HR Sensors and Sleep Earbuds

If you’ve been following the channel for a minute, you know I’ve got a thing for data and gear that actually survives real-world use. This week, I put some new tech through the ringer—specifically, I wanted to see if you really need to spend top dollar for heart rate accuracy and if "sleep earbuds" are actually a thing or just marketing fluff.

Here is a quick breakdown of what I’ve been testing lately.

The Heart Rate Showdown: Gold Standard vs. The Budget Chaos Goblin

We all know the Polar H10 is the gold standard. It’s what I usually compare everything against. But I wanted to see how two other contenders stacked up: the Coospo ECG strap (which costs about a third of the Polar) and the Amazfit Helio Strap (a bicep-worn optical sensor).

I didn’t just do a casual walk around the block. I took these through:

Peloton rides

Brutal 1km running intervals (the kind that make you question your life choices)

Weightlifting sessions

Elliptical warm-ups

The results for the Coospo were... well, let’s just say it earned the nickname "Budget Chaos Goblin" for a reason. And the Helio strap? It’s probably the most interesting piece of gear in the Amazfit lineup right now, especially if you’re tired of the chest strap "friction" but still want solid data for your cardio.

I’ve got the full data traces and error graphs in the video. If you want to see exactly where the optical sensor started to struggle compared to the ECG straps, or if that budget Coospo is actually "good enough" for your training, check out the full comparison video here.

Can You Actually Sleep in These? (Fitnexa Somnipods 3)

I also spent some time with the Fitnexa Somnipods 3. If you’ve ever tried to sleep with regular earbuds, you know the struggle—they’re bulky, they poke your brain when you roll over, and they usually die by 3:00 AM.

The Somnipods are built specifically for side-sleepers. They’re crazy thin (9.9mm), and for me, the comfort was the real story here. I tested them for:

Battery Life: Did they actually make it through the night?

ANC Performance: Can they handle a "chainsaw powered by hate" (a.k.a. a snoring spouse)?

The App: There's some "data goblin" stuff in there for sleep coaching and ambient sounds.

One thing to keep in mind: these aren't for a midnight Metallica concert. They’re built for a specific job. If you’ve been looking for a way to drown out the world without waking up with sore ears, these might be the answer. For the full breakdown on the call quality (rated by my wife) and the one "stupid phone" trick I had to use to get the volume right, watch the Somnipods 3 review here.

That’s the high-level view. I’m putting the finishing touches on some more tactical gear reviews soon, so stay tuned.

Reviews and How I do Things...

 I'll review almost any tech product that reasonably fits into my life, that includes flashlights, wearables, knives, etc. That said, if there are issues, my review is going to outline those. And if I encounter enough issues to where the item isn't reviewable/useful, I won't even bother publishing a review. I know this may be frustrating to some companies that are just looking for a fluff unbox/feature reading, but I don't do that. 

I remember getting a smartwatch that had a ton of problems, completely useless HR sensor, etc. I emailed them back with the problems I found, and they just said, "focus on these features for your video!" So I told them, somewhat nicely, to F off.

My review style has probably turned off some companies, but I won't partner with or advocate for products or companies that are problematic. If anything, it has probably also cost me some money.

To give you some idea, I make the vast majority of the channel's budget on Amazon through their Influencer program. And a lot of that comes from smart watches. I picked up the Kospet Tank M4 thinking that it would be a solid watch at the offered price, and would make for a fun review. Their previous T3 ultra 2 was pretty solid for the cash. The M4, however, was a buggy mess. Hardware was solid and very durable, but there were SO many software problems...

I didn't even bother putting up an Amazon Influencer video on it. And legitimately I probably threw away hundreds of dollars doing that. I realize that "hundreds of dollars" isn't much for most people, but that is enough for me to pick up some other item to review, or some other production necessity for the channel. (Lights, cameras, teleprompters, etc., ain't cheap!)

So, yeah, ethics, what a thing. I either won't even bother reviewing something or I'll do a negative review, depending on my schedule and feelings. I just got a set of earbuds for review and in the first few days the right earbud quit working. Even before that, the sound was pretty mediocre, the support app was too bare bones (no eq, no control customization, no advanced sound codecs) and there wasn't a lot to recommend them over other earbuds. Also, when putting them back in the case they didn't disconnect, and sometimes would keep playing in the friggin' case. These were Nearity Mempod Fit 2s in case you're wondering. Also, if you're wondering, my current general recommendation for open style buds is the Soundpeats Clip 1s, those things have a lot of depth/bass for open buds, but still have decent separation in the higher frequencies, stay put nicely when working out, and have tons of customization/controls/eq/etc. 

So... rest assured that if you see one of my reviews, it's gonna tell the truth. One of these days I'm going to compile the "best smartwatches at all price points" video, that is probably going to be January. I don't have enough data compiled for buds or headphones, but the ones that I've reviewed, I have faves, and I have ones that I would tell you to not spend money on.

