There has never been a better selection of fitness trackers, but with choice comes confusion. We’re here to help you narrow your options and find the best fitness tracker for your needs and budget. We’ve been reviewing fitness trackers for more than a decade and have tested each model below, considering factors such as accuracy, battery life, ease of setup and use, features, specs, and style before recommending it to you. The affordable Fitbit Air is the best screen-free fitness tracker we’ve tested, offering a lot of value for just $99. The Apple Watch Series 12 and Google Pixel Watch 5, our favorite smartwatches, and the Oura Ring 5, our top-rated smart ring, all offer extensive fitness and health-tracking features. However, they aren’t the only models we recommend. Whether you’re an avid exerciser or just starting out, our list of the best fitness trackers has you covered.
Overview
- Best Screenless Fitness Tracker
Fitbit Air
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Best Smartwatch for iPhone UsersApple Watch Series 12
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Best Screen-Equipped Fitness TrackerGoogle Fitbit Edge
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Best Smartwatch for Android UsersGoogle Pixel Watch 5
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Best for BeginnersFitbit Inspire 3
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Best for WomenGarmin Lily 2
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Best Smart RingOura Ring 5
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Best Affordable Android TrackerSamsung Galaxy Fit3
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Most Affordable Apple WatchApple Watch SE 3
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Best for Onboard Music StorageGarmin Vivoactive 5
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Best for Serious RunnersPolar Pacer Pro
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Best for KidsFitbit Ace 3
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Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
- Best Screenless Fitness Tracker
Fitbit Air
4.5 Outstanding
Pros & Cons
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- Stylish, lightweight design
- Highly accurate heart rate and sleep tracking
- More than a week of battery life
- Well-organized, informative app
- Flexible input makes it easy to log and share data
- Detailed Gemini health coaching
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- Fewer workout details than trackers with screens
- Limited automatic workout tracking
The affordable Fitbit Air is the best fitness tracker for those who don’t want a distracting screen. It’s unobtrusive enough to stay out of the way at the gym or while sleeping, and it proved highly accurate when measuring heart rate and sleep in my testing.
Why We Picked It
Design: The lightweight Fitbit Air feels comfortable enough that I often forgot I was wearing it during testing. The sensor measures 1.4 by 0.7 by 0.3 inches (LWH) and is water resistant to a depth of 164 feet. It easily snaps into different bands, and you can buy them in various colors and materials to match your outfits. Unlike some smart rings, it never bothered me at the gym, even when lifting weights, and it even fit my style when dressing up for a night out.
Battery life: In testing, the Fitbit Air lasted for just over eight full days on a charge. That’s much longer than most devices with screens, and it lets you comfortably schedule a time to put it on the charger once a week.
Health tracking: During the night, the Fitbit Air accurately tracked my sleep and assessed its duration and quality, providing a sleep score. During the day, it reliably tracks numerous activities or exercises, offering accurate heart rate readings. It also provides a helpful Daily Readiness Score, indicating how hard you should push in a day, and Cardio Load as a weekly activity threshold to aim for.
Guidance: While the aforementioned health-tracking features are available for free, a premium membership provides access to the Google Health Coach. This responsive, AI-powered coach offers workout classes and provides in-depth guidance tailored to your needs and goals. In testing, I found the Health Coach extremely responsive and adaptable to changing circumstances.
Who It’s For
Those wanting less screen time: Other Fitbit models on this list use the same sensors and Google Health app, but the Fitbit Air is the only one without a screen. Go with the Fitbit Air if you want a device to track your health without having an extra dashboard to compulsively check.
Fitness beginners: The Air won’t break the bank, so it’s an excellent pick for those picking up a fitness tracker for the first time. The premium Google Health Coach learns your goals and schedule, and takes the guesswork out of building a fitness plan. You might not need this feature if you’re already in shape, but if you’re looking for guidance on your movement journey, the Health Coach is the best AI for the job right now.
Android and iOS users:The Air works with both smartphone platforms
Who Should Skip It
Those who want a screen: Be sure you’re ready for a screen-free device before buying the Fitbit Air. If you’ll miss the apps, the notifications, or even the ability to check your workout stats with a quick glance, stick with a wearable that has a display.
Advanced runners: The Fitbit Air doesn’t track running form metrics like cadence and stride length, so if you’re looking to fine-tune your trot, many other wearables offer more details. Plus, if you’re already an avid runner, you likely don’t need guidance from the Google Health Coach.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 8.5 days Compatibility Android Compatibility iOS Display Type None Heart Rate Monitor Sleep Tracker Learn MoreFitbit Air Review
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Best Smartwatch for iPhone UsersApple Watch Series 12
4.5 Outstanding
Pros & Cons
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- More than two days of battery life
- Upgraded sensors provide better health tracking
- Siri AI offers helpful assistance
- Vitals app delivers more health details and assessments
- Readiness score for assessing wellness
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- No design upgrades
- Minor heart rate inaccuracies in testing
The Apple Watch Series 12 offers a broad suite of built-in fitness, health, and safety tools, along with the best selection of third-party apps (such as AllTrails, Nike Run Club, Peloton, and Strava) of any smartwatch. Its Activity, Exercise, and Stand rings can help motivate you to get moving, and its companion Fitness+ workout streaming service ($9.99 per month or $79.99 per year after a three-month trial) offers a variety of studio-style classes with excellent music and instruction for use at home or in the gym.
Why We Picked It
Design: The Apple Watch Series 12 comes in 42mm and 46mm case sizes, in aluminum, titanium, or ceramic, with each material offering its own color options. You can also choose from numerous watch bands in various materials, styles, and colors. In other words, you can really customize the look of the Series 12 to suit your preferences. The always-on OLED retina display reaches up to 2,000 nits of adaptive brightness, and the aluminum model has a durable Ceramic Shield over the screen for protection.
Battery life: While not as long-lasting as the fitness-focused trackers on this list, the Series 12 offers impressive battery life for a smartwatch that’s loaded with apps and lifestyle features. In testing, it lasted 54.5 hours on a charge, well beyond the company’s 24-hour estimate and the Series 11 (43 hours tested).
Health tracking: The Series 12 has a brand-new health-sensing system that takes heart rate readings much more frequently throughout the day than the Series 11. This enables more detail in various health-tracking apps, such as Heart Rate and Vitals. It now also shows a Readiness Score as a guide to how hard to push your workout for the day, in addition to its existing Sleep Score. It also reliably tracks your activity, body temperature fluctuations, fertility windows, heart rate, menstrual cycle, overnight respiration, sleep patterns, and more.
