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[Discussion] Do you like your Gear Live?

Thoughts on it, display in sunlight, battery life, handling of notifications, look/feel of it on your wrist..... basically anything to do with the watch!

i like it. granted that its a new class of its own, i still get confused especially when i get multiple notifications on an app (ie hangouts). its confusing where the group text starts or if im still being shown a private text..
the screen is kinda hard to read in direct sunlight but tilting it a bit or using a different watch face helps.
i like the feel of it.. i preferred this over the g watch coz of the added feature and the look.

I really like it; however, screen is difficult to see in sunlight at times; screen is also a smudge magnet which adds to difficulties in seeing the display outdoors.

Love it - compared to the sony smartwatch and the Galaxy Gear it really has great improvements. Only Day 2, but my initial thoughts:
Pros
- Look/feel - it is little large (I don't have big wrists) but still stylish.
- Screen: awesome that the clock is always on, this was my biggest gripe about the Gear
- Usefulness: I've spent time training Google Now, and that's really paid off. Notifications mean i take my phone out of my pocket a lot less, and Google Now surfaces reminders and other useful info pretty well (although you don't have a lot of control over the order of notifications etc). The fact that it syncs dismissed notifications on the phone immediately is, in a word, awesome
- Apps: early days yet on this, but most big apps I'm sure will integrate so you can do the key features easily
- Voice recognition works great so far
Cons
- No speaker means if you want to do stuff without looking at the screen with your voice, it's harder. But seems like something I can live with
- Charging dongle is kinda annoying to fit on, and have to remember to travel with
- Starting an app (say Fit) takes a few too many swipes (if you're in a place where you don't want to be speaking to your wrist...)
A lot of the other potential "cons" like not many watch face designs, no feature to locate your phone (I know there's an app for this though) I reckon will play out over time and Google can fix pretty quickly...
A

eurorauser said:
, no feature to locate your phone (I know there's an app for this though) I reckon will play out over time and Google can fix pretty quickly...
A
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Take a look at this one for that: Wear Aware

i'm pleasantly surprised with how much i'm enjoying it.
my first full day with it will be tomorrow so i haven't taken it outside in the sunlight much yet, but checking email, counting steps, reading and replying to texts (i use evolve and it works great) is great and much more reliable and smoother than it was on my OG gear, and it's proving to be far more useful than my pebble.
the strap is actually quite comfortable and i'm glad i didn't buy a new strap before getting the watch.
the charging cradle, if you put it on tab side first it snaps in much easier. it's annoying but i haven't found it to be the spawn of lucifer as some people were screaming about it. treat it like part of a $200 gadget and it will be fine. mash it on like the hulk and it's going to break, it is plastic tabs after all.
i used it for about 7 hours today and it's now around 65% remaining. moderate use, but i def was clicking and swiping for no reason since it's new as well. i am pretty sure i'll have to charge it every night, but i don't sleep with a watch on and i charge my phone every night too, so i don't see it as being a big issue. my pebble lasted longer, but it would often die since i didn't have a set pattern on when to charge and would head out and a few hours later realize i had 20% left.
so in short, i'm happy, yes there are growing pains but those are the early adopter blues.

So far very please for what it can do. Regarding bot visible in sunlight, tell me what phone is visible in sunlight. None of them are great, only the kinfpdle due to the ink screen it has. I can wait till indoors or in shade. 9 more days testing and then deciding to keep or not. Off charging cradle at 6:30am today and as of this post still has 34% left. About the same as my previous Gear watch.
Ian B

The number of apps pouring in each day are a great sign for the platform as a whole. The Tizen gears were nothing like this.

Quick reply.... I like it. Had Nero, no comparison.

I've had a few issues and design factors that I'd like changed:
Hate the alarm mute icon. I would love to figure out a way to hide that on the clock face. Would make the watch look more watchie if you will.
Also would like to only wake the watch from the button vice touchscreen, or atleast an option to set that insettings.
Does anyone else find themselves open palming your watch to put it in hybernate?

FynxSyndct said:
Does anyone else find themselves open palming your watch to put it in hybernate?
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I pressed it against my forehead earlier because I was in bed and my other arm wasn't free.

