Top 5 Best Smart Watch in 2024:Best fitness trackers, alerts, and wearables

A list of the top wristwatches that track your activity

The best smartwatches are excellent fitness gadgets. They’re built to track your activity levels, record your workouts, and show you health and recovery insights. But they also do much more. The top smartwatches around today connect to your smartphone in order to deliver notifications to your wrist, as well as give you quick and easy access to a range of apps, like meditation apps, timers, weather insights, and so much more.

A smartwatch is a terrific piece of gear to invest in, regardless of whether you need a partner for your workout or just want a fashionable watch with a few extra capabilities. The good news is that there are many options available these days, including a number of affordable options for those on a tight budget.

We’ve evaluated and tested a wide range of smartwatches, including the most well-liked and expensive versions, such as the most recent Samsung and Apple Watch models, the Series 9 and Ultra 2. We test each watch’s GPS accuracy, wear it to the point of depletion, compare its workout stats to those of the industry leaders, and provide a report on its overall functionality. We’ve also tested Wear OS watches from companies like OnePlus, Ticwatch, and Mobvoi, as well as Fitbit’s products, so there’s something in our list of the top smartwatches below for everyone.

Top 5 Best Smart Watch in 2024

1.Apple Watch Ultra 2

With one of the greatest screens we’ve ever seen on a wearable—the Apple Watch Ultra 2—its luxurious Retina Display OLED commands up to 3,000 nits of brightness, making it the ideal wristwatch. With a speedier S9 processor than the basic Apple Watch, it’s larger and thicker and allows for the fantastic Double Tap gesture found on the Series 9 below. It is identical to the original Apple Watch Ultra, its predecessor, in every other way.

Even while it outperforms the standard Apple Watch in terms of battery life, the robust and accurate GPS is fantastic for exploration—especially with watchOS 10’s enhanced hiking waypoints feature—and it functions as a dive computer with the Oceanic Plus app.

This is without a doubt the most capable wearable the company has ever produced, according to our testing. Regrettably, its exorbitant cost and dependence on Apple phones are its limitations. On the other hand, when considering the smartwatches on this list in isolation, it is the greatest one in terms of technology. It can dive the deepest underwater, has the largest and brightest screen, and is made of ultra-hard titanium, as you can see from the specs table below.

2.Apple Watch SE 2

Since it is far less expensive than the Apple Watch Series 9, it still contains many of the essential capabilities included in earlier versions, including the same chipset as the Series 8, making the Apple Watch SE 2 possibly the best option for most users.

While the Apple Watch SE 2 does not have the Double Tap feature from the 9, it does have a number of health and fitness features, including potentially life-saving additions like Car Crash Detection. The main things it lacks are the always-on display, an ECG, and blood oxygen tracking from the 8 (although the current Apple Watch Series 9 is now being sold without blood oxygen tracking).

Furthermore, it is lightweight, comfortable to wear, powerful, and has an amazing battery life for a true smartwatch. It is a fantastic, reasonably priced option because it achieves an excellent balance between performance and affordability.

3.Samsung Galaxy Watch 6

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is a smart-looking watch in every sense of the word. It looks fantastic on your wrist while offering powerful functionality. A bigger Super AMOLED display is sharp and clear, as well as able to withstand exceptionally bright outdoor scenes.

Performance-wise, it’s quick, but using it in conjunction with a Samsung smartphone will maximize its advantages. Additionally, iPhone support is lacking here.

Highlights include the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6’s upgraded Exynos W930 chipset and its ability to track your body’s muscle and fat composition, in addition to SmartThings connection. With its extensive sleep tracking feature, it’s almost the perfect fitness tool to help you maximize your potential every day. That one-day battery life is a shame, though.

4.Google Pixel Watch 2

Like its predecessor, the Google Pixel Watch 2 is an exceptionally gorgeous smartwatch. Its shiny face seamlessly blends into its equally curvy body, giving it a natural rather than artificial appearance. It is nearly flawlessly constructed.

