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- #5 Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch From Fossil
- #4 Garmin Vivoactive 4-Garmin From Garmin
- #3 Fitbit Versa 3 From Fitbit
- #2 Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 From Samsung Electronics
- #1 Apple Watch Series 6 From Apple
Best Smartwatch 2021: Top Picks For Every Budget
The best smartwatches do a lot more than let you know if your phone has rung or texted you. They’re fitness trackers that can turn your phone into a digital wallet and tell the time, while others can send you alerts if your heart rate spikes and need medical attention.
Some smartwatches can act as a phone, while others are simply glorified fitness trackers with extra features like an ECG monitor and heart rate sensor.
If you need a smartwatch that does it all, the best one is the Apple Watch Series 4. Keep reading to find the perfect one.
To give you this top 5 review, we have looked at 172 products and analyzed 3431 customer reviews.
#1. Apple Watch Series 6 From Apple
The top tier Apple Watch
Top Pick
The Apple Watch Series 6 has an always-on screen, improved GPS tracking, and an improved heart rate sensor. It has excellent workout-tracking, a great heart rate monitor, will make calls, and will notify you when your phone rings. It’s not a fancy GPS tracker like the Garmin Forerunner 935, but does everything you need at a reasonable price.
- Phone Notification
- Distance, Pace, Estimated Calories
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The Apple Watch Series 6 offers a bunch of new features not found on earlier Watch models, including an always-on screen, improved GPS tracking and an improved heart rate sensor. It’s not a fancy GPS tracker like the Garmin Forerunner 935 or the Qualcomm A123 Bionic, but does everything you need at a reasonable price. It has excellent workout-tracking, a great heart rate monitor, will make calls, and will notify you when your phone rings.
During workouts, you’ll get data on your watch, too, including distance, pace, estimated calories burned, and time. You can also get notifications when your Apple Watch is charging, and the watch will automatically alarm you at the end of your workout.
While the Apple Watch Series 6 has a heart rate sensor, it can measure your SpO2 level, which is useful for people who want to track their training and health data.
#2. Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 From Samsung Electronics
Best Android smartwatch overall
Top Pick
Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch 3 has an ECG monitor, heart rate sensor, and can detect falls. It’s a well-rounded device with robust health and fitness features, and a sleek design. It has 64 hours of battery life on a single charge. The Watch 3 is the latest iteration of Samsung’s Galaxy smartwatch line.
- ECG Monitor
- Sleek Design
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The Galaxy Watch 3 is the latest iteration of Samsung’s Galaxy smartwatch line, and it’s a well-rounded device that provides a winning combination of style, battery life, and health features. The Watch 3 has an ECG monitor, which can help doctors diagnose conditions like atrial fibrillation. Additionally, it has a heart rate sensor and can detect falls. This feature is particularly useful for runners and other active users.
The battery life is also better than the previous version. There’s a wide range of workout tracking, GPS, sleep tracking, and a heart rate monitor. You can even get up to 64 hours of use on a single charge. This is a well-rounded smartwatch with robust health and fitness features, a sleek design, and a rotating bezel.
#3. Fitbit Versa 3 From Fitbit
Best value for sleep tracking
Best Value
The Fitbit Versa 3 has an always-on display, GPS tracking, blood oxygen, and temperature tracking during sleep. It doesn’t have the fancy features of the Sense, but you do get the basic features like steps, distance, calories burned and heart rate data. There are new workout modes that use your heart rate to track your progress.
- Steps, Distance, Calories Burned
- Workout Modes
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The Fitbit Versa 3 offers everything you want at a good price: an always-on display, GPS tracking, blood oxygen, and temperature tracking during sleep, and a battery that lasts six days. It doesn’t have the fancy features of the Sense, but you do get the basic features like steps, distance, calories burned and heart rate data. There are also new workout modes that use your heart rate data to track your progress, and it has new features like indoor and outdoor swimming tracking, so you can take your phone with you during any workout.
It has a heart rate sensor that can measure your effort level during workouts and automatically detect when you start a workout. It can track your progress over time and provides insight into your fitness level, as well as your sleep history.
The battery also lasts six days.
#4. Vivoactive 4 From Garmin
Best fitness tracker for women
Top Pick
Garmin’s Vivoactive 4 is a GPS fitness tracker and smartwatch hybrid. It syncs easily with your smartphone, allowing you to sync your workout data, music, and notifications. The watch has a large selection of workouts, including Pilates, yoga, and strength-training classes. It works great for running, walking, and even doing pushups in the water.
- Color Touchscreen
- Heart Rate Sensor
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The Vivoactive 4 offers a sleek design, excellent workout tracking, and the latest features and functions in the Garmin Connect app. It’s a GPS fitness tracker and smartwatch hybrid that pairs easily with your smartphone, allowing you to sync your workout data, music, and notifications with the watch.
It has a color touchscreen and a heart rate sensor, plus it has a sleep tracking feature that can detect elevated heart rate during sleep. When you’re done working out, you can enjoy the stunning new workout animations, and it has a heart rate sensor that can detect elevated blood oxygen levels.
According to Garmin, it’s compatible with either iOS or Android phones and will pair with most Bluetooth headphones. It has a large selection of workouts, including Pilates, yoga, and strength training. You can also create your own workouts in the Connect app, and it syncs them to your watch.
It’s definitely a fitness watch that looks as good on your wrist as it does in your pocket. We found it to work great for running, walking, and even doing pushups in the water. It has heart rate variability, which lets you track your stress level, and it has a useful “respiratory rate” metric that helps track your respiratory rate while you’re exercising.
When you begin tracking your activities, you’ll see a new Activity Widget display on the watch, along with metrics like heart rate variability, calories burned, and respiratory rate.
It’s a sleek looking device that provides excellent tracking data and functions.
#5. Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch
Best Watch for Android Owners
Top Pick
The Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch has stood the test of time as our favorite Google Wear OS device. It features a big 1.28-inch AMOLED display, a sharp pixel density of 328ppi, and three programmable push buttons. It’s a fairly standard Wear OS smartwatch with fitness tracking, GPS, and an optical heart rate sensor.
- 328Ppi
- GPS
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The Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch has stood the test of time as our favorite Google Wear OS device for quite some time. It’s certainly not the most advanced or feature-packed Wear OS device out there, but it’s one of the best-looking, and most versatile options. It features a big 1.28-inch AMOLED display, a sharp pixel density of 328ppi, and three programmable push buttons on the right side.
It’s got GPS too, along with a built-in optical heart rate sensor. And it’s reasonably priced at under $200, which puts it well ahead of the curve. While it’s not the most powerful Wear OS device out there, it is certainly better than the average competitor, and it lasts a full day on a charge.
It’s a fairly standard Wear OS smartwatch with fitness tracking, GPS, and an optical heart rate sensor. You can use the watch with or without a chest strap.
