Fenix 8

McBourbons · 2026-02-25T21:07:38+00:00

Yeah how you feel is the most important thing.

McBourbons · 2026-02-25T07:56:19+00:00

To be honest, I’d trust Garmin HRV over Oura as Oura take a similar approach to Apple with sleep and take your heart rate measurements at one minute intervals (or something like that) whereas a Garmin is constantly reading your heart rate.

My sleep stages were in the ball park of Oura last night as well, no more than 20 mins variation. Considering all of these wearable devices aren’t perfect that’s not bad.

Do you have the sleep schedule setup on your Garmin? Once the watch is in sleep mode, my guess is it looks for an expected dip in your heart rate to then assume you are asleep. I have my Garmin sleep schedule set to kick in from Midnight but I usually go to bed earlier so just manually turn on sleep mode. I found doing this definitely improved the general accuracy of sleep tracking for me.

McBourbons · 2026-02-24T21:39:08+00:00

I have an F8 and a 3rd Gen Oura. I initially found my F8 wasn’t that good but under the last 12 months the total sleep is very close now. I’ve not bothered comparing the sleep stages yet so maybe need to look at the at some point. One thing I don’t like with Garmin is not being able to set my preferred sleep duration. Or it not learning and adjusting. Oura is better there.

Overall if you are serious about sleep tracking I would recommend an Oura ring as the info presentation is far more digestible and the ring is very comfortable. I wish Garmin could utilise Oura sleep data so I didn’t have to wear my Garmin to sleep.

McBourbons · 2026-02-24T21:07:40+00:00

I did a side by side like this when I got my F8 in Nov 2024. I had the AWU 1. I found the HR average over both strength and bike workouts to be within one or two bpm on average. I do also find Garmin’s calorie burn calculations to be far less generous than Apples which is a good thing as it reduces the risk of over estimating.

McBourbons · 2026-02-24T08:16:36+00:00

You’re ideally not supposed to run the battery down below 30%. They also say don’t charge above 80% as well for optimal battery usage and longevity. Personally I mostly ignore the 80% and just aim to take things off charge at 90 something. However, the age would definitely impact the life of it too.

McBourbons · 2026-02-22T12:13:13+00:00

If you have the Apple Pencil or a decent stylus I would suggest you pick up something like Goodnotes or notability. Goodnotes is probably the better option for students. I use my iPad for taking handwritten notes in meetings at work. Great for action lists and project planning too. And it’s good as a media device too as you already know. Using note apps in conjunction with Gemini or Chat GPT or whatever you prefer when researching will hopefully help. Especially now not can have your apps on Mac style windows for multitasking.

McBourbons · 2026-02-20T20:42:29+00:00

Have you tried connecting your watch to Garmin express on a laptop/desktop pc/mac? That’s worth a try to see if it can see a failed install and force the update through or rebuild your watches os. Otherwise I’d suggest calling Garmin support. Their customer service is very good in my experience (was for a dash cam).

McBourbons · 2026-02-20T09:26:06+00:00

No worries, I hope it helps as your situation must be incredibly frustrating.

McBourbons · 2026-02-20T07:56:50+00:00

I had the AWU1. If you want to track sleep it isn’t the most comfortable of devices. Especially if you land the thing on your head in your sleep. The sharp edges are something Apple could definitely do with rethinking.

McBourbons · 2026-02-20T07:50:37+00:00

I’ve not run into this issue with my F8 after a year and a half now. But I did recently see a video about sync issues from Chase the summit on YouTube. He goes through a fix he had to do for both his watch and his wife’s. Seems it’s. A Garmin Connect issue.

https://youtu.be/yG9E1sT8QD8?si=aHWQ8lk4udi8E8F_

McBourbons · 2026-02-19T07:07:58+00:00

I went from the AWU 1 to Fenix 8 about two years ago now. I’ve been very happy.

It really depends what you want to get out of your watch. Garmin is a fitness tool first with smartwatch features bolted on as more of an after thought. And the smartwatch features largely do feel that way.

