All articles tagged with #fitness tracking
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says Apple Watch Series 12 will get upgraded fitness-tracking with faster performance and better health-tracking, but the design is not expected to change significantly this year.
A hands-on comparison by Dan Bracaglia has the Pixel Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 9 strapped to opposite wrists during a ~35-minute walk with a manual 4,000-step count as the control. The Pixel Watch 5 came closest to the actual steps (around 4,010–4,017), and also matched distance and climb more accurately than the Galaxy Watch 9, though its pace data was slower than Strava’s. Samsung’s heart-rate readings appeared notably low. Overall, the Pixel Watch 5 wins the round on key fitness-tracking metrics, marking a new Android champ in this head‑to‑head.
Google Health’s latest app update adds a new Coach setting to the Today tab, offering Standard or No Coach insights to streamline the view; you can still ask questions and access fitness plans, and the release also fixes maps and improves how heart-rate zones and pace are displayed.
Motorola's Moto Watch (2026) looks premium and lasts days on a charge, but it runs a low‑power RTOS instead of Wear OS, giving it limited app support and no automatic activity tracking. For $150 you get decent health basics and solid battery life, but with no Google apps, no mobile payments, murky hardware provenance, and spotty GPS, it feels more like a stylish fake Wear OS smartwatch than a true wearable.
Smart rings offer comfort, longer battery life, and a screenless form, but they lag behind smartwatches in key areas: no display for quick interactions, limited workout tracking due to GPS dependence on a phone, tricky sizing, fewer customization options, and a reliance on subscriptions for deep analytics—so they’re more of a supplementary health tracker than a full replacement for smartwatches.
Over a week with the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, the reviewer loves the fresh design and comfort but laments that you can’t view past workout stats on the watch after dismissing the summary; to see detailed metrics you must open Samsung Health on your phone, making this flagship athlete-focused watch feel incomplete next to rivals like Apple and Garmin.
Garmin's Cirqa is a screenless, subscription-free fitness band that tracks 24/7 sleep and heart-rate data, integrates with Garmin Connect and Edge devices, and reinforces Garmin's ecosystem by letting users rely on Garmin algorithms without needing a smartwatch or subscription.
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 9 adds a bigger battery and a faster processor, delivering up to 30 hours with the always‑on display (about 40 hours with AOD off) and quick charging, plus cuff‑calibrated blood‑pressure monitoring. Apple’s Watch Series 11 runs about 24 hours (up to 38 hours in Low Power) with 30‑minute fast charging and includes on‑watch coaching (Workout Buddy) and hypertension alerts but cannot read blood pressure from the wrist. Both offer Bluetooth and cellular variants, with Galaxy using LTE and Apple’s model using a power‑efficient 5G radio; design and size options differ (Galaxy 40/44mm; Apple 42/46mm). Price ranges vary by size/configuration (Galaxy roughly $380–$460; Apple aluminum $399–$529). Ultimately, ecosystem determines the pick: Android fans likely prefer Galaxy; iPhone users tend toward Apple for its coaching features and seamless integration.
Apple's watchOS 27 introduces data-driven Workout Buddy with iPhone-free workouts and Spanish language support, improves indoor run/walk distance accuracy via wrist-motion tracking, enhances route maps, and tightens sleep tracking, plus a fix to synchronize steps between Health and Fitness apps.
After a rocky rollout, Google Health v5.01 delivers a major bugfix update with 15+ fixes across nutrition, workouts, maps, sleep scores, and account migration—adding support for viewing custom foods, improved third‑party food log handling, faster GPS map loading, accurate workout labels and run splits, iOS step‑count correction, more Android Today tab updates, and Fitbit migration improvements, with more fixes promised soon.
Google lays out a roadmap of 39+ features and fixes for Google Health, covering exercise tracking, sleep, nutrition, and the Google Health Coach, with rolling updates starting this week and continuing through summer to address gaps left by the Fitbit transition and improve overall usability.
Google Health has replaced the Fitbit app with an AI-driven interface, prompting confusion and frustration as users navigate a redesigned Today screen, limited quick access to stats, and an AI health coach. Some users appreciate the coaching features, but many want the old Fitbit app back and complain about scrolling through long AI notes and cluttered data presentation. Google notes that with a connected wearable you’ll see extra tabs for Fitness and Sleep, and third‑party wearables may be supported later, plus the AI coach can be disabled via Privacy Controls. The transition coincides with the launch of the Fitbit Air.
Google's Fitbit Air is a compact, screenless wearable that relies on the redesigned Google Health app and Gemini-powered AI Coach to deliver coaching, auto-logging, and concise health summaries. It competes with Whoop on concepts and price (hardware around $100) and shines with fast charging and flexible bands, but the AI can misinterpret data at times and the app has a few quirks, leaving room for improvement before it becomes a clear winner in the health-tech wearables space.
The piece argues smartwatches offer quick access to notifications and health data, but screenless wearables (Whoop, Oura Ring, Fitbit trackers) and analog watches provide similar fitness metrics with fewer distractions and more style. While smartwatches remain useful for sleep, steps, and workouts and can replace a phone for calls or music in some cases, many users may prefer lighter, less obtrusive devices that track health without the constant connectivity.
A pre-release readout compares Fitbit Air to WHOOP: Fitbit Air appears slimmer and easier to wear, and costs $99 upfront with free ongoing health metrics (optional $9.99/month for Google Health Coach); WHOOP starts at about $200 per year and requires a paid subscription for metrics, making Fitbit Air cheaper in the long run.