Fitbit vs Apple Watch

[honglong1976]

After owning a Fitbit Zip, HR, Charge, Flex, Surge and Blaze I thought it was now time to upgrade to an:

Apple Watch.

I liked my Fitbit but build quality was awful, each one felt like they were made by Fisher Price and only used to last a few months before dying.

I traded my Fitbit Blaze and Flex for an Apple Watch Stainless Steel (S0 model) at CEX.

The Apple Watch build quality is at least 200 times better than any Fitbit. Battery life is over 2 days. I can track my sleep, compete with friends, HR, steps, etc.

With the share price going down lower every time I looked I felt Fitbit wasn't the company it was 1 year ago, definately not 2 years ago.

Shame really!

Good Luck to Fitbit in the future! I will still use MobileTrack and if they bring out a decent device! Who knows? I may go for it, but for now it's adios!

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[SpinSpinSugar69]

I have an Apple Watch and I have a Fitbit Blaze and love them both . However, my issue with the Apple Watch is battery life,how are you getting 2 days? Also I wish the competitive friends were better on the Apple Watch,it doesn't even compare with Fibit on that front. I also get info and stats on Fibit I don't find easy to access on Apple Watch.

[IzabelaLucyna]

I just got the Apple Watch... what app are you using to compete with your friend on all that you mentioned? Do they have AW? As I understand sinking AW to FitBit dashboard is not possible

[IzabelaLucyna]

Same here. How do you decide which one to use and when... love the AW for all the fancy features, but FitBit dashboard with its simplicity can't be beat 

[honglong1976]

In the activity go to sharing and click the + to right

(obviously, they would need an Apple Watch also)

[honglong1976]

Mine is the Series 0.

I charge about 9pm. Wear the watch and turn on airplane mode and wake up display. I track my sleep with Autosleep. I wake up at 7am. Turn off Airplane mode, turn on wake up display.

I get well over 2 days doing that. No 3rd party apps installed. And 3 alarms which go off every day. I get notifications through the day.

My brightness is also set to the lowest (although you can tell any difference between low and medium).

I normally on average get 2 days and 10+ hours. Thats with 2 days tracking sleep.

[honglong1976]

I used Apple Watch during the day and Fitbit at night. I find step tracking really inaccurate on a Fitbit compared to the Apple Watch.

On a Fitbit I might have 10,000 steps and an Apple Watch 5,000 but the Fitbit counts typing as steps, driving, riding a bike as steps, whereas the Apple Watch doesn't. So it looks lower but thats because it only counts actual steps.

I used to get around 80,000 steps per week with a Fitbit, now I get about 20-30,000 using mobile track.

No wonder people like Fitbit, it makes them appear fitter and healthier than they actually are.

[Rich_Laue]

I was wondering about the two days also, since i know several people who gave up on the AW because they where tired of charging dayly. In fact one of my friends had to charge twice a day.

So if i understand correctly, @honglong1976 you put the watch into airplane mode, thus disabling 99% of the reason to own an AW. This does not sound like a good fix 

You must be an exception, a Google search is easy to bring up many posts of steps, driving,  and the AW along false steos from arm moitions. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/steps-are-way-way-off-counts-driving-eating-weightlifting-etc.1...

[Ozzie65]

I have an Apple Watch and by the end of the day, using all the normal functions, am generally at about 40%. It needs to be charged daily. On the other hand, I also have a Blaze. I charged it on Monday and as of now (Thursday afternoon), battery life is showing as Medium in the app - no comparison. There is no way to use the Apple Watch for sleep tracking with out using a third party app and then, you'd need to have it fully charged before you went to sleep.

[Gingerantics]

As soon as I have the money for it, I'm switching just like the rest of you. For what I've paid in fitbit devices in the last few years I could have bought the apple watch a few times, and every one of them would still be in working order (unlike all of those fitbit devices). I think it's just a matter of time before the iphone users switch to the apple watch and the android users switch to the new android watch. Fitbit really is going massively downhill. 

[honglong1976]

@Rich_Laue

That's correct. Why would you need the airplane mode to be off during sleeping? I am sleeping. I don't want any vibrations.

The vibration wakes me up as well (unlike the Blaze where I could hear it but could never feel it, Flex was pretty good though).

Twice a day? Maybe when it first come out, but OS3 (latest one) battery life is superb. If i don't touch airplane mode it lasts for 2 days (instead of 2 days and 10 hours+).

I had a sports model before and that was the same.

The post is from April 2015. Watch OS3 changed everything. Better battery, more accurate step tracking, etc. I have tried Blaze and Apple Watch and step counting is far superior on the Apple Watch. Fitbit Blaze counted 2000+ steps (latest firmware) while I drove to work. Apple Watch added about 10 steps.

[honglong1976]

@Ozzie65 try Autosleep. Uses a few % battery life while you sleep. If you have 10% battery left you can still go to bed and it will track no problem without dying.

[honglong1976]

@Gingerantics agreed! Fitbit devices all fall part. Accurate tracking, better screen, materials, and Apple Pay, etc. Fitbit is not as relevant as it was 1 year ago. The reason? Apple Watch.

Apple just need to release a budget fitness tracker for about £80 and they will kill off Fitbit. Shame really because I like Fitbit. If Fitbit released an app for Apple Watch it would be perfect but they won't for economic reasons but at the moment (and current share price) they really have nothing to loose.

Android don't sell that may watches and I have used quite a few, all massive and pretty terrible. Apple Watch is the only serious competitor. Fitbit need to make a decent HQ fitness/smart watch and they may be able to survive for another year 🙂

[Rich_Laue]

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@honglong1976 wrote:

@Rich_Laue

That's correct. Why would you need the airplane mode to be off during sleeping? I am sleeping. I don't want any vibrations.

