The best smartwatch does not really show the time of day—it can also improve your outfit and often just feel great. Smartwatches can do more, from tracking workout sessions and measuring heart rate to delivering notifications as well as providing you a way of controlling smart home devices. When you’re wearing a connected watch, you don’t have to check it on your phone, instead of checking your wristwatch for emergency notifications.
Smartwatches are only coming to the fore, with more power and longer battery life, frequently assembled into a smaller and lighter exterior, even with extremely advanced touchscreens and incredibly intuitive interplay software, it’s never been nicer to join the bandwagon.
Many of the best smartwatches are just older versions of many other models. So even though they may not have those latest features—their screens might just be a bit smaller, and several of their sensors not quite as sophisticated—they were regarded as the best smartwatches as they first came out, and they’re all surprisingly awesome.
Contents
Why Do You Need the Best Smartwatch?
The watch is just as much a fashion trend as this is a usable one, and for a long period of time, “smartwatches looked good at everything. A well-made smartwatch can be as esthetically pleasing as more of a mechanical wristwatch. A great, well-chosen smartwatch can make life easier in a range of ways that these are all from a good place on your wrist. All of these features make it much easier to live hands-free without needing to wander around to pull out your mobile phone all the time.
The best smartwatches could even help us connect without having to spend a lot of money on something you wear on your wrist. Just like with the best smartwatches, these budget models even provide features like smartphone notifications and some fitness tracking functionality, including heart rate monitors and GPS.
We’ve listed the best smartwatches to purchase this year 2021:
Letsfit Best Smartwatch – Best for Good Battery Life
Pros
- Have a good battery life
- Bright, easy-to-use display
- Provides notifications and alerts
Cons
- Not as accurate as top-end fitness trackers
The Letsfit Smartwatch is by far the most budget-friendly ideal solution that still gives you the features you value about. It features an interconnected heart rate monitor, provides notification guidance for everything from incoming calls, and is truly thinner and lighter than any other model.
If you are just searching for casual fitness tracking as well as simple smartwatch features, this might be a perfect smartwatch for you. This is not the most precise activity tracker, but that’s not bad, particularly if you are using it in accordance with another device—like your phone, something you’ll still need for GPS connectivity.
Prices and Availability
This smartwatch is very affordable. You can have one of six color variations: black, dark blue, light pink, emerald green, purple and turquoise green.
Best Smartwatch: Design and specifications
This Smartwatch model looks like the Apple Watch. Everything just looks like any number of private-label Apple Watch alike: there’s a rectangular case with rounded corners, a sparkly glass face, as well as a pseudo-digital crown button on the right side.
The bezel around the watch face is thin, however, the actual display is indeed a 1.3-inch LCD square. Just simply don’t be deceived by the truth that there’s a lot more bezel under the glass. It was a nice display, crisp, and also very responsive to swipes, taps, and wrist flicks. The onboard interface is basic but easy to access: Swipe left to use other applications, up to notifications, and to get through activity data. The side button/digital crown will take you back to the main screen and turn the display on and off. The crown turns, too, but it doesn’t have certain functionality.
Fitness features and its performance
The major obstacle with fitness trackers and smartwatches at the low end of the budget appears to be their precision. Nobody anticipates a very affordable smartwatch to be just as precise as it costs 10 times as much, however, the best fitness trackers all do a good job at it, and there’s no point in wasting valuable wrist space.
This smartwatch tracks several metrics: step count, distance, calories burned, sports mileage, sleep, as well as heart rate. The built-in heart rate monitor is designed for continuous 24-hour tracking. There is no built-in GPS, although the watch can use the GPS of your phone if both devices are connected. This can’t be switched on or off, but that’s a fairly typical setting to maintain battery life.
This smartwatch is a little strange whenever it comes to heart rate monitoring. Not completely false, but very inconsistent. About 90% of the time that this smartwatch measured your heart rate precisely. And then the other 10% almost every time that this model missed the mark. Most of the readings are accurate, so you wouldn’t have had any trouble getting an accurate overall look at your heart rate when you subtract the outliers.
