Smartwatches are now extremely versatile and powerful tools, with the very best options able to track exercise, monitor advanced health metrics, and provide a handy second screen to a smartphone.
The best smartwatch right now is the Apple Watch Series 10, but it’s not the top option for everyone. Android users should look to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 right now, or the Galaxy Watch Ultra. And the Pixel Watch 3 is currently being tested.
We’ve thoroughly tested and reviewed every major smartwatch on the market here at Wareable, and our reviews are known as the most stringent around. Read on for our hand-picked best smartwatches.
How we ranked these smartwatches
Trying to rank the top smartwatches is a complex task; no two devices are the same, nor are the people using them. With this in mind, we use our expertise to provide our opinion on the watches that fit the categories listed in the quick summary below.
Ultimately, this buyer’s guide is an extension of our full, in-depth reviews, which see us test a device over several weeks – and, often, longer. During this time, we rigorously analyze the design, features, health monitoring, activity tracking, and, of course, the claims made by the manufacturer.
Apple Watch Series 10
Best overall smartwatch (iOS only)
The Apple Watch Series 10 is the best smartwatch to own – but it only works with iPhone.
It’s also a more substantial update than we’ve had in the previous couple of generations, with Apple delivering a pair of thinner and lighter smartwatches that are also bigger and boasting more edge-to-edge displays that are brighter than ever when viewed at an angle.
Aluminum remains the core case material for the Series 10, but Apple has changed the premium material available for those who wish to upgrade – titanium and carbon neutral (like the Apple Watch Ultra 2) instead of stainless steel. It’s a change we really rate after testing.
Other minor changes include an upgraded speaker, allowing out-loud audio from more than just phone calls, a depth gauge and water temperature sensor, a rebadged S10 chip, and ever-so-slightly quicker charging.
- Apple Watch Series 9 vs. Apple Watch Series 10
They’re all welcome additions, but the real meat – as ever – is what Apple has built up through previous generations; features such as Double Tap gestures, Low Power Mode battery control, ECG readings for serious health screening, a temperature sensor for detailed cycle tracking, and a bustling app store full of third-party downloads.
Combined with the watchOS 11 update, which adds sleep apnea detection, the Vitals app, and more advanced insights into training, it’s by far the most comprehensive smartwatch experience on the market.
However, single-day battery life continues to be the major Achilles heel of the Apple Watch Series models, and problematic if you require a smartwatch that can withstand heavy use.
We’re also not sure the bump in overall size – with the case sizes now 42mm/46mm, up from 41mm/45mm – will be to everyone’s taste, particularly those with smaller wrists.
- Read our Apple Watch Series 10 review
Pros
-
Easier to use -
Lovely finishes -
Sleep apnea detection
Cons
-
Battery life is still a day -
Huge display is a lot on the wrist
Google Pixel Watch 2
Best smartwatch for Android (Android only)
WARNING: The Google Pixel Watch 3 is now official – so we don’t condone buying the last generation unless you get a seriously juicy price cut. However, we’re currently reviewing the Pixel Watch 3, so think of this as an informative placeholder. We’ve removed buying links.
The Pixel Watch 2 rights many of the wrongs present in the debut device released in 2022, and, as such, just about edges out TicWatch and Samsung’s offerings to become our top recommendation for Android users.
The battery life improvements are the big story here, with Google’s smartwatch now able to actually make it through a full 24-hour period without needing to be recharged. And while it’s still not exactly a long-lasting or consistent battery, it is now enough to get by with.
The Fitbit integration packed into the Pixel Watch 2 makes it a particularly strong tracker, leaving the suite of tracking apps offered by TicWatch/Samsung in its wake. It’s a big reason why we can look past the average battery life.
It also uses Qualcomm’s impressive Snapdragon W5+ chip, and this move allows for both improved battery efficiency and the new features available through Wear OS 4.
And the new multi-path heart rate monitor is a triumph, too, with our testing showing that the Pixel Watch 2 can hold its own against even Garmin’s best sensors. It’s supremely accurate, while rivals are simply OK at best.
The Pixel Watch 3 finally adds the 45mm case size we’ve been crying out for – but at a significant extra cost.
