A quick primer on Fitness Trackers

Hagensieker

I'm a techie and currently working my way through Fitness Watches and Trackers. And I've blogged a bit about them lately but not throwing any links up here in case it is against the rules. Just want to throw some stuff out there and engage in a little fitness tracker discussion.

So far I have:

Apple Watch Series 5 GPS + Cellular
Fitbit Charge 4
Garmin Vivoactive 4
Amazfit T-Rex
Haylou LS05 Solar

All have a GPS except for the Haylou and for my needs I absolutely want a tracker that has an onboard GPS. All work pretty well except I've noticed that the sync from the Amazfit T-Rex to Strava records the wrong times when uploading to Strava during runs only. When the same GPX file is downloaded from the watch app and sent to a program like RubiTrack the event is captured fine. Bike rides and walks record perfectly. No clue why that is.

That kind of leaves the Apple Watch, Garmin Vivoactive 4 and Fitbit Charge 4 as contenders for my favorite.

I DESPERATELY want a Garmin Fenix 6x but I have a couple of dedicated hiking GPS's and it is just silly to buy the Fenix as that is what distinguishes it from the rest. The mapping, that is.

The Apple Watch can map with a program called ViewRanger but with the tiny screen and already having real dedicated hiking GPS (Garmin Montana 680t and eTrex 30) I just don't need to do that.

Fitbit Charge 4 is awesome but I like seeing my time, distance, and heart rate on one screen for quick review especially when biking.

My final conclusion is that my favorite fitness watch is the Apple Watch. The major downside to it is the cost and the fear of whacking it against something. Too expensive and too nice to dent.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a KILLER device except it doesn't have a cell phone in it. It's so nice to ride a bike with just a watch on and know I can still call someone if I need help.

All comments are welcome and appreciated.

Keep pounding!

nanastaci2020

I don't have the Charge 4. I had a Charge 2 and now have the Ionic. Have had it 2-3 years. In the Fitbit app, you can choose your display 'face'. Some are Fitbit created, and some are created by others. Different faces show different sets of stats. If the Charge 4 is not customizable in this way, perhaps the Ionic?

Hagensieker

nanamerriman2020 wrote: »

I don't have the Charge 4. I had a Charge 2 and now have the Ionic. Have had it 2-3 years. In the Fitbit app, you can choose your display 'face'. Some are Fitbit created, and some are created by others. Different faces show different sets of stats. If the Charge 4 is not customizable in this way, perhaps the Ionic?

Being the obsessive guy that I am I have an Edge 705 bicycle computer and I can use it to look down and do speed and distance and overall time. Then I can take the occasional peek at my heart rate. I just want to see it around the 150 bpm range and in the 160's if I'm cranking.

Almost all of the men in my family have had heart attacks and I aim to NOT be one of them. I'm getting ready to retire and I aim to enjoy my retirement hiking and biking and running and stuff like that.

I just love the tech stuff so much and it really motivates me to keep moving. If I had one watch I'd probably get bored quick but I like to try them all and blog about them and then buy more!

But to get back around to the point of this my basic requirements for a tracker or fitness watch are:

1. GPS
2. Sync to Strava or Garmin Connect or import into RubiTrack.
3. Heart rate monitor
4. All others need not apply. Also anything beyond those 3 items are overkill and fluff and stuff but if anybody else likes that stuff they get 2 thumbs up from me. Whatever keeps you going!

M0n1KCR

Hagensieker wrote: »

My final conclusion is that my favorite fitness watch is the Apple Watch. The major downside to it is the cost and the fear of whacking it against something. Too expensive and too nice to dent.

The Apple watch is really sturdy. I have a series 4; a car hit me while I was cycling - I went flying and landed on my apple watch (fortunately, I just got a few bruises). The point is, the edge of the apple watch got some scratches from the asphalt, nothing more. It kept working perfectly, and wanting to call the emergency service while I screamed at the driver for his recklessness. The scratches are not nice, of course, but I don't thing any other watch would have survived.

Duck_Puddle

I’m intrigued that you consider anything over GPS, HRM, and syncing to Strava/Garmin/whatever that other one is as overkill but you want a Fenix 6x.

I’ll put that aside for a moment.

There are tons of features that people value in a fitness tracker-which include the things the tracker actually does, as well as budget, style, longevity, third party integrations (mfp, other tracking systems, health insurance incentive programs, etc).

Fitbit tends to be stylish, budget-friendly, excels in the social aspects and third party integration area. They lag way behind on reliability, longevity and advanced fitness features. They also have lagged in waterproof design (although I think all of their recent models are waterproof/swim-compatible).

