by Suff » 27 Jun 2022, 18:34
I had a fitbit surge MM. I had been using a MS band and loved it but it had three issues. Less than one day usage, band that kept falling apart and software issues. The final replacement they sent me went in a box with all the frippery and will be left as a legacy to sell one day.
The Surge claimed to count floors and, to a degree, it did. Until it went up 50 floors with me sitting at a table because the pressure changed as a weather front came in.
I also had the issue with itching under the band and had to take it off, sometimes for days, in order to let my wrist recover. Since then I've been playing with cheap and cheerful chinese fitness devices. I've finally set on a Huawei Band 6. For two reasons really. It can last a month but lasts 2 weeks with almost everything switched on. It also has constant pulse oxymeter readings along with the constant heart rate. This is of interest to me because I see when I'm forgetting my blood thinners and my oxygen levels start to drop.
It cost me £35, yes you have to register it with the software on the phone, but you can decide if you want notifications on the band or not. Usually I have it set to Not. In fact I don't keep my Bluetooth on so it can't talk to the phone anyway (this is the same with any tracker or smart watch. No BT, no messages or crap on the phone).
There are dozens of different devices out there for whatever you want. All you have to do is look. The Huawei is the smallest band I can actually read with my glasses on. I'd go smaller but I simply can't read the screen. BTW it doesn't count floors that I can notice.
Personally I'd go with what you want and need and not listen to anyone who thinks you need 100 features when you only need 2. Remember to turn the BlueTooth off on the phone, thus making the device work on its own and giving you what you want.
One final thing. I now have the guts of 3 different Surge devices. I only bought one. The screen failed. The replacement didn't work out of the box, the third the screen failed but I swapped the screen of the second one to the third which gave me a working screen. OK they just kept sending me devices, but it wasn't what I really wanted.
There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those who understand Binary and those who do not.