Moto 360 as fitness / lifestyle / sleep tracker - Moto 360

I just wanted to share my experience coming from a Basis B1, which I sold in anticipation of the Moto 360, to a Moto 360 and using it as a fitness/sleep tracker. I got the Basis because it was one of the few trackers with heart rate monitoring back when it came out and it also features sensors for measuring your perspiration and your skin temp, although I'm not sure what good those did. However it does not feature GPS or any smartwatch functions and connects to your phone merely to display the data the watch collects.
As far as general walking goes the Basis will collect steps similar to the Moto360 but if you're out for a walk it will also show a timer displaying how long you've been walking. It also does the same for how long you've been running and how long you've been cycling. The 360 will tell you your steps but it won't break it down like the Basis which would show me how many minutes I've been active in a day and then breakdown the activities showing me how many minutes I spent walking, how many running and how many cycling, how many calories I burnt doing each activity and my total caloric expenditure for the day. Now, I know the 360 is great with runtastic and the GPS is more accurate than a non-GPS fitness tracker but it is pretty redundant if you think about it. When I used to go for runs with my Basis I did not need to bring my phone along with me but if you run with a 360 your phone needs to be there... in which case why have the watch?
Heart rate monitoring and data collecting seems very very very basic in the 360 and android wear in general. For example here is a graph on the Basis showing activity over a day (although a small period is selected). It shows the calories burnt (it also shows how many calories per minute), it shows how much you were sweating, your skin temp, how many steps taken while walking, while running, averages, and time.
http://www.mybasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Bofy-IQ-Details-LOW-RES.png
The other thing I got it for was sleep tracking which works BEAUTIFULLY on the Basis. I mean nothing else even comes close. It's such a passive device, you go to sleep and it knows it and starts tracking it. When you wake up in the morning it will tell you how long you slept for, how much time you spent in REM sleep, deep sleep, and light sleep. It will also show you how many interruptions you had and how many tosses and turns. I did find a sleep tracker for android wear but man it SUCKS battery. The watch was close to dead after a night of sleeping. I hope they can fix that but I will still be using it and then charging up my watch after I wake up. It also shows my deep sleep but I don't know if I trust it vs the Basis. On the Basis I could see where my heart rate and skin temps would change when the sleep state changed so it used those in addition to the accelerometer. I don't think the 360 lets anything else access the HR monitor so it is probably not as accurate.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/6...CmIW-YzbwPtd5DP4VOQ4Swck1s02EE65WRr1kkWDE_x_A
I know this got a bit long but this is the sort of thing I was looking to find before buying my 360. Compared to a dedicated fitness tracker like the Basis (which is pretty good compared to the glorified pedometers that other fitness trackers are right now) the 360 is pretty... lackluster. The potential is there for it to be much better all it requires is better software. There needs to be better PASSIVE monitoring, I don't want to connect to a phone to record my run or do any of those things. That's what I loved the most about the Basis, I never had to touch it. It would figure out on its own what I was doing and when I was done it would just automatically sync and there was my data on the phone and on the computer.
I know the post comes off negative but I really do enjoy my Moto 360 and I am keeping it. Most of the time I really wish I still had my Basis but it's not a smartwatch and it's really ugly. I've attached a link with a picture below. Ultimately to me the fitness aspect was just as important, if not more so, than the smartwatch component. While people can argue the use of notifications on your wrist that you get on the phone in the first place, the fitness, HR monitoring, and sleep tracking are something your phone CANNOT do. These features need to be more fleshed out, I believe, because that's a sets a smartwatch apart. Ultimately the other features we have on the watch are just slaves to our phones but this would be core functionality that would give purpose to the watch.
http://www.akhbar-tech.com/sites/ak...teel_Edition_large_verge_medium_landscape.jpg

I pretty much agree with your assessment of the 360 in its current state. As a former FitBit Force owner (sent back due to skin rash), I was hoping to get the "best of both" from the 360... smart watch and fitness tracker.
The "smart watch" functions currently consist of changeable watch faces and basically being a "2nd screen" for the phone.
Without a phone, you can still do time, stop watch, alarm functions like a real watch, along with step counter and check your heart beat. (but initial setup needs an android phone).
The "fitness tracker" parts are still under development. I'm hopeful, that when completed, Google Fit -> https://developers.google.com/fit/ will help fill some of the voids.
The FitBit Force had a nice phone app that collected Steps taken, floors, miles, very active minutes, calories burned, as well as sleep (or movement) patterns. it synced with their servers and also our FitBit scale to track weight too. Of course with the data being on their servers, you could display the history and graphs of the history on demand (via phone app or web page).
I don't know enough about Google Fit, and the sensors in the Moto 360, or the current crop of Android Wear devices, but I'm hopeful once the API's are released, newer and better apps can make better use of the data the 360 collects.

I have high hopes for the new wear fitness app, it NEEDS to be good. You can bet the apple watch will do it and do it well.

