Had a shot of Using an apple watch and was a lot better hat the Microsoft band for steps,workout etc but was wondering if anything else was around thats better,Ie for tracking bike rides and day to day fitness,

Been looking at the Tom Tom,Garmin and Suunto,al much the same price wise,Anyone go recommendations of what they use

cheers

Been covered a few times lately. My personal preference is the Polar M400 which uses a separate HR strap. It’s about to be superseded by the M430 however which has built in HR.

Both do daily activity tracking etc and receive msg’s etc from connected phone (can’t reply but good for seeing if important when phones in pocket/bag) and are fine for multi sports tracking/logging. Good backend site for training and recovery too.

No experience of others. Went with the M400 based on DCRainmaker review. Great for me.

In standard stw style I would recommend the watch I just bought.

I just picked up a Garmin fenix 3 from sports pursuit at a great discount price for what it is! Again, I recommend a separate heart rate strap, they are just more reliable than the newer style optical HRMs.

This hasn’t been off my wrist since first charge on Saturday, has recorded a run and 2 walks, is paired with my phone over Bluetooth for notifications etc. Syncs with garmin connect on my phone, and actually looks like a nice watch. (If a bit big)

So much better than the garmin 910xt it replaced Abd the forerunner 305, before that, and the huawei smart watch I bought.

Honestly quite stunned with its features and performance.

they are just more reliable than the newer style optical HRMs.

Have you actually tried one?

Garmin 235 here.

Tom Tom for me – completely glitch free, unlike my times beta-testing Garmin products and awful Garmin Connect.

The Vivoactive HR is a very good option although like all watches the smaller display means it’s not as good for using when cycling as a dedicated cycling device. The Fenix will be better but is a lot more expensive, but for a decent value general purpose fitness watch the Vivoactive HR is hard to beat at the moment.

Hi Jam bo. Yeah, tried a fit bit and the huawei both with optical HRMs. For them to work their best they have to be done up quite tightly and I already have a weird swelling hands thing going on with endurance running so felt the benefit of it being always there outweighed by the tighter strap compared to just using a chest band when required.

The cost of the fenix with the discount and the fact that it is a bit more wearable as a watch over the 910xt has really won me over. It is a fair bit more expensive bit I don’t feel the need to take it off outside of the exercise situation.

Garmin 735 here, bought as a gadget, but its so useful that im completely sold on the idea.
Mine has replaced the cycle computers on all my bikes, i log my rides using it, it uploads to garmin and relive.cc automatically.
I can usually manage a few rides before it needs a charge, haven’t checked accuracy of optical hr, so can’t comment on that.
It displays text messages on screen, can be used to control music on my phone, has a massively customisable display.
When gps is off it will last 2 months as a watch, i know this because when i was on the sick last year, it was down to 52% after 6 weeks, although that was everything off except Bluetooth.
Would i buy another? Yes, definitely.

mentioned before but get the suunto ambit 3 from wiggle. The special exclusive etc is £219. It’s an ambit 3.5 really; more functions and better GPS than the normal ambit3.

no issues with software, navigating, finding GPS, anything really. Can’t understand why people do Garmin. Made in Finland not China as well.

Wife has a tomtom; mine finds the satellites at a lot quicker and has infinitely customizable screens. And comes with the equivalent of relive.cc for runs and hikes.

The OHR on Garmin is a load of tosh if used indoor for some sort of High intensity training where you sweat a lot. Sweaty outdoor activities and its not a lot better either. It really peeved me off as this was one of its selling points to me. I’m on my 2nd 735 and its just as bad as 1st- squash, indoor footy and outdoor running and it fails. Fun rides and its not bad. Fortunately I’ve come from 310+305xt and have spare HRM straps so use one of those.
However, the smart features (735xt) are very useful. I’ve also used it to follow a route on the bike and although not map, it was good to follow a breadcrumb trail.

Garmin Fenix 3 here without a hrm.
Maps my rides brilliantly, will sync with strava, bluetooth connectivity to phone to read txts etc..if needed. Love it. Its my daily wear. So many gos functions if needed track back etc. Will also give you your coordinates to see where you are on a os-map..

Another Fenix3 user here – fantastic bit of kit, with the option of adding various apps to it to customise it for your own particular needs.
If your using it to track runs and rides, it’s worth sorting out the settings, as it makes a huge difference to the accuracy of the track.

there’s this. And the comments are useful as well

Fenix 3 user here. For the most part it’s good, apart from the sheer size of it.

I tried a Vivoactive before, which was all kinds of crap in comparison.

Tempted to upgrade to a 935XT or a Fenix 5 just so I have something a bit smaller on my wrist (little girl arms).

The size of the fenix is what put me off it. The new 5s looks good but the £500 price tag puts me off.

Another happy Fenix 3 owner, it is a bit big but you soon get used to it. Previous watch was a Suunto, worked fine but I wanted something with a better battery and there was an offer on for the Fenix…

Cheaper, smaller option is a TomTom. Syncs to phone over Bluetooth and ok as a watch.

I used a TomTom for a while and for simple tracking stuff it’s brilliant. And it’s also really slim and comfortable, super easy to operate. Has intuitive user software and wasn’t particularly expensive. I also tried an original Fenix, which was huge and bulky, uncomfortable on slim wrists and a pain to fit under a cuff. Bounced about painfully on off-road descents unless you wore it super tight when it was less than comfortable.

Lots more functionality, most of which I didn’t want and, thanks to Garmin’s heinous software, was also nigh on impossible to use. The advantage of something like a Fenix is that you can use it to follow a track, but if you simply want to record rides, the basic TomTom is ace and the latest versions also do the fitness monitoring gig too, though I can’t really see the attraction of that.

I get the impression that a lot of super watch users barely utilise a lot of the functions, mostly it’s about telling the time and recording rides and flaunting a huge slab of ostentatious technological bollocks on your wrist. I also drive a 20-year-old car. YMMV etc 🙂