Fitness trackers, like any other piece of gear you wear on your body on a daily basis, are extremely personal. Sure, they must be comfortable and attractive, but they must also fit your lifestyle, including when and how you prefer to exercise.
Whatever your requirements are, there’s never been a better time to find a powerful, sophisticated tool that can help you optimize your workouts or jumpstart your routine.
Best Fitness Trackers And Watches
- Amazfit GTR 4
- Garmin fenix 7 Pro
- Garmin Vivomove Trend
- Apple Watch Series 9
- Fitbit Charge 6
- Samsung Galaxy Watch6 and Watch6 Classic
Amazfit GTR 4
The Amazfit GTR 4 performs far above its weight. It’s less expensive at $199 and is packed with features you’d expect to find on much more expensive wearables. This includes a bright OLED screen, blood oxygen monitoring, sleep stage and stress tracking, Amazon Alexa compatibility, and an offline digital assistant. It also includes a native camera remote and a handy Pomodoro timer.
For outdoor fitness enthusiasts, the GTR 4 also has multiband GPS, which allows for more accurate GPS tracking in challenging environments. You can also import GPX routes from websites like Strava and Komoot. The GTR 4 takes a more holistic approach to health, converting steps into PAI points to determine whether you’re getting the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity per week.
The GTR 4 has all of the standard smart features, including push notifications, quick text replies on Android, alarms, timers, and the ability to make and receive calls via Bluetooth. The only thing missing from the GTR 4 is contactless payments, which it more than makes up for with its extensive feature set and battery life. It lasts about 10-14 days on a single charge with normal use, and about a week with heavy use. It may not have the same brand recognition as a Fitbit, but given that Google nerfed both the Versa 4 and Sense 2 last year, you may be able to overlook this. Furthermore, the GTR 4 does not have thick bezels like either of those watches.
Garmin fenix 7 Pro
This fitness tracker watch is expensive, but if you can afford it, you can use it for 22 days on a single charge thanks to its solar charging lens. If you enjoy working out outside, you can be confident that your device will not die within a few days; additionally, it includes a built-in flashlight for your nightly runs, hikes, or mountain climbs. It includes SATIQ™ Technology, multi-band GPS, 24/7 health and wellness monitoring, and performance features for serious adventurers. These include hill score, Climbpro tracking (for climbers), real-time stamina data, grade-adjusted pace metrics, and others.
Garmin Vivomove Trend
One of the most common complaints about fitness trackers is that each has its own exclusive charger. If you’re used to charging your phone and earbuds on multi-purpose Qi wireless charging pads, looking for a specific charger can be inconvenient. The Vivomove Trend is the first Garmin to feature wireless charging, and it works!
Garmin Connect is Garmin’s proprietary tool for tracking all of your fitness data, and it’s one of the most comprehensive and useful apps I’ve ever used. This year, Garmin redesigned it to look somewhat similar to Fitbit’s, with Body Battery (Garmin’s metric for tracking your energy throughout the day) at the top, above an easy-to-navigate At a Glance section. The Trend provides easy access to Garmin’s most convenient fitness features, including an analog watch face, connected GPS, incident detection, contactless payments, sleep tracking, and continuous heart rate monitoring.
Apple Watch Series 9
People tend to keep their Apple Watch for years, and for good reason: it is by far the best fitness tracker available for iPhone users. Currently, the best Apple Watch is the Series 9. It looks almost identical to other Apple Watches, but it has the new S9 chipset for faster onboard processing of Siri commands, which significantly improves battery life and theoretically provides more privacy for your sensitive medical information. It also includes a new ultra-wideband chip, allowing you to quickly and accurately locate your iPhone.
The watch also has a new feature called Double Tap, which draws on Apple’s accessibility expertise. The accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical sensor will detect minute shifts as you tap your index finger and thumb twice to activate the primary button on your watch screen; this is useful for stopping and starting music or timers in the kitchen. It is compatible with WatchOS 10, which includes new watch faces, app redesigns, and additional health-related features. Most WatchOS 10 updates are also available on the second-generation Watch SE, but more advanced health sensors, such as wrist-based body temperature sensing, are not included.
Fitbit Charge 6
The Fitbit Charge 6 strikes a balance of attractiveness, affordability, accessibility, and user-friendly features. They’re ideal for anyone who isn’t an ultra-marathoner or a semi-pro powerlifter looking to break a record.
This year’s Charge 6 features numerous integrations from Google, Fitbit’s new parent company. The redesigned app appears much more modern and well-organized. Google Maps now provides directions, Google Wallet allows you to pay, and a YouTube Music Premium subscription gives you control over your music. The newly Google-fied app also allows you to monitor your skin temperature and heart rate 24/7, take ECGs, and track your activities and sleep schedule. The battery charge lasted more than a week, and the physical button is back, baby! Finally, the entire package costs $160.
Samsung Galaxy Watch6 and Classic
Unlike last year’s Galaxy Watch 5, this year’s Watch6 Classic retains the fabulous, clicky, rotating bezel. It’s a fun and tactile feature that you won’t find on many other smartwatches or fitness trackers. Aside from that, it looks and feels very similar to the Watch5, which is a good thing. The Watch6 Classic comes in 43- or 47-mm cases, while the standard Watch6, which lacks the mechanical rotating bezel, is available in 40- and 44-mm cases.
The Watch6 runs Wear OS, which allows you to use Google Maps and Google Assistant, as well as Samsung’s fairly robust health features. In addition to the standard SpO2 measurements, auto-workout detection, and sleep tracking, it now includes FDA-cleared irregular heart rate notifications and blood pressure monitoring (the latter is neither available in the US nor FDA-cleared). Certain features, such as the ECG, are only available to users who pair the watch with Samsung phones rather than other Android phones. If you value design, stick with a Pixel Watch; if you don’t own a Samsung phone, stick with a Garmin. All that being said, it’s a fairly capable watch.
If you value design, stick with a Pixel Watch; if you don’t own a Samsung phone, stick with a Garmin. Having said that, it’s a reasonably useful watch with a fun party trick.