Smartwatch recommendations

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Smartwatch recommendations

dclegg

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#224172 6-Nov-2017 14:00

I was going to get my wife an Apple Watch for Christmas, but she has muddied the waters recently by telling me she's keen to try a Samsung for her next phone (she currently has an iPhone 6S).

So I'm looking for recommendations for a smart watch that will work reasonably well with both iOS and Android devices. I know there will be compromises when doing this, especially on the iOS side. But I'm looking for the best supported feature set between both platforms.

From my initial investigations, the two best in this category seem to be the LG Watch Sport, and the Samsung Gear S3. Both obviously have compromises when paired with iOS, but my main concern are their size. They both seem reasonably large and masculine, so I'm hoping there may be wearables with smaller faces that I should be considering too.

I'm interested in reasonably strong fitness tracking support, and would like as many other smart watch type features on top of that as possible. Contactless payment support would also be nice (for BNZ debit cards), but judging on my wife's distinct lack of interest in me whipping out my iPhone for Apple Pay, I'd not put that in the "deal breaker" column.

Are there any other watches or smart wearables I should be considering for this?

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#1896043 6-Nov-2017 14:17

I like my Pebble 2, unfortunately Pebble was absorbed by Fitbit about a year ago and there's been no Pebble development since then. I suspect you can still find new Pebbles for sale, but they certainly have a "shelf life".

Based on the premise Fitbit must have acquired Pebble to gain access to their IP and staff it's reasonable to think some of the Pebble functions and features will surface in a Fitbit product. To that end the Fitbit Iconic looks very interesting. Because it's not from Apple or Samsung or any other such company I would expect it to be device/OS agnostic.

Take a look here, https://www.fitbit.com/nz/shop/ionic?utm_source=ET&utm_medium=EM&utm_campaign=20171017_HBN2_AP_FM_M_TR_TK_27_NA

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dclegg

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#1896046 6-Nov-2017 14:21

Technofreak:

I like my Pebble 2, unfortunately Pebble was absorbed by Fitbit about a year ago and there's been no Pebble development since then. I suspect you can still find new Pebbles for sale, but they certainly have a "shelf life".

Based on the premise Fitbit must have acquired Pebble to gain access to their IP and staff it's reasonable to think some of the Pebble functions and features will surface in a Fitbit product. To that end the Fitbit Iconic looks very interesting. Because it's not from Apple or Samsung or any other such company I would expect it to be device/OS agnostic.

Take a look here, https://www.fitbit.com/nz/shop/ionic?utm_source=ET&utm_medium=EM&utm_campaign=20171017_HBN2_AP_FM_M_TR_TK_27_NA

Yeah, I saw those in-store on the weekend. They suffer the same problem of having a large face.

I'm currently wondering whether the Samsung Gear Fit may be a... umm.. good fit. No contactless payment support, but I have my doubts as to whether my wife would miss that.

trig42

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#1896053 6-Nov-2017 14:30

The Fitbit Ionic is a pretty nice bit of kit. More a fitness device than a Smartwatch, but it does store music, and interacts with your phone (both iOS and Android). Has NFC for contactless as well.

tehgerbil

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#1896082 6-Nov-2017 14:57

Only problem with the ionic is it's purely a notification read-only device. It can't create or manipulate notifications, such as reply to messages or answer calls.

the Samsung Smart Watches, while they run Tizen do look damn good, and can manipulate notification, might be worth a look.

BlueShift

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#1896083 6-Nov-2017 15:01

dclegg:

Technofreak:

I like my Pebble 2, unfortunately Pebble was absorbed by Fitbit about a year ago and there's been no Pebble development since then. I suspect you can still find new Pebbles for sale, but they certainly have a "shelf life".

Based on the premise Fitbit must have acquired Pebble to gain access to their IP and staff it's reasonable to think some of the Pebble functions and features will surface in a Fitbit product. To that end the Fitbit Iconic looks very interesting. Because it's not from Apple or Samsung or any other such company I would expect it to be device/OS agnostic.

Take a look here, https://www.fitbit.com/nz/shop/ionic?utm_source=ET&utm_medium=EM&utm_campaign=20171017_HBN2_AP_FM_M_TR_TK_27_NA

Yeah, I saw those in-store on the weekend. They suffer the same problem of having a large face.

I'm currently wondering whether the Samsung Gear Fit may be a... umm.. good fit. No contactless payment support, but I have my doubts as to whether my wife would miss that.

My wife has the Samsung Gear S2 and loves it. She has a Samsung phone though. It is a chunky size, so it depends on how petite your wife's wrists are how much she'll like it. It does step counting and heartbeat tracking, so is good for fitness tracking. There's a reasonable market of alternative straps as well, if she likes to coordinate her accessories with her outfits.

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#1896129 6-Nov-2017 15:36

I bought the Fitbit Ionic - it is an excellent watch and really doesn't look too bad on the wrist either. I'd recommend it.

Used it both on Android and iOS and works great. @ScuL also recently went for a mud run with one.

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mattwnz

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#1896142 6-Nov-2017 15:47

I use my apple watch without it being connected to the iphone most of the time. So as long as they are keeping the iphone 6s for the occiaional sync, it can still offer a lot of features. For example I can still call via facetime from the watch without the phone, as well as use the fitness apps and weather etc. But I guess it depends what features you actually want, as some apps need the phone to be connected.

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dclegg

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#1896147 6-Nov-2017 15:55

mattwnz:

I use my apple watch without it being connected to the iphone most of the time. So as long as they are keeping the iphone 6s for the occiaional sync, it can still offer a lot of features. For example I can still call via facetime from the watch without the phone, as well as use the fitness apps and weather etc. But I guess it depends what features you actually want, as some apps need the phone to be connected.

