Guys,
Quick question.
Is there a setting somewhere that allows the gear fit to NOT end the workout if stationary (or bad GPS) after a preset time?
Scenario:
Whenever I am cycling, I inevitably come across traffic lights and have to stop, after some time (normally once I get going again) the gear fit will display a message "No movement detected, workout stopped" or something along those lines.
If I acknowledge the message, then its ok, workout continues until the next stop, but if I don't notice it, and sometimes I don't feel the vibration when cycling, then eventually the workout will stop all together, and I only find out next time I check the device.
This is very frustrating, surely I don't have to keep checking the device to see if it thinks the workout is stopped, very dangerous when cycling.
So currently yes I have to periodically check to make sure it is still recording, if I just leave it, guaranteed it will stop recording without me telling it to.
Anyone else experience this when cycling?
Otherwise great device!
further to this..
yesterday on my ride home I got the "workout stopped" message when I had been moving for at least 3-4 minutes.
so not sure how it is calculating movement or what the threshold is.
luckily i noticed and acknowledged the message and the workout continued.
still very annoying.
surely someone else has experienced this, or am I the only one using the gear fit for cycling?
If i initiate the cycling workout from the app on the S5, it does not record heart rate, even though the device is paired.
Yes, I have found this as well, and annoyed me too. You could go for a 4 hr ride, and it's stopped after 20 minutes haha.
THAT would be annoying!
This is problem for the newest firmware i think, bcoz early i don't have this problem...
scoobydoo_nz said:
Yes, I have found this as well, and annoyed me too. You could go for a 4 hr ride, and it's stopped after 20 minutes haha.
THAT would be annoying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeap absolutely rubbish!
I am yet to accurately record a workout and I have had the thing for nearly a week.
Tempted to take it back just doesn't do anything it is supposed to do, except send notifications that seems to be the only thing working properly.
I have same problem too. Samsung need to fix this soon with firmware update. Otherwise it will be a great product.
I suffer from the same problem. Anoying..... And if you track from the S Health app have you notice that the distance is way off from what the bike computer measures??? 4 riders, 4 bike computers from Sigma, all measured the same, S Health reported 2,5km LESS.......
I was really fed up with Gear Fit and I've just return it to the seller.
I think i'm going to wait for better devices (or an important upgrade)
I bought it because notifications and tracking options, but it was disconnecting all the time from the cellphone.
Bye bye gearfit!
The movement detector really sucks in this watch. The other day the pedometer prompt came on congratulating me on reaching my daily steps goal. The problem is that it was early morning and I did not go anywhere to reach the 10,000 step goal. Then it occured to me, it must of picked up the movement of me rubbing one out...
Related
Hi,
While I think my Gear Fit is a very useful device it constantly lets me down on the training side. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
I bike quite a bit and I like the way the Health app stores my map speed etc. the way it does. Once in a blue moon. The problem is that 9 times out of 10 the cycling app will shut down all on its own while I'm still in the middle of my training session. Hysterically irritating to have all these half-recorded sessions in my phone. And there's no way I can check on progress while cycling. To get to the Health app and then on to cycling on the Gear Fit would be sure death when speeding along at 35 kph. At least for someone as unbalanced as myself.
So am I doing something wrong? Is there a setting for the Gear Fit that I've missed? Is anyone else having this problem, or am I just stuck with a buggy example of the otherwise very nifty piece of engineering? Oh, and whoever designed the strap for the Fit must absolutely have had repeat business in mind! It's fallen off, like, 100 times of its own accord. A miracle that it's still in my possession.
Grateful for any advice on the "keep alive" topic.
Thanks/M
McHan said:
Hi,
While I think my Gear Fit is a very useful device it constantly lets me down on the training side. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
I bike quite a bit and I like the way the Health app stores my map speed etc. the way it does. Once in a blue moon. The problem is that 9 times out of 10 the cycling app will shut down all on its own while I'm still in the middle of my training session. Hysterically irritating to have all these half-recorded sessions in my phone. And there's no way I can check on progress while cycling. To get to the Health app and then on to cycling on the Gear Fit would be sure death when speeding along at 35 kph. At least for someone as unbalanced as myself.
So am I doing something wrong? Is there a setting for the Gear Fit that I've missed? Is anyone else having this problem, or am I just stuck with a buggy example of the otherwise very nifty piece of engineering? Oh, and whoever designed the strap for the Fit must absolutely have had repeat business in mind! It's fallen off, like, 100 times of its own accord. A miracle that it's still in my possession.
