Fitness trackers have become ubiquitous in modern life. The sensors found in fitness trackers have made their way into smartwatches as well, and the lines between fitness tracker, smartwatch, and fitness watch have become blurry. Broadly speaking, fitness trackers count steps, track calories, provide sleep insight, and monitor your heart rate. They help you get a better picture of your general health and fitness level and can motivate you to focus on healthy habits.
Best smartwatches: Expert tested and reviewed
From the newest Apple Watches to Android options, these are the best smartwatches for tracking time and fitness, according to our testing.
Filtering through the best devices can be a bit of a challenge, though, which is why we’re here to help. Pocket-lint has tested, rated, and ranked some of the top activity bands to help you discover which is right for your wrist. All the trackers detailed below have been tested to see which provides the best blend of features, tracking accuracy, comfort, design, and price.
We’ve also got in-depth guides for the best smartwatches and best GPS sport watches, for those who’d prefer a more advanced wearable.
Best fitness tracker overall
Fitbit Charge 6
A well-rounded fitness tracker
The Fitbit Charge 6 features attractive styling, long battery life, and useful health metrics. With the help of Google, it also functions as a robust smartwatch with Google Wallet, Google Maps, and YouTube Music.
- Classy design
- Nice display
- Great tracking
The Fitbit Charge 6 takes everything that’s great about the Fitbit Charge 5 and improves on it subtly. That means it’s a better standalone fitness device but also offers a range of smartwatch features.
Fitbit Charge 6: A fitness tracker with smartwatch DNA
Fitbit updates its popular fitness tracker with a healthy dose of smartwatch behavior, thanks to Google.
It’s still slim and comfortable, with plenty of stylish bands available for purchase separately. It can track all your daily stats, like steps, sleep, and activities, and it can also give you an accurate route and speed for runs and rides. It also supports Google Wallet for mobile payments, Google Maps, and YouTube Music Support.
The battery life is better than the Charge 5, offering up to six days depending on usage. While it offers GPS tracking, it’s a bit intermittent, so you won’t get super reliable tracking. Luckily, the Fitbit ecosystem is great, supported by a robust app that presents your data in a way that’s easy to understand and doesn’t confuse with too many numbers. You will have to pay for a subscription to get the most out of it, though. But you will get lots of smartwatch features in a compact device for a fraction of the cost of most smartwatches, which is a big win for many.
Are Fitbit devices still worth buying in 2024?
Since the release of the Pixel Watch 2, it feels like Fitbit’s priorities have shifted to support Google more so than its own devices.
Best premium fitness tracker
Garmin Fenix 7 Pro
Expensive but brilliant
Garmin’s latest and greatest smartwaches have some lovely upgrades but don’t rip things up by any means.
- Can track pretty much everything
- Unbeatable battery life
- Rugged, premium design with touchscreen
- Super expensive
- Chunky design
The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro is an outstanding device with enough smarts to act independently as a fitness tracker, running watch, or smartwatch. It’s premium in pretty much every way, with a superb build, plenty of tracking metrics, and battery life that can last roughly 22 days.
Garmin Fenix 7 Pro: Light improvements
The Fenix 7 Pro serves up some minor but welcome upgrades for those that want the very best of Garmin’s Fenix range.
It’s not cheap, obviously, and it’s crucial to point out that you can find many of its features on other Garmin watches for less money. But whether you’re just logging daily health and activity, training for your ninth marathon, or interested in multi-day adventure races, the Fenix has something for you in terms of functions. It even features a flashlight, which is surprisingly useful even on a day-to-day basis.
As always with Garmin’s Fenix range, the real difficulty is picking between the many, many different variations. Three case sizes — 42mm, 47mm, or 51mm — provide roughly the same watch experience, though with variable battery life. However, this is complicated by the fact that each of these three versions now has a Pro Solar and Pro Solar Sapphire model, as well as the standard model and a Sapphire Solar option. At least you can be safe in the knowledge that there’s something for everyone.
Best budget fitness tracker
Fitbit Inspire 3
Great tracker for those on a budget
The Fitbit Inspire 3 is the successor to the Inspire 2, offering all the same features but with a couple of extras, a softer design and a colour touchscreen.
- Slim and subtle design
- Great feature set
- Superb battery
- Small display
- Touchscreen could be more responsive
- Some overestimation
The Fitbit Inspire 3 offers almost everything the Charge 6 does in a slimmer, cheaper package.
Fitbit Inspire 3: Great entry-level fitness tracker
Should you buy the Fitbit Inspire 3, or would you be better off spending a little bit more and buying the Luxe or Charge? Here’s our review.
It’s not as premium in appearance as its more expensive sibling, but it offers great value for money and interchangeable straps. It also offers plenty of features, including heart rate tracking, exercise tracking, SpO2 tracking, and advanced sleep monitoring.
