The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!
Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.
πUniversal Link: !android@lemdro.id
π‘Content Philosophy:
Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.
Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: !askandroid@lemdro.id
For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: !lemdroid@lemdro.id
π¬Matrix Chat
π°Our communities below
Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to !askandroid@lemdro.id.
Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to !androidmemes@lemdro.id.
No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
Our Communities
Lemmy App List
Chat and More
Under water butthole?
I mean... You have my attention, but to what end are we implementing this new tech?
No, itβs Ultra-Wide Butthole. Itβs part of a new set of standards, Global Open Access Technology, Second Edition.
Good lordt.
I really like mine, but the battery left a lot to be desired. For day to day I just use one of the smaller fit bits now that have like 10 days of battery. Now I only take the watch when I'm going on trips or driving long distances since the notification system is far superior. If they came with a decent battery life bump I'd be all over a new iteration.
Yea I get roughly a day out of mine. If I don't charge it in the mornings it won't make it through the day. I'd love to get a couple days out of it.
Eh thatβs how my Apple Watch is and I donβt mind because I charge my phone every night as well.
A day is fine, more than a day is nice but not necessary, less than a day is unacceptable.
Well when using it for sleep monitoring it means I can't charge it overnight. It doesn't charge quick enough to get a full day while charging in the shower or something so it's inconvenient
After coming from a fitbit, I put it on charge and then forget to put it back on. The wireless charging makes it slow. The versa would charge in 30m
I've recently changed to a Fitbit Versa 2 after having a Huawei Android Wear for years until it literally fell apart. The Huawei never lasted more than a day, but I can get 2-3 with the Versa, which means I can use it for sleep tracking. Charging up only takes 30 minutes or so, so every few days I just pop it in for a bit. I ended up never using most of the features of the Android, so the Fitbit does me fine. The only thing I miss is the "now playing", but I can live with that.
I have used mostly Xiaomi bands, I'm currently wearing a Redmi Band 2. It is not a smartwatch, it's just a fitness tracker, but it can also control media, take photos and receive notifications, and lasts 10 days between charges. That's all I care about (for now). When smartwatches batteries get better I may consider a full fledged one.
I think a lot of people take it off at night, allowing them to charge it for the next day, making the battery issue less important. It sucks for those that want to track their sleep though.
I know my ticwatch only lasts 2 days under light usage, so I make sure to charge it every night. But I don't care to track my sleep, so I'm one of the people it doesn't matter for.
This is missing one of the most awesome features of these devices - vibration wake up alarm. It is literally life changing, and doubly so when your partner is using it. π₯²
I don't use alarms either, I'm one of those annoying people who just wakes up on time lol
Not sure whether to be happy for you or sad. π
I bought some really nice watch off Temu for $12 and it lasts days. I didn't know if id wear a smartwatch, so i started with that. It's lasts probably 5-7days. I've heard a lot of great reviews on garmins compared to Samsung, pixel, etc. I don't care about all the fancy stuff, just want the time, steps, and texts.
Not having to charge it every 1-2 days would be great. Batteries degrade over time and I don't want to buy a new one every 2 years.
Interesting.
I jumped into smartwatches back with the Asus Zenwatch. It was fun but terrible UI, terrible battery life, terrible processing speed. It spent must of its life in my dresser drawer.
A couple years ago, I got the Samsung watch 4, and it was a whole different story. Snappy. Great UI. Great battery life.
I haven't seen any killer features that would make me upgrade or change brands to a new watch yet. UWB Is definitely cool, and I love to see competition, and I'm definitely open to upgrading, but even 2 generations on, in not seeing any new must-have killer features.
...Samsung watch 4, and it was a whole different story. Snappy. Great UI. Great battery life.
Do we have a different Samsung watch 4? Or a different expectation of great battery?
I got one last year, and it's my first smartwatch. It lasts one day. Having to charge it every night makes it a burden. Of it hadn't been so expensive, and if I didn't want to get the body tracking It offers, I'd simply leave it on a drawer.
My friend has a Garmin of some kind. It's bulky, but o kind of like that. He reckons his lasts nearly a week. That would be my idea of great battery.