Related

My impressions after a few days

No photos, apologies- my post count is not high enough.
Out of Box:
Usually I wouldn't mention this as anyone can watch an unboxing video online. But using the watch out of the box was quite a bad experience that others seem to be having as well.
Out of the Box the watch has a bit of a charge but will die almost immediately. The problem with this is that charging the watch is a difficult experience. Using the included charger, I was not able to charge the watch faster then it was discharging. To be honest I'm not sure what happened that caused the watch to eventually work but after a half hour of fumbling, the watch updated to something that was not the latest build (I only know because the charging screen was updated) and started charging.
One of the worst setups I've ever had to deal with. Luckily I only have to deal with it once.
On the wrist:
I'm not a watch wearer. I can't stand wearing any kind of jewelry. The watch itself feels very nice (for a watch) and very light to wear. It's not making my wrist sweaty and the feel is good. As a tiny wristed man, I feel the 360 has a good sized face.
No complaints.
Battery Life:
My watch started with the older KKW22 build. I was getting around 5% battery use per hour with moderate use. After updating to KGW42N I get 2-3% battery use per hour. I get ~50 emails a day with a handful of texts and calls. Always on mode is off.
Much bettery battery life then I was expecting. Outlasts my Nexus 5 easily.
TI OMAP SoC:
The Moto360 uses the Droid X's CPU. While disappointing that the watch has such old tech in it, I definitely don't feel any sluggishness. That's not to say the animations aren't occasionally choppy- they are. But with no other Android Wear watch to compare it to I can't say if this is the CPU's fault. What I can say is not the CPU's fault is the speed in which programs open, this seems to be tied to the bluetooth connection quality.
I would prefer new tech but the watch does not feel slow.
Voice Commands (OK Google):
It's passible. Not really any different then my phone and probably because it's using my phone to process the commands. It hasn't been an annoyance going off accidentally.
No complaints.
The display:
I don't like the bezel that cuts the bottom of the circle, but that's not what this section is about. The 205ppi screen is not amazing. I can see the pixels but it's not a showstopper or a distraction. The job is done, text is readable and nothing more. I live in Sunny California, and viewing the screen in daylight is possible but you still want to put your hand over the watch. The light sensor works well enough to change lighting conditions but will occasionally be a bit slow- comparable to any android phone out there.
Not bad, not good. Wish the direct sunlight viewing was better.
Android Wear:
I wish I could turn Google Now voice command off. I wish I could do a lot of things actually. Android Wear is clearly still in early development and it shows. The backgrounds for cards do not have an appropriate resolution and look terrible on a 205ppi screen. Text will overlap other text in some areas, spacing is off, this is a UI nightmare in places. The ethereal feel of all the components as a whole is rough. This is not a refined product. It's functional and that's it.
It's rough and I would not recommend it to the masses.
Moto Specific Software:
I wish I could turn off the pedometer. I wish I could stop the watch from taking my pulse every 5 minutes. The heart monitor also says that I reach my heart activity goal after a few hours of sitting. That said I do like the Moto heart rate app over the stock fit app.
The gesture to turn on the screen works very well. The update to KGW42N seems to have made it a bit more sensitive. There are many times where the watch will turn on when I wasn't trying to get in on but very very few times will it not turn on when I want it to.
It's nice but the mandatory health monitoring is a negative and not very accutrate.
Overall impressions:
It's a very nice watch. Android Wear as a whole has some issues but the Moto360 showcases it very well. I do wish it used an OLED screen so I could always have it on.
89214460145127 out of 100000000000000
Very nice impressions,thanks for that. You can send me your pictures via pm,and I'll put it here
I agree with your "Out of Box" impression. I'm pretty sure that it's attempting to download and install the update, which is taking more power than the charger is giving it. Since this wasn't likely a scenario that existed during testing, I'm sure it slipped through, but this is definitely something that they need to fix. Maybe they should check for battery level BEFORE they check for updates.
I'm not sure I agree with your "OK Google" section. Well, I don't disagree, but in my experience it's so hit-and-miss that it ever even recognizes the phrase that I've gotten much more used to just tapping the screen. IF it hears the "OK Google," it seems to work fine, but it seems much happier ignoring me. (...and yes, I know it's not supposed to work when dimmed... I'm only talking about when it's not.)
Once I turned off the "Fit" card, I never saw any health-monitoring functions again, unless I wanted to. Have you turned that off? (Just left-swipe the "Steps" card, until you get to settings.)
I also hoped for an OLED screen, hoping for something that worked much more like the Moto-X's active display. This one seems less reactive, and honestly, while it looks nice, especially in bright-ish light, the LCD isn't helping their battery situation, which they really should have seen coming. Motorola has been making some solid phone hardware lately, even though I still wouldn't trade my Nexus 5 in for anything they make. (Wireless charging, Moto... you know... that thing that STILL sets your watch apart? How about we look at putting that in your phones, hmm?)
I don't know. I love my Moto 360. I just kind of expected more.
Thanks,
The rounds of reviews I have seen have tempered my "must-have-now" to I really want the next generation of android wear watches when we get 20 nm chips and the companies learn a few lessons on this generation.
Same boat here. It's passable. The nicest smart WATCH around but may not be the nicest SMART watch around if you get my gist. Out of box same. Horrible experience. I am a really really techie guy and it took multiple tries and multiple charging attempts to get it to sync for the first time and it forced me to charge to 100% before it would update. Ah well. With zero instructions moto must have assumed only nerds would be buying this thing.
I kind of want to return it but at the same time I really like the idea of it. The notifications are cool and I love replying to texts without having to touch my phone.

Can the heart rate monitor send data to a third party fitness app?