Safety features: The new health-sensing system in the Series 12 can update the Vitals app during the day if it detects increased stress or signs of illness. The Series 12 can even alert you to high or low heart rate, irregular heart rhythm, and loud sounds that can damage your hearing. It also supports Emergency SOS and international emergency calling, as well as automatic calls for help if it detects a hard fall or a car crash.
Who It’s For
iPhone users:The Apple Watch Series 12 is ideal for iPhone users seeking a capable fitness tracker. It requires an iPhone 11 or later with iOS 27, so it’s not an option if you use Android.
Runners, swimmers, and cyclists:The Series 12’s wrist-based running power measurements can help you gauge your effort in real time, a WR50 rating makes it safe for shallow-water activities like swimming in a pool or the ocean, and automatic bike ride detection ensures you never lose credit for an outdoor cycle workout.
Who Should Skip It
Android users: The Apple Watch Series 12 is not compatible with Android phones. Check out any of the Android-compatible models on this list if that’s your preferred phone platform.
Outdoor adventurers: The Series 12 offers IP6X dust resistance and 164 feet of water resistance, but if you need an extra-rugged model for extreme sports like jet skiing, mountain biking, off-grid hiking, or scuba diving, check out the Apple Watch Ultra 4.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 54.5 hours (tested) Compatibility iOS Display Size 1.65 inches/1.81 inches Display Type Always-on LTPO3 OLED Fitness Features Accelerometer Fitness Features Barometer Fitness Features Blood Oxygen Monitor Fitness Features ECG Fitness Features GPS Fitness Features Gyroscope Fitness Features Heart Rate Monitor Fitness Features Pedometer Fitness Features Pulse Oximeter Fitness Features Temperature Sensor Heart Rate Monitor Phone Call Capacity Phone OS Compatibility iOS Processor Apple S11 Separate App Store Sleep Tracker Watch OS watchOS Learn MoreApple Watch Series 12 Review: A New Era of Wrist-Based AI Has Arrived Review
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Credit: Andrew Gebhart
Best Screen-Equipped Fitness TrackerGoogle Fitbit Edge
4.0 Excellent
Pros & Cons
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- Colorful and responsive touch screen
- Stylish design with unique band options
- Handy widgets for glanceable health stats
- Accurate sleep tracking
- Built-in altimeter for tracking floors climbed
- Well-organized, informative app
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- Minor heart rate inaccuracies in testing
- Lacks NFC for mobile payments
The Fitbit Edge features a display for checking your stats during workouts and keeping up with your phone notifications. Design-wise, it strikes a good middle ground: It’s not as big as a smartwatch, and it doesn’t make you pull out your phone like a screenless band. It offers 50 exercise modes and automatically recognizes 100 different activity types. It’s comfortable to wear around the clock, and it accurately measures sleep duration and quality. It integrates seamlessly with the Google Health app. With a premium membership, you get access to the Gemini-powered Health Coach, which can help you plan your workouts.
Why We Picked It
Design: The Fitbit Edge is available in multiple case colors and offers several band styles, ranging from the default silicone Active Band to an elegant Metal Links Band. It’s durable with 5ATM and IP68 ratings, meaning it’s water-resistant to 164 feet and dustproof. The mix of colors and band options lets you tailor the look to suit your style, and you can select from a variety of clock faces and informational widgets to customize the 1.34-inch AMOLED touch screen.
Health and fitness tracking: The Edge has a variety of sensors to track key health metrics, including blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and skin temperature. It offers automatic and manual workout tracking and can broadcast your heart rate to compatible gym equipment. It monitors your distance traveled, energy burned, floors climbed, and step count, along with exercise-specific metrics such as elevation gain, pace, and stride length during running.
Sleep tracking: While you rest, the Edge tracks and charts your time spent in each sleep cycle, as well as sleep quality metrics such as efficiency, restlessness, and interruptions. During testing, its sleep measurements, charts, and assessments consistently proved accurate.
Key lifestyle features:The Edge provides access to a small but useful set of lifestyle apps. It lets you check the weather, set alarms and timers, and control the music playing on your phone. It also mirrors your phone notifications, making them colorful and easy to read right from your wrist.
Guidance: In the free version of the Google Health app, the Edge shows your Readiness, which can help you plan your workout intensity for the day, and your Cardio Load, which offers a weekly exercise goal. The premium version of the app unlocks the Google Health Coach. This AI-powered guide will create a comprehensive fitness plan tailored to your needs and goals. It’s responsive and adaptable as your schedule and motivation change, and you can pair it with the app’s library of workouts or do your own thing and easily import your sets just by taking a picture of a whiteboard at the gym.
Who It’s For
Stat checkers: If you want to monitor your heart rate from your wrist as you work out, the simple screen on the Fitbit Edge is perfect for that. The clear display makes your stats easy to see at a glance and works equally well for checking your notifications or reviewing sleep data.
People with small wrists: The Fitbit Edge measures 1.54 by 1.0 by 0.46 inches (LWH) and weighs just 0.62 ounces without the band, so it might look a little small on you if you have big wrists. If you want a petite wearable with a screen, look no further.
Android and iOS users: The Fitbit Edge communicatesth Android phones running Android 11 or newer, and iPhones running iOS 16.4 or newer
Who Should Skip It
Tap-to-pay fans: The Fitbit Edge lacks NFC, so you can’t use it to make in-store payments.
App users: While some elements of the Fitbit Edge look and feel like a smartwatch, it doesn’t run Wear OS. You won’t find an app store here, and even the preinstalled ones are limited in functionality. The Edge’s display is very useful for checking stats, but if you want a device you can use to get things done on your wrist, you’ll need a smartwatch.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 3 days Compatibility Android Compatibility iOS Display Type AMOLED Heart Rate Monitor Sleep Tracker Learn MoreFitbit Edge Review: Google’s Best Fitness Tracker With a Screen Review
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Best Smartwatch for Android UsersGoogle Pixel Watch 5
4.0 Excellent
Pros & Cons
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- Accurate exercise and sleep tracking
- More than two days of battery life
- Detailed Gemini health coaching
- Proactive and speedy AI assistance
- Responsive touch and gesture controls
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- Less durable than competitors
- Some fitness advice is paywalled
The Google Pixel Watch 5 features a unique, stylish curved display for checking notifications and workout stats. An updated dual-frequency GPS uses software to accurately track your location even in the presence of interference from trees and tall buildings. It offers accurate exercise and sleep metrics, and holistic wellness scores at no additional cost, and the premium Google Health Coach is the most responsive AI-powered fitness assistant I’ve tested. The Pixel Watch 5 even offers satellite communications in case of emergency.
