Sports/Smart watch
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@Elise4270 - The Forerunner 935 has pretty much all the features of the Fenix, but costs less. Might want to check it out.0
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PastorVincent wrote: »@Elise4270 - The Forerunner 935 has pretty much all the features of the Fenix, but costs less. Might want to check it out.
I ordered the Fenix. It should be here today
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PastorVincent wrote: »@Elise4270 - The Forerunner 935 has pretty much all the features of the Fenix, but costs less. Might want to check it out.
I ordered the Fenix. It should be here today
Bah, I forgot how much slower this thread is. I saw posts at the end and figure they were today's...
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For those that care, I made a thing comparing Apple Watch to Garmin Forerunner 935:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHSjhg-v3S0 2 -
I have a TomTom Cardio Spark and I am very happy with it. It records my steps, sleep hours, and my activities-- mostly gym (strength/cardio), treadmill, and outdoor running. What I like best about it is (1) I can download music and go wireless/phoneless while working out and (2) I can set intervals for running. I haven't really tested on distance running as of yet, but hope to do so this year.1
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I recently got a Garmin Fenix 5S. Loving it so far. Was kinda amazed it wasn't touch screen, as my older Garmin (610) was. I really wanted a watch I could swim with. I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface of what I can do with this thing.0
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My Apple Watch was a touch screen, and I must say. I am glad my Garmin 935 is not. Water would trigger the Apple Watch screen, and if my hands got really sweaty, I could not use the touchscreen at all. Having the physical buttons of the Garmin really is a big help in that respect.0
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@Elise4270 I am late to respond...as you already bought a Fenix, but yes, I have gotten to swim with it. You set the lane length and then swim. It works pretty darn well.1
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JUST FYI: Used my Garmin 935 on the big fancy dreadmill at the gym and was pretty darn good. Watch measured 7.83 miles and dreadmill reported 8.0 miles. I did the "calibrate" feature on the watch so we will see what it says next time I run on the dreadmill. Plan to try and get the exact same machine if possible.0
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Anyone have experience with Suunto watches? I read one review (multi-day mountain climbers) who compared it to Garmin 935 and concluded there wasn't much difference, both had little pros and cons. But the price is better on the Suunto They do seem similar in features.
I'm specifically looking at the Spartan (Sport or Ultra), and this would be my first sports watch. I use Runmeter on a super-old iphone now, so really it will be a giant step up regardless of what I get. I'm a beginner marathoner who bikes and swims, looking to slowly expand to longer distances over the next few years.
Also HR monitors: are the wrist monitors accurate enough to make it an important purchase factor?0 -
polskagirl01 wrote: »Anyone have experience with Suunto watches? I read one review (multi-day mountain climbers) who compared it to Garmin 935 and concluded there wasn't much difference, both had little pros and cons. But the price is better on the Suunto They do seem similar in features.
I'm specifically looking at the Spartan (Sport or Ultra), and this would be my first sports watch. I use Runmeter on a super-old iphone now, so really it will be a giant step up regardless of what I get. I'm a beginner marathoner who bikes and swims, looking to slowly expand to longer distances over the next few years.
Also HR monitors: are the wrist monitors accurate enough to make it an important purchase factor?
I do not know about the Suunto watches, but I can tell you that in general, the wrist HR monitors are accurate. They are using the same optical technology that many hospitals use. There have been tests of the major brands by third parties and they show that they wrist ones are within 3% of the gold standard (EKG).
Obviously, each person's experience will vary some depending on many factors, including how tight they wear the watch (tighter is more accurate).
I do not know about Suunto, but my 935 is great. So if the Suunto is really essentially the same, it should be great.
I just have never heard of them before, so I would be a bit leery if it was me. With Garmin, I know they have a long history of putting out good products, and I have owned several different Garmin devices, so I was comfortable with spending a bit more to get the 935. 2 -
polskagirl01 wrote: »Anyone have experience with Suunto watches? I read one review (multi-day mountain climbers) who compared it to Garmin 935 and concluded there wasn't much difference, both had little pros and cons. But the price is better on the Suunto They do seem similar in features.
I'm specifically looking at the Spartan (Sport or Ultra), and this would be my first sports watch. I use Runmeter on a super-old iphone now, so really it will be a giant step up regardless of what I get. I'm a beginner marathoner who bikes and swims, looking to slowly expand to longer distances over the next few years.
Also HR monitors: are the wrist monitors accurate enough to make it an important purchase factor?
This is the site you want to go to if you want to read a thorough review of basically any activity tracker https://www.dcrainmaker.com/
Look under Product Reviews at the top to see his reviews of the Suunto watches1 -
thebiggreenmachine wrote: »polskagirl01 wrote: »Anyone have experience with Suunto watches? I read one review (multi-day mountain climbers) who compared it to Garmin 935 and concluded there wasn't much difference, both had little pros and cons. But the price is better on the Suunto They do seem similar in features.
I'm specifically looking at the Spartan (Sport or Ultra), and this would be my first sports watch. I use Runmeter on a super-old iphone now, so really it will be a giant step up regardless of what I get. I'm a beginner marathoner who bikes and swims, looking to slowly expand to longer distances over the next few years.
Also HR monitors: are the wrist monitors accurate enough to make it an important purchase factor?
This is the site you want to go to if you want to read a thorough review of basically any activity tracker https://www.dcrainmaker.com/
Look under Product Reviews at the top to see his reviews of the Suunto watches
Great link - thank you!
