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The quest for a simple smartwatch
121–130 of 232 posts
Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch
#122I stopped using a smartwatch once I started wearing a MiBand. They're too good.
I use those too - they are super cheap. I mostly need smartwatch/smartband for:
1. push notifications (I keep my phone on silent)
2. show time, date, weather
3. change music volumes
4. remote camera trigger
5. sleep tracking / step counter
Things I like about miband:
- dirty cheap
- 2weeks+ battery
- waterproof (I just go to swim with it or take shower and had no issues)
Things I don't like in miband though:
- screen is small to read some longer push notifications (its good to get notified and figure out if something is important or not). If seems important you will still have to fish for your phone to double check
- firmware has problems with displaying emoji and some non standard characters
- bands are of poor quality and they will after half a year or so
- same with charging cable - they keep changing charging cables so you cannot use older one and those also easy to break or hard to find where you need charging
- wish had some wireless charging
- wish had some simple google maps navigation support (just basic info e.g 'in 100m turn left', etc
- wish had some physical programmable buttons to open specific apps
Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch
#123I think the problem is that everyone has their own “all I want - it’s so simple” set of features, but there are nearly limitless possibilities of feature combinations. I wanted a long battery life (e-ink would work) minimal watch with health tracking only. In the end I just chose the Apple Watch SE, switched off all phone & message notifications and made recharging part of my daily routine. It’s easier to adapt than…
Exactly. There was a very similar discussion on here a little while ago about electric cars. For me, all I want is a simple smart watch that has great battery life, navigation with maps, and high GPS accuracy. Everything else I don't care about. The Garmin Fenix fits that bill, along with 500 other features for everyone else with their simple lists.
Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch
#124I love my Garmin Instict. Has all the basic feature I love (always on display, activity tracking, notifications, ...) and I charge it only tree times a month.
I'm also happy with my Garmin vívoactive 3. It has the features I want and I can get it looking fairly minimalist. Battery life is good as well, probably over a week on a single charge, though maybe a bit less if I'm doing loads of activities. I do like the look of the "hybrid" watches that have physical hands.
Ex Garmin Instict user here, I just now changed to MK2S beacuse of the diving capabilities, but in general one of my best and robust watch that I ever used.
Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch
#125I have not personally used, but looks like banglejs[0], a fully hackable watch with GPS and a good battery life (4 weeks claim) is proabably the best successor for Pebble [0] https://banglejs.com/
I have both versions of the Bangle. I absolutely love the software ecosystem and the apps are a lot of fun to program. On the down side, battery life is not great (4 days if you're lucky) and the step counter and heart rate detection algorithms in the open source firmware are not very accurate, which makes it a bit pointless for what I need. On the plus side, if you're up for the challenge, you can try to improve tho…
Please note that the current firmware switched to closed source hrm [1].
I charge weekly, after one week the battery is usually at ~50% with my usual usage. Obviously with GPS on the battery empties much faster, without any notifications etc the battery can hold multiple weeks.
Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch
#126I stopped using a smartwatch once I started wearing a MiBand. They're too good.
I use those too - they are super cheap. I mostly need smartwatch/smartband for: 1. push notifications (I keep my phone on silent) 2. show time, date, weather 3. change music volumes 4. remote camera trigger 5. sleep tracking / step counter Things I like about miband: - dirty cheap - 2weeks+ battery - waterproof (I just go to swim with it or take shower and had no issues) Things I don't like in miband though: - screen…
>> screen is small to read some longer push notifications
I agree, but also I don't want a full-size watch on my wrist, so the latest MiBand (which is larger than the one before) is actually perfect. I can see who the sender is and what the start of the message is.
>> firmware has problems with displaying emoji and some non standard characters
Haven't had this issue so far, or haven't noticed.
>> bands are of poor quality and they will after half a year or so
I also agree, but they're still so dirt cheap (bought a box of 20 different colors for like 9,99€) that I don't really care unless they break while I'm on a scooter or doing some physical activity.
>> same with charging cable - they keep changing charging cables so you cannot use older one and those also easy to break or hard to find where you need charging
Battery life is so long that I only take it off on a Sunday while showering and leave it charging near the pc for an hour or so.
>> wish had some wireless charging
Eh, the current charger is decent and used so sporadically that it's fine.
>> wish had some simple google maps navigation support (just basic info e.g 'in 100m turn left', etc
This is one of the main thing I miss from a full fledged smartwatch, but still not worth to wear the Galaxy Watch Active I have.
>> wish had some physical programmable buttons to open specific apps
I think you can do that with some Android apps like Tasker or similar.
Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch
#127Was talking to an older lady the other day. Very non-tech. Only uses an iPhone and an Apple watch. No laptop or tablet/iPad. Gets a surprisingly large quantity of things done via her phone. My phone is an Android. She shared 2 things her iPhone can do that I don't think my phone (OnePlus 7 pro) and watch (Amazfit T-Rex 2) combination can do: - she can always find out where she parked her car - her watch buzzes to war…
Honestly, if I could buy and provision my Apple Watch with cellular without having to have an iPhone, my only devices would be my MacBook and my Apple Watch. I seldom carry a phone around with me, and my Apple Watch does every thing I need while outside the house.
I've been waiting for years for that (or at the very least being able to manage the watch from an iPad, as I tend to carry that around with me).
The only other thing the watch is missing is the ability to connect to bluetooth in my car, so if I have left my phone behind I can still answer calls or listen to music. I'm sure this is intentionally crippled as it starts the pairing process then fails - tried in several cars with different makes of head unit.
Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch
#128[dead]
Same. I've had a fossil hybrid HR for several years and am pretty happy with it.
From what I read, you can do some more automation if it connects with an android watch, but I use iOS so I only get the out of box functionality -- which includes customizable display with information like heart rate, steps, and weather. Notifications with vibration and readable text. And probably my favorite thing, physical hands so it looks like a "normal" watch.
Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch
#129Withings scanwatch is the way to go. Looks like a watch, functions like a smartwatch, doesn’t break the bank. https://a.co/d/gvy1CWR
Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch
#130Was talking to an older lady the other day. Very non-tech. Only uses an iPhone and an Apple watch. No laptop or tablet/iPad. Gets a surprisingly large quantity of things done via her phone. My phone is an Android. She shared 2 things her iPhone can do that I don't think my phone (OnePlus 7 pro) and watch (Amazfit T-Rex 2) combination can do: - she can always find out where she parked her car - her watch buzzes to war…
the nice thing about the parked car trick is it is available right on the watch face. one click