24 Nov
Blog

MYX II Plus Fitness Bike Review: Watch Out Peloton

Stretching during an Openfit bike training session.

MYX II Plus

RRP $ 1,600.00

"The MYXfitness MYX II Plus fitness bike is a worthy competitor to other models on the market, and it's pretty good business too."

advantages

  • Solid construction

  • Two streaming workout service providers

  • Including additional equipment

As the saying goes, it's always a good time to get in shape. At least that's what the doctor says. With a wide variety of home fitness equipment and streaming services to choose from, it's just getting easier to do just that. A typical example is the MYX II bike. This sleek stationary bike is easy to adjust for height and resistance, and offers a variety of courses you can take on and off the bike for a full-body training experience.

First class bike delivery

Let's face it, exercise bikes aren't easy. Many new models of stationery have a display assembly, so it's not that easy to just pick up and put in a home studio. The MYX II has a 21.5-inch touchscreen that can be rotated 360 degrees. The monitor also has 20 watt speakers. The bike weighs a whopping 134 pounds and the flywheel weighs 41 pounds. The entire device measures 47 x 54 x 21 inches. Even though there are wheels in the front to lift the bike up and put it in place, we're still glad we didn't have to do it ourselves.

MYX II fitness bike and fitness accessories.

The bike comes with a free delivery service wearing white gloves. A third-party company (for us XPO Logistics) delivers the bike, sets it up and puts away the packaging. This whole experience was definitely top notch. The company contacted us to set a delivery day and delivery time and MYXfitness provided information on how to prepare the area. This was definitely handy and made the whole process a lot faster. The company recommends creating a space that can accommodate the bike mat, which is approximately 4 x 6 feet.

Our two suppliers, David and Henry, were professional and took the time to explain how to adjust the bike. You set up everything, including assembling the display and connecting the power supply. They also provided the yoga mat, set of weights (you can choose the size), kettlebell, foam roller, resistance bands, and a Polar heart rate monitor.

Lots of extras

The MYX II offers many extras and training options as well as all of the above fitness equipment. If you don't need these extras, save $ 200 and get the MYX II – that's the bike, heart monitor, and screen for all classes.

The courses last from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, so there is really something for every fitness level.

When setting up the bike for the first time, you can choose between Openfit and Beachbody's BODi streaming services. Both offer a variety of workouts, cycling classes, and nutritional content. In addition to rides (for all fitness areas), the course also includes barre, Pilates, cardio, strength training, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), walking, kickboxing, yoga, meditation and stretching. The courses last from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, so there is really something for every fitness level.

As mentioned above, the bike also comes with a Polar OH1 heart rate monitor that is synchronized with the training sessions. You place the monitor in the wristband and wear it during exercise. You can see your heart rate on the screen whether you are exercising or taking a ride. In our tests, it took about two weeks before we had to recharge the device.

Ride and train

We chose the Openfit service largely because it has a wider range of live and on-demand courses, including Xtend Barre with Andrea Rogers. The subscription costs $ 39 per month (nearly the cost of an average gym membership – depending on the gym). You can also set up multiple users in the Openfit app so everyone in the family can have a personalized experience.

Before properly starting your workout, do a zone ride so the bike can determine your fitness level. You are encouraged to take the ride first thing in the morning before you have a cup of coffee. The 20-inute ride is brutal, and for good reason – the goal is to set your heart zone rates so you should definitely be pushing your limits.

Track your stats while you train with Openfit.

Before starting this ride, you need to sync the Polar monitor with the bike. There are also options to sync with an Apple Watch. There really aren't any instructions on how to sync the monitor to the bike, so it took a little research (and a cup of coffee – yes, yes, that zone ride would just have to wait another day) to determine that you need to download the Polar app . You don't actually sync it with the Openfit app. As soon as you synchronize the monitor with the Polar app via Bluetooth, the device synchronizes with the bike immediately. The good news is that if the monitor doesn't sync during Openfit classes, you'll be notified on the screen – so you can touch an option on the screen to sync it. The classes indicate whether they work with the heart monitor.

The instructors are solid overall, they all seem to have their own style and are all approachable. The music for the classroom ranges from 90s hip hop to country to the top 40 and everything in between. You can adjust how loud you want the music to be compared to the teacher's voice.

Our opinion

We tested the bike and its accessories for about two months and really saw how it improves home gym play. We're not going to say the bike was comfortable to ride, but it was ergonomically correct. After all, that's what these special bike shorts are for. You can clip in your own cycling shoes if you wish.

Training on the bike is definitely a solid workout, but it is also a fantastic warm-up before taking any other classes. I found myself stronger than when I started and I'm almost ready to do this zone ride again to enjoy my overall improvement.

We ended up having to download two apps to our phone (Openfit and Polar) which is fine because it gives you the full experience. The Openfit app syncs with the streaming service on the bike so you can see all of your stats in one place which is a plus. There's a lot to do in the app like log weight, track your food, schedule workouts, see which workouts are live, and find some healthy recipes.

If you hate going to the gym but you love all classes and want a complete system at home, this could be the perfect solution for you.

Is there a better alternative?

There are many other exercise bikes on the market including models from Peloton, NordicTrack, and many other exercise bike manufacturers. One of the main features that make these models stand out is the classes and the instructors. It will be a personal choice. Or maybe you'd prefer to skip the bike and get a fitness mirror instead, or sign up for streaming exercise classes.

How long it will take?

Exercise bikes can last up to 20 years, but maintenance is important. A one-year guarantee is provided on the touchscreen, fitness accessories (purchased from MYXFitness), bike components and pedals, and labor. The structural framework has a five-year guarantee.

Should you buy it?

If you are looking for a stationary bike, this model will not disappoint. You can use your own cycling shoes, and there is so much control over the intensity levels that it works for those just starting out on an exercise program. as well as long-time fans of cycling courses.

It comes with a lot of solid extras that give you everything you need to take part in other Beachbody or Openfit courses. Let's not forget the Polar heart rate monitor that pairs with the bike. At the end of the day, it's pretty good business considering everything you can get for $ 1,599.

Editor's recommendations



03 Nov
Blog

Apple Watch Series 7 Review: The Only Smartwatch to Buy

Apple Watch Series 7 in your pocket.

Apple Watch Series 7

RRP $ 399.00

"Stylish, customizable, powerful, reliable and with a larger field of view, smaller bezels and faster charging than before, the Apple Watch Series 7 is the best smartwatch you can buy."

advantages

  • Big screen, small bezels

  • Simply personalized

  • Choice of models and sizes

  • Comprehensive health tracking

  • Reliable software and notifications

  • Fast charging

  • Stronger and harder than before

disadvantage

  • Only works with the iPhone

The Apple Watch Series 7 could be the perfect smartwatch. I'm sorry to give away the game so early, but there are no secrets or surprises here – and that's a good thing. A smartwatch should be an extension of your smartphone, but it must also function reliably and sensibly on its own. It should provide comprehensive, motivational and informative health and activity tracking without alienating those who are not athletes. It should look good and easily adapt to your mood, style, and surroundings. It shouldn't require constant supervision or have complex or tricky features that overshadow basic day-to-day utility. New models also need to be improved from the previous version, so anyone can consider upgrading if they want.

The Apple Watch Series 7 has all of this and more. Let us talk about it.

draft

It's almost impossible to tell the difference between Series 7 and Series 6 just by looking at them. The 1mm increase in case size – 45mm and 41mm for the 7 Series versus 44mm and 40mm for the 6 Series – is only noticeable when you remove a tape measure, and the slightly larger curvature at each edge is only visible when you put the two of them look side by side and look very carefully. The speaker on the left side of the case is a single slot rather than the Series 6 double slot, but that's about as noticeable as the visual changes.

Apple Watch Series 7 on the wrist.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

What you notice are the much smaller 1.7mm bezels (down from 3mm on the 6 Series) and the increased field of view. Apple says that compared to the Series 6 and the Watch SE, 20% more screen area is visible and 50% more than the Apple Watch Series 3. The Ion-X glass above the screen has a contoured edge so that the screen follows The case seems to bulge at the top, just like a curved screen on a smartphone.

The version in our photos is an aluminum model in midnight that is black in color with a hint of blue and I chose it because, unlike the blue or green versions, it is easier to combine with more bracelet options. If you have a bracelet collection from an existing Apple Watch, they all go perfectly with the Series 7, just in case you worry that the 1mm increase will make them look weird.

Apple Watch Series 7 from the side.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

It would be easy to blame Apple for not changing the design much, but it hasn't because it isn't necessary. The Series 7 looks amazing and the Apple Watch has become a style icon in my opinion. The soft curvature of the case makes it very comfortable to wear, no matter which bracelet you choose, and it is really light at 38.8 grams without a bracelet, so you can wear it day and night.

While this is true of some fitness bands as well, the difference is that the Apple Watch looks great and it's incredibly easy to change the entire look of it when you get bored. Apple's watch faces have come a long way, especially in WatchOS 7 and WatchOS 8, becoming classier and more visually exciting instead of just adding complications. Put together a small collection of bracelets and bracelets, and Apple Watch is ready for whatever you wear, any time of the day.

Apple Watch Series 7 on the wrist from behind.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

It's this versatility that makes owning the Apple Watch so convenient. It turns it from a piece of technology into something that is truly yours. No other smartwatch offers such easy customization. You can even just choose the Wear-and-Forget-Sport Loop Harness, which is some of the best basic harnesses you can get and is adjusted for the duration of your possession.

The Apple Watch Series 7 wears no differently than the Series 5 or Series 6 Watch, and that's fine. It's still the most comfortable, personal, and easiest-to-live smartwatch you can buy.

screen

If the slimmer bezel didn't change the design significantly, did it change the screen? Yes it did, but don't expect the Series 6 to make you feel like a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The increase is much more subtle, but Apple emphasized the difference through WatchOS 8 by using new watch faces like Contour, adding larger fonts, and making better use of the extra space.

App menu on Apple Watch Series 7.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Buttons are bigger and easier to find, wider notification cards contain just a little more information, more text fits on the screen at one time, and you can see more at the same time. Swipe up to see quick settings, and turning on a focus mode requires a less precise action and is faster than before. But perhaps the best indication of how much screen the Series 7 has gained is the three additional font sizes available when compared to older models.

Apple says the screen is brighter indoors, but I didn't notice any difference. However, this may be because I never have any problems reading whether I am in the sunlight or in the dark, or whether it shows the main screen or the excellent always-on dials. It's sharp and colorful and doesn't reflect absurdly either. The Ion-X glass over the top is also tougher and more resistant to cracking than before, but to get the supposedly more durable sapphire crystal displays you'll need to buy the stainless steel or titanium models.

Apple Watch Series 7 and Series 6 from above. "Aria -habenby =" gallery-9-2823138

Apple Watch Series 7 and Series 6 from the side. "Aria -habenby =" gallery-9-2823139

  • 1.
    Apple Watch Series 7 (left) and Series 6 (right)
  • 2.
    Contoured screen of the Apple Watch Series 7 (red, top) versus the Series 6

The smaller bezels also make the Series 7 look more modern, even when placed next to the Series 6, a smartwatch that can hardly be called old. If you're from a Series 3 watch, the smaller bezels and larger viewing area of ​​the Series 7 will transform the experience for you. In this case, the Series 7 is a huge upgrade. I used a Series 6 last year and the extra screen real estate was evident when I used the Series 7.