Interesting. She has an iPad, which won't be going away anytime soon. Would that be a viable sync target instead?

I guess we'd be losing things like notification support, and Apple Pay, right?

jonathan18

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#1896158 6-Nov-2017 16:03

BlueShift:

My wife has the Samsung Gear S2 and loves it. She has a Samsung phone though. It is a chunky size, so it depends on how petite your wife's wrists are how much she'll like it. It does step counting and heartbeat tracking, so is good for fitness tracking. There's a reasonable market of alternative straps as well, if she likes to coordinate her accessories with her outfits.

The S2 is certainly far less chunky than its replacement (S3) - I'd be surprised if many women would keen on sporting an S3 on their wrist! Personally, its relative minute size was one of the reasons I bought an S2, and I way prefer its size to the S3.

The S2 is also now pretty cheap (from about $300), but note the battery life in practice is only a day (1.5 days, but who wants to charge a watch in the middle of a day?). It also lacks GPS and a speaker - both features of the S3 - if those are necessary features. Still, a great watch and I'm still happy with mine 1.5 years since getting it.

dclegg

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#1896174 6-Nov-2017 16:07

jonathan18:

The S2 is certainly far less chunky than its replacement (S3) - I'd be surprised if many women would keen on sporting an S3 on their wrist! Personally, its relative minute size was one of the reasons I bought an S2, and I way prefer its size to the S3.

The S2 is also now pretty cheap (from about $300), but note the battery life in practice is only a day (1.5 days, but who wants to charge a watch in the middle of a day?). It also lacks GPS and a speaker - both features of the S3 - if those are necessary features. Still, a great watch and I'm still happy with mine 1.5 years since getting it.

Not sure either of those are that important. She'd be more interested in step tracking and calorie counting, rather than mapping exercise routes. And I doubt she'd ever use the speaker, although perhaps when answering calls it may be handy. But that would be offset by the smaller form factor.

Battery life probably wouldn't be that much of an issue, provided I set her up so it was dead easy to charge it every night.

gregmcc

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#1896184 6-Nov-2017 16:16

dclegg:

jonathan18:

The S2 is certainly far less chunky than its replacement (S3) - I'd be surprised if many women would keen on sporting an S3 on their wrist! Personally, its relative minute size was one of the reasons I bought an S2, and I way prefer its size to the S3.

The S2 is also now pretty cheap (from about $300), but note the battery life in practice is only a day (1.5 days, but who wants to charge a watch in the middle of a day?). It also lacks GPS and a speaker - both features of the S3 - if those are necessary features. Still, a great watch and I'm still happy with mine 1.5 years since getting it.

Not sure either of those are that important. She'd be more interested in step tracking and calorie counting, rather than mapping exercise routes. And I doubt she'd ever use the speaker, although perhaps when answering calls it may be handy. But that would be offset by the smaller form factor.

Battery life probably wouldn't be that much of an issue, provided I set her up so it was dead easy to charge it every night.

sleep tracking is hard to do when it on the charger at night.

Me and the Mrs. both have an S3, battery life is typically 3.5 - 4 days, wireless charging from flat in about 2 hours, the S3's are quite ruggard and waterproof.

540trickzter

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#1896197 6-Nov-2017 16:22

I've got the Misfit Vapor ordered. Ordered it purely on looks, as I think it's currently the best looking smart watch since the original Huawei Watch.

jonathan18

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#1896199 6-Nov-2017 16:25

gregmcc:

sleep tracking is hard to do when it on the charger at night.

Personally, I don't find this an issue with the S2. Even 1.5 years on, I've still got around 50% of the battery life when I put it on the charge after wearing it for 22sh hours. I do this at about 8pm, at which time I'm unlikely to be doing any exercise of note! It's well charged by the time I get to bed, so do wear it while I sleep.

On the very odd occasion I've forgotten to charge it, a 10-minute top-up's all that's needed to ensure I get through a second day.

Sure, nothing like what you're getting from the S3 (which would be great!), but still totally manageable.

jonathan18

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#1896200 6-Nov-2017 16:29

540trickzter:

I've got the Misfit Vapor ordered. Ordered it purely on looks, as I think it's currently the best looking smart watch since the original Huawei Watch.

... a nice looking watch, but not exactly small! https://assets.pcmag.com/media/images/528843-misfit-vapor.jpg?thumb=y&width=333&height=245

BlueShift

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#1896201 6-Nov-2017 16:32

dclegg:

jonathan18:

The S2 is certainly far less chunky than its replacement (S3) - I'd be surprised if many women would keen on sporting an S3 on their wrist! Personally, its relative minute size was one of the reasons I bought an S2, and I way prefer its size to the S3.

The S2 is also now pretty cheap (from about $300), but note the battery life in practice is only a day (1.5 days, but who wants to charge a watch in the middle of a day?). It also lacks GPS and a speaker - both features of the S3 - if those are necessary features. Still, a great watch and I'm still happy with mine 1.5 years since getting it.

Not sure either of those are that important. She'd be more interested in step tracking and calorie counting, rather than mapping exercise routes. And I doubt she'd ever use the speaker, although perhaps when answering calls it may be handy. But that would be offset by the smaller form factor.

Battery life probably wouldn't be that much of an issue, provided I set her up so it was dead easy to charge it every night.

When the S2 is in range of your phone, it uses the phone GPS, so you can map your route that way (if that's an issue). Having a speaker/mike on the phone could be useful for answering calls - fairly often my wife sees an incoming call notified on her watch, starts hunting for her phone in her handbag, answers call with watch, then shouts in the direction of the phone until she can get it up to her ear (its fun to watch, especially if handbag is in the next room).

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