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Apple Watch vs Fitbit Blaze

honglong1976

honglong1976

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 12, 2008
1,680
1,135
UK
I have both and love both. Both have good and bad. Hopefully this will help someone :)

Updated!

Apple Watch
++Apple Pay
+ Looks amazing and incredibly well made
+ WatchOS 3.1 is brilliant
+ Vibration is superb
+ Best smartwatch screen
- Battery life (1.5 days is not bad)
- No automatic sleep tracking (sleep++ and pillow are the best we have so far)
- Health integration is lacking
- only works with iPhones
- series 0 - 3rd party apps too sluggish and slow

Fitbit Blaze
++ It works with iPod Touch and iPad
++ Battery life (4-5 days)
+ Cheap to buy with a steel band £25 from CEX (£145 for both from CEX - Grade A for both)
+ Notifications are quite decent considering
+ Step, flights of stairs, automatic tracking, HR 24/7 (all viewed live on the watch face)
+ App is great and HR graph makes a lot of sense (compared to the Apple health app)
- Vibration sucks!
- no apps
- no weather on the watch face
- no Japanese/Chinese text (yet!)

If you want the best smart watch, buy an Apple Watch. If you want the best health/smartwatch buy a Fitbit Blaze.
 
Last edited:
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Good points.

When I sold my AW0 I thought about getting a Fitbit Blaze. Noticed a lot of people around here have them, I see them way more than the Apple Watch, maybe 2:1. But then I watched a few YouTube videos and it just didn't impress me that much. I'm sure it's a great device, cheaper for sure, but for me it was worth the price difference to upgrade to an AW1.
 
honglong1976 said:
I have both and love both. Both have good and bad. Hopefully this will help someone :)

Apple Watch
+ Looks amazing and incredibly well made
+ WatchOS 3 is brilliant
+ Vibration is superb
+ Best smartwatch screen
- Battery life (1.5 days is not bad)
- No automatic sleep tracking
- Health integration is lacking

Fitbit Blaze
+ Battery life (4-5 days)
+ Cheap to buy with a steel band (£145 from CEX - Grade A for both)
+ Notifications are quite decent considering
+ Step, flights of stairs, automatic tracking, HR 24/7
+ App is great and HR graph makes a lot of sense (compared to the Apple health app)
- Vibration sucks!
- no apps
- no weather on the watch face

If you want the best smart watch, buy an Apple Watch. If you want the best health/smartwatch buy a Fitbit Blaze.
Click to expand...

I appreciate your post because I have the AW2 and a Fitbit Charge 2 and I am trying to figure out which one to keep. Having had fitbits for several years, I have come to greatly appreciate the app interface. That is something I do not think you can really get with the Apple Watch. What are your thoughts on that and any ideas on how to achieve the same or similar experience?
 
Mike84 said:
I appreciate your post because I have the AW2 and a Fitbit Charge 2 and I am trying to figure out which one to keep. Having had fitbits for several years, I have come to greatly appreciate the app interface. That is something I do not think you can really get with the Apple Watch. What are your thoughts on that and any ideas on how to achieve the same or similar experience?
Click to expand...
I wear both an AW and a Fitbit Charge 2. This is the best all-around solution. The AW is fun for its smart watch features, but it has a long way to go as an activity tracker. Until then, I will continue to use my C2 and the full FB software platform for my activity tracking.

You can cobble together a few 3rd party Apple apps patch together the total FB feature set, but it is pretty clunky on the Apple world. These are the apps you would need:
  • An app to analyze and present heart rate data
  • An app to record calorie consumption information and merge that with Health calorie burn information
  • An app (and scale) to display weight (if you use a FB scale)
  • An app to track sleep
  • An app to analyze and report your daily step & distance activity (Activity shows you daily data, but has no trending or reporting)
  • An app to analyze and report flights of stairs climbed (if not part of the step app above)

Even if you found apps for all of the above, there are still a number of things you simply cannot get in the current AW platform, like competitions and challenges with friends, a web interface for more advanced visualization and reporting, etc.
 
exxxviii said:
I wear both an AW and a Fitbit Charge 2. This is the best all-around solution. The AW is fun for its smart watch features, but it has a long way to go as an activity tracker. Until then, I will continue to use my C2 and the full FB software platform for my activity tracking.

You can cobble together a few 3rd party Apple apps patch together the total FB feature set, but it is pretty clunky on the Apple world. These are the apps you would need:
  • An app to analyze and present heart rate data
  • An app to record calorie consumption information and merge that with Health calorie burn information
  • An app (and scale) to display weight (if you use a FB scale)
  • An app to track sleep
  • An app to analyze and report your daily step & distance activity (Activity shows you daily data, but has no trending or reporting)
  • An app to analyze and report flights of stairs climbed (if not part of the step app above)

Even if you found apps for all of the above, there are still a number of things you simply cannot get in the current AW platform, like competitions and challenges with friends, a web interface for more advanced visualization and reporting, etc.
Click to expand...


