Might get a new activity tracker

jennybearlv

I'm thinking of upgrading my two year old Vivoactive, and I'm seeing activity trackers have added some interesting new features since then, and I'm wondering how useful they are.

First, the wrist heart rate monitors. I usually wear a chest strap when I run and cycle, unless I forget it. Does this wrist HRM replace a chest strap for these activities? Is it as accurate? Also, why exactly do I need to know my heart rate while I'm laying in bed typing this? Does 24 heart rate monitoring serve some purpose like calculating calories better?

Second, altimeters. Why do I need to know how many floors I climbed? Is it just another interesting tidbit or does it help calculate step calories better? Would I use this for any other situation, like should I ever care what my elevation is while I'm out hiking and biking in the mountains?

Third, I'm really thinking I'd like a tracker with a compass. I wear a wrist compass when I go off by myself and find it useful, but I also feel kinda silly when I walk around an urban situation with a watch and a compass on my wrist. Do electronic compasses work as well as an old fashioned compass? My wrist compass is awesome, just dorky.

Are there other features that have come into existence in the past two years that I might enjoy? I am leaning towards Garmin again. I've had their trackers for three years, and aside from the two Vivofits that killed themselves and REI kindly replaced, I've liked Connect and the Garmin experience. I'm leaning towards a used Fenix 3, but am happy to hear about other brands that sync up with MFP.

NorthCascades

I have a Garmin Fenix 3 HR, which is their flagship, but about to be replaced. The wrist-based HRM is utter garbage. It's not reliable cycling, skiing, running, walking/hiking, or sitting and sleeping. Doesn't matter how I wear it. Some other companies have made good wrist HRMs, and I've heard Garmin's newer watches have improved on this. So it's not entirely clear cut.

Very little value in 24/7 heart rate tracking other than finding your resting heart rate, which is somewhat useful if you'll pay attention to it.

jennybearlv wrote: »

Second, altimeters. Why do I need to know how many floors I climbed? Is it just another interesting tidbit or does it help calculate step calories better? Would I use this for any other situation, like should I ever care what my elevation is while I'm out hiking and biking in the mountains?

Fire regulations usually depend on altitude. And you can navigate ("get unlost") in a whiteout if you can measure your altitude and have a good map. Those don't apply to most people.

It takes more energy to walk up hill than down, obviously.

You said you're leaning towards a Fenix 3. I've had one for about 2 years now. I love it. I regret selling the original F3 for an F3HR, that was a mistake, but I ignore the HR nonsense and use the rest of the watch. Garmin is about to release the Fenix 5, so the retail price will plummet on the F3, and the used market will be flooded soon. I'll be selling mine to fund a F5X.

CarlydogsMom

I did quite a bit of research, and went with a Samsung Gear Fit 2. I LOVE IT. I was waffling between a Garmin and this Gear Fit. Both have built-in GPS, so you don't need your phone with you while out and about mapping your walk (or in your case, this would work as your compass).

What took me over to Samsung instead, however, was the additional benefit of having some built-in memory (4 GB) which enables me to put my workout playlist on my watch--therefore I only need my watch and some Bluetooth earbuds to listen to my music while working out. I love that aspect of the Gear Fit 2, and to my knowledge, very few, if other, exercise watches have that.

The Gear Fit 2 also has built-in wifi with a couple apps, namely Spotify. So if you have a Spotify account, you can tune into that wherever wifi is (like your gym if it has it) and listen to your Spotify music, again, without being tethered to your phone.

I have found the Gear Fit 2 really tracks my steps, calories, and heartrate well. It also can track a long list of exercises that you choose from in the associated S-Health app. It also syncs with My Fitness Pal (there is a good thread on this board that shows you how). I've been really amazed at how on target its calorie burn estimates have been. Much moreso than the actual exercise machines.

Heart rate is measured every 10 minutes, and you can get a readout/report right from the watch. Bluetooth connectivity to your phone means you can set up receiving texts, e-mails, and even sending--from the Fit 2--short text or e-mail responses to calls, texts, and e-mails. Emojis too. All is set up through your phone app for the unit.

