Fitness trackers allow you to monitor your health, exercise regimen, how well you sleep, overall step count, and so much more. These are no longer basic step counters, especially now that most of the best fitness trackers come with powerful heart rate monitors and other health-tracking tech that will ensure you’re at peak physical fitness.
If you’re keeping an eye on your weight and heart health, or you want a tool to help encourage regular fitness, you will likely enjoy one of the top options for your wrist below. If you are trying to manage your weight, coupling a fitness tracker with a great smart scale is a convenient and effective way to easily manage all of your health needs. There are options, available in various styles and at various price points, from household names like Fitbit and Garmin, along with a few other manufacturers that may surprise you.
Best fitness trackers available right now
Fitbit Charge 6
Quality fitness tracking with a dash of Google
The Fitbit Charge 6 ticks all the boxes for a personal fitness tracker and then some. The long battery life is accompanied by all-new Google smarts, like turn-by-turn navigation from Google Maps. The GPS-enabled fitness tracker even supports Google Wallet for quick and easy payments when out and about. Unfortunately, the lack of media controls for anything but YouTube Music is a dampener.
- Long battery life
- Supports turn-by-turn navigation via Google Maps
- Built-in GPS
- Media controls only support YouTube Music
- Small display can be hard to read
- EDA scans aren’t particularly useful
The Fitbit Charge 6 is a direct continuation of one of the most popular fitness trackers around. This time, the tracker gains a range of Google-powered features, making it a Pixel Watch lite in all but name.
The Fitbit Charge 6 excels at the essentials like activity and sleep tracking and includes built-in GPS to keep tabs on all your outdoor runs. It even upgrades its automatic workout detection capabilities to make sure you don’t miss activities. The upgraded model also broadcasts heart rate information to supported fitness equipment, making it a true workout companion.
The overhauled design is available in various colors and sits comfortably on the wrist. The OLED screen is plenty bright, too, but the small size means information density remains low. This also means that the Google Maps integration is limited to alerts for turn-by-turn navigation.
Read our review
Fitbit Charge 6 review: Do you really need a smartwatch?
Quality fitness tracking, more Google than ever
In our review, we found that the Fitbit Charge 6 has a few quirks. For example, the built-in media controls can only manage YouTube Music and no other streaming app. Similarly, Google Wallet support on the Fitbit Charge 6 can be rather iffy, and not all cards are supported. Priced at just $160, and frequently discounted, the Fitbit Charge 6 is a no-brainer for anyone seeking a premium fitness tracker.
Polar Vantage M3
Amazing for multi-sport use
The Polar Vantage M3 is an excellent watch heavily geared towards fitness enthusiasts. The Vantage M3 does an amazing job tracking your health and fitness metrics. This watch excels for multi-sport athletes or triathletes looking to take their skills to the next level.
- Gorgeous AMOLED display
- Battery can make it a week
- Captures a ton of health and fitness metrics
- Full map support
- Strap can be difficult to put on
- No app store to extend apps
- Polar Flow is due for an overhaul
The Polar Vantage M3 is an amazing option for anyone looking for a stylish watch, especially if you want to take your fitness to the next level. With over 150 different sports profiles, you can bet that you will find the correct sports option for whatever activity you are doing. With a variety of sensors, the Vantage M3 can track each of these activities with ease. It especially excels in multi-sport tracking, including running, swimming, and cycling.
Polar has recently changed its software approach, with all of its top smartwatches now getting the same software features. This effectively gives the M3 the same features as its more expensive siblings. This includes full map support, which can be used to follow predetermined routes or to help you get to critical markers. Polar has promised to bring points of interest as a software update early next year.
In addition to all of Polar’s fitness tracking capabilities, it also designed an attractive smartwatch. Its stainless steel case can withstand the occasional bump and is perfectly sized for a convenient fit.
The Vantage M3 is quite snappy. From navigating the various menus to jumping in and out of fitness tracking, the M3 handles it all with ease. It also has an amazing-looking AMOLED display that is quite easy to see in the brightest of conditions thanks to its 1500 nits of brightness.
Read our review
Review: The Polar Vantage M3 is a premium fitness watch that nails the landing
Built for athletes of all types
If you’re looking for one of the best fitness trackers on the market, with excellent battery life, snappy performance, and an amazing display, then the Polar Vantage M3 is a solid option. It’s a bit more expensive than some of the other options on this list, but it provides an excellent experience that can truly take your fitness to the next level.
