Solved: Re: For those with a Blaze and an Apple Watch

walt73 · ‎09-30-2016

Are they about equally accurate when tracking? Do you prefer one over the other.

Just asking as there are some good deals on the original Apple at the moment; also, it is supposed to be greatly improved with Watch OS 3.

bbarrera · ‎10-05-2016

@jharla1 wrote:
The Apple Watch was neat and all, a jack of all trades, master of none. In the end, I preferred to have something that reliably tracked my fitness as opposed to a watch with all the bells and whistles. I'm sure some would prefer the AW, but without experience with how well the Fitbit products tracked, they would be none the wiser.

I've been using Fitbit since Spring 2013 - Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze, and MobileTrack (phone is step tracker). And I've been using Apple Watch since early June 2015.

Apple Watch is the master of smartwatches, and comparable to Fitbit as a tracker. Which is to say step counts are roughly the same for most, although you see exceptions just like a guy that recently couldn't get an accurate step count on Blaze so he returned it for a Charge 2 and that did give him an accuate step count. I use my phone and AW as step trackers, and they are really close except when cycling/spinning and then AW tells the truth while phone picks up false steps. Wareable.com found comparable step counts between AW and Charge 2, and of course you will get different steps counts even between Surge, Blaze and Charge 2 so the goal here is reasonable level of accuracy and consistency for trending or in my case to confirm that I was a slave to my computer most of the day 🙂

Regarding battery I've got the original AW and track ~3 hours of exercise in a day on Tue/Wed/Sat. Put watch on around 6am and end the day around midnight with 20+% battery. The other days I usually end day with 40+% battery. In both cases there is more than enough battery for sleep tracking just by popping on the charger (on night stand) while I brush my teeth and get ready for bed. However I give my wrist a rest and just use phone for sleep tracking. Since I charge my phone at night, and its so easy to do (vs Blaze and other Fitbit trackers), always surprises me when this is raised as an issue. Its an easy argument for "Fitbit is better" however the reality is that I've run out of battery more times with my Fitbit trackers than with AW because with Fitbit its a hassle to charge (stupid proprietary connectors) and I don't do it on a regular schedule.

Neither Fitbit or AW can reliably track HR on my activities - but only AW lets you connect an accurate chest strap and use it instead of the optical HRM. I've extensively tested Fitbit Surge/Blaze and AW on my interval training sessions (road or stationary bike), while weight lifting; and walking. The wrist trackers do fine job with HR while walking, but are hit and miss on bike ride intervals and completely wrong while lifting weights.

When it comes to tracking the primary difference between AW and Fitbit - Fitbit is closed (do it Fitbit way) while on AW you can use other apps and equipment to track and still get credit. I use a GPS bike computer and it collects accurate data on HR (chest strap), cadence, and power. Last night I was in the gym and my chest strap immediately connected to the stationary bike computer and I could easily see HR. And my ride data gets written to Health on my phone and fills the rings on my watch.

In addition I can track weight lifting - sets/reps/weight - right on my AW or phone.

And these discussion always seem to come around to "Fitbit does fitness better" argument. Thats funny because in Fitbit world that basically means charts graphing some metrics like steps, active minutes, resting heart rate, and sleep (all of which I get with AW/phone/other-sensors). But Fitbit can't show me improvements in weight lifting, or improvements in performance on my bike, or compare runs/rides/walks/swims, or predict how this week's training load will impact my readiness for a tough group bike ride on Saturday. And Fitbit doesn't play nice with all the apps that do that (just Strava, and you have to record in Fitbit to get full run/ride in Fitbit world).

And thats why I use best-in-class fitness apps on my phone/AW, and the beauty is they feed into AW Rings daily challenge thru Health. And Health will not give you double credit if more than one app (or apps and AW) are feeding data. There are only two apps that can feed workout data into Fitbit - Strava and Endomondo - and those workouts get stripped of maps, HR, power/cadence, and GPS because Fitbit doesn't allow 3rd party data with useful info into its closed system.

All that said, the Fitbit app looks good and gives a high level overview of how active you are but only on step activities - my cycling miles and swimming yards don't show up on app dashboard. However the new Health app, while not as attractive, is more customizable and I can bubble any metric to the top of the list (e.g. carbs, protein, cycling miles, exercise minutes, steps, etc, etc). And the list of metrics tracked in Health is far more extensive than Fitbit, with best-in-class apps to send the data into Health.

