Android Smart Watches for Exercise eTracking?

June 26, 2021 6:14 PM

What's the current best equivalent of the Apple Watch in the Android ecosystem, with a focus on fitness/activity tracking?

My wife loves tracking our walks with the fitness applet on my Apple watch, which records (my) heart rate over time, average pace, elevation change, etc. She wants these capabilities for herself, but she has a Pixel 4 phone and wants to stick with Android. What's the best equivalent smartwatch with an emphasis on fitness tracking that works in the Android ecosystem? We're mostly talking power-walking here, so anything targeted at triathletes, etc, is overkill in several ways.

I know Garmin and Samsung are two of the big players, and one of my coworkers loves her Garmin fitness watch, but I've also read that Garmin's heartrate meter and other, non-GPS features, aren't as good as Samsung's. I also know Fitbit exists, but they're much more fitness-tracker, much less smart-watch. I'm not sure how all that fits. Bonus points for products not tied to a cloud service (sync with software on an Android phone is good, internet service sync is less good).

What's out there, what's good, and what's bad?

posted by Alterscape to Technology (6 answers total)

Can your wife wait a bit? It looks like Google is revamping their smart-watches from this article.

I would expect a new Samsung smart watch based on these reports.
posted by coberh at 6:40 PM on June 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

Google bought Fitbit early this year. I had several Fitbits that tended to break right after the warranty expired. Given both of these statements, I wouldn't bother exploring Fitbit anymore than you already did. (I went Apple, so I can't provide much help on what to do, just what not to do.)
posted by neilbert at 7:59 PM on June 26, 2021

I... would not buy a Google-based smartwatch at this time.

If you want a fitness tracker, I'd get a Garmin.
posted by kschang at 9:00 PM on June 26, 2021 [4 favorites]

So, there's Google's own smartwatch platform called WearOS; anything based on the current version of WearOS is due to be imminently obsolete pending the release of this newer platform; it looks unlikely that current WearOS watches will be upgradeable. So if you want something right now, WearOS devices are very much un-recommended. It's a dead-end platform right now.

I've played around with a Garmin watch (but don't own one myself) and it looks like a capable smartwatch and has a decent if not necessarily quite as comprehensive platform as Apple does. It does have a fitness/activity tracking focus, which seems to be what you're looking for, so personally, I'd probably head down that route.

I have no experience with Samsung watches, but I imagine they're capable enough. Google's plan is to partner with Samsung for the new version of WearOS, so I have no idea what that means for support of Samsung's Tizen platform after that, though I'm more optimistic that Samsung will actually have a plan there. Samsung's watch comes recommended by the Wirecutter, so there's that at least.
posted by Aleyn at 12:34 AM on June 27, 2021

I have a TicWatch 3 - one of the top recommendations from Wirecutter - and I am exceptionally happy with it. I was replacing a Fitbit., and I wanted a watch that also tracked activity. I get 3-5 days between charges - longer if I don't use any of the features.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:14 AM on June 27, 2021

It sounds like you're veering from Fitbit anyway, but I'll just reinforce that. I have a Charge 4 that I like for a number of reasons but a piece that secures the band to the watch face broke literally a week after the warranty expired. It wasn't that the band broke and could be replaced with a new band, the damage was on the watch face itself. Fitbit sent me a new one anyway so props to their customer service, but it's annoying it didn't last longer.
posted by Anonymous at 9:36 AM on June 27, 2021