Smartwatch Thread (news/apps/updates)

partycan · 14 Jun 2018 at 10:46

ristac said:
I can’t stand the look and square face of the Apple Watch, I’ve narrowed it down to the Gear S3, Ticwatch or Huawei, I’d love the Fenix 5 but cost puts me off as I’d not use it to its full ability. I’m not worried about not being able to reply to messages via the watch, I’d like to have access to numerous faces and ability to change straps. I’ve read you can’t change the strap of the Ticwatch S so that’s putting me off..

Just to add i've had the S3 now since February and although I love it and has easily been the best smartwatch i've used it is paired with a Samsung S7 Edge. It was briefly paired with a Sony Z5 compact and even then didn't have the same level of integration as the Samsung. I'm not sure you'd get the full benefit of it with an Iphone.

grudas · 15 Jun 2018 at 16:05

I love my gear s3 but getting tired of tizen OS and it's rubbish performance. 2dayish battery life I can live with as I usually just dump it on the charger for 10-20 mins while in the shower and it's good. Tempted by LG watch 2 sport but at the same time looking forwards to new stuff from google maybe.. we'll see.

Kainz · 15 Jun 2018 at 16:23

grudas said:
I love my gear s3 but getting tired of tizen OS and it's rubbish performance. 2dayish battery life I can live with as I usually just dump it on the charger for 10-20 mins while in the shower and it's good. Tempted by LG watch 2 sport but at the same time looking forwards to new stuff from google maybe.. we'll see.

Hmm, you tried doing a factory reset? I'm still getting 4 day battery life on mine, same as I did out of the box. Having said that, I rarely use the fitness features of the watch of late. I mainly bought as a digital watch/notifications device more than anything. Performance is still very fast and I haven't got any apps installed as my the stock apps were more than enough for my requirements.

grudas · 15 Jun 2018 at 16:28

Kainz said:
Hmm, you tried doing a factory reset? I'm still getting 4 day battery life on mine, same as I did out of the box. Having said that, I rarely use the fitness features of the watch of late. I mainly bought as a digital watch/notifications device more than anything. Performance is still very fast and I haven't got any apps installed as my the stock apps were more than enough for my requirements.

no I have't to be fair.

I usually get crazy lag when going to press on "workout" button in weekly workout stats page.. like to a point where you can see the animation lagging behind.

pressing start takes 10 seconds before it starts counting down to 0.

usually button presses result in lag as in you can see the frames changing.

I will give a full reset a shot and see how it goes! but it usually eats around 50% of battery a day.

Kainz · 15 Jun 2018 at 16:51

Wow that's insane. Are you using any sort of excessively animated watch face by any chance? I've heard those can hit battery hard as well as AoD. I tend to use those MDxx watch faces most of thr time.

deuse · 15 Jun 2018 at 16:51

grudas said:
I love my gear s3 but getting tired of tizen OS and it's rubbish performance. 2dayish battery life I can live with as I usually just dump it on the charger for 10-20 mins while in the shower and it's good. Tempted by LG watch 2 sport but at the same time looking forwards to new stuff from google maybe.. we'll see.

Did you mean LG Watch Sport LTE?
I have one and I won't be changing it in a hurry.

Proc · 18 Jun 2018 at 09:42

Anyone know if there's an Ebay app for WearOS or any way of getting notifications? Been using it a fair bit recently and when buying things would have been handy to have notifications on my watch. Looked in the settings on the app but couldn't see anything.

joelk2 · 18 Jun 2018 at 14:32

What's the watches to get at the moment. Just switched from iOS to Android and am missing the Apple watch. I don't need anything fancy. My phone lives on silent so just like vibrating notifications. And to tell the time. Don't want anything really cheap looking though .

Orcvader · 18 Jun 2018 at 17:25

Proc said:
Anyone know if there's an Ebay app for WearOS or any way of getting notifications? Been using it a fair bit recently and when buying things would have been handy to have notifications on my watch. Looked in the settings on the app but couldn't see anything.

The watch should mirror the phone's notifications, does the phone app have them enabled?

