Switching to a Garmin after five years with the Apple Watch, I’m fully convinced that touch-enabled LCD screens were one of the stupidest things one could put on a wearable. Not only are they clunky and leave fingerprints all over the place (especially, during a sweaty run), they are brutally inefficient when it comes to battery life.
I don’t know much about the tech behind Garmin’s screens, but it’s the closest to having an e-ink watch I can think of.
@preslavrachev Why are you comparing two different product groups?
This is like comparing a feature phone and a smartphone, and saying that the feature phone has an amazing battery life and that a touchscreen isn't needed. Yeah, you can make a phone call with both, but one is much more capable than the other...
@yvz@preslavrachev Depends what you define as capable. I have a #Garmin Instinct Solar that looks a bit like an old Casio and rugged as heck. I wear it rock climbing, backpacking, snowshoeing, on high-elevation glacier climbs, on water sports, and biking. Most smart watches won't work at high elevation or in extremely cold environments, and a glass panel would've been destroyed by now.
I'd say my Garmin is very capable, and paired with an Android still does quite a bit with my phone.
@heaths@yvz Considering that I've almost exclusively cared about health tracking and running workouts on my Apple Watch for the past five years, I realized that indeed, I wanted a running watch and a health tracker with a badass battery, and not a smartwatch. So, I got one of those instead.
@preslavrachev Garmins are good - my partner uses one. I still prefer the Apple watch (I have a small cover on it that can be cleaned and is touch sensitive). Primary because I find integration with the phone for other things extremely useful and don't want two devices.
@preslavrachev It's a memory-in-pixel LCD, and I prefer it over the OLED displays that are currently fashionable. Those remind me of the LED watch my dad had in the mid 1970s.
@nowster thanks for clarifying! Are those somewhat comparable to #eink? I mean, I know that the technology is completely different, but I’m guessing they share the same idea about reducing full-screen screen refresh to the minimum. Where can I learn more about them?
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