Garmin Instinct 2 Solar gives me 31 days on a full charge if it doesn’t get any sunlight. It is smart enough to vibrate me awake without waking my partner and receive notifications, no matter what Android/iOS phone I use.
At the launch a lot of the features like sleep tracking were paywalled behind Fitbit, and you had to use Fitbit instead of Google Fit which I had been using.
After a week of using the Fitbit app I just found it annoying and pushed the social media aspect far too much for my liking. It felt more like a Fitbit than an Android Watch and that’s not what I was looking for.
Prior to trying the Pixel I had an LG Watch Sport that I really enjoyed.
The Garmin while it lacks the ability to do things like control smart lights or integrate heavily into phone controls like the Pixel Watch did, its battery life is amazing, the sensors are great, it gets the alerts I need from the phone, and I’ve actually become very very fond of the gimmicky flashlight that’s built in.
I can easily export health and data to CSVs, and move it if I want to.
The full offline map capabilities are also big if I go backpacking.
There is a Home Assistant app for Garmin watches that is pretty usable. The flashlight is surpassingly, hilariously, one of my favorite features though.
Now your comment has piqued my curiosity…I never considered a bigger smartwatch, and have kept myselft mostly to the Xiaomi band, which does more or less what I need it to…But I’m now curious how well does a Garmin cover the main points for me:
-Read messages from SMS, Whatsapp, Telegram, etc (can I also reply to them, maybe voice-type or similar?)
-Obviously tracking fitness, routes, heart rate and sleep etc it is probably way bounds out of the miband’s league.
-Can it pair to a headphone and use it to play music during a fitness run? Does it have esim support or similar to use data? (these are a clear no-no on the miband, but then again, heh…about 25 bucks it costed me!).
Hmmm the music storage… How does it work? Can you just send an mp3? Or does it need to be from a specific service? Bummer about the esim, I was wanting to rid of the phone while I’m out running.
Awesome… Thanks! On second thought i think I’ll hold out about the esim part. I can control the privacy on my phone decently enough but that would fly out of the window if the smart watch can call home on its own.
Another vote for Garmin, wearing a Descent mk2i as my daily and dive computer. Two weeks on a charge, all the tracking I could ask for. It’s big, but so am I so it doesn’t look ridiculous.
A Pixel, minor gripes with it. I’m considering a Samsung for my next one though, last non-pixel or Nexus phone I’ve used was a Samsung Note 2 over a decade ago.
Garmin watches are semi-smart and have great sensors. My Epix 2 Sapphire runs for 11 days on a charge as well.
Tried a Pixel, returned it for refund. Don’t use iPhone or Samsung phone so their bespoke software wouldn’t work for me.
Garmin Instinct 2 Solar gives me 31 days on a full charge if it doesn’t get any sunlight. It is smart enough to vibrate me awake without waking my partner and receive notifications, no matter what Android/iOS phone I use.
What were your main gripes with the Pixel watch?
At the launch a lot of the features like sleep tracking were paywalled behind Fitbit, and you had to use Fitbit instead of Google Fit which I had been using.
After a week of using the Fitbit app I just found it annoying and pushed the social media aspect far too much for my liking. It felt more like a Fitbit than an Android Watch and that’s not what I was looking for.
Prior to trying the Pixel I had an LG Watch Sport that I really enjoyed.
The Garmin while it lacks the ability to do things like control smart lights or integrate heavily into phone controls like the Pixel Watch did, its battery life is amazing, the sensors are great, it gets the alerts I need from the phone, and I’ve actually become very very fond of the gimmicky flashlight that’s built in.
I can easily export health and data to CSVs, and move it if I want to.
The full offline map capabilities are also big if I go backpacking.
There is a Home Assistant app for Garmin watches that is pretty usable. The flashlight is surpassingly, hilariously, one of my favorite features though.
Now your comment has piqued my curiosity…I never considered a bigger smartwatch, and have kept myselft mostly to the Xiaomi band, which does more or less what I need it to…But I’m now curious how well does a Garmin cover the main points for me: -Read messages from SMS, Whatsapp, Telegram, etc (can I also reply to them, maybe voice-type or similar?) -Obviously tracking fitness, routes, heart rate and sleep etc it is probably way bounds out of the miband’s league. -Can it pair to a headphone and use it to play music during a fitness run? Does it have esim support or similar to use data? (these are a clear no-no on the miband, but then again, heh…about 25 bucks it costed me!).
Hmmm the music storage… How does it work? Can you just send an mp3? Or does it need to be from a specific service? Bummer about the esim, I was wanting to rid of the phone while I’m out running.
So it seems it is specifically those services I found more info here
Awesome… Thanks! On second thought i think I’ll hold out about the esim part. I can control the privacy on my phone decently enough but that would fly out of the window if the smart watch can call home on its own.
I have mine working with Navidrone without any issues.
I’ve never heard of that before. It looks awesome and I’m going to look into it!
Another vote for Garmin, wearing a Descent mk2i as my daily and dive computer. Two weeks on a charge, all the tracking I could ask for. It’s big, but so am I so it doesn’t look ridiculous.
What phone do you use, if I may ask?
A Pixel, minor gripes with it. I’m considering a Samsung for my next one though, last non-pixel or Nexus phone I’ve used was a Samsung Note 2 over a decade ago.
Oh dang.