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I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
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In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
…waiting for swim test :)
Me too
Hi ray. Can u also re view the huawei watch gt 2.. Heard a lot about the device. Not sure if it is any good..
It would be great, is very similar to watch active 2 and we have to decide wich one to buy
Please I’m witing for swim pool review ! :-) How many days the battery life ?
These blips for mini-impressions are awesome – you should do them every time. You’re so experienced in tracker-evaluation you can pin down 8x’s the things a normal human could (over a week) within a 5 minute time frame, and quickly throw it out there – thanks so much!
I have to buy a new smartwatch after selling my Vivoactive HR.
I will use the smartwatch for pool swimming and running, so I would like a good tracking, good battery life and HR accuracy (even under water).
The additional fucnctions for daily use, are welcome.
My favorites are :
– Garmin Vivoactive 4
– Garmin Venu
– Huwaei watch GT2 (more functions than Garmin and cheaper, also phone call with watch)
– Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 (no information about battery life and sensor accuracy)
Can you help me ?
If u r serious in fitness then better go with a fitness brand watch..
You mean Garmin ?
I’m 45 and I do two workouts a week for swimming (about 3.000 mt for each workout) and few run workout (only for fitness, not for triathlon)
Some races (3 or 4) during the year.
Bummer. I was considering moving from a Vivoactive 3 to the Galaxy Active 2. HR accuracy is my first priority. But, I appreciate a great screen and great touch response or all buttons. Now I’m hoping the Garmin Venu is the answer.
You did all that in 20 minutes? I feel like such a slacker! My Fenix 3 is feeling dated, but I don’t see anything out there worth the upgrade. The galaxy watch doesn’t play nicely in the data-sharing sandbox (this is disappointing because I have a galaxy phone). The Venu has a better screen for reading data, but doesn’t read my power meter. I’m figuring that venu screen is going to be incorporated into the next Fenix or forerunner series and I should wait.
Garmin will also get me to upgrade with wireless charging.
Best, Jeff
Guy riding the bike with an umbrella has some commuting skills!
@Mark: Watched just to see ☔️ ??♂️ ! Mad skills!
You Guys don‘t live in Europe, do you? ?
Might sound like an odd question, but can you confirm the HR readings are working ok after showering with watch on?
I purchased the 1st Galaxy Active when it came out and I was annoyed that every time I showered, it showed 170+ readings for 5 – 10 minutes, even after shower, I would take it off, unlock the “water mode” and it would still do crazy readings… (I’ve read more ppl had this problem too)
I’m thinking about buying this one but wondering about this bug.
As always, thanks for the quick insights.
I would like to see if it can pair to a external Bluetooth HR sensor on iOS platform and also to see if it supports any other 3rd party fitness apps other than Endomondo and Record.
Thanks.
I am throwing my galaxy watch away. I used the Strava app, the health app, and mapmyrun ap, and they all are horrible. Only the strava app will transfer well to TrainingPeaks and Strava, the other two leave out almost all the data with just dots all over the workout.
Strava ap is horrible, constantly crashes, and if anything happens during the run like a phone call or text message it starts all over again. Last weekend it did this to me half way through a 5k, and then it posted I ran 3.1 miles at a 3:50 pace!
Hi guys,
Just bought couple of days ago the nez active 2 watch… The GPS built in sells not working; I already double checked and enabled all géolocalisation on my mobile and watch but still when I go with my bike doesn’t follow me; I can go for like 3 km and still it will say I went for 0km not average speed! Why is that? So expensive to have just a toy… Thanks in advance
I was willing to upgrade my galaxy watch active 1 to the new iteration if Samsung improved on the GPS. Accuracy and shorter interval is what I am looking for. From what I gather from the article I shouldn’t bother? Or do you think they did improve the sensor?
Looking for swimming laps review
Optical HR just isn’t going to accurate underwater, especially on such a loose place as your wrist. Your best bet is a chest strap, but they do not go well with swimming.