Aria, Fitbit MobileTrack on iOS. Previous: Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze

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bcalvanese · ‎09-30-2016

@walt73 wrote:
Are they about equally accurate when tracking? Do you prefer one over the other.

Just asking as there are some good deals on the original Apple at the moment; also, it is supposed to be greatly improved with Watch OS 3.

I had an Apple Watch Series 1 for a few days and was not too impressed on the fitness features. As a smart watch it is greate, but fitness (at this point in time) is not even in the same league as the Blaze.

Heart rate seems to be much more accurate on the Blaze, and GPS did not do well for either device when paired with the iPhone 7. I have a theory the the iPhone GPS just plain sucks, because when using the Blaze with both an iPhone 6s Plus and an iPhone 7, the tracking was ove to a mile off at times, but when using the same Blaze with the Samsung S7 and S7 Edge, tracking was within 1 tenth of a mile on the same routes.

bbarrera · ‎09-30-2016

@bcalvanese wrote:

Heart rate seems to be much more accurate on the Blaze, and GPS did not do well for either device when paired with the iPhone 7. I have a theory the the iPhone GPS just plain sucks, because when using the Blaze with both an iPhone 6s Plus and an iPhone 7, the tracking was ove to a mile off at times, but when using the same Blaze with the Samsung S7 and S7 Edge, tracking was within 1 tenth of a mile on the same routes.

I think you need to rethink that. Lets start from the top, Fitbit admitted to TheVerge there is an issue with Connected GPS accuracy. And we have some confirmation from Angela a Fitbit employee and moderator about the Blaze Connected GPS "Sometimes the Blaze looses connection with the phone and this might be why the distance information...

Then lets look at both Android and iPhone users on this Fitbit community that have clearly demonstrated a) phone GPS just fine, and b) Blaze has distance accuracy issues with Connected GPS. Then there is the hiking tour company that has hundreds of data points that iPhone doesn't suck. Finally, this is Apple, if there was a GPS issue the bloggers would be on fire and the Internet would be reporting on GPS-gate.

Aria, Fitbit MobileTrack on iOS. Previous: Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze

bbarrera · ‎09-30-2016

@walt73 wrote:
Are they about equally accurate when tracking? Do you prefer one over the other.

Just asking as there are some good deals on the original Apple at the moment; also, it is supposed to be greatly improved with Watch OS 3.

Depends on what you want from a wrist device. Both are fine trackers, I've found the step count and HR tracking to be about the same. Honestly when it comes to the fundamentals they are more alike than different. The biggest differences: Fitbit has a simple phone app and fun/motivational step challenges. Apple Watch has a not-as-simple phone app (Health) that nicely integrates with best-in-class 3rd party phone and watch apps, motivational 'fill the three rings' challenges, supports bluetooth chest straps, turn-by-turn directions, the fastest credit card checkout experience, responding to texts/Skype, answering phone calls when hands are full, superior notifications (e.g. disable on phone and only send to watch), customizable watch faces, customizable apps, at a glance weather, etc, etc, etc.

In short, I'm getting more use of my Apple Watch throughout the day than with any Fitbit. But if you are looking for a little peer pressure to motivate you to move, Fitbit is a better choice in my experience. And the Fitbit app is easier to use, but isn't as customizable and doesn't generally play well with 3rd party health and fitness data.

My perspective is as a Fitbit owner since 2013 (details below) and Apple Watch owner for 15 months. For another perspective, I've found the most detailed and easy-to-read reviews are on wareable.com.

So after extended use of both Fitbit and Apple Watch, I've found the biggest differences between devices:

Blaze

- Focuses on one goal for the day (steps, or calories, or walk/run miles). I liked this when walking off 30 pounds, but this wasn't useful when I switched to biking and swimming, for examle Fitbit doesn't show cycling miles on dashboard.

- Step Challenges. Fun, to this day still enjoy competing with friends.

- Blaze SmartTrack attempts to auto-track and categorize activity. This can be hit or miss, and you can disable. I disabled.

