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-   -   The Fitness Band / Smartwatch Thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/163799-fitness-band-smartwatch-thread-59.html)

Important Update: Whatsapp has been officially rolled out today for the Galaxy Watch4/5 series and Wear OS in general.

Just installed on my Watch4 LTE via the play store on the watch. Now makes the watch more "smart".

I recently bought a Galaxy watch classic 4 for 12500rs. From the very first day it has battery charging issue. Visited the service center and they just did a software update and told me to check once again.
This is the charging stats.


Product has 14 days return warranty. Will get the amount refunded.

Samsung has rolled out One UI 5 update for the Galaxy Watch 4 and onwards.

The best thing is that now Samsung Pay is available in India even for Non-Samsung phones. I have successfully added my card. Will try out its Tap and Pay feature tomorrow.
This makes Galaxy Watch a true smartwatch. :)

After over 11 years, I am thinking of an upgrade. Nothing wrong with the watch, it works perfectly. I even learned swimming at age 46, while wearing this watch to time my laps. However, technology has moved much further. So I want to catch up with the latest technology without losing any of the features I already have. Basically a smartwatch.

I can't be bothered to charge the watch, which means it has to be solar charged. I should be able to swim with it. Those two are non-negotiable. That gives me only one clear option, the Garmin Instinct Series.

The current Casio PRG-250 physical specs are 56.3 X 50.6 X 15.0 mm / 80.2g

The Garmin Instinct 2X: 50 x 50 x 14.5 mm / 67g
The Garmin Instinct 2S: 45 x 45 x 14.5 mm / 53g

Any personal reviews/feedback from BHPians regarding the Instinct series? [I have already read existing comments in this thread]

Ofcourse, the other choice is G-SHOCK GBD-H1000-1DR - G1036.

I have a Garmin Instinct solar which I have been using for a year and a half. No complaints. The heart rate and SPO2 matches with the pulse oximeter I have. You can read everything which appears in your mobile notification (even full emails) without taking the mobile out of your pocket. This turned out to be much more useful than I initially thought. Gives me 26-day battery life (body weight exercises 3 times a week, and I take it everywhere I go - if I don't take it, I have the same feeling of not taking the mobile!). There is an app called HealthSync (paid, 250 for lifetime) which can sync Garmin Connect to Google Fit. Very rarely, while exercising, the HR freezes for a minute or two before resuming. My only grouse is with the proprietary cable.

I bought this from the UK, where it always seems to be selling at half the price here.

Please suggest a smartwatch, preferably with LTE feature. My main requirement is : the watch should have music controls on the home screen. On the home screen , I need option to play, pause, stop, go to next track, volume etc. when I am playing music on Spotify or YTmusic on my phone. Also, the smartwatch should read notifications from my phone and display the same on watch screen.

Any Garmin users here, Venu maybe?
How efficient does can it track metrics?

Specifically, how effective is the body battery functionality?

I can comment on Forerunner 245 and Fenix 6 top notch, best in terms of using it as a fitness watch. Body battery indicator is useful and pretty accurate provided one wears the watch round the clock. However do not mistake it for a smart watch, for that there are better options available. For fitness it’s hard to beat garmin.

Regards

I bought the Instinct 2X Solar about a month ago from the US. The only gripe I have with it so far is the extremely low alarm sound when compared to my 12 year old Casio A-178W or even Garmin's own Edge bike computers. Otherwise I'm quite happy with it. Amongst the Instinct series, the 2X has the best solar efficiency due to having the biggest dial do but it is to be noted that the Garmin recommended 3 hours of outdoor sunlight at 50K lux per day needed to run the watch on infinite battery is applicable only if you don't use the GPS or pulse-ox as both of these are battery draining. But even with moderate GPS use, the Instinct series has a such a good battery life that you are better off buying the cheaper non-solar version and charging it maybe twice a month at most. The solar version adds a reddish tint to the display which might not be to everyone's liking.

If budget permits, I'd recommend the Instinct 2 series over the Instinct 1 since almost all the settings can be adjusted in real-time via the Garmin connect mobile app when the watch is paired via Bluetooth to the phone.

I'm using the Galaxy watch 5 lte. Fulfills all of the above criteria & I'm pretty happy with it including the battery life which has got much better after recent updates.

Thanks.
Picked up the venu sq2 non music edition. Very nice toy, it is.
Spo2 and heartrate are spot on, battery life is brilliant.
Am giving time to the body battery function to align.

Any lagging after the One UI 5 update?
Thinking about gifting a Watch 4 to someone in the family but I am not sure if its worth buying a watch 4 given that watch 6 is available now. Use case would be daily wear + workout tracking and the "smart" features of the watch would not be used.

Haven't noticed any lag at all with the One UI 5 update.
I guess if the usage case is not intended for smart features, then GW4 can easily fulfill the needs for next couple of years easily.:thumbs up

I got my wifey the CMF Nothing smartwatch. Costed a buck short 5k. She wanted a smartwatch just to track the steps, nothing fancy, and suggested boat smartwatch. I was not comfortable buying boat, fireboltt or noise smartwatchs. They seems to be gimmicky and some even show heartbeat on vegetables as per some YouTube videos. I suggested Samsung Watch 4 which was coming around 8k. Again, she refused to spend so much and wanted to go woth Noise. I then shared the video fo CMF Nothing smartwatch and she liked it.

Got it within a day of placing the order on Flipkart.





The 1.9 inch screen is a bit large, but is vibrant.

Pros:

• Super smooth software experience
• AMOLED screen with AOD option
• Has all sensors like SPO2, Hear Rate etc
• Can take calls via bluetooth

Cons:

• Gets stuck sometimes, had to restart couple of times
• Not based on wearOS, so cannot load any apps
• 1.9 inches is too big for Indian hands
• Charger is finicky and looks like made from cheap quality
• Cannot open apps directly from home screen

Overall satisfied with the purchase. Can recommend it to budget conscious users who are not in to extreme fitness.

Just wanted to say that any watch or fitness tracker that has an optical HR sensor would do that. The watch simply observes the changes in the light that is reflected off the surface it is in contact with and uses some algorithm proprietary to the manufacturer (some are more accurate than others) to give you a reading. You can add some smarts to not show the reading if there is no light reflected at all (eg. when the watch is not worn) or if the reading is way beyond normal values but there really is no way to determine if the surface that the watch is in contact with is human skin or a potato or styrofoam.

My Garmin watch has accurate HR and gives almost the same readings as my HR chest strap but if I remove the watch and press it against my mattress, it still displays some reading. :)