Smartwatch / fitness tracker question

denny_mac

Here's what I'm trying to accomplish:

Currently when I go for a run I carry my phone and use the Polar Beat app, paired with a Polar chest strap HR monitor. This gives me what I believe is a good estimate of my calories burned, distance run, and heart rate / effort and intensity of the workout. I also wear earbuds and listen to Spotify, using my phone to handle the Polar app and the Spotify app.

I'd like to leave my phone at home and still be able to keep track of my HR, distance run, and listen to music. Ideally I'd also like to be able to receive calls in case one of my kids needed to reach me in case of emergency. I know there are smartwatches that can do this, but I was told by a rep at Best Buy that my cell provider, Boost Mobile, does not support smart watches on its network. I don't know for sure if this is true, and Boost mobile is very difficult to contact for support with this question.

Are you aware of any watches / fitness trackers that will support downloading music content from Spotify, and allow you to listen to that while running, and will pair with a chest strap HR monitor (either my Polar, or some other proprietary HR strap, e.g. Garmin version), and also provide GPS service to keep track of distance and pace for the workout?

Also, if any of you also have Boost mobile as your cell provider and can verify whether or not they support smartwatches on their network I'd love to hear from someone who has experience with this situation.

Thank you!

NorthCascades

If you can live without it getting calls from your kids, you can also load it up with music before your run, like an old skool mp3 player, and not need cellular.

I don't know if carriers know or care what kind of thing you're connecting, or only that you want a data connection. If you can use a watch with Boost you'll almost certainly have to buy a second plan from them, so it's worth looking at what other carriers offer too if you go that route. It might be that it makes sense to keep your phone line the way it is but find a better data deal at T mobile or whatever.

yirara

Watches generally don't receive calls if no phone is nearby. how would they unless they have a slot for a sim card? You can get notifications if the phone is nearby, but that's it. You can download music to many of the popular watch brands though, and generally pair a chest strap. One thing to note is that distance might be different to the phone, usually shorter as the GPS chip in these small devices tends to be a bit less good than in phones. Thus in the end your pace might appear slower. I'm currently fighting with this with my super expensive Garmin watch. Thus I have a second-hand foot pod arriving soon, and I hope this will fix the problem for me. Oh yes, the market for foot pots is pretty much dead: cheaper ones either don't exist anymore or might not work with your watch when also a chest strap is connected, and then there's the totally overpriced stryd one. So... there's no easy answer to all of this.

Lietchi

yirara wrote: »

Watches generally don't receive calls if no phone is nearby. how would they unless they have a slot for a sim card? You can get notifications if the phone is nearby, but that's it. You can download music to many of the popular watch brands though, and generally pair a chest strap. One thing to note is that distance might be different to the phone, usually shorter as the GPS chip in these small devices tends to be a bit less good than in phones. Thus in the end your pace might appear slower. I'm currently fighting with this with my super expensive Garmin watch. Thus I have a second-hand foot pod arriving soon, and I hope this will fix the problem for me. Oh yes, the market for foot pots is pretty much dead: cheaper ones either don't exist anymore or might not work with your watch when also a chest strap is connected, and then there's the totally overpriced stryd one. So... there's no easy answer to all of this.

Could be longer too, I've actually had that issue a lot more than shorter! 😁 On straight paths, the GPS would show me zigzagging, especially in wooded areas.

As for the rest, I think there are quite a few models that play music, record distance and pace and allow you to pair with a chest strap.
My Garmin Vivoactive 4 has those possibilities: I've never used the music option, but I do always pair my watch with my (Polar) chest strap when I exercise (more reliable than the wrist HR measurement).

yirara

Lietchi wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

Watches generally don't receive calls if no phone is nearby. how would they unless they have a slot for a sim card? You can get notifications if the phone is nearby, but that's it. You can download music to many of the popular watch brands though, and generally pair a chest strap. One thing to note is that distance might be different to the phone, usually shorter as the GPS chip in these small devices tends to be a bit less good than in phones. Thus in the end your pace might appear slower. I'm currently fighting with this with my super expensive Garmin watch. Thus I have a second-hand foot pod arriving soon, and I hope this will fix the problem for me. Oh yes, the market for foot pots is pretty much dead: cheaper ones either don't exist anymore or might not work with your watch when also a chest strap is connected, and then there's the totally overpriced stryd one. So... there's no easy answer to all of this.

Could be longer too, I've actually had that issue a lot more than shorter! 😁 On straight paths, the GPS would show me zigzagging, especially in wooded areas.

As for the rest, I think there are quite a few models that play music, record distance and pace and allow you to pair with a chest strap.
My Garmin Vivoactive 4 has those possibilities: I've never used the music option, but I do always pair my watch with my (Polar) chest strap when I exercise (more reliable than the wrist HR measurement).

True. Being in Europe, most streets tend to be curly and with lots of curves. If you have many of those then there's a larger chance of curves being cut off. If you happen to have lots of long straight roads it might be the other way around. Added to that at least Garmin smoothes the data internally. When you download the .gpx file and upload it again the smoothing is removed (not the .tcx file as it's the smoothed file). But if the recording itself is rubbish you won't see a big change.

yirara

I think dc rainmaker has a database where you can compare those features. There's also the new Garmin Forerunner LTE which might be more of what TO wants. Though you'd probably still need to take the phone along. Or does the apple watch come with a simcard slot?

dolorsit

The apple watch and the 945 LTE both have a virtual eSIM rather than physical SIM cards I believe. The 945 LTE relies on Garmin's partnerships with cellular providers rather than you using your own provider with it, however it has limited general connectivity. People will be able to send messages to it, but not make phone calls.

Both of those options are pretty expensive though. I carry my phone in a thigh pocket built into the inner lining of my shorts and barely notice it. I use audible on my phone which my watch doesn't support, though it does does support spotify (garmin 945 without LTE).