I use a smartwatch as a second phone that’s always on me. Especially when I forget my main phone.

Smart watch will be what I get my kid instead of a smartphone. Its basically the modern day bepper in my eyes.

My partner is a mechanic and is often underneath a vehicle when a notification comes through; so for him, the watch acts like an extension of his phone that he doesn’t have to worry about falling out of his pocket.

And while he does have to worry about damaging the watch, this would still be true if it was a phone in his pocket; but would just be more surface area to get knocked into things.

Personally, I work at a desk all day; so outside of a few phone calls a month, I probably don’t even need a phone…

Tablet: TV in my camper van. But it wasn’t expensive. I spent $120 on it new.

Watch: Companion to the phone. Does strava things beyond just riding a bike.

Because they’re different than a laptop, desktop, phone, with different capabilities and limitations.

Why are you using Lemmy when reddit works better?

(By “better”, I’m sure someone could make arguments why reddit works better for them, that would make as much sense as OP’s opinion on “better” regarding these devices).

Or more simply, your opinion is just that - your opinion.

Tablet - if you don’t need laptop power, but still would like to use some laptop like features (keyboard+mouse, Dex/desktop mode etc), or simply enjoying a bigger screen.

Watch - There are SOOO many different watches out there nowadays, with SOOO many different purposses. Some are really nothing like Samsung’s , Apple’s or Google’s “tracking devices”.

I got myself a somewhat pricey Garmin because i want to get more in shape (i have cardiac arrythmia, having troubles sleeping, depression and some bad health things happened in my family lately). Do i get tracked (assuming you mean the data farming thingies…)? Probably, a bit at least. But having a tool with many, many build-in tools that helps me get in shape and gives me some insights, has pretty much ‘unlimited’ battery life (solar version) and has some features that are just ‘handy/fun’ to have? I’d give up a little of my ‘personal info’ for that.

And, with many optional features, open-source apps and OS’s, devices don’t always are ‘tracking devices’. Put in a little effort and things can be pretty sweet!

Tablets have bigger screen. This is important for some people but start watchs are something that i don’t find useful

I asked the same question, until I found myself overweight and needing to start some sort of exercise practice, started walking, so got a cheaper level fitness tracker/watch, which is easier to refer to while engaged in activity than removing my phone from my pocket, it also is able to take readings directly from my body being pressed directly against it, so yeah, that’s why

It’s about what I would or could use it for that I wouldn’t use a phone for. I don’t want a giant phone. I don’t really enjoy watching videos/movies on a phone. For home control I don’t need anything but wifi and maybe Bluetooth and I’m not interested in paying smartphone prices for the privilege. Same thing for viewing weather or schedules at a glance. Having that functionality to check on a smart phone is fine. Useful. Having it on a tablet where I can glance at it while getting dressed is better. And the speakers are generally better with better battery life (more space for a bigger battery) on a tablet. If you don’t have the use case for a piece of tech, of course it doesn’t make sense.

I agree with you about watches. Tablets though, I disagree. I have several different tablets and they do different things in my workflow from my laptops or phones. My tablets can be an ebook reader, weather center, and video viewer. One of them, I read comic books on. They’re easier to use for those purposes than my laptop. I would need a second monitor to do those things, and I would need to switch it to tate mode for comic books and other ebooks to be comfortable for me to read. Plus, I couldn’t read easily in bed or somewhere like that even with the form factor of the smallest netbook in my collection.

less functionality than a smartphone

Tablet is just a bigger screen

A bigger screen is more functionality.

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)

Tablet is just a bigger screen…

And this is why I got a tablet, I needed more space in my screen 🤷‍♂️

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 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)