Grateful for any advice on the "keep alive" topic.
Thanks/M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, but I have missed all my bicyclings. But I have solved issue. Taking pulse (beat of heart) off then the training have gone OK. I am a male and have hairs on my wrist. I haven't tryed if I would keep Gear Fit like womens do, wrong way around. I mean the display is under wrist and where are not any hairs or you have to keep your strap tighter than now.
Newest version bring pause function to Gear Fit training, but I agree that better would be if I can myself start and stop the bicycling training. It could stop automatically if you stand too long in traffic signal; GPS signal stays too long same. If this is true, then the clock is dangerous incitementing to run a red lights.
The pulse off settings is here: biking/ scroll right one screen (on landscape mode)/ pulse: take off tag of pulse.
EmDzei said:
Same here, but I have missed all my bicyclings. But I have solved issue. Taking pulse (beat of heart) off then the training have gone OK. I am a male and have hairs on my wrist. I haven't tryed if I would keep Gear Fit like womens do, wrong way around. I mean the display is under wrist and where are not any hairs or you have to keep your strap tighter than now.
Newest version bring pause function to Gear Fit training, but I agree that better would be if I can myself start and stop the bicycling training. It could stop automatically if you stand too long in traffic signal; GPS signal stays too long same. If this is true, then the clock is dangerous incitementing to run a red lights.
The pulse off settings is here: biking/ scroll right one screen (on landscape mode)/ pulse: take off tag of pulse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi EmDzei and thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately this did not solve the problem for me. Turned off the heart-sensor and have now tried two biking sessions but the Gear device stops recording after 10 and 25 minutes respectively. Pretty much the same results as before. A real pain in the nether regions! Does no one else have this problem? I've noticed that the phone "pings" every now and again and I'm wondering if it momentarily loses BT contact with the watch and that this somehow stops the Health recording. It does this at night also when I have the blocking mode enabled (which irritates the H-ll out of my wife, the soft pinging, that is). Any thoughts on this...?
Thanks/M
McHan said:
Hi EmDzei and thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately this did not solve the problem for me. Turned off the heart-sensor and have now tried two biking sessions but the Gear device stops recording after 10 and 25 minutes respectively. Pretty much the same results as before. A real pain in the nether regions! Does no one else have this problem? I've noticed that the phone "pings" every now and again and I'm wondering if it momentarily loses BT contact with the watch and that this somehow stops the Health recording. It does this at night also when I have the blocking mode enabled (which irritates the H-ll out of my wife, the soft pinging, that is). Any thoughts on this...?
Thanks/M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have to notice here at start that I am not so specialist for this case. But I can give one or two hint.
This hint could hit forest with full speed. I don't know if the bluetooth and WLAN are on same chip. But on WLAN (= Wi-Fi) extra settings and its sleep mode there are three settings: always, only when connected and never (increase mobile data). Simple translations from finnish. =) I use this middle settings: allways, when device is connected. I wrote this hint because you wrote that your device seems disconnect 10 - 25 minutes. WLAN disconnecting time is similar: 15 minutes, if on sleep mode. As I said, this could be very very wrong information.
OK. Next our possible version differents. My Gear Fit firmware is R350XXU0BNE5. My Gear Fit Manager version is 1.67.0523 and I use it on my Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505) stock un-rooted firmware version UFNB9. Last five serial character of Gear Fit are LRXW. I do not use blocking mode on Gear Fit. I use it on my phone and disable sync at nights.
Today I tested and bicycled 26,52 km. I visited two times on markets and paused my "training". All session took 1:44 hour (so beautifull day and sunshine). Does your bicycling have Pause button when you started the trip? My previous version of this doesn't and with it I had problems with cutted bicycle trainings. My phone lay on own bicycle mounting holder, so the bluetooth signal is very stong and distance ~50 - 60 cm only.
Uh, last comments. You have of course made a Samsung account and it sync works OK? I think also that keeping LTE off when biking outside of the city fairway, if it is not strong signal. Good to try in this desperation, eh.
EmDzei said:
Have to notice here at start that I am not so specialist for this case. But I can give one or two hint.
This hint could hit forest with full speed. I don't know if the bluetooth and WLAN are on same chip. But on WLAN (= Wi-Fi) extra settings and its sleep mode there are three settings: always, only when connected and never (increase mobile data). Simple translations from finnish. =) I use this middle settings: allways, when device is connected. I wrote this hint because you wrote that your device seems disconnect 10 - 25 minutes. WLAN disconnecting time is similar: 15 minutes, if on sleep mode. As I said, this could be very very wrong information.