- Read our Google Pixel Watch 2 review
Pros
-
Battery life is improved -
Excellent HR tracking -
Design is still one of the best around
Cons
-
Battery still not perfect -
Still no larger case size option -
Many insights require Fitbit Premium
Xiaomi Watch 2
Best budget Android watch (Android only)
Xiaomi Watch 2 key features
- Single-day battery life
- Wear OS 3.5
- HR, stress, sleep, and blood oxygen tracking
- Android only
If the $399/£349 Pixel Watch is beyond your budget, then the Xiaomi Watch 2 is the answer to your prayers. Wear OS has been devoid of budget options for years – but this one truly delivers.
The build quality and display are superb for a cheaper smartwatch, and Wear OS 3.5 (not the latest 4.0) was much slicker than we found when testing the pricier Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro.
As you would expect at this price, there are compromises – battery life is limited to a single day and there’s no room for features like LTE. Fitness and sports tracking was decent, too, but still not up to the standard of Fitbit on the Pixel Watch 2.
Yet, you simply can’t access the wealth of apps and features of Wear OS for less than this – and the Xiaomi Watch 2 offers a mix of usability and build quality we’d thought was impossible at this price point.
- Read our full Xiaomi Watch 2 review
Pros
-
Superb price tag -
Light and attractive design -
HR accuracy is very solid
Cons
-
Battery life is very average -
Mi Fitness is a glitch-fest -
Doesn’t run Wear OS 4
Samsung Galaxy Watch 7
Best Android smartwatch (Android only)
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is probably one of the most incremental smartwatch updates of all time – so feel free to grab a Galaxy Watch 6 on a deal.
But it’s a crowdpleaser. Available in 40mm and 44mm sizes it’s good on male and female wrists alike, and while hardly a fashion accessory, we do think that the Watch 7 looks significantly nicer in the flesh.
It runs Wear OS 5 so you have all the latest apps, and it packs in serious health and fitness features. You have dual-band GPS for tracking runs, ECG, and you can track blood pressure if you calibrate it with a cuff. Samsung Health is a decent place to track your wellness, and has vastly improved with the new sleep tracking/coaching and Energy Score – which we’ve found intuitive and accurate.
Battery life is a sticking point, and we found that Samsung’s 30 hours of battery life (with always-on display) rings true. That means you’ll need to charge as soon as you wake up, if you use it to track sleep. If you want longer battery, you’ll need to look at the Galaxy Watch Ultra or something like the OnePlus Watch 2.
- Read our Samsung Galaxy Watch 7
Pros
-
Feature-packed software -
Much-improved sports tracking -
Some useful new health and wellness insights
Cons
-
The battery performance hasn't improved -
Some features require a Samsung smartphone -
No major design changes
Huawei Watch Fit 3
Best for battery life (iOS/Android)
The Huawei Watch Fit 3 (left) is a great budget smartwatch – and you can bag it for just £135/$135.
Yes, it’s a massive clones of the Apple Watch – but it gets so much right. It’s so thin and light to wear and truly unisex. There’s a range of strap options, but we don’t know why people would look beyond the nylon option, which we tried in our review time (above).
The Huawei Watch Fit 3 offers generally good health and sports tracking, offering a broad spectrum of metrics and accurate data, from heart rate to GPS distance. It passed all our tests, and punches well above its price tag.
Running is well handled, and Huawei has added Strava integration.
Sleep tracking is also fairly solid, and while we did find it wasn’t the most sensitive to grace our testing lab, it’s consistent and helpful enough to get value from. Again, great for this price.
Where it falls short of Apple and Wear OS is the lack of a robust ecosystem, especially for apps and payments.
But the tradeoff is much-improved battery life. If you want to get 14 days you will need to forego features like the always-on display – but you should get a week with all the bells and whistles turned on.
- Read our full Huawei Watch Fit 3 review
Pros
-
Good workout tracking -
Lovely price -
Slim and light
Cons
-
Sleep tracking accuracy could be better -
Basic watch faces and UI design -
Lack of apps/services
Apple Watch Ultra 2
Best sporty smartwatch (iOS only)
We loved the original Apple Watch Ultra – and the second-gen makes gentle refinements to the overall proposition, including a boost in screen brightness, and a carbon-neutral design. We didn’t get an Apple Watch Ultra 3 in 2024, as rumored, though Apple has now added a black case option to the titanium finish shown above.