Maybe your battery is a dud. I get through a day of very heavy use with 50% battery remaining.
Yeah maybe. But even that is hardly exceptional battery life. And then the watch will be less than 50% by the time you've slept with it.
Exactly. Then imagine how bad things will get once the battery degrades, which will be a lot quicker with the constant charging. My Garmin lasts 2 weeks on a single charge in "smart watch" mode.
I've got the Galaxy Watch4 and I love it. I get nearly two days of battery, which is fine by my standards, and the UX is snappy as hell.
WearOS is just a lot more taxing on the battery than what Garmin has because it does a lot more. The upside is that you get an entire ecosystem of 3rd party apps/services you can install.
Apple's own apple watch doesn't last much longer unless you basically disable everything.
Smart watches that work like a phone are inherently always going to have worse battery than smart watches that are only programmed to do a very narrow set of things.
I was about to say something similar.
I have an Apple Watch Series 7. Average battery life is ~30 hours. Less if it runs on LTE instead of Bluetooth.
That watch is more expensive than the Galaxy Watch 4. At launch and second hand.
Now you can get a good/mint condition used Galaxy Watch 4 Classic 46mm LTE for around ~$150 on Swappa. The same tier Apple Watch Series 7 on Swappa goes for ~$225 on Swappa.
And the Apple Watch doesn't even have blood pressure like the Watch 4 does. Granted, you have to do some sideloading to get it working in the States until FDA clears it, but the hardware is still there.
Here I am looking in the internet to see if Pixel Watch 1 is worth it to buy right now.
I like mine. The battery leaves a lot to be desired but I do use it quite a bit. The coolest feature for me (I know this is standard for all smart watches), I'm frequently wearing an earbud. When someone calls I can check the caller ID on my wrist, accept it and start talking without touching my phone (sometimes it's in another room).
I like it for runs and the health tracking features are really good. I wish they'd come up with a better layout for picking an app. It's just a really long list. Something more like Apple's watch app grid.
If you get one on sale I'd recommend it, or just wait to see what the 2 has to offer
As for the launcher, there's Bubble Launcher. Give it a try!
I've owned several Android Wear devices since they launched many years ago. I like my pixel watch the best so far, but looking forward to gen 2 with better battery.
Iβd say itβs not worth it unless itβs super cheap. I have one I bought at full price that has been in its box since I bought it. Used it for one week to really give it a go. The issues I had with it in combination with the pixel 6 I also donβt use anymore are the reason I am losing faith in Googleβs vision of Android hardware.
What issues? That's so vague...
Youβre right about the vagueness. I didnβt want to spill about it unless someone wanted the details. Which would you like to know about the watch or the phone?
Start with the watch.
The watch has a great size and screen to start with. The main demerits are the poor battery life and locking features behind a paywall. There are features provided with similar products like the Apple Watch that are locked behind a fit bit subscription.
It's... fine, I guess. I've had several non-Apple smartwatches over time. So far, it's OK. I had a Garmin Vivoactive 3 before this, but it finally died after several years. I don't know that I'd buy another one, but I'm also not actively looking at alternatives.
UWB is nice, easier finding of wearables if lost :)
Give this away as a preorder for the 8 Pro please.
Now just make it in a larger case size and I might consider one
On the notion of batteries, I have a new, galaxy watch 4 LTE. With mobile network always on and everything else off (Bluetooth, wifi, location) I'm getting 16hrs of battery.
Is that expected?
It will get better after a couple of days. Make sure you install all updates so it will not try to update in the background.
I unfortunately dont have one. But you ask about that in the galaxy watch community here.
Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !galaxywatch@lemdro.id
This right here is why Lemmy will never replace Reddit. It shouldn't be this complicated to share a post.
Hoping for a bundle with the pixel 8, but not holding my breath. Not even sure I want a smartwatch yet tbh, but it does look nice...
Given what Google did to Fitbit I would never buy a Google branded watch on principle.
What did they do to Fitbit. I haven't noticed any changes
What did they do to Fitbit?
They nuked the Fitbit community. No more achievements.