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The quest for a simple smartwatch

binarymoon.co.uk

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Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#51

Post by lopis »

profsummergig wrote: post #18

Was 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…

Google (Maps?) has done the car parking location for 10+ years. But like many things Google, Google software is not well integrated with itself, and discoverability is bad. It's perfectly possible that this feature has been removed and re-added several times during the last decade, as is the fate of many Google projects.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#52

Post by cientifico »

Surprisingly (and with different needs than OP) I am using for 5 years Amazfit neo.

It is a 10 bucks with digital screen (always on) 1 month battery, sleep, step, activity and heart beat tracker. You can enable notifications but that reduces the battery life.

They are hard to find now but if you like the design, for me is the best.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#54

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

I was fairly happy with my fitbit charge 4, but now it's actually useless as a watch most of the time because they pushed a firmware update that reduces the max screen brightness. So now it's impossible to read the screen outside, even on the max settings.

God I hate closed down hardware. I don't actually care if the battery life gets shorter because I take the damn thing off every day to shower anyway, and the time it stays off is more than enough to charge it every day if I had to.

But what really annoys me is that the choice is just made for me.

I'm never buying a device with closed firmware, unreplaceable batteries, etc, ever again. It's a complete waste of money in terms of durability and I'm sick of not really owning the devices I pay out the nose for and that fact making them strictly less capable.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#55

Post by wexomania »

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 really love my scanwatch, so Withings is a big recommend from me.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#56

Post by darreninthenet »

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

They look really nice... can you have something other than your heart rate displaying on that little screen by default..?

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#57

Post by jbverschoor »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #47
daliusd wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Android can do parked car trick. I am guessing only but google maps apps on iOS shows where I have parked car. I am surprised that google does not offer something similar to airtag.

You can use any iBeacon/EddyStone BLE device for this, they are very cheap and are widely available. However, there are no neat built-in features in apps shipped with phones that make use of them on Android apps, you always have to use some 3rd party app and the UX there is usually not that great.

That’s not how this feature works and not how this is notified to the user

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#58

Post by afandian »

sockbot wrote: post #19

Watchy is something that you could customize to meet your needs. Looks like it has an accelerometer to do step counting. https://www.crowdsupply.com/sqfmi/watchy#products

I've got a Watchy. It's a fun toy. Within an hour of opening the box I'd recompiled the code to remove a couple icons. Very cool, and the eink looks really nice.

It doesn't have a lot of features, but you could give it a lot of features. But don't buy one if the idea of recompling.

Re: The quest for a simple smartwatch

#59

Post by TMWNN »

lmm wrote: post #13

The Amazfit ones are fine, I get the reliability concern but when it's 1/4 the price of a Garmin you can buy one and buy another if it breaks. I don't really get the complaint about it being "too simple" - isn't that exactly what he was after? Like MP3 players 10-20 years ago, I suspect there's "a market" for a simple smartwatch, but not a very profitable market. So your choice will be the expensive Apple version (an…

>The Amazfit ones are fine, I get the reliability concern but when it's 1/4 the price of a Garmin you can buy one and buy another if it breaks. I don't really get the complaint about it being "too simple" - isn't that exactly what he was after?

Agreed. My Amazfit Bip does everything the blog's author was looking for, including *40,000* watch faces. I paid $60 five years ago, then $20 for a used one 2.5 years ago after the first one fell prey to a known design flaw (that has since been fixed, by my understanding). The darn thing even functions as a Bluetooth heartrate sensor for running! https://np.reddit.com/r/amazfit/comments/8t1gsp/six_weeks_wi...>

>Like MP3 players 10-20 years ago, I suspect there's "a market" for a simple smartwatch, but not a very profitable market. So your choice will be the expensive Apple version (and maybe a couple of other luxury brands) or the basic no-name Chinese manufacturer version.

I think my Bip is superior to Apple Watch. The latter does many things that Bip does not, but Bip has the insuperable advantage of three full weeks of battery life. I have zero, zilch, zip desire to recharge a watch every day!

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