OK. Next our possible version differents. My Gear Fit firmware is R350XXU0BNE5. My Gear Fit Manager version is 1.67.0523 and I use it on my Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505) stock un-rooted firmware version UFNB9. Last five serial character of Gear Fit are LRXW. I do not use blocking mode on Gear Fit. I use it on my phone and disable sync at nights.
Today I tested and bicycled 26,52 km. I visited two times on markets and paused my "training". All session took 1:44 hour (so beautifull day and sunshine). Does your bicycling have Pause button when you started the trip? My previous version of this doesn't and with it I had problems with cutted bicycle trainings. My phone lay on own bicycle mounting holder, so the bluetooth signal is very stong and distance ~50 - 60 cm only.
Uh, last comments. You have of course made a Samsung account and it sync works OK? I think also that keeping LTE off when biking outside of the city fairway, if it is not strong signal. Good to try in this desperation, eh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A-HA! I think You hit on the solution to the problem in Your very last comment. I've been trying various combinations of settings on both the Gear Fit and on the phone, but to no avail. Then finally it struck me that, yes! I have been experiencing issues when shifting between LTE and other modes, and that possibly possibly this could have something to do with my problems. And so, sure enough, when I blocked off 4G and went for my daily today I finally got the whole ride recorded in the phone!
So many thanks for putting me on this track and fining the solution for me, EmDzei!
I want to try android wear device.I choose LG G Watch.
Because in India,LG G Watch is available for 6500 INR (105USD).
Can any one tell me the pros and cons for this watch?
Is good to buy?
I just posted this message in another thread, but it is relevant to your question, so here it is again......
I just got mine too, but I really like it.....
First, I have to have my phone encrypted for work reasons. Having the Wear Unlock feature is a Godsend.
Second, I really like having my email and other notifications right there on my wrist. 90% of the emails I get are unimportant, but the other 10% are critically important. Before having the watch, I didn't check my email as much as I should have due to the amount of low importance email. Now with the watch, it is quick and easy to see an incoming message and immediately delete the unimportant ones.
Third, I love Google Now. It may start out feeling like a gimmick, but the more you use it, the more you will depend on it as a important feature. I was really starting to use this feature on my phone (G3), but it was a pain to get my phone and turn the screen on before I could use it. Having the watch allows this experience to be much quicker since I don't have to touch my phone. It's even better than the Moto X with it's "always listening" mode because you get the results right on the watch. Sure, there are sometimes that I need to push the results to the phone, but many times I am fine with viewing the information right on the watch. Checking the traffic conditions is something I do regularly - even when traveling on secondary roads and not the highway.
Fourth - Navigation on the watch. Having the turn by turn directions on the watch means I can leave my phone screen turned off when using navigation. I don't have a car mount for my car, so trying to position the phone where I could watch the navigation queues was a pain. In fact, many times I simply listened to the voice instructions which wasn't ideal. Now having the steps appear on the watch is great!
Fifth, I like having the incoming phone calls vibrate the watch. I would miss calls sometimes because I didn't hear my phone ringing or feel it vibrate (if on silent). Now I'm much less likely to miss a call.
I use all of these features all the time, but it is especially nice to be able to put my phone down when I get home and not have to carry it around with me. I can place it in the middle of our house (in the Den) and it will stay connected to the watch pretty much wherever I am in the house. It's great to still get notifications and see who is calling without having to run to look at my phone.
Those are just some features off the top of my head that I have enjoyed with the new watch.
Thank you for your info.
What about battery life from your usage?
I charge it every day, but the watch has never died on me before I end the day - usually 15 hrs or longer. I've had the watch about a week now, so I didn't experienced the "pre-update" battery performance. The battery performance was worse on the early versions of the Wear OS, but by all accounts, it is pretty good now.
Thank you for your information.
svprm said:
Thank you for your information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just an update. Somehow my watch didn't charge last night - the charger must have gotten unplugged or something. I'm sitting at 11% battery life after about 26 hours.
After having the Gear S for over a week, I have to admit that I am appreciating the convenience it offers in my daily life. Let me start off by saying that I have been using a Pebble smartwatch up until I got the Gear S. Although the Pebble is great for what it is, I believe that the Gear S has done more to make my day easier.
