best sports watch?

[1FinickyOne]

Any recommendations for a good step counting sports watch?

 

Waterproof would be good too... 

 

Some of these say they do ekg's too? BP measurements - can they possibly be accurate?

 

Thanks, 

[Maestro]

I am moving this topic from "Health and Medicine" to "Sports, Hobbies & Activities"

[kokesaat]

I'm the biased owner of the new Samsung Watch3.  I had the Samsung Gears S3 for 4 years and got more than my money's worth out of it.  Although not previously into any form of fitness, the S3 let me know just how much I was sitting on my behind.  I worked my way up to 10,000 steps/day over the course of a few months, adding in 10 flights of stairs per day.  When I sat for more than an hour or so during the day, the watch would give me a friendly reminder to stretch or do some exercise.  I'd use that as an excuse to walk 1000 steps around the yard.  It summarizes your day's activites and gives you a weekly report as well.  I wore it on my upper arm when I was sleeping to track the quality of my sleep.  It became my personal fitness trainer.....without ever going to a gym.

On a few occasions when I'd have a question, I'd go to the Samsung chat line and they'd answer my question within minutes.

When the new Watch3 came out last month, I wanted to buy it, but wasn't prepared to cash out $400 for it.  Then I found that Samsung was offering $200 turn in for the old watch, along with a $35 military (retiree) discount and free shipping.  So, in the end, I got the new Watch3 for much less than the 4 year old Gear S3.  It's lighter than the older model, waterproof, and has built in blood oxygen and ecg sensors.  The sleep monitoring is much more precise as well.  The watch has built in GPS as well.

I have a Samsung phone as well.....it pairs well with the watch.  I'd guess an Apple Watch would be better to pair with an iphone.  

To the best of my knowledge none of the sports watches track blood pressure.  

If you've never had a sports watch and especially if you consider yourself a couch potato and want to track your health, a sports watch is a good investment.

[4reaL]

You'll want to mention your phone brand also as often the watch is part of the companies ecosystem.

 

 

[1FinickyOne]

6 hours ago, 4reaL said:

You'll want to mention your phone brand also as often the watch is part of the companies ecosystem.

 

 

Samsung 

[LawrenceN]

14 hours ago, kokesaat said:

I'm the biased owner of the new Samsung Watch3.  I had the Samsung Gears S3 for 4 years and got more than my money's worth out of it.  Although not previously into any form of fitness, the S3 let me know just how much I was sitting on my behind.  I worked my way up to 10,000 steps/day over the course of a few months, adding in 10 flights of stairs per day.  When I sat for more than an hour or so during the day, the watch would give me a friendly reminder to stretch or do some exercise.  I'd use that as an excuse to walk 1000 steps around the yard.  It summarizes your day's activites and gives you a weekly report as well.  I wore it on my upper arm when I was sleeping to track the quality of my sleep.  It became my personal fitness trainer.....without ever going to a gym.

On a few occasions when I'd have a question, I'd go to the Samsung chat line and they'd answer my question within minutes.

When the new Watch3 came out last month, I wanted to buy it, but wasn't prepared to cash out $400 for it.  Then I found that Samsung was offering $200 turn in for the old watch, along with a $35 military (retiree) discount and free shipping.  So, in the end, I got the new Watch3 for much less than the 4 year old Gear S3.  It's lighter than the older model, waterproof, and has built in blood oxygen and ecg sensors.  The sleep monitoring is much more precise as well.  The watch has built in GPS as well.

I have a Samsung phone as well.....it pairs well with the watch.  I'd guess an Apple Watch would be better to pair with an iphone.  

To the best of my knowledge none of the sports watches track blood pressure.  

If you've never had a sports watch and especially if you consider yourself a couch potato and want to track your health, a sports watch is a good investment.

I still use my Samsung Gear S3. kokesaat is spot on, but I would like to mention a few more features that I use. 

 

kokesaat wasn't really clear to say that the watch integrates with your Android phone through Bluetooth. I take phone calls, LINE messages, email notifications, FB Messenger messages, and a couple more I've forgotten. I use it as an alarm clock and timer, mostly in the kitchen. 

 

Regarding fitness, I got tired of the pokes for sitting still for an hour, so I turned that off. I'm a cyclist. You can use the GPS to map your rides (runs, walks, pub crawls...) and simultaneously measure speed, distance, heart rate. You can graph heart rate vs. altitude vs. speed, any two of those at a time. It summarizes how much of your ride was at max heart rate, anaerobic, aerobic, etc. When you finish your workout, it sends the data to your watch so you can view it on your phone's screen rather than the little watch screen. You can upload the map to Strava, or export it as a file readable by Google Maps. You can configure which info you see during your workout on your watch, three screens worth. For example, on my first screen, I see time of day, current speed, and distance. It saves your workout history, so you can see exactly what you did last week or last month. 