It doesn’t make sense. Currently, Active 2 is facing growing controversy in South Korea over its Gps. Controversy is growing over the problem of poor positioning with gps, the difference in speed, and the location path is very inaccurate. Samsung said it appears to be aware of the problem and is scheduled to make an update, but there is no fixed amount of information on how far it knows and when the update will go.
I got an Active 2 last week, couldn’t get the GPS working most of the time though (just once actually).
Before a run the GPS icon just blinked away (signaling it didn’t have a lock I assume…). I started the tracking anyway, thinking the GPS would pick up during the run, alas that didn’t happen and no GPS data at all was logged (I tried this on 4-5 different occaisons, GPS data was logged only once).
Not sure if it was a defective unit or just really bad GPS tracking on Samsungs part…
Will be getting my replacement unit tonight, see if that’ll do better…
Hey there,
I understand your disappointment! Don’t bother to change it, I already did, the problem persists!
The only thing that seems to work is to restart the watch… Really annoying and unprofessional!
Great review, thank you. How would you compare this watch to the Garmin Venu? I’m trying to decide between the two models and any insights would be appreciated.
hi. galaxy active 2 work with polar oh1?
would be nice to see a comparison to the Garmin Vivoactive 4 as both are new watches……
Hi Ray, thanks for great review. Any chance you would review link to powerwatch.com. It has interesting claim that it never needs charging…
Hey there,
I understand your disappointment! Don’t bother to change it, I already did, the problem persists!
The only thing that seems to work is to restart the watch… Really annoying and unprofessional!
Hi Ray, would you say its better at tracking than the Galaxy Watch 46mm, that in my opinion is truly shocking at tracking HR during workouts. Flat-lines on every workout I’ve ever done in 13 months, only fix is a reboot which isn’t great mid workout.
I spoke to some devs a few weeks back via the Samsung EU forum, they told me that calorie burn on the Galaxy has nothing to do with effort or HR intensity, its calculated by whichever workout you choose on the watch! So basically a 60 minute lunchtime stroll burns the same calories as an hours circuit training sweating my nuts off. to test it I set my workout to swim while doing the usual hour circuit training (300cals), on swim the same workout registered 760 calories burnt.
Likewise, they also told me that resting heart rate is now measured (since OneUI) by you lowest HR reading during waking hours, I had queried why my RHR had gone down to 48 daily, before OneUI it was an average of 59/60.
Im about to ditch it for the Garmin Venu, hoping that tracks fitness/health much better, it cant do any worse.
Anyway hoping the Active 2 workos out better for all those on board with it..
Hello..
I was wondering if I can pair a Bluetooth speed/cadence sensor on this watch for indoor cycling or outdoor cycling.
thanks
Nel
I’ve read several comments in various forums that GWA2 doesn’t use the heart rate sensor to calculate calories burned. Instead it’s just an estimate based on age, weight, height, bmi and the type of workout. If this is true it sucks big time as it renders the HR function kinda useless imo. Brands like Garmin deploys the HR sensors to calculate calories burned. This would give more accurate results based on what I’ve read. Thoughts on this?
I also see that Samsung doesn’t license any of the FirstBeat features like for instance Garmin and even Huawei does.
link to firstbeat.com
link to firstbeat.com
Bjørn Are Østerlie – That is exactly what is happening and the same reason I am here looking at Garmin Venu. I’ve tried for over a year to make the GW work for me in regards to fitness tracking but it simply isn’t up to the job in my opinion, none of it not just calories, but HR is woeful, sleep is neither here or there & stair count has some random calculation.
I stuck eith it as I thought Samsung may fix it but after speaking to the devs (eu) it appears they thinks its fine. Real shame as its a beauty of a watch, looks nice, lovely screen and great smartwatch features, just dreadful fitness.
Hoping the Venu can fill the gap for me..
With the Samsung watches, the most useful “app” has been Sporty Watch link to qooapps.com
It enables external heart rate sensors and is overwhelmingly over packed in a convenient solution as a watch face.
