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At their core, smartwatches are extensions of your phone for checking notifications, making calls, sending texts, and, not to mention, telling the time. The best smartwatches can also be powerful tools for tracking activities and monitoring health markers, too. The most important things to consider when choosing a new smartwatch are the features you’ll use most and the smartphone operating system you use.

Our top pick among the best smartwatches is the Apple Watch Series 9. Although it’s only compatible with iOS, it’s easy to navigate and offers a wide range of health and fitness tracking tools. For Android users, we recommend the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. It has a durable, rugged design and multi-day battery life.

The Nothing CMF Watch Pro is a solid budget option. No smartwatch is perfect for a sub-$75 price, but the CMF Watch Pro offers the basics of a smartwatch with a couple of premium features, like an always-on display. It’s also compatible with both iOS and Android phones. 

Top picks for the best smartwatches

Best overall: Apple Watch Series 9 – See at Amazon

Best budget: Nothing CMF Watch Pro – See at Amazon

Best for Android: Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro – See at Amazon

Best for Pixel users: Google Pixel Watch 2 – See at Amazon

Best for fitness: Garmin Epix Pro – See at Amazon

Best premium Apple Watch: Apple Watch Ultra 2 – See at Amazon

Best Fitbit: Fitbit Sense 2 – See at Amazon

Best with bezel: Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic – See at Amazon

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Best overall

The Apple Watch Series 9 remains atop the smartwatch pack thanks to its excellent blend of health and fitness tools, smartwatch functionality, and overall effectiveness. For iOS users, there’s no better wearable to buy, and it’s so good that it may even sway those who don’t have an iOS device to get one.

When the Series 9 was released in September 2023, it didn’t represent a massive generational leap over the prior year’s release, the Apple Watch Series 8. However, it did introduce a few new features that improved its accessibility, and it also debuted a fast new processor chip. 

The new additions include faster on-device Siri access, updated Smart Stack functionality, a brighter display, and, perhaps the most notable new feature, the Double Tap Gesture. The Double Tap Gesture allows users to tap their index finger and thumb together twice to interact with the primary button of any app. For instance, it can answer or hang up a phone call, start or stop a timer, and snooze an alarm. 

While this new gesture is great for interacting with the Apple Watch when you have your hands full, it’s a huge advancement in its accessibility. Now, users who may be unable to use the touchscreen easily can still use the watch’s apps. This, coupled with the Series 9’s on-device Siri access, completely changes how the watch can be used. 

Beyond those updates, the Series 9 is still a powerful health and fitness tracker, offering several tools like sleep tracking and stress management. There are also new mental health tools available within its Mindfulness app that allow users to log how they feel at certain times throughout the day. Apple dropped the blood-oxygen monitoring feature on all Apple Watches, including the Series 9, due to a patent dispute. 

The Apple Watch has long been a quality wearable, and the Series 9 continues that trend, offering something for every type of user. It delivers a premium smartwatch experience, has powerful health and fitness tracking tools, and is not only the best Apple Watch you can buy but the best smartwatch, too.

Read our full Apple Watch Series 9 review.

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Best budget

For around $65, the Nothing CMF Watch Pro perfectly fits the bill for a budget smartwatch, and it works both for Android and iPhone, too. 

Full disclosure: We haven’t tested or personally used the CMF Watch Pro yet. However, based on our research, overall experience with smartwatches, and our experience with Nothing products like the Phone 2 and Ear Stick earbuds, we feel comfortable recommending the CMF Watch Pro as a genuinely suitable option for those seeking a budget smartwatch. 

The CMF Watch Pro focuses on the core basics of a smartwatch, including telling the time and showing your notifications. You can even take a call on it thanks to its built-in microphone, which is a pleasant surprise for a watch in this price range, at least one with a recognizable brand name behind it.

It also covers the basic health and fitness tracking features that most smartwatches have, like a step counter, heart rate sensor, and sleep tracking. Also surprisingly, the CMF Watch Pro supports blood-oxygen monitoring — a feature deactivated on Apple Watches thanks to a patent dispute. It also has IP68 water resistance, which means it won’t get damaged with water contact, but Nothing doesn’t suggest you wear it swimming. 

