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Garmin for sure.
I’ve had a Fitbit, Samsung Smart, and Garmin. Fitbit and Samsung were almost a daily charge where my Garmin Solar lasts about a week. Both Fitbit and Samsung died on me roughly after a year and a half, Garmin has shown no issues.
I’ll be switching to Garmin next time for other reasons, but my current Fitbit (Versa 3) actually has great battery life. 6-7 days between charges, unless I’m using the screen a lot.
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I think both my Fitbit and Samsung were first or so gen, so I’m sure they’ve improved since then. But even still, I also like the simplicity of the Garmin screen vs having a small smart phone screen on my wrist.
Apple Watch just makes sense if you are already on iPhone. I resisted it for a long time but now after getting one it is so useful for things like having access to DUO codes on your wrist without a phone and maintaining healthy habits
Love my Apple Watch! Its main downside compared to the rest is weak battery life, you basically need to charge it every day. It’s an easy habit to form though (I just throw mine on the charger when I shower).
Mine chargers super fast and so yeah I can charge it while I do my bed time routine and have it 100% to track sleep and be ready for the next day
Mine lasts about 3 days before I have to charge it, but I’m also largely ignoring it and use it as a watch / timer / notification reader. I had one with the cell modem but when I broke it was during the pandemic and just wasn’t on-site where I’d often leave my phone at the desk.
My battery health has gotten awful recently too. I’ve got a series 5, so yes it’s 4 years old, but I genuinely only get about 12 hours of battery life these days. I went through and uninstalled every single app I don’t use, but it’s still awful.
Love everything else about it though, so I set a slickdeals alert to hopefully pick up a cheaper series 8 sometime between now and when the series 9 launches
Look into an SE version 2, those aren’t half bad either if you’re trying to save a bit of money.
I’ve been an Apple Watch user for several years now. When I first purchased one I wondered if it might turn out to be a bit of a gimmick. But now I don’t think I would want to be without one.
The Apple Watch integrates seemlessly with the iPhone. The fitness features may not be quite as in depth as Garmin offers, but they are good enough for casual exercise and have been effective and keeping me more active. If you are numbers person the value of seeing your activity metrics can’t be overstated.
Apple Pay and hands free messaging come in handy often.
I also like the general design. The Apple Watch is square, and I think a square display works much better for a smartwatch. There is also a thriving marketplace for alternate watch bands and they are super easy to swap - no more mangling my finger nails trying to fiddle with those spring pins most watches use.
When I had an Note 10 Lite, I had a xiaimi smart band. I still think that it’s impressive for the price, but the little guy had issues left and right with any app that wasn’t xiaomi’s own apps. (although sometimes, even those had issues)
Then I got an iphone, and later a apple watch. It just works, even with third party apps. Expensive as hell though
personally i am fine with the garmin on ios, only annoyance is double notifications
Garmin’s are great step trackers, I have read in reviews they are a lot more accurate in that regard compared to Apple Watch. The other integrations into the apple ecosystem is what I appreciate about my series 8
Yeah I just picked up an Ultra after not having one since the first gen. Very useful for sleep tracking, short cuts (if you have a smart home) and all kinds of other crap. Works nice with AirPod max too.
For the most detailed exercise/health tracking, I’d highly recommend Garmin watches. First, no subscription fees, you buy the hardware and you own it and can customize it a lot. Second, the battery life can’t be beat. Third, stats, graphs, analytics! Plus it works just as well whether you’re an apple or android user.
I have the Forerunner 265 and it is so much fun for a stats and graph loving nerd like myself. My gf chose the Venu 2 Sq because she wanted a square screen and she is really happy with it.
I’ve been a happy Fitbit user for years, but am finding their Premium push increasingly annoying. I shouldn’t have to pay a subscription fee to see data that my tracker is already getting. I almost switched to Garmin last time but didn’t, and I regret that now. My current Fitbit is still in great shape so it’ll be a while until I can justify a new tracker.
I’ve always associated Garmin with big over the top styling, but I like that Venu Sq 2. Garmin also seems best quality
I have a vivoactive 4s and it’s got all the features I want in a smartwatch while also being discreet and small. It doesn’t feel any different on my wrist than an analog watch and that’s what I love most
Been going through their product line now and this is the one I’ve landed on. Battery?
I can get mine to last 5-6 days depending on usage. The GPS function obviously drains it faster so if I’m going on bike rides multiple days in a row it’ll be about 4 days tops, but if I do stationary bike and weight lifting it’ll get 5 days easy, even going on GPS walks it usually doesn’t drain as bad as the bike tracking.
