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I've been looking at smartwatches the last couple of days, but with no Pixel Watch coming and Qualcomm's disappointing new SoC, those don't seem like a great purchase right now. I guess bands are a better choice anyway if I'm mostly interested in fitness and sleep tracking? Fitbit's Charge 3 seems to tick all the boxes, but it's five times more expensive than my buddy's Mi Band 3. Is that price difference really justified? 150€ for a band with a tiny monochrome display gives me pause, but if the sensors and software are that much better, then fine.
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Oct 2, 2018 11:56
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 04:53 |
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From what I've seen (user reviews, forums), people are mad about the Charge 3 because it's inaccurate as hell. Something like 20+ bpm during exercise and it apparently can't handle HIIT at all. I don't care about step count, but there are also multiple reports of it counting thousands of steps and dozens of flights of stairs while driving a car. Sleep tracking seems iffy as well. I was really looking forward to replace my decade-old Polar and was set on the Charge 3, but it (and wrist-based trackers in general) seem way too unreliable. seravid fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Oct 11, 2018 |
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Oct 11, 2018 19:55
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Guess I'll see for myself; ordered one today. Hopefully, the O2 sensor gets activated before the 30-day return period ends (early November, was it?).
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Oct 12, 2018 19:00
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Fitbit's support sounds terrible, glad I purchased my Charge 3 from Amazon. I'm actually pleased with the build quality; even the clip mechanism looks solid, but it is my first Fitbit (first smartwatch-like device, too) and I've only been using it for four days. The software side of things is a bit of a mixed bag, so I'm not even sure if I'm keeping it.
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Oct 21, 2018 06:40
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Speaking of accuracy, are there really no elastic armbands for these trackers? The Charge 3 is new, I get it, but I couldn't find any even for the Charge 2 (or any other model). Dedicated optical hear-rate monitors all use armbands, seems like the easiest way to increase accuracy on these trackers. Fitbit clearly agrees with this theory: ...except it's pretty awkward to wear a regular watch bracelet like this. It keeps slipping down unless I tighten it to an uncomfortable level. Either way, while the Charge 3's HR tracking is good at rest or on a run, it seems incapable of detecting sudden HR increases while working out. Whatever the actual bpm I'm at during and immediately after a set, the tracker will be 15~25 below. By the time it catches up (about 20 seconds), I'm already recovering. This is a deal-breaker, hence my question about armbands, but maybe I'm expecting too much of optical monitors? Since we're here, some other thoughts: - Surprised to see walking to town (1 Km) count as exercises. Guess I'm not the target demographic for this product... - daily step count is ridiculous. I guess it wouldn't be more than a neat stat even if it was accurate, but it's really, really not. Driving, eating, doing the dishes... all counts as hundreds of steps, which means the daily distance is also completely off. - getting notifications on my wrist is cool and actually useful. I used to think smartwatches were gimmicky, but I'm a convert now. Kinda wish I bought the Versa for the larger color screen, but I don't like square watches and every youtube video shows its UI is janky as hell anyway, so... - I really like the sleep tracking feature. Can't be sure about its overall accuracy, but the awake stages are spot-on. It's made me more conscious about how much sleep I'm actually getting. - The Charge 3 also got me to start doing cardio to see if I can improve my VO2 Max and resting HR. It's been an old goal of mine ever since I got my Polar FT7M, but I could never get past the "I should start doing cardio. Eh, maybe tomorrow" phase. - I'm still testing Connected GPS. Getting pretty wonky routes right now, sometimes going inside buildings, the middle of the road and whatnot. Apparently that's not the Charge's fault, though, as MapMyRun and Google Fit are showing me the same thing. Didn't think I'd have this issue on a OG Pixel XL.
