Why I chose this copycat smartwatch to replace my Apple Watch

Imagine you're about to go on a three-day hike in the wilderness with two nights under the sky, or in a small hut somewhere in the mountains. You would like to track your hike, elevation, and body vitals, right? Trouble is, when I did this back in September, my Apple Watch died on the first day, and it quickly became a useless lump of glass and metal that I needed to carry around.

If you want to take the Apple Watch (even the Ultra) into the wilderness, you better bring a battery pack with you. This other mysterious smartwatch I chose in the end was able to survive a three day mountain hike with GPS tracking AND sleep tracking without breaking a sweat.

It's the battery. I can't believe to this day that Apple still thinks 18 hours is enough. In what universe? Another super annoying thing is sleep tracking. The Apple Watch 8 just can't do a whole 24-hour cycle in order to fall into the habitual "once-per-day" charging pattern. Since I switched to the other watch, my sleep tracking patterns got much more consistent. Prior to that, I often missed nights because of ending up sleeping someplace else (and not carrying the charger at all times). The Apple Watch would die in the middle of the night.

The important things in life

Smartwatches are useless (go read the article and try to change my mind). Well, for the most part. I tried to warm up to wearing one and tried using all the features, but after the honeymoon period, I often end up checking notifications, paying at POS terminals, and tracking health and fitness stats.

I'm not saying the Apple Watch stinks at those, not at all. I honestly think the new smartwatch (that I will reveal soon enough) does a better job. With the Apple Watch and the Health app, I always feel like things are oversimplified and too complex at the same time. Let me explain.

If you want to track your daily activities, you have the rings. You set a goal, and you close the respective ring every day if you reach that goal. This is the simple part. Where it gets complex is if you want to delve deeper into stats. They are all inside different menus in the health app, or somewhere down the endless stats under the "All health data" tab.

The genius thing this new watch is able to do (that in my opinion beats the Apple Watch) is give you a quick health checkup via a simple tap. It measures your current heart rate, blood oxygen, and stress level to give you a snapshot of your current situation.

So, I have an Android phone…

This one's obvious; I just had to switch away from the Apple Watch 8 because it just doesn't work on Android. I know it's the oldest complaint in the world, but this other watch works both on iOS and Android, and if there's one thing I absolutely hate, it's a closed ecosystem. I'm fine with some exclusive features being locked away or just not available, but using a smartwatch with just one brand is outrageous, especially if you have and use two platforms (Android and iOS) often.

I guarantee that if the Apple Watch was Android compatible, half of my Android friends would buy one in a blink of an eye. But that's just another topic for another time.

Why pay more?

There's one single answer to 90% of the questions in life. Money. We can't disregard it. Even the most basic Apple Watch SE costs $250, and the Apple Watch 8 I was using prior to the switch launched at $399. The competitor I'm talking about costs around $150, which is pocket money for all the features it offers.

I get that the Apple Watch 8 is much smarter and can do more things than the contender I ended up with, but I think most people out there use 10% of all these features. At the end of the day, it all boils down to notifications, health and fitness tracking, and contactless payment. Maybe a reminder or two, an alarm, or a timer. Basic stuff.

The smartwatch that replaced the Apple Watch 8 for me

Now for the big reveal. The smartwatch that replaced my Apple Watch 8 is… the Honor Watch 5! And the most controversial thing of them all is that it actually looks like an Apple Watch. In this particular case, I don't mind it. Who wouldn't want an Apple Watch able to last 15 days on a single charge, doing all the stuff you normally do anyway, and also being able to connect to ANY phone out there?

I know this kind of turned out to be a major Apple rant, but the point is, if a "copycat" does the things you need better than the original, is it so despicable to get that one instead of the "real thing?" In the current smartwatch climate, with prices skyrocketing, innovation being stretched over many generations, and tighter and tighter ecosystems, I'm taking the pragmatic solution. And I'm not ashamed.