Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

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trogg
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Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by trogg »

Hi,

Looking for a fitness tracker for my Wife, will be used for walking, running and cycling.

Under £150, slim with GPS, also must have the ability to be used without having a phone nearby.

So far it looks like some of the Fitbit range fits the bill but looking for some personal experience.

Ta
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mjr
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by mjr »

A couple of relatives have fitbits and seem(ed) happy with them.

One had a Xiaomi band and it died within a year.

I'll try to remember to ask another what they're using but I think it may be a standalone that doesn't use a phone or app.

Most of them can be used without the phone in constant contact, can't they? They sync when you open the app and pull down to refresh
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Tangled Metal
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by Tangled Metal »

Some use the phone's GPS. No phone equals no GPS. It's a glorified pedometer.

Charge 4 from Fitbit is probably good enough and cheap enough. You've just missed their back to school offers.

A more elderly version of the same thing is the vivosport from Garmin. It's been out for quite a few years which to say that it took this year for Fitbit to realise standalone GPS is really needed in the charge series shows just how good the vivosport was when it came out. It took fitbit 4 or so years to catch up, and possibly pass, although I'm not convinced it has.

Both those two compact band form factors are virtually the same. It's the app that's different. You really need to consider the app more than the band because Fitbit and Garmin offer similar hardware really. Fitbit is more about health monitoring as in weight and general fitness. They give more insights aimed at healthier lifestyle. Garmin gives you better access to your fitness data with less insights.

Having said that if a user is serious about training and needs the data then they'll probably spend more on the hardware.

Summary by brand reputations.

Garmin for more serious training.
Fitbit for more lifestyle tracking.

I hope that helps.

Finally Garmin vivosport you can't change the strap. Charge 4 you can.
Tangled Metal
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by Tangled Metal »

PS avoid the charge 3 its no cheaper than the Garmin without standalone GPS.
Eyebrox
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by Eyebrox »

I have the Garmin Vivo Active 3 - ranges from £160 to £200. Great for cycling, running, walking and comes with GPS. The back-up apps and laptop site are excellent. I had the earlier version of this (Garmin VVA HR) and loved it. Replaced it after four years with Fitbit Charge 4. I sold the Fitbit after a few days. It wasn't a patch on the Garmin in many areas. The plus point for the Fitbit is the size and weight of the device. It is lighter and less bulky than the Garmin and often more suited to a smaller wrist. The Fitbit was less complex but limited. For instance, the screen has no colour and the watch faces are limited to 24 very similar designs. The Garmin gives you access to thousands of watch faces, allowing you for instance to reduce the size of the clock hands while increasing the font size for step count, heart rate, distance travelled etc. The many different options suit my aging eyesight! Wouldn't be without the Garmin now. Read the reviews on the online tech magazines for the fuller story.
yakdiver
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by yakdiver »

Garmin Vivo Active 3 works for me
Tangled Metal
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by Tangled Metal »

Depends on how important slim is. Vivoactive range is a small to medium man's watch in size, vivosport is thicker from your wrist but a lot narrower. I doubt you'd need more functions than vivosport personally. Music control needs deezer or spotify for example. Who pays with their watch as well? Gimmicks for now imho.
Eyebrox
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by Eyebrox »

"Who pays with their watch as well? Gimmicks for now imho."

My (much younger) cycling mate bought the VVA3 for nothing other than being able to use it for paying and for listening to music on his run or cycle. He thinks the step counting and GPS facility are gimmicks
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TrevA
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by TrevA »

I have a Garmin Forerunner 45. A fairly basic watch compared to some of those higher in the range, but has built in GPS, which I use for recording walks and bike rides. It also records your steps and has a built in wrist activated heart rate monitor, which I also find useful. It’s fairly similar to the Vivoactive 3. You can also control the music you are playing from your phone - volume control and skipping to the next track, etc, which is quite useful when listening to music in the shower, you can control the volume from your watch.
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Tangled Metal
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by Tangled Metal »

Eyebrox wrote:"Who pays with their watch as well? Gimmicks for now imho."

My (much younger) cycling mate bought the VVA3 for nothing other than being able to use it for paying and for listening to music on his run or cycle. He thinks the step counting and GPS facility are gimmicks

I've never met anyone or seen anyone using the watch payment system. Round here I don't think there's many places that accept Garmin pay, certainly not cafes we visit.
philvantwo
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by philvantwo »

Anywhere that accepts contactless payments you can use Garmin pay. It's just like Google pay!!
Eyebrox
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by Eyebrox »

My mate stays in Glasgow. Cash went out with pound notes.
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Redvee
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by Redvee »

Constant use of GPS will drastically reduce battery life. I'm using a Forerunner 235 now and can drain the battery in 8 hours if I use GPS constantly, fortunately GPS only activates during an activity, walking or cycling. I wish I'd gone up a model or two and bought a Garmin with NFC for contactless payment. The only limit with GooglePay are the funds available, I bought my last frame with my mobile handset despitethe shopkeeper saying there was a £30 limit.
Tangled Metal
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by Tangled Metal »

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/garminpay/banks/

Out of curiosity I looked up Garmin pay and there's this page where you can look up which banks and cards are supported by Garmin pay. It's an American Garmin site but you can search other countries and regions. UK has a load of banks and cards I haven't heard of plus Santander. No big name banks like natwest. Can it really be true that Garmin pay in the UK is limited so much?

Whatever the truth I doubt Garmin pay and Fitbit pay are as widely accepted as contact less cards from major banks. Personally I've seen contactless card, apple pay with iphone, Samsung with a phone but no watch based payment in places I've been. I think if my device has it then ok but I'll not pay extra just to have it.

I got my vivosport just before charge 4 came out with almost exact specifications but with Fitbit pay added. There's a little better connection with music accounts/ control but basically I'd have you pay £40-50 extra. If that's worth it then it's a personal choice. I personally don't think so but I did nearly pay that to get the Garmin vivoactive. That however is a much better watch with other functions that are worth the money to me.

I wonder what the OP has gone for in the end. I would be very interested.
windmiller
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Re: Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

Post by windmiller »

I bought a Fitbit for over £100 two years ago and it was clunky, inaccurate and generally rubbish. Maybe the recent models are much improved - I don't know.

A few months ago I bought an Honor Band 5 for £27, if you hunt around you can get them cheaper. This cheap fitness tracker, is light, unobtrusive, accurate and holds a charge for a week. The screen is amoled so you don't need to be under the blankets in bed to read it.
It also informs you of your oxygen levels, which is useful if you are suffering from asthma. The heart rate monitor also indirectly told me that my blood pressure was high - when it did not return to normal after some moderate exercise. Perhaps this budget tracker will not stand the test of time, and fall apart, or will steal all my data and send it back to devilish China. But so far so good and I'm pleased with it.
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