Health and activity tracking

The Apple Watch Series 7 measures your heart rate and your electrocardiogram (EKG), measures the oxygen level in the blood, warns of heart rate irregularities, sends an emergency alarm when you fall, reminds you to start exercising if they don't notice you are moving or cycling, records your swimming activity and automatically starts a timer when you wash your hands. I'm just scratching the surface here as I haven't mentioned sleep tracking, dozens of exercise plans, Apple's Fitness + service, sound alerts, and the mindfulness app.

Heart rate on Apple Watch Series 7.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The health and fitness tracking is comprehensive, detailed, accurate and, in my case, completely exaggerated for my needs – and that's a good thing. That means, should I decide to do more, the watch will be ready without upgrading. The Series 7 records my walks, my sleep and my training at home without any problems and can be started so quickly and easily that sometimes I don't even have to go to the training app because the watch detects my activity more than usual and suggests a tracking mode. Or I use the app selection mode by pressing the bottom button on the watch to jump straight into the workout app. It takes seconds what I want as an occasional trainer.

I also appreciate the "silent" features. Heart rate, blood oxygen and even noise are monitored in the background, so if anything changes it will let me know. I don't have to do anything with setup either, since most of these functions are active by default. Apple's Activity Rings give me a clear indicator of my daily activities and are appropriately motivating, with reminders to move me and animated screens when I reach a goal.

Daily activity in the Apple Health app.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Overview of Apple Health.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Apple Health breath data.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

All health data in the Apple Health app.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The data is presented in the Apple Health app. It shows helpful trends that let you know if you're doing more or less than usual, summaries of your recent workouts (including GPS maps), and offers the ability to dig deeper. I love the All Health Data list view, which shows you the most current information instantly and also combines it with historical data. Tap each section to see a more detailed breakdown of the data. It's well laid out, very informative, and extremely easy to digest.

Although everything is presented very nicely with bright colors and neat graphics, the app can feel dense and complicated. But it does show how much capability the watch has and how it can benefit those who are much more focused on fitness than I am. I would really like to see the health and fitness apps combined in one, as I often forget the fitness app, which has more information about daily activities.

EKG on Apple Watch Series 7.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Blood oxygen measurement on Apple Watch Series 7.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Apple Watch Series 7 case back.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Apple Watch Series 7 is any fitness partner you want, and it works just as well no matter the amount of effort you put into the workout. It has all of the skills, dates, and motivations you want – or as little as you want – all without irritating messages about pushing your limits either on the clock or in marketing. This also goes well with the design and customization, because all of this looks as sporty or not as sporty as you want it to be. It's excellent.

Software and performance

Apple's WatchOS 8 software, released in September, will be installed and will be compatible with all Apple Watch models since Series 3. It works the same way as it does the Series 6, and I'll summarize my experience with the software in a previous article.

It's fast, responsive, and full of features. I easily get notifications from my iPhone 13 Pro and can reply to most of them right from the watch. Most messages can be replied to using the keyboard, which has a new QuickType swipe function. It's surprisingly accurate and makes it much faster to type on the watch's small screen. I also like how the iPhone comes up with a popup that allows you to enter text on the phone rather than the watch without finding the message to match. Not all messages have this deep interaction. For example, tweets can only be liked or retweeted and Outlook e-mails cannot be answered on the wrist, but only marked or marked as read.

It's still the most comfortable, personal, and easiest-to-live smartwatch you can buy.

The Watch Series 7 processor may be called S7, but it's just a name change, and it has the same performance as the S6 in the Series 6. That means it is 20% more powerful than the S5 chip in the Apple Watch SE , which Apple is still selling along with the new Series 7. You can purchase the Series 7 with a cellular connection and, provided you pay at your monthly cellular plan, the watch can make and receive calls and receive messages even when you are not connected to your phone.

Twitter notification on Apple Watch Series 7.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

With WatchOS 8 on the Apple Watch Series 6 and Series 7, I had no issues with responsiveness or apps. While setting up the Series 7, I had issues with the Set up as new watch option, but it turned on without any issues when I chose the Restore from a backup option. This is the first time I've come across it and I suspect it has to do with the Series 7 setup on launch day and the server delays that came with it.

battery

I've worn the Apple Watch Series 7 24 hours a day for the past week, and when I wake up in the morning after tracking my sleep, the watch still has between 20% and 30% energy left, depending on whether I have during the day previously recorded a workout. This means that a single use over a whole day is not a problem. At 30% remaining, it continued through the end of a work day if I did not record any workout. Alternatively, if you don't enable sleep tracking and disable it overnight, two days or even more are achievable.

Apple Watch Series 7 for a fee.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Watch Series 7 has a new charger with quick charge function and can be easily recognized by the silver housing compared to the older versions. According to Apple, it offers an 80 percent charge in 45 minutes, but when plugged into the Apple Fast Charger, it exceeds that and hits around 88% in that time. It reaches 100% in an hour. There's also a handy feature where an eight-minute charge gives back eight hours of sleep tracking.

Using an old charger with the Series 7 will charge it at its normal rate, which is understandable but unfortunate to anyone who has sat on a stand like the Belkin 3-in-1 MagSafe charger, as you have the benefit not received from the speed increase of the new charger.

Price and availability

the Apple Watch Series 7 starts at $ 399 for the 41mm model and $ 429 for the 45mm model. Add $ 100 for the GPS + Cellular version and even more depending on which bracelet you choose. For example, if you'd like the RED Braided Solo Loop Belt product in our photos, prices start at $ 449.

In the UK, the 41mm Apple Watch Series 7 in aluminum starts at 369 pounds and the 45mm model starts at 399 pounds. Prices increase depending on the bracelet you choose, and you have to add £ 100 to the price if you want the GPS + Cellular model.

The Series 7 looks amazing and the Apple Watch has become a style icon in my opinion.

Outside of the standard Apple Watch models, you can buy special Nike versions that are the same price but come with Nike straps and exclusive watch faces. You can also pay more for the Apple Watch Series 7 for a stainless steel case and sapphire crystal above the screen. Prices start at $ 699 or £ 649. The titanium Apple Watch Edition starts at $ 799, or £ 699, and the Apple Watch Hermés starts at $ 1,229, or £ 1,179. Functionality and specification are identical in the entire range, so all of these only offer material and strap differences.

Our opinion

Smaller bezels and a 1mm difference in case size have had a big impact on the Apple Watch Series 7, increasing its appeal and overall visual appeal. Faster charges and that helpful 8-minute zap for overnight use mean the relatively short battery life is much less of a concern and you can use and enjoy the watch 24 hours a day. WatchOS 8 is reliable and easy to use, health tracking remains unmatched even without hardware changes, and massive customization is fun.

It's everything you'd expect from a smartwatch as it integrates perfectly with the iPhone but still has enough power to be used on its own at will and never feels redundant due to lack of features or poor app support. The Apple Watch Series 7 has improved over the Series 6, and even feels like a worthwhile upgrade to last year's model for those who don't mind spending the money. It's also worth noting that Apple hasn't changed the price either, and has kept it the same in recent generations despite hardware and software improvements.

The Apple Watch Series 7 does anything I want, and I am very aware that it can do a lot more, making it feel like a safe purchase even for those who are just starting out with a smartwatch. The uncomplicated handling also makes it great for newcomers and thanks to the two sizes and different designs, there is something suitable for you. It's really great, and I'm struggling to find a reason not to wholeheartedly recommend it.

Is there a better alternative?

It doesn't happen often that I say this, but if you own an iPhone and want a smartwatch, there is no better alternative to the Apple Watch. There is usually an alternative, but in this case, buying an Apple Watch Series 7 is the best option available. This year, the Apple Watch SE is doing less well than it was in 2020 due to the lack of an always-on screen, a larger bezel, standard charging speed, and less powerful health monitoring.

If you have an Android phone, there is no point in making good use of the Apple Watch, so check out our recommendations for Android smartwatches.

How long it will take?

The Apple Watch Series 7 is dustproof according to IP6X, water-resistant to 50 meters, is float-proof and has a stronger, more break-proof glass above the screen. Belts can be exchanged easily and inexpensively if they should be broken or dirty. Apple should support the watch with new software updates for up to five years. Keeping the Apple Watch Series 7 for five years can be a challenge if you want to keep up with technology trends, but for everyone else, it's perfectly doable, given the Series 7's capabilities, performance, and ruggedness.

Should you buy one?

Yes sir. Not only is it the best smartwatch for your iPhone, it's also the best smartwatch available today.

Editor's recommendations



14 Sep
Blog

Garmin Enduro Review: An Endurance Watch You’ll Never Outrun

Garmin Enduro

Garmin Enduro Test: Durable sports watch for long distance fans

RRP $ 799.00

"The Garmin Enduro sports watch provides long-lasting power for ultra-endurance athletes"

advantages

  • Stunning battery life

  • Outdoor focused sports tracking

  • Comfortable nylon strap

  • Spacious, easy to read display

disadvantage

  • No topographic maps

  • Expensive costs

Fitness watches will keep you on track in the long run, but powering such a watch is a challenge. Long distance runners sometimes carry a charging cable and bulky portable batteries to charge their watch. Step inside the Garmin Enduro, Garmin's latest sports watch that offers an incredible 70 hours of run time on a single charge. Is the enduro a game changer for the ultra-running crowd or just hype?

Solid construction, prone to scratches

The Garmin Enduro is a hybrid watch that borrows heavily from the brand's outdoor-focused Fenix ​​line and the Forerunner running watches. The Enduro has a sturdy stainless steel bezel and a metal-polymer case that can withstand the elements. I've used it for hiking, biking, and climbing, and I still have to scratch the body of the watch.

Garmin Enduro worn on the wrist.

I can't say that about the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display. After about a month the watch will have a few light, superficial scratches. I probably got them from rough rock climbing or from sticking my hand through spokes, pedals, and chains while fixing my bike. The scratches do not affect the performance and are only visible at an angle.

The Enduro has a color display, but don't expect to be blown away by a rich, colorful user interface. Color is used wisely to either indicate critical statistics or convey information. The 1.4-inch display is easy to read in sunlight and is large enough to check your stats without slowing down.

Chunky but comfortable design

The Enduro competes with the Fenix ​​series in terms of size, but surpasses them in terms of comfort. Instead of the standard elastomer sports strap, the Enduro is equipped with a very comfortable nylon strap. The strap wraps around your wrist and is fastened with Velcro. The band reduces sweat and doesn't rub my wrist like other sports bands.

Close-up of the Garmin Enduro watch strap.

If you don't like the nylon strap, you can simply swap it out for a different version. Like the Fenix, the Enduro is a bit bulky, especially for smaller wrists, but relatively light, the steel version weighs 71 grams.

Fitness tracking for outdoor people

The Garmin Enduro records a wide range of activities including hiking, trail running, mountain biking, and other outdoor activities. Like most Garmin watches, the Enduro quickly grabs a satellite signal and keeps it safe even in thick forests. It's chock-full of metrics like ClimbPro that let you know when you hit a steep climb and a Trail VO2 max calculation that takes altitude into account. The enduro is over the top for gym goers and yoga fans, but die-hard outdoor enthusiasts will appreciate these extras as they climb mountains and cover kilometers.

Limited smartwatch functions

The Garmin Enduro is packed with fitness and outdoor-oriented features, but its smartwatch features are limited. You can receive incoming phone calls and notifications, but you can only answer them if you have an Android phone. Even on Android, you can only reply to text messages.

Thanks to its widget-based interface, you can view the weather, sunrise and sunset times and upcoming calendar events. The Enduro supports Garmin's Connect IQ app repository, but most of the apps available are wellness or music oriented and don't complement the watch's already rugged multisport feature set.