Excellent points. So, I have bolded actual apps that might be helpful and/or a solution to the concerns you posited:

  • An app to analyze and present heart rate data Cardiogram?
  • An app to record calorie consumption information and merge that with Health calorie burn information
  • An app (and scale) to display weight (if you use a FB scale)
  • An app to track sleep SleepWatch (started using this and it is amazing.
  • An app to analyze and report your daily step & distance activity (Activity shows you daily data, but has no trending or reporting)
  • An app to analyze and report flights of stairs climbed (if not part of the step app above)
 
Mike84 said:
Excellent points. So, I have bolded actual apps that might be helpful and/or a solution to the concerns you posited
Click to expand...
You could edit to add Lose It! or MyFitnessPal as the calorie counter app. I have not used either one, but I have a lot of friends who like them. And, you could add a Withings or Garmin scale with their respective iPhone apps. Both talk to Health, but they also kind of get your toe in the water of a fully capable activity software platform.
 
exxxviii said:
You could edit to add Lose It! or MyFitnessPal as the calorie counter app. I have not used either one, but I have a lot of friends who like them. And, you could add a Withings or Garmin scale with their respective iPhone apps. Both talk to Health, but they also kind of get your toe in the water of a fully capable activity software platform.
Click to expand...

Man, I am struggling trying to figure out which one to let go. I love them both, but I cannot possibly keep both and walk around with two trackers on me. I feel that the AW is a better quality tracker and -- at least based on recent articles -- more accurate in reading HR. However, the fitbit has everything nicely centralized. I wish Apple would mimic what fitbit is doing, but then again, Apple also depends on third party apps to fulfill many of these holes.
 
Mike84 said:
Man, I am struggling trying to figure out which one to let go. I love them both, but I cannot possibly keep both and walk around with two trackers on me. I feel that the AW is a better quality tracker and -- at least based on recent articles -- more accurate in reading HR. However, the fitbit has everything nicely centralized. I wish Apple would mimic what fitbit is doing, but then again, Apple also depends on third party apps to fulfill many of these holes.
Click to expand...
I feel like at least with an apple watch you can build upon the platform without needing to purchase a new device. It has it's own OS so you really just need to install updates to take advantage of the built-in technology. I would keep the apple watch. Just started using the UA record app and it seems to be a step in the right direction for collecting information in one place. It does however require you to install the my fitness pal app for calorie counting with food intake but will put the information into the UA record app for centralized counting.
 
Mike84 said:
Man, I am struggling trying to figure out which one to let go. I love them both, but I cannot possibly keep both and walk around with two trackers on me.
Click to expand...
I gave up after a year of using the AW by itself and got the FB C2. I am much happier now. Granted, I am a bit different from others by having a wearable on each wrist. If I absolutely had to give one up, I would probably dump both and wear a Garmin 735XT. I would miss Apple Pay, but that does a great deal of what the AW does plus everything the Fitbit C2 does.
 
Mike84 said:
Man, I am struggling trying to figure out which one to let go. I love them both, but I cannot possibly keep both and walk around with two trackers on me. I feel that the AW is a better quality tracker and -- at least based on recent articles -- more accurate in reading HR. However, the fitbit has everything nicely centralized. I wish Apple would mimic what fitbit is doing, but then again, Apple also depends on third party apps to fulfill many of these holes.
Click to expand...

I am torn between the Apple Watch and the Charge 2. I am using my wife's old Apple Watch at the moment, but keep looking at the Charge 2. I want the watch mainly for running and step counting. Obviously the fitbit is much better due to the software when it comes to the social aspect. I have quite the history with fitbit as well. Interested in what you ultimately decide. I where mechanical watches and a few shocks normally. I did seriously consider wearing both before coming back to reality (Normal Watch and fitbit)
 
ob81 said:
I am torn between the Apple Watch and the Charge 2. I am using my wife's old Apple Watch at the moment, but keep looking at the Charge 2. I want the watch mainly for running and step counting. Obviously the fitbit is much better due to the software when it comes to the social aspect. I have quite the history with fitbit as well. Interested in what you ultimately decide. I where mechanical watches and a few shocks normally. I did seriously consider wearing both before coming back to reality (Normal Watch and fitbit)
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comment. What I find in common more than anything else with you is the mechanical watch comment. I have worn one in particular for over 12 years. This is the first time I have switched (I was wearing my regular watch with my fitbit during part of that time).

If Apple had the same interface as fitbit, I would 100% be sold. Unfortunately, it doesn't. I'll keep you posted.
 
The thing I disliked the most about my Blaze was the clock faces it offered. The one I wanted that showed the HR all the time had a back ground that changed colors the higher the HR got. The problem is when you are running the screen will be a bright yellow making the HR almost impossible to read outside, when you want to read it the most.

I have moved to the Charge 2 and like it very much but FitBit failed to take advantage of the larger screen size and the font showing the HR is way to small. It is like the people who make the choices for these devices never use them in the real world. Still sticking with the CH2 for the size and information. The FitBit app is far superior in my opinion.
 