Both run keeper and runtastic have android wear versions, and both are able to receive heartbeat info from an appropriate device, yet none seem to identify the moto 360 as a heartbeat sensor.
Has anyone had any luck in doing that?
I haven't found any yet. But then again I can't get an accurate HR anyways from this. I'll go for a run, and it says my heart rate is 54. Even when I'm doing nothing, I can't get it accurate and it's slow. I try to show off to others what it can do, and they want to call 911 when my HR shows 33!
xraytedjim said:
I haven't found any yet. But then again I can't get an accurate HR anyways from this. I'll go for a run, and it says my heart rate is 54. Even when I'm doing nothing, I can't get it accurate and it's slow. I try to show off to others what it can do, and they want to call 911 when my HR shows 33!
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Haha, I failed when showing it to friends too. It works quite well at times- the watch needs to be tight on your arm, and the arm can't move a lot.
At present the watch does not expose the heart rate to other apps. I'm not sure I would worry about that either. I did a short run this morning (3 miles) and the HRM in the watch apparently did not track any of it. If I look at stats, I get 0% Vigorous (>129 bpm) and my entire run was vigorous. If you want an accurate heart rate for training, the 360 is not (yet) going to provide that.
Gotta wait until Google Fit is officially released later this month.
I have done some reading on Google Fit but certainly don't know everything. However, from what I have seen, this will be strictly part of Android L and not available in 4.x. Anyone hear any different?
Eliad Kimhy said:
Both run keeper and runtastic have android wear versions, and both are able to receive heartbeat info from an appropriate device, yet none seem to identify the moto 360 as a heartbeat sensor.
Has anyone had any luck in doing that?
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I found SportsTracker PRO and it reads the heartbeat OK.
As a matter of fact, it's been being my running app of choise for a couple of years.
pros: nice view on my wrist when running, with minimalistic text (black background)
cons: IT'S SHUTTING DOWN next november 1st.
I hope it helps.
Endomondo recently added Google Wear support and it picks up the heart rate from the Moto 360. (I had heard it could not be done but that seems to be wrong.) However for running it still does not work for me. On a recent run it reported a constant 79 bpm for the entire run because the Moto 360 was not able to get a reading once I started running.
2 apps so far
Confirmed: Endomondo receives data from the heart rate monitor.
So far, Sports Tracker PRO and Endomondo do the job. Issues with the refresh and the measure itself, though.
Let's wait for the next Android Wear version...
I agree that the HRM on the moto360 seems very sensitive in negative way that it is not able to measure consistently and you have to keep your hand real steady which is impossible when you are doing a workout. Sort of negate the use of a HRM if you can only use it when you are idle.
Sent from my SM-N750 using XDA Free mobile app
fylim said:
I agree that the HRM on the moto360 seems very sensitive in negative way that it is not able to measure consistently and you have to keep your hand real steady which is impossible when you are doing a workout
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Well, that's just the nature of PPG sensors. Even the medical-grade sensors you'll find in a hospital are super sensitive to every little movement. If you think about how it works, every movement modifies the amount of light passing through the detector and gives additional interference to the pulse measurement. It's a wonder that these wrist-worn sensors work at all.

