Fitbit - Alta HR

I have an original Alta HR thats still fine except the battery only lasts a day and it won’t hold much info until I sync it. i just use for step count and keep telling google I’m not moving off Fitbit dot com lol. it’s been a great ride though and I’ve really enjoyed having it

Compared to when I have the Fitbit Alta HR, I charge this thing everyday. My old Fitbit lasted about 3-4 days until I have to charge it again.

I also had an older model last a long time. I had an Alta HR from 2018 that lasted until 2024. I cracked it pretty early on so I was always careful about water though.

I had one of those little skinny Alta fitbits. Liked it so much, I bought a second after my first one died. I switched up for the apple watch and and HATED it. All the apps were so unnecessary. It didn’t do the one thing I wanted (connecting to data so I could listen to music without bringing my phone). And all the “health data” gave me such bad anxiety I ended up going to the ER for nothing. I have not worn it since. A waste of a couple hundred bucks! Suffice to say I do not recommend the Apple Watch. Fitbit worked just fine for me.

I mean I can say the same thing about my device lol. And it would still be $90 vs $350+bulky. But if you read the garmin sub there’s thousands of people complaining about their watch not tracking, not syncing, the app being bad, etc. Edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/1oi99ku/issues_with_garmin_forerunner_255/ You mentioned 14 day battery life, but this guy isn't even getting 12 days in a more premium model that advertises 16 days: https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/1oi1jzr/fenix_8_battery_life/ So yeah lots of problems with Garmin. Personally, I don't want nor need a smart watch. I just want something basic that tracks activity and is water resistant for swimming. I also want it to be thin. I'd be really happy with a thin band that doesn't have a face. OR something the thickness of the Alta, which was a great thin size. Fitness watches getting bulkier and looking more like traditional watches doesn't interest me and is a big reason why I won't be purchasing from these brands in the future once my charge 6 dies. The Oura ring highly interests me but the $350 price tag ON TOP of the subscription does not.

I paid $90 for my charge 6 ($60 for my previous alta). The garmin watch vivoactive that I considered is $300. Even the forerunner at $250 is nearly 3x the price of what I paid for my fitbit. Not to mention the smallest garmin lily 2 is still wider than my wrist at $250 for the basic model that doesn't have the features I'm interested in, or $300 for the other model. Completely uncomfortable. I'm glad you like your garmin watch. But it will never be a contender for me and for my use case. 14 day battery. Who cares? As long as it lasts at least 3 days I have no problem charging it periodically while I take a shower. I don't sleep with it on so the sleep features are useless to me on either brand. However, I do agree that Fitbit is no longer worth purchasing anymore. Once my fitbit dies I will not purchase another one of their products. But at the same time I won't be purchasing from garmin either.

Had a Fitbit but got fed up with their refusal to show eg. the past month, rather than just the calendar month. It means that if its a Monday or 1st of the month, you get graphs with one point on, and cant view short-term trends/progress. So I moved to Garmin, and Polar. On non-subscription, comparing Fitbit HR, Venu2 and Polar Unite (all budget models) I found: Fitbit - best for its sleep analysis graph, and viewing long-term trends. Basic activity data, but not enough if you are training seriously. Poor charging and battery life. Garmin - best for activity analysis, excellent range of data and well presented but not v.detailed sleep breakdown. Lots of extra linked facilities. Good battery length and charging. Polar - phenomenal for sleep analysis EXCEPT it's not good at recognising time spent awake in middle of night. Rotary graphs are a bit weird. 2 day battery as I keep HR & HRV on. Website page as well as app, for extra data analysis. But most concerning is the fact that they don't agree, not even vaguely, leaving me to wonder whether the whole thing is a con! For example, last night's REM, in order as above: 1h 5min , 29min, 1h 37min. And today's energy usage so far: 955 Cal, 1,008 Cal, 1139 Cal. So which should I believe? Are they making money out of fictitious data?