Xiaomi Smart Band 9
Budget fitness tracking done right
It’s hard not to notice the sheer value you get from the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 considering what it costs. It doesn’t change a great deal from its predecessor, but that also means all the good stuff stays intact, including tracking over 150 types of activities.
- Fabulous battery life
- Over 150 sports modes
- Bright AMOLED display
- No GPS
- Unsecure strap clasp
- Not a big upgrade from Smart Band 8
Xiaomi’s Smart Band 9 fitness tracker is affordable and retains the value proposition that’s become the norm for this line. It still tracks over 150 activity modes, making workout tracking much easier to handle, and only feels more substantive when you add heart rate and SpO2 (blood oxygen) to cover things from the health side.
The budget-minded device still won’t give you built-in GPS for outdoor runs and NFC for contactless payments, but that’s also one way Xiaomi keeps this tracker down to its low $60 price point. The company claims tracking sensors are better than those in the Smart Band 8 but it’s not always clear just how much that’s true.
Xiaomi’s Mi Fitness app also used to be a weak link but that’s not really the case anymore. It feels more comprehensive, laying out data points simply and cleanly, including integrations with Strava and Google Fit. You can still customize the Smart Band 9 with dozens of faces available to suit your mood and personality.
Read our review
The non-standard charger could be better but at least it only takes an hour or so to fill it up. As good as the two-week battery life was before, only this one goes up to 21 days without a charge, depending on what settings you enable, like leaving on the always-on display and using more advanced tracking options, which can knock that down to nine days.
Coros Pace 3
Can’t beat the sunlight readability
Coros has been giving Garmin some stiff competition in the serious fitness watch market. The Pace 3 covers all the basics, like dual-band GPS and extensive analytics, and adds a sunlight-readable display on top. The transreflective screen ensures you can go weeks between charges. It’s affordable, too, making the Coros an excellent choice for outdoor runners.
- Excellent sunlight readability
- Upto 3 weeks of battery life
- Accurate workouts tracking
- Setting up custom workouts is cumbersome
- No third-party apps
- Can’t control music playback on phone
Coros has become a popular choice among fitness enthusiasts thanks to its combination of excellent fitness tracking and a value price point. The latest in the lineup, the Coros Pace 3, is the best of everything that makes Coros fitness trackers so unique.
It has a sunlight-readable display that sips battery life, allowing it to last as long as three weeks on a single charge. Running outdoors? The dual-band GPS support guarantees precise location tracking. You’ll even find a rotating bezel to scroll through the ample data the watch provides.
Read our review
Coros Pace 3 review: A sports smartwatch with style to spare
You’ll be hard pressed to find these features for this price anywhere else
While the Coros Pace 3 lacks any third-party apps or controls, there’s 2GB of built-in storage for listening to music. However, setting up custom workouts on the Pace 3 can be a time-consuming chore and has a steep learning curve. The lack of NFC also means that you cannot use the watch for payments. But if all you need is a no-nonsense fitness watch with best-in-class fitness tracking features, the Coros Pace 3 makes for a solid choice.
Suunto Race S
Great for small wrists
The Suunto Race S is an excellent watch that also happens to be a great value. With plenty of fitness tracking features, Suunto has done a fantastic job, but a couple of issues keep it from hitting the top of the list.
- Premium build quality
- Bright display
- Excellent workout tracking
- Lacks background sync
- Battery life could be better
If you are looking for a smaller-sized watch, then the Suunto Race S deserves a good hard look. With a small but bright and beautiful 1.32-inch AMOLED display, this watch should have no problems fitting on smaller wrists. In addition to the excellent display, the Race S has an excellent build, that feels premium in the hand.
Fitness tracking is also quite good thanks to its new optical heart rate sensor and updated algorithms. This watch tracks everything from walking to cycling and does it quite well.
Read our review
Review: The Suunto Race S could be the ultimate small-wrist outdoor watch
Smaller isn’t always worse
The Suunto Race S isn’t perfect and has a couple of niggling issues. The Race S doesn’t sync on its own, instead forcing you to manually sync it, which is not nearly as convenient as every other watch on this list. It also has a smaller battery, which limits its battery life. The Race S can hit a week in smartwatch mode but quickly drains once you start tracking workouts, forcing a midweek recharge.
Garmin Lily 2
A great option for the small-wristed
The Garmin Lily 2 is petite enough to feel like a fitness tracker, yet manages to make significant improvements over its predecessor, including built-in GPS to help better track outdoor exercise. Standard lugs also make it much easier to swap out bands and accessorize the Lily 2 to fit with any style or occasion.
