Fitbit vs Garmin

Functionality goes to Garmin hands down, it's like asking if a Toyota is a better car than a wheelbarrow.

Durability is a Garmin thing, too. Fitbits break after a year, there are a billion threads about it. I just stopped using a Garmin bike computer I bought ten years ago.

Fitbit wins for social experience through their site.

Definitely Garmin.

I have a super cheap garmin (vivofit 3) and I absolutely love that it's waterproof - that was the biggest selling point for me. It also syncs perfectly with mfp. I haven't owned a Fitbit, so I can't compare, but I think if I ever get a new device it will still be garmin.

ise311 wrote: »

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. Seems like Garmins has many fans lol

Yeah, nothing else really has made much of an effort to add sport-specific metrics to help you improve. Fitbit (and honestly, pretty much everyone else) just tries to get calorie burn right for different sports profiles, and doesn't add much in way of metrics.

Even simple things like cadence for running isn't all that common on a lot of devices (apple is only just now adding it in watchos5, for example).

fuzzylop72 wrote: »

ise311 wrote: »

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. Seems like Garmins has many fans lol

Yeah, nothing else really has made much of an effort to add sport-specific metrics to help you improve. Fitbit (and honestly, pretty much everyone else) just tries to get calorie burn right for different sports profiles, and doesn't add much in way of metrics.

Even simple things like cadence for running isn't all that common on a lot of devices (apple is only just now adding it in watchos5, for example).

Yep. Nothing else in this segment can talk to a power meter, for example.

I had a terrible experience with trying to establish a fitbit watch (gift) and account. Returned watch. Cancelled every trace of a connection with Fitbit.

Later, gratefied with that when I realised how many 9 year olds in a class I occasionally visit had a Fitbit watch, especially the girls.

Cobbled together voucher cards from reward points hither and thither and so funded a Garmin Fenix 5x.

The online comparisons exhausted my attention span and often were of dubious independence.
My final choice was more informed by reccomendations on Strava by runners and orienteers who are similar to me.

The Fenix 5X was pre-loaded with my country's local topo maps.
It suits me for linking runs with my Strava account (which is where I engage in minuscule social interaction); orienteering; and basic navigation off tar toads on my motorbike (thus avoiding a specialist m/c gps navigation unit - I am yet to try to integrate it with Garmin's BaseCamp).

This Garmin watch has superior GPS precision for my uses.

Best, though, are the unexpected benefits of prompts to move; tracking sleep patterns*; feedback on steps per day etc.
I was not looking for all of that palaver and obviously it will not suit all.
The complete range of measures not just steps per day showed me how sedentary I am day to day between exercise / training sessions.
It is helping make changes in my habits that have been entrenched for years.

(*It has helped resolve a bedroom controversy as to whether I have sleep disturbed by CSGM alarm rage. More generally, I am reliably informed that wives can spend years trying to convince their partner that they have sleep apnoea. A watch that tracks sleep levels or a phone App that listens during the night might help. Since sleep is some important to general health and probably cognitive functioning, not just recovery from training, give more weight in your assesment of watch / trackers to sleep than you might have thought.)

Obviously a watch with fewer gizmos could give something similar.

If you are inclined to use the features, see if you can scrounge ways to buy a watch / tracker with more features than you think you want. It is easier to ignore or switch them off than outgrow a kiddies playground accessory.