Stunning battery life

I thought the Coros Vertix and Suunto 9 had great battery life, but the Enduro blew them both away. With normal use, the Enduro lasted more than a month between charging processes. Charging was an afterthought – something I only did when the watch reminded me when it got low. The worst part was finding my charging cable after not using it for more than 30 days.

The Enduro lets you explore for days and weeks without a power source

In contrast to the Apple Watch, I didn't have to worry about the battery life even with activated GPS and fitness tracking. I've used the Enduro while hiking on both day trips and overnight trips. A full-day hike in GPS mode hardly harmed the battery life. It was so liberating not to have to worry about running out of juice before my hike was over. On a multi-day trip, I didn't have to carry a charging cable or power source with me. I turned off GPS tracking at the end of each day and still had enough battery after four days.

Solar provides a power boost

The battery life is further increased by an integrated solar cell that surrounds the bezel and is embedded under the glass display. Power Glass technology is designed to only provide extra power, so don't rely on it to fully charge your watch. You have to be out in the sun for a while to see a difference. I hardly saw a difference on short trips in the woods, but it did improve battery life on a day hike in the bright sun.

Missing maps and music

The Enduro's overwhelming battery life has its price. Garmin had to trim battery-guzzling features like navigation and music found on the Fenix ​​6 and Forerunner 945 models. You get breadcrumb tracking and uploadable routes on the Enduro, but you don't get the highly detailed topographic maps you find on the Forerunner 945 or Fenix ​​6 Pro. There is also no music memory. Yes, you can control music playback on your phone with the Enduro, but you cannot use the watch as a standalone music player.

Our opinion

The battery life is the killer feature for the Garmin Enduro. If you hike, bike or run long distances, the Enduro is a breeze. The sports watch is comfortable to wear and the battery lasts forever. You don't have to carry the extra weight of a battery pack or charging cable, or worry about running and charging at the same time. Its high cost of $ 800 may be a hard sell to some people, but it certainly covers everything an outdoor enthusiast craves.

Is there a better alternative?

The Garmin Enduro is a niche product for endurance runners, bikers and hikers. Unless you want longer battery life, a Fenix ​​or Forerunner series watch should save you some money and add some features. The Fenix ​​has map and advanced navigation features that can be more appealing to outdoor enthusiasts than battery life. Likewise, the Forerunner 945 has advanced run metrics for those who run for hours rather than days.

How long it will take?

Garmin's outdoor watches are known for their rugged construction, and the Enduro is no exception. The stainless steel case resists scratches and the nylon strap can be closed securely. We got a few light scratches on the display from climbing rocks or repairing a bike, but you can put a screen protector on. Garmin has a one-year warranty that covers defects in manufacturing or workmanship.

Should you buy it?

If battery life is at the top of your list, then go for the Garmin Enduro. The Enduro will blow away the other watches from Garmin and even those from competitors like Suunto or Polar.

Editor's recommendations



31 Aug
Blog

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Review: The Best for Smaller Wrists

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 functional picture ..

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 review: the best Wear OS smartwatch for smaller wrists

RRP $ 249.99

"The Galaxy Watch 4 has great health and fitness tracking capabilities in a comfortable package designed for smaller wrists."

advantages

  • Comfortable fit and size

  • Excellent fitness and health tracking capabilities

  • Seamless pairing with Samsung devices

  • Two days of battery life

disadvantage

  • Tricky digital bezel

  • Automatic exercise tracking can be inconsistent

the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is the slim brother of the chunkier Watch 4 Classic. With its smaller size and multiple color options, it offers largely the same Wear OS experience as the Classic, but there are a few key differences. It has a digital bezel rather than the physically rotating bezel that the Galaxy Watch series is known for. This reduces part of the overall footprint at the expense of a certain ease of use.

When it comes to features, however, you don't miss a thing. It runs Wear OS 3 and comes with health and fitness tracking features like blood oxygen, heart rate and BMI. You also get a full set of Google Play Store apps including Spotify, YouTube Music, Google Maps, Samsung Pay, and more. All of this leaves you with one of the best Android smartwatches for smaller wrist sizes at the expense of easy control.

Watch 4 vs. Watch 4 ClassicAjay Kumar / Digital Trends

Design and comfort

The Galaxy Watch 4 is much less of a wrist giant than the Watch 4 Classic, which makes it seem more like the spiritual (and physical) successor to the fitness-focused Active range. There are two size options, 40mm and 44mm, and the screen sizes are pretty much the same as the Classic, with the smaller Watch 4 having a 1.2-inch screen and the 44mm having a 1.4-inch screen. There are several color options including black, silver, green, and rose gold. My test device was black.

I got the larger 44mm Watch 4 for testing, even though my wrist is on the narrower side to take advantage of the slightly larger screen size – and possibly battery life. At 30.3 grams, it is a good deal lighter than the 52-gram Watch 4 Classic and fits comfortably thanks to the silicone strap supplied. Carrying, exercising, and sleeping with it all day was perfectly comfortable. Since it's IP68 there is no need to worry about water or dust, so I never felt the need to take it off and often even forgot it was on my wrist.

The most notable change is that the Watch 4 has a digital bezel instead of a physically rotating one. The screen sits flush with the aluminum case, but there is a black bezel that surrounds it along with two shank buttons that you can use to return to the home screen or reopen a previously opened app.

If you want to scroll through apps or the different tiles, you can swipe your finger on the bezel and in theory it should recreate the same effect as rotating the physical bezel with haptics.

Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and Watch 4 side by side.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Unfortunately, in practice it was never very accurate. Maybe my fingers are just too inelegant, but trying to scroll with the digital bezel was awkward and picky at best. All of this gives more credibility to my personal belief that physical buttons and controls are almost always superior to “fake” capacitive ones that try to haptically recreate them. Most of the time I only used the touchscreen.

On the plus side, the screen is crisp at 450 × 450, which translates to 330 pixels per inch. The AMOLED panel looks great in all settings and is bright enough for outdoor use. I wasn't worried about durability either, as the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass DX + and has weathered a few accidental drops and hits without scratching.

software

With the merging of Samsung Tizen and Google's Wear OS platform into Wear OS 3, the Watch 4 is one of the best smartwatches I've used in terms of consistency and ease of use. In many ways, Samsung's Tizen dominates the user interface with the different tiles you can set up to show what's important to you, tons of watch face options with as many or as few complications as you want, and solid and improved app support on Google Play Store . Bixby is there if you want to use voice commands, but I've never found much use for it. The initial pairing is simple and automatically imports things like alarms and Do Not Disturb settings from your phone.

However, getting notifications when first set up was tricky. I couldn't always count on messages to come from Teams, Slack, Signal, or Discord. After a software update, the notifications became much more reliable and I haven't noticed any missing notifications lately.

The Watch 4 is one of the best smartwatches I've used in terms of consistency and ease of use.

Apps like Spotify and YouTube Music support offline listening mode, so you can leave your phone at home while jogging. You also have media controls for most apps, including Audible, Netflix, and Pocket Casts. One app I used a lot was Google Maps. You can enter directions using the keyboard or use voice commands and have the Watch 4 give you directions. It's great for saving you the hassle of looking at your phone on the go.

See 4 directions on the map.

Ajay Kumar / Digital Trends

Check out 4 Spotify playlists.

Ajay Kumar / Digital Trends

Take a look at 4 media controls.

Ajay Kumar / Digital Trends

The only complaint I have is that not everything is in the Galaxy Wearable app. You'll need to use the app to initially set up the watch, select watch faces, control watch settings and the quick control panel, and find the watch. However, to get all the details of your fitness and health data, you need the Samsung Health app, which gives you access to sleep and stress tracking, steps, heart rate and more. Finally, for electrocardiogram (EKG) measurements, all you need to do is download the Samsung Health Monitor app and grant permissions, which you can download from the Galaxy Store.

That brings you a total of three apps to take full advantage of the Watch 4, and I wonder why Samsung doesn't put it all in Galaxy Wearable or Health. It's a lot of unnecessary app clutter. There are also some individual permissions that have to be granted in order to be able to use certain functions.

Health and Fitness Tracking

You won't be disappointed with the comprehensive suite of health and fitness tracking features included in the Watch 4. In terms of what it can measure, it is a closer competitor to smart scales than other smartwatches on the market.

The big unique measurement here is body composition. The Watch 4 can measure an impressive range of statistics including body mass index (BMI), basal metabolic rate (BMR), weight, muscle mass, fat mass and body fat. You measure by sliding the smartwatch further up on your wrist, placing your elbow on the table, and then pressing your fingers against the two shank buttons without touching your wrist. It's a cumbersome gesture and not very comfortable to hold for the time it takes to process the results.

Once you get the results there are lots of numbers, and as you can see in the screenshots below, it doesn't really offer much of a breakdown or explanation of what it all actually means. You will need to do your own research to find out if the statistics provided by Body Composition are good or bad and for actionable advice. That would have been a nice feature in the Samsung Health app, and I'm surprised at the missed opportunity as other measurements like sleep and stress tracking offer advice on how to improve it.

With sleep tracking, the Watch 4 neatly breaks down your sleep cycle in the Samsung Health app and gives you a sleep score, shows sleep stages such as REM sleep, tracks blood oxygen and records snoring and even calories burned. It was an excellent way to assess the quality of my sleep, especially on the unfortunately frequent nights I suffered from insomnia.

Stress tracking doesn't throw so many numbers at you, it simply records your stress level on a graph and color-coded bar. It's hard to say how accurate it is. It often told me that I wasn't very stressed when I was under a barrage of work and told me that I was very stressed when I sat down and watched Castlevania on Netflix. As much as I like Trevor Belmont and Alucard, I don't think either of them caused me much stress.

Other tracking features are pretty standard. You get step and workout tracking with a variety of exercises like running, walking, biking, swimming, circuit training, rowing, weight machines, treadmills, and more. There is both automatic and manual exercise tracking, but the Watch 4 is pretty decent when it comes to walking and running.

Watch 4 heart rate monitoring.

Ajay Kumar / Digital Trends

Watch the training with 4 rowing machines.

Ajay Kumar / Digital Trends

It had more trouble noticing when I was using my rowing machine, often being 10 minutes in my workout before noticing. The first few times I had to start it manually before it finally started getting what I was doing. However, it has a bad habit of ending my session early and I couldn't quite figure out why.

With sleep tracking, the Watch 4 neatly breaks down your sleep cycle in the Samsung Health app.

There is also a heart rate monitor and an electrocardiogram (EKG) that you can use to keep track of your vital signs. The EKG requires the separate download of the Samsung Health Monitor, which gives you up to three apps to fully use the Watch 4.

The EKG measurement takes about 30 seconds and requires you to place your finger on one of the button noses. The measurement is not intended for diagnosing a heart attack, but it does tell you if you have atrial fibrillation. It's useful enough in that regard, but not really something I would measure every day as the heart rate monitor automatically keeps track of things.

Performance and battery

The Watch 4 is powered by an Exynos W920 processor and has 1.5 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. This results in fast and responsive apps and measurements. I never noticed any lagging or hanging like you might on certain older generation smartwatches. It's also nice to see the 5nm processor finally reaching wearables after years of hardware stagnation in the smartwatch space.

The battery life is great, at least when compared to the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. With average use, I reliably got two days out of the battery, which included training on the rowing machine for 40 minutes, a walk in the park, sleep tracking, Spotify and general daily monitoring. It took just under two hours to fully charge from 1%. Instead of filling it up overnight, I usually only plugged the Watch 4 in when showering and I never ran out of juice.