Sleep tracking
If you have had a hard time getting sleep tracking to work effectively, but this really is probably at least in regard to the unusual sleep schedule. It’s not unusual for budget sleep tracking to only track sleep throughout the “night” hours, which we think is ridiculous because the people most interested in sleep tracking are probably people who don’t have typical sleep schedules.
Battery Life
This model does have a great battery life, although it differs quite a bit depending on how you use it. We didn’t have a problem getting the quoted more days of battery life with what we consider to be frequent use, although GPS workouts are always the biggest potential battery drain. It also has a pretty impressive standby life. It’s been on standby for about four months.
Application, alerts, and notifications
If you prefer a budget smartwatch, you’re not going to get the same features on the Letsfit Smartwatch like any other smartwatch. There is no app store, no mobile payments as well as music storage.
This smartwatch is paired with the VeryFitPro app. It was not the most rounded app; however, it’s getting more jobs to be done, and it’s pretty easy to operate when you set up a watch and toggle notifications. The app acts as a fitness/tracking app—it has an overview of your activity, sleep, and heart rate data—but users can’t enter data manually.
This model provides a number of updates and alerts that you can install in the app. You can also get notifications for calls and messages, emails, text, and many more social networks updates and third-party messaging services. You can also set reminders for calendar events and alarms—though users can set up alarms just in the app, not even on the device itself.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active – Best Smartwatch for Great Design and Comfy
Pros
- Great software interface
- Great design
- Useful applications for fitness enthusiasts
Cons
- Shorter battery life
- Limited applications
This is the smartwatch that is the most affordable—and indeed one of the best cheap smartwatches for Android users. This is a faster processor and easier-to-use software than most other Android watches running on Google’s Wear OS platform.
The only drawback: This smartwatch doesn’t have many well-known applications, particularly compared to the Apple Watch. Luckily, Samsung’s built-in apps, such as its fitness-focused options, are also more than able to handle much of the tasks.
Samsung further provides the Galaxy Watch Active 2, which consists of two sizes and also includes LTE connectivity as well as an ECG sensor that might likely be capable of detecting atrial fibrillation. Even so, that smartwatch is more expensive than this one.
Prices and availability
This smartwatch was available to purchase and available in 3 colors and two sizes and it’s very affordable: you can choose either 40mm and 44mm. Both of these models are available as Bluetooth/Wi-Fi only, or with LTE connectivity.
Bluetooth/Wi-Fi models come in Aqua Black, Cloud Silver, and Pink Gold, while the LTE models are available in black, gold, and silver.
Best Smartwatch: Design
This smartwatch is the best-looking smartwatch we’ve ever tested. The watch comes in two sizes, a 40-millimeter case and a 44-mm case, just like the Apple Watch Series 5. But Samsung’s round display evokes a traditional timepiece.
The overall impact is simple and modern, with a leather band. On the other hand, it always leaves a good time if you’re wearing it.
We tested this Bluetooth Galaxy Watch Active 2 with a light pink sports band, and everything is just amazing. The band is comfy enough to put on a bed and just doesn’t irritate my skin or slide around as running.
Whenever it comes to looking at the face design, this smartwatch now offers more customized choices. All you want to do is take a picture of your outfit with this smartwatch. We personally think that we preferred more helpful watch faces that would allow users to add complications, including the Digital Neon face. But Samsung seems to be taking advice from the most well-known smartwatches, that further offer highly exciting features to make your watch face quite personal.
Display
The always-on display is the cornerstone of the new Apple Series 5, but for Samsung, this is the old school. This model can always be on display if you would like to, and you can extend the battery by retaining the display off till you raise your wrist.
The major thing in the display of the new watch is the inclusion of a digital rotating bezel. Old-aged Samsung smartwatches let you access the watch by manually turning the bezels, but Samsung broke that feature in the Galaxy Watch Active. The second model provides a digital approximation of the navigation tool. You could use your fingertip to swipe around the edge of the display, enabling you to view through the widgets to the right of the watch face or to scroll down the page. That’s a little faster than plainly wiping or browsing, but it can still be too sensitive as well as confuse how far you’ve been trying to go.
