Music ive tested a lot of different devices this year and ive come up with my list of favorite picks to suit a range of different criteria, design and comfort, fitness and health features, as well as smart functionality and, of course, the all important battery life. There is something here to fit pretty much every budget, and i have put latest pricing and availability in the links in the description below, as well as links to the full reviews. If you want to find out more so lets, kick things off with one of my favorite picks of the year. This one is an all round. Fitness focused smartwatch, its the garmin venue, 2. garmin is known for its fitness tracking, but its previous watches. You know havent exactly looked that stylish. The venue 2 is trying to change all that with a round design, its got a bright amoled display and it comes in two different sizes, the venue 2 or the 2s, which is this slightly smaller version that ive been wearing. I also really like this watch because it is compatible with ios and android its got really in depth. Fitness tracking metrics, like you, would expect you can get things like workout animations presented to you on the screen to help you target particular muscles and the post workout analysis in the garmin app is excellent as well. You also get blood oxygen, sleep, tracking and a body battery score. That gives you an idea of your energy reserves.
The heart rate sensor is accurate too. I always test against a chest strap and i was really impressed with the venue. 2S results. During a run, the battery life is really strong, youll average, around seven days from the larger size and five days from the smaller size. Of course, if you use the always on display and all those other bells and whistles like a lot of outdoor gps, workouts youre gon na reduce that number, probably to around two and a half to three days. Youll also be able to get notifications on your wrist. Send quick replies if youre on android, as well as use things like garmin pay for contactless payments and youll, have music storage on board thanks to a number of streaming apps that are supported, including spotify. There arent as many smart features, as other watches, say like the apple watch or the galaxy watch on this list, so theres, no cellular or lte version that you can get so you can leave your phone at home. There is also no speaker and microphone on board. So that means no taking some quick calls on your wrist, but if you dont need those features – and you just want a really fully fledged fitness watch that looks as good as it performs. The venue 2 is a great choice: Music sticking with the theme of being compatible with android and ios is my favorite fitness band of the year. It is the fitbit charge 5.
. It really takes the best parts of fitbits, more expensive watches like the fitbit sense, and it packs it into a tracker youre, getting things like a bright display again easy to see in broad daylight youre getting a built in gps. There is an electrocardiogram, app or ecg app to detect signs of atrial fibrillation, as well as a stress tracker, which is the same as found on the fitbit sense. Youll also be able to see notifications on your wrist really in depth: sleep tracking, metrics, so youre getting things like skin temperature variation at night, breathing rate and so on and fitbit sleep tracking is among the best theres. Also, this thing called the daily readiness score that gives you an idea. If you should push yourself to do a workout or maybe you should just take it easy and have a rest day. The downside is the daily readiness score and some of those 30 day tracking trends for metrics, like your skin temperature variation and more of those in depth, help metrics that this watch is getting. You are only going to be available if you have a subscription to fitbit premium its ten dollars a month. However, the good news is, you: dont need fitbit premium to take advantage of pretty much most of the major features on the charge. 5. ive got a link in the description below that also gives you details on what you do and dont get with that premium subscription and its still going to be a great fitness tracker.
Even if you dont want that extra subscription. If you have an iphone its really hard to go past, the apple watch and the series 7 is my favorite overall pick for ios users compared to previous versions. The design is more refined. You have a stronger construction in terms of a crack resistant screen. You also get a dust resistant design. The screen real estate itself is larger than earlier versions, so you can actually pack more on the screen. Theres two additional font sizes. You get the benefit of a full keyboard for being able to respond to messages and just overall its such a refined, snappy experience. It really does set the bar for all of the other smartwatches on this list. You also get an ecg and blood oxygen sensor, just like you did on the series, 6 and heart rate tracking is the best among all of the smart watches that ive tested, especially during higher intensity workouts when compared to a chest, strap. You can also spend a little bit more to get an lte or cellular version that helps you take calls send messages and use apps when you are away from the range of your phone battery life. Unfortunately, hasnt changed from earlier apple watches, so the apple rating is 18 hours, but in reality you can actually push that a little bit further. You can really stretch this to two days if you try really really hard but thats. If you turn off a lot of the flagship features that you might be interested in, such as the always on display, as well as raise to wake and sleep tracking, so more real world usage with a lot of those features, turned on its going to be a Bit more than a day, so really you will be charging this, probably a little bit more often than some of the other watches on this list.
