I would require some assistance - from the Gear 1 users who still use it, and are willing to help. Basically since the Tizen update I have the same-ish battery life as with Android as long as I don't use the Auto-Lock feature, which was my favorite. As soon as this feature is enabled, I can barely make it through the day with one battery charge.
Now here my question, could, whoever cares to help, try to enable this feature on his/her phone for one day, and report back the results?
Basically what I am suspecting is, that with Tizen update, Samsung killed the Bluetooth Low Energy layer. It is now only used until the device is connected (for Advertising), after that, the watch and the phone switch to standard BT EDR. I can trace with a Bluetooth Low Energy analyzer that the BT LE connection is dropped, however I cannot trace the BT EDR connection with my analyzer so far. I will try to get a spectrum analyzer to check in which bands the watch actually keeps communicating with the Phone, but I am almost definitively positive that it is not BT LE. Which means, Samsung is either willingly trashing the Gear 1 in favor for Gear 2+ (for marketing purposes), as the Gear 1 has bigger battery than the Gear 2, or they screwed up both, due to a problem in the Android 4.4.x, where the BT LE stack is partly broken (by Google), so they can use it also on their newer phones, which have 4.4.x running on them.
thanks,
meh
I use auto-lock all the time.
I used it the Gear 1 launched and have used it since switching shortly after the Tizen update.
I haven't noticed a problem with battery life. If anything, the battery is better.
The biggest effect on battery life for me is the watch face.
I get the best battery life using one of the inbuilt digital faces with a black background.
I use the shortcut watch face with black background and orange font.
If I use any of the analog faces (inbuilt or downloaded from store) then battery life is a lot worse.
On a typical day, I can have 50% battery left after about 12 hours.
Using my favourite analog face (Moonlight) it will usually be about 20% after about 12 hours.
Always with auto lock and motion wake on. Screen brightness at 3.
Interesting topic on BT low energy-if I recall, the android galaxy gear needed 4.3 jelly bean in order to utilize BTLE. Some Samsung phones at the time, gs3 as an example, used proprietary methods to utilize BTLE.
Can you provide screenshots or testing data on your findings?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Free mobile app
stevedrz said:
Interesting topic on BT low energy-if I recall, the android galaxy gear needed 4.3 jelly bean in order to utilize BTLE. Some Samsung phones at the time, gs3 as an example, used proprietary methods to utilize BTLE.
Can you provide screenshots or testing data on your findings?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well at the moment, I just managed to brick the gear completely while trying to downgrade to android ... seems to be hanging at boot, and Odin keeps trying to setup a connection; so it seems beyond saving. Will try to flash it from work once more, if it fails, I am free of the Samsung curse If not, I will add the logs today from both android (and tizen hopefully).
cheerios,
meh
Back with more info ...
I managed to unbrick my Gear, and to flash Android back on it. It seems it has the same behavior. Advertisings are only used to notify that the watch is there, as soon as the mobile phone sees it, it will (and on android might even not) connect shortly on BLE and then move to BT Classic.
See the attached picture / diagram of the BT LE connection that happens, until the watch terminates it.
I honestly do not understand why Samsung is not using the BLE layer more, it would bring, as far as I used BLE so far, much more battery performance, perhaps twice what is offered for now.
Please take this only as measurements from someone with some experience and limited tooling related to what can be traced on BT LE. There might be some magic what might be going on, which I am unable to trace, like private BT LE connections and so on. If someone has a broadband BT capture device at hand (they are very expensive) to monitor all channels at the same time, we might get additional information, for now, I just have this basic toy, which can trace on a single channel at a time, so it needs to get the start of the connection, and hop the hopping sequence of the bluetooth LE sequence synchronous to the master/slave communication. If Samsung handles some private hopping data, which I am not able to trace - they still might use BT LE, but I doubt it, as BT LE APIs are very limited on Android, so only very few magic can be done from the phone.
And what I was saying in the part about Android 4.4.x and BT LE in my first post above, my affirmations are based on my development experience with BT LE on Nexus 5 (which had major problems, including BT Chip / BT stack rebooting randomly while BT LE energy was used - especially when RSSI reading, and on Android L RSSI reading is disabled / does not work at all).
