Smart Watches

[The Bear]

Anyone got one?

I've been thinking about getting one recently but since there's so many out there now, I have been frustrated by the lack of easy to find resources online for searching and comparing features.

Anyone know of any good sites for this? Ideally being able to tick boxes for certain features to narrow down the list. gsmarena.com is usually good but their advanced search doesn't seem to work for watches.

Basically I'm not bothered about the fitness stuff, though heart rate monitor would be nice. I just want the smartphone features really. The ability to reply to messages like Whatsapp via my voice (so microphone necessary) and NFC for Google pay are essential. Stuff like Spotify control and Shazam would be nice too.

Any suggestions?

I like the look of the Huawei Watch 2.

 

[Tredman]

I've had a few, biggest problem is remembering to charge it every day or two.

I wouldn't go for the HW2, it's got an old style wear OS chip with crappy battery life, plus unlikely to get much support thanks to the orange twat.

The Samsung watches are good, I had a gear sport for a while, which was decent. The newer Fosil watches are the better processors I think. The Huawei GT series are ok - they use Huawei's own OS, rather than the Google Wear OS.

I've just got q Withings Steel HR Sport now - only does basic fitness stuff and notifications - the 3 week battery is worth the pay off of not being able to peck out q reply.

 

[James]

I’ve got a iWatch series 3 and it’s been handy texts and facebook messenger but that’s about it

 

[Aikiwolf]

I've got a slightly different kind of smartwatch. It's a Skagen Hybrid, essentially it's a watch but provides notifications via the hands moving.

Counts steps, controls connected music volume/skipping and a few other features.

Depending on what you're looking for it might be interesting? I like it because it's a watch first and a smart watch second.

 

[The Bear]

I've had a few, biggest problem is remembering to charge it every day or two.

I wouldn't go for the HW2, it's got an old style wear OS chip with crappy battery life, plus unlikely to get much support thanks to the orange twat.

The Samsung watches are good, I had a gear sport for a while, which was decent. The newer Fosil watches are the better processors I think. The Huawei GT series are ok - they use Huawei's own OS, rather than the Google Wear OS.

I've just got q Withings Steel HR Sport now - only does basic fitness stuff and notifications - the 3 week battery is worth the pay off of not being able to peck out q reply.

Cheers. Been reading a lot today but have too much info swirling around now.

The HW2 seems to have similar battery life to every other watch I've looked at so far. 1-2 days on medium usage. And Wear OS is thr newer 2.0 or 2.1. Don't see why either of those would be an issue.

I looked at the Samsung Gear S3 but the Tizen OS puts me off. Very few third party apps work. WearOS seems the best compromise for me.

I did check which watches have the new Snapdragon 3100 but it's a very small list. The Fosil look nice but the new efficient chip actually makes bugger all difference to battery life apparently. Though saying that the new Gen5 ones will apparently have advanced battery modes so I could possibly wait for those.

 

[The Bear]

I’ve got a iWatch series 3 and it’s been handy texts and facebook messenger but that’s about it

Cheers but I don't have an iPhone and probably never will.

 

[The Bear]

I've got a slightly different kind of smartwatch. It's a Skagen Hybrid, essentially it's a watch but provides notifications via the hands moving.

Counts steps, controls connected music volume/skipping and a few other features.

Depending on what you're looking for it might be interesting? I like it because it's a watch first and a smart watch second.

Unfortunately I don't like the ones that look like real watches. I want it to have a screen and the full smart features.

 

[James]

Cheers but I don't have an iPhone and probably never will.

Tbf if it wasn’t part of my phone deal I wouldnt have it

 

[Tredman]

Cheers. Been reading a lot today but have too much info swirling around now.

The HW2 seems to have similar battery life to every other watch I've looked at so far. 1-2 days on medium usage. And Wear OS is thr newer 2.0 or 2.1. Don't see why either of those would be an issue.

I looked at the Samsung Gear S3 but the Tizen OS puts me off. Very few third party apps work. WearOS seems the best compromise for me.

