With so many offerings in the market, have you ever wondered which smart fitness watch to purchase, or what features to look out in your search for a smart fitness watch?
A recent purchase of mine — the Fitbit Blaze — was the answer to my questions. But how did I end up purchasing it?
Here are some of the features that enticed me:
- Long battery life. Having owned a Garmin Vivosmart 2 and a Samsung Gear Fit 2, the Blaze offered a similar lifespan to the Garmin Vivosmart — a single charge could last for three to four days, and with active heart rate and sleep monitoring to boot. Really impressive! The Samsung Gear Fit 2 had a significantly shorter battery life which was a great hassle.
- A watch face. Many smaller bands do not have a watch face but I prefer having a watch face to my smart fitness watch as it can easily double up as a watch instead of just a band. The Fitbit app does not boast many watch faces but the few they have are sufficient for me. A change every month or two helps change up the watch’s look-and-feel.
- Notifications. – Paired with my iPhone 7 Plus, I receive notifications easily from the watch that allows me to glance at a preview instead of looking at my phone. Something I like about the watch is that it provides pretty subtle vibrations which are not repeated constantly if it comes from the same source (for example, WhatsApp messages from one chat does not keep appearing as multiple notifications on the phone).
- Heart rate monitoring. Fitbit is known for having good heart rate monitoring and while the light beams from the back of the tracker may be a bit bright at night (if watch is not worn properly), it provides constant heart rate monitoring once every five minutes. The app on the phone also shows the trend of my heart rate in a neat graph.
- Sleep tracking. The sleep tracking on both the Garmin Vivosmart 2 and Samsung Gear Fit 2 were not as accurate as I’d like (compared to the data captured on my iPhone) but the Fitbit Blaze provides good insights on my sleeping trend which helps me to keep track of my sleeping patterns. The occasional extra insights it provides is also a plus.
- Ability to pair with both iOS and Android devices. I had poor pairing experiences with my previous two devices as the Bluetooth pairing drained a lot of battery and pairing was not as constant as compared to the Fitbit blaze. In addition, the Samsung Gear Fit 2 did not pair well with the iPhone and constantly dropped connection. The Fitbit Blaze, however, has not failed me in my two months of usage and has constantly been paired with my phone. While the Fitbit Blaze is being charged, it still continues to be paired with my phone and my phone receives a notification whenever the Blaze is fully charged, allowing me to disconnect the charging and to continue using it.
- Exercise tracking. If there’s an area of improvement for the Blaze, it’s exercise tracking. This feature does not seem as seamless as it is supposed to be on my device. However, the workaround of manually tapping the watch and logging the exercise is not of much a hassle as it may sound. I appreciate the insights it provides while exercising.
All in all, I do enjoy the experience of using the Fitbit Blaze and I would definitely recommend it to others looking for a mid-range smart fitness tracker.
You can get the Fitbit Blaze at http://amzn.to/2GJRwXA.
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