The vibration wakes me up as well (unlike the Blaze where I could hear it but could never feel it, Flex was pretty good though).

Twice a day? Maybe when it first come out, but OS3 (latest one) battery life is superb. If i don't touch airplane mode it lasts for 2 days (instead of 2 days and 10 hours+).

I had a sports model before and that was the same.

The post is from April 2015. Watch OS3 changed everything. Better battery, more accurate step tracking, etc. I have tried Blaze and Apple Watch and step counting is far superior on the Apple Watch. Fitbit Blaze counted 2000+ steps (latest firmware) while I drove to work. Apple Watch added about 10 steps.

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Your first post stated that you wake up and turn on the airplane mode, and turn airplane mode off for night. This is exactly the opposite that is being described here. .

How bumpy of a ride is your car. I get 0 to 10 steps per drive, but doing a seach i read that many do complain about the AW and recording steps while driving.

[honglong1976]

My mistake, just eddited on to off.

It's pretty obvious I am not going to turn on airplane mode before going to bed and wake up and turn it on again! hehe

Hope that makes sense now!

Bumpy roads! have you seen the roads in the UK? some of them have pot holes everywhere! My drive to work is really bumpy!

[SpinSpinSugar69]

Thanks for the AW tips! I have been doing the same things as you to get longer life from the start, and for me it's still a lot more charging than Fitbit. I'm going to try the auto sleep app out tonight and also turn down screen brightness(that is one I didn't try). I just received my AW series 2 yesterday so I will see how that goes.

[Jimbo314]

Take a look at www.stridekick.com. It allows you to set up challenges across platforms, including Garmin, Apple, FitBit, Withings, Jawbone, Misfit etc.... Maybe not perfect solution but is one option.

[MFairley]

I moved from Charge HR to. Fitbit Blaze. I have worn my Fitbit Blaze over the last year. However, I can no longer tolerate the shortcomings and I have moved to an Apple Watch 2. I'm a half marathon runner and I need a dependable device. The miles on my Fitbit Blaze have been inaccurate over the past few months and I've done all the things the troubleshooting suggested. However, my last half marathon on my Fitbit clocked me at 16 miles on a certified course. This happened frequently on my practice runs as well. The ability to not respond to messages or answer calls from the Blaze also limits me to having my phone accessible which slows me down. Having an onboard GPS is amazing!

if the Blaze ever catches up to this type of functionality keep us posted.  In the meantime, I have a Blaze and a Charge HR for sale.  

[denverrunner]

Agreed.  When I talked with support about the Fitbit Blaze battery issue, they suggested I charge it for 5 hours at a time to make sure it's fully charged.  Hmmm, during the night when I'd like to use the silent alarm?  During the day when I plan to be on the couch for 5 hours and don't need a tracker?  Ridiculous.

[bbarrera]

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@MFairley wrote:

The ability to not respond to messages or answer calls from the Blaze also limits me to having my phone accessible which slows me down. Having an onboard GPS is amazing!

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My boss is on the east coast, I'm on the west coast. I get Skype message from him in the kitchen at 5:30am and am able to reply on my Watch using voice transcription.

I've got a Blaze and rarely use it. Instead I have the Fitbit app setup to track steps using iPhone step counter. And the iPhone Health app will integrate steps from both phone and Watch, as long as I have either phone or Watch, I will get an accurate step count. And for situations like pushing a cart, Health is smart enough to recognize the phone in pocket has correct step count, while the Blaze and Surge and Force and Flex all undercount steps while I'm pushing a shopping cart around Costco.

For everyone that complains about battery, its *not* an issue. Never once have I read someone on these forums complaining about charging their phone, and Watch is far easier to charge. So yeah, I guess 5 day battery life is important when your tracker is hard to charge. And if you have more than one tracker, finding the right charging cable because every Fitbit tracker has its own charging cable and special connector.

I have an original (Series 0) Apple Watch. At the end of the day battery is around 40% and I typically get at least 1 hour of workouts per day, and extensively use functionality (Skype in morning, viewing/reply family texts, using Accuweather widget to see wind/temps, check 3 ring goal status, etc). If I want to do sleep tracking, take Watch off for 20 minutes and put on charger while I'm brushing teeth and getting ready for bed. Do the same in the morning while I'm taking a shower. And if I go on a century bike ride, anywhere from 5+ hours to 10 hours, I can ride without the Watch and then bike computer feeds ride to Strava, which syncs to HealthKit, and when I put Watch back on I get stand/exercise/calorie credit. Its so easy to remove and pop on the magnetic charger, takes about 2 seconds, in fact its easier and faster to charge Watch than my phone.

Oh, and I stopped at 'first Wed' food trucks on way home from group bike ride last night and paid for my gyro and water using my Watch. I carry a $20 bill just in case, but these days I'm able to pay with credit card using Watch at just about every little convenience store and grocery store that I might stop at while on my bike.

While the Fitbit app is simple and easy to use, its also very limited and focused on steps. And as a cyclist, it doesn't support A LOT of metrics that I track. So I use best-in-class apps on my phone, and they sync via HealthKit to Watch.

p.s. The only time I've run Watch battery down to 5% was a century ride in Napa last February - I did outdoor bike tracking on Watch for 7 hours and 10 minutes, and wore it another 5 hours (2 hour drive in, and then going out for dinner after). So started wearing the watch just before 6am, 7+ hours bike tracking, and then around 6pm I finally put it on the charger for drive home. But I don't bother tracking on the Watch anymore, as I said HealthKit integrates bike computer into Watch for 3 ring goals.