff for the first few minutes, true. And the non-caching of satellites is dumb. I still think Aw4 cellular vs VA3 cellular, AW is the clear winner.
I don’t agree if there was a magical 945 cellular. Different target markets.
I think you’re thinking of the Apple Watch 1-3 reviews from DCR.
No, I was thinking of his AW4 review… When you read on from your first quite, DCR says “Yet on the other hand …it’s fundamentally incorrect.â€
AW essentially fabricates data that looks decent at the macro level, but it is fake data and wrong.
This is my favorite quote of his that captures the theme of his review and made me laugh out loud.
But Apple doesn’t think time is sexy, so it just counts to three like a toddler and hopes for the best. After which off you go thinking that everything is ready. But in reality it almost never is.
Why would you think that the new Garmin device will be less expensive than the AW4? The Garmin 645 + music is nearly the same price as the AW4 ($450 list, $400 street). AW4 w/o cellular is about the same price, no (black sport band $429). AW4+cellular = $529. Even if the the new Garmin device is the same price as the 645 + music (hah!), it will be within about $100 of the AW4+cell. I’ll bet that in comes in at near parity with the AW4+cell at $499.
EDIT…Ah, looks like it is built on the Vivoactive platform and not the FR. So, yes, probably (certainly) less than the AW4 - but less capable than the 645, too. Guessing the price is trickier now, but the VA3 is $300, so…maybe $400, perhaps $370? Verizon is the partner, so maybe I’m back to a $400 guess…
I think you’re thinking of the Apple Watch 1-3 reviews from DCR.
No, I was thinking of his AW4 review… When you read on from your first quite, DCR says “Yet on the other hand …it’s fundamentally incorrect.â€
AW essentially fabricates data that looks decent at the macro level, but it is fake data and wrong.
This is my favorite quote of his that captures the theme of his review and made me laugh out loud.
But Apple doesn’t think time is sexy, so it just counts to three like a toddler and hopes for the best. After which off you go thinking that everything is ready. But in reality it almost never is.
I’ll attempt to settle this:
A) Apple’s HR and GPS for the first ~60 seconds blows.
B) Apple’s HR after 60 seconds is easily market leading. Not even close these days by others (Series 4 anyway)
C) Apple’s GPS after 60 seconds is a mixed bag. It tends to handle straights better than competitors, but will round-out any corner it can find with incorrect tracks
I’m not sure who wins the quote battle above, but that’s that.
Is it weird I’m a little excited that I just got bitch slapped a little by DCR?
I’ll attempt to settle this:
A) Apple’s HR and GPS for the first ~60 seconds blows.
B) Apple’s HR after 60 seconds is easily market leading. Not even close these days by others (Series 4 anyway)
C) Apple’s GPS after 60 seconds is a mixed bag. It tends to handle straights better than competitors, but will round-out any corner it can find with incorrect tracks
I’m not sure who wins the quote battle above, but that’s that.
Re A) above, do you have to start the real run for AW4 to lock onto the GPS and does its ~60 second guessing/correcting thing? What about if you just start the run, turn on auto-pause, and do some warm-up, then start the actual run, would that solve the problem?
Re C) if I am mostly running on neighborhood streets with a lot of turns, how’s the GPS accuracy?
BTW, my Garmin 645m’s HR really blows; on my run today, I averaged 125 bpm for the first 8 miles and turn suddenly it went up to over 165 bpm for the next 2 miles before settling back down. The spike was for no reason at all, the runs didn’t suddenly tilt up and I was on the same pace and felt exactly the same. It even triggered a new threshold notification from TrainingPeaks.