Polar (not on your list) makes a lot of very good bang for the buck devices. Quality measurements and features in typically budget friendly packages. Someone looking for a device to get the job done reliably and with a lot of customization (for the price) would do very well with Polar. They lag behind in social areas and integrations And style. Holy cow do they make some ugly stuff (although they are getting better). Smart watch features are mediocre-on par with Garmin though.

Apple Watch is a phenomenal smart watch. Top of the heap of possibilities (if you have an iPhone). No other tracker on the market now or maybe ever will match Apple Watch smart Watch capabilities (if you have an iphone). Apple Watch is an ok tracker and a mediocre fitness training device (no real advanced fitness features). Battery life is atrocious compared to nearly every other device on the market.

Garmin makes a wide range of devices-from very basic tracking devices with almost no fitness tracking capabilities, up to $1000+ practically indestructible devices that will massage where your wallet used to be when you go for a run. Their advanced fitness features and capabilities are phenomenal (device dependent - the higher the price, the more features you’re going to get). Their devices tend to be extremely reliable and long lasting. They are making strides in the social and integration areas and some of their more recent offerings are making strides in the fashion department as well. Smart watch features are mediocre.

My current lineup includes:
Apple Watch (series 4 with cellular)
Fitbit charge 4 (GPS has worked completely 0 times since I’ve had it).
Polar Vantage V
Garmin Fenix 6s.

I’ve had I don’t even know how many trackers from each of these brands (and others) over the years.

I use Garmin for my training data/metrics, Polar as part of my suite to monitor training load and recovery, Apple Watch for anything smart watch, and Fitbit to make sure I beat my brother’s step count (and I’ve got a number of step challenges I’ve been part of for years - so that’s another social group).

There is no single best.

Also-strava only considers the moving time for my run activities that are imported from elsewhere. I think there’s a setting somewhere to change that but I’m not really a big strava user so I don’t care enough to look.


And my “advanced fitness features” is stuff like the ability to connect to sensors, assorted physiological/training metrics like vo2max, FTP, lactate threshold, training benefit of a workout, form analysis, etc, the kind of training data minutia that makes Garmin a leader and Fitbit.. not.

Duck_Puddle

nanamerriman2020 wrote: »

I don't have the Charge 4. I had a Charge 2 and now have the Ionic. Have had it 2-3 years. In the Fitbit app, you can choose your display 'face'. Some are Fitbit created, and some are created by others. Different faces show different sets of stats. If the Charge 4 is not customizable in this way, perhaps the Ionic?

I have an ionic and a charge 4. The ionic has a few giant white lines through the screen so I don’t use it anymore, but it offers the ability to customize the screen you see when you’re working out. So when you start a run activity, you can tell your ionic you want to see distance on top, HR on the bottom and then the middle is all the other stuff you can scroll through (or whatever you want to look at). Plus the ionic is color - so it’s vivid and the numbers are very visible.

Charge 4 doesn’t have that. It displays three things that Fitbit chose (although 2 are in very small font and very light-so you can really one see the one middle value which is larger and brighter). You have to scroll through all the things in the middle to be able to see them.

You can choose a watch face on both the Charge 4 & Ionic-but again, the charge 4 is quite small and not in color so you aren’t likely to be able to see the numbers on a watch face that shows more than one (most are like the workout where you’ll scroll through one item at a time).

hipari

Duck_Puddle wrote: »

There are tons of features that people value in a fitness tracker-which include the things the tracker actually does, as well as budget, style, longevity, third party integrations (mfp, other tracking systems, health insurance incentive programs, etc).

Fitbit tends to be stylish, budget-friendly, excels in the social aspects and third party integration area. They lag way behind on reliability, longevity and advanced fitness features. They also have lagged in waterproof design (although I think all of their recent models are waterproof/swim-compatible).

Exactly. I don’t care about the social aspects in Fitbit, but I do care that my tracker (Inspire HR) is slim and light enough for 24/7 use, and with the metallic wristband I purchased it looks like a watch and not an ugly clunky fitness tracker. The fact that it’s comfortable and stylish enough for everyday wearing is one of the main criterion for choosing a tracker.

Other important features include all-day heart rate, step counts and calorie sync with MFP. I also have the Fitbit smartscale so I appreciate the sync features there, but if I didn’t have a Fitbit tracker I would probably be happy with a different smartscale.

I upgraded to a newer Fitbit model about a month ago and considered Apple watch as an alternative, but decided against it for three reasons: it’s too big and clunky, I don’t actually want a smartwatch to follow me everywhere (the amount of information I can read from the Fitbit wristband is so limited I can actually unplug while still wearing it), and it’s so much more expensive than the Fitbit that I couldn’t really argue for paying that much more without it being any better against my criteria.