Oh, and what I forgot to mention is:
a.) Tizen has the exact same behavior
b.) the radiated tx power of the watch measured by the phone is 0dB! I am not sure how accurate the phone is, but that is basically 30-50dB more than any slave I could find to toy with (and I have several: stuff from work, step counter from fitbit, and other ...).
And now one more point:
c.) It seems that now the Android version has the same current consumption as the Tizen (Auto-Lock drains the battery). I think Samsung changed something in the Gear Manager when Gear 2 was released.
cheers,
meh
richlum said:
I use auto-lock all the time.
I used it the Gear 1 launched and have used it since switching shortly after the Tizen update.
I haven't noticed a problem with battery life. If anything, the battery is better.
The biggest effect on battery life for me is the watch face.
I get the best battery life using one of the inbuilt digital faces with a black background.
I use the shortcut watch face with black background and orange font.
If I use any of the analog faces (inbuilt or downloaded from store) then battery life is a lot worse.
On a typical day, I can have 50% battery left after about 12 hours.
Using my favourite analog face (Moonlight) it will usually be about 20% after about 12 hours.
Always with auto lock and motion wake on. Screen brightness at 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And to your answer, in the first 3 months or so of the Samsung Gear 1 (or at least until Samsung started to release the Gear 2), I had with Android, Motion Wake, Auto-Lock, Weather Watch Face (sync weather every 6 hours), Brightness 3, Pedometer active ~2 Days (or a bit more) of active battery life (around every 2nd night I had to charge it - but never every night, right now I can get the same performance only if I disable the Auto-Lock), so yes, something dramatically changed in the way Gear Manager talks to the Watch.
And if you want proof that something did something wrong with the Bluetooth, you can check by disabling bluetooth on your watch, then you get ~10% battery used / day. If you do not move it, even less.
cheerios,
meh
And here the final piece of proof ... I managed to get a broadband analyzer, and as it can be shown, by the tiny fat spikes, which represent communications on the BL Classic Band (yes I know it is the same as the BT LE, but I had the digital analyzer for BT LE also active at the same time, and there was no BT LE communication). So unless some other proof comes up, I can conclude that the Samsung Gear (at least the Gear 1) does not use BT LE anymore, except for Advertising packets while the Gear is disconnected, and it is stopped as soon as the Gear connects to the phone over BT Classic; all other communication happens over BT Classic.
Additionally, since with the actual (latest version of) Gear Manager and my Tizen watch downgraded to Android again, to the version where I still had 2 days with Auto Lock feature on it was not the Tizen update which thrashed that feature and generally the battery consumption, as the Android flashed watch behaves identically now. So either Samsung changed BT LE to BT Classic communication in one of the Gear Manager updates when they moved to Android 4.4.x as Android 4.4.x has problems with BT generally, and especially with BT LE data exchange (at least on Nexus 5, but I doubt it is only a device issue, as the Android part itself fails in loosing pairing data and ongoing connections), or it was always over BT Classic, but they had looser timings previously when on Android, to not drain the Watch so fast, as Android was also helping to the job a lot - thus the longer Screen Unlock timings in the Android days, and now faster, as they can communicate a lot more often, since the Tizen OS does not drain that much battery anymore.
I've always found myself explaining to people about how great the Pebble 2 is which many people never really knew about because it's not one of the more expensive and prestigious brands like an Apple Watch. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Tech Junkie and can afford whatever watch I want, but I'm also not one looking to pay a higher price just to wear something to impress people - I want good functionality, practicality and value. Nothing could match my Pebble 2. When I told people I only need to charge it once every 5-7 days, they are flabbergasted. Heart Rate Monitor? Check. HUGE selection of custom 3rd party apps. Check. Design your own custom watch face with dynamic stats (like temp, phone signal strength, etc.)? Check. Waterproof to the point you can swim with it on? Check.
All that, under $150? Check.
Now, my eyes have grown old and I can barely read the text messages that come through as it is a pretty small face. I don't NEED color - I prefer long battery life. So what's out there (I'm an Android Phone User) that people would say is the closest replacement that has a bigger screen? Maybe I just keep wearing my Pebble and wear trifocals all the time - no thanks.
My MUST haves are:
- Long battery life (no more than 2 charges per week are necessary)
- Waterproof (can swim in it)
- Heart Rate Monitor
- Large screen, but I'm not an NFL player so not too gigantic
Nice to haves but not MUSTS:
- SOME degree of customization (some 3rd party apps, custom watch screen design, etc.)