Why We Picked It
Design: I find the curved display and domed glass on the Pixel Watch 5 striking, and Google has watch faces with graphics that bend around the edges to help accentuate the unique look. The Actua 360 display is AMOLED LTPO with DCI-P3 color, measuring 1.27 inches on the smaller watch and 1.46 inches on the larger model. The screen reaches up to 3,000 nits of brightness that adjusts based on ambient light. The aerospace-grade aluminum case has an IP68 weather resistance rating and can be submerged up to 164 feet.
Battery life: In testing, the larger Pixel Watch 5 lasted 56.5 hours on a charge with typical usage. That’s an excellent result for a flagship smartwatch loaded with AI, apps, and other lifestyle features. The Pixel Watch 5 also recharges quickly, returning from 5% to full in roughly 45 minutes.
Health tracking: The Google Health app shows a Daily Readiness Score to guide your workout intensity, and a Cardio Load for a rolling seven-day breakdown of your exertion. The watch monitors your blood pressure and insulin resistance trends for signs of trouble and warns you when to talk to a doctor. During exercise, the Pixel Watch 5 accurately tracks heart rate and provides detailed running-form metrics like stride length. During sleep, it reliably monitors the duration and quality of your rest, as well as your breathing and its effect on your blood oxygen levels.
Fitness planning: The premium Google Health Coach creates a workout schedule for you based on your goals and preferences, and can update your plan on the fly if circumstances change. You can even have it create a strength training or HIIT workout based on the muscles you want to target or the weights you have on hand. You can also log a workout just by taking a picture of a whiteboard with your listed sets.
Who It’s For
Android users: With cutting-edge fitness and health-tracking tools plus AI-generated advice, the Pixel Watch 5 is the best Android-compatible smartwatch I’ve tested. It’s exclusive to devices running Android 12.0 or newer, and pairing it with a Google Pixel phone specifically enables access to AI-based features like proactive notifications.
Fitbit fans: The Pixel Watch 5 offers access to Fitbit’s robust suite of health sensing tech. A Readiness Score lets you know how much to push it on a given day, and Cardio Load provides a weekly benchmark that updates as you exercise so you can see how close you are to hitting your goal.
Fitness beginners: If you’re trying to turn over a new leaf in your health and fitness, the premium AI-powered Health Coach will be an incredible aid. It can keep you motivated by adapting its schedule to your needs and desires. It’s responsive and encouraging, and makes it incredibly easy to log activities and even calories, so it has the information it needs to offer detailed advice.
Who Should Skip It
iPhone users: The Pixel Watch 5 is exclusive to Android phones, but other Fitbit devices like the Air and the Charge 6 also work across smartphone platforms.
Accident-prone individuals: The curved glass and rounded display don’t offer much peace of mind if you tend to be rough on gadgets. The Pixel Watch 5 has held up well in testing and is fully repairable, but if that’s not enough reassurance, you can find plenty of other smartwatches with a flat display.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 56.5 hours (tested) Compatibility Android Display Size 1.27 inches/1.46 inches Display Type AMOLED LTPO Fitness Features Accelerometer Fitness Features Barometer Fitness Features Blood Oxygen Monitor Fitness Features ECG Fitness Features GPS Fitness Features Gyroscope Fitness Features Heart Rate Monitor Fitness Features Light Sensor Fitness Features Pedometer Fitness Features Pulse Oximeter Fitness Features Temperature Sensor Heart Rate Monitor Phone Call Capacity Phone OS Compatibility Android Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated, Cortex-M55 Separate App Store Sleep Tracker Watch OS Wear OS Learn MoreGoogle Pixel Watch 5 Review: Gemini Takes Center Stage in the Best Android Smartwatch Review
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Best for BeginnersFitbit Inspire 3
4.0 Excellent
Pros & Cons
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- Color touch screen with always-on option
- Longest battery life in Fitbit lineup
- Thinner design than last generation
- SpO2 sensor for overnight readings
- Find Phone feature works well
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- Tiny text can be hard to read
- Minor accuracy issues in testing
- No on-demand SpO2 measurements
- Some metrics require a subscription
With long battery life, a color AMOLED touch screen, and all the basic activity and sleep features you need, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is one of the best fitness trackers you can get for less than $100. The tracker’s simple interface and well-designed companion app make it easy to monitor key fitness and health metrics, including your steps, heart rate, calories burned, sleep, overnight SpO2, and more.
Why We Picked It
Value: The Fitbit Inspire 3 starts at $99.95, and you can almost always find it for less than that price. The design is thin, comfortable, and durable enough to be submerged to a depth of 164 feet. The AMOLED touch display is bright, responsive, and easy to read in most lighting conditions. It also offers most of its health insights for free, so it’s an excellent buy if looking for an affordable tracker with a screen.
Battery life: With the always-on display enabled, the Inspire 3 lasted for three days in testing, but that number jumps to eight days with the always-on display option disabled. That’s an impressive battery life result for a device with a screen. Being able to go a week without charging is a nice perk.
Exercise tracking: For fitness and health tracking, the Inspire 3 features an accelerometer, an optical heart rate monitor, and red/infrared sensors for overnight blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements. It tracks a wide range of activities and exercises with reasonable accuracy, especially for the price.
Sleep tracking: While you sleep, the Inspire 3 monitors overnight health metrics, including breathing rate, heart rate variability (HRV), skin temperature, SpO2, and resting heart rate (RHR). It calculates a nightly sleep score based on the quality of your sleep, and offers tips to help improve your shuteye over time.
Who It’s For
Newbies:The Fitbit Inspire 3 is a top choice for fitness beginners just starting on a path to better health, as well as for those on a budget. The main limitation is the lack of a built-in GPS, so it must connect to your phone to accurately track your pace and distance during outdoor walks, runs, hikes, and bike rides.
Android and iOS users:The Inspire 3 works with both major smartphone platforms
Who Should Skip It
Farsighted individuals: The display on the Inspire 3 is small, and you can’t adjust the font size. If you have trouble reading small text, look for a device with a bigger screen.
Avid exercisers: The Inspire 3 doesn’t support on-demand SpO2 readings, it can’t track your form while running, and its heart rate readings lack the precision of more premium devices. If you need highly accurate and detailed data that goes beyond the basics, look elsewhere.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 8 days Compatibility Android Compatibility iOS Display Type AMOLED Heart Rate Monitor Sleep Tracker Get It Now
Learn MoreFitbit Inspire 3 Review-
Best for WomenGarmin Lily 2
4.0 Excellent
Pros & Cons
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- Plenty of options for activity tracking
- Slim and chic design with interchangeable bands
- Good battery life
- All stats are available in Garmin Connect app for free
- Tracks heart rate, sleep, SpO2
- Many useful widgets to customize metrics
- Garmin Pay support (on Classic models)
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- No onboard GPS
- Lacks a barometric altimeter for tracking stairs climbed
- Grayscale display
- Cannot broadcast your heart rate via ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart
Designed specifically for women, the Garmin Lily 2 stands out for its classic, jewelry-like design. It features a beautiful, patterned face, an aluminum bezel and case, and a 14mm quick-release band that’s much slimmer than most smartwatch straps, so you can wear it alongside other bracelets. More than just attractive, the Lily 2 can track health stats such as your calories burned, energy level, heart rate, respiration, sleep, SpO2, steps, stress, and workouts.