Price and availability

the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is available at the following prices depending on size and model:

  • 40mm Bluetooth / WiFi: $ 250
  • 44mm Bluetooth / Wi-Fi: $ 280
  • 40mm 4G LTE: $ 300
  • 44mm 4G LTE: $ 330

Most models will be delivered in mid-September.

Our opinion

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is packed with features and has plenty to please Android users. With its sleeker design and more color options, it's more fashionable than the bulky Watch 4 Classic, although it does make some compromises in terms of usability. The health and fitness tracking features are impressive, especially body composition, although there is room for improvement. Wear OS 3 is smooth and responsive, and the issues it encountered the first time seem to be steadily being fixed. If you're looking for a comfortable, feature-rich smartwatch, you won't go wrong with the Galaxy Watch 4.

Is there a better alternative?

If you're an iPhone user, the obvious choices are the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE. They incorporate the best of the iOS ecosystem, are high quality, and come with most or all of the same features as the Watch 4. While it is possible to use Android smartwatches on iOS, the setup and integration are not perfect and you will be missing out on a lot of features.

For Android users, the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is our top pick, with the Watch 4 right next to it for people with smaller wrists willing to forego the convenience of the physical bezel. However, there are other Android smartwatch options like the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 and the TicWatch E3, both of which will get Wear OS 3 sometime next year. But the Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic are both newer. So if you want the latest and greatest, you are better off with them.

How long it will take?

The Galaxy Watch 4 comes with a standard one year warranty. It's dust and waterproof to IP68 and rated up to 5ATM, which means it can survive 10 minutes at a depth of 50 meters. It's also MIL-STD-810G certified, which means it has passed a series of laboratory tests for shock and vibration resistance. The included sports armband also seems to be made of good, high-quality silicone that does not stick after training. After all, Wear OS 3 is the latest software for smartwatches, and you're sure to get more updates, so I expect it to last at least two years, if not longer.

Should you buy it?

Yes sir. The Galaxy Watch 4 is the best Wear OS smartwatch for people with narrow wrists. It has the same great health and fitness tracking features as the Watch 4 Classic, but with a lower starting price and two days of battery life. While the digital bezel isn't nearly as precise as the physical dial, the slimmer and more comfortable design makes it a worthwhile compromise.

Editor's recommendations



24 Aug
Blog

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic Review: First-rate Smartwatch

Galaxy Watch 4 Classic on the wrist.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic in the test: A first-class smartwatch

RRP $ 349.99

"The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is a really powerful smartwatch with comprehensive health monitoring functions, elegant One Watch UI software and a sophisticated, elegant design that feels good on the wrist."

advantages

  • Closed, mature design

  • The rotating bezel is intuitive

  • The One Watch user interface is clear and logical

  • Comprehensive health tracking

  • Choice of style and size

disadvantage

  • The battery doesn't last two full days

  • Wear OS 3 software lacks gloss

  • Too big at night

Has the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic Do you have what it takes to top our list of the best Android smartwatches? After all, its predecessor, the Galaxy Watch 3, has done so since its release, and we have high expectations. The already tough job of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is made even harder by the fact that it has to introduce us to a new operating system and inspire us with its hardware at the same time.

A look at the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic shows that Samsung did its job with the design, but what about the new Wear OS 3 software? There's a lot to do here, but don't worry, this is a feature-rich smartwatch that deserves both your attention and your money.

draft

At first glance, the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic doesn't look that different from the Galaxy Watch 3, but upon closer inspection, there are subtle refinements that give the new model a more cohesive, sophisticated, and watch-like style. The stainless steel case itself comes in either 42mm or 46mm sizes, and I wear the 46mm model on my 6.5-inch wrist. Without the strap, it weighs 52 grams.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 classic.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The ribs on the bezel are smaller and denser than on the Galaxy Watch 3, the chronograph markings are more subtle, and the tabs flow more directly out of the case itself. This, along with the strap and buttons, is the biggest design change. The buttons are elongated, flush with the case and therefore less noticeable, but still separated by a button protector for a clean look.

The bracelet changes the watch the most, as the ends match the curve of the case and the flowing lines match the lugs. It works really well, making the bracelet appear like an integral part of the watch case, and the shape prevents it from bending too far in either direction, which makes it sit better on the wrist. Technically, it's a small design change, but an inspired one that really adds to the comfort and looks of the watch. However, if you swap the bracelet for a non-Samsung version, you lose that advantage.

The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic on the wrist shows the buttons.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

At 52 grams, the Watch 4 Classic is quite heavy and you can almost always feel it on your wrist. This prevented me from wearing it overnight for sleep tracking – it was just too noticeable and I found it distracting as I fell asleep. The 42-mm version is not much lighter at 47 grams and both are significantly heavier than the 37-gram aluminum case 44 mm Apple Watch Series 6.

Nevertheless, I don't find the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic tiring during the day and I love the balanced, elegant and unmistakable design.

software

The hardware is great, but the big change in the Watch 4 is the software. Gone is Samsung's Tizen from the Galaxy Watch 3, and the joint Google and Samsung platform called Wear OS 3, or simply Wear, is coming. Tizen has always been the better software compared to the old Wear OS and made the Galaxy Watch 3 our top recommendation for Android smartwatches due to its ease of use, design and reliability. With the new software, the concern for me was how much of Tizen is left or has Wear completely overhauled it?

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic app page.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The good news is that Tizen's superior design and ease of use are preserved through Samsung's One Watch user interface. Wear OS 3 allows businesses to use a custom user interface, which avoids all new watches from looking basically the same. The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic has a rotating bezel that is very helpful when navigating. You rotate it left to show notifications and right to show tiles. Swipe up on the touchscreen to find the app menu and down for quick settings. Then use the bezel to scroll left and right through all of the options that appear. It's fluid, natural, quick, and surprisingly enjoyable. The rotating bezel has a very precise action with nice damping and a decent "notching" feel when rotating.

You should spend a moment digging through the settings to personalize how your watch works, as lift to wake up isn't turned on by default, which means you'll have to tap the screen or rotate the bezel to adjust the display to activate. This is annoying when an app is running and the screen is timing out. An always-on screen can be turned on so that the clock always shows the time. There are many watch faces to choose from, from very simple to very cute, and all of them have custom environment modes.

Galaxy Watch 4 Classic shows off a cute watch face.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

It all feels very similar to Tizen on the Galaxy Watch 3 at first, but Wear uses clearer fonts that combine with the razor-sharp screen – a 1.4-inch 450 x 450-pixel Super AMOLED on the 46 -mm- or a 1.2-inch 396 x 396 pixel Super AMOLED on the 42 mm – makes everything easy to read. I never have to blink at the screen and the font choices are more sophisticated than Tizen's. The most obvious change happens when you swipe up on the screen and find a list of apps that includes the Google Play Store.

Android apps for Wear OS work on the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic as opposed to the Tizen-based Galaxy Watch 3, and that includes Google apps that are missing on old Samsung watches like Google Maps, Google Fit, and Google Pay. Google Pay works normally and you can choose either it or Samsung Pay as the default contactless payment system in the NFC setting. Google Fit works with Samsung Health, but it's not immediately apparent how or if it can be set as the default.

There are times when Wear OS 3 shows it's still in the works, but during my review came a small software update that also showed that Google and Samsung are working on fixing any issues. At first, Google Maps loaded as usual, but whether you could scroll through the map on the screen was unsuccessful, and routes were only displayed in text form. Both issues were fixed after the update. However, some apps are still shaky, with Spotify often timing out, leaving me staring at a rotating progress bar.

Many apps are available through Google Play, including common examples like Spotify and Outlook, but not YouTube Music or Uber. It doesn't seem like the Google Assistant is available either as an app to install or as an onboard alternative to Bixby. Notifications are nice and interactive when they show up, but there is no guarantee of arrival, a problem with the old Wear operating system that has unfortunately carried over to the new Wear. However, notifications are grouped in tiles, properly formatted, easy to read, and when you close one on the watch, it disappears from your phone.

In everyday life, the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic with Wear OS 3 has so far been excellent, although it is an unusual mix of Wear OS and Tizen. You get the good looks and reasonable navigation of the One Watch UI and rotating bezel, plus the frustration of unreliable notifications and apps that don't always work properly from Wear OS, along with lots of duplicate services. Since Wear looks different (when they arrive) on other smartwatches that run the software, much of what works well here may be due to Samsung's One Watch user interface, but we won't know for sure until a challenger arrives in the future.

Health tracking

The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic's health and fitness tracking is comprehensive, detailed, easy to use, and packed with features. The Samsung BioActive sensor is the outstanding new hardware addition to the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. The 3-in-1 sensor contains a bioelectrical impedance sensor (BIA), an electrocardiogram (EKG) and a PPG heart rate sensor, all of which are powered by new software algorithms.

Daily activity screen on the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The BIA provides a body composition measurement that shows weight, muscle, fat mass, body fat, body mass index (BMI), body water and basal metabolic rate (BMR). Data like this has only been found on a few smart scales so far and is helpful in better understanding weight loss and the effects of continued exercise on your body. It takes 15 seconds and all it takes is your weight and height, but it is not suitable for people with pacemakers as it uses a small electrical current to take a measurement.

It's typical of many of the high tech health features of a wearable in that it provides a lot of statistics but no real information about what they mean and what you can do to change them. The dates themselves are very variable and the results will depend on the time of day, the last meal, and much more. It is difficult to determine accuracy this way. It's probably only helpful if you can compare the results to another device with a body composition measurement, and even then you'll have to do your own research to know what to do with the data.

The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic's body composition mode.Measurement of body composition on the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

In order to use the EKG, a separate app must be installed on your phone, which lasts 30 seconds and only reports in the event of atrial fibrillation. The app shows an option to measure blood pressure, but this feature is not active on the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic in the UK. The watch also gives you a stress measurement, an SpO2 blood oxygen monitor, a heart rate and a health tracker for women, plus tiles for manual entry of daily water and food intake.

The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is a very strong fitness companion, with all the sensors you need.

Workouts start quickly with a tile with Samsung Health, and you can add Google Fit tiles to the watch, along with a convenient overview of your main stats. I've followed various workouts, including those with GPS. The measurements were the same as those I got from an Apple Watch Series 6 connected to an iPhone 12 Pro. The training mode's auto-pause feature stands out for its eagerness and always paused even when I just stopped taking a photo and then resumed when I restarted.

Samsung Health screen and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Training mode in Samsung Health with the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Detailed exercise statistics in Samsung Health with the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Heart rate mode on the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Samsung Health app presents its data neatly, and there's enough information for the casual fitness fan, including all of the data gathered from the body composition tests plus heart rate, stress, sleep tracking, step count, and historical workouts -Tracking data. I didn't feel the need to switch from Samsung Health to Google Fit, which suggests it offers a similar level of information and usefulness. The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is a very powerful fitness companion, with all the sensors you need (and some you probably don't need often), accurate data logging, and a well-presented app.

Performance, battery life and charging

The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic uses the new dual-core processor Samsung Exynos W920 with 1.18 GHz and 1.5 GB RAM. It didn't disappoint, with more than enough power to quickly propel the operating system forward. The WiFi range is quite short, however, and the watch doesn't always keep the connection connected or doesn't activate it automatically, for example when opening Google Play. I had to manually connect to Wi-Fi to start some apps, but this may change with another software update. Bluetooth headphones are easy to use and, provided they are already paired with your phone, the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic does not require a second pairing.

Galaxy Watch 4 Classic's heart rate sensor.Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The 46mm Galaxy Watch 4 Classic has a 361 mAh battery inside and lasts two working days with a single recorded workout and active always-on screen after a week of using the watch, assuming you turn it off overnight the end. It doesn't dare to last two full days with the always-on time showing, and certainly not if you're also using sleep tracking and tracking a workout.

