Bluetooth activity tracker/ smart watch?

[impulse]

Okay, I'm going to fess up.  In a moment of weakness, I popped on Lazada for 2 smartwatches after reading a few reviews online.  I want to try a couple of price points to see if they'll work at all, and whether a few thousand baht difference in price makes any difference in results.  All I was interested in is the health tracking functions, not so much communication, media, etc.

 

I bought a Jawbone UP3 for 5990 baht.  Got screwed because TIT, but with full knowledge that they go on Amazon for $60 plus shipping & duties which brings them up to $110-130.  But I want it quick, so Lazada it was.

 

Then I looked at some cheaper models, all the way down to 500 baht and wondered if maybe the hype is the only difference and the cheap models may work as well or better.  So I ordered a low/medium end Xiaomi for 1250 baht to compare.  Then I thought about popping for an even cheaper model to test, but it will take weeks to run these guys through some paces anyway, so I figured I'd come to the TVF for others' input.

 

Which brings me to the question and I hope the start of a discussion:  Does anyone have experience with other brands/models of smartwatches with specific regards to activity, heart rate and sleep tracking?  What about the matching apps for IOS, Android and desktop?  Does the app that's specific to your model work okay, or is there a more generic app that works better for you?  Are you pleased with the performance of your unit, and would you do anything different next time?  I'd be especially interested in hearing about the even higher end models that I looked at, but opted against.

 

If the discussion stays civil, I'll post back results after my 8 year old neighbor kid shows me how to use them.  May be a while...

 

Edited October 8, 2016 by impulse