The CMF Watch Pro’s touted 13-day battery life is also worthy of note. We expect most people would get less than 13 days with their typical usage, but that potential range is a great plus for the CMF Watch Pro. The CMF Watch Pro also supports an always-on display, a feature Apple’s Watch SE can’t tout at its $249 starting price. 

For $65, the CMF Watch Pro doesn’t have certain features you’d expect on more expensive smartwatches. It doesn’t run third-party apps, for example; that means different things to people who need third-party apps, but for most people, it means you can’t run your music streaming app and store music on the CMF Watch Pro for phone-less workouts.

And while you can get notifications about text messages, the CMF Watch Pro doesn’t support writing and sending texts from the watch itself. We also saw reports from users who weren’t receiving notifications for RCS messages from their phones, which is the modern standard that Android phones use for text messaging. Bluetooth connectivity with your phone is also reportedly patchy and oddly reliant on occasionally running the CMF Watch app. 

So, the CMF Watch Pro isn’t perfect, but it’s also around $65. Consider that most good smartwatches cost over $200, downsides to the CMF Pro are fully expected, and these specific downsides are acceptable for the price.

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Best for Android

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is a generation older than the current Galaxy Watch 6 series but has some notable advantages.

Namely, it houses a larger battery that allows it to go several days before a charge. It also has a ruggedly durable and lightweight titanium design that caters to the active user. And, when paired with one of the best Samsung Galaxy Watch bands, you can easily tailor it to function however you prefer to wear it. 

It’s also a powerful smartwatch. Call, text, email, and app alerts are easy to interact with on the large, bright watch face, and it uses the latest iteration of Wear OS, which is fluid and intuitive to navigate. It allows for deep customization, too, including several different watch faces that can display certain relevant information. I found this one of its best features, as I could tailor what data or fitness stats it always showed on the home screen. 

Health-focused users will also appreciate its variety of wellness features, including in-depth sleep tracking and a unique body composition scanner that can inform you of your body fat percentage, water weight, and BMI. This isn’t as accurate as a reading you may get at the doctor, but it’s still a handy tool.

For the fitness crowd, the Watch 5 Pro is stellar. Not only is there a wide range of trackable workouts, like cycling, running, and weight lifting, but there are plenty of activities that aren’t specifically fitness-centric but still work out your body, like skiing and hiking. There’s also a handy track-back option that functions like a breadcrumb feature to track your exact hiking routes. However, this only works for hiking and cycling, but hopefully, future updates make it available for things like trail running, too.

The Watch 5 Pro isn’t without its drawbacks. Some features, like the ECG function that tracks heart rhythms and blood pressure monitor, are exclusive to Samsung phones via the Samsung Health Monitor app, and they’re not available on other Android phones. It’s not a major red flag, but it is something to keep in mind if you don’t own a Samsung phone. 

Even with those issues, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is the best Android smartwatch you can buy. It’s a quality health and fitness tracker and an exceptional smartwatch. For Android users, especially those who own Samsung phones, it doesn’t get better than this.   

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro review.

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Best for Pixel users

Google’s second iteration of the Pixel Watch, the Pixel Watch 2, addresses our main complaints from the previous model, and it easily deserves its spot as the best option for Pixel phone users. 

The Pixel Watch 2 continues to offer the stellar core smartwatch experience from the original Pixel Watch with the intuitive WatchOS 4 operating system, compatibility with several third-party apps, and excellent notifications and interactions with calls, texts, and emails. As an extension of your phone, it shines. 

For fitness tracking, namely GPS accuracy, the Pixel Watch 2 brings major improvements, and it’s actually up to par with other smartwatches now. It includes features like sleep tracking, all-day heart rate monitoring, stress monitoring, and ECG readings. The Pixel Watch 2 also comes with a new skin temperature sensor and a new heart rate sensor, contributing to unique insights into sleep quality. 

We should note that some features like advanced sleep data, advanced stress management tools, and Fitbit’s unique Daily Readiness feature are locked behind Fitbit’s $10/month Premium subscription service. You get a free six-month trial of the service when you buy the Pixel Watch 2, which lets you decide whether it’s worth keeping.  