The Inspire 3 offers a good OLED display, plenty of tracking modes, more than a week-long battery life, and smartphone notifications. Plus, it’s also waterproof. For its price tag, the Inspire 3 is an excellent fitness tracker.
Best fitness tracker for beginners
Garmin Vivosmart 5
A brilliant option for those new to Garmin and fitness tracking
Garmin keeps the design simple with its fifth-gen fitness tracker, but it still features plenty of advanced tracking.
- Simple design
- An affordable Garmin entry point
- Advanced tracking features
- No GPS
- Inconsistent sleep tracking
- Middling battery life
The Vivosmart 5 has been a long time in the making. It is Garmin’s first traditional fitness tracker band in years. The advancements aren’t huge compared to its predecessor, with the headline addition being the bigger display, but this is still a solid entry point into the Garmin ecosystem.
Garmin Vivosmart 5: Don’t call it a comeback
Garmin’s long-awaited return to the fitness tracker scene is here, but was it worth the wait? We’ve tested the Vivosmart 5 to find out.
There’s now also a really solid range of tracked metrics available, such as Garmin’s Body Battery, Pulse Ox, Fitness Age, Respiration Tracking and much more. Plus, this is all stored in the Garmin Connect app, which is a really great tool for detailed insights.
The Vivosmart 5 does have its sore spots, such as the reduced battery life when Pulse Ox is tracking during sleep, and the lack of GPS tracking, but, overall, this is a decent place to start if you’re new to Garmin and like the simple design.
Best pro fitness tracker
Garmin Forerunner 965
An advanced tracker for serious athletes wanting premium training features
The Garmin Forerunner 965 is a premium fitness watch for serious athletes needing the best. It offers highly accurate tracking and performance metrics, along with helpful training tools to help you get the most out of your work. Plus, the colorful AMOLED screen offers a more polished look.
- Bright, colorful display
- Impressive battery life
- Excellent tracking capabilities
- Premium training metrics and tools
- Not much of an improvement over the Forerunner 955
For serious athletes wanting a device to match their ambitions, the Garmin Forerunner 965 is the way to go. It features a bright, colorful AMOLED display so you can easily see all your stats at a glance. Despite the powerful display, it still offers impressively long battery life, so you’ll have no problem tracking your long runs or workouts.
Garmin Forerunner 965: Raising the game
Garmin brings an AMOLED display to its excellent Forerunner line, so it looks better than ever while still offering impressive performance.
As with most of Garmin’s offerings, it features accurate sensors that collect precise data from your workouts. The watch then uses that data to provide insightful training tools. You can even input upcoming races, which Garmin will use to provide even more individualized recommendations.
Beyond the advanced performance tools, it offers a handful of safety features and built-in maps for navigation. It also connects to your phone so you can receive notifications. Should you want a phone-free workout, you can download music right to the watch itself.
The best Garmin watches for every athlete
We’ve put the best Garmin watches through their paces and have found the top ones you need for any exercise routine.
The bottom line: What is the best fitness tracker?
Based on our testing, we believe the Fitbit Charge 6 is the best fitness tracker for your wrist because it combines an elegant design and simple UI with comprehensive fitness and GPS tracking.
Fitbit Charge 6
Editor’s Choice
A simple staple
Of course, if you’re looking for a more budget-friendly option, the Fitbit Inspire 3 offers the same sleek form factor and Fitbit ecosystem at a lower price.
FAQ
Q: Do you need GPS in a fitness tracker?
A big barrier between the low-cost trackers that flood one end of the market and the pricier premium options comes in the form of built-in GPS. Cheaper trackers will piggyback your phone’s GPS (called tethered GPS) to work out your location that way, but this means that you’ll need to take your phone with you on runs or cycles to get distance, pace, and a map at the end.
By contrast, built-in GPS tends to cost more and can tax your tracker’s battery life. But it makes for a way more freeing experience as you exercise, since you can leave everything behind. Built-in GPS generally provides much more accurate data over tethered devices as well. So, if that matters to you, definitely keep track of the GPS capabilities of the trackers you’re interested in.
Q: Why should I use a fitness tracker?
There are a few reasons to use fitness trackers. First and foremost, they can motivate you to stay on track with your fitness goals. The data they collect provides real-time metrics that allow you to monitor your progress, and some even provide helpful tips and tools based on your data on how to improve. Many fitness trackers even provide movement reminders, which can help you start a fitness journey if you are new to exercising regularly. Finally, many fitness trackers also offer some level of smartwatch features, providing notifications from your phone so you can stay connected without getting your phone out.
Q: How did we choose the best fitness trackers?
The writers and editors at Pocket-lint have been reviewing fitness trackers, smartwatches, and fitness watches for two decades. We’ve used an extensive range of devices over the years, providing us with in-depth insight into what makes a tracker great. When selecting the fitness trackers included here, we prioritized devices that offer useful fitness information and tracking tools while balancing smartwatch features and price.
Trending Products