The 49mm Ultra is bold, full of attitude, and aimed at weekend warriors who want a superior Apple Watch to everyone else. It’s tough and suitable for diving and watersports, and runners will love the multi-band GPS, which aced our marathon testing.
The thing we love most is the 2-3 days of battery life, which finally means an end to the battery anxiety of the Series models. Going back to a Series 10 after spending like with the Ultra 2 is really tough – this is the peak Apple experience.
You’ll probably need to hunt down some third-party apps to truly reach the ceiling of this experience, though, given that the native software needs some work, with mapping, navigation, and performance analysis undercooked compared to Garmin.
Still, it achieves the aim of being an Apple Watch on steroids – especially with that added battery life.
- Read our full Apple Watch Ultra 2 review
Pros
-
Great screen -
Supreme GPS accuracy -
Gestures are cool AF -
Carbon neutral
Cons
-
Wellness feels a tad stale -
Short on prosumer metrics -
New carbon neutral bands slightly dull
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
Wear OS has been deprived of a truly rugged, outdoors smartwatch offering – until now.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra apes the Apple Watch Ultra to a ludicrous degree, but it adds something premium for Android users.
The case size is huge and rules out smaller wrists, but offers dual-band GPS, all the health tech bells and whistles, 100ATM water resistance, and some proper sports tracking features such as FTP, and the ability to chain together different workouts.
Battery life is between two and three days, but we did find the drain inexplicably inconsistent, so it’s hard to get a feel for how much you’ll get.
Providing you can come to terms with the size, clunky navigation and mildly inconsistent battery life, this is a great upgrade on the typical smartwatch experience.
- Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review
Pros
-
Solid build and fun design -
Excellent HR and GPS tracking -
Cracking display -
Sleep tracking is very detailed
Cons
-
Insane rotating bezel miss -
Battery life feels inconsistent -
Samsung phone required for some features -
Looks ridiculous on smaller wrists
Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro
Best Android smartwatch for battery life (Android Only)
Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro may offer an innovative dual display and reliable tracking, but it’s the battery life that cements its place as one of the top smartwatches for Android users.
Thanks to the pioneering Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 and the overlaid, retro-styled LCD, you can achieve always-on power for far longer than you can from the current lot of Samsung and Google smartwatches.
Only really the OnePlus Watch 2 comes close to the Enduro (and the original TicWatch Pro 5, released last year) in terms of staying power, though we much prefer Mobvoi’s dual-screen approach for underpinning that battery efficiency.
The downside of this multi-day life is the hefty size required to house the 628mAh unit. The Enduro’s case dimensions come in at 50.15 x 48 x 11.95mm case, and this means it’s just not really a viable option – despite not being overly heavy – for those with smaller wrists.
The other major drawback of the Enduro is the software version. Despite Wear OS 5 being ready to debut this summer, this is a smartwatch still stuck on Wear OS 3.5. And with no word on whether the Enduro will make the leap to Wear OS 4 (let alone anything newer), there is an element of risk in picking up a Mobvoi smartwatch.
If you can make your peace with potentially spotty support in the future, and also don’t mind minor omissions like Google Assistant, we think the Enduro is a solid pick for those who want an alternative to the Wear OS big boys. But mostly because of that battery.
- Read our full TicWatch Pro 5 review
Pros
-
Dual-display remains excellent -
Reliable GPS and HR tracking -
Actual multi-day battery life, huzzah!
Cons
-
No smaller case size offered -
Only runs Wear OS 3.5 – why? -
Still no Google Assistant
Garmin Venu 3
Best for wellness (iOS and Android)
The Garmin Venu 3 is a big improvement over the Venu 2, with a slicker design and improved UI – as well as a more intuitive set of health features.
It’s still a jack-of-all-trades sporty smartwatch – so, while there are loads of sports profiles, none offer the level of data you might expect from a Garmin.
Running, for example, shows basic metrics on pace, distance, and heart rate only.
But the daily suite of wellness metrics, displayed via widgets, is much more complete. Body Battery (tracking energy levels), stress, steps, HRV Status, activity minutes, breathing rate, sleep, sleep coach, and more, are all on display.
These widgets offer real-time feedback, that makes them all feel more intuitive. And Body Battery, in particular, has been overhauled, and it can now be recharged through the day and offers more nuanced insight.
