Smartwatch recommendation wanted

[tomc5179]

I've got a Samsung Gear S3 Frontier paired with my Note 8 phone. Love it. Samsung Pay on watch and phone works with any magnetic stripe CC reader, earn points for using the pay feature, will work on NFC terminals, GPS, steps can be counted on both watch and / or phone. Have had it for a year and a half - no problems. Call / text / email on watch works well. I highly recommend it. You can also find the watches for around $200

[FIYes]

Tom, I see that the Samsung Gear Frontier is recommended by Consumer Reports. An Apple Watch is the only one higher rated, but twice the price.

[tomc5179]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIYes Tom, I see that the Samsung Gear Frontier is recommended by Consumer Reports. An Apple Watch is the only one higher rated, but twice the price.

You might do some research to see how the S3 would work compatibility wise with your Moto phone. I think I read that it would work with android other than Samsung, but some features would be missing. Also, check the Google Play store to see if Samsung Gear app and Samsung Health app are able to be installed on your Moto. You'd need both of those apps to work with the watch.

If not, I'd wait till August when Samsung releases the new Note10 phone and see what you could pick up a year or two old Note8 or Note9 phone for. I'm sure they'll be heavily discounted and they are great phones.

Funny thing - The feature I like most is the ability to do 1 on 1 step challenges with other Samsung users in the Health app. It's addictive / motivating to me and keeps my step count up. I've had challenges with people in Japan / China / Poland / Czech / Canada / NZ / Russia and even Iran! You can send each other limited/small text messages back and forth. It's great fun!

There's also a third party app called "Health Sync" that you can use to sync your Samsung Gear steps to your existing FitBit account so you don't have to lose it. I'm pretty frugal as well, but my cell phone and plan is one thing I don't mind paying extra for. They are just so darned useful nowadays.

[steelyman]

I ordered a replacement band for my Versa because the original broke late this week after less than a year of use. Darn!

On closer examination with the original quick start guide, I realized that I’d been wearing it incorrectly (too tight) for all-day use and now think it was overly stressed. I’ll adjust how I wear it with the replacement.

I also discovered that changing the band is not very hard to do, contrary to what you might read on some user reviews out there. For the time being I’m using the second band (it ships with two sizes, small and large) until the replacement arrives.

I’ll use this replacement and if the situation arises again will switch to a newer model with GPS. I came across some reviews comparing GPS accuracy across different manufacturers but don’t want to post specific reviews because you never know if/how they are biased.

[FIYes]

I have had Fitbits for years and while they make a good fitness tracker, they can’t seem to make a good band. I lost a Fitbit Alta due to a bad band. It had a tendency to come undone.

Yes, it is easy to replace the Versa band. I have two replacement bands that I change out as my mood changes...one is colorful, one is blingy and then I have the original.

[Murph]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal Not what you wanted but: I have an iPhone and an Apple Watch. Great combo.

I have two iWatches I use with my iPhone. I use one for sleeping and working out, then another with a fancy leather band for the rest of the day. Both synch beautifully with the phone. Although I have other watches, I rarely wear them.

[FIREarly]

My DW has the Garmin Vivoactive and it is great. She pairs it with her Google Pixel 2XL. She use to have Fitbit and it broke. She had one other one and it also broke. Garmin makes great smartwatches and the Vivoactive is a reasonable price.

If you want a smartwatch that will swim, bike, and run for you, this is not the correct smartwatch for you.

[LJ Dem]

My biggest reason (besides $$) to go with Versa rather than Apple watch is I can go 4 days without recharging. The way I use them, I suspect I'd need to recharge the Apple more than once a day but even everyday would drive me bonkers.
How are others with battery use?

[rathail]

I have the Garmin Vivoactive HR and I can go swimming with it just fine.
I like the fact it will go a week on a charge as long as the GPS is unused, and 3-4 days with a couple of hours a day of GPS usage.

[steelyman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LJ Dem My biggest reason (besides $$) to go with Versa rather than Apple watch is I can go 4 days without recharging. The way I use them, I suspect I'd need to recharge the Apple more than once a day but even everyday would drive me bonkers. How are others with battery use?

That’s what I got (4 days) when I tested mine. It’s almost a year old. Normally I put it on the charger daily when showering so it never gets low.

I never considered how long a GPS model (Ionic) might last. I just checked Fitbit’s site which claims 5 days, GPS battery life 10 days (?).

[denver.miller.3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomc5179 I've got a Samsung Gear S3 Frontier paired with my Note 8 phone. Love it. Samsung Pay on watch and phone works with any magnetic stripe CC reader, earn points for using the pay feature, will work on NFC terminals, GPS, steps can be counted on both watch and / or phone. Have had it for a year and a half - no problems. Call / text / email on watch works well. I highly recommend it. You can also find the watches for around $200

Ditto everything he said, only with a Galaxy S9+ and the Gear S3 Frontier. Stepped up from a Gear Neo. Great watches.

