I Hate Smartwatches, But I Bought This One and ...
This might become a love story, or at least a like story
Hate is a strong word. Maybe it’s worth saving for bigger, more important subjects than wearable tech, subjects that impact the world - like pineapple on pizza or Mac vs Windows. So I’ll say smartwatches have never interested me. I’ve had three big reasons for my lack of interest:
I hate the idea of having to charge another device on a daily or near daily basis - even with stellar battery life my phones typically live in that zone.
I don’t need or want notifications, alerts, or apps, on my wrist - unless they are exclusively about health/fitness, which leads me to …
I prefer a fitness tracker. A dedicated wearable device. I’m not a big watch person. I was never fussy or fancy in my selection of a watch, and have been far more selective and fussy in choosing which fitness tracker to use.
Over the course of the last couple years though, I’ve become more and more frustrated with fitness trackers. Frustrated with glitches or inconsistencies with them. For example, when from one day or week to the next, the same activity at the same sort of intensity registers very differently. This can show up in number of steps logged (or at the worst of times none of them being logged) or quite often in accurately registering active zone minutes.
I’ve tried out fitness trackers from a number of the leading brands, including FitBit, Garmin, Withings, Whoop, and most recently the Amazon Halo View. Some of these disappointed because their battery life was not even close to what they advertise. A few of them are bad at recognizing a good variety of workout types or activities. One I recently tried was a big pain in the arse to use even with workouts it does recognize - forcing me to tap to start tracking sets and reps when I did’t need or want that feature.
I actually liked the Amazon Halo View a lot. It wasn’t immune to some inconsistent tracking moments, but they were less frequent and less significant than with other trackers. It recognized a good array of activities and when it didn’t it allowed me to go back later in the day and add an activity - and then adjust active zone minutes and calories burned etc accordingly. This was great for me with tennis in particular. It also included a great range of workout videos - from yoga to weightlifting and strength areas - as more of the same for healthy eating options. This content was free for 6 or 12 months and then priced very reasonably at $4 per month.
Sadly, Amazon announced near the end of last month that:
We recently made the very difficult decision to stop supporting Amazon Halo effective July 31, 2023.
Fast forward to this week, and I bought a Pixel Watch. I’ve owned and loved the last two generations of the Pixel phone series, like the one shown in the image at the top of this post. The 7 Pro has been a pleasure to use , not least due to it’s clever and often hyper useful AI features, and for the last couple days it has a new partner in crime.
After just two days with a device, of course I can’t offer anything like a review of it. But I can say that early first impressions of the Pixel Watch are very good. I’ve had many times over the course of many years of using mobile devices where I have a strong feeling about a device within its first hour out of the box; and surprisingly often that initial feeling has carried on through the life of using the device. The Pixel Watch is definitely giving me strong positive vibes so far.
I’m fond of the way it looks and the fitness tracking features seem quite good. Battery life is, as expected, not great at all. It’s tough to make it through a day and night even with all but core features turned off. That has not bothered me thus far though, as the Pixel Watch also charges very quickly - faster than any fitness tracker I’ve ever used. It has a lovely charger that it drops onto super easily and starts charging with zero fuss, which I have rarely seen with these sort of devices.
What sort of watch and/or fitness tracker do you use? Do you have a clear favorite? Any Pixel Watch users here?
I’ve got a similar aversion to smartwatches, for the reasons you listed. I do like Google hardware - loved my Pixel 3a, but gave that up for an iPhone, to appease the in-laws, and their green/blue text tribalism.
Might try a Pixel Watch anyway, especially if the price drops substantially whenever they roll out version two.
Hi, Patrick! Interesting read. I purchased a $27 smart watch from Amazon. I primarily use it to track my sleep and my heart rate during workouts. The time mirrors the cell phone which is tuned to the cell network. And, I only need to charge it once a week. It is a model IW1.