Who bought a Wahoo Rival - Experience sharing!

Equipment
1

I guess the topic says it all. Share your experience.
What do you like?
What do you dislike?
How is the activity tracking?
24/7 HR tracking useful?
How do you like it for running/trail running/other sports?

2

I don’t have one, and it’s feature list has almost nothing that I want in a watch.

If by ‘Activity Tracking’ you mean ‘steps, stairs, etc.’ it doesn’t do that.

It also doesn’t do 24/7 HR tracking

3

I’m late to the party and I am aware that the Rival is EOL as a platform. But Wahoo had a clearance sale over Christmas and New Year where they offered the Rival for 99 €. I knew what I was getting into: Wahoo had axed its sports watch efforts and I should not expect any further updates.

Still, I went ahead, because we are saving up for another move and I didn’t want to spend €€€ for an Apple Watch. I bought the Rival for sleep tracking and workout tracking in the gym.

Here are my impressions after about a month with it:

  • @dcrainmaker nailed it when he said that the Rival feels as if a bike computer and a Casio G-Shock had a baby, the watch screen has tacked onto cycling computer.
  • The button layout really reminds me of those 1990s digital watches. Despite having worked out quite a few times with the Rival, I often still hit the Lap Button instead of ending a workout.
  • When I move my wrist to check the time, the backlight doesn’t automatically turn on. During the day, I can still read the time, but when it is dark, no dice. Maybe Apple has plenty of patents here, but I would really like that functionality.
  • Apart from that, it offers enough functionality for a sports watch. Would I want apps? Yes. But then I’d have to go for an Apple Watch.
  • I learned I vastly prefer wearing a watch over wearing a heart rate strap.
  • Integration with Wahoo head units is really nice, this way I always record heart rate data when commuting. And even if I forget my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt, I can still record my rides.
  • The heart rate monitor sometimes produces weird readings. I had two, three nights where my claimed heart rate was 17-19 bpm. I’m quite sure that if that were accurate, I’d be two-feet-under. Sometimes it cannot read my heart rate any longer, especially during strength workouts. Not great, but good enough for my purposes.
  • I really miss a weather widget on the watch screen. I’d use that daily: should I pack my rain coat today? How cold is it?
  • Sleep tracking works quite well, although it falls down a bit when I stay awake in bed.
  • Battery life is quite good. It easily lasts a week to a week-and-a-half. I usually charge my Rival every week and charge hasn’t dropped much below 20 %.

Overall, for 99 € I feel this was a steal. But the original 379 € was certainly not an appropriate price point. I reckon it will tide me over until I can afford an Apple Watch.

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