- Blaze battery works for days. Nice, but honestly I've gotten in more trouble (vs Apple Watch) with a dead tracker because I didn't charge everyday.

- Blaze is focused on 24x7 heart rate tracking. I workout 5-15 hours a week, am unable to get reliable HR tracking while working out, and don't find the "other 23 hours" of HR to be useful or actionable. For me its just a bunch of nicely presented data, like looking at a graph of the steps I took today.

- Companion app on phone is simple, and easy to use.

Biggest Positives: step challenges and simple/easy phone app

Biggest Negatives: relatively closed device and Fitbit wants you to buy new trackers so don't expect too many new features

Apple Watch

- Focuses you three goals for the day (calorie burn, exercise minutes, and hours where you stood up for a few minutes). These are shown as a simple set of Rings and your goal is to fill all three rings in a day. Hitting all three goals isn't easy, and I found this to be superior to Fitbit for two reasons: it better aligns with CDC recommendations on minimum exercise for adults (weekly: 150 min cardio / 2 strength training sessions), and it isn't based on steps as I primarily cycle/spin/swim/row for cardio.

- Ring challenges. These are motivational, but no group challenges.

- Smartwatch functionality. Multitasking, ability to reply with voice transcription, and apps are so far beyond Blaze there is simply no comparison. I can track a workout, respond to texts, set a timer and stopwatch, answer a phone call, and still be tracking the workout. Plus it works on WiFi, so in the summer I'll be outside in swim trunks without my phone working in the yard and if my wife calls/texts I can talk/respond even though phone is not in range.

- Watch faces and app data. These are truly useful and customizable, and in watchOS 3 I've setup 5 watch faces (exercise watch face, at work watch face, backyard watch face, etc) as "app launchers" for quick access to common apps, and I simply swipe left/right to switch watch faces. Along with my 5, there are 11 more watch faces that I haven't deleted, so its pretty easy to customize watch faces for any number of situations (at home, work, gym, yardwork, cooking, etc). Some apps like Runmeter and Cyclemeter allow you to customize and display pretty much any metric you want on the watch during a workout.

- Battery on original AW lasts for about 36 hours. Along with my phone, I charge everyday, and haven't had an issue with battery running out. No problem with sleep tracking, for example yesterday I exercised for about 90 minutes and ended the day at 43%. Last week I worked out for 3 hours and ended the day at around 22% (can't remember exactly, it was more than 20%). Popping Apple Watch on charger for 20 minutes while getting ready for bed allows for sleep tracking if you want that on your wrist. I'd rather give my wrist a rest and use phone for sleep tracking.

- HR Tracking. Apple Watch and Blaze are both hit or miss, because they are on your wrist. However only Apple Watch lets you connect with a more accurate bluetooth chest strap or arm band. I want accuracy during intense exercise, really haven't found any use for HR when I'm not working out (one exception, I measure my resting HR when waking up in the morning).

- Companion app on phone (Health) is getting better, not as good looking as Fitbit app. However it integrates with other best-in-class apps, for example if I track my ride on Strava using chest strap and bike sensors (cadence and power meters) then that is automatically integrated into Health app and it fills my rings.

- Health data. The phone Health app supports more far more health data than Fitbit. If you have an app like MyFitnessPal and track food, all that data is integrated into Health.

Biggest Positives: app store, multitasking, customization, and more data in phone app

Biggest Negatives: more expensive. If you want sleep tracking then get into habit of putting on charger ~20 minutes in morning/evening while getting ready (or get new Series 1 or 2 for two day battery life)

I've done "long term testing" starting with Fitbit Flex, then Force, then iPhone 5s using Fitbit MobileTrack. Tried the Surge (too bulky, poor band design), and Blaze (not as useful as Apple Watch), still have both Blaze and Surge and use from time-to-time. With the help of MyFitnessPal for food tracking, I used Flex and Force to lose 30 pounds. By that point I was walking a mile in 14 minutes, and would go out on 4-8 mile walks.

Walking fast over 1-2 hours turned out to be too much for my dog, and frankly a bit boring, and more importantly it was hard on my joints. So I started cycling and swimming to lose the last 20 pounds - pretty easy to 'go hard' while cycling and swimming as those are easy on my 50+ year old joints. Fitbit is optimized for walking and related step activities, and by tracking cycling and spinning with Surge and Blaze I wasn't able to get good calorie estimates - more importantly I wasn't able to get any real "fitness" information from Fitbit even with a paid premium. The best-in-class app approach of Apple Watch is a better fit for me at this point in my fitness journey.

