Which Android wearable ?

DJM1976

Hi all,

I am now in a position to buy my first ever smartwatch and am willing to pay up to £300.  Ideally I am looking for a watch that will allow me to have the following functions.

Step tracking
Heart monitor
Possibly sleep detector.

Notifications for email, messenger, sms, WhatsApp.

While listening to Spotify on my Note 9, I would like to be able to skip tracks etc via the watch, so I don't have to keep on taking my phone out of my pocket when on a packed train.

NFC for payment

I did originally have my heart set on the Gslaxy Watch, but considering the amount of users having issues with step tracking and other S health problems, with no fix in sight, it has made me think of other wearables.

Can anyone here recommend a decent smartwatch that has all of the above functionality ?.

Many thanks

bubs999

I've got a Tic Watch Pro and it does all of that. Can't really fault it, miles better than my old Moto 360.

Battery life is great and works very well with my P20 Pro phone. It's just received the latest update very quickly. Samsung runs Tizen software just for info, whereas the Tic Watch runs Google wear OS

DJM1976

Thank you very much for that information, yes I keep on forgetting about the Samsung being Tizen based. I will do some reading up on the Tic watch pro.

bubs999

I decided against the Samsung watch, as I had heard stories of it not working brilliantly with non Samsung phones. I love being able to say "Ok Google, send WhatsApp to....." Then telkite it the message. I had heard you can't do that on Samsung watches and it orp me off

DJM1976

I must admit that I have been quite a bit of  Samsung fanboy over the years TV, BD player, Tablet, Phones. So my eyes kinda lit up like a Christmas tree when I had a try of the Galaxy watch in the shop.

However the failure of the step tracking working accurately and other aspects of the S health not working as they should, got me thinking about a Wear OS device.

Despite the Galaxy watch having an amazing battery, I think one of the final straws was the fact that neither my bank or credit card company currently support Samsung Pay, so that is yet another feature on a "Smart watch" that is pretty much useless at this present time.

I had a read up on the watch about it having 2 modes. Smart & Essential.  What kind of battery life are you getting in Smart mode with things like Bluetooth, GPS etc active ?

Also are you able to activate the watch by flipping the wrist, or do you have to push a button ?.

WillyShatsWig

I'm in the same boat...

Looking for my very first smart watch. A watch that has:

A Nice Look
NFC Payments (Halifax)
Heart Rate Monitor
WhatsApp, Gmail, SMS, Facebook Messenger (read, compose & send)
GPS
Google Map Directions Displayed Whilst Walking / Running
Running Tracker
Bluetooth
Store Music (so can run without phone)
Store Podcasts (so can run without phone)

TicWatch Pro and Huawei Watch 2 Classic both look like they can do these things - the classic looks better (to me).
However, they're running old processors, so feel a bit put out paying over £200 for "old" technology.

There doesn't seem to be any alternative coming any time soon.

I was looking forward to the newly announced Huawei Watch GT, but that was a major let down.

So...

TicWatch Pro, Huawei 2 Classic or wait?

DJM1976

This is the tough one which I am still dwelling over. The Ticwatch Pro has some amazing features, but suffers the typical Wear OS lag, probably due to the lack of ram.  However battery wise it does seem to be the best Wear OS currently on the market.

As you say there doesn't seem to be anything else coming soon. I was originally really happy to hear about the new Qualcomm 3100 chip as thought that would sort out lag issues, but turns out it uses less battery than its predecessor & so there is no actual speed increase, just an increase in battery.

bubs999

I have everything activated on mine and can get 2 days on battery, however I charge every night when I'm at home.
I have it set to work with a wrist flick and it works well, much better than my previous watches, so I never used it on them

I am very happy with the watch. It's like all tech things, there is always something new and better around the corner and you could continually wait and wait

If you want a watch now, then the Tic watch pro is a good one

DJM1976

After testing of a few different watches including a Ticwatch pro and Huawei watch 2, which a friend has, I decided on the Galaxy watch as the lag on my friends Ticwatch Pro when loading apps was awful.

I am really impressed with the watch so far but as I am a gadget fan, I will be keeping an eye out on future Wear OS devices, incase one is released which is as smooth running as the Tizen based ones.

Yes I could find in the coming weeks that the Galaxy isn't for me,  but that remains to be seen.

Thanks again to all those that have replied, it is much appreciated.

bubs999

Did you try your friends watch before the latest update? All lag on my watch is now gone with that update.

Wear OS was always badly done, but this latest overhaul is pretty good.