SkuzFoz said:
I pressed it against my forehead earlier because I was in bed and my other arm wasn't free.
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This really made me LOL

I'll be the lone wolf in the wilderness by bucking the trend and saying that I'm very disappointed with my Gear Live. I'm a gadget lover and really wanted to love this device. But I was far more enthusiastic about this thing before I actually received it. Once I had one, I quickly grew disappointed with it.
Out of the box, pairing with my Nexus 5 took multiple attempts. Once I finally did get it paired, only the stock apps would work. Any apps that I downloaded from the Play store would run on my phone but the watch interface would never show up (no matter how many times I tried to force the apps to sync via the Android Wear app or rebooted the watch).
Factory resetting the watch and starting again cleared up that problem but I still found the functionality of the watch to be quirky at best. Add to that the fact that the screen is virtually impossible to read outdoors, the lack of support for continuous heart rate monitoring, and the sudden dramatic drop in my Nexus 5's battery life (which cleared up after I uninstalled the Android Wear app).
Bottom line for me is that this isn't ready to replace my old fashioned watch. So until I read about some new killer Wear app that I can't live without, the Gear Live had gone back into its box to be stored away. I'm hoping that the software will mature quickly to a point where I can give it another try.

Does gear live suport sleep monitoring? Can it automatically figure out that user is cycling?
How good is the fitness tracking on it?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Burn-in issues with app like google maps on amoled

Hi,
I never had an amoled screen but I heard that you can get burn-in on those screen.
So I avoided phone with amoled but I really like the note 9.
I would like to know if it easy to get burn-in when you use app like google maps, with your notifications bar (battery, ..), or onscreen nav button, ect...
Thanks for yous reply.

I've never gotten burn in on any AMOLED phone I've owned (Galaxy S3, Note 4, Note 5, S7 Edge, Note 8, S9 (three of them) and the Note 9). I use the phone a lot.
Is it possible? Sure. LCD is possible, too. Just don't keep static images onscreen for hours on end

I've had an AMOLED phone since the Galaxy S2, and have kept each phone for at least 1-3 years. By my count that is the S2, S3, S4, S5, S7 Edge, and now the Note 9. I have been using Google Maps and Navigation on all of these devices, and I have never experienced any screen burn in. Not once. In fact, I have never heard of it being an issue. Yes, I knew it could happen, but I have never heard of it happening outside of isolated cases. The Note 9 has one of the best displays of any phone out there, don't let this non-issue stop you.

When I first get my AMOLED Smartphone/Tablets I never use brightness over 20 to 30% I run it like that for about 3+ months. I blend the displays in, well that’s my theory!
I have a Tab S 8.4 LTE my daily driver! It’s over 4 + years old! Not a mark of screen burn in see it all depends how you use your display! I’ve seen people complaining there AMOLED display have burn in 2 months in! But when you ask them where the brightness set to 80% was even 100% it’s too bright it hurts your eyes!
You don’t need 80% TO 100% unless your real blind ? Seriously use your phone sensibly you will be fine pp.’s I’ve done many 8+ hour round trip Google maps on my TAB S 8.4 there’s no sign of burn in on my AMLOED display!! AMOLED IS KING!!

Just leave the brightness on auto. In full sunlight in my car, the screen is maximally bright. On long trips, that may be for 8 hours at a time or more. That's not a routine thing for me, but still never any issues.

that was one thing i was worried about too, this is my first samsung/amoled phone. I have read here and there, some people get burn ins as early as one week of usage and some never, cant say every screen is perfect and everyone uses their phones differently.
a small tip, what i have done is using the app "routine" to set my brightness to 35% and auto rotate on when connected to bluetooth of my car. It locks it at that brightness, and of course you can manually turn it up if you wish. this saves me the trouble when the phone auto adjust it to max most of the time.
if youre worried just for that one app ie. google maps, you can set it so that only when you launch that app and connected to that specific bluetooth to lock in the brightness at 35%.
I have also set my google maps night mode always on.