- Built in GPS (I really don't need this - I'm not a runner and my phone is always with me, so would rather avoid paying extra for it, but if I have to have it to get other stuff I must have then so be it.)
All I really need the watch to do is: tell me the date and time, show my text messages and notifications (with setting to increase default text size), track my fitness activities, and don't bug me about charging it every 1-2 days.
Only Garmin Watch
Amazfit bip, Stratos, pace
All Amazfit (bip Stratos....) have almost 0 connected feature, just basic notification a Weather wich works only sometime and nothing else. 0 connected app, so not really smartwatch, maybe just a poor tracker
dersie said:
All Amazfit (bip Stratos....) have almost 0 connected feature, just basic notification a Weather wich works only sometime and nothing else. 0 connected app, so not really smartwatch, maybe just a poor tracker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you give some examples of "connected features" you think that most users would find extremely useful in their daily lives? I've found with many devices, a lot of bells and whistles are just that, bells and whistles to brag about having and when you look at your actual use of the device, you find you really don't use those features.
For example, on my Pebble 2, I can reply to text messages both using canned text responses or voice transcription by talking into the watch. I've had the watch for like 3 years and I've used the text reply maybe two or three times and the voice transcription once. When I used it, I thought, "that was sort of cool." But then why didn't I ever use it again? Because it wasn't THAT useful considering 99% of the time I have my phone sitting next to me or in my pants or jacket pocket and talking to my watch I look like a complete DORK. I can just easily type the reply on my phone. The notification is what's important as sometimes I'm in another room, or have it in my jacket in a place I can't hear the notification or feel the vibration.
So I'm still quite interested in what "connected features" a Bip doesn't come with that are so useful?
In my pebble I add item to my shopping list every day with WunderVoice, I read my List on my pebble with WunderPebble : shopping, to do,........, I read my Google Task, I look every time at the moon location, I take quick note and view also memo quickly, I look at my next event calendar, I mark read my mail notification, I can select snooze 5,10, 30min or dismiss my event calendar, I use multiple timers for 25min, 30min, 35min, 40min to look at my grilled meat, I look my phone battery, I can set my phone to vibe or mute with my pebble , I start some task with tasker, I use multi counter to count different things.....
All this can be done with few click in 10s, in this time I have not the time to put my phone out my pocket
dersie said:
In my pebble I add item to my shopping list every day with WunderVoice, I read my List on my pebble with WunderPebble : shopping, to do,........, I read my Google Task, I look every time at the moon location, I take quick note and view also memo quickly, I look at my next event calendar, I mark read my mail notification, I can select snooze 5,10, 30min or dismiss my event calendar, I use multiple timers for 25min, 30min, 35min, 40min to look at my grilled meat, I look my phone battery, I can set my phone to vibe or mute with my pebble , I start some task with tasker, I use multi counter to count different things.....
All this can be done with few click in 10s, in this time I have not the time to put my phone out my pocket
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With most all of that, shopping list, tasks, moon location, notes - can you explain what *specific benefits* there are to using your watch instead of your phone to input information (via keyboard or voice) and to read lists of information (considering the phone has a much bigger screen)? Why is using the watch so much better to do those things?
Easier and quicker
dersie said:
All Amazfit (bip Stratos....) have almost 0 connected feature, just basic notification a Weather wich works only sometime and nothing else. 0 connected app, so not really smartwatch, maybe just a poor tracker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was not the main scope of the op
dersie said:
Easier and quicker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, you must be beside yourself trying to figure out what to do with all that spare time the watch creates being so much quicker?
I just switched back from an Amazfit Pace to my Pebble 2 SE. Notifications just don't work reliably on the Amazfit, and all the fitness stuff is too much for me. I just want a geeky watch with working notifications. That's a Pebble 2 SE
chaozz said:
I just switched back from an Amazfit Pace to my Pebble 2 SE. Notifications just don't work reliably on the Amazfit, and all the fitness stuff is too much for me. I just want a geeky watch with working notifications. That's a Pebble 2 SE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also returned my pace due to bad battery life and notification reliability. I'm using a BIP and the notifications are there in real time(using gadgetbridge like before with PTS) and it gives me a minimum of 4 WEEKS of battery life :highfive:
No single freeze or glitch since months, absolutely reliable for that price! Custom watchfaces easily made.
