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The quest for a simple smartwatch

binarymoon.co.uk

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Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#141

Post by HumblyTossed »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #132
chimprich wrote: post #94

The title should really be the quest for a cheap smartwatch with battery life, which seems to be what the author was looking for. The more expensive Garmin watches have excellent battery life and solar charging. I use a Garmin smartwatch. One of the surprising things about Garmin is that they don't have a proper app store. They have an app where you can load apps into your watch, but it's rather crippled by having no…

For me GPS is a must-have. I want the tracking of my walks/rides. Looking at the Garmin specs, the two-week battery life is sans-GPS. With GPS enabled the battery life is the same as the Apple Watch.

Apple Watch 8 is rated at 18 hours mixed usage. My Venu 2 is rated at 20 hours with the GPS on the entire time. My experience bears that out. I lose about 5% an hour battery when tracking my bike rides. Mixed usage, I'm getting 5 days out of it.

Apple said their GOAL was 18 hours (mixed usage). Good grief.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#142

Post by Peanuts99 »

santiagobasulto wrote: post #101
Xenonym wrote: post #21

The Withings Steel HR seems to fit the bill perfectly - it has a screen for phone notifications, a step tracker and basic fitness function, and I regularly get two weeks and more of battery life out of mine. Only problem might be that you find it’s small circular screen too small - but I think that’s a feature of its minimalist aesthetic, not a bug. https://www.withings.com/us/en/steel-hr

I was reading to pull the trigger on a Withings but then I got so many reports of inaccurate tracking data that I backed out. How's been your experience with it?

I've had a Steel HR for 6 years (Nokia branded) that I bought of eBay for £50. Steps and activity tracking works well, sleep tracking mostly works. Battery still lasts a month easily, has shown no signs of degradation.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#143

Post by moondowner »

occz wrote: post #100
somethingsome wrote: post #89

I was very very positively surprised by the Amazon smartwatches, I brought a amazfit GTS 2 Mini Fitness Watch, and it fulfill the main points of the article, it was very cheap also (65€). The app is nice, not perfect but does the job at tracking steps, the GPS is accurate, heart, stress levels, sleep, etc.. Perfect synch with the phone, I receive the phone notifications, good waterproofing and the battery last someth…

>I was very very positively surprised by the Amazon smartwatches Wait, Amazfit is not created by Amazon, right?

Noup. Amazfit/Zepp Health is a Chinese brand, somehow related to Xiaomi (I have a few Xiaomi Mi Band devices and they use the Zepp app on the phone).

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#144

Post by diffeomorphism »

maratc wrote: post #62
diffeomorphism wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still exists but is now decidedly in the jewelry/luxury segment, e.g. https://nomos-glashuette.com/de Historically (pocket) watches were highly useful, expensive and also somewhat of a status symbol. This kinda died out with quartz electronic watches, which are highly accurate and dirt cheap. Since telling time is nowadays an ubiquitous, cheap function of everything, a wristwatch has to have a different primary…

There's a lot of mechanical watches that are neither Rolex nor Nomos. Seiko 5s are excellent and can be had at below $100. No batteries need to be changed.

Sure, but that begs the question of "why a mechanical watch"? A simple quartz watch doesn't need to replace batteries for years, is very accurate and much cheaper still. For many people it boils down to "I like the mechanical engineering aspect and want to show that" (status and signalling) or as a fashion item. Of course, that is a different signal than the rolex "I am rich", but it is a signal. Which is perfectly fine; most clothing and accessories are like that. The point is "because it tells time" is nowadays more of a secondary function after that.

Just as an anecdote: A friend would often wear a very fashionable, old, mechanical watch. That watch would sometimes just stop, but that did not matter because the primary function was being jewellery on the wrist.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#145

Post by oakashes »

Xenonym wrote: post #21

The Withings Steel HR seems to fit the bill perfectly - it has a screen for phone notifications, a step tracker and basic fitness function, and I regularly get two weeks and more of battery life out of mine. Only problem might be that you find it’s small circular screen too small - but I think that’s a feature of its minimalist aesthetic, not a bug. https://www.withings.com/us/en/steel-hr

I have it and if fitness/sleep tracking is the main thing you are after, it's easy to recommend. It looks fantastic and the battery lasts forever.

But I find it almost completely useless for reading notifications from my phone. The small screen + no way to recall notifications if you don't watch the whole thing scroll past when it originally comes in are very frustrating. Plus it's very annoying that despite having users asking for this for years they have not implemented a "find my phone" feature.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#146

Post by brookst »

b112 wrote: post #105
0xEF wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still only use Pebble watches. You can pick them up on eBay for $30 USD, and the Rebble.io community helps keep them alive. I have yet to see another smartwatch do what they did, which is a bit baffling to me. Watchy came close, being fully programmable with an e-ink screen, but the bulk of the housing was atrocious.

which is a bit baffling to me. I'm guessing pebble watches didn't geolocate you, and report your position, and probably didn't record everything said around you then "anonymize" it, so it was likely deemed useless by VCs, and thus died? No wonder there's no replacement! To all VCs, my startup sells geolocated tools, and also orders screws and nails, automatically, by selling special nails, with an rfid tag build in!…

Consumers decide product success, not VCs.

If there is demand, the product will succeed. See: all the companies that came from bootstrapped startups.

If there is no demand, no amount of VC money will make a successful company. See: Magic Leap.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#148

Post by doodlebugging »

mrweasel wrote: post #112
sorenjan wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's Whoop which is just a strap, but I've heard mixed reviews and I think it's a bit expensive. https://www.whoop.com/

It looks more like a subscription... with a strap. Why can't I just buy the device? I can't manage anymore subscriptions.

I think the market for a subscription-based strap-on is probably pretty small.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#149

Post by JimtheCoder »

danielbln wrote: post #103
caturopath wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am so satisfied with my Garmin Fenix. It's comically expensive, but it has been a dream compared to the Fitbits I used for years. Garmin has lots of lower-end watches, too, which would have resolved most of my headaches and many still have great battery life compared to the competition. I haven't touched the "smart watch" features, though. Garmin conducts themselves really well, too. They make good stuff and do lit…

I've got the Garmin Forerunner 735XT and while the software is a little clunky at times, it's a total work horse. Battery lasts for a week when worn all day and with at least 30 minutes of GPS tracked running activity per day, the display is extremely well to read outside in the sun and the smart features I use are the app notifications and that's it. No complaints, that thing is indestructible and I would buy it aga…

"while the software is a little clunky at times"

Are you talking about Garmin Express?

If so, a "little clunky" would be a massive understatement based on my experience...

I love my Garmin watch, but I wish the Garmin software was lot more...usable.

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