Huawei Watch Fitness/Activity Tracking mini review

So I noticed that Google fit has some accuracy issues even while using a smart watch as a step counter. I had the same issue in my LG G Watch and Urbane as well. Google fit always under reports the distance and steps for some reason but thankfully Huawei has their own solution in the form of a built in fitness tracker. The Huawei app reports the distance and steps far more accurately for some reason which is odd because they use the same data to report your activities but I assume their algorithms are different.
An example of this is in the picture below. I walk to classes from my car every morning and I know the distance to be ~0.70 miles from Google maps and using run keep as well as other fitness apps. The Google fit app would always report this as 0.5-0.6 miles for some reason. The Huawei seems to be right on the dot with 0.69 miles which surprised me to see this morning. I downloaded their fitness app to see how to compared to Google fit. While it may not be as pretty or functional it has more accurate data. Google fit also has issues updating data when you manually input a workout which bothers me. It either under reports the time, steps, calories or activity that you out in no matter for many times you re-enter the data and it saves it. Now let's talk about the step counter; I was bored one fast so I decided to count about how many steps it takes me to walk the above path. I was in the military so I'm used to doing weird things like pace counting which is easy to convert to steps. I average around 1400-1500 steps in this route depending on where j walk exactly which can change a little depending on what sidewalk is the least busy without the usual morning joggers I see. Google fit reported 1456 steps, 14 minutes of activity and 0.65 miles walked. The Huawei on the other hand gave me 1503 steps, 13 minutes of activity and 0.69 miles walked. This is subtracting the few steps I had around my apartment this morning seen in the total below. I trust the Huawei data more than the Google fit one based on experience with Google fit and I hope to see it improve more with Marshmallow. I know the difference might not seem like a lot but it adds up over the course of the day and can be off by 0.5 miles and 1000+ steps like it was the other day.
Share your experiences with Google fit and other fitness apps below. I hope this helps people out when it comes to understanding how the accuracy of each one is from experience. I will update he OP periodically with more data as time goes on.
Thanks for posting this, I didn't know there was a separate Huawei watch fitness application. I downloaded it and will check it out. It doesn't look like the application has Heart Rate tracking. But, I just discovered that Google fit does appear to have some HRM function. In the graph view, if I tap on the bottom right corner, where it says "active time", there is a drop down menu that has Heart Rate listed. Don't know how this works yet... have to check it out later.
Here is the activity track from today. As you can see Google fit over reports the time slightly but sometimes it under reports the time. I think the time is closer to the Huawei app but I honestly didn't keep track to compare it to. I just know its not as long as the Google fit app says but slightly less from my average on Mondays. The steps and distance are interesting in this case. The Huawei reports a further distance than the Google app as mentioned before but their step count is much closer now than it has been lately. Both apps have the same data for my height age etc... so we cna see the differences in their reporting. Its not as bad as if has been with Google Fit. I expect small variances but not the larger one with the distance.
I'll let everyone decide what's more accurate but I'm leaning toward the Huawei one. The Google fit app doesn't always work consistently or sometimes its counting time when I'm stationary so I hope this gets fixed in Marshmallow.
swngdncr said:
Thanks for posting this, I didn't know there was a separate Huawei watch fitness application. I downloaded it and will check it out. It doesn't look like the application has Heart Rate tracking. But, I just discovered that Google fit does appear to have some HRM function. In the graph view, if I tap on the bottom right corner, where it says "active time", there is a drop down menu that has Heart Rate listed. Don't know how this works yet... have to check it out later.
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I believe it works but I haven't tried it with the Huawei only the Urbane. The Huawei app isn't ideal but at least it saves me from charging l viewing all of that data solely on the watch
Tried again tonight. Did a walk after temp dropped into the high 90's. Used RunGPS, Agilefit, and the Fitness Tracking App. Both RunGPS and Agilefit got a heart rate, but in both cases the Heart rate froze after just a couple of minutes and stayed at the same rate for the entire time I tried using the application. Fitness Tracking, though it has a menu item for Heart Rate, recorded no Heart Rate data at all. I can't find any setting in the application related to Heart Rate tracking or data. So, so far, still a 100% failure rate with the HRM. If anyone has any positive experience with the HRM please share. I really want to love this watch, but no HRM function at all is probably a deal breaker.
After a few days of comparing the two the Huawei seems to stop be more accurate but that's only with reason of course. Google fit thinks I'm riding a bike or running while in walking which is annoying
Any new reviews or update regarding HRM and sports tracking ...i was really thinking about hauwei watch, but for the sports data monitoring problems that were mention by u guys.. I think I'm hesitant now and may change my mind about it
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
I exchanged my watch yesterday at the local BB. The new one seems to be working better. I haven't tried while exercising yet, but when I started an exercise app with Heart Rate monitoring, the HR appeared continued to monitor and didn't freeze for about 10 minutes. I'll try it again tomorrow and let you know how it goes. I'll also see if the step count is more accurate. So, if you can wait a day, I can tell you more tomorrow afternoon. -cjr-
tafo said:
Any new reviews or update regarding HRM and sports tracking ...i was really thinking about hauwei watch, but for the sports data monitoring problems that were mention by u guys.. I think I'm hesitant now and may change my mind about it
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
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swngdncr said:
I exchanged my watch yesterday at the local BB. The new one seems to be working better. I haven't tried while exercising yet, but when I started an exercise app with Heart Rate monitoring, the HR appeared continued to monitor and didn't freeze for about 10 minutes. I'll try it again tomorrow and let you know how it goes. I'll also see if the step count is more accurate. So, if you can wait a day, I can tell you more tomorrow afternoon. -cjr-
