Do I want a smart watch?
- Thread starter KneesUp
- Start date
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Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Futuristic last century
Works with masks, you’d be amazed
figbat
Slippery scientist
- Location
- South Oxfordshire, UK
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
You have to touch those grubby chip and pin devices though
Nope just screen of your phone
figbat
Slippery scientist
- Location
- South Oxfordshire, UK
My iPhone will unlock through its connection to my Watch if I am wearing a mask, but it won’t authorise contactless payment this way - I still have to either unmask for facial identification or use then passcode.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Id have to be a) a runner, and b) a mobile phone owner to be even remotely considering the slightest possibility of thinking about being interested in a smart watch.
mustang1
Guru
- Location
- London, UK
Ah, but you ran out of storage space. I had to use will power to curtail my habit!
mustang1
Guru
- Location
- London, UK
For me the excitement never wore off (and still hasn't). I had to use pure will power to stop myself from buying more stuff.
Proto
Legendary Member
- Location
- East Devon/West Dorset
Q: Do I want a smart watch?
A: No.
A: No.
Time Waster
Veteran
Q: should the OP get a smartwatch
A: if he's still around he's either sleep tracking on his new apple watch after reading this thread or he's not getting a smartwatch after being smart enough to get his answers in the first page or first two pages.
A: if he's still around he's either sleep tracking on his new apple watch after reading this thread or he's not getting a smartwatch after being smart enough to get his answers in the first page or first two pages.
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Endless debate albeit several echelons down in ferocity than rim vs disks and even more so than the debate we dare not mention. 😄
Best way to tackle this is to simply decide what you want from a SM and then decide what best fits your needs.
Mine were:
A price (£190) that wouldn't fill me with misery if it got a bit battered in use.
A tough watch that prioritised function over looks.
Powerful GPS.
GPS that does not rely on phone GPS.
Real time instant readout of location in British Grid format, heading and altitude.
Same Trackback or similar function as per my old eTrex.
Decent battery life.
Ability to record routes and export/import facility to eg OS Maps.
Ability to segregate activity types (for me walk, hike, bike, turbo trainer, treadmill, Multigym) .
Ability to customise data displays according to activity being carried out.
HR monitoring and real time feedback as I am a lazy sod.
Usual time keeping functions/alarms.
Decent App.
Lead me to buying a Garmin Instinct.
Bonus features were:
Ability to control Spotify from within an activity.
Reply to text/calls (with texts).
Compass.
Oodles of alarm/alerts for eg storm, altitude, time until sunset, heart rate zones, distance, etc.
Weather report.
And the list goes on.
Best way to tackle this is to simply decide what you want from a SM and then decide what best fits your needs.
Mine were:
A price (£190) that wouldn't fill me with misery if it got a bit battered in use.
A tough watch that prioritised function over looks.
Powerful GPS.
GPS that does not rely on phone GPS.
Real time instant readout of location in British Grid format, heading and altitude.
Same Trackback or similar function as per my old eTrex.
Decent battery life.
Ability to record routes and export/import facility to eg OS Maps.
Ability to segregate activity types (for me walk, hike, bike, turbo trainer, treadmill, Multigym) .
Ability to customise data displays according to activity being carried out.
HR monitoring and real time feedback as I am a lazy sod.
Usual time keeping functions/alarms.
Decent App.
Lead me to buying a Garmin Instinct.
Bonus features were:
Ability to control Spotify from within an activity.
Reply to text/calls (with texts).
Compass.
Oodles of alarm/alerts for eg storm, altitude, time until sunset, heart rate zones, distance, etc.
Weather report.
And the list goes on.
One of the Apple Watch strengths is its apps - the default list is similar to competitors but there are a load of additional non-health apps that can be added via the App Store that can be very handy.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/watch/apdf1ebf8704/watchos
They are mainly self explanatory but a couple of points. The Scribble function makes writing brief texts on such a small screen very easy. Email. Accounts and all their settings are copied to the watch when first pairing it with the phone. After that, checking email is straightforward - the watch strips all superfluous text leaving only the sender's words in large clear text, which is enough to see if it is important enough to require attention. I wouldn't use to it send email unless it was very short.
