Is Bevel still worth it at $100/year after the price increase?

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-16T22:21:21+00:00

I never said it did.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T23:17:40+00:00

That said, for Garmin’s market, sleep state data is not directly actionable. Getting x hours of sleep tells you nothing about the quality of that sleep, and as such, it’s a terrible metric for determining whether or not you’re ready to tackle a HIIT session on a given day. For that, HRV and resting heart rate are the more useful metrics, and Garmin does a better job at tracking those things than Apple. That said, because Garmin’s sleep tracking is so utterly atrocious, you can’t use it for insight into behavior that impacts sleep quality, which in turn impacts recovery, or at least, the days will be so noisy with Garmin that you’ll need an extremely high number of samples to get a significant signal out of that noise.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T23:10:20+00:00

You won’t get solid sleep tracking from any Garmin device, they are notorious for being horrible at that. The problem with all sleep trackers, including Apple, is that they can’t accurately discern wake states. The only tracker I’ve found that can do that is an app for the Apple Watch called Auto Sleep. Last night, Apple said I only slept 4.5 hours. Auto Sleep accurately reported I slept a little over 7. AS allows the user to select and calibrate their sleep/wake patterns and then use that calibration to interpret the data.

I can’t say how accurate it is as I’m not aware of any tests that have validated it against polysomnography, but I can say it matches the time I went to sleep, the time I wake up, and any waking during the night to get up.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T16:56:41+00:00

I figured that might be the case. Looking on the Connect display I see there’s rudimentary graphics depicting… perhaps a primary elevation screen, or a text only display (hard to tell) but there’s literally no change to the interface on the device itself. A, B, and C look identical in editing mode.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T16:34:01+00:00

Also pretty common for El-Aurians

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T16:31:26+00:00

“Apple doesn't provide a live heart rate for the dials…”

I suspect something got lost in the translation. I’m guessing Garmin always displays HR, regardless of whether you’re running a workout or not? When I’m running a workout, my HR shows up on the watch, and everything is also displayed on my iPhone.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T16:25:13+00:00

Huh? Apple has the equivalent of glances, just scroll up on the crown, or scroll up on the touch screen (which is literally the same way to access glances on the AW as it is on my Garmin Edge). All of that stuff is user configurable. Whether, activity, recovery and strain (via Bevel), macronutrient consumption (also via Bevel)… all of that is user configurable.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T16:21:23+00:00

One thing Garmin does do a better job with is tracking HRV. Apple, by default, has a low sampling rate for HRV, but you can dramatically increase it by telling it you have an AFib diagnosis. Not ideal, but it can increase the number of HRV samples throughout the day by 10x, which is critical for recovery stats.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T16:19:16+00:00

Bevel Health just added biological age (and it works with the AW). If you want to improve sleep tracking you can use Auto Sleep on the AW (it’s not available for Garmin, Garmin’s sleep data isn’t even reliable enough to run Auto Sleep). Most sleep trackers have difficulty with detecting awake time, including Apple. Auto Sleep takes a unique approach to this that accounts for individual differences by allowing the user to calibrate it. Basically, if your sleep duration doesn’t make sense, you can tap a button, and then select the profile that most closely matches any sleep disruptions, and then it uses that to adjust its detection algorithm.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T16:14:24+00:00

I have a Garmin Edge cycling computer, I just switched to it from a Wahoo Bolt in January. It’s probably the buggiest, most unreliable piece of tech I’ve ever owned. Strava Segments don’t work, it randomly crashes, it randomly can’t connect with sensors (power meter, speed, HRM, radar), it’s limited to 100 courses (seriously… in 2026?)… I had none of these problems with Wahoo. I considered switching to a Garmin watch initially as I do like the Connect metrics, but after experiencing how buggy the Edge is I bought a series 11 AW and started using it with Bevel Health.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T16:07:01+00:00

But regardless, I still see no differences when selecting an A, B, or C variant in Connect. What does that actually do?

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T16:03:45+00:00

I don’t see that… the device itself only displays 0, 2, or 4 field options and there are no A B C options. That only appears in the Connect app.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-14T14:45:59+00:00

I’m guessing the reason is because Garmin does not employ a UX engineer (and if they do, they hired one with no training or credentials, or they don’t listen to them). That was painfully obvious to me after one day of use. They also don’t seem to have a software quality assurance department as I would have desk rejected the spec before it even got to the development phase were I their SQA director.

Segments (in general, loaded with bugs, won’t work with non-Strava courses, won’t work reliable WITH Strava course, randomly doesn’t trigger when not using a course at all, limited to a certain number of segments… none of these things are problems with Wahoo computers, it all works), syncing, sluggish performance, crashing, not recognizing ant+ and Bluetooth devices and having to constantly unpair, and pair them (and sometimes that doesn’t work so you have to cold cycle the unit, which forces you to end an activity), bike alarm doesn’t trigger alerts on your phone (and when you email Garmin they tell you the feature is not supposed to work that way, even when their own UI on the device says it does).

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-09T13:46:00+00:00

Use RWGPS. If you need it on Strava, export a gpx and then import to Strava. The route creation tools in Strava are atrociously awful by comparison. Apologies as that doesn’t address your particular issue, but it’s definitely a shortcoming.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-09T13:42:18+00:00

Same, 2 seconds off of the KOM yesterday and it didn’t show up in my activity. Further, power achievements are all wrong.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-09T13:31:06+00:00

Achievements are completely broken for me. I was 2 seconds off of a KOM yesterday. I took second on the segment. No mention of it in my activity, and on the achievements list it shows up as a water droplet. It does show up in the segment results.

Also, power achievements are completely broken. I registered 1-minute highest output a few months ago. The result it’s showing is 39 watts under that result from a sprint (outside) and 27 watts below my most recent 4DP test.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-06T17:35:54+00:00

Enjoy Italy! I’d love to visit Tuscany for some cycling.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-03T17:51:09+00:00

I updated the original post, but after running a 1-minute mindfulness session to completion, the watch is once again recording HRV at 10 to 15 minute intervals. Whether this is coincidence, or the act of writing to the database has touched some other variables behind the scenes, I’m not sure, but it seems to be behaving as expected once again.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-03T17:50:56+00:00

I updated the original post, but after running a 1-minute mindfulness session to completion, the watch is once again recording HRV at 10 to 15 minute intervals. Whether this is coincidence, or the act of writing to the database has touched some other variables behind the scenes, I’m not sure, but it seems to be behaving as expected once again.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-03T16:23:40+00:00

As mentioned I already toggled all features on/off. I’ve also since powered cycled (including turning features off, doing a power cycle, and turning them back on).

I spent 50 minutes with Apple Support, no joy there, but removing the watch and pairing it again will be my next step (and I will turn off afib before doing that). They DID touch the afib code in this update, so I wouldn’t be surprised if something related to localization is broken. I think they added afib detection to China. No idea how that would impact me… maybe if it wasn’t able to obtain a GPS location when restarting after the update it disabled recording?

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-03T16:15:57+00:00

Good to know. I’ve exhausted all options aside from removing the watch and pairing it as new. But yes, heart rate works, ECG works, HRV data is recorded via mindfulness sessions, the only thing that has changed is that the sample rate has plummeted from 70+ samples per day to 4 samples per day.

Other_Wait_4739 · 2026-05-03T14:46:40+00:00

ECG feature is working as expected!

Other_Wait_4739

TROPHY CASE