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Thnx bro for ur feedback...don't worry? I can wait for a month, because I'm going to the states in Nov.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
OK, the HRM is definitely working on this watch-- but not very accurate. Played 2.5 hrs of tennis. RunGPS reported an average HR of 90, typically my average HR playing tennis would be in the 120's. The recorded max HR was 171, that is consistent with what chest strap monitors have reported, but the low was 40, my resting pulse is about 58-60, so the low is way off.
The HR readings actively changed until 1:18 (workout time) Then it froze from 1:18 until 2:02. At 2;02 it the HR readings start to change again until 2:16, then freezes until the last reading at 2:30. The watch died at some point towards the end. I only had about 50% charge on it when I started. But, apparently there were two fitness applications running, because Endomodo also recorded 2:34 workout time. I'm using the free version, so I don't have any access to the statistics that Endomodo recorded. Huawei Wear app only logged 2,732 steps and 1.16 miles, which is about 1/2 what my FitBit Surge would record for that much tennis time. Google Fit registered 2,718 steps, .1 miles, and 4 minutes of active time. Active time way off.. basically it didn't recognize tennis as active time at all. What i don't know for certain is whether the HR froze on the watch, or whether the BT connection to the phone was lost, which would cause the fixed HR numbers. So, can't really recommend the watch for fitness monitoring yet. On my FitBit, I had to wear a sweat band to keep the watch up a little higher on my wrist. I did this with the Huawei watch. Next time I'll try it w/o the sweat band so it sits lower on my wrist and see if it makes a difference. -cjr-
tafo said:
Any new reviews or update regarding HRM and sports tracking ...i was really thinking about hauwei watch, but for the sports data monitoring problems that were mention by u guys.. I think I'm hesitant now and may change my mind about it
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
tafo said:
Thnx bro for ur feedback...don't worry I can wait for a month, because I'm going to the states in Nov.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
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swngdncr said:
OK, the HRM is definitely working on this watch-- but not very accurate. Played 2.5 hrs of tennis. RunGPS reported an average HR of 90, typically my average HR playing tennis would be in the 120's. The recorded max HR was 171, that is consistent with what chest strap monitors have reported, but the low was 40, my resting pulse is about 58-60, so the low is way off.
The HR readings actively changed until 1:18 (workout time) Then it froze from 1:18 until 2:02. At 2;02 it the HR readings start to change again until 2:16, then freezes until the last reading at 2:30. The watch died at some point towards the end. I only had about 50% charge on it when I started. But, apparently there were two fitness applications running, because Endomodo also recorded 2:34 workout time. I'm using the free version, so I don't have any access to the statistics that Endomodo recorded. Huawei Wear app only logged 2,732 steps and 1.16 miles, which is about 1/2 what my FitBit Surge would record for that much tennis time. Google Fit registered 2,718 steps, .1 miles, and 4 minutes of active time. Active time way off.. basically it didn't recognize tennis as active time at all. What i don't know for certain is whether the HR froze on the watch, or whether the BT connection to the phone was lost, which would cause the fixed HR numbers. So, can't really recommend the watch for fitness monitoring yet. On my FitBit, I had to wear a sweat band to keep the watch up a little higher on my wrist. I did this with the Huawei watch. Next time I'll try it w/o the sweat band so it sits lower on my wrist and see if it makes a difference. -cjr-
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Good test bro. So far I'm reckoning that the HW is not a good tool for sports tracking, as u said and many have the same experience u had... The big question is : is the inaccuracy due to hardware or software problems?
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
There was a review I read a couple of days ago, might have even been on the Moto 360 2nd gen... He basically said that the HRM on these devices, all of them, are essential worthless and just a toy for entertainment. He didn't do any analysis of the HRM or fitness functions in his review. It may be that the technology just isn't there yet... but the companies should probably adjust their advertising to reflect the actual functionality of the HRM etc. On my Fitbit Surge, I did find it reasonably accurate for bicycling, hiking or walking (if I didn't swing my arms too much).. but for anything with any significant movement of my hands/arm, it would be way off. Did a 5 hr bike ride in Death Valley wore both my Garmin and the Surge, and the average HR they reported was virtually identical. We'll see how the Huawei does on my next bike ride... -cjr-
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tafo said:
Good test bro. So far I'm reckoning that the HW is not a good tool for sports tracking, as u said and many have the same experience u had... The big question is : is the inaccuracy due to hardware or software problems?
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
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swngdncr said:
There was a review I read a couple of days ago, might have even been on the Moto 360 2nd gen... He basically said that the HRM on these devices, all of them, are essential worthless and just a toy for entertainment. He didn't do any analysis of the HRM or fitness functions in his review. It may be that the technology just isn't there yet... but the companies should probably adjust their advertising to reflect the actual functionality of the HRM etc. On my Fitbit Surge, I did find it reasonably accurate for bicycling, hiking or walking (if I didn't swing my arms too much).. but for anything with any significant movement of my hands/arm, it would be way off. Did a 5 hr bike ride in Death Valley wore both my Garmin and the Surge, and the average HR they reported was virtually identical. We'll see how the Huawei does on my next bike ride...
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Good point about these consumer fitness features. Of these, I have found the Mio Fuse to be pretty accurate. I think the challenge with these HRMs is staying accurate through movement and skin moisture/sweat. The Fuse has been the most consistent wrist device for me.
I have done a few workouts with the Huawei Watch to compare. If I take a reading while I'm standing totally still, and the watch is in the correct position, it's really close to the Fuse, within a few beats per min. If I am not so still, or the watch is a little askew (I don't wear it very tight as a watch) then it can be pretty inaccurate. The Fuse isn't perfect either but it is continuously monitoring during a workout, so at least I can gauge HR trends well enough.