Alternatively you might be able to do something with IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/ebay

dj-striker · 18 Jun 2018 at 18:20

joelk2 said:
What's the watches to get at the moment. Just switched from iOS to Android and am missing the Apple watch. I don't need anything fancy. My phone lives on silent so just like vibrating notifications. And to tell the time. Don't want anything really cheap looking though .

lg watch sport / huawei watch 2 / samsung s3 frontier

Proc · 19 Jun 2018 at 11:18

Orcvader said:
The watch should mirror the phone's notifications, does the phone app have them enabled?

Alternatively you might be able to do something with IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/ebay

I thought it should mirror them, but not get any notifications when bids are outbid, ending etc. I've looked in the apps settings but can't see anything regarding Wear notifications and all others are checked. I'll have a look at IFTTT, all other stuff seems to work fine.

With regards to joelk2 I have the Huwaei Watch 2 and love it. Think it looks good, easy to use and i use a lot for fitness which it handles well.

Orcvader · 19 Jun 2018 at 12:05

Proc said:
I thought it should mirror them, but not get any notifications when bids are outbid, ending etc. I've looked in the apps settings but can't see anything regarding Wear notifications and all others are checked. I'll have a look at IFTTT, all other stuff seems to work fine.

With regards to joelk2 I have the Huawei Watch 2 and love it. Think it looks good, easy to use and i use a lot for fitness which it handles well.

It's not watch notification, just normal phone notifications in general. Do those notifications appear fine on the phone?

joelk2 · 19 Jun 2018 at 13:41

I've seen the ticwatch e mentioned a few times through the thread after having a read through. For anyone that has one of these, how is it holding up?

Proc · 19 Jun 2018 at 13:45

Orcvader said:
It's not watch notification, just normal phone notifications in general. Do those notifications appear fine on the phone?

Yep, just nothing gets relayed to the watch. Other apps work fine so strange it seems to be ebay one, might uninstall it and try again see if that works.

Orcvader · 19 Jun 2018 at 14:21

Proc said:
Yep, just nothing gets relayed to the watch. Other apps work fine so strange it seems to be ebay one, might uninstall it and try again see if that works.

Might be ebay blocking it. I've seen this with WeChat where they insist you install their Wear app for notifications to be mirrored. If that's the case then definitely check out IFTTT, I made an applet to mirror WeChat notifications to my watch since I found the Wear app to be a little heavy on the battery.

ristac · 19 Jun 2018 at 21:32

I picked up the Samsung Gear Sport from the MM here, I’m very pleased with it. I get Facebook messenger notifications which I can read as well as Twitter and Instagram. I can read messages, it tracks my sleep, steps, several workout modes including swimming, the step tracker is very accurate and more than enough free faces to pick from.

I’d have no desire to reply to messages via the watch which is linked to my iPhone and I’d not hesitate in getting another Samsung

BigBoy · 24 Jun 2018 at 23:15

Got a ticwatch today for my birthday, a vast improvement over my old SW3...

heatonpkmassive · 25 Jun 2018 at 23:30

joelk2 said:
I've seen the ticwatch e mentioned a few times through the thread after having a read through. For anyone that has one of these, how is it holding up?

Not bad at all, I like it.

Yaayuh! · 27 Jun 2018 at 13:33

Spec me!

Compatible with iPhone
HR
GPS
Under £200
Local fitness tracking

Possible?

jrodga2k5 · 27 Jun 2018 at 14:16

Rossi~ said:
Spec me!

Compatible with iPhone

HR

GPS

Under £200

Possible?

You can grab a Nokia Steel HR (Soon to be Withings again) for £150 which has everything you’re after apart from GPS. Plus points are the look of the watch, HR tracking works well, app works well, 25 day battery life.

Negatives, no GPS and very basic notifications (i.e you can’t read your messages on it etc).

I’ve just replaced mines with an Apple Watch series 3 as I wanted a bit more detail in my notifactions as I only had to reach for my phone.

Have you thought about spending the extra for an Apple Watch? Even a series 2 can be had at decent prices (if you can find one, many refurbs around) which come with GPS if memory serves me correctly.

Android offerings work only so well with the iPhone in my experience due to the limitations Apple place on the apps access.