Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Are There Any Good Smartwatches Or Fitness Trackers?
"What's your opinion on the current state of smartwatches?" asks long-time Slashdot reader rodrigoandrade. He's been researching both smartwatches and fitness trackers, and shares his own opinions:
- Manufacturers have learnt from Moto 360 that people want round smartwatches that actually look like traditional watches, with a couple of glaring exceptions....
- Android Wear 2.0 is a thing, not vaporware. It's still pretty raw (think of early Android phones) but it works well. The LG Sport Watch is the highest-end device that supports it.
- LTE-enabled smartwatches finally allow you to ditch your smartphone, if you wish. Just pop you nano SIM in it and party on. The availability is still limited to a few SKUs in some countries, and they're ludicrously expensive, but it's getting there.
Keep reading for his assessment of four high-end choices -- and share your own opinions in the comments. The original submission includes this summary:
- Android Wear 2.0 is a thing, not vaporware. It's still pretty raw (think of early Android phones) but it works well. The LG Sport Watch is the highest-end device that supports it.
- LTE-enabled smartwatches finally allow you to ditch your smartphone, if you wish. Just pop you nano SIM in it and party on. The availability is still limited to a few SKUs in some countries, and they're ludicrously expensive, but it's getting there.
Keep reading for his assessment of four high-end choices -- and share your own opinions in the comments. The original submission includes this summary:
- The Samsung Galaxy Gear S3 is the one to beat right now. It's the coolest one, features all sensors you find in a smartphone, an LTE version, fitness apps, works with Android and iOS, etc. Only cons are the price and the Tizen OS.
- The Apple Watch works with iOS only and is almost useless without being paired with an iPhone. It's big, square, and nerdy-looking.
- LG Smart Watch Sport is the flagship Android Wear 2.0 device. It works as an extension of your smartphone, with notifications, the array of Google services, even including a rather neat touchscreen keyboard with handwriting recognition (yes, it works pretty well).
- The Fitbit Ionic was actually the result of Fitbit's acquisition of Pebble (yes, the Kickstarted company), and it's a fitness tracker first and smartwatch second, but it's a damn fine device. It looks even more nerdy than the Apple Watch, like some Star Trek device, and it's crazy expensive, but its fitness functionality is second to none. If you need the best fitness tracker money can buy and don't care about looking like an 80's nerd, then this is it."
And it ends with the following observation:
"In a day and age where tech companies offer too little in exchange for too much money (hello, Google Pixelbook, the $1000 notebook that only runs a web browser), we need to weigh our options carefully. With the exception of Apple Watch, all brands, not only the ones I listed, offer cheaper options with fewer features to accommodate every budget. The purchase decision, as with everything tech, depends on the features you want at the price you're willing to pay."
So what do Slashdot's readers think? Are there any good smartwatches or fitness trackers?
Fitness trackers offer no weight-loss benefit and can make users fatter - study from University of Pittsburgh published in JAMA.
It is a waste of your money and time.
The Apple Watch isn't "nearly useless" without an iPhone, It IS useless without an iPhone.
It simply will not run if not paired with an iPhone. Even then, even if you could magically make it run without a paired iPhone, there are a whole mess of settings you can ONLY set using the paired iPhone. Things that you cannot do at all through the watch. For example, you can't update the software without the paired phone, you can't change notification settings without the paired phone, you can't install apps without the paired phone, you can't set the watch's time without the paired phone, and those are just some of the things that can't be done on the watch itself.
Beyond that, as has already been pointed out multiple times, "fitness trackers" are worthless. They give people a false sense of how "active" they are, which causes them to be less active than without the tracker. Buy one for the "smart" features like notifications, forget the fitness tracking features. They're worthless.
Obligatory plug for AsteroidOS, the open source firmware for smartwatches.
The Apple Watch is the one to beat if you want a product that will be supported year after year. My support of Apple isn't just because of it's ecosystem but also because of it's support of it's products past year #1. Old iPhones get OS updates immediately, old Apple Watches get OS updates immediately. Google didn't even bother to mention Android Wear at it's latest conference...Apple mentions the watch at every yearly conference.
This means that the Apple Watch will/does keep getting better. Small example: the last watch OS update they released greatly improved integration with the Apple AirPods (yet another product category where Apple is the one to beat). Whenever I'm listening to music on my AirPods (even if it's through my phone) I can turn the crown on my watch to adjust the volume..small update but actually very useful. Having a product that I bought 2+ years ago keep getting better makes me feel valued as a customer.
How did Samsung reward people who bought it's first few "Gear" watches?....by abandoning the Android OS completely and moving to a platform with nearly no Apps. Hate on Apple all you want, but if you want to spend money and not be forgotten next year Apple is the way to go.
"Without" is ambiguous. I can see a lot of people misinterpreting it. You are right that an Apple Watch doesn't function at all unless you have an iPhone you can use to set it up. You are also right that there are lots of things you can only do through the iPhone, such as install apps. However "won't work without an iPhone" might be interpreted by some people as being useless unless you have your iPhone with you, and this isn't true.
There's lots of things you can do with an Apple Watch when you leave your phone at home. You can generally use apps, make calls, get directions, track your location with GPS, track your heart rate, listen to music, look at photos, read and reply to text messages and emails, etc. And tell the time of course!
I often use my watch without my phone, usually when going for a run. I keep an eye on my heart rate to stay in the zones I want, I listen to music and skip tracks, I check my pace, I see messages people send me, etc. It's very useful without my phone, even though I still need to own an iPhone in the first place.
Really? This was nothing else than a dumb, shallow and biased summary.
Otherwise the answer is the Apple Watch. It's clearly far beyond the competition.
Except in the case of Samsung Pay.
Samsung Pay is light years ahead of Apple Pay right now.
Samsung Pay not only works with NFC, but it can also work at older magnetic terminals that don't have NFC yet. I used my Gear S3 watch to pay at Safeway just the other night and the cashier was absolutely shocked.
Yeah, except that Apple Pay "nabs 90% of all mobile contactless transactions where active":
* https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/23/apple-pay-now-in-20-markets-nabs-90-of-all-contactless-transactions-where-active/
It's all very well to supposedly be "better" technically, but if people don't use the technology, then what's the point of having it? Apple Pay, even if it's allegedly "worse", is easier for people to set up and use... and so they actually use it.