Honestly all I want from my “smart watch” is to see notifications as they come in, and to see my upcoming events from my calendar(s) from a quick glance. That doesn’t require a powerful CPU or an hi-res LCD display.
I went with the Amazfit Bip because it had a similar form factor and there were alternative firmwares for it, but after growing tired of fiddling with what is a hack-ish workaround, I decided to switch to the BangleJS2 when it came out. It’s not as polished as the Pebble Timeline UI, but it works well enough and it’s open-source.
I was thinking about the PineTime but what made me change my mind was the shipping cost. The thing cost $27, and they charge $30 of shipping where I live.
You want a hybrid watch. I had one, a withings for a couple of years before it decided to stop charging (completely unrepairable of course). Does precisely what you describe and lasts for a month on a single charge
Agreed. Got the instinct 2 Solar. It does everything I realistically use a smartwatch for, the battery lasts 2+ weeks, and no fiddly little touchscreen to fuck out if I have water or grease on my fingers. Had it longer than I’ve kept any other smartwatch.
How is the Garmin? I personally downgraded to a “dumb” Casio watch for my daily watch, but I still want something to at least track my heartrate and steps for whenever I exercise.
Garmin makes good watches, and the data capturing goes to Garmin connect without any subscription fee / pay wall to see all the data it tracks.
I’ve had a bunch of them (as a runner). I currently have a Fenix 6X partially because I was doing long runs and wanted the battery to last without worrying. I recently tried a pixel watch 2 for a few weeks and did really like the extra “smarts” but the battery life sucked.
I’ve just got the vivoactive 5 for the purpose of health tracking and weight loss / fitness. It’s my first SmartWatch. I’m very impressed with it, looks/feels great, full colour amoled but still over 10 days of battery life easily, etc.
The problem with Garmin is the amount of artificial segmentation they do, I know my watch is randomly crippled on some stuff (like no altimeter) to push people to the more expensive models, but since it’s my first one I don’t really know what I’m missing and the price/feature ratio felt good for me, maybe in a year if I keep at it I’ll miss some of that but for now it’s really helping me out with my lifestyle changes.
I was gifted a Garmin 235 in 2015 and the battery lasted a week. At this point it still lasts 3-4 days. I’m great about always having my devices well-charged, can’t imagine what many folks go through with the atrocious battery life on some of these “smart” watches that can barely go overnight.
Galaxy watch 5 pro would be best of the Samsung ones for that - lasts two days and does all the stuff.
It’s got nothing on a Garmin for battery life though.
I personally quit smart watches. I owned an Apple Watch 2 and ‘downgraded’ to a Garmin Instinct. Couldn’t be happier.
Honestly all I want from my “smart watch” is to see notifications as they come in, and to see my upcoming events from my calendar(s) from a quick glance. That doesn’t require a powerful CPU or an hi-res LCD display.
I don’t want to do voice commands either.
Damn straight! I miss pebble. :(
I keep buying used ones. The problem is they’re starting to get harder to find and the price it’s going up.
Love my Pebbles! Thank goodness for Rebble.
You and me, comrade.
I went with the Amazfit Bip because it had a similar form factor and there were alternative firmwares for it, but after growing tired of fiddling with what is a hack-ish workaround, I decided to switch to the BangleJS2 when it came out. It’s not as polished as the Pebble Timeline UI, but it works well enough and it’s open-source.
Yeah I’m rolling with the GTS2 myself, I was thinking about the PineTime but I haven’t seen the new bangle! Might have to get one of those.
I was thinking about the PineTime but what made me change my mind was the shipping cost. The thing cost $27, and they charge $30 of shipping where I live.
Yeesh lol. Also It looks like the software offering is better with the bangle than it is with the PineTime.
You want a hybrid watch. I had one, a withings for a couple of years before it decided to stop charging (completely unrepairable of course). Does precisely what you describe and lasts for a month on a single charge
Agreed. Got the instinct 2 Solar. It does everything I realistically use a smartwatch for, the battery lasts 2+ weeks, and no fiddly little touchscreen to fuck out if I have water or grease on my fingers. Had it longer than I’ve kept any other smartwatch.
How is the Garmin? I personally downgraded to a “dumb” Casio watch for my daily watch, but I still want something to at least track my heartrate and steps for whenever I exercise.
Garmin makes good watches, and the data capturing goes to Garmin connect without any subscription fee / pay wall to see all the data it tracks.
I’ve had a bunch of them (as a runner). I currently have a Fenix 6X partially because I was doing long runs and wanted the battery to last without worrying. I recently tried a pixel watch 2 for a few weeks and did really like the extra “smarts” but the battery life sucked.
I’ve just got the vivoactive 5 for the purpose of health tracking and weight loss / fitness. It’s my first SmartWatch. I’m very impressed with it, looks/feels great, full colour amoled but still over 10 days of battery life easily, etc.
The problem with Garmin is the amount of artificial segmentation they do, I know my watch is randomly crippled on some stuff (like no altimeter) to push people to the more expensive models, but since it’s my first one I don’t really know what I’m missing and the price/feature ratio felt good for me, maybe in a year if I keep at it I’ll miss some of that but for now it’s really helping me out with my lifestyle changes.
I agree I got rid of mine until smart watches can last 2 days minimum on battery I won’t use one the die so quickly.
I was gifted a Garmin 235 in 2015 and the battery lasted a week. At this point it still lasts 3-4 days. I’m great about always having my devices well-charged, can’t imagine what many folks go through with the atrocious battery life on some of these “smart” watches that can barely go overnight.
Galaxy watch 5 pro would be best of the Samsung ones for that - lasts two days and does all the stuff. It’s got nothing on a Garmin for battery life though.