The Best Smartwatches in 2024

Smartwatches are the latest rage, thanks to a push originally led by Apple. They increasingly concentrate on fitness as one of their core design tenets, making sure the technology stays relevant as people find new ways to monitor their health. They offer the ability to control music, receive notifications, make and receive calls, communicate with a voice assistant, and make payments, among other things, while also doing their most basic function: keeping time.

Some smartwatches focus on fitness and athletics and tracking, others concentrate on functionality that allows a wide range of applications to support them while helping to make tasks more straightforward, and some simply focus on looking as impressive as possible with premium design features and materials being used to compete directly with luxury watches that currently do make up a sizable piece of the timekeeping market.

What to Consider When Looking for the Best Smartwatches

When looking for a new smartwatch, be sure to keep these factors in mind to find the perfect smartwatch:

• Compatibility: Make sure the smartwatch works with the Smartphone for its intended use. Some smartwatches offer better functionality with Android devices, while others work best with iPhones.
• Aesthetics: What style of watch works best for each use case? This includes the shape and size of the dial, be it circular or square-shaped.
• Fitness Features: What fitness features are needed to make the watch perfect? Like GPS tracking or being able to wear it while swimming.
• Battery Life: What length of battery life works best? Remember that some watches with the longest battery life might not offer the most features.

GameRant’s Picks for the Best Smartwatches in 2024

Apple Watch Series 9

Best Smartwatch Overall

The Apple Watch Series 9 is powered by a new custom silicon from Apple that allows for machine learning tasks to process two times faster and gesture controls. These controls make it much easier to interact with the watch regardless of what the user is doing, from playing music to answering a call and even checking the weather gesture controls can do it all.

Heart Rate Monitor

Yes

Battery Life

Up to 36 hours in Low Power Mode and up to 18 hours in normal use

Onboard GPS

Yes

Customizable Strap

Yes

Case Material

Aluminum or stainless steel

Pros

• Has an impressive ecosystem built around it and is also deeply integrated with Apple’s hardware offerings
• One of the brightest smartwatch displays in the business

Cons

• Somewhat expensive compared to the competition; custom straps from Apple cost significantly more than competing smartwatch accessories

The Apple Watch Series 9 builds on the success of both its predecessors and a very mature WatchOS platform while adding key features such as the double tap gesture and Apple Homepod integration. It also offers combinations of the case and band that are carbon-neutral. It provides exceptionally tight-knit integration with the Apple ecosystem, as is to be expected when it comes to Apple products, making it an essential smartwatch to consider for iPhone users. All this comes with one of the best and brightest smartwatch displays in the business at 2000 nits, making the Apple Watch Series 9 truly the smartwatch to beat in 2024.

While the upgrades might not warrant a new watch for most Series 8 users, people with older-generation Apple Watches might still be tempted. Users who must have the latest and greatest Apple Watch in the market can only turn to the Apple Watch Series 9 or its much more expensive sibling, the Apple Watch Ultra 2, to meet their needs.

Fitbit Charge 6

Best Budget-friendly Smartwatch

$140 $160 Save $20

Give any routine a boost with the Fitbit Charge 6. Besides the whole swath of fitness features that the Charge 6 has, it also has all the essentials to get through the day, like YouTube Music, Google Maps, and Google Wallet. With a seven-day battery life, the Charge 6 is perfect for those people who forget to charge their watch, or just want to leave their charger behind.

Heart Rate Monitor

Optical heart rate monitor

Battery Life

Up to 7 days

IP rating

Water resistant to 50 meters

Mobile payments

Yes

Workout detection

Yes

Exercise modes

40+

Pros

• Has an excellent OLED display
• Impressive battery life
• Comprehensive array of sensors

Cons

• No altimeter
• Some of the extra analytics are locked behind a premium subscription that costs $10/month: Fitbit Premium

The Fitbit Charge 6 is a different tier of smartwatch. It isn’t marketed as one, and with good reason. It is a competent fitness tracker that does do the basics when it comes to telling the time. Unfortunately, when it comes to features like controlling music, the Fitbit Charge 6 only works with YouTube Music and no other app. Besides that, it doubles down on extremely good value and detailed statistics, as well as excellent battery life under the hood. It can also make contactless payments thanks to its NFC connectivity (using Fitbit Pay).

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Google acquired Fitbit in 2021 and has since released a few offerings, such as the Sense 2 and Versa 4 smartwatches, as well as the Fitbit Charge 5 and Charge 6. If a Wear OS upgrade is available, it could become a much more capable device altogether. Currently, the Fitbit Charge 6 is a great budget-friendly option for anyone who wants Smartwatch features but doesn’t need all the flashy features of flagship models. Lastly, it is compatible with both Android and iOS adding to its versatility.

Samsung Galaxy Watch6

Best Android-Based Smartwatch

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 uses the biggest screen Samsung has used on a watch yet at 1.47″. This screen allows for users to easily navigate, plus thanks to the Sapphire Crystal Glass this watch can resist bumps and scratches from everyday use. For people already in the Samsung ecosystem the Galaxy Watch 6 is one of the best Smartwatches currently available.

Brand

Samsung

Heart Rate Monitor

Yes

Notification Support

Yes

Battery Life

Two days

Operating System

Wear OS 4

Onboard GPS

Yes

Customizable Strap

Yes

Lens Material

Sapphire Crystal Glass

Case Material

Aluminum

The Samsung Galaxy Watch6, which also happens to be the mainstream Android-based smartwatch choice, is also the contender for the best of them. It has a significantly modest battery upgrade from the Watch 5, and even if Samsung is optimistic about its battery life, it should easily power through a day of heavy use. For those who need a larger rotating dial, the more costly Galaxy Watch6 Classic is the way to go.

All in all, the Galaxy Watch6 is a minor upgrade on the already excellent Watch 5. Still, it does add an Irregular Heart Rate notification, a brighter (2000 nits) screen, and a bigger battery life to make the Watch6 a compelling purchase or upgrade for users unsure about splurging on the latest Galaxy Watch. With Google’s Wear OS in tow, it has better software support and 3rd party app support than most of its competition and tends to be the face of Android-based smartwatches more often than not.

Garmin Venu 3

Best Fitness Smartwatch

The Garmin Venu 3 smartwatch has advanced health monitoring and fitness features to help users better understand what’s happening inside their bodies. Switch up the activities with animated workouts and more than 25 built-in indoor and GPS sports apps. With up to 14 days of battery life, there is no need to worry about recharging every night; do more, track more, and know more about overall health.

Heart Rate Monitor

Yes

Battery Life

Smartwatch mode: Up to 14 days, Battery Saver Smartwatch mode: Up to 26 days, GPS-Only GNSS mode: Up to 26 hours, All-Systems GNSS mode: Up to 20 hours, All-Systems GNSS mode with music: Up to 11 hours

Onboard GPS

Yes

Offline Media Storage

Yes

Case Material

Fiber-reinforced polymer

Storage

8 GB

Pros

• Wide range of fitness tracking capabilities
• Onboard storage
• Impressive battery life

Cons

• A bit on the expensive side

Garmin is a name that is probably recognized by avid runners or fitness buffs, and for a good reason: they have an excellent reputation, especially when it comes to tracking health stats. The Garmin Venu 3 is easily one of their most popular smartwatches; it rides the line of a straight-up fitness tracker and a typical smartwatch. The Venu 3 doesn’t exactly scream fitness watch, but it is built robustly enough to be worn regardless of the activity, including pool swimming. Built into the watch, there are many training tools, like an accurate GPS tracker, heart rate monitoring, Garmin trainer workout plans, and much more.

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Even though this watch isn’t a complete standalone device like an Apple Watch, it does have onboard storage that can hold up to 650 songs, plus third-party music apps from Spotify and Deezer, so there is no need to have a phone for a run. The super bright 1.4″ AMOLED display with an optional Always-on mode is sharp and protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. With just a glance, users can gather a whole wealth of information from this watch, like their daily calendar, heart rate, water intake, stress level, and phone notifications, so most of the time, there is no need to pull their phone out of their pocket.

The Garmin Venu 3 boasts 14 days of battery life, which can be boosted to 26 days in Battery Saver mode.

Withings ScanWatch 2

Best Hybrid Smartwatch

The ScanWatch 2 from Withings is for users who want the technology of a smartwatch with the aesthetics of a classic analog watch. It packs a small grayscale OLED display that shows health data, temperature, activity tracking, and more. The stainless steel crown is used to interact with the display. The ScanWatch 2 can last up to 30 days, thanks to the tiny display and analog mechanism.

Brand

Withings

Heart Rate Monitor

Yes

Color Screen

No

Battery Life

30 days

Operating System

HealthSense OS 3

Onboard GPS

No

Offline Media Storage

No

Customizable Strap

Yes

SIM Support

No

Lens Material

Sapphire glass

Case Material

Stainless steel

Body material

Stainless Steel

Pros

• Subtle classic look
• Incredible battery life thanks to tiny grayscale display
• Free and unlimited online storage of health data

Cons

• Limited smart features
• Limited app ecosystem

There is a section of wristwatch lovers who are not fond of the complete digital interface of smartwatches. For them, the Withings ScanWatch 2 should check both boxes – classic looks and smart features. It features a stainless steel case protected by Sapphire glass that showcases the classic analog clock with a small OLED screen that shows health metrics, temperature, activity tracking data, and more. This classy look does not take away from the active lifestyle use cases as the Scanmore 2 comes with 5ATM water resistance.