I did check which watches have the new Snapdragon 3100 but it's a very small list. The Fosil look nice but the new efficient chip actually makes bugger all difference to battery life apparently. Though saying that the new Gen5 ones will apparently have advanced battery modes so I could possibly wait for those.

When I had a HW1 and 2 (and the Samsung wear OS watch) it was very much 1 rather than 2 days. I quite like the sleep tracking functionality so that ruled all of them out.

I'd see if you could try and actually use apps on the watch before buying, for me it was very much novelty and actually using them (pause / play aside) was just impractical; I do have big hands though..

The Withings is a nice half way house for me, if a watch does come out with week long battery life and apps then I might change, as long as it's not chunky as fuck though (see HW1). The Huawei Watch GT Classic is actually pretty good for a (very) few apps and week long battery life - not Google pay though so maybe not right for you.

This is a good website to see what's what:

https://www.wareable.com/

 

[The Bear]

I did check which watches have the new Snapdragon 3100 but it's a very small list. The Fosil look nice but the new efficient chip actually makes bugger all difference to battery life apparently. Though saying that the new Gen5 ones will apparently have advanced battery modes so I could possibly wait for those.

Having gone and looked at the Gen 5 Fossil watches they seem like a good choice, if a little more expensive than the Gen 4, so cheers Tredman for reminding me of those.

The Fossil Q Carlyle looks just what I'm after.

 

[The Bear]

When I had a HW1 and 2 (and the Samsung wear OS watch) it was very much 1 rather than 2 days. I quite like the sleep tracking functionality so that ruled all of them out.

I'd see if you could try and actually use apps on the watch before buying, for me it was very much novelty and actually using them (pause / play aside) was just impractical; I do have big hands though..

The Withings is a nice half way house for me, if a watch does come out with week long battery life and apps then I might change, as long as it's not chunky as fuck though (see HW1). The Huawei Watch GT Classic is actually pretty good for a (very) few apps and week long battery life - not Google pay though so maybe not right for you.

This is a good website to see what's what:

https://www.wareable.com/

Thanks again. I'll check that site out.

 

[Paul]

Why is this NSFW ??

 

[The Bear]

Why is this NSFW ??

Fixed.

 

[b3h]

Why is this NSFW ??

Only reason you clicked

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Sorry. Have not a clue. My watch still requires winding daily!

 

[The Bear]

Sorry. Have not a clue. My watch still requires winding daily!

I used to have one of those Kinetic watches that wound itself with a little ball-bearing which went round and round as you moved your arm. They were pretty cool.

 

[The Bear]

I've pretty much settled on the Fossil Q Carlyle after more reading (cheers Tredman).

£237.15 after their new customer 15% discount. Which isn't bad for a Gen 5 watch with the new chipset.

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

I've got a Fitbit versa, more of a fitness tracker bit it does have some smart stuff. It does all the obvious fitness tracking, but the breathing exercise sync really helps me settle down to sleep at night as I'm a.bit of an insomniac sometimes. Also the sleep tracking is very interesting. Even though I'm in bed for 7hrs most night, I only get an average of 1hr 30 mins of deep sleep.

It also has phone notifications and you can set up quick responses on the app that allow you to reply from your watch, which is useful when I'm in meetings.
The big highlight for me is that I can add my debit card details to the app and the watch can pay for anything via contactless.

Really pleased with it overall and it cost me nothing as work bought us all one as part of their wellness at work program.

 

[The Bear]

I looked at the Versa, seems a good watch but it's more heavily geared towards the fitness stuff so I discounted it.

 

[WolfiePhil]

I've been looking at options a lot over the past couple of years... Never really thought I'd be bothered but my wife got me a Fitbit blaze 2+ years ago and it's been really good. Been looking for something that does more and ideally runs wear os. The Huawei Watch was tempting but never took the plunge due to the battery life. Then the Fossil Gen 4 almost hooked me a number of times. I think the Gen 5 with the battery saving options is the one I am definitely going for... I'm 40 next year and have been told this could be my present if I want to replace the blaze... Unless Google release a Pixel watch in the meantime!

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk