The Best Fitness Trackers and Watches for Everyone
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Best Overall
Fitbit Charge 6
Runner-Up
Garmin Vivomove Trend
Best Budget Tracker
Fitbit Inspire 3
Best if You Have an iPhone
Apple Watch Series 9
Like every piece of gear you wear on your body day in and day out, fitness trackers are incredibly personal. Sure, they have to be comfortable and attractive, but they also must fit your lifestyle, as well as when and how you like to work out. Do you bike, row, or do strength training? Do you run on trails for hours at a time, or do you just want a reminder to stand up every hour? Do you want to wear it on your wrist or on your finger or tuck it into your bra?
No matter what your needs are, there’s never been a better time to find a powerful, sophisticated tool that can help you optimize your workouts or jump-start your routine. We test dozens of fitness trackers every year to bring you these picks. Nothing you like here? Don’t forget to check out our Best Smartwatches, Best Sleep Trackers, or Best Heart Rate Monitors for more.
Updated September 2024: We mentioned the Apple Watch Series 10 and the Watch Ultra 2, added the Google Pixel Watch 3, and the Samsung Galaxy Ring. We also updated links and pricing.
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Photograph: Fitbit
Best Overall
Fitbit Charge 6
Even as Fitbit has faced stiff competition from other manufacturers—most notably, the Apple Watch—its trackers have always won me over. They hit a very specific sweet spot between attractiveness, affordability, accessibility, and ease of use. They’re perfect for everyone who isn’t an ultra-marathoner or a semipro powerlifter trying to hit a PR.
Last year’s Charge 6 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) now has many integrations from Google, Fitbit’s new parent company. The redesigned app looks much more modern and is much better organized. You can now get directions from Google Maps, pay with Google Wallet, and control your music with a YouTube Music Premium subscription. You can also check your skin temperature and your 24/7 heart rate readings, take ECGs, and track your activities and sleep schedule in the newly Google-fied app. The battery charge lasted well over a week, and the physical button is back, baby! Finally, this all comes in a package that costs $160.
In late July 2024, the company also unrolled several updates. Improvements to the algorithm now mean that the heart rate tracking is more accurate; it can also auto-detect more sports, like the elliptical and spinning, and the GPS accuracy has improved. Many of its best features are still locked behind its $10/month Fitbit Premium subscription. But if all you want is a basic fitness tracker that won’t break the bank, the Charge only costs $160! Check out our guide to the Best Fitbits for more options.
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Photograph: Garmin
Runner-Up
Garmin Vivomove Trend
One of the biggest pain points with fitness trackers is how each has its own proprietary charger. If you’re used to the convenience of charging your phone and earbuds on all-purpose Qi wireless charging pads, hunting for a specific charger can be an annoyance. The Vivomove Trend (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the first Garmin to have wireless charging, and it works!
Garmin Connect is Garmin’s proprietary tool for tracking all your fitness stats, and it’s one of the most comprehensive and actionable apps I’ve used. This year, Garmin redesigned it to look, well, a little bit like Fitbit’s, with Body Battery (Garmin’s metric to gauge your energy throughout the day) at the top, above an easy-to-navigate At a Glance section. The Trend is an easy way to access Garmin’s most convenient fitness features, with an analog watch face, connected GPS, incident detection, contactless payments, sleep tracking, and continuous heart rate monitoring. Garmin does, however, have a bunch of similar models that go on sale pretty regularly; 2022’s Vivomove Sport ($180) is much cheaper and looks almost the same. But you will probably make up the difference in six months when you don’t have to replace the chargers.
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Photograph: Amazon
Best Budget Tracker
Fitbit Inspire 3
If all you want is a simple health tracker that will track your steps and your sleep and let you know when someone is calling, the internet’s marketplace is awash in knockoffs of this fitness tracker. For $80, you might as well get the original instead. In 2022, Fitbit updated the Inspire. It has a pedometer, tracks SpO2 and sleep, and comes with a wide array of watch faces and accessories.
It wasn’t all easy-peasy. I had some connectivity issues and had to restart my phone when the Inspire 3 wouldn’t update the time zone for a day or two. The Inspire 3 also regularly overestimated how much sleep I’d gotten, which made me mistrust the new Sleep Profile feature. For two months, I had a chronic nighttime cough; the Inspire 3 regularly logged me at seven hours a night because I was lying still, while switching to a more sensitive fitness tracker put me at a much more accurate five. However, if you have no health issues, it is more reliable and accessible than a knockoff Inspire 3, and Fitbit regularly puts its trackers on sale.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Best if You Have an iPhone
Apple Watch Series 9
Note: Apple recently released this year’s update, the Watch Series 10. We will update this guide with our thoughts and review once we’ve tested it.
People tend to hold on to their Apple Watch for years, and rightfully so—it is far and away the best fitness tracker if you have an iPhone. The best Apple Watch right now is the Series 9 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). It looks pretty much the same as every other Apple Watch, but it has the new S9 chipset for faster onboard processing of Siri commands, which improves battery life noticeably and theoretically provides more privacy for your sensitive medical data. It also has a new ultra-wideband chip that lets you precision-locate your iPhone quickly and accurately.
The watch also has a new feature called Double Tap, which borrows from Apple’s accessibility learnings. The accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical sensor will detect the minute shifts as you tap your index finger and thumb on your watch hand twice to activate the primary button on your watch screen; it’s nice for stopping and starting music or timers around the kitchen. It’s compatible with WatchOS 11, which has exciting health-related software updates like Training Load, to check how your workouts impact your performance, and a new easy-to-reference Vitals app. You can also find most of WatchOS 11’s updates on the second-gen Watch SE, but you won’t get the more advanced health sensors like wrist-based body temperature sensing.
★ A note: Apple is currently embroiled in a series of lawsuits regarding different technologies in the latest Apple Watches. One lawsuit claims that Apple engaged in patent infringement with its use of the blood oxygen sensor; another lawsuit claims that Apple infringed on the patent on its ECG sensor. Currently on Apple’s website, you can buy only the Series 9 with the blood oxygen sensor disabled, but you may still be able to find the banned versions on other retailers.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Best for Wear OS
Google Pixel Watch 3
The Google Pixel Watch 3 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best watch with Wear OS and the best-looking smartwatch, period. It comes in two sizes, and reviews editor Julian Chokkattu and I both strongly recommend that you stick with the larger 45-mm model for better battery life. This year’s focus for the Pixel Watch was running, with AI-generated running plans and a new feature called Cardio Load that can track if you’re over- or under-training. As a longtime runner, my experience was mixed, but Julian liked Fitbit’s basic, low-intensity plans (Google owns Fitbit). The other latest health feature, Loss of Pulse, isn’t yet available in the US.
With that said, the Fitbit integration is perfect. The heart rate monitor and other health capabilities are accurate, and it has electrocardiogram readings, sleep tracking, heart rate readings, blood-oxygen measurements, and stress measurements. After several years and a shaky start, the Pixel Watch 3 is finally becoming the Apple of the Android universe.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Best for Samsung
Samsung Galaxy Watch7
The Galaxy Watch7 is the latest iteration in Samsung’s smartwatch lineup. This year’s model infuses some artificial intelligence algorithms to improve your health tracking data, like the Energy Score and updated sleep tracking capabilities. The sleep tracking offers a lot of information, but editor Julian Chokkattu did notice a few times that it had stopped tracking mid-sleep. You also get FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection, though this isn’t a feature you’ll turn on all the time—it takes two nights to track and afterward, you’ll get a note saying whether or not you show symptoms. As always, some features, like sleep apnea, the electrocardiogram, and irregular heart rhythm notifications are only available when paired with a Samsung phone, although otherwise it works well with any Android phone.
Chokkattu found the battery life frustrating compared to older models. With the always-on display, he struggled to hit a full 24 hours with two tracked activities and sleep tracking overnight. Otherwise, if you keep a charger handy, the Watch7 is a nice update to the Galaxy watch line-up.
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Photograph: REI
Best Running Watch
Garmin Forerunner 165
The best running watch will probably always be a Garmin Forerunner. The line is one of Garmin’s oldest and goes all the way from the bare-bones Forerunner 55 ($170) to the spendy Forerunner 965 ($500). They all have different graduated specs and features; for example, the less expensive ones have cheaper displays and no blood oxygen sensors. However, all have access to multiple satellite systems for accurate positioning, as well as access to Garmin’s proprietary training algorithms. Garmin’s suggested workouts are flexible.
The Forerunners also age pretty well, which means you’re getting a bargain if you can find last year’s watch on sale (see the Forerunner 255). However, I think the Forerunner 165 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a good compromise for most people. It’s on the more affordable end of the spectrum, but it has everything you need, including a bright AMOLED display, an altimeter for more accurate mileage, and a blood oxygen sensor. I found the sleep and workout tracking to be pretty accurate, the battery life is decent, and I really like Garmin’s Morning Report, which wakes you up with a summary of last night’s stats—how well you slept, the weather, and how ready you are to take on the day. The Music version costs an extra $50 and may be more trouble than it’s worth, but other than that it’s a pretty solid option for even more advanced runners.
★ Alternative: If only Garmin’s Forerunner line weren’t so good! Otherwise, the Coros Pace 3 ($229) would be a shoo-in for this spot. Because Coros uses a less-battery-intensive screen, the Pace watches are incredibly light, durable, and comfortable, with very long battery life; I wore it for two weeks last fall without having to charge it once. It has dual-frequency GPS that tracked my interval runs seamlessly. (I was trying to see how long I could maintain Eliud Kipchoge’s pace, since he’s one of their partners—the answer is “not very long”.) It does everything much more expensive trackers do, like breadcrumb navigation. However, its 1980s looks and dimmer screen may be off-putting to some.
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Photograph: Adrienne So
Best for Kids
Fitbit Ace LTE
The Fitbit Ace LTE (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the first fitness tracker that I’ve gotten my kids to wear consistently. (They used to wear Apple watches, but found it difficult to keep them charged.) The Ace is a combination fitness tracker, gaming device, and location tracker that has been incredibly useful and fun for both me and my children as they’ve moved from camp to lesson to pool to neighbor’s house this summer.
It has the full suite of Fitbit’s health sensors, so it can track my kids’ step count and make sure they’re not spending too much time in front of the TV. The $10/monthly subscription pays for both LTE connectivity—so you don’t have to add a line to your cell phone plan—as well as Fitbit Arcade, which has a plethora of fun, time-limited, movement-based games that incentivizes my children to keep their watches on. They can call and text me (sometimes too often) and other approved contacts through the Fitbit Ace app, and I can also see their location via Google Find My to make sure they made it back home from a field trip. This has made our summer so much easier. Its childlike aesthetic is probably not going to appeal to kids older than 11, though.
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Photograph: Withings
Best Analog
Withings ScanWatch 2
Do you want a tracker that doesn’t look like a tracker at all? Then you want the Withings ScanWatch 2 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). We loved the original ScanWatch (and the Withings Steel before that). This version includes everything we loved, including comfort, good looks, long battery life, and a comprehensive suite of health features. It also includes temperature tracking, a new charger, and an unfortunate and unpalatable price hike.
My colleague Simon Hill found the health features to be comprehensive and generally accurate, including the new temperature tracker; I tested it as well and found that it wasn’t quite sensitive enough to predict my menstrual cycle with the accuracy of the Oura Ring (see below). It also doesn’t have onboard GPS and many features are locked behind a $10/month subscription. If this is a bit too pricey for you, you may want to consider the ScanWatch Light ($250), which doesn’t have the ECG, irregular heart rate warnings, blood oxygen, or temperature tracking but costs $100 less.
★ Alternative: I recently tested and liked the Garmin Lily 2, which is the first update to the Lily line that we’ve seen in a few years. It’s one of the smallest Garmins and has a comparatively short battery life; I got three to four days of wear out of it. But it also has a Pulse Ox sensor, a pretty beautiful Corning Gorilla Glass lens, a metal bezel, and standard Garmin features like Body Battery and fall detection.
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Photograph: Garmin
Best Outdoor Watch
Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2)
Last year, Garmin again released updates to its two high-end sports watches, the Epix Pro ($900) and the Fenix 7 Pro ($900). Last year, the limited battery life and huge case on the Epix were off-putting, but now it comes in three sizes and with a whopping two weeks of battery life. It’s now one of my favorite sports watches (8/10, WIRED Review).
The main difference is the screen. The Epix still has the bright AMOLED display, while the Fenix 7 Pro has a less bright memory-in-pixel display. The Fenix also has the option for solar charging, which extends the battery life quite a bit, but I have found that the Epix lasts long enough for a week of camping. The AMOLED is noticeably clearer and brighter, which makes a difference when you’re running and climbing outside, and it has useful features like a flashlight and redshift mode for training outside at night. For runners, there’s also a new Up Ahead feature that lets you see the closest points of interest and a new endurance score to … well, check out your endurance if the zillions of other Garmin proprietary metrics aren’t doing a good enough job of assessing what great shape you’re in.
★ Alternative: I have steadily grown to appreciate Coros’ sports watches, which often eschew bright screens for more affordable price points and thoughtful features like locking mechanisms that prevent me from stopping or starting tracking when I’m snowboarding and falling down while scream-singing to Jon Secada. I also tested the Coros Apex 2 Pro, which offers much of the same functionality as a Garmin at half the price. I liked it!
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Photograph: ŌURA
Best Ring
Oura Ring Gen3
I originally complained about Oura’s Gen3 ring—namely, that the company was strongly encouraging its customers to commit and upgrade to the Gen3 and a new $6-per-month subscription long before any of the newest features were available.
However, I can admit when I was wrong. The Oura is extremely small and attractive, and the onboard sensors are accurate and sensitive. It’s our Best Sleep Tracker. A recent (small) study in Sleep Health also found that across six fitness trackers, it was the most accurate at tracking sleep. All the features are now available with the membership, and you can access guided meditations, personalized insights, and educational content. Without it, you will be able to access only your three basic Oura scores, which are your Daily Readiness, Sleep, and Activity scores (essentially what you saw last year). If you have trouble predicting your period, the ring is sensitive enough to pick up the half-degree temperature drop right before mine starts. Although the company has made no explicit statement about Roe v. Wade, it’s based in Finland and abides by the GDPR, and US-based health authorities cannot subpoena data from it. For more ring selections, check out our guide to the Best Smart Rings.
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Photograph: Ultrahuman
Best Ring Without a Subscription
Ultrahuman Ring Air
As my colleague Simon Hill points out, smart rings have grown enormously in popularity since the Oura debuted in 2015. If you want a simple, understated smart ring and don’t want to get another subscription charge per month, the Ultrahuman Ring Air (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is a great place to start.
This lightweight, unobtrusive ring has an infrared photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor, a noncontact medical-grade skin temperature sensor, a six-axis motion sensor, and colored LEDs for heart rate monitoring and blood oxygen saturation. It also has IPX8 water resistance, so it’s fine to wear in the shower or pool, and the battery life lasts for about four days. Hill notes that the sleep tracking is excellent, but the workout tracking leaves something to be desired.
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Photograph: Michael Sawh
The Most Wearable Wearable
Whoop 4.0 (Membership)
The biggest problem with any fitness wearable of any kind is how often they get in the way of … working on your fitness. You can’t wear the Oura ring while rock climbing, for example. That’s why the cult fitness tracker company Whoop introduced a line of smart clothes. With a Whoop in your bra, you can track runs with your Garmin!
Whoop is best suited for athletes who can independently interpret its somewhat arcane metrics. Daily Strain measures only cardiovascular load, so a day where I walked 3 miles to and fro is supposedly a harder day than when I lifted weights for an hour. The Whoop 4.0 is also smaller than previous models, with a new battery, but I did experience charging issues with the new version. You have to keep the app running at all times lest it constantly warn you that it can’t update right this second. Last year, the company debuted a new AI coach that I found considerably less than helpful—I know why I’m not getting enough sleep, but my work and kids aren’t going away any time soon. Finally, at $30, the monthly subscription is the most expensive one here, and the line of proprietary clothing does not have extended sizing. Even with all those caveats, it’s the only wearable I’ve ever forgotten I’m wearing.