OK, did a short bike ride today. The HRM worked most of the time, but did freeze twice, once for about 5 min and once for about 3 min. At other times, it was mostly within 1-2 BPM of my chest strap. But, to get the level of accuracy, I had to do the same thing as I did on my Fitbit Surge. Open up the watch band and shove the watch up on my wrist a couple of inches. If I left it down on my wrist just above the wrist bone, it was pretty inaccurate. I did also make an observation. A few times when it was way off from the Cheststrap (Garmin), if I pushed on the watch to make better contact with arm, the HR would immediate jump up and match the Garmin. Tomorrow I will try opening up the wrist band again, push it up on my wrist and put a sweatband over it that will hold it tight up against my arm and see what that does. -cjr-
tafo said:
Good test bro. So far I'm reckoning that the HW is not a good tool for sports tracking, as u said and many have the same experience u had... The big question is : is the inaccuracy due to hardware or software problems?
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
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bailyc said:
Good point about these consumer fitness features. Of these, I have found the Mio Fuse to be pretty accurate. I think the challenge with these HRMs is staying accurate through movement and skin moisture/sweat. The Fuse has been the most consistent wrist device for me.
I have done a few workouts with the Huawei Watch to compare. If I take a reading while I'm standing totally still, and the watch is in the correct position, it's really close to the Fuse, within a few beats per min. If I am not so still, or the watch is a little askew (I don't wear it very tight as a watch) then it can be pretty inaccurate. The Fuse isn't perfect either but it is continuously monitoring during a workout, so at least I can gauge HR trends well enough.
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Click to collapse
I've had the watch for a couple days and played with the watch "heart rate" monitor and the google fit one. Both of these I have to stop what I'm doing and check my heart rate that takes about 5-10 seconds. I'm assuming that is what people are using since I was not aware of any active heart rate monitor available. I've used it on a treadmill, mountain bike riding, and doing a Insanity T25 tape. I put it up against a basic polar t34 chest strap and found it to be withing 3-5 bpm. I did have a couple times where it did not register right but I think that was handler error because I was wearing it low on the wrist when checking. I also have been using endomondo for a map tracker on the bike rides that makes life easier since I can easily see, pause, and start the app from the watch while I'm riding w/o having to touch my phone. The only expected downside is the increased battery drain while using it.
Todays effort with the Huawei watch for fitness tracking was a big failure. I guess I can't add an image w/o a URL, but the HR froze 6 times in 2 hrs., Twice it was frozen for 16-17 minutes. When it did read the HR, the values were way, way low. The log has my HR in "resting" zone for 90% of the time. Trust me, I've done this enough times to know that my average HR is in the 120s, or higher if it is a very athletic match.
profilerz said:
I've had the watch for a couple days and played with the watch "heart rate" monitor and the google fit one. Both of these I have to stop what I'm doing and check my heart rate that takes about 5-10 seconds. I'm assuming that is what people are using since I was not aware of any active heart rate monitor available. I've used it on a treadmill, mountain bike riding, and doing a Insanity T25 tape. I put it up against a basic polar t34 chest strap and found it to be withing 3-5 bpm. I did have a couple times where it did not register right but I think that was handler error because I was wearing it low on the wrist when checking. I also have been using endomondo for a map tracker on the bike rides that makes life easier since I can easily see, pause, and start the app from the watch while I'm riding w/o having to touch my phone. The only expected downside is the increased battery drain while using it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also been playing with Endomondo and the watch. There's some very nice functionality built in to the wear app. I found an interesting feature within Endomondo, but I'm not sure it actually does anything. Maybe you can check and report back to confirm?
When I go into Endomondo (phone app) and head into Settings>Manage Smartwatches>Android Wear, there's an option at the bottom to "Enable heart rate." When it's selected and I start a workout on the Endomondo Wear app, the HR monitor is on continuously. I can peek under the watch and see the green light on all the time, until I end the workout.
But interestingly, it doesn't seem to actually retrieve the HR continuously, or even at all, either on the phone app during a workout or on the wear app during a workout.
I'm hopeful that even if it doesn't work now, maybe one day this watch can do continuous monitoring. If it's tight enough, it might work.
In the meantime, I use my Fuse as the HR monitor only, and view all workout data on the watch. It works really well. Good combination and the watch is like my mini workout computer.
---------- Post added at 10:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 PM ----------
swngdncr said:
Todays effort with the Huawei watch for fitness tracking was a big failure. I guess I can't add an image w/o a URL, but the HR froze 6 times in 2 hrs., Twice it was frozen for 16-17 minutes. When it did read the HR, the values were way, way low. The log has my HR in "resting" zone for 90% of the time. Trust me, I've done this enough times to know that my average HR is in the 120s, or higher if it is a very athletic match.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a similar experience earlier with HR. But I wasn't sure if it was the HR app itself or something else. Sometimes I'm getting performance issues with the watch in general. Slow to respond, won't wake up quickly, that sort of thing. I think it's a rogue app in my case. Anyway, back to HR, it reported mine as 51 BPM a few times. My HR was more like 146. Definitely not right!
Sent from my XT1060 using XDA Free mobile app
Just doing a test this evening, not exercising, just running the apps while chilling on the couch. Using Endomondo, it does continuously track HR, like you, I could see the little green lights on. However, the screen needs to be set to "always on". If the screen times out, the HR sensor lights go out. However, on the test this evening, I basically got one HR reading and it froze, staying at 64, even when I got up and started jumping around, it never moved off of 64bpm. But, as best I can figure out , the free version does not have any statistics tracking/reporting. You have to get the paid version if you want to see your HR statistics other than average and Maximum HR. Using RunGPS, the lights went on and stayed on, but same thing happened, it froze at 67BPM. And, even when I stopped the training, the HRM lights stayed on. Then, all of a sudden it started reading my HR again and was actively changing, even though I had stopped the recording of the training. Then it froze again... I assume that the fact that RunGPs will report HR even when there isn't an active training session running is just a difference in how the applications work. But, the freezing problem happens in all the applications I've tried so far. I really hope this is some kind of firmware problem that can be fixed. I assume that if the HR monitor doesn't work, that it would be a product defect that would be covered under the 1 yr. product warranty. The 15 day return policy from the retailer isn't likely long enough for Huawei to do a firmware update that might fix this. Interesting to note, Amazon is already offering used/returned watches at a discount.
