Moto 360 Sport vs Gear Fit 2 vs neither

[effreyj]

I'm looking for a fitness focused smartwatch and was considering the Moto 360 Sport and the Gear Fit 2. From reviews, it seems like Moto 360 Sport is a better smartwatch while Gear Fit 2 is a better fitness tracker. I kinda wish I could split the difference. My basic requirements, which are available on both are to be able to go running and listen to music without having my phone attached to me, and when it is tethered to my phone to get notifications. The appeal of the Moto 360 Sport is that it supports Android Wear, while the Gear Fit 2 does not. The appeal of the Gear Fit 2 is that it will track more than just running and it also tracks sleep, while the 360 Sport mainly supports running. Alternatively, I can wait for the next batch of smartwatches to come out in the fall after Android Wear 2.0 drops. What do you all think?

 

[itguyjax8430]

I'm looking for a fitness focused smartwatch and was considering the Moto 360 Sport and the Gear Fit 2. From reviews, it seems like Moto 360 Sport is a better smartwatch while Gear Fit 2 is a better fitness tracker. I kinda wish I could split the difference. My basic requirements, which are available on both are to be able to go running and listen to music without having my phone attached to me, and when it is tethered to my phone to get notifications. The appeal of the Moto 360 Sport is that it supports Android Wear, while the Gear Fit 2 does not. The appeal of the Gear Fit 2 is that it will track more than just running and it also tracks sleep, while the 360 Sport mainly supports running. Alternatively, I can wait for the next batch of smartwatches to come out in the fall after Android Wear 2.0 drops. What do you all think?

Welcome to Android Central!

Have you tried taking a look at the Fitbit Surge or Blaze?

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e....fitbit.com/global/us/products&token=nG8jXP49

 

[effreyj]

Welcome to Android Central!

Have you tried taking a look at the Fitbit Surge or Blaze?

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e....fitbit.com/global/us/products&token=or5t9toi

You can't store music on those. I want to be able to go running without having to take my phone with me. It seems like Moto 360 Sport, Gear Fit 2, and TomTom Spark are the only devices with BOTH built-in GPS AND on-device music storage.

 

[kramer5150]

I think the Sony smartwatch3 matches a lot of those criteria... I think it has a built in GPS and a music player that plays file data stored on the watch.

I thought I read somewhere battery life with the GPS activated is only so-so.

I think its worth looking into... Good Luck!!

 

[effreyj]

Any benefits to the Smartwatch3 over the 360 Sport aside from price?

 

[kramer5150]

Sorry I don't own either watch... it would be best to let someone else respond on the details. I was merely mentioning it as a suggestion. One thing I noticed right away is the Sony uses any generic micro USB to charge. For me, that would be advantageous while traveling but a detriment for day to day use.

 

[adamalter]

Moto 360 Sport (my experiences)

• As good as it gets for Android notifications, and voice to text communication/commands

• Moto Body is bad for activities, but can use Google Fit and Strava has a watch app for it

• Great screen, decently comfortable, always-on option

• If you do a 2 hr activity with heart rate + GPS, & screen on, you will use ~60% of battery

• For light usage, a dark screen and 2-3 notifications, you will use 4-5% battery per hour

• GPS was solid for me, heart rate was decent, 3 second-ish sampling during activity, unknown 24/7 heart rate tracking since I can't find the data.

• It works fine with "sleep for android" app for sleep tracking, but data layout isn't great.

• Charges up from low batt in <2 hrs

• Lots of apps and crap in the Play store

Samsung Gear Fit 2 (my experiences)

• The most comfortable band/watch I've ever used

• Great for notifications (Samsung S7) and can respond with basic/customized pre-made replies

• Beautiful screen, tilt option for screen on, works well, but no "always on" option (yet, at least)

• If you do a 2 hr activity with heart rate + GPS, & screen on, you will use ~30% of battery

• For light usage, 2-3 notifications, you will use 1-2% battery per hour

• Samsung Health app has a great breakdown of the data for 24/7 and activity tracking, but @ this point, only gps data is shared outside the S Health app (though I've heard they're opening it up soon).

• The auto-detect activity and sleep feature works well, but I prefer manual. I get up in the middle of the night and it can mess it up.

• Charges up from low batt in <1 hr

• Some good watch face options, but not much for apps and stuff, though more should be coming soon I hear

I'll try and add more, with the Blaze (not compatible with S7, yet), Vivoactive HR (horribly dim screen), and others, if I get the time.

 

[effreyj]

Moto 360 Sport (my experiences)

• As good as it gets for Android notifications, and voice to text communication/commands

• Moto Body is bad for activities, but can use Google Fit and Strava has a watch app for it

• Great screen, decently comfortable, always-on option

• If you do a 2 hr activity with heart rate + GPS, & screen on, you will use ~60% of battery

• For light usage, a dark screen and 2-3 notifications, you will use 4-5% battery per hour

• GPS was solid for me, heart rate was decent, 3 second-ish sampling during activity, unknown 24/7 heart rate tracking since I can't find the data.