All in all, the digital rotating bezel is far from being a point of sale nor even a hindrance. You can use it if you really want to, and you can forget that it exists.
ECG Application
Samsung is targeting the Apple Watch ECG app directly by such as an electrocardiogram sensor in the Galaxy Watch Active 2.
Although the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 didn’t seem to work for more than a year, the ECG monitor is now working for users. Make sure to update your watch software to start reading the ECG.
Fitness feature
Samsung has added run-coaching to the Galaxy Watch Active 2, something that allows you to choose from 7 programs to improve endurance or speed. The responses are both outspoken, through the use of the watch’s speaker or through a pair of Wireless earbuds paired explicitly to the smartwatch, and then it will vibrate when you need to speed up or slow down, for example.
Sleep tracking
Like any other smartwatch, this Active 2 monitors your sleep, which doesn’t affect your battery completely. We’ve been sleeping with a watch for almost a week, and found the breakdown of light, REM, and sleepiness to be as fascinating as it does in Fitbit’s sleep-tracking dashboard.
The sleep widget on the watch on its own reported my sleep accurately, but the data would not be synchronized with the Samsung Health app.
With some adjusting, this smartwatch sleep-tracking might be more useful. Now though, it’s behind Fitbit Versa 2 and Fitbit Charge 3, but better than the rest of Apple Watch as well as Google-based Wear OS watches that really can pull data from third-party sleep-tracking applications but didn’t detect your sleep through their own.
Battery Life
This smartwatch can last about two-and-a-half days on a charge when testing the Bluetooth model. That falls to about 48 hours with workouts, and 24 hours with the always-on display turned on. It’s a little longer than the Apple Watch Series 5, which also lasts about 18 hours with its always-on display. The battery was drained by a 40-minute run from 40 percent to 15 percent.
That being said, all of these are factors that you can control if the battery life is the most important feature for you. The always-on display and even some of the features of the exercise session are evident battery drains, but they shouldn’t have to be.
We are wishing that the smartwatch would charge faster, though. A 30-minute charge only pumped the watch at 39%, and nearly an hour and a half to fully charge it back up. That really is acceptable if you charge it overnight, but it’s not appropriate if you need to charge in the morning before the workout.
Applications
Samsung’s Tizen OS app store does not really offer as many options as the Apple Watch, although Samsung is focusing on making applications that are more useful. This brings Twitter support for tweeting, liking, and retweeting explicitly to your wrist. You can watch videos online as well. Sadly, none of these are ideal smartwatch cases. Watching YouTube on a small watch screen is useless. There are a few applications that are ideal for smartwatches like maps, messaging, endurance, and much more.
But Tizen OS does seem to have some big names that are useful, such as Spotify, which support offline music storage for Paid subscriptions. Applications that are also related to health and fitness applications are also included.
Fitbit Versa 2 – Best Smartwatch Ideal for Everyone
Pros
- Good battery life
- Customized training programs
- Sleep tracking
Cons
- Lacks on-board GPS
- Alexa works inconsistently
This feature features minor modifications to the original Versa, such as the AMOLED display as well as the built-in Alexa. This smartwatch also offers all the features we adored in the original Versa, like reliable heart rate tracking, long battery life, multicolored touchscreen display, and in-depth sleep tracking.
This smartwatch doesn’t have a GPS onboard which would make it a more equipped Apple Watch feature, as well as its app store isn’t quite as well as Apple’s. But with its 5-day battery life, cross-platform functionality, cheap prices, and advanced sleep-tracking features, this smartwatch is a good smartwatch for everyone.
Heart Study
If you own this model, you can join in any of the new cardiac studies, and they will inform you if your device detects an irregular heart rate. Some of the applications will also connect you to a doctor for a free consultation. It is known for being how accurate its devices are in detecting atrial fibrillation.
Best Smartwatch: Design
Apple and Fitbit need to be on something, even if consumers seem to not mind the “squircle” design of their smartwatches. This model has the same round and square style as its counterpart, with a few improvements. The bezel is smaller— Fitbit excluded its name from the bottom bezel so that you can see a little more. That’s about the same size, which indicates that most of the wrists should fit well.