bailyc said:
I've also been playing with Endomondo and the watch. There's some very nice functionality built in to the wear app. I found an interesting feature within Endomondo, but I'm not sure it actually does anything. Maybe you can check and report back to confirm?
When I go into Endomondo (phone app) and head into Settings>Manage Smartwatches>Android Wear, there's an option at the bottom to "Enable heart rate." When it's selected and I start a workout on the Endomondo Wear app, the HR monitor is on continuously. I can peek under the watch and see the green light on all the time, until I end the workout.
But interestingly, it doesn't seem to actually retrieve the HR continuously, or even at all, either on the phone app during a workout or on the wear app during a workout.
I'm hopeful that even if it doesn't work now, maybe one day this watch can do continuous monitoring. If it's tight enough, it might work.
In the meantime, I use my Fuse as the HR monitor only, and view all workout data on the watch. It works really well. Good combination and the watch is like my mini workout computer.
---------- Post added at 10:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 PM ----------
I had a similar experience earlier with HR. But I wasn't sure if it was the HR app itself or something else. Sometimes I'm getting performance issues with the watch in general. Slow to respond, won't wake up quickly, that sort of thing. I think it's a rogue app in my case. Anyway, back to HR, it reported mine as 51 BPM a few times. My HR was more like 146. Definitely not right!
Sent from my XT1060 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bailyc said:
I've also been playing with Endomondo and the watch. There's some very nice functionality built in to the wear app. I found an interesting feature within Endomondo, but I'm not sure it actually does anything. Maybe you can check and report back to confirm?
When I go into Endomondo (phone app) and head into Settings>Manage Smartwatches>Android Wear, there's an option at the bottom to "Enable heart rate." When it's selected and I start a workout on the Endomondo Wear app, the HR monitor is on continuously. I can peek under the watch and see the green light on all the time, until I end the workout.
But interestingly, it doesn't seem to actually retrieve the HR continuously, or even at all, either on the phone app during a workout or on the wear app during a workout.
I'm hopeful that even if it doesn't work now, maybe one day this watch can do continuous monitoring. If it's tight enough, it might work.
In the meantime, I use my Fuse as the HR monitor only, and view all workout data on the watch. It works really well. Good combination and the watch is like my mini workout computer.
---------- Post added at 10:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 PM ----------
I had a similar experience earlier with HR. But I wasn't sure if it was the HR app itself or something else. Sometimes I'm getting performance issues with the watch in general. Slow to respond, won't wake up quickly, that sort of thing. I think it's a rogue app in my case. Anyway, back to HR, it reported mine as 51 BPM a few times. My HR was more like 146. Definitely not right!
Sent from my XT1060 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try that out next time I ride. I will say I noticed when I was on the treadmill this morning it (the treadmill) was registering a heart rate now and then (although not right) while I was on it. It never did that when I did not have the watch on unless I placed my hands on the sensor so I'm assuming it was attempting to grab it from the watch. I will say that I didn't expect that so the watch was not properly tightened on my wrist so I wouldn't expect an accurate reading since it was bouncing around a bit. As for accurate readings I have found that when I do manually check my heart rate I usually push the watch up my arm about one inch from my hand and get a fairly accurate reading as long as I'm standing still. I only do this because I read on my wifes fitbit forum that some people actually wear a fabric wrist band to keep their fitness tracker higher up on the arm and in place for more accurate readings.
Oh, that is interesting. I'll have to play around some more and see if I notice any capturing or freezing. Mine was definitely nothing but I tried for only a couple minutes. I do have the free version and I'm not sure what the paid actually shows over the free, but I will say that when I use the Fuse band for HR in conjunction with the watch, I can view the current HR continuously report (literally changes by the second) as well as average and maximum. I think, like you said, there are probably added trends that are visible in paid. I'm not sure if paid would offer better HR functionality for the watch but I would hope it could one day perform just as well as the Fuse. Fingers crossed for either a watch and/or an Endomondo update sometime soon!
swngdncr said:
Just doing a test this evening, not exercising, just running the apps while chilling on the couch. Using Endomondo, it does continuously track HR, like you, I could see the little green lights on. However, the screen needs to be set to "always on". If the screen times out, the HR sensor lights go out. However, on the test this evening, I basically got one HR reading and it froze, staying at 64, even when I got up and started jumping around, it never moved off of 64bpm. But, as best I can figure out , the free version does not have any statistics tracking/reporting. You have to get the paid version if you want to see your HR statistics other than average and Maximum HR. Using RunGPS, the lights went on and stayed on, but same thing happened, it froze at 67BPM. And, even when I stopped the training, the HRM lights stayed on. Then, all of a sudden it started reading my HR again and was actively changing, even though I had stopped the recording of the training. Then it froze again... I assume that the fact that RunGPs will report HR even when there isn't an active training session running is just a difference in how the applications work. But, the freezing problem happens in all the applications I've tried so far. I really hope this is some kind of firmware problem that can be fixed. I assume that if the HR monitor doesn't work, that it would be a product defect that would be covered under the 1 yr. product warranty. The 15 day return policy from the retailer isn't likely long enough for Huawei to do a firmware update that might fix this. Interesting to note, Amazon is already offering used/returned watches at a discount.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