Thanks to the tiny screen, the hybrid smartwatch is able to deliver 30 days of battery life, putting it among the longest-lasting smartwatches in the market. In terms of health data, the ScanWatch 2 has day and night tracking of temperature, high and low-level heart rate, and blood oxygen level, along with step tracking, and workout mode tracking. The dial on the side of the watch controls the small OLED grayscale display. Additionally, Withings has many customization options for this watch to make it match its users’ style, and the bands can be easily changed.

OnePlus Watch 2

Best Battery Life in a Smartwatch

The OnePlus Watch 2 is the company’s new and improved smartwatch that does a lot of things right. It uses a combination of two chips and two operating systems to deliver 100 hours of battery life. In power-saving mode, the battery can be extended to 12 days. The watch runs Wear OS and RTOS, which intelligently switches to conserve battery and still provide all smartwatch features. 

Brand

OnePlus

Heart Rate Monitor

Yes

Color Screen

Yes

Battery Life

100 hours in Smart Mode, 12 days in Power Saving Mode

Operating System

WearOS + RTOS

Lens Material

2.5D Sapphire Crystal

Case Material

Stainless steel

Durability

MIL STD

Pros

• Incredible battery life
• Smart integration of two processors and two operating systems

Cons

• The switch from RTOS to Wear OS can be a bit slow

While the Withings ScanWatch 2 can deliver 30 days of battery life, it does so with a tiny display and limited health tracking. For a massive battery and a full-size complete smartwatch, look no further than the OnePlus Watch 2. It boasts a 100-hour battery life in Smart Mode that can be extended up to 12 days in power saving mode. It does so by integrating two processors and two operating systems; Wear OS and RTOS.

Along with a massive battery, the OnePlus Watch 2 brings a 1.43-inch sharp display with a maximum brightness of 600 nits. While it’s not the brightest among the competition, it makes up with its feature set and fast charging capabilities. It has all the essential health-tracking sensors and statistics, over 100 sports modes, and is also highly durable as suggested by its MIL-STD-810H rating and IP68 water resistance.

Another unique aspect of the OnePlus Watch 2 is the design of the dial. On the right, there is a crown and a button that are pointing up and down respectively, giving the watch a one-of-a-kind look.

How To Choose The Perfect Smartwatch?

Compatibility

Compatibility plays a massive role in picking out a smartwatch; without a compatible device, most smartwatches are just dumb plain watches. Most smartwatches work with both Android and iOS, so device compatibility isn’t a huge issue; what plays more of a factor is the app or feature compatibility.

For example, if the watch says it supports NFC or contactless payment, make sure the app used to do this supports the bank or card planned to use it. On smartwatches like the Apple Watch or the Garmin Versa 2, this doesn’t matter because they use Apple Pay and Android Pay, respectively, to make those payments, but on FitBit watches, users have to use the FitBits app to add their card to the watch, and the app does not support every bank out there.

Aesthetics

While not entirely vital to the watch’s performance, the watch’s look plays a pretty important role in choosing a smartwatch. Even the most utilitarian of us care about how devices look, especially a device like a watch. Traditional watches are usually worn as fashion accessories and tools, so there is no reason that a smartwatch should be different.

There are many different styles to choose so picking out one that best fits the user’s style is well worth it.

Fitness Features

Pretty much every smartwatch can track steps and heart rate, but that is not enough for some people. For example, if the user is a swimmer and wants to track their swims, they should ensure that the watch is waterproof and can track activities like swimming.

GPS tracking is a great fitness feature for runners who want to share their runs with friends or for walkers who like to see where they walked in the day rather than just the number of steps.

Battery Life

Last but not least is the battery life of a watch. For the most part, this comes down to personal preference. For users who don’t mind charging all of their devices every night, a smartwatch with long battery life will not matter as much. But for those users who want to go a month without worrying about charging their watch, this is an essential thing to pay attention to.

This perfect battery life range can be different for every user, but it is usually better to shoot for a smartwatch with a longer battery life than a shorter one. Not everyone needs a watch that can last for weeks at a time, but especially for those smartwatches that track sleep habits, having one that can last at least a full day is an excellent goal to shoot for.

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FAQ

Are smartwatches worth it?

Smartwatches are totally worth it. Being able to check phone notifications without pulling out your phone is incredibly convenient, and being able to track fitness stats makes it so much better. Plus, with features like AFIB tracking and fall alerts, smartwatches can become a safety device and a convenience.

Do you need a phone if you have a smartwatch?

Pretty much every smartwatch on the market must be connected to a phone to access the complete set of features. Some with 3G/LTE capabilities can operate without a connection to another device.

Is it OK to wear smartwatch all the time?

Smartwatches can be worn all the time as the radiation emitted by them is not strong enough to cause any harm. They emit less radiation than smartphones.