There is a power saving mode that is activated when the watch reaches about 10% of the remaining battery capacity. It extends the usage time by a few hours by disabling non-essential features like the always-on screen. Charging is done with an included magnetic charging disc, and it takes about 80 minutes to reach 10% full capacity. The display usefully shows an estimate of how long a full charge will take.

Price and availability

the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic starts at $ 349 in black or silver and will be released on August 27th. The 42mm model is the cheapest, while the 46mm model costs $ 379. Add 4G LTE and the price goes up to $ 399 for the 42mm or $ 429 for the 46mm version. Buy from Samsung's online store and you can customize the watch with different straps.

Our opinion

The Galaxy Watch 3 is hard to follow, and any new operating system will always be difficult to implement perfectly the first time around, but Samsung successfully got around all of the issues and delivered an excellent sequel to the best smartwatch for Android phones from last year. The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic skillfully mixes a smart design with comprehensive health monitoring and offers it not only in two different styles, but also in different sizes. It is absolutely worth your money.

Samsung's use of the One Watch UI is key to the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic's ease of use as the UI is smooth, logical, and fast. The rotating bezel makes the smartwatch fun to use, and the convenience and robustness of the smartwatch make it easy to wear all day. I found it too big to wear overnight and want the battery to be used for two full days, but these are not issues unique to the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.

Wear OS 3 looks promising, but it's disappointing to still see the old problems of not getting all notifications and not all apps available or always working properly on the watch. It's better than before thanks to the One Watch UI, but still not as reliable or as app-packed as Apple's WatchOS. However, given its novelty, it should not be judged too harshly just yet. Where's the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic? Samsung has definitely made a great successor to the Watch 3.

Is there a better alternative?

If you own an iPhone, the Apple Watch Series 6 or Apple Watch SE are still the smartwatches you should buy. They can be perfectly integrated into your phone while others miss out on certain functions, and WatchOS is built up quickly and logically. Apple Health is great and the battery lasts a few days.

If you have an Android phone, the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic are the only two with the latest Wear OS 3 software, and this can be crucial for quick updates over the next year. Mobvoi's TicWatch Pro 3 and TicWatch E3 are slated to get Wear OS 3 around this time next year, and while both are still good choices today, Samsung's watches are a better choice as you get the new software without the long wait.

It is Samsung that has the Watch 4 Classic's biggest challenger. The Galaxy Watch 4 has the same features and performance as the Watch 4 Classic, with a different design and a touch-sensitive bezel. It's cheaper too, and your preference will likely depend on which design you like better.

How long it will take?

The case of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is waterproof to 5ATM and has an IP68 rating and meets the hardness standards MIL-STD-810G. The bracelet of my test model is made of thick rubber and feels very hard-wearing. Wear OS 3 software is now up to date and will likely be ahead of the competition for some time as there are no other smartwatches available with the software yet. There's a 4G LTE option for anyone looking to add cellular connectivity with an eSIM. The Galaxy Watch 4 Classic lasts for at least two years.

Should you buy it?

Yes sir. The design and comfort of the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic are top notch, there are tons of health monitoring features, and the performance is excellent. It's a great smartwatch to buy.

Editor's recommendations



05 Jul
Blog

Huawei Watch 3 Review: Strong Commitment is Needed

Huawei Watch 3 shows that

Huawei Watch 3 in the test: To achieve perfect harmony, you have to commit to it

"The Huawei Watch 3 is a beautifully designed, fast, and accurate health tracking smartwatch, but you have a seriously daunting setup experience to overcome."

  • Good looking and comfortable to wear

  • Accurate, detailed health tracking

  • Fast GPS connection

  • Fluid, fast software

  • Short battery life with all active functions

  • Limited eSIM support

  • Bad setup experience

The Huawei Watch 3 isn't just another smartwatch – it's one of Huawei's most important products in a while. The Watch 3 dispenses with the old software of the Watch GT2 for HarmonyOS, the operating system developed by Huawei itself, which we have heard a lot about, but have not yet had a chance to use.

The Huawei Watch 3 is the first device to officially launch with the software on board, and while it's quick and well-designed, it takes a lot of effort and dedication to get it working with your phone. Assuming you're willing to invest the time, is it worth it?

design

The Huawei Watch 3 is one of the best looking smartwatches you can buy. It is well thought out and very comfortable to wear, with a case made of 316L stainless steel and a ceramic case back with a high-quality, luxurious finish. Huawei has long proven that it knows what it's doing in both phones and wearables, and the Watch 3 continues that tradition. Its clear and restrained, yet exciting style is very watch-like and miles ahead of most Wear OS smartwatches.

Huawei Watch 3 on your wristAndy Boxall / Digital Trends

The 46mm case fits my 6.5 '' wrist and the 65g weight makes it portable all day, although I found it too big to wear overnight. Using ceramic is important because it feels so good against your skin. The reflective nature looks classy and doesn't sweat or itch like plastic. On the side is an offset, neatly textured crown over a single button at the four o'clock position. Don't dig into your wrist either, but I found the button to be a little too low on the case, making it a bit awkward to locate and press.

You control the Watch 3 via the touchscreen and the crown. The 1.43-inch AMOLED screen, with its 466 x 466 pixel resolution, is beautiful and best shows off when it shows colorful watch faces. It might sound strange, but the tempered glass used over the screen has wonderful texture, and the 2.5D curve around the bezel makes the swipe pleasantly tactile, adding shape and visual interest to the front of the watch. The stylish texture of the crown is easy to grip and can therefore be easily turned with your finger.

Huawei Watch 3 button and crownAndy Boxall / Digital Trends

If I felt loveless, it would be easy to turn the positives about the Huawei Watch 3 into negatives as most of the aspects that make it a winner – stainless steel, ceramic, light weight, textured crown, a single button, domed bezel – are the same ones that make the Apple Watch a winner. If anything, the Huawei Watch 3 is a pretty accurate representation of what a round Apple Watch might look like, and the similarities to the Apple Watch don't end there either, but we'll get back to that.

The sum of the parts of the Huawei Watch 3 works so well that I won't go into it because the design reflects the very best smartwatch there is to buy, especially since there are so many disappointing smartwatches out there and a good model should be applauds.

software

HarmonyOS is Huawei's response to its inability to use Google services on its mobile products due to US government restrictions making it impossible for US companies to work with Huawei. It's a complete software ecosystem developed by Huawei that is designed to work seamlessly across everything from Internet of Things (IoT) hardware to smartphones.

The app grid menu on the Huawei Watch 3Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Huawei Watch 3 is the first device to use HarmonyOS 2, and you can forget about Wear OS or Huawei's own LiteOS that it used for its wearables in the past. It's a world of its own and much better than either. The speed, fluidity and smoothness are amazing. There are no pauses and no slowing down, just instant response, a nice "bounce" effect when swiping between screens and very fast scrolling. It's attractively designed with bright colors, large icons, clear text, and some pretty dials.

I quickly got into using HarmonyOS on the Watch 3 without getting used to it or learning new layouts or icon styles. While that's a good thing, aside from the fluidity, speed, and pretty design, there's a good reason too – HarmonyOS on the Watch 3 is a bit of a "biggest hit" in portable software.

Huawei Watch 3 shows that

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Huawei Watch 3 menu

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Notifications on the Huawei Watch 3

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Push the crown in to reveal the main menu, which is presented as a grid of circular icons and looks just like Apple's WatchOS. You can even rotate the crown to zoom in and out of the grid, complete with haptic feedback. This is the default setting, but can be changed to a standard list layout if necessary. Browse other menus, like the workout list, accessed from the bottom button on the case, and the options appear as a vertically scrolling list that fits the circular screen and reminds me of Tizen on the Galaxy Watch 3. Swipe left on the screen and you'll get information boards, just like Wear OS and Huawei's own LiteOS on the Watch GT2.

Granted, there are only limited design directions that can be followed with software on such a small screen that has to be operated with a finger, but the similarity to WatchOS does him no favors. I changed the launcher to show a list of icons and spent time picking the best watch faces just to give the Watch 3 its own identity that HarmonyOS 2.0 is currently lacking a little.

Huawei Health app

The Huawei Watch 3 earns quite a bit of benevolence for its attractiveness and fast software, and it needs every last bit of it because starting up and using the app can be very frustrating. This is where the novelty of HarmonyOS 2 shows, and we see the challenge facing Huawei if it wants to find widespread acceptance.

The Huawei Watch 3 deserves some goodwill thanks to its attractiveness and fast software.

To sync the Watch 3 with your Android phone, you need to download Huawei Health, but not Huawei Health from Google Play. This version is out of date and will not work with brand new Huawei devices. Instead, you need to download the Huawei App Gallery and download Huawei Health from there. This means downloading an APK file, accepting system permissions, signing in to Huawei to use the App Gallery, downloading another new file, accepting other new permissions, providing notifications and location access, and much more.

It doesn't stop there. In order for Huawei Health to work properly, you need to install another app called Huawei Core, although it doesn't really explain why. To keep Huawei Health up to date, you'll need to go to the App Gallery – an app that isn't very welcoming to the point where you're forced to look at an ad every time you open it Hold your phone. This is all very daunting and a massive barrier for anyone unfamiliar with sideloading apps and using alternative app stores.

Worst of all, if you miss a step or don't enable the correct permissions, the Watch 3 and Huawei Health app will not work properly – which is very easy because of the fragmented, multi-step setup process, difficult to figure out why. It's a little easier with an iPhone, as an up-to-date Huawei Health app is available directly from the App Store. Huawei claims that when connected to an iPhone, the battery life deteriorates and, like any other non-Apple Watch, it doesn't support all features, including Apple Messages.

HarmonyOS 2

HarmonyOS 2's fluid navigation makes navigating the software painless, and there are apps for all major functions including access to the compass, breathing exercises, the music app and, if you activate the eSIM, phone functions. If you want to use the eSIM and you are in the UK it will only work with the Vodafone network. Huawei does not sell the Watch 3 with already active connectivity. Remember that adding an eSIM will cost on top of your current monthly plan. Even without an eSIM, calls can be answered on the Watch 3 with loudspeaker and microphone, even if not particularly loud.

Huawei Watch 3 eyeletsAndy Boxall / Digital Trends

I've received notifications with average reliability, although none can be interacted with when viewed, but at least they're formatted correctly and can be expanded to show more detail. However, when notifications arrive on the watch, it doesn't preview immediately, which is frustrating. I've found that if you let it sit for a few seconds before you raise your wrist, the likelihood of previewing it is much greater. It's extremely annoying because if you raise your wrist too soon you will have wasted your chance of ever seeing it without waking up the screen and swiping up.

Huawei's virtual assistant Celia is available by long pressing the bottom button and works well for basic commands, including starting a workout. It lacks some apps and features, such as Huawei's own MeeTime video call service which doesn't work in the UK, there is also no contactless payment system and no boarding passes. Huawei has informed me that the Watch 3 will have its own petal maps service in the future.

Frustrations aside, HarmonyOS 2 works well on the Watch 3. It's an evolution of the already decent Watch GT2 software and a step beyond Wear OS, but still way behind the Apple Watch despite the visual similarities to WatchOS.

Activity tracking

Huawei packed the Watch 3 with sensors. On the back there is a heart rate sensor, a blood oxygen sensor (SPo2) and a skin temperature sensor. A skin temperature sensor that was recently seen on the Mobvoi TicWatch GTH isn't really great for monitoring core temperature, but it can be helpful in understanding overall health over time. However, it's as much of a niche as a SPo2 monitor. There are 100 different training modes, automatic fall detection and all-day activity recording.

