Polar Ignite Unboxing, Setup and First Impressions Review

I want to first thank Polar for sending me this Polar Ignite for review. In this video I will be unboxing the Polar Ignite, well kind of? I will also setup the Polar Ignite to my Android Smartphone and give my First impressions of the Polar Ignite. Later on of course I will be following up with my Full Review detailing how the Polar Ignite worked for me in terms of my specific Fitness and Smartwatch needs.

For now I will leave you with some of the Polar Ignites main Features and Specifications:

• Easy to use color touch screen with 1 button interface.
• Gesture-activated color touch display (IPS TFT) with ambient light sensor (ALS). Always-on option in training mode. Resolution 240x204. Dragontrail glass lens.
• Glass fiber reinforced polymer case. Stainless steel bezel & button.
• Water Proof up to 30m suitable for swimming.
• Integrated GPS & GLONASS. Assisted GPS for fast fix times.
• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) - Compatible with Polar BLE heart rate sensors.
• 24/7 use - (165 mAh Li-pol battery - Up to 5 days use, 17 hours in GPS mode).
• Light weigth design (35 grams with wrist band).
• Recovery Insight Looks at daily activity and sleep.
• Full day view of your activity.
• Change the looks, 20mm watch strap compatible.

How to Connect an External BT Heart Rate Monitor to your Samsung Gear or Galaxy Watch

If you're reading this then perhaps you are like me and where or are looking for a way to connect an External Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor to your Samsung Gear or Samsung Galaxy Smart Fitness Watch? Well get ready because I have found a way to connect many popular External BT fitness devices to your Samsung Gear or Galaxy Watch even though Samsung says this is not possible within Apps.

Now before I get into the details I think I should clarify why this is even necessary. It all comes down to the accuracy of the built in Optical Heart Rate Monitor on your Samsung Gear or Galaxy Watch. These built in Optical Heart Rate Monitors simply do not do a good job reading your heart rate especially when your heart rate is jumping around a lot or your arms are moving around as in when you are doing a weight lifting, Crossfit, Bootcamp or other HIIT style training.

So back to the solution on how to connect an External BT Heart Rate Monitor to your Samsung Gear or Galaxy Watch. You are going to need to download and buy a Watch Face called "Sporty Watch". Sporty Watch is much more than your typical Watch Face, most importantly it has a settings option that allows for the connection of external BT Heart Rate Monitors and even some other Bluetooth Fitness Devices. Sporty Watch also taps into your Samsung Watche GPS for tracking GPS details during outside activities. Sporty Watch has access to pretty much all of the watches fitness related real time data which gives it all the information it needs to track your workouts in full detail.

When you are finished your workout, Sporty Watch saves the workout data to its own Diary if you want to recall the info later. SPorty Watch also syncs this data to a number of possible sources: Strava, TrainingPeaks, Google Drive, Diary Webserver.

I personally have Sporty Watch send the workout data automatically to Strava where I can see and share that data to MyFitnessPal and Samsung Health. The only thing that Sporty Watch and Strave don't take into consideration would be the total steps for your day which helps programs like MyFtinessPal figure out your total calorie burn for the day. This is not a problem because your Samsung Gear or Galaxy Watch your steps for you where you can see it in the Samsung Health App and also share step data with MyFitnessPal.

So there you have it!

Which is the Best Fitness Smartwatch?

The big question I often get from Clients and in general from people online is... "Which Fitness Tracker or Fitness Smartwatch should I get?" This is really a loaded question. It's kind of like randomly asking me what vehicle is best for you when next to no information about you has been told to me. Even if I did know what your vehicle needs are, there are so many options out there to choose from. Which company, what type of vehicle, what price range... This is the same when trying to figure out the best Fitness Smart Watches to consider.

Do you want a fitness watch more for fitness or for it's smart features, may be a little bit of both? How much money do you want to spend? How integrated with other software do you want it to be? Do you want a stylish Fitness Watch or perhaps a Sporty one? Are you going to be doing basic activities or complex and diverse activities? Do you want the utmost in accuracy when it comes to heart rate, steps and GPS tracking? Do you see what I mean here?

It gets even more complicated because it seem that every watch figures things out a little bit differently then the other ones. Some count more steps and distance than others, some will give you more calories for an activity then a different fitness Smartwatch or Tracker. Some allow for external heart rate monitors which is more accurate and some will only allow you to use the built in optical heart rate monitor. And at the end of the day which one is telling you the truth? Maybe all of them are but in their own way...

I have jumped from one Fitness Tracking device to another in my quest to find the best solution for me and just when I think I have found it, someone comes out with a device that draws me in and I have to try it out. Sometimes it works out for me and sometimes I find myself taking a step back but I kind of enjoy all of this fitness tech in the end.

So which is the Best Fitness Smartwatch? Hell if I know, you're probably going to have to try a few out until you find the one best suited to you. If you have no idea where to start, take a look at some of the Garmin and Fitbit products, they have a combination of really solid software and hardware offerings for a variety of needs.

Good luck in your quest and enjoy the journey...

Amazfit Fitness Smartwatch Fail

I hate to be negative about a product line, I prefer to talk about the good stuff or at least focus on the good rather than the bad but but in this case of Amazfit I am really let down lately by what has been happening to me with my Amazfit Stratos and Amazfit Verge.

There is a lot I say in the video about the problems I am having but in short my Amazfit Stratos has gone mad and is giving me all kinds of bad data when it comes to my activity tracking. I have been working with Amazfit support to try and fix this problem for around a month but have decided to call it quite because we seem to be going around in circles and not getting any closer to fixing the problem.

I did purchase the new Amazfit Verge and just recently it arrived, I was hoping this new Amazfit product would solve my problems but quickly realized I would have a new set of problems with it, mainly the fact that it does not count calories even remotely close when recording and activity. Very sad when both devices are made by the same company, use the same App and have virtually the same software on them, yet both give completely different calorie counts for a similar activity.

All said and done I am sadly dropping Amazfit and moving on to a new platform for my Fitness Tracking.

LEMFO LES2 Android 5.1 Smart Watch Review

Here is my official Table Top Video Review for the LEMFO LES2 Android 5.1 Smart Watch. In this video review I go over some of the basic specifications and talk about the hardware and software. I show you around the watch and talk mainly about how the hardware ties into the software making sure to cover the fitness applications and fitness tracking.

 

Make sure to watch my Unboxing Video as I do go into the specifications of the LEMFO LES2 Android 5.1 Smart Watch and more details about what exactly an Android 5.1 Smart Watch can and can not do compared to an Android Wear Smart Watch.

I highly recommend you watch my full Video Review for the LEMFO LES2 Android 5.1 Smart Watch as I do go into a fair amount of detail on how this watch integrates hardware and software. in summary I found the LEMFO LES2 Android 5.1 Smart Watch to be built much better than I expected, the hardware inside is for sure very impressive but I found that many of the applications especially fitness applications did not take advantage of hardware features like the built in GPS and Heart Rate Sensor nor was their a way to look at historical fitness data on the watch or even using a cloud based application.

If you install the Google Fit App the LEMFO LES2 Android 5.1 Smart Watch can do a decent job of basic fitness tracking but the onboard built in Fitness App is fairly limited compared to today's fitness trackers and fitness watches.

As a feature packed and hardware heavy Smart Watch, the LEMFO LES2 Android 5.1 Smart Watch does a good job with all the fun pre-installed Apps and Google Play Apps you can install later on. You even get all of those annoying notification alerts from your Smart phone including phone call alerts.