The Pixel Watch 2 also shows notable improvements in battery life over the original. It gets us through a full day that includes activity and workout tracking while leaving enough battery for sleep tracking.

Read our full Google Pixel Watch 2 review.

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Best for fitness

There aren’t many things the Garmin Epix Pro can’t do. From its endless number of trackable activities and weeklong battery to its accurate GPS tracking, no-frills but useful notification system, and a suite of health-tracking features, it’s more than just a quality fitness tracker; it’s the best fitness tracker. Period.

But since we’re talking about smartwatches, it’s worth pointing out it excels at that, too. Its call, text, and app notifications are on the basic end of the smartwatch spectrum, but they’re still easy to interact with, and the watch still serves as a reliable extension of your smartphone. It may not have all the bells and whistles of something like the Series 9 or Watch 5 Pro, but it gets the job done. 

Plus, the amount of extras that come with it makes it an especially great pick for fitness-focused folks or anyone who enjoys spending time outside. It offers in-depth activity tracking for things like running, cycling, weight training, and snowboarding and does more than just track heart rate and time. It can log actual workout reps and track actual ground you cover via GPS while providing a detailed map of your route. 

It’s also a comprehensive health tracker with in-depth sleep and stress monitoring and a handy recovery tool that adjusts how much rest it recommends you need based on your daily activity. 

I found the recovery feature quite useful, especially when I wanted to push myself but decided to take it easy based on the watch’s recommendation, knowing I wouldn’t be at my best. This input ultimately changed how I worked out each week, and I started to feel far better on a week-to-week basis in terms of soreness and my overall recovery timeline. 

This only scratches the surface of what the Epix Pro can do, too, as the watch literally learns your day-to-day behavior and adapts to suit you best. This includes the workout recommendations, but it also helps manage stress levels, when to go to bed and wake up, and how often you should have a rigorous workout. 

The fact it does all this while also being a reliable smartwatch makes it one of the premier wearables you can buy.

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Best premium Apple Watch

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 offers a near-similar smartwatch experience to the Series 9 but at a much steeper price tag. While it may not be the preferred choice for casual users, it’s worth the extra investment for advanced athletes or those who spend time outdoors.

This is mainly due to the features and internal hardware tailored to tracking activities like cycling, diving, and climbing. These features include a brighter screen that can be more easily seen in high-lighting conditions, tracking compatibility for freediving, scuba diving, and wakeboarding, and improved altitude readings.

The Ultra 2 also features a bulkier, more durable design than the Series 9 and a battery that lasts upwards of two full days instead of needing to be recharged daily. The increased battery life is a huge improvement compared to the Series 9 (and other smartwatches in this guide) since less time on the charger means more time using it for how it’s intended.

However, my favorite feature of the Ultra 2 is its Action Button, which can be programmed to open several different apps, including the fitness-tracking app, the stopwatch, or the shortcuts app. The Action Button is especially helpful for activities because instead of starting after a short three-second countdown, like on the Series 9, it allows you to press the button once you’re situated and ready to go. This also helps wait for the GPS to sync.

Other notable features include the new Double Tap Gesture, which also debuted on the Series 9, and faster on-device Siri access. It also has the new S9 processor chip and the updated ultra-wideband chip that improves its location accuracy.

Although the Ultra 2 offers many features geared toward the advanced athlete, it’s still a quality wearable for the casual user. It has the same health and fitness tracking tools as the Series 9 while offering similar smartwatch functionality.

Note that Apple disabled the blood-oxygen monitoring feature on all Apple Watches, including the Ultra 2, due to a patent dispute.

Read our full Apple Watch Ultra 2 review.

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Best Fitbit

For a smartwatch that excels as a reliable sleep tracker, Fitbit’s Sense 2 is at the front of the pack. It not only tracks your sleep each night and provides in-depth data, but it also offers unique recommendations on improving your rest via several metrics. Plenty of wearables try to provide this level of insight, but the Sense 2 does it best.