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Photograph: Casio
An Update to a Classic
Casio G-Shock Move
A G-Shock is a classic watch for an outdoorsy person; these devices are known for being big, rugged, and unbreakable. (To me, they’re best known for being the watch that Keanu Reeves wears in Speed). So Casio released the G-Shock Move, which has the classic G-Shock looks and functionality coupled with Bluetooth connectivity and a brand-new partnership with Polar. The company known for its granular fitness data collection recently released 25 of its algorithms for use with commercial partners, of which Casio is the first. The partnership needs a little ironing out—you connect to the Casio Watches app (and not, confusingly, the G-Shock Move app), and it’s unattractive and hard to navigate, plus Polar’s biometrics can be difficult to interpret. It’s also slower to connect to GPS than other trackers I’ve tried. Accuracy while recording my outdoor runs suffered as a result—I often just took off rather than standing around shivering in my shorts.
However, it’s still a G-Shock. The battery lasted 10 days; the display is clear and easy to read; the buttons are pleasantly clicky and easy to navigate; and it’s much, much lighter and easier to wear than other G-Shocks I’ve tried. The data on sleep collection also goes into much deeper detail than any other tracker I’ve tried. If you’ve always wanted a smart fitness tracker but were wedded to your classic Casio, this is the one to try.
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Photograph: Apple
Best for Weekend Warriors
Apple Watch Ultra 2
Note: Apple recently released this year’s update to the Watch Ultra 2. We will update this guide with our thoughts and review once we’ve tested it.
The next iteration of Apple’s rugged outdoor watch (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has a faster new chipset, second-gen ultra-wideband chip, and compatibility with WatchOS 10. It also has a new, shockingly bright 3,000-nit screen that is theoretically useful for looking at your watch amid the bright, snow-reflective glare. I didn’t notice a difference on a sunny day at the river between the 3,000 nits of my watch and the 2,000 nits of the iPhone 15, but maybe you will!
Apple has mostly given up on the idea that you will ever be without your phone, and many of the Watch Ultra 2’s most useful features are seen only in conjunction with your iPhone. For example, you can look at offline maps only when you are within Bluetooth range of your iPhone and have downloaded them beforehand. In WatchOS 10, starting a cycling activity on your watch turns your phone into a de facto bike computer. A Watch Ultra 2 and iPhone combination doesn’t work quite as well as a dedicated sports watch, but it works well enough, especially if you also want the full smartwatch functionality that an Apple Watch provides. It’s also worth noting here that, like the Series 9 above, you can now only buy the Watch Ultra 2 with the blood oxygen sensor disabled from Apple’s website.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Best for Weekend Warriors … With a Samsung Phone
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
Your eyes have not deceived you … Samsung has made a Galaxy Watch Ultra (7/10, WIRED Review) that is a direct rip-off of the Apple Watch Ultra, but for Samsung phone owners. It even has the same safety orange band, the Quick button (which Apple calls an Action button), and the Double Pinch feature (which Apple calls Double Tap). Apple’s watch is clearly better, with more sports, a better UI, and better comprehensive algorithms like Training Load and Vitals. However, what the Galaxy Watch Ultra does, it does well and Samsung obviously has the resources to catch up quickly.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra is basically a more durable version of the Watch7, with a sapphire glass face that’s rated to 10 ATM, an IP68 rating, and the ability to withstand elevations as high as 9,000 meters and temperatures as high as 130 degrees. It also has advanced health features, which are a hit or miss. We mentioned sleep apnea before, but it also tracks your AGEs index, which should help you monitor your risk of diabetes or stroke (but in reality, does not). It also has backcountry navigation features, dual-band GPS, a compass, and breadcrumb navigation, which Samsung calls Track Back and which Apple calls Backtrack (this is getting silly). The battery life is still just an adequate two days and change, though. If you really cannot get enough of Samsung’s health tracking, you should also pick up a Galaxy Ring (7/10, WIRED Review), which works seamlessly with the watch and the Samsung Galaxy phones to save battery life by switching tasks and counting steps when one or the other is charging.