Battery life is nowhere near the Pebble, but that was to be expected. On average, it is possible for me to go without a charge for 2.5 days. More often, I do fall in the 2 day range. Some of you are probably wondering how I achieved this. The trick is to connect it to your phone via bluetooth for most of your day. I noticed that if I do not connect the Gear S to my phone, battery life drops quickly. At the end of a work day, if my Gear S is not connected to my phone, I am usually left with 41% by the time I go to sleep. However, if my Gear S is connected to my phone for a majority of the day, I am usually left with about 70% throughout the day. When I'm sleeping, I turn on airplane mode to save more battery. Remember, your charging dock can act as a portable charger since there is a battery inside of it. You should take the charging dock with you if you are a heavy user. I would not call myself a heavy user. I accept several calls on the Gear S, approximately 20 text messages, and my email notifications are sent to the watch. I would call myself an average user.
There are also some other settings that I have to maximize battery life. I turned off GPS, motions, and wifi. Bluetooth is always on and data is setup to automatically connect. My screen brightness is setup to automatically adjust. All of my notifications are vibration only. I work in an environment that does not allow ringtones to go off. I haven't had the chance to test how my battery life would be if I setup my notifications to use sound instead.
The Gear S is convenient to me because it allows me to stay in touch without carrying a device that fills my entire pocket. This is especially true if you have kids. If you watch your kids all day, there will be many times when your hands are full. It has been much easier to accept calls using the Gear S instead of reaching for my phone.
Since the Gear S is water resistant, I was also able to take my family to the beach and not worry about damaging the Gear S. Usually when I'm at the beach, I have to worry about my Note 3 due to the sand. Because of the Gear S, I can leave my phone somewhere safe such as the car or at home.
Exercise is another activity where the Gear S really shines. The main reason why I take my phone with me while I'm out jogging/running is so my family can contact me. With the Gear S, I have less weight to carry. With a phone in my pocket, the phone always bounces around and I have to be careful about how fast I run so my phone will not fall out. This was when I really decided that the Gear S will be replacing my Pebble. The pebble is a champ when it comes to battery life, but I still had to carry an additional device when I'm out running.
I also notice that because of the limited features of the Gear S, I seem more involved with my co-workers and family. Before having the Gear S, I would always be looking at my phone during social gatherings. Now that I leave my phone at home, I can focus more on the people around me while staying in touch.
Another feature that I use often is the sound detector on my phone. I have my sound detector setup to send notifications to my Gear S when my newborn is crying. I'm shocked that this actually worked.
One of the biggest downsides of the Gear S is that I cannot use Google Now. I'm a rather heavy user when it comes to Google Now. Although I cannot use Google Now on the Gear S, I can still get notifications from Google Now such as traffic updates, weather updates, reminders, etc. Another issue is the keyboard. I can easily type using the keyboard. For me, the best way to use the keyboard is to use swype. The short comings of the keyboard present itself when I try to enter a word with only two letters such as "at" or "by". It always detects either the first or last letter. I'm getting better at typing such words, but it is still an issue.
Overall, depending on how your daily life is, this device may serve a purpose for you. At first glance I was not fond of the screen size. The curved screen definitely helps keep the watch comfortable to use. Don't be intimidated by the larger screen. I'm 5' 4". Needless to say, I am very short. It is a big watch, but when comparing it to my old analog watch, they were about the same size and thickness. Not a big leap to me in terms of size. My advice is to try it for a few days. Most carriers will let you return the watch if you don't want it. I was a fan of the Pebble because it does its job well. I think the Pebble still does a better job with notifications than the Gear S, but like I said earlier, the Gear S offers more to make my day easier.
I pretty much agree with everything you say, and would add that my Gear S tracks my exercise, especially my runs: I now know distance, speed, heart rate, etc. without having to run with my Note 2, which does nit fit in any of my pockets, and required a waistpack (very sexy).
As stupid as it sounds, I also appreciate the hourly reminders that I need to move! My work is sedentary.
Appreciate your review, and the fitness and telecommunication functions are really the strengths of the Gear S.
Just something funny I noticed: if the limited functions of an electronic device is forcing you to be more involved with family/friends/coworkers, then it is not doing its job ?
I changed my keyboard to one of the compact keyboards. That seems to work the best for me on text input.
I agree with your review as well. Just the convenience of feeling like I'm reachable without having to be so "concerned" about where my phone is makes life so much better. My kids can reach me any where, and given that my oldest is a new driver, that is extra important to me. The girls almost always call me when I am at the barn with the horses. So nice to be able to answer their call and still have both hands free to handle my 1200lb animals.