Its still my favorite pick for iphone users, the galaxy watch 4 and watchful classic are the first smartwatches to run the new wear os, which was co designed between samsung and google, and it gets a lot of things right for its first version. It is my favorite android smartwatch right now, its got a really great screen, its super bright, very responsive on the galaxy watchful classic. I love this rotating bezel. It is so addictive. You interact with a lot of things through either the bezel, the buttons or the touchscreen itself. The watch 4 doesnt have that bezel, but it is a little bit slimmer and might be more comfortable for some people, depending on the size of your wrist theres. Also, a lot of really fun watch faces. You can go to town customizing these with lots of different widgets and also complications like you can too on the apple watch. You also get access to the play store for lots of different apps theres, an ecg or electrocardiogram app on board, as well as blood oxygen, but theres. Also the flagship feature on the watch 4 in terms of the health tracking that none of the other watches have its called an impedance based sensor, its basically giving you an idea of your overall body composition. The downside so far is that some of those key features like the ecg are tied only to samsung phones. So, even if you have another android like say oneplus or a pixel, you wont be able to use those features just yet theres.
Also, no google assistant on board at the time of recording this video. I really hope that changes soon, because i bixby is fine. I just if im running, wear os. I really want the google assistant Music now lets get into my favorite budget pick for the year. Its the me band six now this is fifty dollars. Sometimes you can get this for even less when you find it discounted because it does get discounted frequently, and it is such a good performing band for that price. It is the best value for money on this list. You get a bright display. You get notifications from your phone. You get a range of different fitness tracking options, you get blood oxygen tracking. You also get sleep tracking, like the list goes on of how much stuff this little fitness band actually does its kind of wild. I would recommend this if youre not too worried about things like heart rate accuracy during intense workouts, it does tend to get a little bit wonky and sleep tracking has been a little bit hit and miss for me. But overall, if youre, looking for something thats, just a basic fitness tracker with options of other bells and whistles that you can play around with. I highly recommend this little fitness tracker. It does so much for the money and its compatible with android and ios Music. Now lets look at two more devices that have come out towards the end of the year that i havent fully finished reviewing, but i do think theyre worth mentioning.
The first is the polar grit x pro. This is an incredibly rugged watch, its designed for people that do a lot of endurance, running marathons and triathletes its got turn by turn navigation, so many different sports modes and workout suggestions on board as well. So far, the touchscreen has been a little bit laggy and it definitely does not look as good as the other options on this list, and it is quite bulky, especially if you have smaller wrists. But if you are looking for the ultimate adventure watch, this potentially could be it Music, but maybe you dont want to screen at all. You want something you can kind of set and forget thats, where something like the aura ring. Third generation comes in its gathering. A lot of different data from your finger, including heart rate, its doing sleep, tracking its also going to be doing skin temperature, tracking and so on. Some features are yet to roll out, including blood, oxygen tracking, and unfortunately, you will need a six dollar a month subscription to get pretty much all of the data out of this ring, which is a change from the earlier generation or a ring. You can still use it without the subscription, but youre really only just gon na get that daily readiness score still its an option for you if youre looking for something that is discreet and something that you dont necessarily need to charge every single day Music. So there you have it my favorite fitness, trackers and smart watches from 2021.
There are, of course, lots of other options out there and some of my favorites werent released this year. Theyre still really good options, though, and i highly recommend them things like the garmin venue. Sq is a great budget option for a fitness smartwatch. I really like the apple watch, se, which is a cheaper alternative to the series, 7 and theres, also the fitbit versa 3, which is a really nice little smartwatch that is compatible with android and ios, and it has a lot of the same features that weve been Talking about from the charge 5. ive put full links to everything, youll need to know in the description below thanks so much for watching and ill catch.S2zZTC5BR5s
