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Head-Case Fitness Tracker Thread


tkam

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Figured we could use a thread to discuss fitness trackers for those of us trying to lose weight and/or get into better shape.  I have a Fitbit Charge, I'm actually on my 3rd one (2 replaced under warranty) and today the button on it stopped working.  It's nice that they keep replacing them for free but damn it's getting annoying.  The build quality is just garbage.

Any suggestions on a different brand or model to try? 

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I'm enjoying my Garmin Vivoactive. The screen isn't great, but the battery life is EASILY getting the 3 weeks it mentioned. I wear a Charge HR on the other wrist, and it gets maybe 3 days if I'm lucky (this was a new warranty replacement after the first lasted about 4-5 months.) I agree, love that they replaced it, hate that it needed it.

The Garmin doesn't do HR, though, and I don't love the app relative to the Fitbit app, but that's just for what I want to do. This does have different options for tracking workouts such as indoor treadmill, indoor cycling, etc. It will hook up to other sensors (HR, various cycling ones), but not doing HR natively is a bit of a bummer, as it's something I really enjoy tracking.

Are you open to more watch style, or sticking to bands?

**BRENT**

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Garmin Vivosmart HR seems like a better Charge HR feature wise, but with more bulk. The Garmin Vivoactive I have is barely more $$$, is insanely thin/light, and fairly narrow (I think it's 38mm, which is much smaller than I like in a watch, but fitting in this.) Only a 40$ difference, but the Vivoactive doesn't do HR. I'm wondering if a newer model will come out.

I'd also possibly consider one of the Garmin watches, but I'd talk to Nate about that, as he has some experience lately, IIRC.

**BRENT**

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I like the design of the Charge HR much more than the Charge, but I've had an HR delaminate, and the battery life just kills it for me as an only tracker.

There is a newer watch-style Fitbit that I would be inclined to try called the Fitbit Blaze. On paper, at least, it would do what is desired, but I haven't seen one or heard of anyone getting one yet. This is HC, though, so I imagine 6 people will have them by end of business Thursday.

**BRENT**

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Heh. I was in first place yesterday, but I'm pretty sure I'm smoked by now. I love the Fitbit ecosystem, but the build is lacking. I own two Flexes (each kid now has one, somewhere), and the old Charge HR (given away and used daily, albeit with a little duct tape) and the current one. If I got a week of battery, it would be fantastic. At 3 days (the old one got 5,) it's tough to give a full endorsement to as an only device.

One nice thing about the Garmin is that it has media controls :) I can have the phone on the charger and do basic play/pause/skip in Tidal. If you're out walking/running with your phone hooked up to headphones in an arm band, the watch controls are fantastic.

**BRENT**

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Funny timing with this thread... my Charge HR really fucked up over the weekend for the first time. Battery completely drained from a full charge in less than two hours and stopped syncing with my phone. I tried a basic restart, then removed the device from my app (unpaired from phone), then multiple factory restarts only to find that the app wouldn't recognize it or let me add it back to my profile. Finally just let the damn thing charge overnight and tada! magically let me add it back to my profile. 

The battery still seems dicey but it hasn't drained like that again, so for now I'll keep rolling with it. I've stopped caring about all of its functionality outside of tracking my daily training and my heart rate. Everything else is mostly useless for me.

Note - running version 102 firmware. Some quick searching online showed that this firmware update has been horrendous for the Charge HR in particular and that many people are having all sorts of charging and syncing issues. Fitbit is aware but hasn't released any sort of update for whatever reason.

Edited by Aura
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37 minutes ago, MexicanDragon said:

Heh. I was in first place yesterday, but I'm pretty sure I'm smoked by now. I love the Fitbit ecosystem, but the build is lacking. I own two Flexes (each kid now has one, somewhere), and the old Charge HR (given away and used daily, albeit with a little duct tape) and the current one. If I got a week of battery, it would be fantastic. At 3 days (the old one got 5,) it's tough to give a full endorsement to as an only device.

One nice thing about the Garmin is that it has media controls :) I can have the phone on the charger and do basic play/pause/skip in Tidal. If you're out walking/running with your phone hooked up to headphones in an arm band, the watch controls are fantastic.

**BRENT**

If you wanted to be in first place, you shouldn't have invited me to be part of the challenge. ;)

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Much like the Apple watch I feel like we're in the infancy of this type of tech and that there's going to be a lot of churn, updates, mid-cycle refreshes, flops, etc. as the kinks get worked out.  So after I tried a couple of the more expensive trackers (Fitbit Surge and Garmin Forerunner 235) I backpedaled and went with the much cheaper and simpler Charge HR.  It's battery life is good for me (at least 5 days) although not to great for my wife (more like Brent's 3 days) and my hope is that it'll last a year - basically until something much better comes along and convinces me that spending more than ~$100 is worth it.

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http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/garmin-vivoactive-hr-212727

OK, I'm not sure I'm sold on the looks of it, relative to the Vivoactive that I have, but all it's missing is a HR monitor to be a fantastic tracker for me. I'll have to remember to win one of these later this year so I can test it, but seeing as how my Vivoactive is on my arm, and my Charge HR is on the Charger, I'd be happy to have this as an only device, I do believe.

**BRENT**

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, my Charge HR was going strong but I took it off last night and now I can't find it.  The only place I haven't looked is the trash which unfortunately is full and gross. :(  I keep hoping I'll think of another place to look because I am definitely not looking wearing a watch that is in the trash. 

Anyone have an idea of how to figure out if it is in the trash without putting on some gloves and going through it?

Edited by shellylh
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