This basic setup is working out pretty well. You’ve never more than several taps out of where you need to be. That being said, just like every other touch screen, this model became unstable whenever it or your finger was sweaty.
Display
A further improvement is the AMOLED touch screen of this model. Not only is the display slightly bigger, at about 1.4 inches, and now it attributes an always-on feature that shows the time, date as well as battery life. In this mode, this screen is plainly black and white.
Alexa
This model is not the first smartwatch Alexa has built-in, however, the Amazon Assistant is a good complement to those who use the service. You must have the Alexa account enabled to use the Versa 2 account.
You could use Alexa on this smartwatch to watch the weather conditions, handle smart home devices, set an alarm and timers, as well as start the Fitbit exercise. Those certain features, like flash briefings as well as phone calls, are not supported. Even though you don’t have to have the Alexa app operating on your smartphone, you must have the Fitbit app running as well as linked to your Alexa account. It was nice not to have to say Alexa all the time, too.
Activity monitoring
This smartwatch model can automatically track your activities such as walking, biking, and running, but there are a few drawbacks.
If you do not even expressly start recording one of those watch activities, you won’t even be able to see your stats in full detail. Whilst also walking was recorded automatically by the watch, however, it did not record a run. This is because the Run Detect feature necessitates you to have a phone with you as well.
This smartwatch can only display two metrics while running, like time elapsed as well as heart rate. Without your phone, this wasn’t very accurate. If you’re running with your phone, the Fitbit app will recalculate your stride length such that long-term runs are more accurate.
Sleep tracking
This Fitbit introduces two new sleep-centric features to its heart rate monitor devices. The first one is the Sleep Score, which makes it look at all your sleep statistics from the night before and seeps it down to a number from 1 to 100. The higher the number, the more effectively you were asleep. It is indeed reductive, but it really is handy.
Smart Wake seeks to strengthen you out of bed more sweetly. Inform Versa 2 whenever you want to wake up, then within a half-hour window around a certain time, the watch would then look for you if you’re in a lighter sleep cycle, and then wake you up.
Women’s Health Tracking
This model tracks women’s health, allowing women to oversee their patterns as well as receive alert notifications on the watch itself. When we’re testing this feature, the female health tracking was “fairly basic.”
Music Storage
This model lets you download up to less or more than 300 songs for offline playback. A newly added feature for this model is a Spotify app that allows you to control playback from that watch service provided you have your phone with you. Other smartwatches already have this functionality and much more.
GPS
This model has to depend on your smartphone’s GPS instead of being on board. That implies you’re going to run with your phone if you’d like to get statistics such as distance and speed.
Battery Life
The battery life of this model is considerably better than the other smartwatches: approximately five days for overall use, and about two days if you’re using the Versa 2 always-on display feature. With the screen set to stay on, you are able to get out of Versa 2 for almost three days, while you are wearing this smartwatch overnight.
This model’s charger is on the bulky side. Its own base has four contacts, that further match up with the studs at the lower part of the watch. Two spring-loaded clamps on each side of the charger base maintain the watch in position. It’s much less elegant than the Apple Watch magnetic charger, and so is the other’s minimal USB connector.
Applications
It was not as full-fledged as the other smartwatches, but Fitbit’s nascent app store has about 450 applications and more than 3,000 watch faces. Applications include TRX Training, Starbucks, Spotify, Deezer, Uber, Yelp, The New York Times, Flipboard, Walgreens, and Pandora.
Smartphone features
This model can alert users from your smartphone; regardless of the platform of your phone, you can answer or reject calls. If you’re on iOS, you can view calendar notifications as well as text messages, but you can’t respond to them from the watch. If you’re on Android, you can use the Versa mic to compose messages using your voice.
Fitbit Pay, which allows you to leave your wallet at home and pay for things using the NFC watch chip, is also included in this model. Fitbit Pay also operates with a large number of credit card companies.