Activity tracking screen on Huawei Watch 3Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The exercise tracking screens on the Watch 3 are clear and very easy to read and filled with helpful information. I found that the Watch 3 received a GPS signal very quickly, much faster than the Fitbit Versa 3, and its overall accuracy in terms of step count, heart rate, and calories burned was on par with the Apple Watch SE. I also liked being asked to stop a workout if the Watch 3 noticed I stopped moving.

What I don't like is the incredibly irritating voice over that is added to exercise tracking by default. “WORKOUT STARTED!” The Watch 3 screams when you tap the start button, letting everyone around you know what you're doing. It also screams your heart rate, elapsed time, and other information at various intervals, all with the worst accent imaginable. I despise it to the core. There is a volume button on one of the menus that you can use to turn that hateful thing off.

That complaint aside, the data is quickly synced to Huawei Health, where a wealth of information is presented in a clear, easy-to-understand manner with plenty of depth for the serious sports addict. The main page shows important records that can be tapped for more details, while the watch shows you VO2Max data, training load, and recovery time recommendations. Overall, the Huawei Watch 3 is a very effective, accurate, and feature-rich health and fitness tracker. Except for this voice-over, which is one of the worst "features" I have ever come across.

Battery life

Huawei estimates a battery life of three days when connected to an Android phone or up to 14 days with a special battery mode. Hitting those estimates depends a lot on how you use the watch, and so far I haven't hit it either. For example, if you have heart rate, SPo2, and skin temperature monitoring active and track a single workout using GPS for an hour, the battery will last a day, and that's not good at all.

The heart rate sensor on the back of the Huawei Watch 3Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

With only active heart rate monitoring and a single workout recorded less than an hour in a day without GPS, the battery lasted around two and a half days. That's better, but not class leading. It is charged via a plastic base that is magnetically attached to the bottom of the case. It's pretty slow and takes over two hours to go from zero to 100%.

Price and availability

The Huawei Watch 3 costs £ 350, which is around $ 483, for either the Classic version pictured above or an all-black version with a rubber strap called Sport. It is sold through Huawei's own online shop or Amazon. It is not officially available in the US but could be purchased as an import.

Our opinion

With all its design, fine materials and hyper-fast software, the onboarding process of the Huawei Watch 3 is anything but ideal and a poor introduction to an otherwise very good smartwatch. Tech novices or anyone whose experience ends with connecting Bluetooth headphones to their phone will find the setup process full of complications and uncertainties using the App Gallery and Huawei Health. If it doesn't run correctly, the clock may not work as expected. It's absolutely not appropriate for a smartwatch that costs that much.

Anyone who has ever used alternative app stores or owns a current Google-free Huawei cell phone will find it far less stressful and get involved with the Watch 3 actually pays off. It's extremely comfortable, very well made, and packed full of accessible health and fitness features. However, as with using a Huawei smartphone today, you need to get used to doing things differently, using different apps, and being patient as HarmonyOS grows.

The introduction of the Huawei Watch 3 doesn't require the same level of dedication as using a Huawei smartphone without Google, but it still doesn't feel like a product that is totally mass-marketed. It's very close, however, and anyone who feels confident navigating the cumbersome set-up process and looking to a new app store in the future will be rewarded with an excellent smartwatch.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes. If you own an iPhone, the only smartwatch you should buy is the Apple Watch. If you're considering a smartwatch for around £ 350 (up to $ 480), it means the Apple Watch Series 6 is on budget. It's the best smartwatch you can buy and an excellent choice.

If you own an Android phone, the situation is a little different. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 are our recommendations for their strong performance and good battery life, but unless you really need to have a smartwatch now, we should wait and see what happens with the next Galaxy Watch release that the will have new Google / Samsung Wear software on board. It is expected to arrive in the summer and promises a far better smartwatch experience than Wear OS.

How long it will take?

The stainless steel case, the ceramic base, the hardened glass and the water resistance of 5 ATM should make the Huawei Watch 3 very durable. The strap is fastened with quick release pins and measures 22 mm by default, making it easy to get a replacement. Huawei is committed to HarmonyOS, which means the software should be supported for a while, but since it's fairly new, some features you might expect may not yet be there, such as petal maps.

The option of an eSIM is also helpful for the future if you think such a function makes sense and if you are equipped with the right network. There's no reason the watch won't be fresh in design two years from now, and in theory the software and experience should only have improved during that time. If you're ready to get involved, there's plenty of life in the Huawei Watch 3.

Should you buy it?

No, life with an Apple Watch or a Wear OS Smartwatch will be easier for most people and will be more tailored to their smartphone. But if you are more adventurous and understand its drawbacks, the Huawei Watch 3 is a risk worth taking.

Editor's recommendations



05 May
Blog

Mobvoi TicWatch GTH Review: Not a Watch You’ll Want to Wear

mobvoi ticwatch gth review

“The derived design and poorly executed software of the Mobvoi TicWatch GTH make it impossible to recommend, even though it's cheap. It's hard to believe that it comes from the same company as the excellent TicWatch Pro 3. "

  • Comprehensive sensor array

  • Derivative design

  • Questionable tracking accuracy

  • Uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time

  • Outdated software

Have you been looking for a cheaper, slower, less accurate, and less attractive Apple Watch tee? Good news, because Mobvoi's TicWatch GTH is a perfect match for you. It costs only $ 80 and looks pretty similar to Apple's smartwatch, but that's where the similarities end. If for some reason you're not just buying one of the many very good fitness bands for less or one of the far better smartwatches for a bit more, let's talk about where the TicWatch GTH gets it all wrong in more detail.

design

What is there to say The TicWatch GTH outrageously copies the familiar shape of the Apple Watch. It is slightly smaller overall, has a 10 mm thick case and is only available in matt black. The crown is in the same location as the digital crown on the Apple Watch, which even Oppo avoided on the Apple Watch-like Oppo Watch, but here it's a simple button. The 20 mm wristband is made of TPU and is attached with quick release pins. The case is apparently made of metal, but feels great like plastic.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

It's not very comfortable to wear. I noticed that the plastic wrap will soon get hot and itchy even if I don't do any exercise. The strap slips around my wrist unless it's pulled tight enough that I cut off circulation and the holder refuses to stay in place, meaning the end of the strap folds around underneath your cuff. It couldn't be better if the 1.55-inch screen lights up with 360 x 320 pixels, as this exposes the massive bezel around it.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Positive? The glass above the screen has a pleasing 2.5D curve that makes it easy to wipe, and the case is swim-proof with a water resistance of 5 ATM. It really is. What bothers me most about the TicWatch GTH isn't that it's a cheap imitation of the Apple Watch or that it's not very nice to wear. It's a more expensive version of the humble Willful smart watch I recently tried. It costs $ 36 on Amazon, but it's no better in terms of design and convenience. In some ways, it's even worse.

Health surveillance

The TicWatch GTH is filled with sensors – its only real redemption function – at least when taken at face value. They monitor your heart rate, blood oxygen levels and, unusually, skin temperature. The skin temperature monitor is definitely something we don't see often in wearables. It is either activated in the TicHealth suite of apps on the watch or can be automatically monitored along with heart rate and blood oxygen throughout the day.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The question is, why should you need to know your skin temperature? The temperature of the body's largest organ is different from your internal temperature, which tells you about a fever when measured with a thermometer. Although skin temperature can indicate changes in temperature, it may be due to environmental and nutritional reasons. It combines SpO2 blood oxygen values ​​and respiratory rates as health data that was provided on the TicWatch GTH but was not adequately explained by Mobvoi.

If you want to fill the watch with sensors and rate it crucially for each Mobvoi, please try to explain why we need to know all of this. A map displayed on the watch gathers all the sensor data ready to inform or worry you depending on how you view that type of information, and a vaguely descriptive phrase about the function itself doesn't count. I couldn't test the accuracy of the skin temperature monitor, but it never alerted me that I was either too hot or too cold. So I'm assuming that I'm fine and that it is functioning normally. The heart rate monitor and the blood oxygen sensor gave almost identical results as the Apple Watch Series 6.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The workout is recorded on the watch and there are a variety of options including running, swimming, yoga, and mountaineering. When compared with the Apple Watch during a 30-minute workout, the TicWatch GTH recorded a slightly lower heart rate throughout and in the final report, significantly fewer calories – around half – were burned. A software update may improve accuracy in the future, but right now the training data may not reflect how hard you are actually working. Since there is no GPS on board, this is not a tracker for serious athletes or athletes.

Another important note. Mobvoi has taken a step back from linking GTH sensors to COVID-19 detection, which was hinted at in the early press materials. On the product side, however, the company says it is working with Carnegie Mellon University on a system that will use the GTH's sensors to detect the disease at an early stage. Due to the accuracy of the training tracking and the lack of an explanation of how the sensors work now, I will not trust the GTH with my ongoing health in the near future.

software

You use the Mobvoi app to connect the watch to your phone. It also collects all of your exercise data and displays a dashboard with data taken from the watch's sensors. The watch uses Mobvoi's own software, which is reminiscent of the system of some early Amazfit wearables, as the menu is a vertically scrolling list and “maps” with information such as weather and training details are displayed to the left and right of the main screen.

mobvoi ticwatch gth review notificationsAndy Boxall / Digital Trends

mobvoi ticwatch gth review trainingAndy Boxall / Digital Trends

mobvoi ticwatch gth reviews menuAndy Boxall / Digital Trends

mobvoi ticwatch gth review activityAndy Boxall / Digital Trends

While the speed is reasonable, the software looks and feels outdated. A good example is changing the watch face, an action performed in the app because it takes an excruciating 2 minutes and 2 seconds to transfer and apply a new watch face to the watch. I know because I timed it. The first Amazfit smartwatches I used took a similarly long wait, but that has changed since then. Mobvoi is obviously happy to be completely behind the times.

Carrying and using the TicWatch GTH is often frustrating and not very rewarding

Notifications are accompanied by a weak vibrating alert and not all apps are supported. Outlook and Teams are missing from the list even though they are installed on my phone, for example. The information displayed varies from displaying most of the text to nothing outside of waiting for a message. You cannot interact with any notifications.

The watch does not have an ambient time display and you have to press the button to wake up the screen as there is no option to tap the screen. The raise-to-wake function works, but is very slow to respond. Although the screen has a decent pixel density, the quality of the text and images varies. Notifications look a lot more pixelated than other menus, so the operating system isn't done yet, for example.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Bluetooth range is also quite short and the watch is often disconnected from my phone. The connection won't always reconnect without me going into the app and forcing it to do so. Carrying and using the TicWatch GTH is often frustrating and not very rewarding. This situation is not supported by software that feels out of date compared to the competition.

battery

The TicWatch GTH has a 260 mAh battery which, according to Mobvoi, lasts 10 days before it needs to be charged. This seems accurate, but one irritating flaw makes it difficult to judge battery life. The battery indicator on the watch constantly shows a full charge, while in the app it remains about three quarters full. Not helpful and doesn't include a percentage counter either. Hence, it is impossible to judge when to think about recharging until the battery is almost empty.

Price and availability

You can buy the TicWatch GTH now for $ 80 or $ 70. It is available directly from Mobvoi's own website or from Amazon.

Our opinion

The TicWatch GTH makes me angry. I like the addition of the temperature sensor above the heart rate and blood oxygen monitor. It may help us better assess our overall health, and it's great to see it in an affordable wearable. Except that its inclusion here is done so badly that the value has been lost.

