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- cross-posted to:
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I have been using the Mi Band for years which I generally like, although it’s quite a simple device
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Galaxy Watch 4. I don’t like Samsung but I wanted WearOS 3 so yeah…
Where’s the “none of the above” choice? Aside from keeping the time, all I want from a smartwatch is the ability to see its screen both in the dark and under direct sunlight, a week-long battery life, 5ATM water resistance rating, receiving notifications from my phone (with the ability to dismiss them), ability to have customizable watch faces, and finally the ability to accept standard size watch bands. The last watch I’ve owned that could do almost all of that (aside from standard bands or ) was Pebble Steel. I still miss it to this day.
Everything else was an overpriced disappointment. I don’t need it to monitor my heart rate, or my blood oxygen level, or my blood alcohol level. I don’t want it to prod me or give me pep talks, or make phone calls, or play music, since my phone can do all of that better.
Not sure about the water-proof-ness, but actually a pinetime might tick most of those boxes. I’m happy with mine.
I miss Pebble so much.
Everything else was an overpriced disappointment. I don’t need it to monitor my heart rate, or my blood oxygen level, or my blood alcohol level. I don’t want it to prod me or give me pep talks, or make phone calls, or play music, since my phone can do all of that better.
That’s the thing. I have an apple watch, and apps on it are complete garbage. They’re not useful, they UI is impossible, browsing for apps to launch them is tedious and painful. Like, I don’t want to order Taco Bell on my watch. I don’t want to play a game. I need notifications, time/date/weather, and easy playback controls for whatever is currently playing on my phone and that’s it.
I also generally don’t trust fitness trackers. If you have a watch that can use GPS to track a run or a ride, then that’s fine. But pedometers are a joke, and counting calories burned is most assuredly bullshit since the human body isn’t a closed system and everyone’s metabolism is different
I’ve had this for 4.5 years and it is amazing. Does everything you want.
Double plus for the Garmin. I’m wearing an Instinct 2 right now. 21 day battery life! It replaced my Vivoactive 4S (6 day battery life) and was cheaper than the Venu 2 (11 day battery life).
I’ve killed at least two smartwatches by forgetting I’m wearing them when I go in the ocean. The Vivoactive 4S was completely unaffected by the salt water, and I’ll test the Instinct 2 this week.
My mom is all about her Apple watch, and has touted the features to me. “I can [insert feature] with this!” Have you used it for that? “No.”
I’ve had three Pebbles, a couple Fitbits, a couple Garmins, a couple Android watches, two Amazfits… I just want something that sends me notifications and has good battery life. If I have to charge the watch every night, I’ll forget I’m wearing it.
That being said, the Instinct 2 is actually worse at tracking my workouts than the Vivoactive 4 was. I do martial arts, so the GPS is actually a hindrance there, and I haven’t found a way to make it move “generic cardio” to the top of the workout list.
Where’s the “none of the above” choice?
I agree with that preference
I have a Withings ScanWatch. Almost all of that (except for custom watchfaces, because it uses a physical watchface).
It also does the heart tracking and ECG stuff, but that matters to me because I have a heart condition that it can help track.
It’s perhaps not a fully fledged fitness tracker, and it’s certainly not a smartwatch - but my favorite health tracking device has turned out to be my Oura ring.
I used it alongside my Apple Watch for quite a while, but I’ve found that the Oura ring gives me plenty of insight on my sleep, recovery and (more limited) activity. And the form factor is just awesome! I don’t even notice I’m wearing it, and I only charge it every 5 days or so.
I’ve stopped wearing the Apple Watch altogether now, and I find it freeing not to have all those notifications available on my wrist, while still having the health tracking I want from the Oura. Obviously it’s not a good fit for someone who does want the other features of a smartwatch, but solely as a health tracker I really like it.
Garmin Forerunner 55.
It’s the most basic one in the running series, but it works well enough for what I need it to do.
It’s the first real “closed ecosystem” device I own, as usually I go the open source route for everything, but Garmin has a good track record and the device has helped me train for a half marathon really well. I put a “casio”-style watch face on it, and I enjoy it a lot.@cinaed666 @twotone I also have the Forerunner 55.
Something to note is that Garmin watches are Linux-friendly and can be used without signing up to their cloud services. You can access the watch as a USB storage device and manually grab the .FIT files on it, which you can then import into tools of your choice (or convert to .GPX for wider compatibility).
I’m very aware of this thanks, however for training to run I went for convenience.
I like comparing with my friends in the app and using the training plans etc.
The fit to gpx converter is a good way to extract hiking data though!Very good to know, thanks!
Got a MiBand as well. Had the first one, then the 3, and now I believe the 5 or 6.
Only replaced them because new wristbands were hard to come by after 2 years respectively, the battery was still going strong.
Now I’ve bought 10 straps right from the start and am only on number 4, another 2 years in. Let’s see if I can beat the battery this time.
Love this, haha.
wtf do you do to those wristbands?
I take it off for showering and the holes wear out from opening and closing it daily. I know they are waterproof, but don’t want to be wearing anything in the shower.
Either you’re wearing it (way) too tight or it’s cheap garbage. Going through two wristbands per year is not normal.
It’s the latter. The bands on Mi Band watches are always cheap garbage.
