Best smart watch categories

 

Introduction

we are not even halfway through 2024 and it's already been a really big year for SmartWatches but with so many good options to choose from it can be difficult to find the right one for you so in this best smart watch caregort  I want to dive into my picks for the absolute best smart watches you can buy today broken down by category and at the end of this video I'll share my perhaps surprising choice for what I wear every single day.

Categories Overview

but the categories we're talking about  are going to be first of all the best category smartwatch for Fitness tracking then we'll talk about the best for non-samsung users and I'll explain why that category even needs to exist in the first place we'll talk about the best looking watch the best hybrid watch the best battery life like if you don't want to charge your phone after an all day battery of like 18 hours there's some good options out there for you the best on a budget the best fitness band which is a cool category that uh I personally am a big fan of and lastly the best of the best overall what is the best smartwatch for iOS and what is the best one for Android users.

Best for Fitness Tracking

now with that being said let's start off in the very first best smartwatch category a watch that I like a lot and actually for a long time it was my everyday watch this is the best for Fitness tracking the Garmin Venu 3 it's a very very accurate watch I really like it because you have great GPS on here you have great heart rate tracking so it really Nails the fundamentals on that aspect but there's also a lot of really cool insights that make it ideal for anybody who's training whether you're trying to train for a half marathon a little Triathlon uh maybe you're just trying to lose weight maybe you're lifting whatever it might be you have a lot of really cool things and not just sleep tracking but also body battery which I find really useful uh to help you decide how well you're recovering what you need to change about uh your lifestyle and of course if you maybe are coming down with a cold or something like that they also have other cool things like Fitness age that kind of gamify it and incentivize you like the more you work out the lower your Fitness age goes obviously everybody wants to be younger so I think that's a really big benefit there to kind of gamify it and we also have things like Health snapshot so you can see at any given moment if you're stressed out or something something take a little Health snapshot and you can see what's going on and what the metrics are for you there's also an ECG on here and of course it's a lightweight comfortable watch with a really long battery life like like really really long like compared to an Apple Watch you're looking at they claim 14 days but I've been getting at least seven or eight days sometimes even nine days out of this like it's a really solid watch for that and even though this doesn't get apps like uber on it you can get Spotify on here so you can have offline music and you can sync with other apps like Strava for example so automatically all of your runs will sync to Strava and I think that's a really cool thing that a lot of people will be looking for it works with IOS and Android and it just does fundamental Smartwatch stuff like I said phone calls uh like timers basic stuff that you need but it's not going to have like Siri or Uber or anything more advanced and this is $399 so not the cheapest but not the most expensive from Garmin either kind of somewhere in the middle maybe not affordable for everyone

 

 

 

Best for Non-Samsung Users

 

The next best smartwatch category is the best for non-samsung Android users I know it sounds really really specific but if you are a Samsung user Galaxy Watches are just a very different watch you have things like ECG on there and a lot of other features that Samsung restricts to only working with Samsung phones so if you have a pixel phone or a OnePlus Watch or one of the many other Android phones out there a Galaxy Watch might not be the best pick for you just because there are some limitations and so my pick here for the best watch for non-samsung Android users it's actually the Pixel Watch 2 it plays nicely with everyone and it does give any Android phone user out there ECG you have a rotating Crown which is why I chose the Pixel Watch over the OnePlus Watch I think having a rotation there is really nice to navigate the interface it's a very minimal aesthetic LTE is optional as well so if you want to have connectivity that's great Google is clearly deeply integrated with this so Google Assistant works very well uh everything that you'd expect Google Maps stuff like that just works very smoothly and this is selling at $349 really the only thing I would say it's missing is a slightly longer battery life but it's pretty much on par with a lot of the other regular classic SmartWatches like the Apple Watch that they'll get you through a day maybe a day and a half but I don't think you'll be seeing a whole lot more than that regardless it's a solid watch and I think it's a strong recommendation here.

