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It's disappointing. It reinforces the cliché that most hardware companies don't understand software. The GPR-B1000 was promising, as it signaled Casio might be
by nextos 11mo ago
It's disappointing. It reinforces the cliché that most hardware companies don't understand software.
The GPR-B1000 was promising, as it signaled Casio might be heading towards making watches with advanced features like GPS, yet a bit different from regular smartwatches and close to their traditional models. This model was tied to a phone app, but I thought this was OK for their first iteration.
Fast forward to 2023, their expensive DW-H5600 was very disappointing. They included a Polar heart rate monitor, which are known for their reliability. Nevertheless, hear rate readouts are extremely noisy to the point of being useless. Also, setting up the watch requires pairing it with a Casio app, which is absurd for a non-smartwatch.
I would love to be able to buy a normal watch that offers heart rate monitoring and basic GPS tracking but can be operated fully offline, doesn't need updates, and will not become abandonware in 5 years time. Garmin is nearly there with some models. Some Casio, Withings, Polar, and Suunto models also have interesting features but overall still far from that ideal goal.
Besides, in many regulated environments you can't have a watch with hardware radios like Bluetooth. Only Garmin seems to understand this. Suunto had terrific models, but is slowly falling behind and has been sold to a Chinese conglomerate.
- tombert 11mo agoI've been pretty happy with my Garmin Instinct Crossover. It looks like a regular watch, and so if Garmin decides to drop support for it, then it still has like a 2 month battery as a regular watch.
- throwaway173738 11mo agofwiw I bought a two-year old Garmin model on clearance like 5 years ago and they continued to support it all the way up until I bought an Instinct 2 this year. So I think you’ll be happy with the support you get.
- NoiseBert69 11mo agoWith Gadgetbridge they can drop as much as support as they want.
- nextos 11mo agoGadgetbridge has very limited aGPS support, right? Without aGPS updates, any GPS device is going to have terribly long lock times. Ideally, watches should do like Garmin's. Mount as mass storage devices via USB, and let the user download activity data and upload updates or routes.
- NoiseBert69 11mo agoFor my Instinct 3 Solar GadgetBridge it - as far as I can see - can deliver AGPS files. Settings -> Location -> AGPS
- tacticalturtle 11mo agoThey really do not understand software. Or at least human friendly interfaces. I have a GBX-100, which does have basic smart features when connected to a phone. If you get a text or email, it will tell you that you have a notification. You also have the option to read the contents of the message, if you press a single button six(!) times! Fortunately I bought it because I wanted the time and I liked the way it looks.
- nradov 11mo agoAre there any current Garmin smartwatch models without hardware radio transmitters? I think they all have one or more of Bluetooth, ANT+, WiFi, NFC, or LTE. You can put them into airplane mode to stop all transmissions but the radio hardware is still there in the device.