More glass faces you than on the Apple Watch Series 9 because of that curve, which both heightens the watch’s elegance and deftly conceals a larger-than-expected black bezel that surrounds the screen. A new multi-path HR sensor enhances workout tracking, and the battery life is somewhat longer than the original with quick charging.

Despite being significantly smaller than the rectangular face of the Apple Watch Series 9, its AMOLED display is vibrant, vivid, and responsive, and Google makes excellent use of the less screen area. Aside from the battery life, we never felt the need for more. While it’s better than the original Pixel and other Apple products, the 24-hour battery life is still a source of constant frustration—it’s less than the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, which is a problem with many of the watches on this list when compared to, say, a Garmin.

5.OnePlus Watch 2

The OnePlus Watch 2 is a superb all-rounder wristwatch, knocking the TicWatch Pro 5 from this place in the list, and an incredible Pixel Watch rival.

It has many advantages. Its powerful Snapdragon W5+ Gen1 processor ensures high performance, and in order to save needless battery drain, it runs a second operating system that it switches to when necessary. With astute use of its dual chipset, it achieves an astounding 100-hour battery life.

It also offers very accurate fitness tracking metrics, which we tested during forest walks in Finland against the Garmin Epix Pro. It looks great on-wrist, too, with leather strap options, a design based on analogue chronographs, and a few cool color choices such as Nordic Blue. 

How to choose the best smartwatch for you?

Unfortunately, since not all wearables are compatible with rival devices, your choice of smartwatch frequently depends on your choice of phone. Only Apple iPhones are compatible with Apple Watch. Samsung and Google watches, and other Wear OS devices, only work with Android devices, but you can use a Samsung watch with a Google phone and vice versa.

Fitbit’s fitness tracking wearables are compatible with all devices and synchronize with the Fitbit app. However, its features are mostly focused on fitness and they don’t have as many functions as other smartwatches.

If you’re switching from a Garmin watch that lasts weeks, you might be disappointed by the average wearable’s one-day battery life. This list includes a few longer-lasting timepieces.

Lastly, although they can be pricey, smartwatches don’t really deliver value for the money. You might wonder if you’re actually going scuba diving this year, or if you’re just going to check your text messages while your dinner companions are eating, before you shell out for an Apple Watch Ultra.

FAQS

Can you use Apple Watch with an Android phone?

First, find out if the smartwatch you want to buy is compatible with your phone. Since iOS is necessary for all watchOS features to function, you cannot use an Android phone and an Apple Watch together.

While you can use a Fitbit or Google Pixel Watch with an iPhone, the experience will be significantly worse if you don’t have an Android or Google account. For optimal performance, Samsung and Huawei also need harmony between their watches and handsets.

However, many gadgets, like as the CMF Watch Pro by Nothing and Garmin watches, just need their own applications to function, so you can use them with either phone just fine.

Which is the best smartwatch?

Although the best smartwatch is constantly changing, an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy smartwatch usually tops the list because they are often loaded with premium features and design.

How we test smartwatches?

The knowledgeable staff at TechRadar has thoroughly examined each smartwatch on our list, so we are aware of all the features that work.

Every smartwatch is thoroughly tested in the real world as part of our evaluation process, which involves using the devices as if they were our own personal wearables. For a week, we do a thorough feature sweep and vary usage to provide us with a clear picture of battery life performance.

When doing internal testing, we typically compare each smartwatch’s GPS accuracy to a benchmark device, like the Garmin Epix Pro. The same is true with exercise measurements. In addition, we rate the market position of the watch, its operating system usability, and whether or not it enables third-party apps. For instance, a low-cost watch with less features is more likely to receive four stars than a high-end watch with tons of functions that isn’t worth the high cost.

Based on this information, we have evaluated them and assigned an overall star rating based on their value, design, features, and performance.