Why We Picked It
Design: With a slim and lightweight build, the Garmin Lily 2 is a lot more chic than a traditional fitness tracker and much more comfortable than a bulky sports watch. You can pick from multiple interchangeable bands and easily swap between them if you buy more than one. The durable frame is less than 0.4 inches thick, so it fits well under long-sleeve shirts.
Battery life: The Garmin Lily 2 lasted over five days on a charge in testing, which is an excellent result for a device with a screen.
Fitness tracking: You can track a wide range of activities, exercises, and sports with the Lily 2, including biking, cardio, dance fitness, elliptical training, Pilates, pool swimming, running, stair stepping, strength training, treadmill running, walking, and yoga. In testing, its heart rate readings proved accurate during workouts.
Sleep tracking: During the night, the Lily 2 keeps track of your sleep duration, the amount of time you spend in each sleep stage (awake/restless, deep, light, and REM), as well as your resting heart rate, stress, Pulse Ox (blood oxygen saturation), and respiration rate. It grades the quality of your rest with a sleep score, and its metrics proved accurate in testing.
Who It’s For
Women:If you want a female-friendly fitness tracker that seamlessly transitions from workout classes to fancy dinners, the Garmin Lily 2 is a top choice. This aesthetically pleasing wellness wearable is much more comfortable for small wrists than a bulky sports watch.
Newbies:The Lily 2 offers activity profiles for all the basics, from dance fitness to pool swimming to yoga. It reliably tracks your calories burned, heart rate, sleep, steps taken, SpO2, and more to help you stay motivated and lead a healthy lifestyle. Just keep in mind it lacks an integrated GPS, so you have to carry your phone to record your distance, pace, stride length, and running route during outdoor workouts. Moreover, it doesn’t sync to gym equipment, so if you want to track your real-time pulse on your Peloton screen, you’ll need a separate heart rate monitor.
Android and iOS users:The Lily 2 works with both major smartphone platforms
Who Should Skip It
Men: This watch is designed specifically for women, with a small, feminine design that isn’t ideal for large wrists. That said, to heck with gender norms. If you’re a guy and you want to wear this watch, go ahead.
Serious runners: Without GPS on the watch itself, you have to carry your phone while you run to accurately record your distance, pace, stride length, and route. Plus, it lacks the detailed running-form metrics of some other models on this list, such as vertical oscillation and ground contact time.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 5 days Compatibility Android Compatibility iOS Display Type LCD Fitness Features Accelerometer Fitness Features Blood Oxygen Monitor Fitness Features Heart Rate Monitor Fitness Features Light Sensor Heart Rate Monitor Phone OS Compatibility Android, iOS Processor N/A Sleep Tracker Watch OS Proprietary Get It Now
Learn MoreGarmin Lily 2 Review-
Best Smart RingOura Ring 5
4.0 Excellent
Pros & Cons
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- Lightweight, thin, and comfortable
- 10+ days of battery life
- Accurate sleep and stress tracking
- Informative, well-organized app
- Helpful short- and long-term guidance
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- Expensive
- Hit-or-miss automatic workout tracking
The Oura Ring 5 is a stylish and comfortable smart ring that discreetly measures your activity, sleep, and stress from its position on your finger. With tiny, accurate sensors, it tracks blood oxygen, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and more. The Oura app makes it easy to interpret your data, providing holistic readiness, sleep, and activity scores, while offering detailed, personalized recommendations to improve your well-being.
Why We Picked It
Design: The fifth-gen Oura Ring is so thin that I often forgot I was wearing it during testing, and its elegant, stylish design always caught my eye when I looked down. At a glance, it looks like ordinary jewelry, and it adds some panache to a fancy outfit. The titanium ring comes in a range of sizes and finishes and is durable enough to withstand dust and submersion to 328 feet.
Battery life: Despite its incredibly thin frame, the Oura Ring 5 still packs an impressive amount of battery life. It lasted for 10.5 days in testing under ordinary usage. That’s near the top of this list for longevity and enables round-the-clock holistic health tracking, since you rarely need to take the ring off your finger.
Health tracking: The Oura Ring 5 can track 40 different types of exercises, movement throughout the day, sleep duration and stages, and stress levels. New to this generation, the Oura Ring 5 tracks overnight blood pressure patterns and long-term sleep trends. It’s also a step ahead of the pack in women’s health with cycle insights, fertile window estimates, and pregnancy insights.
The app: The ring’s polished companion app charts metrics like cardiovascular age, sleep regularity, and more over time, making it easy to spot trends. The well-organized app is my favorite platform for monitoring sleep and stress; data is understandable at a glance and easy to search. The app even offers helpful tips for improving your health.
Who It’s For
Comfort seekers: Thanks to its thin, unobtrusive design, the Oura Ring 5 is a more comfortable alternative to wrist-based trackers. With over 10 days of battery life and an excellent companion app (available on Android and iOS), it’s the best finger-based fitness tracker we’ve tested.
Style mavens: If you want a fitness tracker that doesn’t look like one, the Oura Ring 5 is a top pick. It comes in a range of colors, including black, silver, and gold, to suit different tastes.
Those looking to stress less and sleep better: The Oura Ring 5 offers a range of useful health insights and recommendations, making it a top choice if you need help reducing stress and improving your sleep. The Oura Ring 5 supports basic exercise tracking, but it’s not as detailed as many wrist-based options. For holistic health monitoring, however, the Oura Ring 5 is tough to beat.
Women: Cycle insights, fertile window estimates, and pregnancy tracking make this finger-based tracker a top choice for women. You can even pair it with the Natural Cycles birth control app to track your daily fertility status
Who Should Skip It
Budget shoppers: While its excellent design makes the splurge seem reasonable, the Oura Ring 5 is the most expensive smart ring we’ve tested, and it all but requires that you pay a membership fee to get the most out of its companion app.
Weightlifters: Like any smart ring, the Oura Ring 5 gets in the way when clenching a fist around a heavy weight more than a wrist-based tracker. Plus, using it while lifting weights could scratch the finish.