Garmin ftw
This author has done a few of these tests and Garmin seems to be most accurate. I’m mostly not a fan of the intense styling though
Check out the Vivoactive and Venu lines. Those are nice and don’t look like the $40 Timex Ironmans.
Well there’s lots of different sizes and a few styles. But all good. Different strokes …
I just have some cheap fitbit. I just care about the sleep metrics and battery life.
TL;DR The author determined the most accurate are the Garmin Epix Pro and the Fitbit Inspire 3
I have a PineTime which I think is pretty good for what it is. In fact, I am very happy with it and recommend wholeheartedly the device.
Still, my favourite is even more basic. I have a standalone pedometer. This one, which has a website tha belies the product’s quality. I find it very accurate. It does some basic calorie calculations for you, and distance. And the battery lasts…ages.
Man, I loved my Fitbit One, but damn was it so fickle. So easy to lose and not waterproof, and spotty bluetooth. It was just a basic pedometer with calorie calculations.
FWIW I have an Inspire 3 and it’s reasonable. It has a chime to find it, Bluetooth seems solid enough, and it’s definitely waterproof as I run it under the sink to wash it every day. Cheap, too, so I don’t really care if it breaks. Small, so not a big, clunky fashion statement or something.
I just wish it tacked my heart rate a little better while I’m working out. Mine loses track what seems like immediately once I start sweating a little. It can recover with a little jostle or sometimes moving the band up a notch if possible, but man it’s annoying.
Hmm true. It does sometimes stop tracking, which is extremely annoying.
Another annoyance (that’s probably not unique to it) is that I’m doing calorie counting, and I’ve found I have to halve the calories it reports to get an accurate number.
I’m currently using a Mi Band 6 (with a nylon strap that’s real comfy), but I wish the Pebble still existed. The e-paper display, the nice UI and tactile buttons, with good battery life and the ability to make apps was great.
Once my Mi Band breaks, I’m torn between Garmin (since they check almost all of the Pebble boxes, even if I don’t do fitness and they’re more fitness oriented) and a Galaxy Watch with the rotating bezel, since that was really cool to play with, plus the Android integration might be nicer.
It’s no Pebble, but I chose the BangleJS 2 for its openness and the ability to load and even make apps myself.
I have no idea why no other company has been able to recapture the magic of pebble. It was by far the best smartwatch I’ve ever owned.
There is watchy, pretty sure it is from the same guy who made the pebble.
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Same here. I’ve had mine for a few weeks and I love it. The battery life is amazing too, I charge it once a week.
I have a Garmin Vivosmart 4; does all the things I need it to do, and isn’t big or distracting. All I wanted was a step tracker and the ability to set multiple alarms.
I’ve been rolling a Fitbit Charge 5 for the last year and a half and it’s been pretty great, had an issue at six months and Fitbit replaced it, no issues since. Good screen, reliable tracking, 1 charge lasts 5 days to a week, no issues with sync.
I’ve had Fitbits for years but I’m probably never buying another one.
The main thing keeping me locked into the Fitbit ecosystem was the social features - my family are dispersed around the country and all have Fitbits, so for years we did the weekly step challenges as a bit of friendly competition and a vehicle for staying in good contact. The competition made a genuine difference to our behaviour - especially for encouraging my parents to stay active in retirement.
Then after the Google acquisition they killed off the challenges on spurious grounds. It’s generally suspected this is part of a drive to gradually kill off the Fitbit brand and drive people onto Google’s own Pixel watches. Now Fitbit’s USP is gone and so I’ll probably just get a Garmin next time as people generally think that’s a better product.
My wife has a Garmin (vivoactive 4s I think) and on paper it looked fantastic, in action she has had nothing but trouble. Terrible battery, ugly UI, ridiculous management app, nothing but sync trouble. Hopefully Garmin has picked up their game with newer watches.
I went from using a garmin fenix to an oldschool mechanical watch and my stress levels have gone down like you wouldn’t believe. The only thing I miss is garmin pay.
What about a smartwatch stressed you out?
I have a Garmin Instinct 2S. Works really well for me, it has all the smart watch functions I need and great battery life. It’s also quite rugged. The stats are a good motivation to get me out cycling more often.
I got the same watch last month, the non-s version though. I have always struggled to keep a watch on my wrist. With a phone I no longer needed to keep the time on my wrist. I did get a smart watch a few years ago but just couldn’t get on with it. It ended up in the draw to never be used again.
Last month I started looking again and settled on the Instinct 2. Initially I wanted a colour screen but in reality I am actually very happy with the monochrome display. It’s always on and has a long battery life. I’m actually really impressed with how good it is at tracking your health etc. I tracks all activities I do. It’s quite granular too in that I can choose from road, mountain bike, gravel bike etc. It also records kayaking and standup paddle boarding.
At £200 it was one of the more reasonably priced smart watches. Certainly compared to the Fenix which is another £400 extra.
I like my Garmin Vívoactive 3. It has all the basic features (for casual walking/running) and looks okay.
I really like the look of the “hybrid” watches like the Garmin Vívomove or Withings watches. They look great but as far as I know none of them have in-built GPS.
Would be very interested in checking out the BangleJS 2 as well.