What sets the Sense 2 apart is how comprehensive the data it provides is. For example, after a night of sleep, the Fitbit app displays metrics showing how well I rested. These include time spent in REM, deep, and light sleep, as well as other factors like time spent awake, how restless I might have been, and what my heart rate was. 

The Fitbit app can then recommend ways to improve my sleep to better my nightly score. This may include certain workouts, when to work out, or how to keep a consistent sleep schedule. Once I got the hang of using the recommendations, they made a noticeable difference.

It’s worth noting that one major hurdle to having all the sleep data available is to have Fitbit Premium, the subscription part of the Fitbit app. Memberships run for $10/month or $80/year and are worth the expenditure for those intent on using the extra data. 

Fitbit Premium also provides a unique Daily Readiness Score that analyzes your prior day’s activity and rest and creates a numbered score to represent how hard to push yourself. There are also in-depth health insights, like heart rate variability, available to subscribers. 

Aside from its capability as a sleep tracker, the Sense 2 is also an excellent fitness tracker. It tracks various activities like running, cycling, and strength training. Also, it uses a skin temperature sensor, has heart rhythm (ECG) readings, and debuted Fitbit’s real-time stress tracker. The stress tracker is especially useful for its feedback on how to lower stress throughout the day.

While the Fitbit Sense 2 is one of the best smartwatches, the actual smartwatch experience leaves a little to be desired. Yes, it gets notifications like calls, texts, and app updates, but the fact Fitbit removed third-party app support and Google Assistant access is disappointing. There’s also no way to store or play music via the watch.

However, I wouldn’t view these as deal-breakers for the Sense 2, especially if you’re looking for a smartwatch with premium sleep tracking. It’s one of the best Fitbits you can buy, and while it is a so-so smartwatch, it gets the job done when needed while offering a suite of advanced health and wellness features. 

Read our full Fitbit Sense 2 review.

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Best with bezel

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch line has offered some of the best Android smartwatches you can buy for years, and the Samsung Watch 6 Classic is no exception.

One of the best additions Samsung introduced on the Watch 6 Classic was to bring back the rotating bezel last seen in the Watch 4. With the rotating bezel, navigating the watch’s interface and menus is fluid and easy, especially during workouts or when wearing gloves. This isn’t to say the touchscreen is hard to navigate, but sometimes it took a little longer to respond to a screen swipe than it would if I just simply spun the dial.

The watch’s improved battery life is also a welcome update. Outside of the Watch 5 Pro, most Galaxy Watches need to find their way to a charger at least once daily to recharge. This wasn’t ever a dealbreaker as even our top pick, the Apple Watch Series 9, requires the same daily charging. 

However, having a watch with a battery that lasts more than one day ensures you can squeeze all the functionality out of it. You can use it as a smartwatch and fitness tracker during the day and as a sleep tracker at night. The Watch 6 Classic’s longer battery allowed me to do that during my time with it. 

Not all Watch 6 users will make use of every bell and whistle, but even casual wearers will find plenty to utilize. Outside of the available activities and sleep tracking, there’s also a stress tracker, a heart rhythm reader (ECG), a body composition analyzer, a temperature sensor, and a cycle tracker.

The highlight of these is the body composition analyzer, which I used to chart my body fat percentage and muscle mass, and the stress tracker, which tracked my specific stress levels at different times throughout the day and suggested ways to lower them. 

I also just really enjoyed wearing the Watch 6 Classic. It has a comfortable, lightweight design that felt equally good to wear while working out and sleeping as it did while sitting at my desk. 

The watch looks good on the wrist, too, featuring a classic round watch face design that looks and feels premium. I could see it being slightly too big for folks with smaller wrists, though it was the perfect size on my arm (and I like larger watch faces). But do keep this in mind if you don’t like big watch faces.

My lone nitpick with the Watch 6 Classic is that it’s not all that different from the previous generation of Watch 5. It does use the latest Wear OS, though that can also be downloaded on the Watch 5. What this means, though, is that upgrading to the Watch 6 Classic is best done by those wearing the Watch 4 or older — and Watch 5 users can take a beat and wait for the release of next year’s Watch 7.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic review.