heart rate monitor

Does anyone else feel that the heart rate monitor is useless.
laroktheblock said:
Does anyone else feel that the heart rate monitor is useless.
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Click to collapse
true.. i wish they replace the sensor with a bigger battery.. or a compass at least
even if it work.. i still dont know.. why we should know our hear beat?! to make it useful it should work as heartbeat loop!
I don't think it's accurate and yes, I can easily live without it.
I find it handy when going for a run. I wish it would send the data to google fit or keep the heart rate data in-conjunction with weather, incline, steps etc...
I have dobbel checked my heart rate, and HW Censor works fine ! For me all ok .
Yes. Heart rate monitor is retarded. I guess if you use it for working out but if your serious you would have a more accurate dedicated unit.
The pedometer is also stupid to have on your wrist. I can be at me desk all day working and it says made like 6,000 steps. A pedometer should be at your waste.
Useless stuff like that are just gimmicks. Watches are for assisting with notifications.
From doing comparisions with a proper heart rate monitor the one on the W1 does seem quite accurate to be fair. None the less I don't really see the pint in having one on such a high end smartwatch, I can't imagine I'll ever wear this thing whilst working out.
I find the heart rate sensor to be useless if the band is not tight enough. Other than that, it stops working if too much sweat builds up.
Yes, this is useless for me at least. If it does not monitor during workout it can not alarm you on reaching your limit.
Not quite related but does anyone know why there is such a big discrepancy in step counts between Huawei fitness tracking and Google fit? Google gives me about 1000 steps more then Huawei.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
Step counter is stupid on a wrist. I work at my desk and it says I walked 5000+ steps. Bahaha yea right.
The heart rate monitor is also a gimmick. I honestly never used it. I guess some people would.
I was hoping to ditch my fitness tracker and have the Huawei watch be my single wearable, but the heart rate monitor is not up to the task. It does give a pretty accurate reading for me, but only at rest. I've tried exercising with it a few times and the monitor just stops recording after a few minutes. Sigh. I've gone back to using the Garmin Vivosmart HR for workouts.
As for step counting, the problem is exacerbated by being left handed. Doing things like brushing teeth, eating, etc. will add bogus numbers to my step counts. Since most, if not all, watches are designed to be worn on the left wrist this is a problem for us lefties. I started wearing the Garmin on my right wrist and find the false step padding to be less of an issue.
Bottom line is I'm still pleased that I got the watch, it's just not as useful as I was hoping for. Looking forward to the Marshmallow update...
^ditto! I mostly use this cool watch for exercise! Bring on marshmallow...
I use it for my sleep tracking, Sleep like android is great for this and does full all night tracking. I can have my watch on me all day, and tracking at night (double click to turn screen off so the battery lasts) and it charges in the AM while I get ready for work. My only issue is being on all night sometimes seems to start to burn my skin. I have to take it off my left, and put it on my right at night so my left can "heal".
i have used hearth rate only a few times in 1 month but now it don't works anymore ( like wrist gestures). I Will wait 1.4 firmware before sending it back to amazon. factory reset was useless
boboki said:
I use it for my sleep tracking, Sleep like android is great for this and does full all night tracking. I can have my watch on me all day, and tracking at night (double click to turn screen off so the battery lasts) and it charges in the AM while I get ready for work. My only issue is being on all night sometimes seems to start to burn my skin. I have to take it off my left, and put it on my right at night so my left can "heal".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for off topic, but what is your thougths after tracking your sleep, did it change your quality of life or you are more aware of something than without this feature? what is adres value of this, do you sleep better, deeper, longer?
I use sleep monitors for already a few years (started with sleep as an droid, then miband, now hwatch). And yes: it improves hugely how i wake up. It awakes me earlier than alarm, but i feel less tired when I wake up, compared to without monitoring...
But it depends on how your personal sleep-habits are. If you almost always sleep well and feel good in the morning, you'll likely not have the benefit of the feature.
As for the skin: regularly clean your watch on the skin side with isopropyl alcohol.
Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

First impressions

I just bought a 360 1st gen yesterday.
No good 1st impressions at all.
1. After pairing with phone, which needed a watch factory reset, the watch was so HOT that the back burnt fingers. Of course, the stupid plastic back cracked on a side. New&cracked! Fine.
2. Obviously, this is an instrument of Google's " surveillance", and I have an insistent "Ok Google" just in the middle of the beautiful watch face impossible to eliminate. Maybe after rooting?
3 Battery drain reminds me the Ni-Cd era... My favorite watch faces appear to be the most hungry, that's OK.
4 There's no way to set the watch sensitivity to movement, this allows to more batt drain, as, even on "ambient Off", a minimal moving can wake the face.
Re-take my Sony SW 2 and don't know what to do with the ("cracked") Moto.
I think eliminating some unuseful sensors (for me) can improve batt life. But how to do it?
Wow, this is 180 degrees from my experience with the Moto 360. And I too went from a Sony SW2 to the Moto 360. I don't have a heat issue with the watch, so perhaps you have a hardware issue and should return it for replacement.
The OK Google issue is an easy fix... simply saying OK Google at the watch a few times will turn off the constant pop-ups. That issue and fix is a well-reported one here and elsewhere.
Battery life... I get well over a day and a half with normal use. I turn off ambient display and wrist gestures. I usually charge my watch nightly, so charging the watch eery day isn't a big deal to me.
I haven't worn the SW2 since getting the Moto 360, but the looks and interactions with the Moto 360 are so far better than the SW2 that even though I liked the SW2 I haven't felt the urge to put it back on.
This is my first smart watch and the first couple of days I was really disappointed with the battery. Would only go from 8am to around 6 or 7pm. Now a few days later its from 9am until now ( nearly 6pm) on 78% yesterday was a different face but still around the same.
How to change or eliminate wrist gestures?
I don't see nothing nor in watch neither A W app.
Another thing: I think I must update to 5.1.1 to have some functions. And, as I see on this forum, it's a little tricky (not so much for someone with flashing experience...).
But, why this update bug?
It seems to me that A Wear is in the equivalent Eclair-Froyo era, which maybe some of you weren't suffered..
This needs yet a year or more to get optimal results, then we understand that our money fly too easy, like the 500€ that costed the Droid 1.

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