Also worth noting I don’t have any phone notifications on my watch because I just don’t need another device getting my attention. So I think that helps to extend my battery life.
Additionally, I disabled the Pulse Ox sensor by default as that thing drains juice so fast. My girlfriend had hers on 24/7 and was getting like maybe 2 days out of a full charge.
yeah that’s the issue for me with choosing a watch. I like the Charge 4 because it’s sorta small and doesn’t have a huge face.
I have this watch and can confirm it is excellent
Can you use apps with Garmin? I’m getting into weightlifting a bit and want to use the Strong app to record my lifting routine without needing to take out my phone. The only other features I really want are decent heart rate monitoring and good pairing with AirPods.
I’ve never had a smartwatch. I’ve been looking to get a used one. I was leaning towards a slightly older series Apple Watch but open to something different
It probably would not communicate directly with a smaller fitness app other than some major ones like Strava and my fitness pal. You CAN track weightlifting in the Garmin app, and I do, the watch can even auto track your sets and it attempts to auto detect the lift type but isn’t always right so I correct them after I’m done. For lifting workout structuring, it probably won’t be as good as your lifting specific phone app. Garmin is very good at running and other cardio activities, most smart watches struggle to measure weight lifting.
The watches can connect to a second Garmin app on your phone called Connect IQ which is their app store where they support third party developers to make apps, widget, ultra customizable watchfaces, integration of new connected sensors.
It does not support common phone apps or have incredible advanced phone integration like an apple or Google watch would have but we like that because we already get enough screen time. I’m able to see and reply to text messages though, see and interact with all notifications, control audio/media that is playing and more though so it’s not devoid of features at all.
It seems like it has some great features. I think I saw the battery life is quite good which would be nice. I know next to nothing about smartwatches so I’m just trying to figure out what would work for me. I’m pretty sure I will end up getting something used, I just haven’t decided on what. Apps are an pretty important factor for me.
If you are an apple user, then the Apple watch is clear choice. As an Android user, Huawei could be a decent option but not in the United States. The Google watch is still first generation and might be ok for early adopters but I’m weary of it, and that’s coming from a long time google phone user since the first one. I’m hoping they release more generations of it with improvements.
I have an iPhone. Apple Watch probably makes more sense for me, I think I’ll try to get an old used one and see how I like it. I could see Garmin being really good for a lot of people though.
There’s only one smart watch that matters! This was the boyo!
All my phone numbers, my entire school lesson schedule, a calculator - everything 10 year old me ever needed!
If you had one of these when the TV came out in class, you were a god:
holy smokes i nedd that one
There was also a Casio Wrist Camera, which took 120x120 pixel photos in glorious 16bit greyscale. Sort of like a wrist mounted Game Boy Camera.
A discussion of retro smart watches would also not be complete without the Ruputer / OnHandPC - a PDA watch from 1998.
we need a board about retrotech
I tried random Android watches. They all sucked.
I bought a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. I love it. Charge it when I shower and that gets me by, have never had to charge it overnight. Battery is at 15 days currently.
I like my Pixel watch. It’s battery life doesn’t last more than 1.5 days, but I have no issues charging it for 15 or so mins in the morning.
I missed the prime day offer on those… Was so close to buying one.
I bought the same watch 10 days ago. It had 82% when I opened the box, I didn’t even charge it, and it has 39% now. During that time I had one 3/4 hour GPS activity, and 24/7 heart rate monitor + mobile notifications. I was also playing with it quite a bit to set everything up. Sunlight exposure was pretty low, so … I’m impressed.
It does everything I want from watch. Great readability in every condition, good GPS, reliable heart rate, long battery life (I keep forgetting to charge even my phone).
I’ve had it for about 3 months now. I’ve never had it drop below 45% battery. Haven’t turned off any settings to extend life like I had to on WearOS. I only charge when I take a shower…and that’s not a daily thing lol.
I’m on the first gen non-solar for 3 years now. Love it, have a spare still in the box in case this one dies 20 years from now lol
Still miss my pebble…
Rocked a Garmin a few years, now I’m trying galaxy watch 5 pro. Miss the week long battery but 2+ days is “ok”, a lot less annoying then I first thought it would be.
Exelent integration with my phone is a big plus. (For instance the Garmin never let me respond to alarms from the Samsung clock app :/ )
Upvote for Pebble. It was the best of all time. I could operate the buttons without even looking.