LitoNi said:
that was one thing i was worried about too, this is my first samsung/amoled phone. I have read here and there, some people get burn ins as early as one week of usage and some never, cant say every screen is perfect and everyone uses their phones differently.
a small tip, what i have done is using the app "routine" to set my brightness to 35% and auto rotate on when connected to bluetooth of my car. It locks it at that brightness, and of course you can manually turn it up if you wish. this saves me the trouble when the phone auto adjust it to max most of the time.
if youre worried just for that one app ie. google maps, you can set it so that only when you launch that app and connected to that specific bluetooth to lock in the brightness at 35%.
I have also set my google maps night mode always on.
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Click to collapse
thanks for your reply.
Can you tel me more about your app "routine"? Because I didnot find it on the play store.

Best Replacement for a Pebble 2?

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
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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
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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
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Was not the main scope of the op

dersie said:
Easier and quicker
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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
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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."
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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
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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)

best smart watch ?

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?
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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)

Should I get this watch or another one

I hope this is in the right forum, please move if not.
I am looking for a smart watch for my mother. She's in her 70's and I want something to monitor her heart just in case.
*Note I understand no smartwatch is accurate or can it predict unforeseen health concerns. I understand the risks. She's not predisposed to heart conditions.
I've been doing research and it seems like either the Watch 3 or Active 2 are good choices because of the ECG function and also that it has active monitoring for heartrate and blood pressure. However, reading on the forums it seems its only recently that Korea health department has accepted the watch to be used as ECG monitors, and so we have to manually install apks to the watch. Does it require a Samsung phone to do it or can I use other phone brands?
Just to confirm, do the watches have watch screens that constantly display (active display) of heart rate and BP? I know ECG needs to be manually triggered for it to do its measurements.
I am not considering hybrid watches as I want a screen big enough for my mom to see numbers.
Please shoot me any other recommendations, but needs to have active display for your heart rate and BP. I have looked into the Omnron brand but its about $500 which is too expensive.
Thanks in advanced!

BPM is also on demand - I doubt any device monitors it constantly. Beside the handful of guidelines to take BP correctly (which is why it's not constantly measured), it simply doesn't need monitored constantly. That said, the BPM seems to be relatively accurate, but still requires monthly calibration.
Same thing for ECG. Honestly there are cheaper wearables that do a fine job of monitoring heart rate 24/7. In my experience, those devices can't read heart rate when in a-fib, so that's kind of an indirect indicator. I think the Apple Watch might claim to detect a-fib. The GW3 is not yet fully baked, so if you're seriously concerned about detecting a-fib look elsewhere.
I'm not a doctor and I'm not giving a rec or advice here. Bottom line is the GW3 is not the miracle device you're hoping for.

if you gotta ask , then get another one

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong: but none of the Samsung watches actively monitor heart rate other than beats-per-minute (and you can set the high and low rates). If the watch senses rates outside of your settings for a few minutes while not exercising, it's supposed to alert the user. No Afib or other alerts, as I believe an iWatch does. As noted above, the ECG and BP are on demand. There are watch faces that can show active heartrate

agbva said:
There are watch faces that can show active heartrate
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Click to collapse
I can't speak to that, or how often it updates. I know on Android Wear in dim mode the heart rate updates, at most, once per hour. GW3 does do active heart rate monitoring, but not sure if, or how often, it would update in dim mode.
Best to look at a Fitbit. They display an active heart rate that updates fairly frequently. New Fitbits may also have active a-fib monitoring.
That said, GW3 is the only watch I'm aware of that has fall detection. Combined with a cellular plan that could be a big winner for the elderly crowd. I haven't used it, but I believe the GW3 will call or message emergency contacts if you don't cancel it within 1 minute of a fall detected. GW3 might also have a heart rate alarm that goes off if your heart rate goes above a certain threshold (which is probably what you really want).
As far as heart rate trends, it takes a few clicks in the Samsung Health app but GW3 will show you the high and low heart rate by hour....another click and it will show you the average as well as all the readings for that hour. Not sure the highs and lows are super accurate - maybe only +/- 5-10 beats. My suspicion is that is because it calculates too fast (i.e. only counts for 3-5 seconds, and so that half-beat is the source of variance).