 

 

Best smart watche Looking & Hybrid Watch 

This next best smartwatch category is very different it's the best looking watch but I'm actually doubling up here so two two Awards right here the best looking watch is also the best hybrid watch uh hybrid watches are something that I really appreciate because you get some advantages there are some disadvantages but the advantages being you have analog hands on there so it's a nicer looking watch even if the battery dies uh it's going to be a better looking watch and it's something that if I'm going to dress up in a suit or just anything more formal I don't want to have an Apple Watch on my wrist or a Galaxy Watch they're great watches don't get me wrong but I think if you're dressing up I would like something a little bit more formal and so hybrid watches do that in addition uh they also give you traditionally a much longer battery life. 

Winner: Withings ScanWatch Nova

the downside is there's much less functionality on them no GPS typically but the winner in this category is the Withings ScanWatch Nova. The Withings actually makes a bunch of hybrid watches this is their newest one and in my opinion by far the best looking watch. In the best smartwatch category this thing is just such a premium class watch and people look at it they don't even know it's a smartwatch at first but if you press the button on the right side you'll see the hands move out of the way and a display on the top shows you the time, date, month, heart rate, body temperature, steps taken today, distance walked, floors climbed, workout tracking, etc. The band is very easily replaceable in fact in the Box they give you a silicone strap as well so if you do want to wear this on uh walks or even like a run or swim like you definitely could could do that it's not going to be ideal like I said for more intense workouts because it is a slightly heavier watch and I mean it's made out of stainless steel so that's kind of to be expected which is nice it feels premium but not ideal for workouts.

 

 

 

Additional Features

and of course like obviously it doesn't have GPS on here but it does quite a bit of other stuff on here as well you have an ECG you can track your blood oxygen you can do little breathing meditation workouts there are timers and stopwatches and just like a surprising amount that they fit in such a small little watch like this and the associate app on your phone actually gives you a lot of insights additionally this works with both IOS and Android you're getting a claimed 30 days of battery life sometimes I've even had more than that depending on how much you use it and I mean notifications stuff like that it's a cool watch I think a lot of people don't know about hybrid watches and maybe if you are reading this article and looking for one in the best smartwatche category, this could be the perfect watch for you but it's definitely not for everybody.
 

 

 

Best Battery Life

now speaking of longer battery life maybe you want to have a smarter Smartwatch not like a hybrid watch but you still want to have more than like one-day battery life and so my pick here I know there are some that give you like very long battery life but kind of the best balance between battery life and smart features has to be the OnePlus Watch 2. they did a really cool thing uh they had some kind of little trick in here where they have two processors so the Dual chip architecture of this has on one you have the Snapdragon W5 chip which is very fast very powerful pretty much the most powerful out of any Android Smartwatch out there and you have a second chip on here which is a lot more efficient much less demanding and it's going to be great for background tasks.

Battery Life Performance

so they claim that gives you up to 100 hours of battery life for my testing I'm pretty comfortably getting about three 3.5 maybe even up to four days of battery life with this watch so not far off from their 100h hour claim and like it's still doing everything you'd expect it's it's full-blown weos watch. The only limitation that I wish this had was rotating crown or rotating bezel but other than that this is fantastic Smartwatch that I like in basically all regards it's accurate uh it also has dual band GPS which most other watches of this class do not have so that should give you much more accurate GPS especially if you're in mountainous situations or more buildings around having dual band can make pretty big difference.

Design & Features

this comes in two different colors and of course straps  are very easy to replace there's 1.43 in always-on display on front so bezel is not microscopic but significantly smaller than many competition out there. The made by OnePlus so no surprise they're giving us some other cool specs on here like significantly more storage you're getting 32 GB storage on here so can store basically as much music as want downloaded from Spotify or other apps out there as well that's going great running or just walking around whatever connect your earbuds to watch never have bring phone with. In the best smartwatch category , this is definitely one of the most feature packed option available.