It doesn't sync with Apple, so I've wasted my response if you need it to sync to iOS. But I've been so thrilled with my Gear Fit 2 (and honestly, don't work for Samsung or anything!); I just never thought I'd even want one of these things, now I love mine. Especially the music storage....

jennybearlv

NorthCascades wrote: »

I have a Garmin Fenix 3 HR, which is their flagship, but about to be replaced. The wrist-based HRM is utter garbage. It's not reliable cycling, skiing, running, walking/hiking, or sitting and sleeping. Doesn't matter how I wear it. Some other companies have made good wrist HRMs, and I've heard Garmin's newer watches have improved on this. So it's not entirely clear cut.

Very little value in 24/7 heart rate tracking other than finding your resting heart rate, which is somewhat useful if you'll pay attention to it.

jennybearlv wrote: »

Second, altimeters. Why do I need to know how many floors I climbed? Is it just another interesting tidbit or does it help calculate step calories better? Would I use this for any other situation, like should I ever care what my elevation is while I'm out hiking and biking in the mountains?

Fire regulations usually depend on altitude. And you can navigate ("get unlost") in a whiteout if you can measure your altitude and have a good map. Those don't apply to most people.

It takes more energy to walk up hill than down, obviously.

You said you're leaning towards a Fenix 3. I've had one for about 2 years now. I love it. I regret selling the original F3 for an F3HR, that was a mistake, but I ignore the HR nonsense and use the rest of the watch. Garmin is about to release the Fenix 5, so the retail price will plummet on the F3, and the used market will be flooded soon. I'll be selling mine to fund a F5X.

The Fenix 5 coming out is exactly my logic for upgrading to a Fenix 3 soon. I've been drooling over both the Fenix 3 and Epix for awhile, so the 5x looks awesome. I recently moved to the country though and need a different bike, so I'm thinking used MTB + used Fenix 3 = about the price of a new Fenix 5x.

From your experience with the HR I'm thinking it's not worth the $50+ higher price tag on Ebay.

I likely don't need to know about fire restrictions since I'm in northern Nevada, where fire restrictions are pretty strict. As in don't light one, ever. I would like to get into skiing, but I don't plan on doing it in bad weather. If an altimeter can factor in walking up a hill in my step calories, that would be useful. My neighborhood is on an alluvial fan and when I'm done with my run activity I use the step tracker for the walk back home, which can be a 150' elevation increase if I was down on the playa.

Are there any other advantages of a Fenix 3 over a Vivoactive? I know it has more outdoor activity profiles like hiking, skiing, and rowing, but I've seen skiing and kayaking apps for my Vivoactive. Would the hiking profile give me different data than using the walking profile on my Vivoactive? I've also seen it has more run data. Any of that useful for a beginner runner?

jennybearlv

CarlydogsMom wrote: »

I did quite a bit of research, and went with a Samsung Gear Fit 2. I LOVE IT. I was waffling between a Garmin and this Gear Fit. Both have built-in GPS, so you don't need your phone with you while out and about mapping your walk (or in your case, this would work as your compass).

What took me over to Samsung instead, however, was the additional benefit of having some built-in memory (4 GB) which enables me to put my workout playlist on my watch--therefore I only need my watch and some Bluetooth earbuds to listen to my music while working out. I love that aspect of the Gear Fit 2, and to my knowledge, very few, if other, exercise watches have that.

The Gear Fit 2 also has built-in wifi with a couple apps, namely Spotify. So if you have a Spotify account, you can tune into that wherever wifi is (like your gym if it has it) and listen to your Spotify music, again, without being tethered to your phone.

I have found the Gear Fit 2 really tracks my steps, calories, and heartrate well. It also can track a long list of exercises that you choose from in the associated S-Health app. It also syncs with My Fitness Pal (there is a good thread on this board that shows you how). I've been really amazed at how on target its calorie burn estimates have been. Much moreso than the actual exercise machines.

Heart rate is measured every 10 minutes, and you can get a readout/report right from the watch. Bluetooth connectivity to your phone means you can set up receiving texts, e-mails, and even sending--from the Fit 2--short text or e-mail responses to calls, texts, and e-mails. Emojis too. All is set up through your phone app for the unit.

It doesn't sync with Apple, so I've wasted my response if you need it to sync to iOS. But I've been so thrilled with my Gear Fit 2 (and honestly, don't work for Samsung or anything!); I just never thought I'd even want one of these things, now I love mine. Especially the music storage....

The Gear Fit looks really similar to my Vivoactive, with the main differences being the wrist HRM, altimeter, and Wifi, it looks like. I have a Note 3, so they would likely play nice.