Heart rate watchers: The Oura Ring app shows heart rate zones from tracked exercise, but not exact numbers. Wrist-based trackers still offer better exercise tracking overall than smart rings.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 10.5 days (tested) Compatibility Android Compatibility iOS Display Type N/A Heart Rate Monitor Sleep Tracker Learn MoreOura Ring 5 Review: Thinner, Longer-Lasting, and Better Than Ever Review
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Credit: Andrew Gebhart
Best Affordable Android TrackerSamsung Galaxy Fit3
4.0 Excellent
Pros & Cons
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- Accurate heart rate readings
- On-demand blood oxygen measurements
- Weeklong battery life
- Color touch screen with always-on option
- Inexpensive
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- Gaps in sleep data
- Some features exclusive to Samsung phones
- Doesn’t work with iOS
The Samsung Galaxy Fit3 tracks heart rate during exercise as accurately as devices that cost several times more. You can use it to track 100 different types of workouts. It also captures cadence, distance, duration, speed, and other metrics accurately, and when you’re not working out, it monitors daily activity, sleep, and stress.
Why We Picked It
Design: Featuring a 1.6-inch AMOLED display and an aluminum case, the Fit3 is lightweight and comfortable enough to wear around the clock, and durable enough for submersion in water down to 164 feet.
Battery life: The Fit3’s 208mAh battery powered through 4.5 days of testing with normal use and the always-on display enabled. That figure puts it well ahead of Samsung’s smartwatches, and is enough for a long weekend of tracking without needing to charge.
Exercise tracking: The Fit3 packs quite a few sensors into its small frame, including an accelerometer, a barometer, a gyroscope, a light sensor, and an optical heart rate sensor. During workouts, it accurately captures heart rate data and keeps up reasonably well during spikes and dips in intensity. Between workouts, it measures time active and steps taken.
Sleep tracking: When you wear it to bed, the Fit3 records your sleep duration, sleep stages, blood oxygen levels, and (when paired with a Samsung phone) snoring. It offers a sleep score that assesses how restful and restorative your night was based on sleep time, physical recovery, restfulness, mental recovery, and sleep cycles. It charts sleep stages and blood oxygen, and grades all sleep score factors on a color-coded scale.
Who It’s For
Newbies:Affordably priced and accurate for workout tracking, the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is the best entry-level fitness tracker for Android phone owners.
Samsung phone users:The Galaxy Fit3 is compatible with any phone running Android 10 or later with at least 1.5GB of memory, but it works best with Samsung phones. When paired with a handset of the same brand, the devices can work together to monitor your snoring overnight.
Who Should Skip It
Runners: The Fit3 doesn’t have built-in GPS or track advanced running form metrics like ground contact time and stride length. It’s a capable basic tracker, but you’ll need a different device for deeper insights.
Galaxy AI fans: If you’ve read about recent features enabled by Samsung’s AI, like Energy Score, Fitness Index, and Cardio Load, this is, unfortunately, not a way to access them. The Fit3 doesn’t support any of Samsung’s AI features.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 7.5 days Compatibility Android Display Size 1.57 inches Display Type AMOLED Fitness Features Accelerometer Fitness Features Barometer Fitness Features Gyroscope Fitness Features Heart Rate Monitor Fitness Features Light Sensor Heart Rate Monitor Phone OS Compatibility Android Processor ARM Cortex-M33 Sleep Tracker Watch OS FreeRTOS Get It Now
Learn MoreSamsung Galaxy Fit3 Review-
Credit: Andrew Gebhart
Most Affordable Apple WatchApple Watch SE 3
4.0 Excellent
Pros & Cons
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- Sharp always-on display
- Same processor as the Series 11
- Nearly two days of battery life
- Supports 5G
- Gesture controls
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- Lacks sensors for blood oxygen, ECG, and hypertension
- No QWERTY keyboard for text input
- Large bezels
The Watch SE 3 is Apple’s smallest and least expensive smartwatch. It offers most of the same connectivity, fitness, and safety features as other Apple Watches for $150 less, including comparable performance, an always-on display, gesture controls, and wrist temperature sensing.
Why We Picked It
Design: The Apple Watch SE 3 has a smaller display than the Series 12, but its screen is sharp and vibrant. Its design is attractive, elegant, and modern, featuring a squared case with rounded corners, a ridged Digital Crown and a side button, and a sapphire crystal back cover. It doesn’t have a dust-resistance rating, but it can be submerged to a depth of 164 feet.
Battery Life: Given its generous lifestyle feature set, the SE 3 has impressive battery life. It lasted for 46 hours in testing under normal use with the always-on display enabled. During that time, I used the GPS for two different workouts, sent texts, downloaded apps, and regularly checked my activity and sleep stats.
Exercise tracking: The SE 3 accurately tracks heart rate and advanced running metrics, including power, vertical oscillation, ground contact time, and stride length. You can manually start tracking an activity on the SE 3 through the Workout app, and for common exercises like walking, it will automatically start a session after five to 10 minutes of motion. The AI-enabled Workout Buddy is on hand to offer words of encouragement and stat updates during certain exercises.
Sleep tracking: The SE 3 monitors your total time asleep, duration spent in each sleep stage, overnight resting heart rate and respiration, and even checks for sleep apnea. It collects this data in a holistic Sleep Score. Time asleep, time in each cycle, and the associated charts proved accurate in testing.
Who It’s For
Budget shoppers:The Apple Watch SE 3 is an excellent choice for its target audience of first-time smartwatch users, budget shoppers, children, teens, and older adults. Thanks to its always-on display, it offers a very similar experience to the Series 12 for a significantly lower price.
Children and older family members:The SE 3 is compatible with Apple Watch For Your Kids (formerly called Family Setup), which lets you set up and manage an Apple Watch for a family member without an iPhone.
Who Should Skip It
Those concerned with heart health: The SE 3 can’t take an ECG or monitor for hypertension like Apple’s flagship smartwatches. It also lacks the redesigned health-sensing system that captures heart rate data every 5 seconds on the Series 12 and Ultra 4.
Bezel haters: While I mostly like the look of the SE 3’s display, its thick black bezel is a telltale sign that it is a budget-friendly model.
Android users: Like other Apple Watch models, the SE 3 does not work with Android handsets.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 46 hours (tested) Compatibility iOS Display Size 1.5 inches/1.7 inches Display Type Always-On LTPO OLED Fitness Features Accelerometer Fitness Features Barometer Fitness Features GPS Fitness Features Gyroscope Fitness Features Heart Rate Monitor Fitness Features Pedometer Heart Rate Monitor Phone Call Capacity Phone OS Compatibility iOS Processor Apple S10 Separate App Store Sleep Tracker Watch OS watchOS Get It Now
Learn MoreApple Watch SE 3 Review-
Best for Onboard Music StorageGarmin Vivoactive 5
4.0 Excellent
Pros & Cons
-
- Bright, responsive AMOLED touch screen
- Accurate heart rate measurements
- In-depth sleep, stress coaching
- Detects naps
- Wheelchair mode tracks daily pushes
- Long battery life
-
- Aluminum bezel
- No barometric altimeter, workout animations
- Only one size option
The Garmin Vivoactive 5 strikes the right balance between a capable smartwatch and a detailed fitness tracker. It offers notifications, mobile payments, and apps, along with accurate tracking of exercise, sleep, and stress. It’s the only Garmin on this list with onboard music storage, so you can download songs and playlists to the watch and listen without your phone.
