Wow, if I had a choice between these two watches, I’d have a big dilemma.
I mean, these are two watches that are completely opposite in terms of the crowd they service.
The Ticwatch E3 is meant to appeal to as many people as possible with features that make your life more productive.
On the other hand, the Garmin Fenix 6 is meant to help you enhance your health and life.
That’s not to say the Ticwatch E3 is useless in that regard. The watch is actually a pretty amazing smart watch with all-around features including health tracking and sports tracking.
FYI, thanks to AI imagery software, we’re able to create very specific fashion and hairstyle examples to illustrate the points being made. In some cases, imagery is exaggerated to hammer home the point.
Who is it for?
Surprisingly, you don’t get any less of a smartwatch with the Ticwatch E3 than with the Garmin Fenix 6.
The Ticwatch E3 is a great smartwatch for people who want something that helps them detach from their smartphone. That’s because it’s a Wear OS smartwatch which means that it’s a very good watch to pair with an Android phone.
On the other hand, the Garmin Fenix 6 is different in that it’s quite an independent smartwatch. What I mean by that is that you can always get by without the smartwatch being paired to a phone. You’ll still be able to do most things except where it relates to notifications and stuff.
Although it’s true that at the end of the day you need the Garmin Connect app in order to get the full functionality of the Garmin Fenix 6.
Style and weight
And the most obvious difference comes from the look and style of the smartwatch.
Take a look at the Ticwatch E3 and you’ll know that it’s trying its best with what it has.
It’s plastic, grey and more lightweight than a freshman.
But that’s a good thing too. It’s comfortable to wear overnight (which you’ll need to get your sleep tracking data).
On the other hand, the Garmin Fenix 6 is a true beast. It’s painful to wear overnight because of how chunky it is.
I have slept many nights with the Garmin Fenix 6 and all I can say is that sleep tracking with it is painful. I never sleep on the side where the Garmin Fenix 6.
It’s not a device that’s particularly comfortable either. It’s a huge chunky and heavy watch. You won’t notice until you take the watch off your wrist then you get that feeling of “ahhhh…”
Operating system
The Ticwatch E3’s Wear OS is a particularly promising smartwatch because the Wear OS 3 is coming to this watch.
The Wear OS 3 is pretty promising because it’s a collaboration with Samsung’s Tizen OS. That means you et the best of what Google can offer and what Samsung can offer.
Google’s Wear OS has had a pretty bad reputation for being sluggish but with the Ticwatch E3’s Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100, you won’t be lagging.
Everything was done in a very FAST way that would not have been possible in early 2020 — just look at the previous generation Ticwatch Pro and you’ll know.
The Garmin Fenix 6 uses a proprietary OS and things are generally quite quick. I never had any problems with it.
Voice assistant
The Ticwatch E3 has a voice assistant, Google Assistant, while the Garmin Fenix 6 doesn’t.
The Garmin Fenix 6 is just very limited in its productivity enhancing features, unfortunately.
So, with the Ticwatch E3, you can just long-press a button to activate Google Assistant and you can tell it what exactly you want to do. It’ll usually be able to figure out how to help you or it will try to get information online.
Super useful.
Google Pay vs Garmin Pay
Both smartwatches have an NFC chip that allows you to load a credit card so you never have to take your wallet out.
To clarify, these are contactless payment apps on both smartwatches.
it’s really useful if you are doing sports and don’t want to carry a physical credit card. You can just tap and pay for whatever you want.
Google Pay does have better support for more credit cards than Garmin Pay though. I wasn’t able to load a credit card onto the Garmin Pay but I was able to on Google Pay.
Messages, emails and calls
If you receive an email, message or call, you can reply to all of those on the Ticwatch E3.
You can answer a call on the Garmin Fenix 6 series, but you will need your mobile phone in order to answer the call.
On the other hand, with the Ticwatch E3, you can answer the call directly on the watch. You can also make outgoing calls.
When a message or email comes in, you will see it on both smartwatches. You can reply to those messages on both smartwatches assuming you’re not paired with an iOS.
The Garmin Fenix 6’s reply options are much more limited. You have to use one of the many pre-composed replies which you can set on the Garmin Connect app.
Whereas on the Ticwatch E3, you can just create a message using the speech to text system which is excellent.
Battery Life
The battery performance of the Garmin Fenix 6 eclipses the Ticwatch E3 by far.
I basically charge the Ticwatch E3 every day. That’s necessary because by the end of one full day, the Ticwatch E3 isn’t really able to make it through the second day without feeling like it’s on the edge of running out of power.
The Garmin Fenix 6 is on another level. You can use it for five days without a charge even if you use the most power sucking of features like GPS tracking.
As a fitness tracker
Both smartwatches are OK for activity tracking but the Garmin Fenix 6 is better.
As I said above, the battery life of the Ticwatch E3 pales in comparison with the Garmin Fenix 6. So that means you’ll have more periods where you won’t be wearing the smartwatch, and that means it won’t be able to track your data.
Let me just give another example of the benefits of the Garmin Fenix 6 over the Ticwatch E3: stress tracking.
Both smartwatches have stress tracking feature but the Ticwatch E3’s is one which you’d have to activate.
On the other hand, the Garmin Fenix 6’s is passive. It’s always checking your stress in the background.
Both watches are also able to track your blood oxygen saturation (also know as SpO2 or pulse oximeter).
This tells you how your blood oxygen level and the truth is I don’t know what to do with such a data.
Sports
the Ticwatch E3 has much fewer sports options that you can pick from as compared to the Garmin Fenix 6.
For example, you won’t get “edge” sports like paddleboarding as you would on the Garmin Fenix 6, but you’ll be able to find the standard bike, run, swim on the Ticwatch E3.
Oh, did I say that both smartwatches are suitable to be taken into the water?
What I liked about the Garmin Fenix 6 is that the Garmin Connect app is amazing at giving you analyses about your workouts.
I like that it breaks down your workouts into aerobic and anaerobic training intensity, I like that it gives you an idea of the recovery time necessary after a workout.
I also like that the battery life is so good that you can take it to a marathon and it’ll not be on its last legs by the halfway mark.
Adventure: you’d want the Garmin Fenix 6
Garmin makes a few versions of the Fenix 6 including one which has solar charging (the Fenixes that end in 6X) and also others that have offline maps and music.
They’re really great for people who like to go on adventures.
I personally have the Garmin Fenix 6 Sapphire. They’re great because they make things easy when you’re out in the woods and you have no idea where you are.
You can activate the map and you’ll know where you are.
That’s really great.
On the Ticwatch E3, you don’t have that luxury. You could download Google Maps on the app store but it still requires an internet connection to show you where you are.
That’s problematic because sometimes you just can’t get a data connection.
Verdict
In the Ticwatch E3 vs Garmin Fenix 6 comparison, both watches offer great value regardless of what you get.
The price point of the Garmin Fenix 6 is much higher, but you get one of the best sport smartwatches out there.
On the other hand, the Ticwatch E3 is a great smartwatch for the general public. It will bring you a lot of convenient features like messaging, emails and Google Assistant. it also costs much less and has OK sports and health features.