FitBit Blaze or Apple Watch?

mizroxy13

I'm about to buy myself a birthday present and I need help deciding. Leave your reviews/advice here! Thanks!

JLLeigh98

If you are wanting something more geared toward fitness and keeping track of things like that I would recommend the Fitbit. I have had both and ultimately stuck with fitbits.
I just recently got the FitBit Ionic as a gift. It is really great it takes what I liked from both my old Fitbit (I don’t remember model it’s been a while) and Apple Watch into one.

mizroxy13

Thanks for your detailed response! I have the little clip-on FitBit, but want something more visible with heart rate info as well as multi-tracking for different workouts. I appreciate the feedback!

rachellep103

I love my Blaze, just bought one for Hubs for Christmas since his old 1st gen fitbit died. Super easy, very convenient, a lot of great features. If your goals are fitness not just fashion, go fitbit.

AnvilHead

If you're more into the smartwatch features than the fitness tracking: Apple Watch 3

If you're more into the fitness tracking and can live with slightly less smartwatch features: Garmin VivoActive 3

NorthCascades

Yugo vs BMW.

Mike1804

I would say, it depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for basic tracking and a tool to motivate you, the Blaze will do just fine. However, if you are more serious about your workouts and looking for accuracy and flexibility, the AW with a paired BT transmitter (preferably chest strap) is far superior. I've used both and from experience, the AW is much more accurate as far as detecting my active HR during a workout. My wife uses the Blaze and I've used the AW for two years now. A couple months ago I decided to test them side by side during a cardio (rower) workout. The blaze was worn on my left wrist, the AW on my right and paired to my polar chest strap HR transmitter as usual. Throughout the workout, the refresh rate on the blaze was much slower resulting in a lag between my actual HR/perceived HR and what was actually displayed on the device. I also found the Blaze was consistently lower by 8-10 bpm as compared to my AW/Polar combo. The AW is also much more flexible in that you have hundreds of 3rd party apps to choose from, allowing you to pick one that best fits your needs, rather than you adapting to just one native app like you would have on the Blaze. Both will do the job.... just depends on your desired level of tracking and accuracy

Catawampous

Garmin. I researched Garmin and Fitbits. Most of my friends have Fitbits. I went with Garmin. They all said I screwed up. I LOVE my Garmin but I am the only one that prefers outdoor activities so maybe thats why. I dont know but definitely love my Garmin. Can't speak to the Apple as I don't use any of their products.

mizroxy13

Mike1804 wrote: »

I would say, it depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for basic tracking and a tool to motivate you, the Blaze will do just fine. However, if you are more serious about your workouts and looking for accuracy and flexibility, the AW with a paired BT transmitter (preferably chest strap) is far superior. I've used both and from experience, the AW is much more accurate as far as detecting my active HR during a workout. My wife uses the Blaze and I've used the AW for two years now. A couple months ago I decided to test them side by side during a cardio (rower) workout. The blaze was worn on my left wrist, the AW on my right and paired to my polar chest strap HR transmitter as usual. Throughout the workout, the refresh rate on the blaze was much slower resulting in a lag between my actual HR/perceived HR and what was actually displayed on the device. I also found the Blaze was consistently lower by 8-10 bpm as compared to my AW/Polar combo. The AW is also much more flexible in that you have hundreds of 3rd party apps to choose from, allowing you to pick one that best fits your needs, rather than you adapting to just one native app like you would have on the Blaze. Both will do the job.... just depends on your desired level of tracking and accuracy

This is so very helpful! Thank you!

flyandsleek

Fitbit

AnvilHead

Catawampous wrote: »

Garmin. I researched Garmin and Fitbits. Most of my friends have Fitbits. I went with Garmin. They all said I screwed up. I LOVE my Garmin but I am the only one that prefers outdoor activities so maybe thats why. I dont know but definitely love my Garmin. Can't speak to the Apple as I don't use any of their products.

I wore an Apple Watch and used it to track my workouts and activity every day for two years. I'm also a big fan of Apple products and own/use a lot of them on a daily basis. With that said, I switched over to the Garmin 935 and it's head and shoulders better than the Apple Watch as a fitness/workout tracker. And Garmin's software/app side (Garmin Connect) is far superior to the very limited Apple Fitness/Health apps. Much more information/detail about your activity and workouts, ability to export workout data (e.g., in the form of .fit files), a web interface in addition to the phone app, etc. Having used both, I also prefer having physical buttons to push rather than tapping/swiping/pressing on the watch screen. There are a few (non-fitness related) capabilities the AW has that I miss, but nothing I can't live without.

The Apple Watch is far and away the best smartwatch on the market. No other watch has its capabilities and it's a very well-made piece of hardware. But as far as being a fitness tracker, it's mediocre and there are far better options on the market. The AW has the potential to be excellent, but Apple hasn't yet truly focused their efforts on the fitness/workout aspect of it. Especially on the software side.

Mike1804

AnvilHead wrote: »

Catawampous wrote: »

The Apple Watch is far and away the best smartwatch on the market. No other watch has its capabilities and it's a very well-made piece of hardware. But as far as being a fitness tracker, it's mediocre and there are far better options on the market. The AW has the potential to be excellent, but Apple hasn't yet truly focused their efforts on the fitness/workout aspect of it. Especially on the software side.

Totally agree with you. I had to resort to finding a 3rd party app that gave me everything I was looking for. With all the smart people at Apple, you'd think they could pull off a better native fitness app...

AnvilHead

Mike1804 wrote: »

Totally agree with you. I had to resort to finding a 3rd party app that gave me everything I was looking for. With all the smart people at Apple, you'd think they could pull off a better native fitness app...

They definitely could....they just haven't yet. The software was actually my biggest gripe about the Apple Watch and the biggest reason I switched to Garmin. To be quite frank, I think Apple's native fitness/health apps suck - and it's unfortunate because they get it so right in so many other ways.

Davidsdottir

I've had Fitbits for over 5 years, just made the switch to Garmin. So far I love my Vivoactive 3.

NorthCascades

AnvilHead wrote: »

Catawampous wrote: »

Garmin. I researched Garmin and Fitbits. Most of my friends have Fitbits. I went with Garmin. They all said I screwed up. I LOVE my Garmin but I am the only one that prefers outdoor activities so maybe thats why. I dont know but definitely love my Garmin. Can't speak to the Apple as I don't use any of their products.

I wore an Apple Watch and used it to track my workouts and activity every day for two years. I'm also a big fan of Apple products and own/use a lot of them on a daily basis. With that said, I switched over to the Garmin 935 and it's head and shoulders better than the Apple Watch as a fitness/workout tracker. And Garmin's software/app side (Garmin Connect) is far superior to the very limited Apple Fitness/Health apps. Much more information/detail about your activity and workouts, ability to export workout data (e.g., in the form of .fit files), a web interface in addition to the phone app, etc. Having used both, I also prefer having physical buttons to push rather than tapping/swiping/pressing on the watch screen. There are a few (non-fitness related) capabilities the AW has that I miss, but nothing I can't live without.

The Apple Watch is far and away the best smartwatch on the market. No other watch has its capabilities and it's a very well-made piece of hardware. But as far as being a fitness tracker, it's mediocre and there are far better options on the market. The AW has the potential to be excellent, but Apple hasn't yet truly focused their efforts on the fitness/workout aspect of it. Especially on the software side.

For example, how much time do I spend seated vs standing when I ride my bike. It came as a great surprise, but I produce more power seated.