Why We Picked It
Design: The Garmin Vivoactive 5 features a 1.2-inch AMOLED touch screen with a resolution of 390 by 390 pixels. Colors and images are vibrant across a variety of lighting conditions, and the touch screen responds seamlessly to input. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 covers the face for added durability, and the watch has a 5ATM water resistance rating. It’s available in four color choices, with a body made of anodized aluminum.
Battery life: Under normal use with roughly two to three workouts per week with GPS, the Garmin Vivoactive 5 lasted for eight days between charges. That’s an impressive result for a device with a screen.
Health tracking: The Vivoactive 5 has an accelerometer, a compass, a GPS with GLONASS and Galileo satellite systems, a heart rate monitor, and a pulse oximeter that gauges blood oxygen saturation (SpO2). It tracks your calories burned, distance traveled, intensity minutes, menstruation cycles, respiration, sleep, steps, stress level, and more. It considers all that info when calculating your Body Battery energy-level approximation, which updates dynamically throughout the day. It also offers accurate exercise and sleep tracking.
Music storage: With the Vivoactive 5, you can download offline playlists from supported third-party music streaming services, including Amazon Music, Deezer, and Spotify. You can also transfer your own MP3 files using a desktop application.
Who It’s For
Garmin loyalists:The Vivoactive 5 is the choice for you if you want the detailed fitness tracking and long battery life Garmin is known for, plus key lifestyle features. It works with both Android and iOS phones
Music lovers:You can download .mp3 files directly to the Vivoactive 5, then play music through the watch with Bluetooth headphones, even without your phone in tow. With that plus integrated GPS and nap detection, the Vivoactive 5 offers more versatility than the more affordable trackers on this list, for a still-reasonable price.
Who Should Skip It
App lovers: Like other Garmin models, the Vivoactive 5 is limited to the company’s proprietary app store, which doesn’t offer the breadth of options found on watchOS or Wear OS.
Climbers: With no barometric altimeter, the Vivoactive 5 can’t measure stairs climbed or other climbing-specific exercises.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life Up to 11 days Compatibility Android Compatibility iOS Display Type AMOLED Heart Rate Monitor Sleep Tracker Get It Now
Learn MoreGarmin Vivoactive 5 Review-
Best for Serious RunnersPolar Pacer Pro
4.0 Excellent
Pros & Cons
-
- Wrist-based running power measurements
- Ascent and descent tracking
- Excellent GPS performance in testing
- Useful running test
- Tracks sleep and recovery
- Personalized workout recommendations
- Weeklong battery life
- Lightweight design
- Displays music controls, smartphone notifications, and weather reports
-
- Dull, non-touch screen
- Could better explain some metrics
The Polar Pacer Pro running watch helps you level up your training with a number of tools and features designed to safely maximize your workouts, including running power measurements, ascent and descent tracking, sleep and recovery stats, personalized recommendations, and more.
Why We Picked It
Design: The Pacer Pro is slim and light enough to wear all day and to bed without discomfort. It measures about 1.8 inches in diameter, 0.47 inches thick, and weighs around 1.4 ounces. It’s safe to wear while swimming thanks to its WR50 water resistance rating.
Battery life: In testing, the Pacer Pro’s 265mAh battery lasted up to seven days on a single charge with continuous heart rate tracking enabled. You can safely schedule time to plug in your watch once a week.
Tracking runs: When you run with the Pacer Pro, it accurately tracks your duration, distance, estimated calories burned, pace, altitude, cadence (steps per minute), power (measured in Watts), and heart rate. The wrist-based power meter lets you seamlessly monitor your real-time output, a useful metric for sprints, short intervals, and hilly terrain.
Assessing runs: For every run longer than 12 minutes, the Pacer Pro calculates your Running Index, an estimation of your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2Max), a score that helps you gauge the efficiency of your training, assess your performance compared with others, and track your progress over time. The Flow app also offers Training Load Pro insights to help you understand how the workout strained your cardiovascular system and muscles.
Who It’s For
Race trainees:If you want to run faster or have another goal in mind, such as running a six-minute mile or completing a 5K in under 30 minutes, the Polar Pacer Pro is a worthy training companion. It works with both Android and iOS phonesing the Polar FlowSync data transfer software
Running enthusiasts:With excellent GPS performance, wrist-based running power measurements, and Hill Splitter ascent and descent tracking, the Polar Pacer Pro is ideal for advanced runners. We also appreciate its Komoot turn-by-turn route guidance for outdoor training.
Who Should Skip It
Fans of touch screen: The Pacer Pro has a somewhat dull display with no touch controls.
Fitness beginners: The big advantage of the Pacer Pro comes from its detailed running metrics. If you’re just starting a fitness plan, you likely don’t need this level of detail, and many other models on this list offer basic heart rate tracking.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 1 week Compatibility Android Compatibility iOS Compatibility Web Display Type Color LCD Heart Rate Monitor Sleep Tracker Get It Now
Learn MorePolar Pacer Pro Review-
Best for KidsFitbit Ace 3
3.5 Good
Pros & Cons
-
- Tracks activity and sleep
- Good battery life
- Comfortable, waterproof design
- Stylish, swappable bands
- Can receive text notifications
-
- No location/GPS tracking
- Short charging cable
- No heart rate monitoring
The Fitbit Ace 3 is a fun fitness band for younger kids that tracks activity and sleep without a monthly subscription fee. It focuses on basics such as step counts and rest, and is safe for swimming.
Why We Picked It
Design: The Fitbit Ace 3 comprises a simple black tracker that fits into a removable and colorful silicone strap. The strap comes in several cartoon-like color schemes, including a special Minions edition. In testing, the Ace 3 was comfortable enough for both kids and adults to wear throughout the day and night with no complaints.
Battery life: The Fitbit Ace 3 lasted for six days between charges with moderate use and takes about two hours to recharge. Plan to charge it roughly twice a week to be safe.
Activity tracking: The Fitbit Ace 3 can monitor most types of kid-level movement, such as hopping, stepping, and jumping. In testing, it accurately tracked step counts when compared with two other adult smartwatches. The Ace 3 has enough memory to store minute-by-minute activity statistics for seven days, and daily totals for up to 30 days, and you can view stats in the mobile app.