MyKronoz ZeTime – Best Smartwatch for its Durability
Pros
- Hybrid style with mechanical hands and touch screen
- Long battery life
- Durable construction
Cons
- Hand calibration is even more confusing
- Lacks third-party applications
This hybrid smartwatch model is indeed a stylish and flexible timepiece that integrates multiple watch features with such a high-tech touch screen in a fairly natural fashion. We really like the company that is offering two models to suit various wrist sizes. Connected with an iOS or Android app, consider buying this model as it delivers a lengthy list of smartwatch features without confusing the user.
Its whole weak point is the software, in particular its use of European rather than North American designs, the complicated manual setup guidelines as well as the disorienting music app. Further, the absence of third-party applications, especially in comparison to competitively priced Android Wear watches, is limiting its usefulness.
Configuration
The Ze Time comes in 3 models, priced by the band. It features a silicone band with only black and white color options; the Premium features a leather band with brown, pink gold, brushed silver carbon, and silver color options; and the Elite features a metal band and additional colors such as gold and pink gold.
Best Smartwatch: Design and Convenience
The ZeTime is indeed a lovely watch. Its large, bright face is covered in sapphire crystal as well as encased in stainless steel, with notable golden hands that tell the time much like a traditional watch.
The larger of these two models weighs 3 ounces, which would be heavy on the side, although it was comfortable enough for you to forget that you were wearing it most of the time on your daily activities, like commuting, working at my desk, walking, hiking, jumping jacks, and trekking and much more.
Activation
We were amazed at how easy it was to get the ZeTime through the setup process. By using a Bluetooth connection, you can now easily pair your watch with both iPhone and Android. Even with a few updates to the OS, there were no connectivity errors.
However, we discovered that the process of syncing mechanical hands with a guide smartphone app was confusing. The app’s sync guidelines featured double-sided arrows around the dial, given an instructional clip featuring only a clockwise movement. However, the process could have been a lot more intuitive.
Bands and Watch Faces
The band measures 22 millimeters for the standard model and 18 mm for the smaller version. The strap has a tiny lever that allows you to easily detach the band to replace it.
There’s not a bunch of electronic faces for this watch, and there are enough appealing and artistic ones, some of which focus on just the date and time, many that are elegant, and others that include information about fitness. You can also customize your own watch face by importing a photo, overlaying up to five widgets, as well as adding a number of exchangeable dial designs.
The watch faces connect almost instantly through the use of the app, and you’ll save your watch faces to swap them directly from your wrist.
Fitness features
ZeTime’s fitness calculations are performed using an integrated three-axis accelerometer that allows you to track your activity, daily tasks, sleep pattern, as well as heart rate. Utilizing your profile details, the watch calculates the number of steps, walking distance, minutes of activity, and calories burned down. An inactivity alert identifies whether you have been too inactive as well as informs you of the interval you set.
Interface
The ZeTime operation is governed by a digital crown and two flanking buttons. Tapping the crown button provides an elegant Nite digital clock, whereas the bottom button displays call, notifications, calendars, and also emails. The crown does not offer haptic feedback.
You can however slide on the watch face to view a variety of menus. If you swipe to the left, you can use a crown to rotate between the main-menu watch grids, although we found it easier to tap the function.
Swiping right on the watch face equates to all built-in apps, like weather, heart rate monitor, incoming as well as missed phone calls, messages, notifications, and pedometers. The second app screen includes alarm, music, remote camera, sleep tracking system, stopwatch, iPhone search, and much more.
Navigation conventions primarily work better; a double-tap on any screen will easily take you back to the previous screen. Even now, it took a while to get used to that. For instance, if you want to open a piece of mail in the Mail app, another swipe will take you back to the menu instead of the next message.
Battery life
We’re impressed by the longevity of ZeTime. The 200-mAh battery was evaluated to last three days in smartwatch mode, and it was as great as its phrase – the best.
If you do have to charge the ZeTime, you can set it directly to a tiny magnetic charger connected to the power and leave it in there; it will start for the first time in 90 minutes. The charger is tiny so you can just throw it in your pocket or backpack if you miss charging it. Even so, even if you don’t do that, you still have a functional watch in analog mode for 30 days, because the mechanical hands will still have local time.