My 2nd Pebble 2 HR just died & I've been shopping to replace it, but havent found anything that does everything I need it to, or that my Pebble used to. I had upgraded to Rebble prior to their deaths, paid for voice and weather since Rebble was up. I had found some good sites to investigate: Smartwatch Series website lets you look at detailed valuations of specs and comparisons of many smartwatches.
Battery is one of my biggest anxieties, but glowing screens or timeouts also was a concern. I tried the Samsung Gear Sport, then the Samsung Galaxy Active 2, and although they had many great features and 2+ days of use between charges (Active 2 only) with comparable use-time to my pebble, the screen glowed if on all the time, and when I went swimming, the screen face would change unless I locked it before entering the water.
I settled with a compromise... I was able to get a new PowerWatch 2 Luxe edition (usually $699) for $400. Still, way to expensive, but, I get messages (no reply), health basics, always on LCD screen (no glow) with back-lit ability, Heat Rate and GPS, and NO CHARGING NEEDED. EVER. Solar and thermoelectric engine (backup wireless charging dock included just in case) keep it charged always. I can't do voice, can't customize my watch face, can't load apps (stopwatch and timer are there), and no weather.
dumbquestion said:
My 2nd Pebble 2 HR just died & I've been shopping to replace it, but havent found anything that does everything I need it to, or that my Pebble used to. I had upgraded to Rebble prior to their deaths, paid for voice and weather since Rebble was up. I had found some good sites to investigate: Smartwatch Series website lets you look at detailed valuations of specs and comparisons of many smartwatches.
Battery is one of my biggest anxieties, but glowing screens or timeouts also was a concern. I tried the Samsung Gear Sport, then the Samsung Galaxy Active 2, and although they had many great features and 2+ days of use between charges (Active 2 only) with comparable use-time to my pebble, the screen glowed if on all the time, and when I went swimming, the screen face would change unless I locked it before entering the water.
I settled with a compromise... I was able to get a new PowerWatch 2 Luxe edition (usually $699) for $400. Still, way to expensive, but, I get messages (no reply), health basics, always on LCD screen (no glow) with back-lit ability, Heat Rate and GPS, and NO CHARGING NEEDED. EVER. Solar and thermoelectric engine (backup wireless charging dock included just in case) keep it charged always. I can't do voice, can't customize my watch face, can't load apps (stopwatch and timer are there), and no weather.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting charging design maybe something for the future watches and prices will drop hopefully...
Why not just buy a brand new Pebble 2 on Ebay for low $100 range? You could by two of them, one for future, and save money while we all wait for someone to actually design a good watch for a good price, like the Pebble 2. The only thing lacking on the Pebble 2 is that it's not designer/fancy looking. Otherwise it is still by far the best bang for the buck - battery lasting nearly a week! Lots of apps and customizations. Puts these higher priced watches to shame in the flexibility of the functionality and battery life. But it's no status symbol that people want for their watch, unless you consider being an intelligent buyer a status symbol. LOL.
jazee said:
Why not just buy a brand new Pebble 2 on Ebay for low $100 range? You could by two of them, one for future, and save money while we all wait for someone to actually design a good watch for a good price, like the Pebble 2. The only thing lacking on the Pebble 2 is that it's not designer/fancy looking. Otherwise it is still by far the best bang for the buck - battery lasting nearly a week! Lots of apps and customizations. Puts these higher priced watches to shame in the flexibility of the functionality and battery life. But it's no status symbol that people want for their watch, unless you consider being an intelligent buyer a status symbol. LOL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem when buying those pebbles: the battery is several years old and might not have a good capacity.
Actually I'm testing a Honor Magic Watch 2 and it's very good, actually one week usage with GPS and lots of calls and down to 49%:good:
strongst said:
The problem when buying those pebbles: the battery is several years old and might not have a good capacity.
Actually I'm testing a Honor Magic Watch 2 and it's very good, actually one week usage with GPS and lots of calls and down to 49%:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read a review and it sounds promising if you can live without the ability to download apps.
My main question would be, on my Pebble, I can get notifications from all the apps on my phone and select which ones I want to get and which ones I don't want to get, so I'm not just limited to SMS and Email notifications. Can this watch do that, so for instance if the Amazon app displays a notification about a shipment on my phone, will it show on the watch?