[mpeirce]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LJ Dem My biggest reason (besides $$) to go with Versa rather than Apple watch is I can go 4 days without recharging. The way I use them, I suspect I'd need to recharge the Apple more than once a day but even everyday would drive me bonkers. How are others with battery use?

I’ve had mine last two days on a charge, but my routine is to charge when I sleep every night.

DS has the same model (current model) but wears his 24/7 (almost). He charges in the morning during shower and at night briefly getting ready for bed. Works for him.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpeirce I’ve had mine last two days on a charge, but my routine is to charge when I sleep every night. DS has the same model (current model) but wears his 24/7 (almost). He charges in the morning during shower and at night briefly getting ready for bed. Works for him.

Yes, my Apple watch needs less than half an hour to charge fully, no matter how much I've used it during the day so this works for me too. I have the Series 2 so it's more than two years old.

[FIYes]

OP reporting back here. I have decided to go the Samsung/Samsung route. As step one in this process I have purchased a Galaxy S9. I looked at the s9+ and the Note, but I prefer the size of the S9 and it is well rated by Consumer Reports.
I have set up the S9 and am becoming acquainted with it. I would rate it as one half step ahead of my Moto G 6. I have 14 days to decide to keep this.
Now here is the interesting part...my Versa is behaving in the same inconsistent way. The S9 is on the compatible list for Versa! I have contacted Fitbit about this. I have an escalated ticket with Fitbit and will wait to hear from them...I will not contact general customer service. I hoped the Versa would perform well with the S9 while I waited for a good sale on a Samsung Smartwatch. At least the Versa’s performance is no worse [emoji6]

[FIYes]

Okay, second report here. I preordered the Samsung Galaxy Active 2 and received it September 27. I have been using it since then. I love it. It works very well. I can make and receive calls/texts from my watch as long as my phone is in Bluetooth range. Samsung Pay is great. I can use my watch at contactless credit card terminals and my phone at both contactless and magnetic strip terminals. I often get the ‘we can’t do Apple Pay comment with my phone. I say oh let me try...and it works.

The Active 2 Watch works well as a fitness tracker. The ECG capabilities should be turned on next quarter and I think that will be a significant upgrade. I get 2 days battery life from my watch and three days from my phone.

Thanks for all the recommendations that I got here.

[steelyman]

It’s great that you found a solution that works for you. Since you started your research, the Fitbit acquisition by Google happened. An article appeared today discussing the number of people who are concerned about that (privacy concerns). While I intend to continue using my Fitbit for the time being, I’ll be watching to see what other products come to market.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by steelyman It’s great that you found a solution that works for you. Since you started your research, the Fitbit acquisition by Google happened. An article appeared today discussing the number of people who are concerned about that (privacy concerns). While I intend to continue using my Fitbit for the time being, I’ll be watching to see what other products come to market.

That’s one reason I use a cheapy bike computer rather than Map My Ride, or whatever. I’d like to casually track for $hits and giggles, but don’t want/need no stinkin’ “cloud”.

The second reason is I’d rather crash with a $20 Walmart special than my $800 phone...

[steelyman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR That’s one reason I use a cheapy bike computer rather than Map My Ride, or whatever. I’d like to casually track for $hits and giggles, but don’t want/need no stinkin’ “cloud”. The second reason is I’d rather crash with a $20 Walmart special than my $800 phone...

I hear ya. “The Cloud” can get real creepy real fast but it seems like more unavoidable all the time.

[zinger1457]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FIYes Okay, second report here. I preordered the Samsung Galaxy Active 2 and received it September 27. I have been using it since then. I love it.

I tried the Samsung Frontier Gear S3 a couple years ago and it had some shortcomings that made me get rid of it, like the sleeker look of the Active 2, wonder if it is any better. My main issue with the S3 was when doing activities like jogging the built in heart rate monitor was very inaccurate, and they had no option to pair it with a chest strap heart rate sensor. I'd go out for a jog and the heart rate indicator would say >200bpm, then every 10 seconds or so it would tell me to slow down, my heart rate is to high. The other was the built in music player over bluetooth, again pretty useless when jogging, music would drop out all the time, and the high heart rate warnings would constantly cut in. Have you had a chance to use the Active 2 doing strenuous activity?

[CaliKid]

At first I read the thread title as:

Swatchwatch recommendation wanted

I was thinking to myself, "wow, I didn't know those were trendy again...." Maybe I should slow down my thread title reading a bit.