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Photograph: Polar Electro
Best Heart Rate Monitor
Polar H10
Most fitness trackers have a built-in heart rate monitor, but if you’re engaging in long sessions of intense aerobic activity, you’ll get greater accuracy if you use a separate strap on your bicep or around your chest. Of the heart rate monitors that we tested, my colleague Michael Sawh likes Polar’s the best. Polar replaced the typical loop-and-hook connector with a much more comfortable buckle connector, along with small silicone dots to make sure the monitor stays in place.
Comfort and security means that the readings are much more accurate; Sawh saw (haha!) no drop-outs or underreporting or overreporting of data. It also has built-in memory and ANT+ connectivity, so you can connect to other equipment like bike trainers. You also don’t have to replace the battery for up to a year.
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Photograph: Garmin
My Favorite Watch
Garmin Instinct 2 Solar
Out of all these watches, the one I chose to come with me on a two-week beach adventure vacation was the Instinct 2 Solar (9/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s one of Garmin’s most popular backcountry watches and combines a somewhat chunky, technical aesthetic (and fun colors!) with backcountry capability. With the Instinct 2, you get access to Garmin’s multiple satellite systems and navigational features, insane battery life, and the ability to track many sport-specific metrics … without blowing money on extras like a big light-up screen.
The main updates to the Instinct 2 are improved solar charging, a high-resolution display, and a petite 40-mm case size. That smaller size fits on my wrist and under my jacket sleeve much more easily, and the high-resolution display is easier to read. The battery also lasted for a mindblowing 21 days, with multiple tracked activities per day. It also comes in a ton of different colors and sports-specific styles. For example, the popular Surf Edition—there is also a Tactical version—is compatible with the hugely popular surf forecasting company Surfline. You can see tide data and track your surfing. (It also has the best colors.)
★ Alternative: Can’t decide between the Instinct and the Vivomove lines? Now you don’t have to. The Instinct Crossover Solar ($400), combines the Instinct’s rugged capabilities with Garmin’s solar-powered watch face. It’s a little less intuitive to operate than either the Instinct or Vivomove itself, but I do find the analog hands convenient and the battery life is stellar.
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Photograph: Garmin
Honorable Mentions
Other Trackers We Like
We liked some other watches that didn’t quite make it into our top picks.
- Amazfit Balance for $220: Do you want a host of AI-powered features? And to pay $15 apiece for each subscription? Then you might want to consider the Balance (5/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s a good-looking, if slightly exasperating, tracker.
- The Polar Ignite for $230: I like the Ignite’s low profile and extremely granular data collection, which lets you check how factors like heart rate variability, breathing rate, and heart rate all combine to ramp up your autonomic nervous system.
- The Wahoo Fitness Elemnt Rival for $180: The functions on this watch were pretty perfunctory; there are much more capable trackers for this price. However, it integrates with Wahoo’s smart indoor trainer system, which is excellent.
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Photograph: Zepp
Buyer Beware
I Did Not Like These Trackers
I test new fitness trackers all the time. Some of them are duds.
- Evie Movano Ring for $269: I was really excited for this menopause-tracking ring (4/10, WIRED Review) when it was announced several years ago. Unfortunately, the smart ring market has exploded since then and it simply doesn’t offer enough features to be attractive anymore.
- Fossil Gen 6 Wellness for $165: Our unhappy reviews editor Julian Chokkattu said that this smartwatch was laggy and had only barebones fitness tracking and no ECG. It’s pretty attractive, though.
- Amazfit PowerBuds Pro for $150: The concept of earbuds that are also fitness trackers is intriguing, and these look and feel a lot like the AirPods Pro. However, their utility is also limited since you don’t wear earbuds constantly.
