> Can anyone who uses or has tried to use recent "watch" style products from Google/Fitbit provide anecdotes on this claim?
I was a Fitbit user from the day the initial fitbit went on sale for preorder. I used pretty much every 'flagship' fitbit since then until Google bought them. Ever since Google took over the Fitbit product got worse and worse. I decided a year ago I needed out when they got rid of the communities favorite feature, challenges. I'm pretty sure when I finally packed my fitbit away I had logged more days of usage then anyone else.
I started exploring what the other options were but was not able to even consider the apple watch because I do prefer android to ios. If it had supported android I'd have potentially gotten one though. Anyway as apple placed themselves out of the running I explored other options and decided Garmin had the best offerings. The biggest issue there though was they had way too many models and way too many versions of each model and little help to figure out which one is the best for you beyond super high level titles like "runner". That said I ended up settling on the Fenix series and after a year of use I can say I'm quite happy with it!
When I upgraded my phone this past fall to the latest Pixel Google actually was giving away free Pixel watch 2's with every purchase so I did wear a pixel watch for a couple of weeks to test it out. It was.. not great... especially the battery which was supposedly improved from the pixel watch 1.
Anyway, yes, I do agree with the statement that Google hasn't created something good enough, but I don't think they've actually tried. Like other hardware they've bought (nest) they just let it die. Garmin needs some major marketing help, but I do feel like they got a great thing going over there.
It is important that you might have considered Apple Watch if it were available for Android. This gatekeeping seems the crux of the lawsuit.
However, given your deep experience with Fitbit / Google's offerings and careful consideration of Garmin's as well, I'm curious: What do you think of the merit of suing Apple for antitrust for Apple Watch not supporting at least some set of Android devices?
I've had a Pixel 2XL, Pixel 6Pro or XL (worst phone I've ever owned), and now a Pixel 8 Pro. I strongly considered moving to iPhone after my Pixel 6 experience, but decided to give it one last chance since I really prefer Android over iOS.
When I bought the 8 I got a "free" Pixel Watch 2 with the purchase. I have not owned an Apple Watch, but my wife has an older model.
They do have Fitbit integration and it works pretty well for tracking walks, jogs, and cycling. I don't use it religiously and I'm not an exercise maniac.
The watch is nice and very functional. My biggest complaint is the battery life is really bad. I have to charge it daily -- I usually only wear it during the day and charge overnight. It'll charge pretty quickly 1-2hr but I don't care enough to do it.
It looks decent and works well enough to manage notifications and take calls when I can't grab my phone. The normal functions are on par with my wife's (older model) Apple watch.
I think if I was a serious fitness and outdoor activity kind of person I would buy a Garmin. I didn't do an in-depth comparison of the watches because I only use the base functionality of fitness tracking watches (my previous smart watch was a Withings) so it's entirely possible a new Apple watch offers some great feature I'm not aware of or wouldn't personally use.
That's my personal experience with the Pixel Watch 2. It's fine for my use case, but the battery life truly is bad.
If you disable "always on" display you can get 2 to 3 days of battery life from it. I love always on display, but I have it disabled currently because of that
Can anyone who uses or has tried to use recent "watch" style products from Google/Fitbit provide anecdotes on this claim?