- Slimmer design than many smartwatches
- Body Battery feature is helpful
- Five-day battery life
- No color on display
- No music storage options
The Garmin Lily 2 is a smartwatch designed for those with smaller wrists, and while it’s technically a smartwatch, it can feel svelte enough to be a lot like a fitness tracker.
Despite its smaller form factor, it offers several features you can utilize, like tracking heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep quality, and stress, along with menstrual health. With 5 ATM water resistance, you can take it for a swim, expanding how much you can make use of it while outdoors through the built-in GPS connection.
Plus, you get all the benefits of Garmin’s Connect app, where you can also try workouts and training regimens to meet your fitness goals. That’s also where the Body Battery comes in so you know when you’re too tired to work out.
Read our review
Garmin Lily 2 smartwatch review: A health tracker designed to keep you moving
After eight years, I may officially be an Apple Watch deserter
You won’t get any color on the monochrome display, nor the ability to store music on the watch itself (you can still control playback from the watch). Contactless payments through Garmin Pay are also available. Battery life holds up well at five days per charge, so you won’t be reaching for the charger too often.
Oura Ring 4
Fourth times the charm
For some, the idea of wearing something on your wrist is a non-starter, but that doesn’t mean you have to forgo all of the best fitness trackers. Oura has improved its lineup with some serious enhancements to its fourth-generation Ring, making for a much-improved product.
- Improved activity detection
- Comes in sizes ranging from 4 to 15
- Week-long battery life
- Requires a subscription
- Thicker than the competition
- No charging case included
If you are looking for something to help you track your health and fitness but hate the idea of strapping something on your wrist, then a smart ring may just be right up your alley. The Oura Ring 4 is the company’s fourth attempt at making a smart ring and that expertise has paid off here.
With significantly improved automatic activity detection, the Oura Ring 4 can now detect up to 40 different activities automatically. In our review, we noted that the automatic tracking was so reliable, you shouldn’t have to worry about manually tracking your exercise. The Oura app is well laid out and does a great job of bringing your latest trends front and center.
Even with all of these added features, the Ring 4 manages to deliver week-long battery life. In addition to its fantastic battery life, it is available in twelve different sizes, ranging from 4-15 and is quite comfortable to wear.
Read our review
Review: The Oura Ring 4 finally addresses my biggest pain point with smart rings
Improved automatic tracking is a game-changer
The Ring 4 doesn’t come with a charging case, and you need to sign up for the Oura subscription service, which is the biggest letdown. Oura does give you the first month free, but not everyone wants to pay a subscription fee to track their health.
CMF Watch Pro 2
A solid choice for less
The CMF Watch Pro 2 is an impressive device for its price, capable of tracking 120 different types of workouts, and presenting it all on a vibrant 1.32-inch AMOLED display.
- Tracks solid number of health and fitness metrics
- Vibrant display
- Excellent battery life
- Flimsy build
- Some connectivity issues
It’s rare to come across a more affordable fitness tracker that comes with a screen that feels like it was plucked from a more expensive model. That describes the 1.32-inch AMOLED on Nothing’s CMF Watch Pro 2 in a nutshell. Vibrant and slick, it’s a great way to view all the pertinent information you want to see when using the device to keep tabs on your activity.
Along with heart rate and blood oxygen, the watch offers solid sleep tracking that is very accurate for something in this range. With support for 120 sports modes, there’s also automatic tracking for outdoor walking and running, made all the better with built-in GPS to track location and route as well. The CMF Watch app does a nice job laying it all out, so you can understand what you’ve done and what goals you want to reach.
Nothing claims battery life will last up to 11 days per charge, though keeping GPS and Bluetooth on, while also maintaining steady SpO2 tracking chips away at that. Even so, you’re not likely to charge more than once a week.
Read our review
Nothing tries to fit everything into the CMF Watch Pro 2, for better or worse
Ambitious, but not without flaws
Just bear in mind this isn’t exactly a premium device despite the vibrant display. It feels a little flimsy and has poor haptics. Bluetooth connectivity can be fickle about reconnecting when venturing out of range and then coming back in. If Nothing can resolve these software issues with updates, the Watch Pro 2 only gets better.
Withings ScanWatch 2
A lower-profile fitness tracking option
The Withings ScanWatch 2 is the company’s latest high-end hybrid smartwatch featuring an upgraded PPG sensor and high dynamic accelerometer. It also comes with a temperature sensor for 24/7 temperature variation monitoring. All this and more in a timeless design.
