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-   -   The Fitness Band / Smartwatch Thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/163799-fitness-band-smartwatch-thread-28.html)

I faced this issue with Honor band. It keeps saying new health servives is needed even after its installed, on S9. Raised return request multiple times on Amazon but they didnt pick it up. Later tried with a old Honor phone and it worked without issues.

Any Galaxy watch/watch active/active 2 users here ?

My nearly 3 year old Honor Band is giving up and I'm thinking of a replacing it before it goes blank.

Honor band has been excellent in terms of value, features like sleep tracking and reasonably accurate heart rate monitoring at the price range are pretty good. However when at the gym it's useless wearing it. It barely registers any weight training exercises I do.

How good are the expensive watches when it comes to tracking strength/crossfit routines ? I don't do a lot of cardio, just 2 days a week and on other days I don't go near the treadmill or any cardio equipment.

Will upgrading to a smartwatch help in better tracking gym workouts or am I better off saving that money and getting another smartband?

What do you actually want to track in gym workouts?

Weight lifted - No watch can do it. You need to keep a track yourself manually or use some app based data recording tool.

Heart Rate - any smart watch or band can do it.

Calories - any smart watch or band can do it.

Sets/ Reps - I don't think paying premium over fitness bands for a smart watch just for sake of sets/ reps is worth it unless it is for aesthetic reasons. It is more of a distraction in gym than of use actually (for weight training).

Smart watches and fitness bands are good for tracking cardio related movements, heart rate, sleep etc. It will gather workout data somehow but drawing any conclusion from that data is very difficult.

PS: I am a daily Galaxy S3 frontier user.

As of now, I rely on the elevated heart rate to get an idea of calories burned, but the Honor Band 3 barely registers the elevated heart rate and is also not able to distinguish between when I was lifting, resting between sets etc. If it manages to record something at all, just see a consistent elevated heart rate with no spikes or falls when I sync the band with my phone.

If I get a smartwatch,apart from aesthetics, will it fare better than a band when it comes to distinguishing between the lifting/resting cycles or is it no better than a band ? What has been your experience with the S3

Any watch/band that uses optical HR measurement will have this drawback. Even high end fitness watches have this problem.

Optical HR is only useful in activities that have steady state heart rate - like jogging, cycling, walking etc. Even in these events, if you are into intervals that has heart rate spiking for a brief period (30 seconds or one minute), the watch will not track this. This is because watches that use optical HR average the HR over long duration (a minute or more) and hence quick changes are not recorded.

If you want to measure elevated heart rate during sets, then the only way is to use a heart strap that measures heart rate using electrical pulses.

PS: I have the Garmin Fenix fitness watch that has the same problem.

If your usage is strictly w.r.to workout, stick to smartbands. There are good ones which are fairly accurate. You need smartwatch if you plan to use other functionality- LTE/Calling, read emails/messages, download apps, stream music etc. Also with a smart watch you almost stop using regular watch. I am using Galaxy watch since 6 months and found it to be quite good. to me LTE capability is its USP and comes in quite handy.

Guys,

Any pointers on where I can get the replacement strap for Amazfit Cor. I have been using the band for about 2 years and the band has broken. effectively making the band useless.

Have tried the usual suspects - Amazon, Flipkart etc, but Amazfit Cor replacement bands are not stocked. There are some other sites that are Chinese, but I am not sure if there would be any couriers from China to India in these times


I guess, going forward I need to make sure that if I get smartwatch, it should be compatible with conventional watch straps.

Since other members have already covered the relevant points, I will just stick to my experience with S3. So far quite satisfied and I use it as a standalone equipment for my long distance runs i.e. Strava/ Spotify (no need to carry phone along) and office use like alerts etc. Recently I have been tracking my sleep which has been erratic and also HR at times. Both functions work well. It is required to be charged on alternate days. Calling function is seamless, works well on a earbud on a bike.

Negatives:
In case of heavy sweat, HR sensor doesn't show/ shows odd readings. It requires cleaning in between.
Charging is bit slow and could have been better.
App store could have been better with support for more apps like in Wear OS. So far only Spotify is available in watch store for music.

Thank you all for the detailed responses. I did some research based on your posts and figured the Active 2 is more a smartwatch than a fitness tracker. The HR monitor is not so accurate compared to the likes of Garmin or Apple, let alone a arm/chest strap.

I was thinking of a smartwatch as I wanted a 'proper watch' that I can wear to office but in terms of fitness it appears that smartwatches and bands are geared more towards those that do steady state cardio and not for tracking strength training. I do two sessions of HIIT a week and one hike a month, not sure if a smartwacth is needed to track that, but with phones getting bigger and bigger with each generation, a smartwatch isn't such a bad buy I guess.

This channel on Youtube has very detailed fitness reviews of some of the high-end smartwatches, here's one for the Galaxy Active 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JuNk65ZAh4

Samsung launches its first Made in India smartwatch, Galaxy Watch Active2 4G Aluminium Edition.

Priced at ₹28,490, the wearable will go on sale in India on July 11.

https://tech.hindustantimes.com/wear...288381751.html

Anybody using Huawei GT-2 with or without iPhone? Nothing concrete is available online regarding the compatibility. Need to finalize between Apple watch-3 and GT-2.

Looking for a budget smartband which will work with iphone. Main requirement is for notifications and alarms. Apple watch is too expensive for this purpose. I keep my iphone silent most of the time, resulting in many missed calls. Any suggestions? Have a mi band 3 , however notifications or calls are not alerted in the band.

I use the Amazfit GTS with iPhone XR. Works fine for call notifications (though you can only reject or mute the call, can't answer), SMS, Whatsapp, etc.

Got it for 8500 during the recent sale in Amazon.

Thank you! Hows the watch battery and display? Is it ok for rough use? Or should i use a screen protector?

Edit: Checked amazfit bip s. Looks more pocket friendly and serves the purpose. Will be leaning towards this. Anything that I should watch out for?

Hey Moto_Hill,

I have been using Huawei GT-2 since the last one week. I was in the same dilemma as you. I was eager to buy to Apple Watch 3 and then decided to go for GT-2. The watch is pretty good. I am particularly impressed with the battery backup. It has been 8 days and there is still 30% juice left. It does most of the task very well. I am using this with an Android phone.

GT-2 is compatible with iOS 9 and above. I found this source for iOS compatibilty