kodiak799 said:
BPM is also on demand - I doubt any device monitors it constantly. Beside the handful of guidelines to take BP correctly (which is why it's not constantly measured), it simply doesn't need monitored constantly. That said, the BPM seems to be relatively accurate, but still requires monthly calibration.
Same thing for ECG. Honestly there are cheaper wearables that do a fine job of monitoring heart rate 24/7. In my experience, those devices can't read heart rate when in a-fib, so that's kind of an indirect indicator. I think the Apple Watch might claim to detect a-fib. The GW3 is not yet fully baked, so if you're seriously concerned about detecting a-fib look elsewhere.
I'm not a doctor and I'm not giving a rec or advice here. Bottom line is the GW3 is not the miracle device you're hoping for.
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The ECG function should be enough to detect arrhythmia. Don't need A-fib. It just seems like a hassle to install, but I need confirmation that a non-samsung phone can install the ECG function.
agbva said:
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong: but none of the Samsung watches actively monitor heart rate other than beats-per-minute (and you can set the high and low rates). If the watch senses rates outside of your settings for a few minutes while not exercising, it's supposed to alert the user. No Afib or other alerts, as I believe an iWatch does. As noted above, the ECG and BP are on demand. There are watch faces that can show active heartrate
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I didn't know iwatch does that. I know for a fact that they don't constantly monitor heart rate, but they measure in intervals. That's all I want, but I need to make sure that there's a watch face that can display BP or heart rate on the front without going into the settings.
kodiak799 said:
I can't speak to that, or how often it updates. I know on Android Wear in dim mode the heart rate updates, at most, once per hour. GW3 does do active heart rate monitoring, but not sure if, or how often, it would update in dim mode.
Best to look at a Fitbit. They display an active heart rate that updates fairly frequently. New Fitbits may also have active a-fib monitoring.
That said, GW3 is the only watch I'm aware of that has fall detection. Combined with a cellular plan that could be a big winner for the elderly crowd. I haven't used it, but I believe the GW3 will call or message emergency contacts if you don't cancel it within 1 minute of a fall detected. GW3 might also have a heart rate alarm that goes off if your heart rate goes above a certain threshold (which is probably what you really want).
As far as heart rate trends, it takes a few clicks in the Samsung Health app but GW3 will show you the high and low heart rate by hour....another click and it will show you the average as well as all the readings for that hour. Not sure the highs and lows are super accurate - maybe only +/- 5-10 beats. My suspicion is that is because it calculates too fast (i.e. only counts for 3-5 seconds, and so that half-beat is the source of variance).
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which fitbit do you recommend? I was looking at their bands, but I don't think they all have ECG function?
Thanks for the replies. Please give me suggestions of what other smartwatches I can consider.

Hi,
I'm sorry for being a bit off topic but how did you manage to install bp/ecg with nonSamsung phone? I've tried some tpks, signed them and tried sdb install but I always get -1 error...
Regards.

Deviatorz said:
which fitbit do you recommend? I was looking at their bands, but I don't think they all have ECG function?.
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I don't really know much about Fitbit. We got my dad one several years ago that also pairs with a phone to show the heart rate history. Most [all?] smartwatches update minimal things on the watchface in dim mode in order to save battery.
You can buy a good Omron BPM/ECG monitor for $180. No watch is going to actively measure and display BPM or ECG.
I don't think you will find a watch that does everything you want, so you'll probably have to accomplish that with multiple devices.

As far as I remember gw3 fall detection only works in workouts. I couldn't prove that yet though...

Well this watch has a lot of potential for a new owner ?

Deviatorz said:
The ECG function should be enough to detect arrhythmia. Don't need A-fib. It just seems like a hassle to install, but I need confirmation that a non-samsung phone can install the ECG function.
I didn't know iwatch does that. I know for a fact that they don't constantly monitor heart rate, but they measure in intervals. That's all I want, but I need to make sure that there's a watch face that can display BP or heart rate on the front without going into the settings.
which fitbit do you recommend? I was looking at their bands, but I don't think they all have ECG function?
Thanks for the replies. Please give me suggestions of what other smartwatches I can consider.
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Click to collapse
All the ECG function does on the GW3 is detect Afib. You also need to touch the watch button with the finger from your hand to use the ECG function, so it can't continuously monitor you.
I only have a Samsung phone so I can't advise on how it works with non-Samsung Android phones.