These days, the best fitness trackers on the market do a hell of a lot more than just count your steps. Both the Garmin Forerunner 570 and Apple Watch 10 are designed to be worn 24/7, and can track everything from your heart rate variability to your menstrual cycle.
But if you’ve wondered which is more accurate when it comes to step-counting, you’ve come to the right place. In my latest step-counting challenge, I strapped the Garmin Forerunner 570 to one wrist, my Apple Watch Series 10 to the other, and manually counted my steps to compare. Read on to find out which came out on top.
Both watches count your steps by using an internal accelerometer, which measures the swing of your arm. Each swing counts for two steps. It doesn’t matter whether you wear your watch on your dominant or non-dominant hand, or whether you’re walking with your hands in your pockets, or holding something, the accelerometer should still measure your body’s movement.
I’ve used both devices for tracking my workouts in the past, although the Garmin Forerunner 570 is a newer device, only launching a month ago.
I walked 8,000 steps with the Garmin Forerunner 570 and Apple Watch 10 — here’s which was more accurate
If you’ve followed Tom’s Guide for a while, you’ll know this isn’t my first step-count comparison.
In fact, you can read what happened when I did the same test with the Garmin Forerunner 570’s predecessor in my Garmin Forerunner 265 vs Apple Watch 10 face-off here. For all of these challenges, I use my trusty clicker counter. Every step I took, I clicked. When I got home, I downloaded all the data.
If you own an Apple Watch, you’ll also know that Apple doesn’t include step count data in its workout summaries. You can see your overall steps for the entire day, but not how many steps you took on a particular walk (probably because steps aren’t actually that useful a metric, but annoying for me when writing these articles.)
This challenge was originally 10,000 steps, but I lost the beginning of my walk as the StepsApp on my Apple Watch decided to stop working. I switched to the Pedometer+ app and started again.
Here are the results:
Manual: | 8,000 steps |
Garmin Forerunner 570: | 8,100 steps |
Apple Watch 10 | 7,700 steps |
As you can see from the results, the Garmin Forerunner 570 was pretty much spot on, counting 100 steps more than I did. The Apple Watch 10, on the other hand, missed 300 steps.
Of course, to truly test the accuracy of the two watches, you’d need to do a lot more testing on a much bigger scale. I’m also not saying that the Apple Watch 10 isn’t accurate. The average person takes 2,000 steps in a mile, so missing 300 steps isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things.
Interestingly, for the walk, my Apple Watch recorded the distance as 3.79 miles, whereas my Garmin recorded 3.85 miles. Again, we’re talking about very small differences here.
Without getting into the smartwatch vs sportswatch debate, it seems important to also point out that these watches do a lot more than just count steps.
Without getting into the smartwatch vs sportswatch debate, it seems important to also point out that these watches do a lot more than just count steps. The Apple Watch 10 is the best smartwatch on the market and is like having your iPhone on your wrist.
The Garmin Forerunner 570, by comparison, doesn’t have as many smartwatch features but is Garmin’s mid-tier Forerunner, designed to accurately track your marathon training. It’s one of the best Garmin watches I’ve ever tested, and the bright screen is truly beautiful.
Whichever device you choose to strap to your wrist, know that they’re both counting your steps, so, unlike me, you don’t have to.
While counting steps isn’t always the best metric to focus on when it comes to getting in shape and losing weight, it’s a good place to start. A review of 32 studies, published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that “10,000 steps/day is a reasonable target for healthy adults.”
If you’re looking for more inspiration, you’ve come to the right place — read what happened when I tried this Japanese walking method, as well as this 5-4-5 walking technique.
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