Garmin for sure.
I’ve had a Fitbit, Samsung Smart, and Garmin. Fitbit and Samsung were almost a daily charge where my Garmin Solar lasts about a week. Both Fitbit and Samsung died on me roughly after a year and a half, Garmin has shown no issues.
I’ll be switching to Garmin next time for other reasons, but my current Fitbit (Versa 3) actually has great battery life. 6-7 days between charges, unless I’m using the screen a lot.
Apple Watch just makes sense if you are already on iPhone. I resisted it for a long time but now after getting one it is so useful for things like having access to DUO codes on your wrist without a phone and maintaining healthy habits
Love my Apple Watch! Its main downside compared to the rest is weak battery life, you basically need to charge it every day. It’s an easy habit to form though (I just throw mine on the charger when I shower).
Mine lasts about 3 days before I have to charge it, but I’m also largely ignoring it and use it as a watch / timer / notification reader. I had one with the cell modem but when I broke it was during the pandemic and just wasn’t on-site where I’d often leave my phone at the desk.
My battery health has gotten awful recently too. I’ve got a series 5, so yes it’s 4 years old, but I genuinely only get about 12 hours of battery life these days. I went through and uninstalled every single app I don’t use, but it’s still awful.
Love everything else about it though, so I set a slickdeals alert to hopefully pick up a cheaper series 8 sometime between now and when the series 9 launches
I’ve been an Apple Watch user for several years now. When I first purchased one I wondered if it might turn out to be a bit of a gimmick. But now I don’t think I would want to be without one.
The Apple Watch integrates seemlessly with the iPhone. The fitness features may not be quite as in depth as Garmin offers, but they are good enough for casual exercise and have been effective and keeping me more active. If you are numbers person the value of seeing your activity metrics can’t be overstated.
Apple Pay and hands free messaging come in handy often.
I also like the general design. The Apple Watch is square, and I think a square display works much better for a smartwatch. There is also a thriving marketplace for alternate watch bands and they are super easy to swap - no more mangling my finger nails trying to fiddle with those spring pins most watches use.
When I had an Note 10 Lite, I had a xiaimi smart band. I still think that it’s impressive for the price, but the little guy had issues left and right with any app that wasn’t xiaomi’s own apps. (although sometimes, even those had issues)
Then I got an iphone, and later a apple watch. It just works, even with third party apps. Expensive as hell though
personally i am fine with the garmin on ios, only annoyance is double notifications
For the most detailed exercise/health tracking, I’d highly recommend Garmin watches. First, no subscription fees, you buy the hardware and you own it and can customize it a lot. Second, the battery life can’t be beat. Third, stats, graphs, analytics! Plus it works just as well whether you’re an apple or android user.
I have the Forerunner 265 and it is so much fun for a stats and graph loving nerd like myself. My gf chose the Venu 2 Sq because she wanted a square screen and she is really happy with it.
I’ve been a happy Fitbit user for years, but am finding their Premium push increasingly annoying. I shouldn’t have to pay a subscription fee to see data that my tracker is already getting. I almost switched to Garmin last time but didn’t, and I regret that now. My current Fitbit is still in great shape so it’ll be a while until I can justify a new tracker.
I’ve always associated Garmin with big over the top styling, but I like that Venu Sq 2. Garmin also seems best quality
I have a vivoactive 4s and it’s got all the features I want in a smartwatch while also being discreet and small. It doesn’t feel any different on my wrist than an analog watch and that’s what I love most
Been going through their product line now and this is the one I’ve landed on. Battery?
Can you use apps with Garmin? I’m getting into weightlifting a bit and want to use the Strong app to record my lifting routine without needing to take out my phone. The only other features I really want are decent heart rate monitoring and good pairing with AirPods.
I’ve never had a smartwatch. I’ve been looking to get a used one. I was leaning towards a slightly older series Apple Watch but open to something different
It probably would not communicate directly with a smaller fitness app other than some major ones like Strava and my fitness pal. You CAN track weightlifting in the Garmin app, and I do, the watch can even auto track your sets and it attempts to auto detect the lift type but isn’t always right so I correct them after I’m done. For lifting workout structuring, it probably won’t be as good as your lifting specific phone app. Garmin is very good at running and other cardio activities, most smart watches struggle to measure weight lifting.
The watches can connect to a second Garmin app on your phone called Connect IQ which is their app store where they support third party developers to make apps, widget, ultra customizable watchfaces, integration of new connected sensors.
It does not support common phone apps or have incredible advanced phone integration like an apple or Google watch would have but we like that because we already get enough screen time. I’m able to see and reply to text messages though, see and interact with all notifications, control audio/media that is playing and more though so it’s not devoid of features at all.
It seems like it has some great features. I think I saw the battery life is quite good which would be nice. I know next to nothing about smartwatches so I’m just trying to figure out what would work for me. I’m pretty sure I will end up getting something used, I just haven’t decided on what. Apps are an pretty important factor for me.
There’s only one smart watch that matters! This was the boyo!
All my phone numbers, my entire school lesson schedule, a calculator - everything 10 year old me ever needed!
There was also a Casio Wrist Camera, which took 120x120 pixel photos in glorious 16bit greyscale. Sort of like a wrist mounted Game Boy Camera.
A discussion of retro smart watches would also not be complete without the Ruputer / OnHandPC - a PDA watch from 1998.
I tried random Android watches. They all sucked.
I bought a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. I love it. Charge it when I shower and that gets me by, have never had to charge it overnight. Battery is at 15 days currently.
I bought the same watch 10 days ago. It had 82% when I opened the box, I didn’t even charge it, and it has 39% now. During that time I had one 3/4 hour GPS activity, and 24/7 heart rate monitor + mobile notifications. I was also playing with it quite a bit to set everything up. Sunlight exposure was pretty low, so … I’m impressed.
It does everything I want from watch. Great readability in every condition, good GPS, reliable heart rate, long battery life (I keep forgetting to charge even my phone).