Amazfit T-Rex – Best Smartwatch for Rugged Design and Affordable Option
Pros
- Affordable for a GPS watch
- Rugged design
- Impressive battery life
Cons
- Bad haptics
With a large display, onboard GPS, designed compass as well as enough reliability accreditation to survive, this smartwatch model is one of the best cheap outdoor watches ever made. It is very affordable to everyone.
Like any other smartwatches, the T-Rex boasts an excellent battery life, a wide range of sports modes as well as sleep tracking – all encased in an unbreakable shell. With all of the sensors you might want, the T-Rex is indeed a behemoth to be reckoned with.
Best Smartwatch: Display and functionality
The 1.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen of this model is bright and colorful enough to be seen in bright sunlight. It tends to make the watch look more expensive than it really is, and shines in comparison to the black-and-white screen of the other smartwatches.
The interface of the T-Rex is uninteresting, but it’s not entirely a bad thing. We’ve seen low-cost watches try to try to make up complicated designs, but sometimes less is more. You can move by swiping the screen in every direction and using physical buttons. Introducing the activity menu is more user-friendly than opening the main menu, but once you’re there you can control your music, countdowns, alarm systems as well as reminders. You’re also going to be able to see the compass, get the weather or ping your mobile.
GPS, fitness, and sleep tracking features
Though most sports watches are targeted at runners, some, like the Amazfit T-Rex, conform to the sole outdoor person. With GPS and compass functionality, hikers and rock climbers should not lose their way if this smartwatch is their guide.
In addition to outdoor walking, cycling, swimming, route running, rock climbing as well as trekking, indoor treadmill, cycling, elliptical trainer, and catch-all ‘exercise’ sport modes are applicable to choose from. No matter which of these you select, you can see the duration, distance, and speed of your workout. You can see these metrics on your wrist in real-time using up – and – down buttons.
You can also check in on your heart rate at any time. In conclusion, this smartwatch provides full optical heart rate sensing and would even give a quick heart rate warning if you feel an unexpected pace that could be harmful to your health. This can only happen if you don’t work out, though.
When it’s time to get a close eye, the watch tracks your sleep cycle to give you an idea of the quality of your nap. The asleep score will be assigned and a sleep quality reporting system will be provided.
Compatibility of the Amazfit app and third-party application
All of the Amazfit T-Rex fitness sensors offer useful metrics, but you’ll need to refer to the Amazfit app to get a full story of your health. It stores data on everything from your stadium length as well as calories burned to your workout load and weight. You could even input your body measurements manually if you want to track your fitness goals as well.
The T-Rex is also compatible with the Strava running app, so you can sync your metrics to keep up with your friends’ activity challenges.
Music and Notification feature
There was no on-board storage on the T-Rex, which indicates you can’t even hold music and offer offline support for Spotify, then don’t count on being able to unload your phone on hikes unless you’re fine with using nature as your soundtrack.
Then again, if you are interested in staying connected, you might need to keep your phone in arm’s reach. Like many fitness trackers, the T-Rex doesn’t allow you to respond to notifications. You can only see the preview, and you’re going to have to reach your phone to read the full message or answer.
Battery Life
Like the Amazfit Bip, the selling point of the Amazfit T-Rex is its battery life. This model lasts 20 days for a single charge, but that’s a modest estimate. Our testing lasted more than 30 days with limited GPS usage.
The battery was faster when we enabled GPS for late spring hikes, zapping about 10% per hour, which indicates you should get about 10 hours of juice with continuous location tracking. This is still remarkable by the standards of the category. If you’re ever unsure how long you can expect your T-Rex to last, you can see how many estimated hours you’ve left on the activity menu. There’s also a power-saving mode when you’re in a pinch.
How to choose the best smartwatch for you?
Purchasing a smartwatch is just like choosing a smartphone because there are numerous models from which to choose. That is where the commonality ends. Whilst still whatever phone you choose will be able to perform the same standard tasks— like calling, sending text, as well as running applications. Smartwatches provide a selection of functions and features that make it even harder to pick the suitable one.
The above mentions are the best smartwatches which you can choose for your specific needs. From the various models in the industry between fitness trackers as well as smartwatches, we have highlighted the features that you should pay attention to before purchasing the best watches and fitness wearables available today.