Sleep tracking: The Ace 3 monitors basic sleep stats and has proven to be anecdotally accurate. It even spotted a few wake-ups in the middle of the night that our tester didn’t notice.
Who It’s For
Kids ages 6 to 12: If you want to ensure your child gets adequate activity during the day and enough sleep at night, the Fitbit Ace 3 is a reliable pick that won’t break the bank.
Android and iOS users:The Ace 3 works with both major smartphone platforms. Keep in mind that a Google account is required to use the Google Health app. To set up this tracker, you’ll need to create a Google family group and add a child account
Who Should Skip It
Location trackers: The Fitbit Ace 3 doesn’t offer location or GPS tracking. If you’re a parent wanting updates on your child’s whereabouts, look elsewhere. The Ace LTE has this functionality.
Data seekers: While it tracks basic activities, the Ace 3 doesn’t actually measure specific heart rate values. If you want a device with this capability, look to other trackers on this list.
Specs & Configurations
Battery Life 6 days Compatibility Android Compatibility iOS Display Type P-OLED Sleep Tracker Get It Now
Learn MoreFitbit Ace 3 Review-
The Best Fitness Trackers We’ve Tested for 2026: From Screenless Bands to Smart Rings
Compare Specs
Select Up To 3Select Up To 2
Your Selections
Fitbit Air
Apple Watch Series 12
Fitbit Edge
Fitbit Air
Apple Watch Series 12
Fitbit Edge
Google Pixel Watch 5
Oura Ring 5
Garmin Vivoactive 5 GPS Smartwatch With AMOLED Display (Black)
| Our Pick | Fitbit Air |  Apple Watch Series 12 |
Fitbit Edge |  Google Pixel Watch 5 |
Fitbit Inspire 3 | Garmin Lily 2 |  Oura Ring 5 |
Samsung Galaxy Fit3 | Apple Watch SE 3 |  Garmin Vivoactive 5 GPS Smartwatch With AMOLED Display (Black) |
Fitbit Air | Apple Watch Series 12 | Fitbit Edge |
| Rating | 4.5Outstanding | 4.5Outstanding | 4.0Excellent | 4.0Excellent | 4.0Excellent | 4.0Excellent | 4.0Excellent | 4.0Excellent | 4.0Excellent | 4.0Excellent | 4.5Outstanding | 4.5Outstanding | 4.0Excellent |
| Best For | Best Screenless Fitness Tracker | Best Smartwatch for iPhone Users | Best Screen-Equipped Fitness Tracker | Best Smartwatch for Android Users | Best for Beginners | Best for Women | Best Smart Ring | Best Affordable Android Tracker | Most Affordable Apple Watch | Best for Onboard Music Storage | Best Screenless Fitness Tracker | Best Smartwatch for iPhone Users | Best Screen-Equipped Fitness Tracker |
| Display Type | None | Always-on LTPO3 OLED | AMOLED | AMOLED LTPO | AMOLED | LCD | N/A | AMOLED | Always-On LTPO OLED | AMOLED | None | Always-on LTPO3 OLED | AMOLED |
| Compatibility | Android, iOS | iOS | Android, iOS | Android | Android, iOS | Android, iOS | Android, iOS | Android | iOS | Android, iOS | Android, iOS | iOS | Android, iOS |
| Heart Rate Monitor | |||||||||||||
| Sleep Tracker | |||||||||||||
| Battery Life | 8.5 days | 54.5 hours (tested) | 3 days | 56.5 hours (tested) | 8 days | 5 days | 10.5 days (tested) | 7.5 days | 46 hours (tested) | Up to 11 days | 8.5 days | 54.5 hours (tested) | 3 days |
Buying Guide: The Best Fitness Trackers We’ve Tested for 2026: From Screenless Bands to Smart Rings
What Is the Best Fitness Tracker for the Money?
Fitness trackers range from $25 to over $400. The simplest and least expensive trackers often lack a display, so you can’t check your step count without looking at your smartphone.
More expensive trackers usually include built-in optical heart rate monitors and GPS. Often, these features are meant to tempt athletes and exercise enthusiasts. Don’t get suckered into buying an expensive tracker if your primary activity is walking. If you walk and don’t do much else, there are compelling options in the $25 to $99 range. If you work out frequently and want comprehensive fitness-tracking features, we recommend spending at least $99 to access the tools you may need or want.
With most fitness trackers, you pay a single price for the device and can access most of its software features at no additional cost. Some, like the Whoop, have a different pricing model. Whoop offers its tracker for free with a membership purchase, which unlocks access to its app. Neither the Whoop 5.0 nor the Whoop MG made the cut for this list due to their high annual costs ($239 and $359, respectively) and the lack of detail they provide during workouts.
What Are the Different Types of Fitness Trackers?
One important question to ask yourself before choosing a fitness tracker is the type of design you want. Most trackers are wrist-based, although there are also clip-on options and fitness-tracking smart rings, with the latter category gaining popularity recently. Bracelets and watches are typically hard to lose. That said, they can interfere with some daily activities, such as sleep and computer work.
The Oura Ring, meanwhile, brings health tracking to your fingers. The Oura’s ability to track workouts is relatively basic compared with wrist-based fitness trackers, but it provides comprehensive sleep and stress monitoring and is more comfortable to wear in bed than a watch or wristband.
There are also trackers for children, like the Fitbit Ace 3. And don’t forget about Fido. That’s right, there are even trackers specifically for pets.
The Best Fitness Tracker for Monitoring Your Heart Rate
Training intelligently means using heart rate data to guide your workouts. Sometimes, you might want to keep your heart rate relatively low to burn fat or pace yourself for a longer workout. At other times, you may want to push it higher to gain additional health benefits, such as building stamina.
Chest straps are slightly more accurate than wrist-based wearables for heart rate tracking because they are worn closer to the heart and measure its activity directly. For comparison, optical heart rate sensors in wrist-based fitness trackers measure your heart rate by shining light through your skin and detecting blood flow. So, for the most precise heart rate readings, consider a dedicated chest strap. Not all smart home gym machines work seamlessly with fitness trackers, but most support chest straps.
The primary benefit of a wrist-based heart rate tracker is that it can be worn comfortably all day long. They’re more convenient than chest straps and provide a continuous view of your heart rate.
If you’re simply interested in knowing your resting heart rate, you don’t necessarily need a heart rate-tracking device to find it. Many smartphone apps let you measure your heart rate in about 15 seconds using your phone’s camera.
