Samsung - Galaxy Watch 3 (41mm, GPS, Bluetooth)

Both is always better. Different use cases scenarios for sure. I still rock my GW3 silver tizen at times and thi k its the most sleek GW so far and ultra thin. Looks killer with a leather band as well. Good luck

My leg day HR today. Matches almost exactly to my oura ring. This metric never excited me either way as it's always pretty consistent as long as I am wearing it properly. Similar readings from all my Galaxy watches going back 5 years. I would need to wear a medical HR monitor to really know if there was any difference.

Yea I used to jog years ago and workout with one of those. I think it was a Polar...anyways, at my age now, I am more interested in HRV , sleep metrics, and ease of use and I love the Galaxy watches and kinda have become somewhat of a collector. I swim 4 days a week and find they work excellent there. I enjoy seeing the advances in tech each generation and since my entire ecosystem is Samsung, I stay true to this brand because of compatability. BP is also VERY accurate but in the US it needs to be side loaded because FDA has never cleared it even though it's been working in most other countries for 5 years. While these wearables aren't perfect, they do keep improving and it really depends what is most important to you as far as features. It seems in your case that HR is at the top of the list which I totally get.

Watches arent designed to be upgraded every year - there's very little difference from the model 5 years ago to the latest one. If you're going from FE to Ultra then yeah, but you'll notice a bigger difference going from say a watch 7 FE to a watch 7 ultra than you will going from a watch 5 FE to a watch 7 FE (if it exists, but you get my gist) Samsung used to have a "comparison" page where you could compare one model to another. See if that's still there, and see if there's anything you REALLY care about that justifies the cost. The main difference with watch generations is "how long is it supported" , but again, unlike phones, that rarely means you'll get new features. If your watch works, then keep it. You'll likely be dissapointed with the improvements compared to the cost difference. I went from a Gear Watch 3 classic to a watch4 classic and felt like there was zero difference, then from a watch4 to a watch7 ultra and the only difference I notice is the screen size. Its a watch. I dont spend hours looking at it. I dont run high-load apps on it. Its a watch. If I had made either of those upgrades at retail cost I woukd be gutted and feel ripped off. Headphones , however, can be noticeably different. Depending on your appreciation of music, what you listen to, how you listen to it, etc. If you havent got a tuned-ear, only listen to highly-processed pop or country, and use Spotify- then buds pro are probably also not worth the upgrade. But still more worth it than a minor watch upgrade.

have a galaxy watch 3 and it worked fine with samsung health and health365 sync after setting it up. i switched to using the hpb tracker though since I switched to a non samsung phone and I found it annoying to keep charging the watch everyday so it can track my sleep

Well, my Samsung GW2 got replaced for free after swimming in the pool. Albeit I think they advertised it as made for swimming and I'm in EU where we have 2 years of warranty, so that's why... GW3 died afterwards after 3 years, also by swimming, so yeah, would not recommend to swim in GW2 and GW3.

I have an iPhone 14 and currently use a Galaxy Watch 3. As most iOS users know, many of the best smartwatch features only work properly with the Apple Watch. Perhaps part of my issue is that the Galaxy Watch 3 is quite old, but honestly, I think it has more to do with the rivalry between Apple and Samsung, so even if I upgraded to a newer Galaxy Watch, I feel like I'd still encounter the same limitations. Also, I'm not a fan of Samsung's health tracking app. I'm looking for an alternative that's as close to the Apple Watch experience as possible, something that offers at least 90% of the features (I know 100% isn't realistic). Main uses: workouts, stopwatch/study timer, sleep tracking, and heart rate monitoring. The brand doesn't matter (just not Apple…I'd love to have one, but they're out of my budget right now). Also, I find Apple's Health app incredibly polished and intuitive. Are there any non-Apple smartwatches that sync directly with Apple Health, or is this exclusive to the Apple Watch?

My battle buddy, the Galaxy Watch 3, isn’t lasting 5 hours…..

I went the same route as you.. Galaxy Watch 3 owner. Bought a FR45 on special and then upgraded it to a FR245m on sale. The entry level Forerunners that have succeeded the 45 have bridged the gap between those two models, so 'entry' level is more than entry once was. Keep an eye out on 200 series watches on special, but a 100 series would be a good choice. Don't expect it to be as smart watchish as a Galaxy, but they will do all the basic notifications and calendar/stop watch functions..

I like the idea of a Venu 4. I currently wear a Forerunner 245 for all my metrics, and Galaxy Watch 3 for phone notifications during the morning on work days. My main 'smart watch' interest is... does the watch audibly ring when my phone rings in Bluetooth range, so I can get to my phone and answer it and/or ring the person back. I don't care so much about answering the call, or replying to text/fb messenger on the watch... I just want to know something is incoming. And.. as a Forerunner owner, will losing all those buttons bother me. I'm kind of used to all the information the 245 provides me, so it would bother me probably dropping back to a Venu 3, but a Venu 4 does 99% of what the Forerunner 570 does, but you have to use the swipe screen because you don't have the buttons.. My running is down to 3 or 4 20-30 minute, 3km runs a week.. all easy pace, so I'm not doing different Interval training runs, or Threshold runs etc.. I'd like to think that touch once to start a run, and touch twice to end a run is all I would really need..

I had a samsung galaxy watch and my bestie had an apple watch. We both switched to garmin. I have the forerunner 165, and she has the vivoactive. One of best features of the garmin watches is battery life - one charge lasts about a week with daily workout tracking

Same! Galaxy has a peloton app on it, activated automatically. Highly recommend.

For battery life I would go Ticwatch or OnePlus 3. I have the latest Galaxy Watch and while the watch itself is slimmer than my Ticwatch 5, its battery life isn't great. I would have 70% battery left after listening to podcasts all day on my Ticwatch, while I have less than 50% with my Galaxy Watch.

I wore my galaxy watch for 3 years climbing with no protection on it and while it got some scratches, it never really got anything on the screen and nothing cracked, it's a pretty durable piece of hardware. The only time it really got in the way of climbing was on the occasional very large sloper where you get an arm on the hold and on crack climbs. I don't wear it anymore because I no longer enjoy smart watches in general, but it was a pretty solid piece of tech in terms of durability.