I agree with pretty much everything said here; including the limitations of Google services. I've been a big fan of a lot of the Google services the last few years especially Google Now. THough I am able to receive Google Now notifications, I can't do a Google search like I can on my phone. I get a Google Now notification for weather or traffic every 5 minutes. This is not only redundant, annoying and unnecessary, it is also a battery killer, so I turned that off.
The only other thing I wish it could do is respond to Google Hangouts. My wife and I have been very heavy Hangouts users the last couple years since we can message each other on our computers at home or work and switch seamlessly between our computers, phones and tablets. With the watch, I can read her incoming messages, but I can't respond to them until I am able to get my phone out or get back to my desk. I am hoping that Samsung or a third party implements this very soon. There actually is a Gear app that supposedly does this, but it cost me $1.49 and I couldn't get it to work.
This is my first smart watch. I was going to get the Moto 360 or the LG G Watch R before the Gear S came out. Therefore, I have no hands-on experience with any other watch, I think if some of the Google services could be implemented into the Gear S, it would be the best smartwatch on the scene. All I think it needs is Google search and the ability to respond to Google messages (Gmail and Hangouts).
This app works just right for hangouts. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pacosal.gear.notificationsgears
NinjaMom said:
This app works just right for hangouts. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pacosal.gear.notificationsgears
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the app I used. It was $1.49 four days ago. Does it work better now than it did last week? I noticed the rating is higher than it was when I first got it as well. I would be happy to pay for it, if it works, but I just ran out of time and patience.
It must. I have no problems replying to hangout messages.
Thanks. Maybe I'll try it again.
Been using this also, had maybe 2 recent updates to the app. It's not perfect but works 95% of the time for me using voice dictation to reply to wharsapp messages etc. Worth the money.
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk
thanks for the info about that app. I just got it myself. I was looking for a way to reply to hangouts also as I will be changing over to my google voice number as my main number. I wanted to still be able to replay to hangout messages. Thanks for this
Can the Gear S stream from some music streaming app to a pair of bluetooth headphones without your phone? I would find this really handy at the gym.
NVM. Found the thread addressing this.
tjl_48 said:
Can the Gear S stream from some music streaming app to a pair of bluetooth headphones without your phone? I would find this really handy at the gym.
NVM. Found the thread addressing this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Without a phone, You can store music on the Gear S and connect bluetooth headphones. You can also stream Milk music from the Gear S with the Gear S version of Milk music installed.
With your phone connected, you can control the music or podcast on the phone from the Gear S when they are connected via bluetooth.
Since the Gear S has it's own number from what I've read is there anyway to link it with my primary number?
alhadee12 said:
Since the Gear S has it's own number from what I've read is there anyway to link it with my primary number?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what you mean by "link it with my primary number."
When your phone and watch are in range they are connected via bluetooth, so any calls notifications, etc, will be from the phone over bluetooth. When they get out of range, the phone will automatically forward your calls to the Gear S. If you turn off call forwarding and bluetooth, the Gear S can act as a completely independent device with it's own phone number.
The Gear S also has Wifi connectivity and all of these connections can be turned on or off and configured differently in settings.
I'm still trying to figure out how it all works together and how to make it do what I want. SOmetimes it will not do what I think it should and I can't figure out why. For the most part all of this is automatic and it all works pretty well, though.
MrAwesome75 said:
I don't know what you mean by "link it with my primary number."
When your phone and watch are in range they are connected via bluetooth, so any calls notifications, etc, will be from the phone over bluetooth. When they get out of range, the phone will automatically forward your calls to the Gear S. If you turn off call forwarding and bluetooth, the Gear S can act as a completely independent device with it's own phone number.
The Gear S also has Wifi connectivity and all of these connections can be turned on or off and configured differently in settings.
I'm still trying to figure out how it all works together and how to make it do what I want. SOmetimes it will not do what I think it should and I can't figure out why. For the most part all of this is automatic and it all works pretty well, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I meant by "link", will it use the phone number of my phone. I've come to learn some of the things you stated. It uses my phone line when connected via Bluetooth. Once it's put of range it uses its assigned phone number.
It will always use your phone's number as long as they are connected via bluetooth. When they get out of range the phone will forward to the watch. So incoming calls and texts to the phone will be forwarded to the watch as well. I haven't thoroughly tested this yet, but I believe in that case sending texts or making calls from the watch will show they are from the watch number and not the phone.
