Best fitness watch/tracker under ₹25k? Garmin ecosystem vs Amazfit/Huawei/COROS/Suunto trade-offs
I'm looking for a fitness watch (or even a fitness tracker if it's genuinely better) with a budget of around ₹10k–25k.
My priorities are:
Accurate sleep tracking
Accurate heart rate and HRV
Recovery metrics
Training readiness
Long-term fitness insights
Good battery life (7+ days preferred)
I mainly do strength training, calisthenics, and occasional running. I'm not training for marathons or triathlons, so I care more about overall health, recovery, and daily fitness than advanced race metrics.
I've been considering:
Garmin Forerunner 165 (or stretching to 265 if it's really worth it)
Amazfit Balance 2
Amazfit Active Max / Active 2
Huawei GT series
COROS
Suunto
From what I've researched:
Garmin seems to have the best ecosystem with features like Body Battery, Training Readiness, Recovery Time, Training Load, and detailed analytics.
Amazfit seems to offer much better value with body composition, offline maps, AI features, and similar core health metrics, but I'm unsure how good its ecosystem and insights are compared to Garmin.
COROS and Suunto also seem to have strong fitness ecosystems, but I don't know how they compare for someone who isn't an endurance athlete.
Huawei appears to have excellent sensor accuracy, especially for sleep and heart rate, but its training ecosystem seems more limited.
A few specific questions:
Is Garmin's ecosystem actually a game changer, or is it something that only serious runners/endurance athletes really benefit from?
How close are Amazfit's Readiness, Recovery Time, and Training Load to Garmin's Body Battery and Training Readiness in real-world use?
If you were mainly focused on gym, calisthenics, recovery, and sleep, which ecosystem would you choose?
Is there another watch or even a fitness band/strap in this budget that I should be considering instead?
I'd especially appreciate responses from people who have owned more than one of these brands and can compare them based on actual experience rather than spec sheets.