I confess to not OWNING an activity tracker myself. I get some sent on loan from vendors that I return. I don’t really need/want one and my gadget cupboard is full.
I do have quite a few sports watches and some of them have activity tracking functionality in them (which I don’t use).
I confess to buying activity trackers as presents though.
In both cases it was the bemoaned Samsung Gear Fit and both were bought from a well-known online retailer. (The one shown below is the loan one from Samsung for last year’s review).
You’ve read some of the reviews, maybe, so “Why did I Buy That?”
Well firstly many reviews are written very soon after the product’s introduction and do not reflect: ongoing bug fixes; better functionality; and improved app support. ALL of these factors have made several reviews of the Samsung out of date.
In fact the Samsung is not that bad at all at low level sport and more than capable enough for general activity tracking (4000 steps or 4100…does it REALLY matter?). But where it wins the most is that it looks nice. For about £75 it LOOKS REALLY nice IMO. And the screen quality is EXCELLENT and there are plenty of APPS to waste hours fiddling with.
VERY many OTHER activity trackers look like pieces of cheap tat. Except they’re not. They’re expensive pieces of tat. They might have some wonderful piece of innovation like Garmin Vivosmart HR‘s broadcastable optical HR but so what? if that feature is of no use to you and it is as ugly as sin then you won’t wear it will you? Most of them should cost less than £50 (look for Xiaomi Mi Band for a cheap tracker … cheap as chips).
Anyway, my opinion is irrelevant for these purchases as I won’t be the person that wears them or uses them. However in both cases the people I bought them for as gifts are still wearing them daily 6 months later … AND they love them.
Of course the other key reason is the Samsung brand. Both people had a Samsung Smartphone!
If I had to buy a smart band for me? I would still buy the Microsoft Band. Bizarrely accurate GPS, looks nice and felt comfortable for me – I’ve not seen the BAND 2, I hasten to add.
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surprise surprise! 🙂
“I confess to not owning an activity tracker myself.” What a coming out. ?
I will temper it by clarifying the words ‘OWN’ vs ‘POSESS’ (ie to be returned)….AND also would add that I DEFINATELY own more than the average number of activity trackers if sports-watch based activity trackers are included 😉 I can’t see the point for ME right now…I can for others and I could one day be convinced to enter into some group based activity tracking competition at work.