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

With wearable tech landscape increasing day by day, I think we need a dedicated fitness band and smartwatch thread for all the queries and buying decisions.

It would be helpful, if BHP-ians post their views and reviews about the wearable tech they have been using.
I am also in the market for a fitness tracker but am confused with the number of options. I understand that Fitbit and Jawbone are among the best in the business, but they don't have widespread availability.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

I have an LG G Watch R Smartwatch. Been planning to pend down a review for a long time. Have half of it composed. Looks like I will never get around to completing it. Adding the info I had already composed here. Will update with additional info soon

The Hardware

• Chipset 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
• Display 1.3-inch P-OLED Display (320 x 320)
• Memory 4GB eMMC / 512MB RAM
• Battery 410mAh
• Operating System Android Wear 
(compatible with smartphones running Android 4.3 and above)
• Sensors 9-Axis (Gyro/ Accelerometer/ Compass), Barometer, PPG
• Color Black
• Other Dust and Water Resistant (IP67)

The Software
The watch runs on Android Wear, which is basically a version on Android for wearables. Google does not allow customization and hence any smartwatch running Android wear will look the same from the software side. More details on Android Wear here:

http://www.android.com/wear/

External Design and appearance
The major thing that attracted me to this was the fact that it actually looked like a proper watch. From a distance it looks like one of the regular Casio watches. Now, if you are the kind of person who wears a watch as a style statement, then this is not for you. The Moto 360 which looks more sleek and beautiful, would be a better choice. For me, the unassuming looked worked perfectly. The strap is a regular 22mm strap and can be replaced.

How does it work?
It needs to be tethered to an Android phone via Bluetooth. In fact when you start it up for the first time, it does not even show the time unless you complete the pairing process with a phone. Post this, it can function independently as a watch and also do some basic things. Detailed below.

What all can it do?

• Watch Faces: This is one of my favorite features. You can change the watch face as per your liking. There are a lot of watch faces both free and paid available. Each face has an always on mode and an ambient mode. You get everything from the most traditional to the most funky ones. Below images show a number of these faces. Because the screen is a gorgeous one, the display is sharp and the watch looks very realistic.
  
• Notifications: Whatever notifications that come to the phone are instantly pushed to the watch. You can control what notifications you want pushed. This includes emails, calendar, SMS, WhatsApp, Call info etc.. The notifications are in the form of Google Cards which you can swipe away. Ability to respond is limited. The primary option is via voice. Voice recognition works pretty well for basic responses. There are some predefined options also. But basically the point to keep in mind is that it works best if you just need to view and swipe away. Works well for me because I get a lot of emails/messages/WhatsApp etc… which I just need to quickly glance.
  • Note: You can see who is calling and answer/reject the call, but accepting will answer the call on the phone, you cannot talk from the watch itself.
• Fitness and adventure:The watch has Heart Rate monitor, step counter, barometer, gyroscope etc. that can help monitor and adventure activities. There is an App on the watch which will help track the heart rate and steps
  
• Navigation:This is a really helpful feature. Turn by turn navigation instructions are pushed to the watch. Quite helpful especially if you are on a bike and need navigation.
  
  
• Music: The watch comes with 4GB memory and there is an option to sync tracks from the phone. So you can load your favorite songs, pair a Bluetooth headset and go for that early morning run leaving your phone behind.

Major disadvantages

• Price: Upward of $200 for most of the good ones out there.
• Battery life: Max 2 days with the LG G Watch R.
• Appearance: Subjective. But will not meet the design needs for most people
• Functionality: There is a limit to what you can do with a small screen. So there is no stand out feature as yet.

In summary, I have personally found it pretty useful. My phone is locked with an 8 digit pin, so this helps me to look at and dismiss a lot of the unwanted stuff without taking the phone and unlocking it first. But I would not consider it a must have as yet. I think the current iteration of smart watches are the first ones you can actually think of buying. The next generation should be sleeker, have better battery life.

Was thinking of buying the Timex Ironman, saw the ad in the papers and its available in Amazon. Calculates calories, sleep. Displays incoming calls etc.

http://www.amazon.in/Timex-Ironman-M...keywords=timex

Any owners of the Mi Band, please chime in!