Newtons Apple said:
The thing I disliked the most about my Blaze was the clock faces it offered. The one I wanted that showed the HR all the time had a back ground that changed colors the higher the HR got. The problem is when you are running the screen will be a bright yellow making the HR almost impossible to read outside, when you want to read it the most.

I have moved to the Charge 2 and like it very much but FitBit failed to take advantage of the larger screen size and the font showing the HR is way to small. It is like the people who make the choices for these devices never use them in the real world. Still sticking with the CH2 for the size and information. The FitBit app is far superior in my opinion.
Click to expand...

There has been a new update to the Blaze with new watch face. I use 'moments' which provides the time along with HR and steps (all live, unlike the Apple Watch). Tap to view calories, stairs, etc.

Really disappointed the Apple Watch doesn't show stats live!
[doublepost=1477311786][/doublepost]
Mike84 said:
I appreciate your post because I have the AW2 and a Fitbit Charge 2 and I am trying to figure out which one to keep. Having had fitbits for several years, I have come to greatly appreciate the app interface. That is something I do not think you can really get with the Apple Watch. What are your thoughts on that and any ideas on how to achieve the same or similar experience?
Click to expand...

Apart from Apple Pay, Fitbit Blaze does everything I need. An Apple Watch Fitbit app would be awesome! But it's not going to happen!

To view steps on the screen, try Pedometer++ and for sleep tracking Sleep++.

You can't view live HR/Steps though like the Fitbit Blaze.
[doublepost=1477311939][/doublepost]
Mike84 said:
Man, I am struggling trying to figure out which one to let go. I love them both, but I cannot possibly keep both and walk around with two trackers on me. I feel that the AW is a better quality tracker and -- at least based on recent articles -- more accurate in reading HR. However, the fitbit has everything nicely centralized. I wish Apple would mimic what fitbit is doing, but then again, Apple also depends on third party apps to fulfill many of these holes.
Click to expand...

Agreed! I love how the Fitbit interprets HR data. Compare that to HR data in the Health app. It's just a mess. There are third party apps but considering how much the Apple Watch costs it should at least have an OK app to support it. Such a shame because it's clearly a much batter watch, far more accurate but is stuck with Health :(
 
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honglong1976 said:
There has been a new update to the Blaze with new watch face. I use 'moments' which provides the time along with HR and steps (all live, unlike the Apple Watch). Tap to view calories, stairs, etc.

Really disappointed the Apple Watch doesn't show stats live!
[doublepost=1477311786][/doublepost]

Apart from Apple Pay, Fitbit Blaze does everything I need. An Apple Watch Fitbit app would be awesome! But it's not going to happen!

To view steps on the screen, try Pedometer++ and for sleep tracking Sleep++.

You can't view live HR/Steps though like the Fitbit Blaze.
[doublepost=1477311939][/doublepost]

Agreed! I love how the Fitbit interprets HR data. Compare that to HR data in the Health app. It's just a mess. There are third party apps but considering how much the Apple Watch costs it should at least have an OK app to support it. Such a shame because it's clearly a much batter watch, far more accurate but is stuck with Health :(
Click to expand...


I will charge up my Blaze and check it out. Thanks for the information!
 
I didn't think the Blaze had GPS standalone, so quite a big difference for a runner as you'd have to take your phone with the Blaze vs standalone GPS on the AW2
 
kitenski said:
I didn't think the Blaze had GPS standalone, so quite a big difference for a runner as you'd have to take your phone with the Blaze vs standalone GPS on the AW2
Click to expand...
The Blaze is more of a competitor to the AWS1, not the AWS2. Although not explicitly stated, the context above is more related to an AWS1 and Blaze comparison.
 
exxxviii said:
The Blaze is more of a competitor to the AWS1, not the AWS2. Although not explicitly stated, the context above is more related to an AWS1 and Blaze comparison.
Click to expand...

I think that the Blaze competes with both. Not everyone wants/need GPS and if you are willing to carry your phone the Fitbit app blows away what Apple uses to map/tracking.
 
Newtons Apple said:
I think that the Blaze competes with both. Not everyone wants/need GPS and if you are willing to carry your phone the Fitbit app blows away what Apple uses to map/tracking.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I see where you are coming from. The AWS2 has GPS, greater (official) water resistance, more workout features, and a $100 higher price tag that elevates it to a slightly different class of device. Whereas, the AWS1 is more of a direct feature-for-feature match to the Blaze, and is only $100 more than the Blaze, where the AWS2 is 2x the MSRP of the Blaze.
 
exxxviii said:
Yeah, I see where you are coming from. The AWS2 has GPS, greater (official) water resistance, more workout features, and a $100 higher price tag that elevates it to a slightly different class of device. Whereas, the AWS1 is more of a direct feature-for-feature match to the Blaze, and is only $100 more than the Blaze, where the AWS2 is 2x the MSRP of the Blaze.
Click to expand...

and with the blaze you do need to have an iPhone.

The AWS2 will be selling on eBay and Craig's list for under $150 by Spring.
 
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