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Oct 28, 2018 06:57
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I'm up to 8 workouts while wearing the Charge 3 and it has been completely useless as a fitness tracker. Somehow, the worst part isn't the flagrant inaccuracy - registering up to 40bpm below my actual rate after an intense set* - but the fixed, 5-second display timeout. I'm constantly flicking my wrist or double-tapping the watch, which would be annoying enough by itself, but it also means I'm the rear end in a top hat who has to grab one of the gym's two stopwatches while wearing a watch because not only does the drat thing turn the display off when you're actively exercising, it also turns it off when you're running the included, dedicated stopwatch app. It's a stopwatch. That you can only check in 5-second glimpses. *which means the logs it keeps are also useless. The HR graphs are all wrong, the distance and calorie estimate are all wrong (since steps are grossly overcounted)... pretty much the only thing it's useful for is to check the duration and time/day. Is there a "classic"-looking circular smartwatch with decent fitness/sleep tracking that also lets you use a chest strap? I still have a week to return the Charge 3 and I see no reason to keep it. Since fitness tracking is clearly beyond its capabilities, it would serve only as a sleep tracker and as a tiny, monochrome smartwatch and that's just not worth 150€ in my book. seravid fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Nov 10, 2018 |
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Nov 10, 2018 08:22
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CLAM DOWN posted:Garmin Vivoactive 3? Looks good, but also expensive. For the price, I could buy a Gear S3 and a Polar H10. It even costs more than the Galaxy Watch. I mention Samsung because while they don't officially support external monitors, they seem to work fine if you install a custom watchface (sure, why not). Logs can then be exported to apps like Strava and Samsung's, so that should be good enough for me. I'm not sure what the Vivoactive has over them, then. Hardware-wise, Samsung wins. UI, I don't know, but the bezel ring looks cool and is well-liked. Is Garmin's software that good/Is Tizen that bad? Combat Pretzel posted:Too bad there isn't a decent tracker in the format of the Charge 3. A huge watch like device sucks for sleep tracking, and the Garmin equivalents vivosmart and vivofit seem to be similarly retarded at times, from what I read. 
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Nov 10, 2018 21:59
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codo27 posted:My buddy got one of those big ol Samsungs couple years ago and it was just hulking (especially on a small man). Well, I ordered the new big ol Samsung yesterday, so... Went with the 46mm, too, since the smaller one has 75% less battery capacity but only an 8% price cut. My regular (42mm) watch is actually pretty close to the big Samsung in lug-to-lug length and it fits me just fine, so I'm hoping for the best. A Polar H10 is also on the way. Goddamn, the budget for what was supposed to be an all-in-one smartwatch/fitness tracker has really skyrocketed. Guess it's my fault for expecting that 1) such a product actually exists and 2) it would sell for 150 bucks. The Charge 3 won't be missed.
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Nov 14, 2018 03:45
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You can swipe up with some activities (run/walk/cycle, there's an arrow pointing up) to enable/disable gps. The start button is always there, though. I mean both start buttons, because one confirmation prompt before starting an exercise just wasn't enough.froglet posted:Edit: I suspect this is more a thing for people like me who aren't super keen athletes, and just want an all-rounder to keep track of overall trends. Don't have to be an athlete to notice the (widespread) sync issues; the jank; the sensor picking up a heart rate on tables, clothes, mousepads; that loving timeout setting... Oh, I just noticed unpairing the device in the Fitbit app erased all my daily HR and sleep logs 
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Nov 14, 2018 06:08
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isndl posted:This is an unavoidable consequence of the sensor tech, it measures heart rate by the rate at which light is absorbed. It doesn't have sensors to determine what it's looking at, and if you're getting erroneous readings looking at other stuff it's because it's not rated for other stuff. Not that unavoidable, since it doesn't happen with the Galaxy Watch I just received. Couldn't fool it with my clothes or the handful of objects on my desk. That doesn't make it good, of course, but at least it doesn't think my furniture is alive. This only matters because I had to manually disable the HR monitor on the Charge 3 any time I took it off and I won't have to with the Samsung.
