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Comment by teekert | Hacker News Reader

And here I am just wanting a fitness-stuff-less watch with long battery, always on screen (monochrome is fine) for under 150 euro's. For simple things like notifications. RIP Pebble.

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Agreed. I loved pebble so much. Amazfit Bip is cheap, has really long battery life, always on color screen. It does basic notifications fine. It is definitely less configurable, and it's built in apps suck compared to pebble (eg you have to setup alarms on your phone!) It's also not as programmable, but there are hacks to make new watchfaces so you can do basic stuff. I had a Fitbit versa, and even though I liked the built in apps and how programmable it is, it has a 2 day battery vs like a month, and it kept not handling notifications with my Android. I really wish my pebble just worked still, though. It was the perfect balance of battery life and configurability.

Yeah, my Pebble Time Steel, 10 day of battery time, always on screen, shows me a map and/or directions while biking, allows me to answer calls and control volume/play-pause on the phone and Sonos at home, indicates the next train home, allowed me to set alarms and was a comprehensive stopwatch. Allowed for standard answers to any notification, allows me to filter for only important things to come through... It was the pinnacle of smart watches. Now all I see is trackers. I don't understand where Casio is in all this, give me a G-shock with notifications... I'd be very happy with it, even with just a monochrome screen.

(I work for but don't speak for Fitbit).

If your Versa is still under warranty, get it replaced. Even when the first Versa came out almost 2 years ago, battery life was 4+ days. If you're seeing a 2 day battery life either you're running something unusually battery-hungry on it or you have a defective unit.

Have a look at hybrid watches: Analog time pieces with Bluetooth, a small display, vibration alert etc.

I like my Withings Steel HR, they are maybe in your price class and you can easily ignore the fitness stuff. Battery runtime around 20 days.

I also recommend looking and Withings. Though I moved to Apple Watch I can only say good things about Withings watches. Nice products.

Withings looks very nice. Still I'd prefer not even having any fitness sensors and not pay for them or have to deal with them in an app. Withings still seems completely focused on health and to me useless things like step counting. Am I so unique in wanting to avoid that?

The watches look nice and that display seems perfect for notifications. Just forget about my heart and steps.

Yes, you are unique.

Step counting and activity tracking is basically free (electronically), so that's included in every smart watch. Even the Pebble Time watches had one.

Heart rate sensors are ubiqious as well, at least above a certain price point.

Maybe Fossil has something you might like?

Consider Amazfit Bip/Bip R/Bip S. The original Bip has 2-4 weeks of battery, GPS, heart rate monitor and always on reflective color screen. Bip S and R are next generation with better screens but shorter battery life (1-2 weeks depending on usage). I used by Bip as a regular watch due to long battery life, heart rate monitor (every 30m) and replacement for my phone during runs (though not that well operating in a city, better to use on open spaces). Bip costs less than 70 bucks.

This one said to expect to charge it 2-3 times a week - of course I'm comparing apples and oranges, but my Xiaomi band only needs charged once a month. Given I charge my phone every day, it seems like it shouldn't be a game-changer to add another item to the daily charge routine, but it really is - not having to think about charging my watch is great!!

A Garmin Forerunner 35 will meet those requirements. It's a fitness tracker but you can turn those features off if you don't want them.

Again, looks nice but it has a whole hardware button dedicated to running! There is always a runner on the face of the watch. I don't understand this. I don't want to run or need to be pushed towards it.

Those seem like rather picky objections. There's nothing wrong with having extra buttons. And running is great, you should try it!

My knees can't take it. I do boxing and mountain biking. I know I'm being picky but it's a rather personal device, always on my wrist.

The trouble is long battery + under €150. Used you can get quite capable devices, but they'll have worn out batteries with low capacity.

Let me introduce you to the xioami band, which last me over 1 week on a single charge for less than $30

No, the screen is not always on, which does not matter when I'm not looking at it

So, you know, the screen is not always on :) I also want to be able to take it off and put it on my night stand or next to my keyboard and see stuff come in. Also, when I'm biking I may not make the classic wrist swing (to wake it up) when checking the watch.

It only shows the charging display when plugged, so it's not exactly a match for your use case.

What I like is the battery life, and the price point. I usually charge it during the weekend, and wake it up by touching the face. Also I did scratch the screen when doing rough work, and didn't even bother: if it troubles me, I'll buy another. The price is literally less than the price of a screen protector for a normal smartwatch

I started using the mi band 3 last summer and recently upgraded to the mi band 4. Usually battery life is three weeks (!) give or take a few days, I use it to control music volume when in the shower (it's waterproof, I take it swimming) and have it track my sleeping habits. It's incredibly inexpensive and the Mi Fit app also works well for tracking runs or cycles.

My only wish is that it would have better support for different Unicode characters. It displays English and Chinese just fine, but it doesn't work well with Korean or Japanese characters (which you may encounter in notification texts or when controlling music).

I would have loved if you could trade the 3-week battery life for a 1-day battery life if you could just keep the screen on all the time. I have the same issue with my Galaxy Fit - great band, but I would gladly trade battery life to keep the screen on permanently.

What is your usecase? I just don't understand the need.

Not having to flail my arm like an idiot in order to read the time? It works about 1/3 times and makes me regret not wearing a normal watch. I charge everything every night anyway - I'd be 100% happy having to charge the watch as well, just give me the option to keep the screen on.

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