[Closed] Smartwatch to replace a pebble

– last more than a couple of days without charging

That's gonna be the tricky one.

Series 3 does that here.

Don't take it off, use calls, gps, etc and it'll still have 15-20% left the 2nd night.

Hint: keep it in Theatre Mode. Stops the screen coming on at every wrist movement.

How smart does it need to be?

If it’s just notifications then most recent garmin watches cover those requirements.

I swapped my pebble for a Garmin, the vibrate isn't as good, the alarm isn't quite as good but overall it's been great.

It's better for sport and the battery lasts ages. 24/7 heart rate monitoring is cool too.

Always the Suunto's too if it isnt needed to be too smart.

Fitbit Ionic ?

Notifications is smart enough. It certainly doesn't need to be a replacement for my phone which I always have on me anyway.

Thanks for the suggestions. Which Garmin was that prawny?

Vivoactive HR or 3 - both excellent. Long battery, good gps and waterproof. Ride or swim with mine almost daily. Links to Strava and Garmin Connect app is good. If you fancy programming, it’s pretty good for that too - have developed 3 watch faces.

Any of the above watchers have an always on screen like the pebble time lads ?

Sorry to hijack op. My Time is still going strong but I've yet to find a sign that ticks all the boxes the humble pebble does.

As it stands I think I'll end up buying another Time as a spare for when this one gives up the ghost.

I’ve been looking for a Pebble Time replacement too. It’s difficult to find anything as good without spending a lot of money. I wish another manufacturer would release a watch with a similar screen to the Time. The Garmins look really good, but are expensive.

As it stands I think I’ll end up buying another Time as a spare for when this one gives up the ghost.

I wouldn't, Fitbit are turning off support for Pebble in June. No more software development and web-servers after that time.

Guandax, which faces have you developed? Are they on the Garmin face page?

do any of these alternatives offer canned responses to sms/hangouts?

pebbles were great for that. I could leave the phone out the way in the workshop and send quick responses to colleagues without getting oily hands all over the phone or risk rolling over on to it.

I've got a Garmin Vivosmart HR - which seems to do mots of what you are after. I had a Pebble, an original Kickstarter one, but as support for it virtually dried up, a move was required. I'm an Android user so the Apple watch was out - and as I have already got a Garmin cycle computer, it made sense to go Garmin. Got my via eBay - since I wanted to see how it was. My only criticism is that in order for the HR to work you need to have the watch fairly tight.

Fyi - The Gamin Vivoactive 3 has dropped to £229.99 on Amazon.  With Jamie's code that makes £219.99.

Nokia Steel HR? No personal knowledge.Just aware of it.

Garmin Fenix 5, the battery on mine lasts comfortably over a week, including at least 5 hours of GPS enabled exercise.

The Fenix 3 I had previously would also last over a week without any major problems.

Garmin Forerunner 35 does what you need, albeit it's not that smart. It shows notifications and calls, you just can't do anything with them from the phone. Time is always on, fine to swim and shower in, lovely bit of kit.

I just had same issue as pebble screen was tearing. I got the original Garmin Vivoactive last week - https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/04/garmin-vivoactive-in-depth-review.html.

Really impresssed only £60 on ebay - lasts a few days - connects to GPS quick - does sleep tracking etc and is touchscreen. Cant reply to messages which is only real issue. Much slimmer then some garmin devices ive owned recently.

Original vivoactive user here (no HR) - same as the one in urflying's link.

If I don't use the GPS often and don't have millions of notifications coming through the battery can last anything up to 2 weeks. It generally uses less than 10% per day with no GPS activity.

It does everything else you're asking for also.

Nokia Steel HR is pretty good for daily wear, battery may last up to 3 weeks depending on use of the continuous HR mode (exercise mode). Biggest drawback is that it does not notify Whatsapp messages, only SMS and email.
There is no quick reply option either.

I've got a vivoactive HR at the moment which replaced an FR235 which the screen failed on.