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Nov 15, 2018 02:46
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Don't get me wrong, it's real bad when it comes to accuracy, as expected. Even a sudden but modest increase in HR, like going up some stairs at a faster pace, throws it off, reading 100bpm when it should read 80. I believe the Charge 3 handled these daily situations better, but I honestly can't be sure since I spent very little time actually looking at it. I don't know how the GWatch behaves during workouts (steady state or otherwise)... and I won't have to find out because the H10 just arrived. Now I just have to make sense of all these freaking sports apps, but I suppose that's a question for the app thread (or somewhere in YLLS?)
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Nov 15, 2018 18:53
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logikv9 posted:went for the galaxy watch sale because the battery life was simply too good and it sounds like it'll last me forever, or until i get samsung'd and the bezel pops off or something Amazing is not the word I'd use. Serviceable, more like. The watch had 10% left this time when it passed the 2-day mark, not enough to get through the night. I wasn't expecting a week considering my use case, but three days would've been nice. Glad I didn't pick the 42mm, I'd have to charge it daily for sure.
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Nov 21, 2018 06:52
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Yeah, it's really quite good compared to the competition. Besides the usual notification stuff and way too much time messing around with watchfaces, those two days I've mentioned included sleep tracking and 3 hours working out connected to a HR strap, with AOD active (I keep it off otherwise) and some locally-stored music playing for a while. All indoors, though, so no GPS. Still, I wish it would last three days. Maybe if I stop changing watchfaces (I won't)
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Nov 21, 2018 09:07
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Smoking_Dragon posted:I'm considering the Samsung Galaxy Watch and have a couple questions. How functional is it when paired with an Apple phone? How well does the HR monitor work during exercise? How well does the GPS work during running or biking? I've heard mixed reviews on all these things. 1- Don't know. 2- HR monitor is bad. Like freak out when you climb stairs rapidly bad, never mind during actual exercise. If you only do steady state cardio with a nice and gentle increase in heart rate, it might be okay. Otherwise, you're going to need a chest strap. 3- I've only used GPS on runs in open spaces with clear weather, so not exactly the toughest conditions, but it performed well. On par with my phone.
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Feb 12, 2019 00:31
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Combat Pretzel posted:The Galaxy Watch, that 42mm and 46mm, that display size or watch size? Watch size (at its smallest, really). Display size is 30mm and 33mm, respectively.
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Mar 3, 2019 22:07
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Combat Pretzel posted:Finally got a Galaxy Watch. Syncing it to Samsung Health is so fast, it's ridiculous... when coming from the Fitbit poo poo show. Hope the continuous HR is usable. There's a lot of complaints, but then again, checking the Fitbit forums, same story there. Reminded me of when I traded my Nokia 5800 for an Android phone. That touch-ified Symbian was so bad. Daily HR monitoring really is worse, though, and so is sleep tracking (but step count is better). I abandoned all Health-related features after a couple of weeks of use, what's the point if you can't trust the data.
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Mar 28, 2019 06:16
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Thermopyle posted:This is true, but I wanted to point out that part of the poo poo show is that the heart sensor is inconsistently inconsistent. In other words, for some people they seem to work better than for others. That's mostly due to the type of exercise people do. Steady state will naturally lead to much more accurate numbers than HIIT or workouts like strength training, where they become useless. Speaking of, I've switched from Sporty Watch to Gear Tracker. Sporty kept rebooting my watch at random times. Rarely enough to not be a deal-breaker, but still annoying. I talked to the dev about it but he couldn't figure out the cause. Gear Tracker has no trouble connecting to my chest strap, doesn't seem to eat too much battery, has plenty of customization options and it's an actual app, not a watchface, which is a nice bonus. Haven't used it outside yet to test GPS tracking, distance, etc., though.
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May 7, 2019 17:49
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Reading up on the upcoming Galaxy Watch 3 and it's very underwhelming. If the specs leaks are correct, it will use the same SoC as the OG but with a smaller battery and less RAM? I can get 2 days with the 46mm, so losing 100mAh would probably mean having to charge it every day, but I'm failing to see the trade-off besides a nicer design.