We found heart rate and GPS accuracy to be top-notch, so while the Venu 3 isn’t a powerhouse of athletic performance analysis, it produces great data.
As a smartwatch, it does a good job of covering bases, with notifications, Garmin Pay (with patchy bank support), and offline Spotify syncing. It’s still not a patch on the smartwatch experience offered by Apple and Google, but, with two weeks of battery life, (7-10 days of heavy use in our testing) it’s a fantastic alternative.
The other downside is that the Venu 3 is pretty expensive – and the Vivoactive 5 offers most of its core features, at around half the price.
- Read our full Garmin Venu 3 review
Pros
-
Wellness features finally feel useful -
Top HR accuracy -
Lovely screen
Cons
-
Really pricey -
Sports tracking offers basic metrics only -
Some sleep accuracy niggles
Apple Watch SE (2nd generation)
Best affordable Apple Watch (iOS only)
We were close to dropping the Apple Watch SE from our smartwatch recommendations list. It’s two years old now, and options such as the Huawei Watch Fit 3 are genuine alternatives at half the price.
But it will get watchOS 11 when it drops in September, and it’s still a fantastic sports-tracking smartwatch with some fab deals on it.
The design is now dated, with it significantly boxier with a thicker black border around the display than the Series 7/8/9. There’s also no always-on display or ECG.
Yet, the core fitness and wellness monitoring, excellent workout tracking, GPS experience, bustling App Store, Apple Pay, and even Fall Detection are all identical to the latest, greatest Apple Watches. So it’s a superb choice for a wide mix of people.
Apple has included the S8 chip in this second-gen version of the SE, too, and it ensures the experience is just as zippy (and will likely continue to be) as some of the newer Series devices.
If you’re in the Apple ecosystem already and want to get started with a solid smartwatch, you can’t really go wrong with the SE.
- Read our Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) review
Pros
-
Tracking is very accurate -
S8 chip provides very smooth experience -
Superb value
Cons
-
Battery life hasn't progressed -
Design is starting to look a little old -
No always-on display
How to choose the right smartwatch
Case size
The fit, comfort, and wearability of a watch are largely down to case size – and a few millimeters can make a huge difference. Those with small wrists should look in the 38-42mm range, while those who like chunky, oversized watches or have big wrists should look at anything above 45mm.
iOS vs Android
It’s important to think about what smartphone you use. Apple Watch is iOS only, and Wear OS watches, such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch lineup and Pixel Watch 2, are exclusive to Android.
Older Wear watches work on both, but the iOS experience is diminished and it’s not recommended.
Huawei, Fitbit, and Garmin smartwatches work on both, but some advanced calling from the wrist features are usually Android only.
Check out our guides to the best smartwatches for iPhone and the top Android watches for more information.
Apps and extra features
Buying into Apple Watch and Wear OS watches means you can access bustling app stores full of options from big-name brands, such as Spotify or Strava, and expand on the core features.
If you opt for smartwatches from Garmin / Fitbit / Huawei, their platforms simply don’t have developer support for quality apps, so you’re limited to the advertised functionality of the watch.
Heath and fitness features
Smartwatches are increasingly becoming health and fitness tools, so make sure yours has the sensors you want.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a smartwatch without a heart rate sensor these days, and most are adept at keeping tabs on 24/7 HR and resting heart rate.
However, the likes of Apple and Fitbit now include ECG, a powerful health tool – read our ECG explainer if you’re curious. Runners will want GPS on board to accurately track outdoor workouts, too.
Battery life
The Apple Watch and Wear OS smartwatches generally only last a day or two away from the charger, which is one of the biggest turn-offs for people. There have been moves to extend that to 2-3 days, with the Apple Watch Ultra 2, Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, and TicWatch Pro 5.
Luckily, a lot of other smartwatches now last more than a week, with Fitbit, Huawei, Amazfit, and Garmin all pushing longer runtimes.
Cellular connectivity
One more key consideration is whether you want your smartwatch to work away from your phone.
Many manufacturers, such as Apple and Samsung, offer LTE versions, which you’ll need to purchase a separate data plan to take advantage of. Most carriers and networks have plans for LTE smartwatches.
Check out our guide to the best LTE smartwatches, if this is important to you.
The post Best smartwatches compared: Options for every budget reviewed appeared first on Wareable.