 

I installed a golf app which gives distance and keeps score, counting putts as well. Plus, it doesn't even know if you lie! That's a feature, not a bug. 

 

I have had mine for almost 3-1/2 years. The battery lasted just over three years, and cost 2600 baht to replace. 

[davemos]

Garmin is the best gps etc any phone bluetooth 

[LawrenceN]

Just one more thing to add. Compare with Garmin sports watches. They do one thing. Biking, running, golf, a separate device for each. My multi-purpose Samsung watch does all that and does it well. 

[ronaldo0]

Suunto spartan trainer hr is pretty good watch for about £220 . Has tracking , route planning , heart rate , workout programmes , connects to pc and phone to show details of workout , something like 50 sports modes for all types of activities. Shows up messages and calls also on screen but can’t be used to talk . Think I got mine from lazada and not had any problems with it over last two years .

[earlinclaifornia]

Xiaomi Haylou LS02 SmartWatch 699 baht Lazarda

[Presnock]

for the cheapest with the most fitness features including gps, step counting, sleep analysis, heartbeat,, etc you can get the AMAZFIT for less than 1500 baht and it has the same guarantee as the more expensive watches, i.e. Garmin.  I have a Garmin, wife has the 4000 baht one from xaomi looks a lot like the amazfit but does have a few more features.  You cannot beat the Amazfit for features including the gps for less than $50 USD.  There are step counters without the GPS feature for less than 500 baht and are just as accurate.  The xaomi that does the blood pressure admits that it is not "hospital grade" and should not be used to determine health status.  The watches are available at B2S stores (all brands) and at the Xaomi stores now showing up in malls and other locations.   I agree with many others, especially if you exercise alone, having a watch with many features that you can download onto a computer or phone and compare with other exercise folks can keep one interested.  Really neat charts with the Garmin but latest models with all the features go for more than 35,000 baht.  Go the Xaomi cheaper ones with all the features and has the same 1 year guarantee...my Garmin has been used for 5 years now...at one time doing 25000 steps per day...now down to 15-20K per day but still functioning...without ticking. GPS still working but heart monitor when used I have to wear a band around my chest.  Xaomi doesn't need that accessory as it is built in.  Good Luck

[HarrySeaman]

I have an older Xiaomi Amazfit Bip.  It does everything I could ask for.  One extremely good feature is that at first I could go a full month before having to recharge the watch.  Two years later is is down to 2.5 weeks.  Friends with watches that cost many times what mine cost have to recharge them daily.  No thank you very much!

 

My Amazfit Bip is supposed to be waterproof to something like 3 ATM (30 meters water depth).  I no longer scuba dive but the watch has been fine in shallow water or showers.  If you want a dive watch then buy a dive watch.

 

Check Lazada for Amazfit Bit.  The watch I have has been replaced by the newer Amazfit Bip Lite, which sells for around 1200-1500 Bt.  The upgrade is the Amazfit Bip S, which is between 2000 and 2500 Bt. 

 

Both watches are supposed to be waterproof to 5 atm (150 m), which I think is advertising bull sh!t.  Personally I wouldn't trust either of these to more than about 12-15 ft, or perhaps 5 m, deep in a swimming pool.

 

Naturally you can spend a lot more for watches by big name companies like Fitbit and Garmin but personally I don't think they are worth the extra cost.  If my Amazfit Bip dies I'll be buying another one.

Edited October 26, 2020 by HarrySeaman

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, Presnock said:

at one time doing 25000 steps per day...now down to 15-20K per day

Can i buy some of those steps from you on a daily basis?

[kokesaat]

A small bonus.....my smartwatch and my phone are bluetooth paired.  When I walk away from my phone, as I have done a few times in a restaurant, my watch vibrates when it loses pairing.....usually within 20 feet or so.  

 

Another bonus....the watch has a built in voice recorder.  When I wake up in the middle of the night or while in the middle of a walk and want to take a quick note of something, I can do that easily and the app converts my speech to text.  

 

While I never considered buying a sports watch.....my daughter gifted me my Gear S3......it made me realize just how much I was sitting on my behind over the course of a day.  It really doesn't take much to put in 10,000 steps a day, but it doesn't take much either to find you've only put in 2 or 3 thousand steps over the course of 24 hours.  I started out with lower daily goals and worked my way up to 10,000 pretty quickly.   Realistically you could do the same thing with a cheapo pedometer, but I'm a gadget guy who likes the high-tech features.  When I chill out in the evening for my dose of netflix, I recharge my watch and it's ready to monitor my night's sleep.

I'm 70. 

 

 

 

[LawrenceN]

9 hours ago, kokesaat said:

A small bonus.....my smartwatch and my phone are bluetooth paired.  When I walk away from my phone, as I have done a few times in a restaurant, my watch vibrates when it loses pairing.....usually within 20 feet or so.  

Yeah, I turned that off, too. My lovely wife handles all the nagging that I require.