Can you do things with Spotify like change playlists? My Vivoactive has a widget for starting/stopping whatever playlist Spotify last opened, forward/back songs, and volume change, but I can't change playlists without getting out my phone. I exercise outdoors and always have my phone with me, so I don't mind being tethered. It's just nice to keep it in my backpack.

I saw that the Gear Fit automatically starts activities. Have you used this feature and does it work well? Does it have swim activities and can you submerge it in water?

Do you like the touchscreen and does it have any physical buttons? The touchscreen on my Vivoactive is the only thing I really don't like about it. It's not particularly responsive and doesn't work at all when wet.

CarlydogsMom

jennybearlv wrote: »

The Gear Fit looks really similar to my Vivoactive, with the main differences being the wrist HRM, altimeter, and Wifi, it looks like. I have a Note 3, so they would likely play nice.

Can you do things with Spotify like change playlists? My Vivoactive has a widget for starting/stopping whatever playlist Spotify last opened, forward/back songs, and volume change, but I can't change playlists without getting out my phone. I exercise outdoors and always have my phone with me, so I don't mind being tethered. It's just nice to keep it in my backpack.

I saw that the Gear Fit automatically starts activities. Have you used this feature and does it work well? Does it have swim activities and can you submerge it in water?

Do you like the touchscreen and does it have any physical buttons? The touchscreen on my Vivoactive is the only thing I really don't like about it. It's not particularly responsive and doesn't work at all when wet.

Responses in order:
Yes, I would think your Note 3 would play very nicely with the Gear Fit 2. I have a Note 4, and it's fine.

I have never used Spotify, so I don't know how deep you can go. I recommend you go to YouTube and check out video reviews of the Gear Fit 2. I'm sure some of them go into it. And perhaps search for the Fit 2 user manual online since that's how I got mine. It may say in there. I've never bothered looking into the Spotify capabilities because I don't use it.

Yes, the Gear Fit automatically starts activities--but...I wouldn't count on that if you REALLY want to make sure it knows what you're doing. I've had it pick up that I'm on a walk, or on the elliptical, but I have not yet tried others. There are lots of activities listed in the S-Health app that you can mark to be "read" by your Gear Fit, even down to "squats", "bench press" and "weight machines" (instead of say, "weightlifting"). A bunch! You can pick your commonly-used exercises to show up in your "exercise" list that you select from on your Fit. However, I've never had it pick up that I'm benchpressing--just walking/elliptical. So I'd give that capability about 3 stars out of 5.

It is not waterproof; I think it's "water resistant." So no, I don't believe you can shower/swim with it.

I like the touchscreen fine. Seems easy, and I don't have tiny fingers. It's very responsive. Also colorful, with a bunch of watchfaces you can download from the Fit app store. It has two buttons on the side--a home button and a back button. You swipe right to see your messages, and swipe left to get to a list of settings that you can arrange in the order you want. And then you can tap and scroll on the touchscreen too.

Hope that helps. YouTube was a good resource for me.

NorthCascades

jennybearlv wrote: »

From your experience with the HR I'm thinking it's not worth the $50+ higher price tag on Ebay.

For what it's worth (?), Garmin charged the same price for the Fenix 3 and Fenix 3 HR. F3HR was only available with a sapphire lens at first, and had the same price as the regular F3 sapphire. In my experience, the wHRM in this watch isn't worth paying for; Garmin didn't charge a premium for it. That may or may not be important to you.

Mind if I ask what the going rate is now?

jennybearlv wrote: »

Are there any other advantages of a Fenix 3 over a Vivoactive?

Battery life for sure. Durability without a question. (My original F3 survived a bad car vs bike crash, I was sure I broke the arm I had it on.) Barometric altimeter is an advantage even if it's not a strong one in your case. Looks.

jennybearlv wrote: »

I know it has more outdoor activity profiles like hiking, skiing, and rowing, but I've seen skiing and kayaking apps for my Vivoactive. Would the hiking profile give me different data than using the walking profile on my Vivoactive? I've also seen it has more run data. Any of that useful for a beginner runner?

If you wear a chest strap, you'll get more data like your stride length and cadence - for hiking and skiing. You'll get distance per row for rowing, I don't know if Vivoactive does that or not.

There's a lot of debate in the running community about whether any of the "Running Dynamics" data is useful or not. The jury is still very much out on that. I've been able to improve my form a little by paying attention to the numbers, but I'm not much of a runner and might have been able to get the same improvements by paying attention to other things.

Shoot me a note if you'd like to see some of the data it produces.