It's hard for me to test this and as far as my understanding of forwarding, that seems to make sense since forwarding only works in one direction. This is why I am trying to figure out how to get Google voice working on the watch. Because it has the potential (in theory) to make all calls and texts between all devices seamless. But so far Google voice doesn't seem to work on the watch at all.
MrAwesome75 said:
It will always use your phone's number as long as they are connected via bluetooth. When they get out of range the phone will forward to the watch. So incoming calls and texts to the phone will be forwarded to the watch as well. I haven't thoroughly tested this yet, but I believe in that case sending texts or making calls from the watch will show they are from the watch number and not the phone.
It's hard for me to test this and as far as my understanding of forwarding, that seems to make sense since forwarding only works in one direction. This is why I am trying to figure out how to get Google voice working on the watch. Because it has the potential (in theory) to make all calls and texts between all devices seamless. But so far Google voice doesn't seem to work on the watch at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google Voice works great with my Gear S. Incoming and outgoing calls and texts.
If you want to know how, I explained it in a thread on Android Central.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=461234
jlczl said:
Google Voice works great with my Gear S. Incoming and outgoing calls and texts.
If you want to know how, I explained it in a thread on Android Central.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=461234
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your response. I did read your post about Google Voice. It was hard to fully understand. I did everything you're supposed to do (I think). It still doesn't work for me.
nguyen4514 said:
After having the Gear S for over a week, I have to admit that I am appreciating the convenience it offers in my daily life. Let me start off by saying that I have been using a Pebble smartwatch up until I got the Gear S. Although the Pebble is great for what it is, I believe that the Gear S has done more to make my day easier.
Battery life is nowhere near the Pebble, but that was to be expected. On average, it is possible for me to go without a charge for 2.5 days. More often, I do fall in the 2 day range. Some of you are probably wondering how I achieved this. The trick is to connect it to your phone via bluetooth for most of your day. I noticed that if I do not connect the Gear S to my phone, battery life drops quickly. At the end of a work day, if my Gear S is not connected to my phone, I am usually left with 41% by the time I go to sleep. However, if my Gear S is connected to my phone for a majority of the day, I am usually left with about 70% throughout the day. When I'm sleeping, I turn on airplane mode to save more battery. Remember, your charging dock can act as a portable charger since there is a battery inside of it. You should take the charging dock with you if you are a heavy user. I would not call myself a heavy user. I accept several calls on the Gear S, approximately 20 text messages, and my email notifications are sent to the watch. I would call myself an average user.
There are also some other settings that I have to maximize battery life. I turned off GPS, motions, and wifi. Bluetooth is always on and data is setup to automatically connect. My screen brightness is setup to automatically adjust. All of my notifications are vibration only. I work in an environment that does not allow ringtones to go off. I haven't had the chance to test how my battery life would be if I setup my notifications to use sound instead.
The Gear S is convenient to me because it allows me to stay in touch without carrying a device that fills my entire pocket. This is especially true if you have kids. If you watch your kids all day, there will be many times when your hands are full. It has been much easier to accept calls using the Gear S instead of reaching for my phone.
Since the Gear S is water resistant, I was also able to take my family to the beach and not worry about damaging the Gear S. Usually when I'm at the beach, I have to worry about my Note 3 due to the sand. Because of the Gear S, I can leave my phone somewhere safe such as the car or at home.
Exercise is another activity where the Gear S really shines. The main reason why I take my phone with me while I'm out jogging/running is so my family can contact me. With the Gear S, I have less weight to carry. With a phone in my pocket, the phone always bounces around and I have to be careful about how fast I run so my phone will not fall out. This was when I really decided that the Gear S will be replacing my Pebble. The pebble is a champ when it comes to battery life, but I still had to carry an additional device when I'm out running.
I also notice that because of the limited features of the Gear S, I seem more involved with my co-workers and family. Before having the Gear S, I would always be looking at my phone during social gatherings. Now that I leave my phone at home, I can focus more on the people around me while staying in touch.
Another feature that I use often is the sound detector on my phone. I have my sound detector setup to send notifications to my Gear S when my newborn is crying. I'm shocked that this actually worked.
One of the biggest downsides of the Gear S is that I cannot use Google Now. I'm a rather heavy user when it comes to Google Now. Although I cannot use Google Now on the Gear S, I can still get notifications from Google Now such as traffic updates, weather updates, reminders, etc. Another issue is the keyboard. I can easily type using the keyboard. For me, the best way to use the keyboard is to use swype. The short comings of the keyboard present itself when I try to enter a word with only two letters such as "at" or "by". It always detects either the first or last letter. I'm getting better at typing such words, but it is still an issue.
