> Garmin’s hardware has always been exceptionally good, given epic battery life (~30 days even with all-day heart rate), exceptional sensors, and durability.

The battery life thing is really compelling - however I need ECG and AF monitoring and Apple lead the pack here as far as I can tell.

Fitbit seems to come close, but having multiple doctors state the need for an Apple Watch is quite the endorsement.

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rafaelmn 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Check out Withings ScanWatch if you want ECG and a long battery life.

The passive HR monitor, sleep tracking, SpO2, etc. are all shite compared to Apple but the ECG thing should be good enough I guess.

My main selling point is that it lasts forever (20+ days), and even when the battery dies it still works like a watch for weeks. It looks like a proper watch, it has notifications so I need to look at my phone less, and it does the tracking OK enough that it's useful to check it out. They also have a BP monitor with ECG and a stethoscope that automatically recognizes some heart problems - so if you're worried about heart problems might be worth looking into.

I would really like if they could get their HR sensor/activity tracking up there with Apple but it looks like no company out there is able to get into that league.

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nottorp 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> and even when the battery dies it still works like a watch for weeks

Wha? The watch part is mechanical?

Or you mean the smart part turns itself off way before you completely run out of battery, saving some power to keep moving the hands for "weeks" ?

	▲	rafaelmn 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Power reserve mode, not mechanical. >When the battery level reaches 10%, you will receive a notification. At 10% you can no longer run a Respiratory Scan. When the battery reaches 0%, your watch activates power reserve mode. Only the analog clock, step, and sleep monitoring features remain available, and only for about a few days. In power reserve mode you will no longer be able to start an ECG or oxygen saturation measurement on demand via the watch display. It only happened once or twice, I was surprised that once you charge you still see the step tracking stats when it syncs. I remember using it in this mode for over a week when I was moving and couldn't be bothered to find the charger.

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lostlogin 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Thanks for this.

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nradov 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The Garmin Fenix 8 device covered in this article has an ECG.

https://share.google/IRWeaZMatrAD7Oyxr

	▲	lostlogin 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Thanks for this.