Best watch/Strava app use Question

Hi all,

Ive read a bunch of posts on this topic but the most recent is a year old so figured I'd ask for up to date recommendations.

New Strava user here. I ended a super active year with no real data or tracking logged. I sometimes use onX to track long days hikes but never for the usual fitness/after work type stuff. Looking to have a better idea of what I accomplish this year. I do not plan to upgrade to a paid Strava account; is this a mistake?

The primary activities I am looking to track are: hiking, running, weight lifting, rock climbing, stationary bike. I understand alot of these are going to require manual entries, so I am looking for a device that will sync those activities with Strava the simplest.

I have a pretty low-tech Android (Motorola) phone and plan to keep it that way. My criteria is pretty basic: heart rate monitoring, GPS capabilities, and that's about it. I'm not sure if there's any sort of auto-detection sort of feature just in case I forget to activate, but that would be cool because I often likely will.

I am open to recommendations for useful Strava features I am unaware of. The simpler the better but I'm interested in cool data.

Thanks in advance!

TLDR: best basic watch/best useful Strava features?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

u/drivingmajor 16h ago

A Low level garmin should suffice for all those activities ; circa £200. Only manual entry from that list would be stationary bike.

1

u/djferris123 16h ago

If OP is in the UK then I'd recommend looking online or at something like CEX for a used model as they're fairly reasonably priced. A used 255 is about £180

1

u/fartstinkin 14h ago edited 13h ago

Located in the USA but will see if I can find anything like that. Thanks for recommendation.

1

u/fartstinkin 13h ago

Any model recommendation?

1

u/drivingmajor 12h ago

Venu 2 is pretty good all round for the money. Should be low 200 $'s

1

u/naive_alien 8h ago

Forerunner 245 and similar of 2xx are reliable entry models.