Overall, depending on how your daily life is, this device may serve a purpose for you. At first glance I was not fond of the screen size. The curved screen definitely helps keep the watch comfortable to use. Don't be intimidated by the larger screen. I'm 5' 4". Needless to say, I am very short. It is a big watch, but when comparing it to my old analog watch, they were about the same size and thickness. Not a big leap to me in terms of size. My advice is to try it for a few days. Most carriers will let you return the watch if you don't want it. I was a fan of the Pebble because it does its job well. I think the Pebble still does a better job with notifications than the Gear S, but like I said earlier, the Gear S offers more to make my day easier.
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Hello
What app do you use call sound detector?
Thanks
Every damn time i get into the car my watch says I walked a crap ton of steps each time... ill go from 500 steps to a 1000 steps...... I reset the watch and the issue still persists. This is an awesome watch and I like this watch better than the gear s2, but with the gear s2 if i start driving at 500 steps it wont even say I walked a step, the pedometer is very accurate! Any way I can fix this problem? Im looking to ditch the gear s2 but I really need to be able to accurately count my steps, im a fitness freak.
I noticed the same thing and wondered if there was a way to disable it when I get into my car.
abrahan said:
I noticed the same thing and wondered if there was a way to disable it when I get into my car.
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****, and there was me thinking I had nearly reached my step count for the day :crying:
will check it on my why home tonight...
Mine does this off and on. It doesn't count all the steps but definitely a bunch randomly. It also counted like 50k steps while i was asleep and it was charging. That was definitely odd, now I need to find out if I sleepwalk 10 miles.
Well I'm a semi truck driver and when I drive with the gear s2 the watch doesn't count any steps! Super accurate!! With the moto 360, the damn things counts so many steps its unreal. It even counts a bunch when I'm driving the car, bothers me a lot. I really want to keep this watch too
must be optional, i hope in the next update of android wear change that
I read at german magazin c't that the 360 has only a 3 axis motion sensor and that the watch is not so accurate like the 9 axis sensor from the huawei watch.
I'm sorry rant ahead. But I've had enough.
I bought the Stratos, because I didn't really like my Mi Band 3 (constant connection problems and almost invisible screen in daylight). I wanted to buy the Bip, but I said, what the hell. Let's go big. Stratos also looks good (Bip does not). The transreflective always on display is also great. But here the good things end.
1. The watch is slooow. Sometimes it doesn't register a touch, and sometimes it registers a ghost touch. The menus are bad, the layout is bad, the navigation is bad (and slow). The watch is also way too thick.
2. The Amazfit app is abysmal. Once the acitivity is recorded, it cannot be edited in any way. Did you press "walking" when you started running by mistake (It can easily happen - see above)? Too bad. You cannot correct it. Amazfit can draw pretty GPS pictures and graphs, but that's about it. And it's so buggy, it's more or less unusable (see below). There is no internet page, like literally every other app has (Strava, Endomondo, Runkeeper), where you could edit the data. There is no homepage. There are no official help forums.
So, even if the watch and app were completely bug free, the whole package would still be, in best case, average. But they are not bug free. And that is an understatement of the century. I've seen buggy apps and gadgets before, but this one takes the cake.
3. When I got the watch, the battery life was a real rollercoaster. The watch could go form 100% to 0 in a few hours or in 5 days. Sometimes reboot or factory reset helped. And that is true for the watch as a whole. Three to four factory resets in a months is (was - it doesn't work anymore -see below) almost necessary for Stratos to work "normally".
4. Caller name on the watch started working with Amazfit app 3. It never worked before. So, this basic (and advertised) functionality started working almost a year after the watch was released.
5. So, you start to run/bicycle/whatever. You choose the appropriate workout, you wait for the GPS, you start, and.... nothing. You are riding a bicycle and the watch says your speed iz zero.
6. You are running, and suddenly you pace starts to drop like a stone. So, I run little below 5.00 min/km. Yesterday I was running, and suddenly I was at 11.00 min/km. Not in reality, just on the Stratos. I always run 6 km, but Stratos measured 4 km. A day before 5 km. I actually ran 6 km, as I know the way. Thank god for Strava, because when I got home and the Strava synced, the running length(and pace) was correct. But only in Strava. Amazfit app and the watch itself got the data wrong. No, I don't know, how that is possible.
