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What's the alternative for Android? After broken straps and finally a dead screen with my Fitbit Versa, I don't want to buy another Fitbit again. How about Garm

by gokhan 5y ago

What's the alternative for Android? After broken straps and finally a dead screen with my Fitbit Versa, I don't want to buy another Fitbit again. How about Garmin? Any other?

swalsh 5y ago
I recently purchased a Galaxy Watch 4. It is similarly specced as the apple watch, but it has quirks. It uses the new Wear OS, which is great, but compared to what i've seen from the Apple Watch, i'm not sure it's in the same league software wise. The Apple Watch just seem superior in software and hardware quality.
drewr 5y ago
Love my Garmin Instinct. It's just enough of a GPS smartwatch. Super durable, waterproof, great battery life, modest price.
sz4kerto 5y ago
My 3.5 year old Garmin can easily track activity for 18 hours with normal GPS mode (high accuracy) and probably much longer with power saving (less frequent data recording). I don't think it's a great smartwatch, but I don't know because the last thing I need in my life is a device on my wrist with push notifications.
- pilsetnieks 5y ago
  If there's one problem I have with Garmin, it's that I open the watch page on their website and I'm presented with a wall of products (I counted 27 different watches.) In addition to that what should be just a different app is a distinct product. If I'm a swimmer who also plays golf, I need two watches. If I also run, I need another. If I also want a smart watch that looks good, I need a fourth. That part Apple does get right.
  - vinay427 5y ago
    > That part Apple does get right. In the sense that they don't bother, by those standards. AFAIK Apple's watch that does everything is virtually comparable to the "watch that looks good" in its running analytics, cycling features, swimming connectivity, etc. Put another way, the mid-tier and above running-focused Garmin devices (can't speak for the other sports) should not be considered to be in the same class as an Apple watch for running.
driscoll42 5y ago
I have a Garmin 945, lasts a whole week and love the thing.
zenbob 5y ago
I replaced my Fitbit Versa with a Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music and have been a huge fan. Many day battery, GPS for runs etc, can play music and podcasts from the watch.
farnsworth 5y ago
Galaxy Active 3 is fine, but the software and android app are just meh.
- wilsonfiifi 5y ago
  How do you get the galaxy to show stairs climbed on the home screen?
  - farnsworth 5y ago
    There are lots of watchfaces that show different data, and you can create custom ones.
glogla 5y ago
Xiaomi MiBands are surprisingly good at what they do, especially for the money. Not a premium product by any stretch but still nice. I like it especially because it looks more and more like a simple bracelet with each iteration, instead of trying to be watch, huge watch or mini-ipad like the others. The bands also last way longer than any fitbit I had. Of course, you health data is probably going straight to CCP but then you already have Android.
- josefresco 5y ago
  I like my Mi Band 4 also branded as an AmazFit. They actually have a whole line of watches some with more traditional watch designs: https://us.amazfit.com/collections/smartwatches-bands https://us.amazfit.com/collections/smartwatches-bands
drewg123 5y ago
I have a 645M that's almost 4 years old (purchased Jan 2018). It has outlasted by a factor of 2x my previous smart watches in terms of taking physical abuse. It still has nearly a week of battery life when not using GPS, and variable if using GPS. The one drawback to it is that on iOS, the notifications suck. I have no control over what apps can send notifications to my watch; its all or nothing. Back when I had a Pixel on Android, I could control which apps could send notifications to my watch. I'm assuming there is some API limit to 3rd party watches in the Apple ecosystem that prevents Garmin from being able to filter out notifications.
- AnonC 5y ago
  > The one drawback to it is that on iOS, the notifications suck. I have no control over what apps can send notifications to my watch; its all or nothing. Back when I had a Pixel on Android, I could control which apps could send notifications to my watch. I have experience with Apple Watch since Series 3, and what you say about notifications isn’t true (if I’ve understood it right). If you go into the Watch app on the iPhone, then into Notifications and into the specific Apple app, you see a “Mirror my iPhone” and a “Custom” option. For third party apps, you see the list below (in the Notifications screen) with a toggle for mirroring your iPhone (or not). You can control this for each app. The scheme for third party apps is not (yet) as rich as it is for Apple apps, but you don’t have to suffer through every app on the iPhone where you have setup/allowed notifications also sending notifications to the watch.
  - drewg123 5y ago
    I'm talking about a garmin watch, not an apple watch. Either the Garmin software is to blame, or Apple is not giving them the API access they need to send through only the desired notifications.
emmanueloga_ 5y ago
Looking at the processors behind the watch, it seems like Snapdragon 4100+ is the latest and greatest for Android [1]. I've been using a TicWatch Pro 3 and I'm pretty happy with it, although I'm not a "smartwatch poweruser", if there's such thing. 1: https://www.smartwatchseries.com/a-list-of-snapdragon-4100-smartwatches/ https://www.smartwatchseries.com/a-list-of-snapdragon-4100-s...