Hagensieker

Duck_Puddle wrote: »

I’m intrigued that you consider anything over GPS, HRM, and syncing to Strava/Garmin/whatever that other one is as overkill but you want a Fenix 6x.

I’ll put that aside for a moment.

There are tons of features that people value in a fitness tracker-which include the things the tracker actually does, as well as budget, style, longevity, third party integrations (mfp, other tracking systems, health insurance incentive programs, etc).

Fitbit tends to be stylish, budget-friendly, excels in the social aspects and third party integration area. They lag way behind on reliability, longevity and advanced fitness features. They also have lagged in waterproof design (although I think all of their recent models are waterproof/swim-compatible).

Polar (not on your list) makes a lot of very good bang for the buck devices. Quality measurements and features in typically budget friendly packages. Someone looking for a device to get the job done reliably and with a lot of customization (for the price) would do very well with Polar. They lag behind in social areas and integrations And style. Holy cow do they make some ugly stuff (although they are getting better). Smart watch features are mediocre-on par with Garmin though.

Apple Watch is a phenomenal smart watch. Top of the heap of possibilities (if you have an iPhone). No other tracker on the market now or maybe ever will match Apple Watch smart Watch capabilities (if you have an iphone). Apple Watch is an ok tracker and a mediocre fitness training device (no real advanced fitness features). Battery life is atrocious compared to nearly every other device on the market.

Garmin makes a wide range of devices-from very basic tracking devices with almost no fitness tracking capabilities, up to $1000+ practically indestructible devices that will massage where your wallet used to be when you go for a run. Their advanced fitness features and capabilities are phenomenal (device dependent - the higher the price, the more features you’re going to get). Their devices tend to be extremely reliable and long lasting. They are making strides in the social and integration areas and some of their more recent offerings are making strides in the fashion department as well. Smart watch features are mediocre.

My current lineup includes:
Apple Watch (series 4 with cellular)
Fitbit charge 4 (GPS has worked completely 0 times since I’ve had it).
Polar Vantage V
Garmin Fenix 6s.

I’ve had I don’t even know how many trackers from each of these brands (and others) over the years.

I use Garmin for my training data/metrics, Polar as part of my suite to monitor training load and recovery, Apple Watch for anything smart watch, and Fitbit to make sure I beat my brother’s step count (and I’ve got a number of step challenges I’ve been part of for years - so that’s another social group).

There is no single best.

Also-strava only considers the moving time for my run activities that are imported from elsewhere. I think there’s a setting somewhere to change that but I’m not really a big strava user so I don’t care enough to look.


And my “advanced fitness features” is stuff like the ability to connect to sensors, assorted physiological/training metrics like vo2max, FTP, lactate threshold, training benefit of a workout, form analysis, etc, the kind of training data minutia that makes Garmin a leader and Fitbit.. not.

Cool post with lots of great information. Thanks. Your post kind of illustrates different approaches to what we're all doing here. I'm 57 and trying to lose weight and not have a heart attack. You seem to be in some kind of training regime and out there hammering it out. I'm typically only interested in time, distance, a map, and my heart rate. Anything beyond that for me is cool but not value added for me at this time. That being said, nobody loves tech gadgets more than I do. I also like the Garmin stuff and have multiple dedicated GPS units for hiking and camping and again while I would LOVE that Fenix 6x it just doesn't make sense for me to get it.

I also just ordered an Honor WatchMagic 2. It hits most of the widgets but it does NOT upload to Strava at least not natively. Someone on Github has made a program called Hitrava for converting data dumped from the watch to a TCX file that can be uploaded to Strava. While that is almost certainly a PITA anybody who knows me knows hacking and Linux, and stuff like that are my bag baby (said in Austin Powers voice).

Fitness trackers and awesome and useful and so many things to so many people and we all use them in different ways.

Apple for the cell phone........Garmin for accuracy, dependability, the great BaseCamp software, etc.

NorthCascades

M0n1KCR wrote: »

Hagensieker wrote: »

My final conclusion is that my favorite fitness watch is the Apple Watch. The major downside to it is the cost and the fear of whacking it against something. Too expensive and too nice to dent.

The Apple watch is really sturdy. I have a series 4; a car hit me while I was cycling - I went flying and landed on my apple watch (fortunately, I just got a few bruises). The point is, the edge of the apple watch got some scratches from the asphalt, nothing more. It kept working perfectly, and wanting to call the emergency service while I screamed at the driver for his recklessness. The scratches are not nice, of course, but I don't thing any other watch would have survived.

My Fenix 3 survived a very similar crash except it hit the hood of the car that got me. Bike did not survive. I spent the night in the ICU.