this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
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'Looks at perfectly functional Galaxy Watch 3 on my wrist'

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Garmin Instinct 2 Solar gives me 31 days on a full charge if it doesn't get any sunlight. It is smart enough to vibrate me awake without waking my partner and receive notifications, no matter what Android/iOS phone I use.

What were your main gripes with the Pixel watch?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

At the launch a lot of the features like sleep tracking were paywalled behind Fitbit, and you had to use Fitbit instead of Google Fit which I had been using.

After a week of using the Fitbit app I just found it annoying and pushed the social media aspect far too much for my liking. It felt more like a Fitbit than an Android Watch and that's not what I was looking for.

Prior to trying the Pixel I had an LG Watch Sport that I really enjoyed.

The Garmin while it lacks the ability to do things like control smart lights or integrate heavily into phone controls like the Pixel Watch did, its battery life is amazing, the sensors are great, it gets the alerts I need from the phone, and I've actually become very very fond of the gimmicky flashlight that's built in.

I can easily export health and data to CSVs, and move it if I want to.

The full offline map capabilities are also big if I go backpacking.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

There is a Home Assistant app for Garmin watches that is pretty usable. The flashlight is surpassingly, hilariously, one of my favorite features though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Now your comment has piqued my curiosity...I never considered a bigger smartwatch, and have kept myselft mostly to the Xiaomi band, which does more or less what I need it to...But I'm now curious how well does a Garmin cover the main points for me: -Read messages from SMS, Whatsapp, Telegram, etc (can I also reply to them, maybe voice-type or similar?) -Obviously tracking fitness, routes, heart rate and sleep etc it is probably way bounds out of the miband's league. -Can it pair to a headphone and use it to play music during a fitness run? Does it have esim support or similar to use data? (these are a clear no-no on the miband, but then again, heh...about 25 bucks it costed me!).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)
  • Can read messages. On Android can reply with canned responses set up in the Connect app
  • GPS tracking during workouts without having to have phone within range, has heart rate, sleep tracking and more
  • Instinct can control media (play/pause/skip) when phone is in range, though the Forerunner music can store music to play via Bluetooth headphones
  • No LTE/eSIM support on any of them that I know of
  • Best feature for me by far is the time is always visible and in fact is even more visible in direct sunlight
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Hmmm the music storage... How does it work? Can you just send an mp3? Or does it need to be from a specific service? Bummer about the esim, I was wanting to rid of the phone while I'm out running.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Download songs and playlists from your Spotify, Deezer or Amazon Music accounts for phone-free listening.

So it seems it is specifically those services I found more info here

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Awesome... Thanks! On second thought i think I'll hold out about the esim part. I can control the privacy on my phone decently enough but that would fly out of the window if the smart watch can call home on its own.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have mine working with Navidrone without any issues.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I've never heard of that before. It looks awesome and I'm going to look into it!