Best Fitness Trackers/Smart Watches?

kidstechno3

Limp Gawd
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Jun 29, 2016
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Wondering what people currently use or have had success with. Currently own an iPhone 8 Plus and was looking for maybe some cheaper alternatives to the Apple Watch.

Been looking at the newly released Xioami Mi Band 4 and looks pretty beastly for < 50$. I don't need anything super crazy with GPS and all that. Just something for workout/heart rate and maybe some notifications.

Seems like once you get past the $150 mark might as well just buy a refurb Apple Watch 3 though.
 
Wondering what people currently use or have had success with. Currently own an iPhone 8 Plus and was looking for maybe some cheaper alternatives to the Apple Watch.

Been looking at the newly released Xioami Mi Band 4 and looks pretty beastly for < 50$. I don't need anything super crazy with GPS and all that. Just something for workout/heart rate and maybe some notifications.

Seems like once you get past the $150 mark might as well just buy a refurb Apple Watch 3 though.


Just be aware that most of these Wrist based optical heart rate monitors have questionable readings when actually exercising.
 
I'm simply using the FitBit Charge HR. This is my second one. The first quit charging properly and was replaced under warranty. This is almost 2 years old now. It does what I want it for.
 
I used the Apple Watch, prior to it was was Microsoft Fitband which was amazing … when it worked lol.

The Apple Watch is very accurate, it was close to the readings I used to get with a chest strap, I'd say probably within 5% of actual heart rate.
 
Just be aware that most of these Wrist based optical heart rate monitors have questionable readings when actually exercising.

They're accurate enough for people to get a good baseline and use them to compare their heart rate with previous data given they're using the same HR tracker whether it's completely accurate or not. If they're off by 5-10%, it's still usable data.

I've been using my Fitbit Versa for over a year now and it has been fine other than recently battery life has halved because it seems like the gyro sensor or something doesn't shut the display off when I move my wrist away like it should half the time. So it should last 4 days like it used to, but now is only lasting 2 days or so.
 
They're accurate enough for people to get a good baseline and use them to compare their heart rate with previous data given they're using the same HR tracker whether it's completely accurate or not. If they're off by 5-10%, it's still usable data.

Not really. It can be close under ideal circumstances: Warm Day, 10 minutes of warm up, steady state exercise. Then they lock in, and are so accurate as to be the same (+/- 5bpm).

The problem is under less ideal conditions, I have seen mine read 50 bpm high and 50 bpm low. It isn't consistently wrong its randomly wrong. The lose the lock and just report completely erroneous numbers.

The more vigorous and variable the exercise, the more likely to flake. They are notoriously bad (IE useless) when running HIIT style intervals. IOW when you need it most, it flakes most. I bought a Chest Strap for to get accurate results when I need them.

And this was a Garmin FR225 which was one of the more accurate optical HR units at the time it came out:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/08/garmin-forerunner-225-depth-review.html

BTW DC Rainmaker is great resource for insanely detailed Fitness watch reviews.

Edit: Illustrating a couple of VERY common issues.

Sprint intervals always just completely lose it. Failing to show recovery HR, reading too high, reading too low. Every single time I tried it for this it was utterly useless during intervals. Getting both highs and lows wrong but not in any consistent manner. The steady state leading to intervals was correct (wearing a second chest strap HRM this day):
Intervals.PNG

Often, on steady state runs, the first 3-9 minutes is just way off (obvious in the plot where it corrects). More likely on cooler days. Though once it locks in on steady state it is usually OK from then on:
SteadyState.PNG
 
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Not really. It can be close under ideal circumstances: Warm Day, 10 minutes of warm up, steady state exercise. But under less ideal conditions, I have seen mine read 50 bpm high and 50 bpm low. It isn't consistently wrong its randomly wrong.

The more vigorous and variable the exercise, the more likely to flake. They are notoriously bad (IE useless) when running HIIT style intervals. IOW when you need it most, it flakes most. I bought a Chest Strap for to get accurate results when I need them.

And this was a Garmin FR225 which was one of the more accurate optical HR units at the time it came out:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/08/garmin-forerunner-225-depth-review.html

BTW DC Rainmaker is great resource for insanely detailed Fitness watch reviews.

Yeah, I guess in that case, it's not usable. My Versa hasn't had a prob recording a consistent HR for me during the countless Insanity classes I've done since I've had it or while running and doing my own HIIT workouts at least.
 
I have had nothing but issues with fitbits. If you want to keep the familiar eco system just buy a used apple watch. Any suggestions I have are out of your league. Generally you get what you pay for.
 
Yeah, I guess in that case, it's not usable. My Versa hasn't had a prob recording a consistent HR for me during the countless Insanity classes I've done since I've had it or while running and doing my own HIIT workouts at least.

Have you compared it directly with a second chest strap HRM at the same time? I have multiple times. It just can't handle HIIT intervals and often has trouble for the first 3-9 minutes of even steady state.

I have an old Polar type chest strap, that doesn't record, but I could see instantaneous comparisons. Also my old chest HRM would flash a heartbeat symbol on every beat of the heart so you can see that it tracks each beat individually and perfectly.

Giving that kind of accuracy feedback is something the optical wrist units fail to do, because they are basically estimating based on snapshots of optically measured blood flow and it's far from clear cut. If it provided that kind of visual feedback you could verify how far off they are without a second unit.

Eventually I purchased a chest strap to go with my Garmin, to get trustworthy readings when I want them. I even verified that unit against my old chestrap unit wearing two chest straps. :D The chest strap for the Garmin also provides accurate results.


From DC Rainmaker review of Fitbit Versa:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2018/05/fitbit-versa-review.html
(Ticker-X is chest HRM, Suunto and Versa are optical)
image-48.png

You can see the TICKR-X is the most logical of the bunch, roughly floating steadily in the middle. There was virtually no point on this ride where my HR should be above about 160bpm (as the TICKR-X confirms). Whereas the Suunto 3 Fitness was lost in space, and the Fitbit was lost underground.

I could analyze the above, but there’s really no point whatsoever. It’s a complete cluster with both the Fitbit and the Suunto being totally wrong the vast majority of the time (like 80-90% of the time). And not a little wrong, a lot wrong



The problem with Optical HRM is they can just be completely wrong at random times and you really have no indication from the units that they are suffering any loss in accuracy, since their process is based on estimation in the first place.
 
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I've been using a Charge 2 for the past 2 years. It does well enough. I do have some accuracy problems but I'm just a regular home user and not really pushing it to its limit at all like these guys doing HIIT workout are. For me, it's just a little bit of extra info and some extra data points. I'm not putting a huge amount of stock in it, but it can at least tell me what my mile times are (reasonably accurately).
 
I also have a charge 2, and I'd say it's very good for its level. Lower to mid-tier stuff isn't designed to handle serious workouts but it seems fine for minor workouts and leisurely bike rides and whatnot. I do like the sleep tracking- also probably not the most accurate, but it's helped me come up with a few things to make my sleep hours more useful.
 
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