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Comment by macNchz | Hacker News Reader

It's kind of weird segmentation, but, given neither has GPS, I wonder how many people who'd seriously consider buying one of these really care about having a compass & barometer. Are those often important features to someone who doesn't care about GPS?

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Having a compass and a barometer could be a "happy accident" of already having an all in one sensor that does all that things.

The compass could be easily related to an accelerometer used for detecting watch position (a function commonly used in smartwatches to power on the screen on certain positions that suggest you're looking at it) or detecting "steps".

Not so sure about where could you also get the barometric pressure sensor...

Both models have a 6-axis accelerometer, only one has compass reading.

The barometer is "nice to have". The compass is non-negotiable. It is extremely useful once you get used to remembering that you have one. Example: you have arrived at a train station in a new city. You have planned your route - you need to catch a bus from a stop on the west side of the station. You alight on the platform and there are multiple exits - you are completely disoriented. Turn left or right?

You can track elevation with barometer which is nice for casual hiking in the mountains

I had an old Suunto from before they went to crap, by far my favourite function was vertical speed, and it relied only on the accelerometer (the watch had GPS, but turning it on killed battery life). I still tried a couple of newer models but they removed that function.

The accelerometer? How can the accelerometer measure speed? It would drift to massive error very quickly.

vertical speed likely relied on the barometer rather than the accelerometer for exactly that reason.

It would be nice to track elevation change/stairs climbed during hiking, even if you don't care about GPS. I'll probably hang onto my old Garmin for exercise though, so this is sorta moot for me. Mostly it was just surprising to see that the pricier one was not a superset of the cheaper one.

In theory, you could pull GPS data from a connected smartphone, right?

Most smartphones don't come with a barometer, and the compass actually needs to be fixed to the display to make sense.

Personally I try to disable GPS in my smartphone when hiking unless I need to check the maps — I prefer to have my communication device not dead when I need it, and modern smartphones are terrible with battery life

Barometers can help predict incoming weather fronts - something I use on my phone while backpacking.

For sure, barometers are useful, I'm an avid backpacker and make use of the one in my watch for sudden weather changes and altitude, but if I'm buying a $150+ smartwatch to take backpacking, I just wouldn't really consider one without GPS.

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