QOTD: What's the Best Fitness Tracker?

[Rob]

Do you have a fitness tracker that you love?

Whether it's a bracelet, watch, ring, or you just use the built-in step counter on your phone, let us know what you use to track your fitness and health!

If you don't own one, why not? Would a certain feature or spec (like a longer battery life) convince you to make the leap?

 

[olbriar]

My wife and I both have Samsung smart watches. I use mine to flag calls and texts instead of pulling the phone out of my pocket. I do pause my tunes while streaming if someone wants to talk to me using the watch. I don't use any of the fitness tracking features. If I wasn't so active daily, perhaps I might set some goals. My wife on the other hand tracks her activities daily and if she doesn't reach her daily goals she's upset. She is far less active than me and views monitoring her activities a motivational tool. It has helped her lose the few pounds she gained after retiring.

 

[Rob]

My wife and I both have Samsung smart watches.

Which models? Do you like them?

 

[olbriar]

I have the old no Watch 3. I'm thinking about the 6 but it's difficult to abandon the Watch 3. It still works flawlessly and has great battery life. I honestly don't know which watch my wife has. She went through two, maybe three, Fitbits before migrating to Samsung. Whatever she bought she loves and so far has not given her any problems.

 

[Rob]

it's difficult to abandon the Watch 3. It still works flawlessly and has great battery life.

That's what I want- something super simple with great battery life.

 

[olbriar]

I would definitely recommend a Samsung watch. They are built well and the two I've owned have excellent battery life. I have a Samsung Gear 3 frontier that I bought back in 2016. It was working fine and was only replaced because sammy had a deal for their new Watch 3 when I preordered my S21. The old watch is never used but I charge it once or twice a year. Albeit, it has not been on but I just put it on the charger and the the battery is at 62%. Easy to use, great marriage with Samsung phones, and should last long after it's replaced.

 

[ocnbrze]

yeah i have both the watch 3 and 4. i also am thinking about the watch 6 as well.

samsung health is a great app. what i like is that i can set up a walk and the health app along with my phone can actually track my path and show me stats about my walk. things like speed, time, heart rate among others. i use those to gage my progress. you can also input what you eat, but i do not use that.

 

[olbriar]

yeah i have both the watch 3 and 4. i also am thinking about the watch 6 as well.

samsung health is a great app. what i like is that i can set up a walk and the health app along with my phone can actually track my path and show me stats about my walk. things like speed, time, heart rate among others. i use those to gage my progress. you can also input what you eat, but i do not use that.

It works the same for bike riding. You can set up a distance or time and it will encourage you to meet or exceed that goal. I only tried it once out of curiosity but was impressed. The app showed my entire ride on a map. I suspect it's the same for most all exercises.

 

[olbriar]

I had my Gear set to auto detect activity. It always thought I was bike riding when I was sitting on a riding lawnmower. But it would remind me now and then that I had been idle and suggested I get up and do something. Not all bad....

 

[ocnbrze]

I had my Gear set to auto detect activity. It always thought I was bike riding when I was sitting on a riding lawnmower. But it would remind me now and then that I had been idle and suggested I get up and do something. Not all bad....

yeah it keeps letting me know that i am doing a good job riding my bike when i am just stuck in traffic........LOL

 

[olbriar]

I guess that can be turned off for I don't have watch 3 auto detecting or suggesting activity.

 

[Hadron]

I have a fitbit versa 3 - bought at a discount because they were just about to release the versa 4. It does the main job of giving me smartphone notifications on the wrist that are readable and contain enough info to be useful, something the band types don't do so well (smaller screens), works as well as anything else for fitness stuff, and lasts almost a week between charges (unlike most smartwatches). Build quality is OK, not amazing, but it does the job. It also works as a dim flashlight at night (there's an app for that ). If you want a wide selection of apps you probably are better off with an actual smartwatch.

I have a mechanical watch of the other wrist for actually telling the time - I'm a bit traditional in that respect.

 

[Steven58]

I have the Apple Watch 7. It tracks mileage running/heartbeat/oxygen/time and notifications very well.. It even will put up a gallery of photos as the watch faces out of pics I choose, randomly. I'm a beta tester for the Apple Watch software and the iPhone so I have newer features than public releases. My next one will likely be the Apple Watch 10 since it is rumored it will keep track of BP?

I've started running again, since early June. It's going very well. My Apple Watch is watching my VO2 max increase and reporting it to me, which is nice. It also keeps track of my workout calories and reports it to MyFitnessPal, so I can eat more!

 

[ocnbrze]

I have the Apple Watch 7. It tracks mileage running/heartbeat/oxygen/time and notifications very well.. It even will put up a gallery of photos as the watch faces out of pics I choose, randomly. I'm a beta tester for the Apple Watch software and the iPhone so I have newer features than public releases. My next one will likely be the Apple Watch 10 since it is rumored it will keep track of BP?

I've started running again, since early June. It's going very well. My Apple Watch is watching my VO2 max increase and reporting it to me, which is nice. It also keeps track of my workout calories and reports it to MyFitnessPal, so I can eat more!

so you went Darth Vader on us?

 

[Steven58]

so you went Darth Vader on us?

I have an iPhone AND a Pixel 7. reLAX!

 

[Milo Williamson]

Oh my Phonax has a build in step counter. But lately somehow the program keeps kicking itself off, I wonder why..