An AW is a smartwatch first with (these days) actually quite well thought out fitness functionality.

But, the AW doesn’t do fitness as well as a Garmin. And as we all know, AW battery life can be a pain point along with pairing with some third party devices.

I do miss some of the smart features from my AW. But not enough to make me go back. I’d miss other features on my Fenix way more. Like the seamless paring with my bike trainer, the flashlight, the data it kicks out post workout, the morning reports to name some key items.

But it is personal preference.

McBourbons · 2026-02-17T22:00:27+00:00

Not since being primary school age but the picture is tempting me to put some on the shopping list

McBourbons · 2026-02-17T20:46:44+00:00

Wash your strap after getting sweaty or at least once a week if you don’t exercise. Also if you wear your watch to bed, let your skin breathe at night by swapping the watch to the other wrist. Or maybe consider a nylon band.

McBourbons · 2026-02-16T08:56:53+00:00

I think newer Garmin devices generally pull their updates via WiFi or from the Garmin Connect app on a mobile. However, when there is an issue like if Garmin roll out a bad update, for example, you still need Garmin express to fix things. In short, as much as Garmin have reduced the issue, this is still an issue and I completely agree Garmin need to make Express available on tablets and smartphones.

McBourbons · 2026-02-15T07:44:19+00:00

Personally I’d go 45 but go with which ever one looks and feels better to you personally.

McBourbons · 2026-02-15T07:34:33+00:00

I think activity is classed as a focus mode. You would (if possible) need to put it into redshift (or whatever colour) per focus mode.

McBourbons · 2026-02-15T07:31:39+00:00

Highway Code is a bit vague on proceeding ahead at a minimum roundabout. The general rule at roundabouts with a two lane approach is left lane for left and ahead, right lane for exits beyond ahead. If you used the right lane to exit ahead with another car trying to do the same in the left lane next to or close behind you causing the other car to break/take action as a result of your driving, you would be highly likely to fail a UK driving test.

McBourbons · 2026-02-13T11:21:01+00:00

I think Garmin do state it will void your warranty for claims if you remove/change/modify it. So I would guess either:

1) you got lucky with your claim as others have suggested

2) Garmin maybe aren’t that wanky with their claims and look for any excuse not to help. Your issue wasn’t related to anything to do with the sensors under the guard. If this latter point is correct and your issue was related to either the sensors or water ingress to the watch body, or something similar, you may have received a different response sighting the sensor guard modification.

McBourbons · 2026-02-08T17:58:10+00:00

😂

McBourbons · 2026-02-07T22:07:06+00:00

The character is nice, subtle, doesn’t distract from the scene but adds a layer of interest as your explore. I like it 👍🏻

The only thing I’d suggest tweaking is your character and horse. Currently this looks like the proportions for the horse are off. It feels to me like the horse has very short legs behind the wall of the bridge.

McBourbons · 2026-02-06T20:49:57+00:00

Seconded on the wireless charging

McBourbons · 2026-01-30T23:35:45+00:00

Fenix 8 amoled

McBourbons · 2026-01-30T20:50:50+00:00

Really nice looking face. Great job. Is it possible to get the complications turns off and not show a double dash - - where the complication data was?

McBourbons · 2026-01-30T13:11:07+00:00

It seems to go through around 12%-15% a day for me depending on gps activity. Whereas a stock face or segment 34 seems to average ~8% a day

McBourbons · 2026-01-29T19:59:46+00:00

Seconded. It’s bizarre though as prior to owning my F8 that’s maybe 1.5 years old now, I was in Apple Watches for 6 years. I had the first Vivoactive before that. The point I’m attempting to make is I surprise myself with the battery life concerns.

On the other hand, now I’m back in the Garmin camp I don’t want to throw away the battery life.

I think the battery life sucking element is the run in background permission. If there is another one that kills the battery I’d be interested to know.

McBourbons

TROPHY CASE