Low Cost Smartwatch Review

 A friend just did this incredibly detailed review of the FT66:

https://smartwatchcentral.co.uk/reviews/ft66/

Updated B8 style targets

 If you use bullseyes for any drills, here are several variants that may help you out:

🎯 Target for this drill with black 9 and 10 ring: https://bit.ly/4jXLlBH 🎯 Target for this drill with a red X ring: http://bit.ly/4myiYeN 🎯 Target for this drill (printer ink friendly): https://bit.ly/3YWdy3J

All of them were generated for The Devil's Drill, but any drill using B8 style targetry is doable with these.

Sig P320: The houseguest that wouldn't leave....

 Up until very recently I never really bothered telling my chain of command about the Sig P320. I honestly thought that all of the member agencies I work with would organically go away from that platform as the problems kept cropping up. I really thought that. I'm naive, obviously.

My leaving my chain of command out of it changed last week. Two things contributed. Firstly, the death of the Airforce Servicemember, and two, the fact that it was becoming abundantly clear that those two member agencies that were using the P320 were going to keep on going.

I understand some agencies' reticence to switch guns. Usually things like that are almost totally driven by budget, and if you're a smaller agency, especially, new guns, holsters, and training is not a cheap endeavor. So any agency looking at this is going to have to balance risk vs. cost. And I know that if you're reading this as an individual and have never dealt with agency level purchasing, this seems nuts to you.

If you've ever seen Fight Club, remember the scene where they are talking about initiating a car recall?

"A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."

While that probably isn't factually correct, the sentiment is real. And not just on Sig's part, but also on any given agency dealing with a potential safety issue. When looked at from a very myopic lens, no gun is "safe," so how can a P320 be even less safe? (This is not my professional opinion, please don't read into that.)

So now I'm on a campaign in my professional career to make that stupid P320 go away. The streams have crossed and now I'm not just a part time hater.

Sig, I do believe, is screwed when it comes to the P320 specifically, and their reputation generally. They've denied problems for so long and so hard that now they don't have any trustworthiness or credibility. They'd be best served by making the P320 go completely away. Forgotten Weapons opined that it might be in their best interest to continue to "upsize" the P365 to the scale of a duty weapon and just start selling that instead. I said similar things to a rangemaster of an agency that was fielding P320s several years ago, and he felt similarly.

And now for an opinion that has no basis in fact but is pure conjecture... If Sig had put a trigger safety on the P320 and a plunger style firing pin block, this discussion wouldn't have ever happened. Their wanting to differentiate themselves in the marketplace by not putting a trigger safety on the gun was foolish. Every other striker fired gun out there that I'm aware of uses some sort of inertial disconnect/trigger safety paradigm. (AKA the "trigger dingus.") And the firing pin safety system that Sig is currently using is so very delicate and fiddley that I can't take it seriously. If it were that good, they would've used it on the P365, but news flash, they didn't.

It is entirely possible that the sear could stand some redesign as well, but that's beyond my smarts by a significant degree, so I won't bother with an opinion there.

Anyway, the P320... it is like a dead fish left under somebody's car seat. The car's stinking and the smell is still here.

 Happy 4th! Solid news, my app is live on the Google Play Store, so you don't have to be a tester to use it. I'm also hard at work creating a live fire timer app, and that is proving to be harder, but not impossible, so don't give up hope. I'm not a programmer by nature, just a shooter and goofball for sure. Some of the more recent videos I've done that you may be interested in:

Nitecore compact weapon light review.

Nitecore EDC29 flat flashlight.

Kore Essentials EDC Belt.

Stay tuned for other developments, and I appreciate your support!

Dry Fire App is LIVE!

Special thanks to all of you who volunteered to test out the app. There were no issues in testing and it is now officially live on the Google Play Store. It is free to use, there are no ads, and no permissions required to use it. You can download it here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.academy.shottimerapp

And if you want any ideas on how to use it, I did a video a long time ago on dry fire practice:

https://youtu.be/XbsSQ9_ZJwA

I may do another updated video sometime in the future if there is any demand. For some reason, dry fire isn't as sexy as other firearms related endeavors, and so the views on videos like this are always less than others. In general the vids I do on shooting drills don't get crazy views either, but I still like doing them. I didn't start doing YouTube to become viral or famous, so I'm not too concerned. If I help out a few people, I'll be happy.

Lastly, I'm trying to do a real deal shot timer version of this app. Most other apps I've tried out that claim to be shot timers really suck. Overcoming the limitations of the phone hardware is a real thing, and the earlier version I tried was ghosting shots all over the place. (i.e. shoot once but get more than one shot registering.) 

If you have any questions or feedback, as always, email me: info@graydogllc.com