The Best Fitness Tracker for Sleep
Many fitness trackers record your sleep. When they do, they generally watch for movement using a three-axis accelerometer to a greater degree than during the day. Most devices provide graphs in their companion app that show the duration of your light, deep, and REM sleep. Some also track your overnight respiration rate (the number of breaths you take per minute), a feature available on the Apple Watch. Samsung Galaxy Watches can even track your snoring.
Some dedicated sleep trackers attach to your mattress, but we haven’t found them to offer a significant advantage over wrist-based trackers. Wearable trackers can do a lot more than simply track your sleep. However, if you’re not fond of wearing something on your wrist to bed, you can opt for the Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed or the Eight Sleep Pod Pro Cover smart mattress topper instead. As a more affordable option, the second-generation Nest Hub can track your sleep from the bedside table without being in contact with your body.
The Best Sport-Specific Fitness Tracker
Swimmers who want a waterproof tracker should keep in mind that not all waterproof trackers actually record swimming data. Runners should probably choose a watch that displays at least time, distance, pace, and lap time. If you want good accuracy for those metrics without also carrying a smartphone, you need a runner’s watch with built-in GPS.
You also need to consider the display. If you want to view your stats at all times or simply use your tracker as a wristwatch, look for one with an always-on display. How you control the tracker is also important. If you like running in the cold or wearing gloves, you might want to steer clear of devices with touch-screen controls.
Cyclists have even more to consider. There’s a difference between tracking how many miles you pedal and the calories you burn versus monitoring your power and cadence. If all you want is the former, a few fitness trackers support bicycling. More serious cyclists should opt for a device that pairs with additional bike equipment, such as a cadence sensor, and consider devices from sport-specific companies like Garmin and Polar.
Which Fitness Tracker Has the Best App?
A fitness tracker’s app (or website) matters because it is where you view and process the information the tracker collects. Fitbit had one of the best apps we’ve tested. Google has phased it out and replaced it with the Google Health app (available for Android and iOS), upsetting many longtime Fitbit fans. Nevertheless, the Google Health app is an excellent place to track all aspects of your health. On both the main page and the Health tab of the app, you can reorder the data to prioritize what matters most to you.
In addition to the data your device collects, the Google Health app lets you record details such as your weight, menstrual cycles, food and water intake, and stress levels. You can import information from your health records or other connected fitness devices, such as a smart bathroom scale or a Peloton home gym, and log meals by taking a picture of what you’re eating. You can even do the same with workouts: snap a shot of the whiteboard with your circuit for the day and let the AI import the details.
That AI gets even more helpful in the premium version of Google Health, offering customizable fitness plans that adapt to your goals and schedule.
What’s the Difference Between Fitness Trackers and Smartwatches?
Most fitness trackers incorporate some smartwatch functionality, and many smartwatches today provide a wide range of fitness and health-tracking features. Generally speaking, if you want a wearable with calling and texting capabilities, a wide selection of third-party apps, and fitness-tracking features, get a smartwatch. If you just want a device to track your daily activity, health, and workouts, a dedicated fitness tracker should suit you just fine.
The Apple Watch Series 12 emphasizes health and fitness tracking with its redesigned health-sensing system, which takes frequent, high-accuracy heart rate readings. The Google Pixel Watch 5 offers full Fitbit integration and personalized workout recommendations tailored to your recovery status.
Keep in mind that most true fitness trackers are compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones. Still, many popular smartwatches, including the Apple Watch, the Galaxy Watch, and the Pixel Watch, are platform-specific. Naturally, compatibility is the first thing to consider before purchasing a wearable device. We include these details in our reviews of each product.
For more, check out our roundups of the best Apple Watches, the best Samsung watches, and the best Android watches. We regularly update this article, so check back for our latest recommendations and consult our most recent fitness tracker coverage.
About Our Expert
Andrew Gebhart
Senior Writer, Smart Home and Wearables
My Experience
I’m PCMag’s senior writer covering smart home and wearable devices. I’ve been reporting on tech professionally for nearly a decade and have been obsessing about it for much longer than that. Prior to joining PCMag, I made educational videos for an electronics store called Abt Electronics in Illinois, and before that, I spent eight years covering the smart home market for CNET.
I foster many flavors of nerdom in my personal life. I’m an avid board gamer and video gamer. I love fantasy football, which I view as a combination of role-playing games and sports. Plus, I can talk to you about craft beer for hours and am on a personal quest to have a flight of beer at each microbrewery in my home city of Chicago.
The Technology I Use
I tend to like mixing flavors from various companies. My personal computer is an Apple MacBook Pro. My phone is a Google Pixel 7a. On my wrists are an ever-rotating lineup of the latest smartwatches, and I sometimes wear two at once for testing and extra style. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is a mainstay on my wrist because I use it as a control for evaluating the accuracy of other devices’ fitness metrics.
I spend plenty of time in front of my entertainment center, which features a 55-inch LG OLED TV, a Yamaha soundbar, a Nintendo Switch, and a PS5. (I insisted on getting the PS5 with the disc slot when they were hard to come by and haven’t used the feature in more than a year.) I thought I’d have given in to temptation and snagged an Xbox to play Starfield by now, but Baldur’s Gate 3 saved me money by distracting me long enough for the Starfield hype to blow past.
I have two cats and sneeze plenty, so I have a Shark Air Purifier to help me fight back against their dastardly, shedding ways.
I use my aforementioned Pixel 7a and a Nest Hub for Google Assistant, an iPhone 16e and AirPods to talk to Siri, and an Amazon Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 15 for Alexa, so I’m not in danger of losing touch with any of the big three digital assistants.
Read the latest from Andrew Gebhart
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- More from Andrew Gebhart
The Technology I Use
I tend to like mixing flavors from various companies. My personal computer is an Apple MacBook Pro. My phone is a Google Pixel 7a. On my wrists are an ever-rotating lineup of the latest smartwatches, and I sometimes wear two at once for testing and extra style. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is a mainstay on my wrist because I use it as a control for evaluating the accuracy of other devices’ fitness metrics.u00a0
I spend plenty of time in front of my entertainment center, which features a 55-inch LG OLED TV, a Yamaha soundbar, a Nintendo Switch, and a PS5. (I insisted on getting the PS5 with the disc slot when they were hard to come by and havenu2019t used the feature in more than a year.) I thought Iu2019d have given in to temptation and snagged an Xbox to play Starfield by now, but Balduru2019s Gate 3 saved me money by distracting me long enough for the Starfield hype to blow past.
I use my aforementioned Pixel 7a and a Nest Hub for Google Assistant, an iPhone 16e and AirPods to talk to Siri, and an Amazon Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 15 for Alexa, so Iu2019m not in danger of losing touch with any of the big three digital assistants.
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