I walked 5,000 steps with the Apple Watch 10 vs Garmin Instinct 3 — and there's a clear winner

Close-up of the Garmin Instinct 3 in teal on a user's wrist next to an all-black Apple Watch Series 10m on a dark blue band.

The Apple Watch Series 10 and Garmin Instinct 3 are two of the best smartwatch models you can buy today. Though they're designed to appeal to seemingly very different sets of customers, they each start at $399 and offer ample fitness and wellness tech and tools.

For example, both models come standard with onboard GPS for location tracking and altimeters for monitoring elevation changes. You also get fairly comprehensive post-workout reports from either model, with details on pace, heart rate, calories burned, distance covered and more.