I walked 5,000 steps with the Apple Watch Series 12 and Garmin Forerunner 570 — here's the winner

Putting Flagship Wearables to the Test

When evaluating modern fitness trackers and smartwatches, a reliable baseline is essential. While contemporary gadgets are packed with advanced health and smart features, they must excel at the basics. To test pedometer accuracy, we strapped the new Apple Watch Series 12 ($399) and the Garmin Forerunner 570 ($549) to opposite wrists and embarked on a manually tracked 5,000-step walk, counting every movement with a physical clicker.

Both devices rely on internal accelerometers to measure arm swings and calculate steps, functioning similarly regardless of dominant-hand wear or lifestyle habits like walking with hands in pockets. However, how they record and present this data differs significantly.

The Step-Count Showdown: Apple vs. Garmin

During the test, a manual step counter logged a total of 5,440 steps. Here is how the two smartwatches compared:

• Manual Count: 5,440 steps
• Apple Watch Series 12: 5,490 steps
• Garmin Forerunner 570: 5,512 steps

The Apple Watch Series 12 narrowly edged out the competition, overcounting by only 50 steps. Meanwhile, the Garmin Forerunner 570 performed exceptionally well too, overcounting by just 72 steps. Given that the average person walks roughly 2,000 steps per mile, a variance of 50 to 70 steps across a multi-thousand-step walk is negligible and demonstrates high precision from both manufacturers.

Beyond Steps: Features, Battery, and Ecosystem

While step counts are a great baseline, choosing between these two devices depends heavily on what you want from a 24/7 companion:

• Apple Watch Series 12: Acting as an extension of your iPhone, it offers seamless integration, smart features, and an upgraded heart rate sensor, cementing its status as the top everyday smartwatch for most consumers. Note that watchOS still requires third-party apps like Pedometer+ to view workout-specific step counts easily.
• Garmin Forerunner 570: Geared towards serious training and recovery, this mid-tier running watch blows the Apple Watch out of the water with battery life, offering up to 10 to 11 days of use on a single charge depending on the case size.

Stay tuned as we continue putting these two heavyweights through rigorous head-to-head testing.