Mobvoi does not adequately explain why we should use or trust these sensors or how best to interpret the results. After comparing the GTH to another smartwatch, there are concerns about accuracy in some areas. It doesn't instill much confidence or encourage me to wear the watch all the time. Not that I want to wear it all the time. The derivative design turns off instantly, the bezels on the screen make it look even cheaper than it actually is, and the strap is uncomfortable so I don't want to wear it overnight to keep track of sleep.

Almost no matter how much you're looking to spend, dozens of wearables are vying for your attention, and almost all of them are better buys than the TicWatch GTH. That it comes from the same company behind the TicWatch Pro 3 smartwatch, one of our top picks, is as confusing as it is frustrating.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes very much. If you're looking for a simple, reliable fitness tracker, the Honor Band 6 and Xiaomi Mi Band 6 cost less and offer better performance. The $ 60 Samsung Galaxy Fit 2 may be a bit old, but it's more comfortable and looks better. Happy to spend more? Make your choice from our list of the best fitness trackers.

If you want a smartwatch, we recommend spending a little more and getting the $ 130 Amazfit GTS 2e, which has a far more attractive design and better software. That's when you want to spend the minimum. If you own an iPhone, buy an Apple Watch – the Apple Watch SE is fine – and if you have an Android phone, Samsung's wearables are very good too. Samsung itself is currently only charging $ 180 for the Galaxy Watch Active 2, so there are deals available.

While the TicWatch GTH is cheap, the savings you get from purchasing it don't translate into a satisfying home ownership experience.

How long it will take?

Because of its water resistance and durable metal case, the TicWatch GTH should withstand harsh treatment, and the strap can be easily replaced if it breaks. The software needs to be fine-tuned now, but no updates have come in during my time with the watch. If you can decide to buy and live with the fact that the software may stay the same, it should remain technically relevant for a few years given the extensive array of sensors.

Should you buy one?

No. The design of the derivatives, concerns about accuracy, and frustrating software have put it way behind the competition regardless of cost.

Editor's recommendations




13 Apr
Blog

Wyze Watch Review: A $20 Smartwatch With Faulty Connections

Wyze watch rating Leader03

Wyze Watch Review: A $ 20 Smartwatch With Faulty Connections

"The Wyze watch is beating above its weight class, but inconsistent connectivity is too insane to recommend."

  • Premium hardware

  • Very affordable price

  • Nine days of battery life

  • Inconsistent connectivity

  • Lack of dial and variety of apps

  • No interactivity with notifications

  • No automatic tracking of anything but sleep

If you're the type who likes to put a dollar out, you are probably familiar with Wyze. The company has built its reputation on smart home devices, which offer around 80 percent of its competitors' offerings at around 30 percent of the price. From doorbells to cameras, Wyze has set a new price for a wide variety of smart home and wearable offerings. The latest is the Wyze Watch, a $ 20 smartwatch.

Buying a $ 20 smartwatch with nine days of battery life is a breeze. But along with that price tag comes an enormous number of lowered expectations. It's true that this watch doesn't have the same features that you'll find on most high-end smartwatches, but it does have a few. So let's get started.

Premium hardware

The first thing you'll notice about the Wyze watch is that it looks a lot like a high-end smartwatch. It is made of aluminum and has a silicone strap. There is a single button on the right side of the watch. On my 47mm device, you get a bright 1.75-inch TFT LCD touchscreen that runs on a 300mAh battery. On the back, in addition to the proprietary magnetic charger, are heart rate and blood oxygen sensors.

Wyze watch design and display

The watch comes with a comfortable silicone strap. You can also upgrade to a leather strap if you want. Overall, it looks like a premium watch, but unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) the premium feel stops there.

The performance is a bit sloppy. From lifting your wrist to see the time, to swiping the page to see your apps, there's just a little hesitation every time. It's barely noticeable and certainly not a deal breaker, but it's worth mentioning.

Mediocre software

The software on the watch is very simple. Most of the meaningful interactions take place in the app on the phone. This is the same app that you use to control your other Wyze smart home devices. Pairing the watch is crazy fast. Unlike most smartwatches and fitness bands I've used, just turn on the watch and launch the app. You add the clock to the app and you're done. You are done. It's amazingly quick and loved that part. This will require more smartwatches.

You can choose from just a few dozen watch faces, and apps are even more limited. There are only nine apps on the watch, including weather, shortcuts, blood oxygen, heart rate, and run tracking. You will also receive notifications on the watch from your phone. Notifications are decent in that you can read emails and texts, but there are no replies at all. There is also no microphone / speaker to take calls.

With the Shortcuts app you can control any other Wyze device that you have in your smart home. You can pause notifications on your doorbell or turn on the lights, all from the clock, which is really neat … assuming you have other Wyze hardware. If you're just starting out, your options are limited here. Wyze is really trying to build an ecosystem here, and it's not subtle.

The watch's connectivity is spotty at best and there is no WiFi. So you are limited to bluetooth connectivity. When the watch is plugged in, things work fine and quickly. However, as the day progresses, your watch suddenly receives a series of notifications at once, as if the watch forgot to feed on notifications all the time. If you rely on the watch to stay connected to your phone and keep in touch with notifications, look elsewhere.

Focus on the data

Now we come to one of the main reasons people buy smartwatches – fitness tracking and data. First, there is no automatic data collection of any kind other than sleep. If you want the watch to track your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, or exercise activity, you need to tell the watch to do so. It's not the toughest thing in the world, but it's something a watch is supposed to do on its own.

The Wyze watch is similar to a high-end smartwatch.

In terms of the data itself, the accuracy for step counting and training distance is around 10% to 15% less than that of a Samsung Galaxy Watch 3. This means that while my Galaxy Watch 3 measures 6,000 steps, the Wyze watch measures 5,000 to 5,400. The sleep tracking is pretty accurate, although the app showed waking phases that I don't remember. That doesn't mean they didn't happen, but I don't remember them.

Accurate data is the best, but even inaccurate data can be useful if it is consistently inaccurate. In my case, I found that the data consistently does not match the information on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3. You can use the data the watch collects to learn certain things about your day. You may not know exactly how many steps you took, but you can know that you took 25% more steps today than yesterday. It's certainly not ideal, but it can be useful depending on what you're trying to get out of it.

The good news is that most of the flaws in the Wyze watch are due to the software. What Wyze needs to bring to the table here is more types of exercise, better notification interactions, and more variety in the watch faces. The photo faces help, but even the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 offers more variety in the dials.

What worries me the most about the watch is connectivity. To say it's picky would be generous. It is absolutely bad. If you rely on your watch for notifications, you will be let down. Data like sleep and exercise data is synced with your phone when you connect, so you won't lose anything. It's a relief, albeit a small one.

Our opinion

The Wyze Watch is $ 20, and you get more than your money on this smartwatch – but not much more. Wyze claims the battery will last nine days, which is in line with my tests. Having just a nine-day smartwatch is tempting.

Where the experience falls apart is the lack of watch faces and apps, as well as the connectivity issues. Hopefully Wyze will continue to develop the watch so that its capabilities improve in the future. But for what it is right now, it's not the worst way to spend a single Andrew Jackson.

How long it will take?

The Wyze watch is solidly built and has a water resistance of up to two meters. There is no reason to believe that this watch will not last long. How well Wyze supports software development on the watch depends a lot more on its longevity than on the hardware, which is well built and doesn't feel cheap at all. There is a one year limited warranty against defects.

Is there a better alternative?

Naturally. This is the bottom of the barrel in the smartwatch department. That’s out of the question. Even your traditional fitness trackers cost more than this watch, which is so cheap that it's difficult to get comparable experiences in a similar price range. The best competitor I see is the Xiaomi Mi Band 6, which has just been announced and will be out later this year. This fitness band offers a similar experience in that it is nice but not great when it is above its weight class.

Should you buy it?

If you are serious about fitness or notifications, then this is not the place to be. This watch makes a lot of compromises en route to the $ 20 price range.

Connectivity is the deal breaker for me. I would be willing to accept any other compromise if I knew this watch would notify me. To its credit, it hasn't missed a notification yet, but sometimes it has delivered them much later – and about 20 at a time – which doesn't do me any good.

Editor's recommendations




05 Mar
Blog

Garmin Lily Review: Bring Fashion to Your Fitness Watch

Garmin Lily Rating Wrist

Garmin Lily Women's Fitness Classic Smartwatch

"The Garmin Lily brings the much-needed feminine flair to a mostly male fitness watch market."

  • Stylish, classic look

  • Pulse oximeter

  • Excellent sleep and wellness tracking

  • Decent battery life

  • Grayscale display

  • No GPS on board

  • No music storage

Smartwatches are usually designed for function and not for fashion, which is why the Garmin Lily attracts attention. With its slim design and feminine color selection, the Lily was carefully designed for women. Garmin hits the bull's eye when it comes to Lily's looks, but surprisingly, the features are a bit short.

The petite size is perfect

There is little doubt that Garmin can make monstrous GPS watches, but the lily shows that Garmin can successfully downsize too. The delicate round face (34.5 mm) and the narrow 14 mm band make the Lily ideal for women. It fits my wrist perfectly and is one of the most comfortable smartwatches I've ever worn. I even prefer it over the Apple Watch SE, which has been a staple on my wrist for years.

With a weight of 24 grams, the Lily is one of the lightest smartwatches on the market. It doesn't put any strain on your wrist and is slim enough that it won't get caught on clothing. You barely even realize you're wearing it until you receive an incoming notification. Although the Lily is small, it offers around four days of battery life between charges.

Creative, classic design

The Lily has a classic design that is more like a luxury watch than your standard fitness watch. The band is delicate and the round display is framed by a thin aluminum or stainless steel bezel that is attractive and non-flashy. Even the sports models that have silicone instead of a leather strap share this classic, good look.

Although the Lily is small, it still delivers up to four days of battery life between charges.

When not in use, the lily's grayscale display disappears, leaving behind a patterned lens. The different colors have different patterns and give the watch a touch of class. The choice of colors is decidedly feminine, but reserved so that it goes well with a variety of outfits. You can wear the lily to work or for a night on the town and no one will know it's a fitness tracker.

Long-lasting but disappointing display

The display is bright and easy to read, but its 16-level grayscale is a step back from the colorful OLED on the Apple Watch and Garmin Venu. The display of the lily isn't bad. It's just not as good as its competition.

The display is covered with Gorilla Glass 3, which is scratch-resistant. After three weeks of wearing the watch, the lens above the display is still flawless.

Robust wellness tracking compensates for missing functions

Like most Garmin devices, the Lily offers numerous wellness features, including stress monitoring and energy tracking of the body's batteries. It can even calculate your breathing rate and blood oxygen levels while you sleep. All of the great wellness tracking, sleep metrics, and widgets you'd expect from a Garmin watch are included in the Lily. Garmin saves a bit on activity options – there are only a handful of timed activities to choose from. While there are fewer choices than most other fitness watches, the activities included are wide enough to cover the basics for most people.

As great as it is at the spa, the Lily lacks some key features. Don't bother setting up Garmin Wallet as you can't use NFC contactless payments with the Lily. It also doesn't have a built-in GPS and instead uses your phone's GPS to calculate distance and pace. Another disappointing area is music. The Lily has a music widget that allows you to control the music that is playing on your phone. The watch does not have built-in memory, so you cannot download music to the watch for offline listening.

Our opinion

The Garmin Lily is ideal for a woman who wants to control her health and fitness with a decidedly feminine watch. The $ 199 price for the sports band and even the $ 249 for the classic leather model are well worth it if you prefer fashion over features.

