Why do people spend money (and quite a lot of it) for devices that have less functionality than a smartphone?
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Tablet is just a bigger screen, but not same power like a laptop.
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Smartwatch is just tracking device that sends even more of your personal data.
And BOTH are another battery that you have to worry about.
since a lot of functionality at my job that doesn’t require me to physically be in the office can be done on a web browser I use my tablet as a work computer if the office is occupied. before this year I used my smartwatch as a phone monitor because even vibrating I can’t feel my phone ringing in my pocket or vibrate for text messages. and it was literally vitally important that I be available 24/7. these days I no longer need to be constantly available but I now have to monitor my glucose levels so I found a watchface and corresponding phone app to send that information to my phone.
tablets and watches still have a place for a lot of people.
I was also interested in glucose monitoring, but the Samsung watch7 only gives an estimate.
The technology is still way behind.
Tablet
Great for watching videos, reading the newspaper and drawing (with a digital pen).
I actually don’t have a laptop anymore, because I found that a tablet could do everything I needed on the go with less bulk, longer lasting battery and no fan noise.
Smartwatch
Tracks my heartrate (had some issues with elevated heart rate before), guilt-trips me into doing more excercise, shows me notifications without having to get my phone out, displays the time with a customizable watch face.
They do it to fit into an in group called havers. The have stuff.
I use my tablet for site surveys and leave my phone at home or work. It is light to carry, has great battery life, has a sim card, memory slot, headphone jack. When I’m done work I can watch a film. It’s some shitty Samsung thing work gave me, it’s great. I don’t think I would ever buy a tablet myself though.
I do not have a use for a smart watch.
I got iPad for drawing and reading comics/manga on a bigger screen and reading/writing on PDFs.
I use my Samsung A8 tablet mainly for reading in bed.
I prefer to read manga and comics on a tablet screen, easy to make text bigger for someone with dyslexia, more portable than a laptop, not to mention cheaper. Smart watch makes it so u don’t have to pull out my phone when i get a notification at work or when my hands are full, and i can glance to see if it’s important. Also helps me reduce my screen time, and lengthens my phone’s battery life. As far as tracking, i have almost all tracking disabled except what is necessary for operation of the “local”(i have precise gps disabled) weather. All health features and telemetry disabled/routed to 0.0.0.0. i understand not everyone has uses for these kinda of devices, but that doesn’t mean no one does. My watch lasts 2+ months on a charge, my phone 1-3 days, tablet, lives connected to a wall unless i wanna read on the go. I don’t worry about battery life.
Which watch have you?
A tablet is nice because it’s a bigger screen. I like reading ebooks on them. (plz don’t tell me to get an e-reader)
A watch is nice because it means you can ignore your phone, but still reply to notifications. I like the more accurate step count. I’d really like a device that counts my lengths when swimming too, but I haven’t had a chance to use one yet.
In both cases I’ve gotten devices that have more battery than I expect. I rarely found myself in a situation where charging was a hassle.
Tablet is just a bigger screen…
And this is why I got a tablet, I needed more space in my screen 🤷♂️
But then, why not get an external portable monitor connected to the smartphone?
Because then I’m giving my phone more responsibility and the goal is to take away some from it, I don’t want to be reading and get bombarded with notifications from social media, or get calls, or drain my battery by doing do. I want a dedicated device for that, an a tablet is more capable than an e-reader. I also want to practice writing and a tablet with a digital pen is good for that purpose.
I use a Pine64 watch, and set it as a notification center. It shows me notifications as they come in, so I don’t have to take my phone out of my pocket while at work. It allows me to see if the notification is urgent or if it can wait until break. When I’m not at work, I put on an analog watch. I don’t use tablets, except for an ereader.
Edit: added link.
I was interested in the Pine64 for its very low price, i mean, even if I don’t like it, i didn’t spend much on it.
But then… Why would i pay for a device that gives me more notifications??
My phone has no notification sound, not even vibration, I hate being distracted while I am in the middle of something!!
I want less notifications, not more!!
The same reason why I almost didn’t buy it. But I changed my mind after missing a very important sms, because I was at work and couldn’t take the phone out of my pocket.
To each their own, for sure, and notifications on the wrist isn’t for everyone.
I use my tablet to take handwritten notes.
I use my tablet to watch porn.
Also regular TV and movies, but mostly porn.
I have a tablet with magnetic keyboard. It’s about 20% as heavy as my laptop, doesn’t make a noise when it’s trying to keep itself cool and allows me to shop online, read some news, or browse Lemmy just fine.
I have a Garmin for trail running, but it has a compass, offline maps, barometric altimeter, bunch of other stuff. I used it to plan a 2000 mile route through Canada while driving last summer because my phone had shit-tier 2G/3G roaming. I have it scheduled to go into ultra battery conservation mode when I should be sleeping and only need to charge it every 2 weeks.
It also records activities even without a phone, just need internet to upload it to Strava later, so pretty handy to be able to run without a phone (Strava or it didn’t happen lol)
What Garmin are you using?
I could look into a watch that needs to be recharged
neverevery few weeks.Off-topic, but: do you need some Garmin account to use these functionalities? I am looking into such a watch, but would not like to be dependent on some online service/account to use it.
The big tl;dr is that a lot of stuff will work, but a lot of things relying on historical data will not work (resting heart rate, weekly step count, sleep, etc).
But, the app/account is unobtrusive to the point that you could name yourself Mickey Mouse on creation, just to get a user ID for the watch to point to, and set permissions on the app on some schedule just to have the watch sync that data.
No sort of verification/authentication of identity at account creation and the app/services are free (I’m sure, given this day and age, there’s premium/subscription stuff but like I said it’s unobtrusive and I’ve never once been nagged to upgrade my account)
Tablet: Read magazines and watch TV shows. You might be fine if you own a large phone, though.
I hate watches. Back before pocket phones (I’m old enough to remember when car phones were a thing for the rich) I carried a pocket watch instead of a wrist watch like most people had. Once I got a flip phone which fit in my pocket I stopped using the pocket watch. (I don’t remember why I had both a “candy bar” phone and a pocket watch)