• It works fine with "sleep for android" app for sleep tracking, but data layout isn't great.

• Charges up from low batt in <2 hrs

• Lots of apps and crap in the Play store

Samsung Gear Fit 2 (my experiences)

• The most comfortable band/watch I've ever used

• Great for notifications (Samsung S7) and can respond with basic/customized pre-made replies

• Beautiful screen, tilt option for screen on, works well, but no "always on" option (yet, at least)

• If you do a 2 hr activity with heart rate + GPS, & screen on, you will use ~30% of battery

• For light usage, 2-3 notifications, you will use 1-2% battery per hour

• Samsung Health app has a great breakdown of the data for 24/7 and activity tracking, but @ this point, only gps data is shared outside the S Health app (though I've heard they're opening it up soon).

• The auto-detect activity and sleep feature works well, but I prefer manual. I get up in the middle of the night and it can mess it up.

• Charges up from low batt in <1 hr

• Some good watch face options, but not much for apps and stuff, though more should be coming soon I hear

I'll try and add more, with the Blaze (not compatible with S7, yet), Vivoactive HR (horribly dim screen), and others, if I get the time.

Thanks for the awesome writeup. I'm leaning toward the Moto 360 because of Android wear, but I'm still conflicted and am considering waiting for the next batch of Android wear devices.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[effreyj]

Bought the 360 Sport. Ended up buying an unopened one off of someone for $135. I'll let you know how I like it.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[effreyj]

Here's my take on the 360 Sport:

Hardware

It's not the sexiest watch, but it's supposed to be a fitness watch, so I give it a pass for that reason. The rubber strap is comfortable, but it accumulates lint. The screen is pretty nice, and it's easy to read outside. Interestingly, the ambient display is easier to read outside in direct sunlight than it is indoors. I don't mind the flat-tire, especially since I use a dark watch-face, and I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff for the light sensor.

Using it as a fitness device

It's great being able to run with the watch and not have to take my phone with me. I loaded up about 200 songs for when I'm running, and the standalone GPS locks on within 10 seconds and seems accurate (honestly, I think it's more accurate than my phone). I had an issue with my BT headphones having a lot of static while running, but I started wearing my watch on my right hand instead of my left hand (my BT headphones have the antenna on the right side) and this seems to have resolved the issue. I'm still looking for a good suggestion for a workout app for non-running activities like pushups and sit-ups that will sync to google fit. I prefer the Google Fit app to the Moto Body app, especially since I can display the Google Fit data on the watch face that I've been using. One weird thing I've noticed is that the Google Fit app and Moto Body app, even though I connected them, have different step-counts and calorie counts.

Using it as an Android Wear device

It's great getting notifications on my wrist and not having to pull my phone out. I do wish you could fine-tune which notifications buzz on your wrist, instead of it just mirroring what's on the phone. There is an option that lets you disable notifications on the watch for a given app, but I'd rather have a more fine-tuned option than that. The most fun thing about android wear is making custom watch-faces, and I've enjoyed trying out a bunch of them from the play store.

Other notes

• Battery-life seems fine. It lasts the day, even when I go running with it in GPS mode, and I don't mind charging it overnight
• It took forever to sync my music playlist to the watch. It seemed to only transfer when my watch wasn't charging and had over 80% battery left. I think it took about 4 days for it to sync.
• It doesn't seem to stay connected to WiFi at all. I basically can't use this functionality because of this issue. I usually have my phone with me anyway, so I can live with this, but I don't understand what the issue is.
• I wish there was a way to sync the latest episode of podcasts on the watch for when I go running. The podcast apps I use seem to not have this feature yet and only let you control podcasts on your phone, which defeats the purpose of not needing the phone when you go running.

Overall, I like the watch. I'm curious to see how Android Wear 2.0 improves the functionality.

 

[laddie79]

Great write-up. How has AW2 changed your experience?

 

[effreyj]

Great write-up. How has AW2 changed your experience?

Not available yet.

 

[tsparks1]

Not available yet.

Yeah, still not available, Google now sayind it's been pushed back til 2017.

 

[maylea71]

Was looking for something else and ran upon your post. The 24/7 heart rate data is located in the timeline section of google fit under the show graph detail. All he way at the bottom you can chose different graphs. Chose heart rate. You will notice it is being populated by Moro body. So you have to be using motobody linked to google fit to get this graph. I love my Moto Sport after figuring out the best setup for me which is:

1. Give tracking permissions to moto body
2. Link moto body to google fit
3. Give tracking permissions to google fit on watch
4. Turn off phone tracking in google fit
5. I use Endomondo linked to GFit for running and all other activities
6. I use Moto Body indoor run for treadmill. I have edited three sessions and it is now very accurate for me.

So this setup makes it a perfect watch for me. All my calories and activities are tracked and linked to Lose It which is also linked to GFit so basically a complete health tracker for me.

And it was cheaper than Fitbit surge and has more apps and flexibility. My heart rate is spot on for the most part with medical device I used to check.