Smart/ Activity Tracker watches
 

Does anyone out there use a smart watch / activity tracker watch? Any thoughts on the non-Apple ones?

Ms KRSW has a dying Fitbit and could use a good pick-me-up (her life and health haven't been great lately). She currently has a Samsung phone which I'm replacing with a Pixel phone when I give her the new watch.

A couple of years ago my sister's fitbit stopped working ... and she got a Garmin Venu Sq2 ... the one with the same form factor as an Apple watch
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/801487/

She's very happy with it, although I don't think she's ever used the music offline ... so the normal version would probably have been fine!
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/801643/

The only thing that isn't great is sleep tracking ... but everything else is superior to fitbit.

I would give the Pixel 4 watch a look. With an interface not dissimilar to the Fitbit, and the fact you are going with a Pixel phone, staying "all in the family" is an advantage.

A possible aesthetic counter argument to the Pixel 4 is the 45mm sized watch has more robust battery life than the smaller sized unit (41mm). You might want to ensure it doesn't appear oversized on your wife's wrist.

KRSW
Disclaimer: I'm heavily biased towards Garmin watches having used them for more than a decade.

I bought a Google Pixel Watch 4 and while I was initially happy with it, I quickly gave up on it as the battery life was not as long as I'd like and I also found that mine, at least, was constantly rebooting which was quite aggravating. Having said that, my watch was probably an anomaly as I don't see others complaining about constant resets. And given that Mrs KRSW is already into the Fitbit ecosystem, the Pixel Watch 4 might be a good choice.

For me, I ended up replacing the Pixel Watch 4 with a Garmin Venu X1 and have been very happy with it. I much prefer the 7-8 day battery life of the X1 over the 1-2 day battery life of the Pixel. And, as I stated in my disclaimer, I was already deeply enmeshed in the Garmin ecosystem rather than Fitbit so the Venu worked better for me.

Garmin Tactix 8 Applied ballistics includes tracking for rucking activities, applied ballistics solver and 29 day battery for $1,399.00

My son wore this watch in Army Ranger school.

She would be shocked at the capabilities of the watch.

I started my smart watch journey with Pebble (Pebble Time Steel) many years back. Then I switched over to a FitBit tracker and later got the Versa. When I got the black screen of death like 3-4 months post warranty expiration, all that FitBit offered was 25% off a new watch purchased on their own website (inflated prices). I'm brand loyal, until I'm not, so I dumped FitBit and moved to Garmin. I had Vivoactive 4 for 4 years and now Venu 3. Solid investments and I like that I can go 10+ days on a charge mostly. No technical glitches. As a golfer, I can get yardage marks on most courses I play, as well. Syncs well with my android pixel phone, too.

Consider Amazfit models. The Balance 2 IMO combines good activity & fitness tracking with most smartwatch functions of notifications, etc., besides the basic timepiece stuff of showing the time, alarms, etc.

Of interest to frequent travelers: battery life is really good (a week easily for me, for short trips I can even dare to leave the charging cable at home), and it also has a silent (vibrating) alarm feature which I find really good for setting timers or alarms for myself (e.g., to wake up from a nap) in public situations (lounge, in flight) without disturbing anyone else.

Do folks smart watches set off metal detectors at airports?

David

I imagine the ones with metal frames and metal bands might. I have an Amazfit Balance 2 with a synthetic band and it does not set off the metal detectors at most airports.

I wear a Coros Vertix 2, but it's definitely overkill for most people. I climb mountains and use it for loading routes.

Thank all of you for the input.

I ended up going with a Fitbit Charge 6 for her...
and bought a Garmin Vivoactive 5 for myself.

Both were on sale. $119.00 and $179.00 respectively.

I wasn't planning on buying one for myself as I normally don't wear a watch, but the features got my interest.
For her, the FitBit makes more sense due to the simplicity. The Vivoactive makes sense for me with what I'm wanting the watch to do. I'm actually surprised by just how much integration and functionality it has with my phone. Even my doorbell cam's images showed up on the notifications, along with weather radar. Windy has a slick, simple aviation weather app for it too.

I've been using the Oura ring. Very nice to be honest and has good sleep tracking.

I am also trialling WHOOP at the moment but the data it collects is very similar to Oura. so will probably stick to the Oura.

I started using a Fitbit charge to track my sleep and discovered I was typically awake for 2 hours from shoulder pain and hip pain: I addressed those issues. My awake time is under 1 hour most nights. I wake up refreshed instead of feeling tired. I haven’t concerned myself with the types of sleep.

Do you use Oura for any other tracking besides sleep? Oxygen sensor?

I got a Whoop for almost free with the Chase Sapphire promotion. I don't like the fact that it's not a watch. I keep looking at my wrist to see the time.

Ultimately, it's nice and shows interesting info but I don't really know what to do with the info. Also I don't think it's worth the subscription cost so I'm definitely not going to renew in a year. I like the Oura ring idea, but again, not sure what to do with the info.

"In brightest day, in blackest night, ..."

David