Smart watches

GibbosEmpire

Well-known member
I fancy getting one, mainly to track my sleep, heart rate, stress etc. Anyone got a recommendation? I looked at the Gard Pro Health Smart Watch 2 for £69. But I've seen mixed reviews.
 
Some of them aren't accurate though, if you have sweat on your wrist, or the software is ****, or the heart beat is off?
 
Just to be contrary, I've got an Apple watch and have charged it twice since I got it. Thought I would use it for what you described, but once the novelty wore off it just sits in my watch box out of battery.
 
I've got a Xiaomi one which is really good, but recently I'm using it less and less as a smart watch. There's an irony in having a device that's meant to help your health but which bombards you with information to stress you out.

Read this email, walk more steps, sleep better, why aren't you sleeping better, are you asleep yet

I still wear it mainly so I can count my steps and control the music on my phone without taking it out of my pocket, but I've turned the notifications off and I've stopped using all the other smart features.
 
There seems to be a huge range in prices with smart watches and some of the more expensive ones seem as unreliable as the cheap ones.

I like real watches so I haven't taken the plunge with a smart watch yet but from the repeated research every time I've been tempted it seems like if you really want the health tracking features to be accurate then your best bet is something that is designed specifically for that like the Garmins. If you just want something to check notifications then something at the cheaper end will do.

For health tracking there are also some non-watch alternatives which allow you to continue to wear your regular watch alongside them like rings (Oura) or the ones that look like a watch strap without a face (Whoop).
 
Also interested in following this post.
Main priorities are heart rate, sleep, steps, GPS tracking also.
Not really bothered about text/phone calls as I don't think I'd use it for that.
 
I have had a Garmin Instinct for a number of years now and love it.

It has a battery life of 28 days, tracks sleep, stress and steps.

If you're into fitness it tells you how long you should recover between sessions, etc
 
I've used a fair few smart watches and the main two categories are watches that are good at fitness tracking, but ok to bad at being a smart watch, and watches that are good at being a smart watch and ok to bad at being a fitness tracker.


Key thing for me is battery life, I had an Apple watch for a few years and had to charge it every night which I found annoying. Also it marked up really easily.

I had a garmin fenix 3 sapphire and it was invincible, but didn't have a bright screen but battery life was really good

I've got a garmin epix 2 pro now which was about £450 but battery life lasts about 12 days which I like, that's with an OLED screen and a charge to full takes an hour.

It does some stuff like music playback, contactless payments etc but not as polished as Apple, but I have my phone for all of those things. Also has full maps available so it's good for hiking, again I'd use my phone but that can be a battery drain so it's good to have access on a long life device or as a backup.

There are tons of cheaper ones if you don't need it to do as much. DC rainmaker site does very in depth reviews on most fitness trackers worth using, but if just want it for sleep etc, get a basic HR one and use a sleep app.
 
I have a Galaxy Watch 7 from Samsung. Was a freebie with a phone contract - they were supposed to send me the entry-level Galaxy Watch FE (basically a Galaxy Watch 4) but somebody's made a mistake and sent me the newest version.

Battery lasts a day but it charges very quickly. The football score updates are good when you're out and about, WhatsApp is useful and I like the Google Assistant function. It's good at tracking general activity automatically. Happy with it all round. I had a Garmin Forerunner before and that was good for tracking runs on GPS, and is more for fitness, but this is a good all all-rounder.
 
I have a Garmin Fenix 7x superb piece of tech, it does everything but can be pricey.

You can get a new one on eBay around the £400 mark.
 
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