It's decent, I'd have a VA3 if I had the cash because it looks better, Fenix is too big.

If you're using it for sports then look for one with a barometric altimeter, if you're not looking to use it for sport the vivomove hr looks ace, but it's not out yet, should have been out in december but has been delayed for some reason.

Edit - is the quote not working or did I just fudge it?

Thanks again everyone.

So, to clarify further, I don't really care about being able to respond to txts/whatsapp/etc from the watch - my pebble doesn't do that with my iphone and I didn't really miss that.

So the Garmins seem to be leading - I've read that at least some are either all or nothing on the notifications which I'd find annoying - I only want to see txts, whatsapp, maybe messenger

So in true stw fashion which does all that? 🙂

TIA again

Not sure how to quote in the new forum so in response to nemesis

"I’ve read that at least some are either all or nothing on the notifications which I’d find annoying – I only want to see txts, whatsapp, maybe messenger"

You use the Garmin Connect app on your phone to set up which apps on your phone can send messages to the watch. Mine is configured for text, whatsapp, messenger and who is call me.

Sorry to intrude again op !

urflying

<span style="color: #444444;">Really impressed only £60 on ebay</span>

As that for a new watch or s/hand ?

The garmin watches take the notifications from iPhones in exactly the same way as the pebble does.  If it's in notification centre then you'll get it, if not you won't.

I only get VIP emails, texts, calls, facebook messenger whatsapp and twitter DMs.

Probably why my battery lasts 2 weeks and it's only meant to do 8 days.

not quite prawny - on the iphone pebble app you can turn specific app notifications on or off regardless of whether they appear in notification centre - So for example on my phone I see email notifications but I don't on the watch.

Appreciate the input though.

Ahh, I had the old pebble first, and that was what you had to do. The time app was better. but I'd still set it up that way.

I'll have a look and see if you can pick and choose. Hang on.

Looks like you have to do it the old Pebble way on the iPhone but can do it the new Pebble way on android.

Not as good as the pebble, but not impossible.

I'd have been much happier if Garmin had bought out Pebble, not bloomin fitbit.

ditto...

I had a Vivoactive HR which does all that but wasn't pretty - I got a Vivoactive 3 as a Christmas present and it's even better plus does look good too. I've downloaded a few different watch faces for it - there are loads to choose from.

Samsung Gear series?
I have the Gear Fit 2 which does what you require.
Canned responses to text messages,
Built in GPS
ability to show watch face 'always on'
Good battery life
HR monitor
Step counter
Waterproof (ish)
Wouldn't be without it.

Samsung Gear series?
I have the Gear Fit 2 which does what you require.
Canned responses to text messages,
Built in GPS
ability to show watch face 'always on'
Good battery life
HR monitor
Step counter
Waterproof (ish)
Wouldn't be without it.

So at present in choosing between

Garmin vivoactive

Garmin vivoactive 3

Fitbit Blaze (seems to be waterproof despite not being claimed as such)

The garmin all or nothing thing notifications is a bit of a deal breaker at the moment.

Other options are out of price range as I've a tendency to break watches

My wife has a Blaze but never used it much, partly because the battery life seemed poor. I got her a Vivoactive HR instead and she's been very happy with that - or at least she was until I got a Vivoactive 3!

I've got a Gear S3 Frontier.

Fantastic smart watch, however if I had an Iphone I'd probably go for the Apple watch.

Or......left field option:

Moov fitness tracker with 6 months battery life and you'll end up looking at the fitness data on your phone anyway and:

A not quite so smart watch with 10 years battery life for the always on screen!

Several of my colleagues have Apple watches and seems like a nice device apart from what appears to be a fairly poor battery life.

I don't know how much the other options cost,
But you can pick up the Samsung Gear Fit 2 for around £150.

So to follow up.

Classic stw, I got something else... A fitbit blaze. Officially it's not waterproof and the screen isn't always on but actually I'm pretty happy with it. Will see how I get on longer term

Thanks for all the help everyone