Hope that helps.

Aria, Fitbit MobileTrack on iOS. Previous: Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze

Bunnybear_05 · ‎10-03-2016

Idk. My Apple Watch was always off in step count by a few thousand. I tested it many times by wearing my flex and Apple Watch on the same wrist. I ended up selling the Apple Watch

bbarrera · ‎10-03-2016

Wrist trackers have trouble with step counting accuracy... I've seen that with my Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze, and Apple Watch. First time I noticed this issue was in Costco back in summer of 2013... 90 minutes pushing a cart around the store and my Flex counted less than 250 steps!

Under controlled conditions the wrist step counters are just fine, for example I just walked 324 steps around the building and my iPhone 7 counted 323 steps and Apple Watch counted 319 steps (I raised wrist once to check on incoming text). Same experience with Flex, Force, Surge, and Blaze.

All these wrist step counters do fine under controlled conditions, and struggle with accuracy when wrist stops moving (pushing a shopping cart), or while sitting you move arm rhythmically. In the extreme I've seen reports on Charge 2 forum that some folks are getting thousands of steps for typing at a keyboard during the day (I've never had that happen)!

Aria, Fitbit MobileTrack on iOS. Previous: Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze

walt73 · ‎10-05-2016

I bought the Apple watch - the tracking seems to be accurate enough (within 5% of the Blaze).

But what sets it apart - and in my opinion a much better buy than the Blaze for only £39 extra - is the customisation and polish of the device (aesthetically it's much nicer to look at) and what it can do - infinite watch faces featuring activity, moon/sun data, weather, reminders, alarms, hey Siri, the ability to make/take calls, a decent speaker and mic, voice recording etc. All this plus 3D touch and complications for whatever stat or app I want and a 1GB playlist on there for music as I excercise.

Still keeping the Blaze as a backup device, but it's seeing little action of late. Battery on the Apple Watch hasn't been a problem as I use it as a night stand, also, and the OLED screen is far superior to the Fitbit.

jharla1 · ‎10-05-2016

I had preordered the Apple Watch, and thankfully got a Charge HR at the time while I waited just to be social with my gf since she was starting to work out more.

When I got the AW, I expected to ditch the Charge HR.

Boy was I wrong. Thankfully I had an idea of what my daily activity was, and noticed the AW wasn't coming close to it. So then I started wearing both. The AW significantly undercounted my steps. We're talking a good 10% or so.

When it came to Heart Rate, the AW also was frustrating. It was no more effective than the ones you use on machines where you hold onto the sensor for 10 seconds. As it turns out, the Fitbit HR devices monitor more frequently. They of course aren't 100%, but it was night and day compared to the AW (that doesn't check as often, I guess to help save battery).

The final straw was poor battery of the AW. I had to choose between tracking activity during the day or tracking my sleep. Of course chose day but missed the sleep tracking. Not to mention I found the battery often not lasting a whole day sometimes.

Was an easy choice to end up ditching the AW and keeping the Charge HR on, and eventually updating to the Blaze (beause I missed getting texts and whatnot). Some caveats to this of course: I don't have any hands on time with the new Apple Watch, either series 2 or the new series 1 with refreshed OS.

The Apple Watch was neat and all, a jack of all trades, master of none. In the end, I preferred to have something that reliably tracked my fitness as opposed to a watch with all the bells and whistles. I'm sure some would prefer the AW, but without experience with how well the Fitbit products tracked, they would be none the wiser.

With the new Apple Watch coming out, I was intrigued. Looks like they made improvements. But the one big glaring thing missing was they made no mention of improved battery life in their presentation. It was too frustrating to have to charge their watch every night.

One combination I am looking at is perhaps getting the new Apple Watch and also wearing a Flex 2. I am still waiting to hear more about the Flex 2 (as well as see one in person). If the profile on the Flex is as slim as some folks are making it out to be (think Livestrong bracelet), I may end up wearing both and not looking like a dork.

bbarrera · ‎10-05-2016