Wearable fitness trackers

[winb83]

Been using Fitbit for a while now but I saw this new one at Best Buy called the Garmin Vivosmart. I bought it on a trial basis and I might be tossing the Fitbit in the bushes. The Garmin has some smart watch functionality on it like the ability to pause, play, change tracks, change volume on my Galaxy S5 and a visible clock with a lighted display. It also just feels better on the wrist and has a clasp that goes over the band to keep it from falling off. Lastly I found this website that lets the data from my Fitbit Aria scale sync up with the Garmin and also into Myfitnesspal.

 

[Yayo Toure]

how accurate is the garmin vivosmart?

 

[winb83]

how accurate is the garmin vivosmart?

I wouldn't call any of these things accurate. You're likely getting a general overview of how active you are but its step count is in line with the Fitbit Flex. It integrates into Apple's health app which Fitbit doesn't and it shows all notifications on your phone which the Fitbit Charge HR which is similarly priced doesn't show anything beyond phone calls.

 

[Apollo Creed]

them things aren't accurate at all, I just use my iPhone 6+ during cardio as an estimate, but even then I dont bank on the calories it says I burned.

 

[Yayo Toure]

I got the vivosmart for Christmas, nice so far. I assume all fitness trackers aren't accurate, so I guess as long as it's consistent and I can establish a baseline then I can work from there. The notifications work great, only problems I have are the app looks old compared to all the other apps, and I cant get this to sync with myfitnesspal.

I'm still considering the chargeHR, but fitbit fukked up by not having it out in time for christmas, plus it only does call notifications and it isn't very water resistant.

 

[winb83]

I got the vivosmart for Christmas, nice so far. I assume all fitness trackers aren't accurate, so I guess as long as it's consistent and I can establish a baseline then I can work from there. The notifications work great, only problems I have are the app looks old compared to all the other apps, and I cant get this to sync with myfitnesspal.

I'm still considering the chargeHR, but fitbit fukked up by not having it out in time for christmas, plus it only does call notifications and it isn't very water resistant.

It does sync to Myfitnesspal. I forgot how I did it though. I also got it to tie into my Fitbit Aria scale.

I just bought a Fitbit Surge. I wanna try it out. They're selling for over retail on eBay so if I don't like it I'll sell it and if I do I'll sell the Garmin.

I had a Galaxy S5 and now have the iPhone 6 and I think the Garmin works better for iOS. I couldn't change music tracks on the S5 unless I was using the stock music app or Google's app. Also the Bluetooth kept dropping audio quality when I had both my Vivosmart and my Beats Wireless paired to the phone at the same time. Lastly there were sync issues where if I went out of range of the phone for too long I had to re-pair the devices to get them to communicate again.

the official forums are mostly filled with people complaining about issues with the Vivosmart
https://forums.garmin.com/forumdisplay.php?478-vivosmart
It got drastically better for me when I switched to iOS.

 

[Yayo Toure]

It does sync to Myfitnesspal. I forgot how I did it though. I also got it to tie into my Fitbit Aria scale.

I just bought a Fitbit Surge. I wanna try it out. They're selling for over retail on eBay so if I don't like it I'll sell it and if I do I'll sell the Garmin.

I had a Galaxy S5 and now have the iPhone 6 and I think the Garmin works better for iOS. I couldn't change music tracks on the S5 unless I was using the stock music app or Google's app. Also the Bluetooth kept dropping audio quality when I had both my Vivosmart and my Beats Wireless paired to the phone at the same time. Lastly there were sync issues where if I went out of range of the phone for too long I had to re-pair the devices to get them to communicate again.

the official forums are mostly filled with people complaining about issues with the Vivosmart
https://forums.garmin.com/forumdisplay.php?478-vivosmart
It got drastically better for me when I switched to iOS.

if you like the vivosmart you'll probably love the surge. All the features of the vivosmart with better software. Not sold on the $250 price tag. Seems like the skimped on the features of the charge HR just to add them to the surge and charge $100 more.

 

[NatiboyB]

shyt I just use my galaxy 2 watch

 

[winb83]

On the music control feature its pretty worthless. Was way better on the Vivosmart. All you can do on The Surge is pause of skip to the next track. On the Vivosmart you can repeat tracks or go back to the previous one.

On the Notifications also lackluster. My Vivosmart got any notification from mt iPhone the Surge only gets calls and text.

The Charge HR might be a better buy than the Fitbit Surge. I mean you don't get text notifications on the Charge HR but if you don't need the GPS the Surge is almost worthless outside it over the Charge HR.