/am planning to buy soon.

How do you plan to buy it ?

Same query.
Any reviews and where to buy? I absolutely hate this lottery system for Mi products.
It is available on Dx.com,might order it from there, after i get some reviews.

About a year and a half ago I bought the first Fitbit band. I enjoyed it for a few months, but found it was very unreliable in terms of how it kept track of my steps. One hour on my Bullet and it showed 20.000 steps! :)

So I bought a TomTom Sport watch. I'm still using it. It has GPS so it will show you lots of statistics of your run on a map on your computer. It has a built in heart rate monitor, rather then the separate strap on sensor.

I've been using it for about a year now. The only thing is I find it's battery when using GPS and heart rate wont last more then 4 hours or so. So frequent charging.

Jeroen

The lottery system is a big joke. Tried twice (5th and 12th May) and within the 1st second, you are in queue and don't get the product.

Will check Dx.com. The youtube reviews seem to be good. Love the battery life being claimed.

Yeah same thing happened to me, the band went out of stock in less than a second in the Re.1 sale, and the page kept on loading in the previous sale.:Frustrati

Meanwhile, Micromax launched the YuFit band to compete with the Mi Band but this one has an OLED screen which might prove to be an advantage when counting steps and calories.

Wouldn't fitness band kind of device help the people who should be under medical supervision? Why would a normal person wear such a band?

Here's a detailed review of the Pebble Smartwatch - Link.

Jeroen,

In that case, arent you better off using an ANT+ heart rate sensor and pairing it with your phone.

A watch that doesn't last 4 hours is pointless. Most phones do better. Even my S3 tracked a 4+ hour ride just fine while using ~10%-15% battery per hour.

I am using a Microsoft Band.

Pros:

1. Pretty decent battery life
2. In built GPS - Can leave the phone at home while going for run.
3. Has all the usual stuff - Pedometer, Sleep tracker, heart rate monitor etc
4. Syncs to the cloud - and can pair with Windows Phone/Android/iPhone
5. Supports notifications from the phone.
6. Pretty decent voice recognition when paired with a Windows phone (Cortana functionality)

Cons

1. Expensive - 199$ - Pebble has almost all these features at half the price.
2. Weird form factor - not very comfortable to wear.
3. Sleep tracker is not completely accurate. Also, it fails to detect sleep activity correctly unless you explicitly tell the band that you are about to go to sleep!
4. Heart rate monitor is not completely accurate.
5. Can't answer phone calls from the band

But I like it. Since I have two main phones - Windows and Android, this is a pretty compelling device since it pairs with both. The presence of GPS in the band is a huge plus.

Just so you know, I have my phone with me 24/7 except when I go running!

Just to clarify, the watch will run just about forever. However, when you use it for exercise, with GPS tracking and heart rate it will run for about 4 hours. Then you need to charge it. So I don't use this watch as my regular watch, I just use when I go exercising.

In practice its not that big a thing for two reasons;

After you have been running you want to see it on the computer so you hook it up to synch and download the data anyway and it gets charged as well.

Secondly, the GPS has a quick start function, but that needs refreshing every few days as well. So again, you need to hook it up to the PC, sync the GPS data and it also charging! When you have refreshed the quick start GPS function, it locks on the GPS satellite nearly immediately as soon as I step out of our home. Without it it could take 5-8 minutes.

So in practice you will find yourself hooking it up to your laptop/PC frequently and you might as well leave it on for 30-60 minutes and its fully charged.

Although I haven't tested it, I'm pretty sure it's the heart rate monitor that is the big drain on the battery.

GPS uses very little power, just a receiver. One of the interesting functions on the watch is it allows you to race against a previous run. So it stores time/distance and measures you current run against it. Great for pushing yourself a bit. Also, I used the interval setting a lot, i.e. walk/run either based on time or distance.

http://sports.tomtom.com/en_in/

Review: http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/12...and-we-re-sold

Jeroen

I bought a Goquii a few months ago and haven't been able to use it as it doesn't pair with my iPhone. :Frustrati

Does anyone have an opinion on this product?