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Jul 10, 2020 10:08
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I hadn't noticed, but some sites are actually reporting it'll use a LTPO display. A better always-on display could convince me to upgrade, assuming a reasonable price. The HR sensor I've no interest in. Just way too unreliable to be of any use. Gear Tracker and a chest strap does the job. Same on the square issue. Well, that and I'm not moving to iOS.
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Jul 10, 2020 11:37
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I just received my 45mm GWatch3 to replace my 46mm GWatch1. This might have been a dumb move (TBD). First impression: it's noticeably lighter and much better looking.
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Aug 22, 2020 02:17
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Combat Pretzel posted:In what way? Well, I don't usually buy the new model (of anything) just as it comes out, so there's a nagging feeling I can't shake that I should've waited, especially considering my two-year-old GWatch is still working perfectly fine and how similar they are in specs. Ignoring that, I'm very pleased with the GW3 so far. As someone who likes mechanical watches, it's a massive upgrade over the GW1. Even with a Ringke bezel ring and a gapless steel bracelet, it was always just a little too gadget-y. Shame Samsung still haven't figured out how to properly integrate a black bezel ring with a silver case but, with the right bracelets, the all-black version I purchased will suit me just fine. Some initial comparisons: - The larger display is very nice and seems brighter under artificial light. Need to test in sunlight. - The vibration motor's minimum setting is close to useless now. Was fine on the GWatch1. The max setting is stronger than I'd like. - O2 saturation measurement is... there. Not sure how useful it is in this context, really. - VO2Max, on the other hand, is useful to me, but I haven't had the chance to go for a run yet. Also curious about the advanced stats like asymmetry, though I'm very skeptic about their accuracy. - No ECG or blood pressure here in Europe, AFAIK. Best not to get one's hopes up, I guess...? - HR sensor is still crap, no surprise there. Polar chest strap + Gear Tracker still work, so I don't care. - Battery is depleting fast, but hopefully that's due to messing with the watch more than usual. - The new bezel ring is great. Tighter than the old one, yet still useable with just one finger. No idea how anyone can use a smartwatch without one of these. - The top button produces a very satisfying metallic clicky sound when you push it. That and the general finish really sell you on the idea that this is a watch and a nice one at that. Slightly ruined by the fact that the bottom button just clicks boringly like any old button. Also, not directly related to the watch but I've lost a few of my favorite watchfaces with the switch. They're gone from the store for some reason and, while I can still check the receipts and even install the faces on the GW1, they're nowhere to be found on the new one.
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Aug 23, 2020 02:11
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Some kind of audiobook app would be great, yeah. Tapping on the buds works, but the watch would be a much better platform to control playback. I've picked up the sleep tracking gimmick again, so I have to charge the watch everyday. Otherwise, I do believe it would last two workdays (barely). For comparison, the GW1 lasts two days with 20% to spare.
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Sep 2, 2020 18:22
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 04:53 |
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Vahtooch posted:I've currently got a Gear Sport, which is still mostly fine but definitely getting very inaccurate with everything. The new Samsung Watch3 and Active 2 both look pretty fun, but I'm seeing a whole heap of stuff that most of the good health features are now locked behind a Samsung phone? SpO2 works for everyone. ECG and BP monitoring are locked to Samsung phones, yes, which was a surprise they sprang on everyone, since this bullshit wasn't mentioned anywhere during GW3's launch - and no review talked about it. There is a (tedious) workaround on XDA for non-Samsung phones, if you really want those features. As for the good exercise/sleep tracker part, it's the same as everything else on the market, I guess, so pretty bad...? Sleep stage tracking with just a watch is mostly guesswork and a pulse HR monitor only handles steady changes correctly. Any activity with sudden starts and stops and you can forget anything resembling accuracy. Somehow, even GPS tracking is unreliable: a 4Km run in an open space with clear skies manages to be 500m off. If you buy this watch, buy it for the smartwatch part, that's pretty good. For exercise, you're much better off pairing it (and any watch, really) with a chest strap, which is what I do. The Gear Tracker app is great for this.
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Dec 20, 2020 03:49
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