The Apple Watch Series 3

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The Apple Watch Series 3 is more interesting than I thought it would be, I like that it plays nicely with Strava and that it is possible to track shorter duration activities without worrying about battery life. I found that it loses about ten percent per hour. This is fine for most people. 

Daily goals

Another feature that I like is that it measures daily goals in standing, calories and activity. The standing and activity goals are easy to beat on a daily basis. Standing 1 minute every hour is tremendously easy when you’re not driving or flying. It’s the activities goal that I find most relevant. 

With previous devices that I have used, whether Fitbit or fitness apps on android or iOS they usually give you a daily step goal but if you go for a long bike ride or go climbing you will miss the step goal. With calories burned everything you do counts towards that goal. 

With the workout app you can track a number of activities and you can set goals as open, calorie expenditure, distance or time. So far I played with the open goal and it works fine. I choose routes which exceed the daily calorie goal. Yesterday I tried the calorie goal for a walk and I exceeded it yet again. It’s not that hard. I should set it at twice the goal to challenge myself. 

Better integration with Strava and other apps

I would like to see better exportability of data. With the Suunto Spartan Wrist HR baro watch I track workouts,and via Movescount the data is exported to Strava and Sports tracker automatically. With the workout app information about the distance travelled and other data is only shared with those who also use the activities app on iphone

It is for this reason that I track cycling and hikes with both the Suunto watch and the Apple watch series 3. 

Other comments

I don’t know what the heart rate variability data means so I don’t know whether to see the data as positive or negative. It is a shame that with most news apps we can read the headline and sub-heading but not much else. I wish that we could type messages rather than choose from presets. It is not as versatile as I would like from such a device. 

Assessment

This is a watch perfectly suited to cycling, hiking and other activities as long as they do not exceed eight hours of activity. It is well suited for when you’re walking in town, cycling in the countryside or climbing. Tracking calories, rather than steps, is a great way of giving people sporting flexibility. It’s a practical introduction to sports tracking watches. 


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