It worked with gear s3 and galaxy watch – does it work with the galaxy active 2?
without this watch face I would not have bought the Samsung watch, even the native strava app is quite useless compared to this watch face , which can also automatically sync with strava.
I wish Samsung would just add support for connecting to a bluetooth heart rate monitor via the settings, and then any app that requests heart rate would get it from the hrm strap if it’s currently connected. Seems like such a basic thing for a sports watch.
There is a high accuracy mode hidden in the settings for activities in samsung health on the watch. Have you tried turning this on to see what effect it has? Also curious if it effects other apps such as endomondo/mapmyrun in any way.
Aleksander H, the problem in my humble opinion is not hardware related but software, specifically Samsung Health and the algorithms. During my testing I installed UnderArmour Record and did the same workouts over a week using that. The HR tracked every single minute of it and calories burnt was way higher, the same with Gear Tracker app which actually restarts the sensor when it fails (19 times in 60 minutes).
I fed all this back to Samsung with logs but they don’t really want to know to be honest, from what I read the same thing is happening with the Active2 now, HR marginally improved but overall poor fitness tracking compared to Garmin, Polar & even Apple.
I hoe they do sort it one day, but to do that they have to admit they have got it wrong which they wont so only time will tell.
Hey, love your product and they have helped me a great deal. Do you plan on doing an in depth review of the Galaxy Active 2? Just bought 1 after returning a Suunto 5 because of the dim screen and navigation. I’m having some issues with using Strava on the Active 2 and was hoping for your guidance. Is there a way to load Strava routes on the watch. That was one thing I liked with the Suunto 5 because I could explore some routes I hadn’t previously tried.
Thanks again,
William Hill
I’m in the process of sending mine back first week the GPS worked and it tracked my activity then for 2 weeks it would no longer lock on to GPS at all during my walks/runs. I searched for solution, one was not to take my phone on runs and switch Bluetooth off and have GPS only instead of GPS/WiFi.
Again it worked for a few days and has now stopped working again for 4 days.
I’m at the end of my time to test the watch 30 day free return so it has to go back.
I don’t have the patience to talk this through with tech and it could just be a loose connection in the watch. Such a pity you cannot test location outside of the health apps.
I feel your pain, Samsung UK exchanged my GW 3 times in 3 months, then finally told me it’s not the watch at fault but they way I wear it…
Hoping to move to the Venu if they ever decide to release it here
Hello, Is this watch have some navigation functions. For example: Garmin Fenix could navigate you on per-defined track or back to start. Can you do, similar stuff on Active2?
Just a quick question about the active 2. Can the watch be used with strava and spotify at the same time for riding with out taking my phone alone? As long as I am willing to upload at home?
So, looks like the latest firmware release fixes majority of GPS issues and changes calories burned off of actual heart rate instead of pre-determined numbers. Sounds like a big step in right direction for this watch. Watched a couple fo YouTube videos on improved GPS accuracy and seems to be fairly spot on now. Any updates???
Hi, I’m considering this watch for day to day use, and running. Concerned about the running apps available though…I don’t need advanced functionalities really, but manual lap is a must, so are lap related metrics (speed, distance, avg speed, heart rate, avg heart rate). Does Endomondo, or another app, provide that ?
Thanks a lot.
Hello, there is an app what makes your watch like a Sport Watch. Is a little bit expencive but it is very customizable. Also you can connect any external Bluetooth device like HR or Footpod that give you very accurate results.
App:Gear Tracker.
Hey
Can you please do a full review of the GWA2 44mm LTE ?
Pair with cest strap HR
I appreciate your reviews. I’m older and can’t run anymore, but I do work out. My Garmin 235 just died, and I’m looking for a good compromise between an accurate fitness watch and a good smart watch.
this app sucks. It pauses all by itself. An app should stop or pause when you hit the button not on its own
Never did do a full review.
Never got any better or different than my initial look.
Does the Samsung active watches come with monitoring oxygen levels?