Faith, Purple haired feminist 🧋

@freehours9 Yeah… The good thing about the Apple Watch is that there’s a lot of bands to choose from even if the thing itself isn’t all that attractive.

It's going to be a compromise no matter which I choose. They're about the same price. (The Apple Watch and the Garmin Lily.) The Apple Watch is visually very meh but a good smart watch and an okay fitness tracker. The Garmin is a solid fitness tracker, a pretty meh smart watch, and looks pretty.

I really hate that this is a "choose 2 out of 3" situation.

@kirtai And this is 100% a pink tax situation. It's clearly possible to make a small fitness tracker. It's also clearly possible to make one that doesn't look terrible. Why is there literally only one option which combines both of these and why is it so expensive?!?

@adric I think I mostly want a fitness tracker, honestly. So, heart rate, O2, pace if I start running, maybe sleep tracking. Pebble has one of those things, and only on certain models. 🫤

Besides that, I'm not sure how much I care about smart watch features. Notifications would be nice. Pay is a big meh. Skipping to the next song without pulling out my phone would be nice. My brother uses Siri in his Apple Watch a lot but I don't know how much I care.

Really, as long as it's a solid fitness tracker and I can still get a full day on the battery 3-4 years from now, I think I'm fine with that. There are way cheaper options for that than the Lily but the Lily actually looks nice, unlike literally all of those options.

@small_cypress

@kirtai It doesn't. It's annoying as hell.

Ugh... And the engineer in me knows exactly WHY they made the trade-offs they did. Dropping from 42 to 35mm cuts out a LOT of area/volume. Area drops by radius squared and you're already burning some for the enclosure. Making a 35mm smart watch requires smaller electronics, a smaller battery, etc. So of course it's going to be dumber.

The LCD display is also probably a battery saving measure. The fact that the battery is smaller but people still expect multiple days out of it, while still running Linux (probably) and all that fitness/monitoring tech really squeezes your power budget. Since the screen is often one of the biggest power draws, cutting back to a LCD makes sense.

@ooze That's the thing that's getting me. You sacrifice a LOT for that size. If I'm willing to go with a 41-42mm watch, The Vivoactive is like $50 more and is a proper smartwatch. Or at that point, I can just get an Apple Watch.

@ooze How does she like it? Any complaints?

@CharlotteEowyn 😢

I think I’m leaning towards the Garmin Lily.

@small_cypress Yeah, they don’t have a fitness tracker, though. 😭

@luana How is the Garmin fitness app in comparison? I think that might be enough to push me over the edge.

@luana I think the thing that annoys me about the Lily is how much it costs. It's 2-3x the cost of the equivalent (in terms of fitness stuff) Fitbit and you don't even get a proper smartwatch for that. You do get something I wouldn't mind wearing every day, though.

@luana Yeah, and if that's where I land, that changes the calculus.

@webslinger Yeah, I assume I'd want to buy a 3rd party band. I've already found some on etsy that are pretty cute. They're not that expensive, though. Like $30.

@luana I don't know. I've never had one so I don't know how I'll use it or what I'd miss. Maybe a lot? Maybe nothing?

@avatastic Yeah, I've looked at theirs in the past and been unimpressed.

@luana For the first 3, the Lily looks great. But it’s very much in the semi-smart category. About the only thing it offers beyond a few fitness apps is notifications.

@luana The Venu and the Lily are totally different devices. The Venu is an actual smartwatch. It also costs 2x as much.

What do I think I’d miss? I’m honestly not sure and that’s part of the problem. If I had a better idea of what exactly I want, it might be easier to prioritize and narrow down the options.

I think, roughly:

• Fitness tracker with heart rate and O2 monitor. Bonus points for GPS.
• Integrate with Apple Fitness so I can get it all in one place. Though if Garmin has a banger app, that might override Apple.
• Looks good with clothes that didn’t come from Lululemon.
• Smart watch, maybe? This is where I’m really not sure. I’ve never had one so I don’t know what I’d want or miss. I think I want notifications and some app control might be nice. I’m really not sure, though.

@yantor3d Oh, that’s entirely fair. But I’m not sure wearing a Fitbit implies that. There’s a whole lot of fitness culture that’s super toxic and I don’t want to attract that.