- Classic design
- Exceptional battery life
- New temperature sensor and other health tracking
- Small digital display
- No contactless payments
- Limited fitness tech
The Withings ScanWatch 2 takes a classic approach to its design, much like its predecessor, but checks some key fitness and health tracker boxes anyway. It’s designed to look like a traditional analog watch, yet has hidden fitness tracking tech like a heart rate monitor, daily step counter, and skin temperature sensor. The watch also features an ECG monitor, which is a key feature for heart health, especially for warnings about atrial fibrillation.
The battery life is between two weeks and a month, depending on how much you use it — remarkably better than most other wearables you can buy right now. What the ScanWatch 2 can do is still limited, most significantly in terms of what information it can show you from a simple glance at your wrist.
Read our review
Withings ScanWatch 2 review: The smartwatch you wear to dinner
It’s not perfect, but the ScanWatch 2 offers digital features with an analog aesthetic
The step counter sits toward the bottom of the watch face, while a small screen provides you with key details, like step count, current heart rate, ECG results, etc. It isn’t the most expansive set of results, but you can find everything neatly put away in the app on your phone if you want to.
Samsung Galaxy Ring
Samsung’s first ring
Samsung’s first foray into smart rings with its aptly named Galaxy Ring is more a play on expanding its wearable ecosystem, which bodes well if you’re looking for something more to use.
- Attractive, clean design
- Effective tracking options
- No subscriptions necessary
- Limited workout tracking
- Watch out for scratches
Samsung may be newer at making smart rings, but the Galaxy Ring proves to be a solid debut, and that may be partly because of its effective purpose. Rather than a full-on ring that does it all, the company sees it as a great complement to its smartwatches.
You don’t necessarily need to go that route to get the most out of it, but it means you have a couple of ways to go about wearing one of these. Coated with titanium and plastic and silicon, its slight concave makes it look slimmer than it is, though it’s also prone to scratching if you wear it while lifting weights. You won’t have to worry about water resistance with its IP68 rating, where it can also track swimming, but beware of it potentially sliding off your finger.
The Galaxy Ring is limited to tracking just 13 exercises, with only walking and running tracking automatically for you. You need to start the rest from your phone. Otherwise, the Ring also tracks steps, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and sleep quality, including menstrual cycles for women.
Read our review
Samsung’s Galaxy Ring is the best smart ring, for whatever that’s worth
For health nuts, but not fitness freaks
While a Samsung phone isn’t necessary to get all the features, you must use an Android device and install Samsung Health and Galaxy Wear on it. Battery life holds up better the larger the size you wear, but you’re looking at roughly a week, on average. Samsung says you can stretch that further if you wear the Ring with a Galaxy Watch. Special gesture controls also only currently work with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6.
What’s the best fitness tracker for you?
Those are the top picks for the best fitness trackers. With such diversity, you’ll likely find an option that is appropriate for you. Our best overall pick comes from Fitbit, and there’s a reason it is a household name in wearable technology. The Fitbit Charge 6 is slim and affordable, but we particularly like its onboard GPS, turn-by-turn navigation, and contactless payments.
If Fitbit isn’t for you, you may want to opt for the Xiaomi Smart Band 9, which comes with many of the same features in a package at a fraction of the price of the Charge 6. However, that lower price means the experience isn’t as slick, so it isn’t for everyone.
The Polar Vantage M3 and Coros Pace 3 are also top-notch choices for the outdoorsy crowd, with their accurate fitness tracking, long battery life, and excellent readable displays. The Vantage M3 offers more features and capabilities in total, but it’s also the most expensive option on this list.
Those seeking a more robust outdoor tracking experience can look to the Garmin Lily 2, which is great for women or those with smaller wrists seeking built-in GPS. But if smart features are what you’re after, the best Android smartwatches are capable fitness trackers in their own right — though, of course, they can’t match the battery life offered by a dedicated fitness tracker.
Fitbit Charge 6
Quality fitness tracking with a dash of Google
The Fitbit Charge 6 ticks all the boxes for a personal fitness tracker and then some. The long battery life is accompanied by all-new Google smarts, like turn-by-turn navigation from Google Maps. The GPS-enabled fitness tracker even supports Google Wallet for quick and easy payments when out and about. Unfortunately, the lack of media controls for anything but YouTube Music is a dampener.