Also wondering if a firmware upate fixed this...
"Talking of notifications, we found these to be a little buggy. Most of the time phone notifications came through to the device without issue, but now and then they didn’t come through until some time after they should have, and we also found some notifications came through to the watch multiple times, though we never worked out why."
jazee said:
I read a review and it sounds promising if you can live without the ability to download apps.
My main question would be, on my Pebble, I can get notifications from all the apps on my phone and select which ones I want to get and which ones I don't want to get, so I'm not just limited to SMS and Email notifications. Can this watch do that, so for instance if the Amazon app displays a notification about a shipment on my phone, will it show on the watch?
Also wondering if a firmware upate fixed this...
"Talking of notifications, we found these to be a little buggy. Most of the time phone notifications came through to the device without issue, but now and then they didn’t come through until some time after they should have, and we also found some notifications came through to the watch multiple times, though we never worked out why."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything is working so far. Your quote to my post for example, was notified by fair mail which I selected and shown then on the watch, see pics As long as a notification pop-up is shown on the status bar it will work, but one app did not work it's delta.chat. Don't know why, still investigating. Maybe a app or health issue
strongst said:
Everything is working so far. Your quote to my post for example, was notified by fair mail which I selected and shown then on the watch, see pics As long as a notification pop-up is shown on the status bar it will work, but one app did not work it's delta.chat. Don't know why, still investigating. Maybe a app or health issue
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing you can't prevent notifications from certain apps on only the watch?
Did you consider the Amazfit GTS? They seem similar but the Amazfit I think is considerably cheaper.
jazee said:
I'm guessing you can't prevent notifications from certain apps on only the watch?
Did you consider the Amazfit GTS? They seem similar but the Amazfit I think is considerably cheaper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can select the notification what you want to be shown on the watch, see screenshot. Or do you want to have a notification only to be shown on the watch, but not on the phone?
I ordered both watches and the following are my personal pros and cons.
Amazfit GTS: 128€
-can't make calls
-no storage for music
-GPS not that accurate
-no SpO2
Honor Magic Watch 2: 146€
-round design(I wanted a round watch again)
I have the Huawei GT but find it boring as it's just read only
Can anyone give suggestions of the best smart watch to use with the p30 pro ??
I know there is an issue with Garmin
Am looking for Google pay or at the very least the opportunity to reply back to messages from the watch
Ta muchly
Whats wrong with Garmin?
nurps said:
Whats wrong with Garmin?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe there is pairing issues
Remember somewhere in the past reading it
For a watch, I only need get info/notification whenever I need it. GT serves this purpose very well with its super long battery time!
If I need reply/interact, I would prefer by phone, not on the small watch screen.
Well so far the initial pairing and connection worked well with the Fenix 5, I hope it stays this way. Otherwise the Fenix 5 presents excellent battery life (up to 20 days if you don't record GPS activities) with an always-on passive lighted display (there is an optional background light with various options). And you can reply to messages with pre-setup texts. Don't know about google pay though.
best watch currently for android is galaxy smart watch why not give it a try.
I have the Skagen Falster 2. Previous to this I had the original Huawei watch. The Skagen is a brilliant little watch (yes is this actually I would say slightly on the small side on my big wrists I was drawn to the watch due to its looks initially and I wanted the extra features of GPS but mainly Android pay.
The screen is excellent quality and a OLED. Black's are really dark plus better energy efficiency Vs the LCD on the Huawei.
Battery life is good for an android wear watch. You really have to charge this every night so you need a charger next to your bed. Take it off and charge it. I use the screen as always on and by bedtime I have had 40% battery remaining (2am bed time). Slim chance of getting 2 days use if you turned the watch off overnight.
The Skagen feels more responsive compared to the Huawei but the processors are largely the same. There is no speaker in the Skagen (some of the watches you can take calls). However, I turned this off when the novelty wore off when I had the Huawei watch. Speaker quality is poor / your phone is normally in hands distance anyway.
I would recommend the Skagen Falster 2.... If you like the look of the watch I don't think you will be disappointed.
Try Huawei Watch 2. It has android pay, Wear OS and works well with P30 Pro. For me it's a better option than Huawei Watch GT (make and receive calls, many apps from play store, etc)