@PastorVincent I suspect Suunto may be more popular in Europe? It's not as popular as Garmin, though, that's for sure! The site linked to above compared the watch I'm looking at as being more similar to the Vivoactive 3, so maybe the prices aren't as far off as I thought. Will check into the features on that watch, too.0 -
polskagirl01 wrote: »@PastorVincent I suspect Suunto may be more popular in Europe? It's not as popular as Garmin, though, that's for sure! The site linked to above compared the watch I'm looking at as being more similar to the Vivoactive 3, so maybe the prices aren't as far off as I thought. Will check into the features on that watch, too.
Yeah, skimmed the reviews and did not see a big price disparity, but I could have missed something in my quick glance.
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PastorVincent wrote: »polskagirl01 wrote: »@PastorVincent I suspect Suunto may be more popular in Europe? It's not as popular as Garmin, though, that's for sure! The site linked to above compared the watch I'm looking at as being more similar to the Vivoactive 3, so maybe the prices aren't as far off as I thought. Will check into the features on that watch, too.
Yeah, skimmed the reviews and did not see a big price disparity, but I could have missed something in my quick glance.
It's probably not fair for me to consider that I'm constantly seeing everyone complain about Garmin uploading/syncing issues, either. The other companies surely have the same problems, but they aren't as popular so I don't see it.0 -
polskagirl01 wrote: »PastorVincent wrote: »polskagirl01 wrote: »@PastorVincent I suspect Suunto may be more popular in Europe? It's not as popular as Garmin, though, that's for sure! The site linked to above compared the watch I'm looking at as being more similar to the Vivoactive 3, so maybe the prices aren't as far off as I thought. Will check into the features on that watch, too.
Yeah, skimmed the reviews and did not see a big price disparity, but I could have missed something in my quick glance.
It's probably not fair for me to consider that I'm constantly seeing everyone complain about Garmin uploading/syncing issues, either. The other companies surely have the same problems, but they aren't as popular so I don't see it.
Yesterday a Garmin sever was down for a few hours it seems. I actually did not have a problem yesterday, but yeah that kind of thing can happen to any company and does. The nice thing with the Garmins (that my Apple Watch did not do) is that the watch remembers the run, so you can always just resync later when server back up and you lose nothing. I assume at least some other brands also do this but do not know.
With my Apple Watch, if I did not get a good sync to RunKeeper right after the run, I lost everything. I had many emails back and forth with RunKeeper for about a year on this. They kept admitting they had problems but always said it would be fixed in the next patch. That was a big part of why I made my move to the Garmin.
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PastorVincent wrote: »polskagirl01 wrote: »PastorVincent wrote: »polskagirl01 wrote: »@PastorVincent I suspect Suunto may be more popular in Europe? It's not as popular as Garmin, though, that's for sure! The site linked to above compared the watch I'm looking at as being more similar to the Vivoactive 3, so maybe the prices aren't as far off as I thought. Will check into the features on that watch, too.
Yeah, skimmed the reviews and did not see a big price disparity, but I could have missed something in my quick glance.
It's probably not fair for me to consider that I'm constantly seeing everyone complain about Garmin uploading/syncing issues, either. The other companies surely have the same problems, but they aren't as popular so I don't see it.
Yesterday a Garmin sever was down for a few hours it seems. I actually did not have a problem yesterday, but yeah that kind of thing can happen to any company and does. The nice thing with the Garmins (that my Apple Watch did not do) is that the watch remembers the run, so you can always just resync later when server back up and you lose nothing. I assume at least some other brands also do this but do not know.
With my Apple Watch, if I did not get a good sync to RunKeeper right after the run, I lost everything. I had many emails back and forth with RunKeeper for about a year on this. They kept admitting they had problems but always said it would be fixed in the next patch. That was a big part of why I made my move to the Garmin.
Wow, that would be annoying! Sounds like a good switch.0 -
polskagirl01 wrote: »Wow, that would be annoying! Sounds like a good switch.
Sadly, they emailed me just recently and asked me "would you like to be on the beta team for the new version" to which I had to tell them, umm no, I have moved on. Felt a little like that X that found you on Facebook. 2 -
So, I broke down and upgraded from my Garmin Vivosmart HR+ to the new Garmin FR645 Music... it has most of the features of the 935 + music. I have done a couple of runs downtown with it and the GPS doesn't seem to be as accurate as the Vivosmart... which seems really odd to me. Does it get better over time? Like today, I had a 5 mile run and the 645 showed 5.0, but was most likely closer to 4.90. When I compare the run maps, the route isn't as smooth as the Vivosmart.
In other news, I received my FR645 on Monday this week and the next day went to a vendor tech show and ended up winning the grand prize... Apple Watch 3 GPS. Since I'm an Android user, this looks like a good opportunity to help me pay for the new Garmin... 1 -
So, I broke down and upgraded from my Garmin Vivosmart HR+ to the new Garmin FR645 Music... it has most of the features of the 935 + music. I have done a couple of runs downtown with it and the GPS doesn't seem to be as accurate as the Vivosmart... which seems really odd to me. Does it get better over time? Like today, I had a 5 mile run and the 645 showed 5.0, but was most likely closer to 4.90. When I compare the run maps, the route isn't as smooth as the Vivosmart.
In other news, I received my FR645 on Monday this week and the next day went to a vendor tech show and ended up winning the grand prize... Apple Watch 3 GPS. Since I'm an Android user, this looks like a good opportunity to help me pay for the new Garmin...
Ha! Good plan. The Apple Watch will get you a nice chunk of change new in box.
As for the GPS, did you wait for a solid lock before starting? The first few times in a new area the watches take a longer than seems reasonable when you are staring at it waiting for it to lock to lock.0 -
@PastorVincent -- Thanks, you bring up a good point. I think it was close to a block that I walked before starting, but I do recall there being some time with the other watch before it was as accurate. I will see how it does this weekend when I'm not running near a bunch of really tall buildings.0