ECG. I rang the GP's surgery when AF first cropped up in the Apple watch results. I was rung back in 20 minutes by a doctor, who was very interested but advised me that I would need a full ECG to confirm. While we were talking, I found that the watch sent the ECG data to my phone, where it created a pdf for emailing to a GP, quoting measurement parameters etc. I did this as we spoke and he could see the full output which he said was very impressive and yes, it did appear to show classic AF, so I went in for a proper ECG. I was then a case study for a group of medical students. The Apple watches that have electrical sensor ECG are not the only watches with this function but my GP said it appeared to be better implemented in the Apple ones.
Some more ECG info here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1050173819301495
Non-health apps. Search for apps for an Apple watch and all you will find are exercise and health apps and some office ones but many other apps also install on a watch. Two minor examples - installing Aurorawatch on my phone put it on the watch as well and alerts for UK auroras now come through on my watch as an app alert (not a text one) without having to scrabble around looking for my phone. Another is a phone app for displaying OSGB map co-ordinates in v. large high contrast format for use in the field. It is used for recording metal-detected and field-walked finds but by the end of the day, you end up with muddy hands, a muddy phone and muddy clothing around whatever pocket you use for your phone. However, it also installs on the watch and all you need to do to read a large clear display is raise your wrist. That minor specialist function has been a boon to me this summer.
The problem is finding which non-health apps are compatible with the watch. Flightradar and Weather Radar are a couple but I found them more or less by accident.
Mrs R had a Vivoactive 4 but had problems with the multibutton menu navigation and also tiny text, so at a glance use was not for her unless she could grab some glasses. I found much the same when I tried it, especially the small fonts. Having a round dial doesn't help plus there were continuous connectivity issues after which we vowed never to buy a Garmin unit again. Probably just our bad luck but she now has an Apple Watch whose menu structure she has found easy to use and very readable.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/watch/apdf1ebf8704/watchos
They are mainly self explanatory but a couple of points. The Scribble function makes writing brief texts on such a small screen very easy. Email. Accounts and all their settings are copied to the watch when first pairing it with the phone. After that, checking email is straightforward - the watch strips all superfluous text leaving only the sender's words in large clear text, which is enough to see if it is important enough to require attention. I wouldn't use to it send email unless it was very short.
ECG. I rang the GP's surgery when AF first cropped up in the Apple watch results. I was rung back in 20 minutes by a doctor, who was very interested but advised me that I would need a full ECG to confirm. While we were talking, I found that the watch sent the ECG data to my phone, where it created a pdf for emailing to a GP, quoting measurement parameters etc. I did this as we spoke and he could see the full output which he said was very impressive and yes, it did appear to show classic AF, so I went in for a proper ECG. I was then a case study for a group of medical students. The Apple watches that have electrical sensor ECG are not the only watches with this function but my GP said it appeared to be better implemented in the Apple ones.
Some more ECG info here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1050173819301495
Non-health apps. Search for apps for an Apple watch and all you will find are exercise and health apps and some office ones but many other apps also install on a watch. Two minor examples - installing Aurorawatch on my phone put it on the watch as well and alerts for UK auroras now come through on my watch as an app alert (not a text one) without having to scrabble around looking for my phone. Another is a phone app for displaying OSGB map co-ordinates in v. large high contrast format for use in the field. It is used for recording metal-detected and field-walked finds but by the end of the day, you end up with muddy hands, a muddy phone and muddy clothing around whatever pocket you use for your phone. However, it also installs on the watch and all you need to do to read a large clear display is raise your wrist. That minor specialist function has been a boon to me this summer.
The problem is finding which non-health apps are compatible with the watch. Flightradar and Weather Radar are a couple but I found them more or less by accident.
Mrs R had a Vivoactive 4 but had problems with the multibutton menu navigation and also tiny text, so at a glance use was not for her unless she could grab some glasses. I found much the same when I tried it, especially the small fonts. Having a round dial doesn't help plus there were continuous connectivity issues after which we vowed never to buy a Garmin unit again. Probably just our bad luck but she now has an Apple Watch whose menu structure she has found easy to use and very readable.