 

Price & Recommendations

now the is $299. The only downside, like I said, is that it doesn't have rotating crown, if care about actually doesn't ECG either kind small drawbacks there but solid watch if find sale on this strong recommendation battery life specs OnePlus did great job here. In the best smartwatch category it's impressive performance and value.

Best on BudgetI

moving along to next category best on budget so all watches showed were definitely cheap watches but if want full-blown Smartwatch want spend less money this category for. If want spend even less than I'll talk about next category but best budget depending if you're Android iOS answer here best Apple going be Apple Watch SE best Android my opinion Galaxy Watch 4 now these both selling pretty big discount now because they're actually both about 2 years old Galaxy Watch 4 think little older so want kind aware these will getting updates for think Galaxy Watch gets last major update 2025 by 2026 going out dat it'll probably still usable another year but you're cool getting two three years out maybe more maybe can get four years out then's great buy most part Apple Watch SE same story both do lot what seeing flagships there's not whole lot difference past couple years SmartWatches their evolution.
 

 

 

Best Fitness Band

but focusing on something even cheaper even smaller even more subtle with longer battery life this is best fitness band little fitness trackers kind are what started Smartwatch kind movement they're also one best things my opinion people who just want start losing weight maybe they want something smaller can track sleep maybe just want something that's very affordable my pick none other than Xiaomi Mi Band 8. This should working pretty well IOS Android Mi Band 8 I've been using with Android phone bought global version Amazon about $40 $45 price varies little bit again I'll put link down below just some specs it though's 1.62 display way larger old mans used be addition they kind change things up not only can wear fitness strap could take straps off use Pebble mode running example kind what they said with addition have 16-day battery life still doing all Staples you'd expect show weather through phone going connected bluetooth course shows got timers here remote shutter all types different things you'd expect from smartwatch barebone essentials notifications example quick replies all working device much regular Smartwatch would just trimmed down past testing always showed Mi bands surprisingly accurate heart rate now without GPS there going using GPS phone can't give exact estimate depends what phone using how accurate that is pretty nice $45 get most what smartwatch does think that's pretty big win here Best smartwatch category.

Alternative Fitness Band

now if don't want get Mi band maybe just don't like xiaomi maybe don't like design Whatever It Is Samsung actually has really great one as well Samsung Galaxy Fit 3. This one I've made video about think couple weeks ago when first came out device again does all same stuff basically old Galaxy Watch Active kind like one right there but more rectangular design personally really like there were couple little quirks when first came out which why said Mi band my choice category assuming we have software firmware updates Galaxy Fit 3 really great choice here as well.
 

 


Garmin Venu 3








Apple Watch SE







Pixel Watch 2










Polar Ignite 3








Withings ScanWatch Nova









OnePlus Watch 2







Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra








Samsung Galaxy Watch 4





Xiaomi Mi Band 8










Fitbit Charge 5









SAMSUNG Galaxy FIT 3









In summary: the geography of smartwatches is different and continually evolving, feeding to a wide array of stoner preferences and conditions. Each order offers distinct advantages, making it easier for consumers to find a device that fits their life. For fitness shadowing, the Garmin Venu 3 excels with its accurate criteria and expansive health perceptivity, making it ideal for those serious about their training. The Pixel Watch 2 serves as an excellent option fornon-Samsung Android druggies, furnishing flawless integration with essential apps and features.However, the Withings ScanWatch Nova combines fineness with mongrel functionality, perfect for formal occasions, If style is a precedence. Battery life is pivotal for numerous druggies, and the OnePlus Watch 2 strikes a great balance between smart features and life. For budget-conscious shoppers, both the Apple Watch SE and Galaxy Watch 4 offer solid performance at a more accessible price point. also, fitness bands like the Xiaomi Mi Band 8 and Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 give essential shadowing capabilities in a compact form. Eventually, druthers similar as the Whoop Swatch 4.0 highlight a growing trend towards health- concentrated wearables that prioritize comfort and technical shadowing without the bulk of traditional smartwatches. With so numerous options available, chancing the right smartwatch acclimatized to individual requirements has noway been more attainable