Smart Watches & Fitness Trackers

Smart Watches and Fitness Trackers

The split worth understanding first is between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch, because they are bought for different reasons and the prices reflect it. A fitness tracker is a band that counts steps, heart rate, sleep and workouts, lasts a week or more on a charge and is deliberately simple. A smartwatch adds a full screen, apps, contactless payment, music and notifications you can answer, at the cost of charging it every day or two. A sports watch sits apart again: built around GPS accuracy, training load and recovery metrics for running, cycling and swimming rather than around notifications.

Three specifications decide most of it. Battery life, where a week is normal for a tracker and a day or two for a full smartwatch, so a watch worn for sleep tracking needs to fit its charge around that. GPS, where built in GPS records a route without carrying a phone and connected GPS borrows the phone's, which is the difference that matters to a runner. And phone compatibility, because some watches pair fully with Android and only partly with iPhone, or the reverse, so check before buying rather than after. Water rating matters for swimming rather than for rain, and strap size and fit decide whether heart rate readings are accurate at all.

Garmin covers the largest spread here, from the Forerunner 55, 165 and 265S running watches through the Instinct E and the Vivoactive 5. Samsung and Fitbit add further smartwatch and tracker options. See also men's smartwatches and fitness trackers.

Smart watches run on the same January cycle as the rest of the fitness category: demand peaks in the new year, and that is when prices hold. They are also one of the most bought tech gifts, so stock clears rather than being replenished. Prices are live all year, so see what is reduced now on smart watches on sale, or the Black Friday smart watch deals.