I was really interested in the Watchy project, but it seems you can’t buy them anymore. They just say stock of 0 and maybe will get stock this fall. Oh well.
I’m happily on the garmin ecosystem. Felix 5x is still going strong for about 2 weeks battery on normal use. takes a beating and still looks new. only had to replace the band. I use garmin on my bike too
5x is great. Still working perfectly and looks great. That sapphire glass is fantastic. I have friends with scratches in their pixel watches already yet with all my yard work, stone work, building things and sports - not a scratch.
You can definitely scratch the sapphire. I took a mtb spill and got a tiny scratch on my 5x.
While there are a lot of comments saying Garmin, I haven’t seen people mention the privacy aspect
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/categories/wearables/
Garmin apps are much better for privacy. If I’m going to be wearing a biometric tracker 24/7, I don’t want that data being sold to advertisers. That’s more important to me than most other features
Not many people care about privacy anymore. I mention it to my family, friends, etc and how they should do certain things online to stay more ‘private’ (not anonymous) and they laugh it off saying they have nothing to hide / don’t care about their stuff being online… Sucks.
I get that as well, or when people care about the issues but not enough to change up how they are used to doing things.
It is getting better though, I’m finding more friends are moving to the better options. It’s even easier when the privacy respecting option is as good as the alternatives. I guess Garmin is a decent example since people were recommending the watches even without the privacy aspect.
Garmin is mainly based on quality, with the benefit of privacy. I know many family friends who hike, run, bike, etc and use garmin because it is reliable.
Hope this privacy stuff becomes more common, kind of hate having to modify software or installing custom OSs for my day-to-day stuff.
That said, didn’t they get breached and lose all their customer data a few years back?
The Pebble watches. They may not be made anymore, but they are the only smart watches I have used that felt like an actual smart watch instead of a phone for your wrist. Once mine dies, I may switch to a BangleJS.
Isn’t the point of making a watch smart is that you can get your phone onto your wrist?
In some ways yes, but I think a smart watch is optimal for performing tasks quickly and and giving me information at a glance. A smart watch should feel like a dashboard on my wrist that stops me from using my phone unnecessarily. Most smart watches feel like a small second display for my phone with a worse user experience that make me want to always perform those tasks on my phone.
It is still the best “dumb” smartwatch out there. Long battery life, physical buttons, no touch screen nonsense and it just works.
I am still rocking my Pebble2 but unfortunately the silicon buttons are starting to deteriorate. It will be difficult to make repairs/upgrades to the watch, but I don’t see a 1to1 replacement for it.
Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. It’s light and durable, solar charging with several weeks between charges when using GPS tracking pretty regularly.
I am an avid Garmin user. I have tried the Vivoactive and am currently using the Fenix series. Highly recommend!!!
Casio need to market their watches better, they have the Smartest dumbwatch**** of them all -
Casio have several lines that support Bluetooth - essentially will beep and vibrate on Notifications, calls and messages. Does basic fitness tracking. It also does all of this whilst basically being indestructible and a battery life of atleast 3 years.
No one seems to know this and I blame Casios poor marketing - I didn’t know any of this until I bought a new G-Shock and realised it had a BT label in the manual.
How are you liking it so far?
Ive got two BT enabled G Shocks, one of them my daily driver for the past year and I can’t fault it. It’s just a normal watch, with normal watch battery life and normal G Shock robustness - except that it savese having to pull my phone out of my pocket everytime I get a notification.
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Going to be completely honest, havnt delved into the fitness tracking much - the watch appears to have a step counter but unsure if this is app dependant or not.
Got my first fitness watch couple months ago. It was a Garmin and tbh I freaking love it!!! As a lot of comments already mentioned, Garmin gave very detail information, and the battery life just can’t beat I would definitly do it again!
I wear an analog which has nothing to track and connect to a phone. Just like the good ol’ days.
Is there one that exists that isn’t ugly, can last for weeks and isn’t the size of a dinner plate? (i t s not even the diameter thats the problem, its the thickness. I absolutely hate thick watches)
When they invent one that meets that criteria, let me know and I’ll consider it.
Have you looked into withings? They’re analog watches with a small lcd for notifications, fitness tracking, etc. They last a month between charges and are not too big.
Had to look them up. They are by far the best looking smart watches that I’ve seen. I’ll have to see what their capabilities are but if I get one, th3se will be near the top of my list.