7. So, I was bicycling downhill. Suddenly, my hearbeat goes to 160. 170. 180. Am I dying? I feel the chest. Everything is normal. The watch is just acting up again. A few days after that, I was bicycling uphill, usually my heartrate is somewhere around 130-140. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, my heartrate drops. 60. 50. 40. And I am paddling uphill in 35 degrees C! Am I Lance Armstrong? No, It's just the watch.
8. A few days ago heartrate and steps stopped syncing with the app. The watch is at 6000 steps and Continuous HR is on (and seems to work on the watch), but the app is at 0 steps and "no heart rate data. Syncing doesn't help. Rebooting the watch doesn't help. Factory reset doesn't help. Restarting the phone, reinstalling the watch, creating a new account doesn't help.
Let's end this. I paid 160 EUR for this POS. After many months on the market, even the basic functionality of the watch does not work. What does work now, might not work tomorrow, and what works, works badly.
Why are things like this? It's the age old truth: when you buy the product, you don't just buy plastic, steel and glass, you buy a service. You buy programmers, that will get your product running long after you bought it. And that's why Amazfit products just seem cheap. Because you just bought the plastic. Nothing else.
You got a broken watch, claim warranty.
I would also add there might be a problem with your smartphone bluetooth as well. I used Mi Band 1, 2, 3 and now 4. I also had 2 smartwatches and now Stratos. I also changed 2 smartphones and I never ever had connection problems with Mi Band on any version of it. Mi Band for me is by far the most stable bluetooth connection I've ever used on any bluetooth device and I have over dozen various bluetooth devices. Stable connection, along with battery life is why I'm still loyal to Mi Band. I had various situations where I couldn't connect to plain bluetooth speaker, or sometimes even Stratos disconnects and in each case Mi Band connection is the only one that would still be stable. But that is just my personal experience as it's impossible to account for all the different hardware out there.
Agree with you. I have an Verge, which is, till the moment, a money waste.
Software is the problem, let's see if Xiaomi do something.
hpto said:
Agree with you. I have an Verge, which is, till the moment, a money waste.
Software is the problem, let's see if Xiaomi do something.
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You will wait forever, Xiaomi has nothing to do with Pace, Verge or Stratos...
lfom said:
You will wait forever, Xiaomi has nothing to do with Pace, Verge or Stratos...
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Amazfit don't are an trademark from Xiaomi?
Btw, a money waste. Mi band do the job and far better.
hpto said:
Amazfit don't are an trademark from Xiaomi?
Btw, a money waste. Mi band do the job and far better.
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No, it's Huami's.
Thank you all for replies!
I don't think the watch is broken (in a sense, that warranty should be claimed) and I'll tell you why.
I may have been a little misunderstood in my first post (English is not my first language). The watch doesn't act up all the time. But frequently enough, that it cannot be relied upon. I don't need a watch that works 70 % of the time (which this one does). So, let me add a few things to my points in my previous post:
5. That happened twice (see number 5 in my first post). Rebooting the watch helped. And let me stress again, that it would happen a lot more often, if I didn't reboot or factory reset the watch every time it starts to act up (3-4 times per month).
6. If that was a hardware error (se number 6 in my first post), GPS data would be wrong (this happened only during my last two runs!). But the GPS data that the watch recorded during the run was correct. If it wasn't, Strava would be wrong, too. Activity (run) was measured (interpreted?) incorrectly by the watch and Amazfit app. Strava got the same (raw?) data and it gave correct results (kilometers, pace). If the watch was faulty, the GPS data would be faulty, too. But the hardware, it seems, is fine. Just the software is bad.
7. HR monitoring is just bad on this watch. I don't think I'm the only one that noticed that.
8. Steps and HR data syncing with the app currently works. It started to work the next day. But I noticed something strange. When syncing wasn't working, the Amazfit app said for steps and HR "08/17 19:52" (something like that, I don't remember the exact time). But it was only 11 o'clock! So, the app was claiming, that the last sync with the watch was in the future. Probably that's why it wasn't syncing. And that is not a harware error, it's the software.
So, I don't think the watch is faulty, it's just the software that's bad. That was my point all along. Right now, the watch is working fine. It was working fine yesterday and the day before that, when I was bicycling. But that is not enough. I want a watch that works all the time.
Amazfit stratos 3.0: poor watch
The watch is unreliable, sunset and sunrize notifications come and go without reason. Very disappointing.
You could use my app for sunrise and sunset times.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/smartwatch/amazfit/app-amazfit-sun-widget-t4023903