by gokhan 5y ago

What's the alternative for Android? After broken straps and finally a dead screen with my Fitbit Versa, I don't want to buy another Fitbit again. How about Garmin? Any other?

swalsh 5y ago

I recently purchased a Galaxy Watch 4. It is similarly specced as the apple watch, but it has quirks. It uses the new Wear OS, which is great, but compared to what i've seen from the Apple Watch, i'm not sure it's in the same league software wise. The Apple Watch just seem superior in software and hardware quality.

drewr 5y ago

Love my Garmin Instinct. It's just enough of a GPS smartwatch. Super durable, waterproof, great battery life, modest price.

sz4kerto 5y ago

My 3.5 year old Garmin can easily track activity for 18 hours with normal GPS mode (high accuracy) and probably much longer with power saving (less frequent data recording). I don't think it's a great smartwatch, but I don't know because the last thing I need in my life is a device on my wrist with push notifications.

pilsetnieks 5y ago
If there's one problem I have with Garmin, it's that I open the watch page on their website and I'm presented with a wall of products (I counted 27 different watches.) In addition to that what should be just a different app is a distinct product. If I'm a swimmer who also plays golf, I need two watches. If I also run, I need another. If I also want a smart watch that looks good, I need a fourth. That part Apple does get right.
- vinay427 5y ago
  > That part Apple does get right. In the sense that they don't bother, by those standards. AFAIK Apple's watch that does everything is virtually comparable to the "watch that looks good" in its running analytics, cycling features, swimming connectivity, etc. Put another way, the mid-tier and above running-focused Garmin devices (can't speak for the other sports) should not be considered to be in the same class as an Apple watch for running.

driscoll42 5y ago

I have a Garmin 945, lasts a whole week and love the thing.

zenbob 5y ago

I replaced my Fitbit Versa with a Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music and have been a huge fan. Many day battery, GPS for runs etc, can play music and podcasts from the watch.

farnsworth 5y ago

Galaxy Active 3 is fine, but the software and android app are just meh.

wilsonfiifi 5y ago
How do you get the galaxy to show stairs climbed on the home screen?
- farnsworth 5y ago
  There are lots of watchfaces that show different data, and you can create custom ones.

glogla 5y ago

Xiaomi MiBands are surprisingly good at what they do, especially for the money. Not a premium product by any stretch but still nice. I like it especially because it looks more and more like a simple bracelet with each iteration, instead of trying to be watch, huge watch or mini-ipad like the others. The bands also last way longer than any fitbit I had. Of course, you health data is probably going straight to CCP but then you already have Android.

josefresco 5y ago
I like my Mi Band 4 also branded as an AmazFit. They actually have a whole line of watches some with more traditional watch designs: https://us.amazfit.com/collections/smartwatches-bands https://us.amazfit.com/collections/smartwatches-bands

drewg123 5y ago

I have a 645M that's almost 4 years old (purchased Jan 2018). It has outlasted by a factor of 2x my previous smart watches in terms of taking physical abuse. It still has nearly a week of battery life when not using GPS, and variable if using GPS. The one drawback to it is that on iOS, the notifications suck. I have no control over what apps can send notifications to my watch; its all or nothing. Back when I had a Pixel on Android, I could control which apps could send notifications to my watch. I'm assuming there is some API limit to 3rd party watches in the Apple ecosystem that prevents Garmin from being able to filter out notifications.

AnonC 5y ago
> The one drawback to it is that on iOS, the notifications suck. I have no control over what apps can send notifications to my watch; its all or nothing. Back when I had a Pixel on Android, I could control which apps could send notifications to my watch. I have experience with Apple Watch since Series 3, and what you say about notifications isn’t true (if I’ve understood it right). If you go into the Watch app on the iPhone, then into Notifications and into the specific Apple app, you see a “Mirror my iPhone” and a “Custom” option. For third party apps, you see the list below (in the Notifications screen) with a toggle for mirroring your iPhone (or not). You can control this for each app. The scheme for third party apps is not (yet) as rich as it is for Apple apps, but you don’t have to suffer through every app on the iPhone where you have setup/allowed notifications also sending notifications to the watch.
- drewg123 5y ago
  I'm talking about a garmin watch, not an apple watch. Either the Garmin software is to blame, or Apple is not giving them the API access they need to send through only the desired notifications.

emmanueloga_ 5y ago

Looking at the processors behind the watch, it seems like Snapdragon 4100+ is the latest and greatest for Android [1]. I've been using a TicWatch Pro 3 and I'm pretty happy with it, although I'm not a "smartwatch poweruser", if there's such thing. 1: https://www.smartwatchseries.com/a-list-of-snapdragon-4100-smartwatches/ https://www.smartwatchseries.com/a-list-of-snapdragon-4100-s...