Apple Watch SE Versus Others

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People will always ask me why I wear two watches and the answer is now "because one is a smart watch and the other is for sports, and people accept that quite easily. The reasons I used to give are no longer needed. I learned how to keep a short answer convenient, and easy to accept.

I saw an article today that said that [people prefer the Series 8 and 9 to the Apple Watch SE and the Ultra](https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/08/16/consumers-prefer-apple-watch-series-9-over-se-and-ultra-models). Of course this makes sense, because the Ultra is expensive and fills one niche, and the SE is cheap and fills another niche. The Series 8 and 9 watches showcase the newest tech at an affordable price point for many.

## Apple and Vo2 Max

For months I have been watching my Vo2 Max numbers go up, especially after the last two bike rides I went on. I then went on a short run, and my Vo2 Max tumbled from 44.9 to 37.2 or something disheartening like that. In reality my fitness is fine, but it's off putting. It's off putting that to get my Vo2 Max high I needed to go on two high effort bike rides, and that one lazy run destroyed months, if not years of "gains". In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter in the least, but this has really annoyed me.

The software that ignores every one of my walks, and hikes, suddenly decides to crash my Vo2 max numbers after a single run. It feels so bad that I'm tempted to stop wearing the Apple watch. Both Apple and Xiami gave the same Vo2 max result. It was running, and walking, over just two point three kilometres.

The Xiaomi device that gave the same reading as the Apple Watch costs 30 CHF compared to 280 CHF or more for the Apple Watch SE. This makes the case for wearing the Xiaomi Smart Band 8, especially with some sports, rather than the Apple Watch SE.

## Garmin

Garmin takes more time. According to the Garmin App my running VO2 max is 49 for cycling and 51 overall. It was last updated in April, and July so it's not recent.

## And Finally

If you have an old suunto, Garmin, Apple watch, and other devices then a lot of data will be missing from data fields in the apps. The only way to get them filled is to upgrade devices that already work well. That's why the SE, Xiaomi smart bands and others are useful. They fill the gaps at a fraction of the price.So does the Apple Watch SE.