The line between fitness trackers and smartwatches has become increasingly blurred of late, with most smartwatches straying into tracker territory and even the cheapest trackers providing notifications from a paired phone. That means that you can call pretty much any tracker a smartwatch – and some do – but we prefer to be a little more discerning when selecting our smart devices. Basically, we have some conditions that determine whether a wearable can truly be considered smart.

For our money a smartwatch needs to offer several features you’d otherwise turn to your phone for, including but not limited to notifications, music and contactless NFC payments, as well as running software that allows you to load apps on to the device, even if it’s only a very limited selection of apps. And of course our favourite smartwatches also have to offer top-quality activity and sports tracking, ideally using built-in GPS and a heart rate monitor.

Below you’ll find a range of smartwatches that fit the bill to suit all budgets and lifestyles.

The Best: Apple Watch Series 4

Even before the Series 4, the Apple Watch boasted the most impressive app market of any smartwatch, along with solid sports tracking and a gorgeous design that’s endlessly customisable. The Series 4 upped the ante by making the Apple Watch a medical-grade device, with the ability to take an ECG measurement from your wrist and monitor your heart health.

While the seriously sporty will not be satisfied by the basic native tracking, you can always add an app that suits your preferences, and the everyday activity tracking is excellent, with Apple’s addictive rings system encouraging you to move throughout the day.

The watch has built-in GPS, is waterproof, stores and streams music, and can be used to make contactless payments via Apple Pay. There is also a 4G version so you can take calls, download emails and stream music without being tethered to your phone. The only real downsides are its one-day battery life and the fact it only works in tandem with an iPhone, leaving Android users in the cold.

Best For Android Users: Samsung Galaxy Watch

The Galaxy Watch runs on Samsung’s own Tizen software, which is compatible with both Android and iOS devices but is naturally at its best when used in tandem with a Samsung phone. One of the best features of the watch is obvious from the moment you pick it up – its Super AMOLED screen is outstandinglydazzling clear – and it backs up its looks with serious smarts as well.

Although the app selection is smaller than you get with iOS or Wear OS watches, Strava, Endomondo and MapMyRun are all there for fitness fans, and the Spotify integration is brilliantly simple to use, so you can sync across your playlists easily.

The everyday activity tracking is impressive too, with widgets available to check on things like your water and caffeine intake alongside the standard steps and calories. Despite being waterproof and having built-in GPS and a heart rate monitorThe native sports tracking is sub-par, even for casual runners and gym-goers, despite waterproofing and the presence of built-in GPS and a heart rate monitor, but the app market fills that gap nicely. There is also a 4G version of the watch available on EE.

 

Best Fitbit Smartwatch: Fitbit Ionic

The Fitbit Versa might be the company’s most popular smartwatch, but we reckon the Ionic is outrageously underrated and it’s often reduced to less than £200, a price where you’ll struggle to find any other devices that can match its extensive feature set.

This includes built-in GPS, a waterproof design, a heart rate monitor, music storage and streaming, and Fitbit Pay, which isn’t as useful as Apple, Google or Samsung Pay owing to having fewer partner banks, but can still get the job done when its comes to NFC payments.

The Ionic also has a truly excellent screen, which is bright and responsive to use if you like to swipe your way through menus, and its fitness tracking is great for both everyday activity and more intense workouts. That’s fortunate because Fitbit’s app market is tiny compared with Apple’s or Google’s, so you can’t dip into that for other tracking options.

Best For Sports Tracking: Garmin Fenix 5 Plus

If your first priority for a smartwatch is that it’s capable of providing in-depth detail about your sporting activities, the Fenix 5 Plus is tough to beat. Garmin’s native tracking is second to none for both ease of use and detail, offering far more for runners and triathletes than even a fitness-focused watch like the Ionic. That includes info on the training effect of your workout, estimated recovery time and even live feedback on your running technique (if you link it with a footpod).

The Fenix 5 Plus also has outstanding navigation features, with colour maps and on-the-go routing, so you can head for the great outdoors for your runs, hikes and rides knowing you’ll always be able to find your way home.

The smart features are not as well developed as on the Apple Watch or equivalent smartwatch, but you can link a Spotify account to the Fenix 5 Plus to sync across your playlists easily, as well as plugging it in to load your own music and podcasts.

NFC payments are available through Garmin Pay, which suffers from the same problem as Fitbit Pay in not having a huge amount of partner banks. Garmin’s Connect IQ app store is also only really useful for those looking to find new watch faces and sports-related extras, like the Stryd footpod app, but there are some general apps in there like Uber ETA.

Best Budget Smartwatch: Mobvoi TicWatch E2

The TicWatch E2 costs less than £150, which should make the ears of any bargain hunter prick up, and the news only gets better when you dive into the details of the watch. It’s waterproof, has built-in GPS and an optical heart rate monitor, and a bright AMOLED touchscreen.

It runs Wear OS and although its performance might be slightly more sluggish than that of top-end Android smartwatches, it’s still impressively snappy for such a cheap option, and the design is robust and good-looking.

One feature it’s missing is NFC payment, which is available on Mobvoi’s more expensive watches. However, the recently-released E2 and S2 watches are the first in the company’s line-up to offer swim tracking, with a 5 ATM waterproof rating.

Most Stylish: Skagen Falster 2

Keen to avoid being left behind, many analogue watch companies are releasing smartwatches, especially those in the Fossil Group like Skagen Denmark. Its Falster 2 watch is the pick of the bunch for style, with a slim, minimalist design that belies the amount of tech that has been crammed into it.

That tech includes GPS and a heart rate monitor, and the Falster 2 runs Wear OS so you can access a massive library of apps to customise your watch. The Falster 2 is also swimproof and the band is a standard 20mm watch strap so you can swap it out easily if you have one you already love.