Is there a better alternative?

If you are a woman looking for a very feminine or classic watch with basic fitness tracking, there is no better choice than the Garmin Lily. If you don't mind a more general look, Garmin Venu or Fitbit Versa 3 might be a better option. Both watches offer an always-on AMOLED display, built-in GPS, and mobile payments for about the same price as the Lily.

How long it will take?

The Garmin Lily has a strong feminine side, but that doesn't mean it's soft. Like most Garmin watches, the Lily is as sturdy as nails and durable. Garmin is constantly updating its watches with bug fixes and new features. If you encounter a problem, Garmin offers a one-year warranty.

Should you buy it?

Buy the lily if you are a woman who wants a fitness tracker that looks like a luxury watch.

Editor's recommendations




03 Nov
Blog

Apple Watch Series 5 Review: Very Close to Perfection

"The Apple Watch Series 5 is near perfect and the best smartwatch you can wear right now."

  • Stylistic look

  • Comprehensive fitness functions

  • Really helpful health traits

  • Useful always-on display

  • The cellular model can replace your phone for a short time

  • No significant changes compared to Series 4

  • No native sleep tracking

The only product I gave a perfect rating for is the Apple Watch. The Series 4 Apple Watch for 2018, to be precise, as not only was it Apple's best product of the year, but it was also the best smartwatch you could buy. Apple has updated the watch to that Series 5and brings a handful of new features while maintaining the same design.

Does that mean it is no longer excellent? Do not be absurd. It is still miles ahead of the competition.

Same iconic design

The Apple Watch Series 5 is visually unchanged from the Series 4. It is available in either a 44mm case or a slightly smaller 40mm size for those with slimmer wrists. The case is still a slim 10.7mm and the 44mm model I'm wearing in the pictures weighs only 36 grams. It is hardly noticeable on the wrist, never gets stuck under a shirt cuff and the curvy cover is wonderfully ergonomic.

Sounds like it was designed by someone who knows watches right? Yes it was and it really shows. The days of being upset about the Apple Watch not being round are long gone. It has become an iconic watch design, and Apple's improvements to the Series 4, which increased the viewable area of ​​the screen without enlarging the body, made it really attractive. I'm not saying I don't want to see a circular Apple Watch (I'd love to see the company approach one), but I definitely don't think we need one. This design has become a classic.

Then there is the build quality and the presentation. It comes in an elongated box that can be opened. The watch case is wrapped in a tiny, soft protective bag. The strap is separate and if you get the Sport Band version it even has medium and long options in the box. The watch case is delicate but durable, and even the cheapest aluminum model feels exceptionally high quality. The matt, room-gray housing, which was combined with the white sports band above, is simple, stylish and wonderfully finished. It is as high quality as mobile products.

The design of the Apple Watch Series 5 hasn't changed because it's simply not required.

Would you like to opt for the Apple Watch made of stainless steel, titanium or ceramic? Sure, go for it, but there's no noticeable difference in texture or build. Yes, they are more durable and you get extra "Boasters" points, but that's about it. Nobody will know if you don't tell them. So stick with aluminum (it's 100% recycled, so it's better for the environment anyway) and spend the money saved building a collection of alternative tapes instead.

The design of the Apple Watch Series 5 hasn't changed because it's simply not required. The only place you can go from here, if technology allows, is to make the case even slimmer and the bezels smaller. Until then, it's fabulous.

A display that is always available

Here is the big change for the Series 5 compared to the Series 4: It has a display that is always on, meaning it always shows the time. It sounds a bit silly, but this has never been an option on the Apple Watch before. It wasn't a huge issue as the Apple Watch was quick to react when you raised your wrist, but it cures the pain of not being able to glimpse the time. A not-so-subtle increase in the wrist to see the time wasn't always appropriate, after all.

This also applies to fitness tracking: if you want to do push-ups and look at the watch to see your data without stopping, it was previously impossible. Workouts are now shown on the always-on display so you can easily check your progress.

Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends

The Series 5's always-on display is more than just a skeleton-style environmental mode. Pick the right watch face and it's an almost identical copy of the usual version. Apple had to overcome battery life considerations to make it work.

Speaking of watch faces, there's a selection of new ones out there. While almost all of them are customizable, there are several standout winners. The Californian dial is attractive, but the Numerals Duo’s bold simplicity is my favorite. It's easy to match the color of the numbers with your watch's strap for a really put together look.

WatchOS 6, which is installed on the Series 5 and is also available for previous generations, has some fun novelties to offer. I like the little tap on your wrist to mark the hour. It's a wonderful recall to the hourly "beep beep" sound of a digital clock from my childhood, without the hassle that such a function would cause today.

I've set up every Apple Watch since Series 0 and it worked the first time every time.

The Noise app is an interesting continuation of Apple's commitment to health. It warns you when you are in a noisy environment and how continued exposure to the sound can damage your hearing. The app measures around 74 decibels in a busy pub and issues a warning when the sound level reaches 100 dB. This is one of those features that isn't immediately helpful, but it does add extra awareness of your surroundings.

The Apple Watch and WatchOS 6 work so well together that they put all other portable platforms to shame with great performance and a simple, quick-to-learn user experience. It's fun to use too. I like the haptic feedback that is impressively tactile against your wrist or finger, and using the digital crown to zoom in and out on the app screen still looks great after all this time. It's all so cohesive and smart.

Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends

It's not without its problems, however. When the watch face sleeps over a displayed notification or app like the new compass, the background will blur and the time will appear in the top right corner. It's not attractive. Waking up the clock and performing your first task takes a little patience as you have to pause for a second before interacting with the screen after tapping the display. This is the only time the software is slow.

These are just small handles, not real problems. Even the setup process is flawless. After scanning the first screen of the watch with your iPhone's camera, the process takes about 10 minutes. It is so easy. There is no messing around during pairing and no graphics are rotated while waiting for updates. I've set up every Apple Watch since Series 0 and it worked the first time every time.

Fitness and health tracking

The Apple Watch is the only fitness and health tracker you'll ever need to wear unless you're focused on a specific sport like marathons or some other form of high-intensity workout that requires specific metrics. It takes care of steps, calories, hourly exercise, relaxation, VO2 max data, hours of standing, and exercise tracking for everything including swimming and cycling, as well as other activities like yoga and elliptical training.

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All of this is available elsewhere, but where Apple stands out is the comprehensive picture it creates of your health over time and the extra tracking that actually saved lives. All of this is one big reason to keep wearing the Apple Watch, and you can't say that about any other smartwatch. The longer you wear it, the more information will be gathered and the more trends will become apparent so that you can change your lifestyle for the better.

There is a new Trends tab in the Activity app on your iPhone (180 days of activity data is required to view these trends) that provides extensive data on your level of activity over time.

The Series 5 Apple Watch didn't add sleep tracking, a long-rumored new feature. Whether this is seen as a disadvantage depends on the importance you put on it. There are apps that monitor sleep using the Apple Watch. However, this and all future official Apple features require you to wear the watch to bed. This means making alternative plans so as not to charge the watch overnight. Is it a major oversight? In my opinion no, but it would be welcome in the future.

The Series 5 Apple Watch didn't add sleep tracking, a long-rumored new feature.

Data is stored and collected in the activity app on your iPhone. When you find that you have slacked off, it will suggest ways you can improve. There are also many daily motivational tools where "closing the rings" (an indication of achieving your activity goals) is addicting and lacking a goal one day is frustrating. It works because it is simple, but the simplicity doesn't mean you will lose interest or miss out on valuable data.

Introduced in WatchOS 5 and the Apple Watch Series 4, Electrocardiogram (EKG) monitoring is available to most owners around the world after an early launch only in the US. It's easy to use, but only meant to be used when you feel an irregularity in your heart rate. It doesn't resemble the heart rate monitor, which is useful for both fitness tracking and medical purposes, and instead falls into the same category as the watch's fall detection mode: you may not know you need it until you do. With it there, you can have peace of mind if you have an irregular heartbeat concern as a notification will be sent when one is detected.

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The data from the Apple Watch makes the activity and health app on your iPhone easier to use. The information displayed is easy to understand, there is a wealth of statistical and information about your daily activity. Even after just a few days of wearing the watch, you will find out where improvements can be made.

Everything is easy to use, the menus are large and clear, and the apps on the iPhone are both informative and attractive. There is no other fitness tracking system that is so well presented, instantly accessible, properly motivating, and durable.

Battery and performance

Has the screen always on ruined battery life? No. It is possible to get a full day (around 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.) and then half of the following day out of a single load. It takes about an hour to charge and a midday charge would easily take the remainder of the second day of use.

Your own usage will vary, and it is expected that battery life will decrease if you use the calling features of an Apple Watch or if you do extended periods of fitness tracking with GPS and heart rate monitoring. Even then, a day should still be possible. This also applies to the smaller 40 mm Apple Watch, which we also tested.

It goes without saying that you have to charge a smartwatch every day, and there are new features that put additional strain on the battery in the Series 5. However, it is disappointing that the new model failed to extend the battery to two days with regular use. Such an extension of the useful life would also make the addition of sleep monitoring more likely.

Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends

Early examples of the Apple Watch did not have the required level of performance. That has changed, and the only time the Series 5 suffers badly is when it is subjected to significant stress while using apps that require data. It's smooth, fast, and never frustrating, but the S5 chip inside doesn't offer any performance gains and instead focuses on efficiency.

The nice thing is that you can use apps on the watch if you want. When you set it up, iPhone automatically adds the Watch version of the apps already installed on your phone. You don't need to install the iOS version of an app on your iPhone if you don't want to as the App Store is now available on the watch itself thanks to WatchOS 6.

What else can the Apple Watch do? It works with Apple Pay, you can store music on it locally (or use Spotify / Apple Music), pair bluetooth headphones with it, make calls and leave your cellular phone at home, chat with Siri after long press digital Crown, reply to messages and emails, check the weather, use it as a remote shutter release for the camera, and even practice mindfulness with the Breathe feature. It is no exaggeration to call the Apple Watch the most complete, feature-rich, everyday smartwatch you can wear.

Price and availability

The Apple Watch Series 5 is available now in the Apple Online Store, in retail stores and at partner locations. The aluminum body costs $ 400 for the 42mm and $ 430 for the 44mm. Pricing is $ 500 for the GPS + Cellular 42mm model and $ 530 for the 44mm version. The stainless steel Apple Watch starts at $ 700, the titanium model starts at $ 800, the ceramic starts at $ 1,300, and the Hermés version starts at $ 1,250.

Apple offers a one-year warranty against manufacturing defects. AppleCare + also offers a more comprehensive coverage plan, but it'll cost you $ 50 for two years.

Our opinion

The Apple Watch Series 5 is superb. No other smartwatch offers nearly the same level of fitness tracking, comfort, performance, or portability.

Apple Watch Series 4 owners don't really need to upgrade, but those who didn't buy the last Apple Watch should go for this.

Is there a better alternative?

No. You would only consider another smartwatch if you have an Android phone and want a WearOS device for better integration. There is a problem with that, however. WearOS is light years behind WatchOS.

In 2020, Apple released the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE. The Series 6 should be viewed as the model that needs to be purchased now. However, if you have a Series 5, there isn't a compelling feature update to make an upgrade necessary.

How long it will take?

Three years, if not more. The Apple Watch Series 4 is a year old and strong. If you have an Apple Watch Series 2, it gets the latest software. So there's no reason why the Series 5 shouldn't be happy with your wrist for long.

Should you buy one?

Yes. Absolutely, completely, 100% yes.

Editor's recommendations




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