Smart watch - fitness tracking

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OP
OP
Dan Ferris

Dan Ferris

Über Member
Thank you everyone for your responses - much appreciated and helped me make a decision on the Garmin.
 

Tenkaykev

Guru
Location
Poole
A bit late to this but I have the 235 and it's a great running watch that does step counting, phone alerts etc.
The limitation is that there are only two activities on the watch, "Run" and "Other" so if you want to record any activities other than running you have to change the description in Garmin Connect.
The Vivoactive 3 doesn't have this limitation and is the watch that I'd buy now if I needed to replace my 235
 

nickAKA

Über Member
Location
Manchester
I've just 'upgraded' my V1 vivoctive for a slightly less-ancient V2 vivoactive HR :laugh:

The original V1 cost me about £50 off ebay a couple of years ago, the replacement the princely sum of £43... I was always rather sceptical of the wrist-based HR but if I wear it reasonably tight it seems within the arc of the chest HR strap.

It's a bit tatty but I wear it for cycling & running so who cares, and at the price nobody's going to shed many tears if it incurs further damage. The charger is infinitely superior to the old magnetic cradle affair which was a hateful contraption... Added features too! I'm quite chuffed with it, can you tell? :okay:
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
I've just 'upgraded' my V1 vivoctive for a slightly less-ancient V2 vivoactive HR :laugh:

The original V1 cost me about £50 off ebay a couple of years ago, the replacement the princely sum of £43... I was always rather sceptical of the wrist-based HR but if I wear it reasonably tight it seems within the arc of the chest HR strap.

It's a bit tatty but I wear it for cycling & running so who cares, and at the price nobody's going to shed many tears if it incurs further damage. The charger is infinitely superior to the old magnetic cradle affair which was a hateful contraption... Added features too! I'm quite chuffed with it, can you tell? :okay:
That's broadly what I found - for day to day wearing I don't have it that tight - it's close enough to track my RHR that I'm happy and when doing activities I tighten the strap a notch or two which puts it within 2-3bpm of my HR strap - again close enough for most things.
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
A bit late to help the OP, but assuming anyone else is with Vitality the rest of this post may be of interest. By going with the Apple Watch you are incentivised to pay for it via your workouts, with the Garmin you just get a straight discount which may not be as cheap as buying direct from elsewhere. The Vivoactive 3 is about to be replaced by the 4, but is still a good all round smartwatch. The forerunners are far more running orientated and give you some great insights into your running, but not always other sports. In general Vitality seem to have been a bit better with points tracking over the last year, but previously they were shocking. I spent a lot of time getting missing points added and fighting their crap app in order to pay for my apple Watch and get my free Starbucks / cinema tickets
 

BigMeatball

Senior Member
another alternative I'm reading good comments/reviews about is the polar vantage m

https://www.polar.com/uk-en/vantage/m
 

T.M.H.N.E.T

Rainbows aren't just for world champions
Location
Northern Ireland
A bit late to the party and a bit left field, TomTom Spark 3 Cardio.(there's also a spark basic, a spark MUSIC and a spark Music/cardio) They're no longer available but still supported and reasonably priced vs pretty much every other watch that will do the same things.

My main reason for buying, was it counts distance/lengths/strokes in the pool + has a great outdoor freestyle GPS mode that records my SUP outings/Hydro assault course sessions etc. But also works just fine outside running/walking ,on the bike, indoors on bike and in the gym
 
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