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Best smart watch for fitness tracking

S

Sam_S

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 20, 2016
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I am looking a getting a smart watch to track my running, I currently use Map My Run, wich is good however I would like a few more features such as heart rate, and a replacement for my phone.

I like the look of the Apple watch as it does have most features I want.

Are there any alternatives out there that are better than the Apple watch?
 
No. They Apple Watch is the best.

Maybe I'm being a little biased, Garmin also makes a very good fitness watch that is excellent for running. But I have far more experience with Apple Watch and been very pleased with Its capabilities for tracking my data.
 
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Having both Garmin (Fenix 3) and Apple, I would still say that Garmin is better for fitness tracking. It is solely designed for that task and does it well plus has a website for tracking the numbers.
 
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i will say go for apple watch series 2, currently the best smartwach in the market
 
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Julien said:
Thought I would stop by the Corvette forum and ask for advice on buying another sports car.:eek::D
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Haha, that pretty much sums it up. I will say that we do like the Series 2 that we have (my wife is the main user), we both still prefer the Garmin for the fitness stuff. They seem to be tougher (we are MTB cyclists) for the demands that we have. Still, both will do roughly the same thing so it is really a preference thing.
 
daflake said:
...we both still prefer the Garmin for the fitness stuff.....
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Actually I use a Garmin too when doing any cardio activity (and also my :apple:Watch). Just being a smarty but the OP did specify they wanted a smart watch and not asking for a fitness tracker. ;)
 
I tried both Apple and fenix 3,the fenix is a more dedicated training tool,even if it's mostly designed for triathlon. The Apple Watch is,however,good enough for most users. If it's only fitness training,any training Watch could do the job. The special things with Apple Watch is everything it can do that's not training,the speciality for the fenix 3 is better battery life,specialised apps for triathlon,skiing and swimming,and of course the built in pressure sensor that do a good job as scuba depth meter.
 
My old Garmin 410 is a better workout tracker than my AW, especially if I just consider the data it's gathering about my physical metrics -- time, distance, speed, HR, cycling cadence, etc. It also has a "virtual partner" to help keep me on pace, a programmable interval timer with beeps loud enough for me to hear, and other tricks I either didn't need or wasn't able to figure out. I expanded its abilities with a cycling speed/cadence sensor, and could expand it further with a bike power meter, foot pod, and whatever else.

But that's all it did well. I stopped wearing it daily because it's clunky, ugly, and uncomfortable. It gets zero notifications from my phone. Its software support is clunky.

But it's a good workout watch. Want to buy mine?
 
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I have to agree with everyone, if you want a fitness tracker with smart watch functions then Garmin is the way to go.

If you want a smart watch with fitness functions then the Apple watch is what you want.
 
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The only thing that's better than an Apple Watch is an Apple Watch Edition! :D
 
Sam_S said:
Are there any alternatives out there that are better than the Apple watch?
Click to expand...
There are alternatives but as mentioned above they aren't specifically smart watches. Some of the advantages I've found with my Garmin Forerunner were that I got it new for $175, it is lighter and best of all I've gone as long as two weeks between charges on the thing. This is the tool I was looking for and I'm very, very happy with it.
However, my device (forerunner 230) was a year old when I bought it, does not track heart rate (didn't want that), can't play music to headphones while running (need a phone if I want to do that...I don't) nor does it fit into the Apple ecosystem.
Take everything into consideration as to what you want and then decide smart watch or sports tracker. If it ends up being a smart watch I don't think there are any alternatives to Apple watch that you will want to consider.
 
B.A.T said:
Take everything into consideration as to what you want and then decide smart watch or sports tracker. If it ends up being a smart watch I don't think there are any alternatives to Apple watch that you will want to consider.
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^^^^^ Yup.

When I got my Garmin several years ago, the two big players in fitness watches were Garmin and Polar. Fitbit and Jawbone hadn't appeared yet (remember Jawbone's Up?), and I don't remember Suunto being widely used yet.

Garmin won for me because its software was OS-agnostic. Polar's watches required jumping through some hoops to work with Mac, but Garmin's worked almost as easily as syncing an iPod.

Today, though, the AW integration with iOS and macOS is so tight, nobody else had been able to match it. There's no reasonable alternative for an everyday, multifunctional smartwatch.

If I were starting fresh today, I would get an AW instead of a Garmin.
 
I've been using the Garmin Vivosmart HR+ for a year now and it's really nice but I'm finally buying a AW coz the touch screen of the vivosmart is now really buggy. It keeps showing a "click to unlock" instead of the time. I have to keep turning it on/off. Also, I have to keep opening the garmin app on my iphone for it to connect to bluetooth. I'm hoping the AW will be better.
 
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