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What to look for in a smartwatch

It’s important to know how you intend to use a smartwatch before you start shopping for one. Maybe you want a wearable with a smaller watch face or prefer a certain strap material. You may even want one that offers robust health and fitness tracking capabilities.

Here’s what to consider before purchasing:

Use case: While all smartwatches offer similar functionality of telling time and displaying various call, text, email, and app notifications, some are better suited to certain uses than others. For example, the Fitbit Sense 2 excels as a sleep tracker in addition to being a reliable smartwatch. If you don’t need sleep tracking, the Sense 2 may not be a good fit. 

While most smartwatches track activities, they’re not all full-fledged fitness trackers. Dedicated fitness trackers provide a variety of trackable activities and often provide in-depth progress-tracking data, monitor rest and recovery, and create workout recommendations. For information on these, check out our guide on the best fitness trackers. 

Sizing: Smartwatches come in a variety of sizing options, both in terms of the actual watch face and the watch strap it comes with. While some folks may benefit from a larger watch face and prefer the amount of data they can see on it, others may find big watches too cumbersome and prefer something smaller and sleeker. This is especially true for those with smaller wrists.

Compatibility: While iPhone users shouldn’t buy an Android smartwatch, and vice versa, there are other compatibilities to keep in mind when shopping. For instance, some wearables, like Samsung’s Watch 5 Pro and Watch 6 Classic, function better on a Samsung-branded phone than on a different Android device like the Google Pixel. Some features aren’t available while the overall experience is slightly different.

Battery life: Battery life is one of the most important considerations when shopping for a smartwatch and directly impacts how you use it. For instance, the Apple Watch Series 9, our pick as the best smartwatch overall, requires daily charging. This is fine for folks who can put it on the charger each night but may not suffice for those who travel frequently or who may not have access to a portable charger.

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How we test smartwatches

Each of the smartwatches included in this guide went through various tests to determine how well they performed across these four categories: Features, fit & comfort, ease of use, and value.

Here’s how each category specifically factored into the decision process:

Features: This is one of the most important considerations for any smartwatch and separates something like the Apple Watch Series 8 from something that didn’t make our guide, like the Fitbit Versa 4. A wearable with features like third-party app support, the ability to play or store music, and others like sleep tracking or an always-on display truly fits the bill of being a quality smartwatch. 

Fit & comfort: If a smartwatch is uncomfortable, you’ll be far less likely to want to wear it very often. And since a smartwatch is supposed to be a suitable extension of your phone, track your daily activity, and monitor your sleep, you need to wear it a lot. We took into consideration how the watch band feels, how lightweight it is while wearing at night, and whether it stays comfortable while commuting, working out, etc. 

Ease of use: Learning curve is another important factor since knowing how to get the most out of your smartwatch without fumbling through menus is vital to the experience. There will be a learning period with any new smartwatch but the ones that are intuitive and easy to navigate from the jump are the ones that stick out. The Apple Watch Series 9 is one of the easiest watches to navigate, which is part of why it’s our top overall pick. 

Value: Value can often be subjective and is influenced entirely by how a user utilizes a certain smartwatch. For instance, not everyone needs the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Athletes or those who spend a lot of time outside who also need a powerful smartwatch will get a lot of value out of it while someone who is just casually active may not need all the bells and whistles. But value is still an important aspect we considered because smartwatches aren’t cheap and you want to ensure that your investment is a wise one.

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FAQs

What is the best smartwatch?

This largely hinges on two things: how you intend to use the smartwatch and, perhaps most importantly, what smartphone you have. For instance, the best Apple Watches only work on iOS devices, while the best Android smartwatches only work on Android devices.

So, while we think the Apple Watch Series 9 is the best overall smartwatch, regardless of smartphone operating system, it’s still only usable by one group of users: those with an iOS device.

Consider how you intend to use the smartwatch, too. If you want something that accurately tracks activities and has several health-tracking tools, a pure smartwatch likely isn’t going to be the “best” for you. Similarly, if you want the best pure smartwatch experience, a dedicated fitness tracker won’t be the best fit.

Do all smartwatches work on any smartphone? 

No. Some smartwatches work exclusively on a certain operating system. For instance, the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 only work on iOS devices, while wearables such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro and Google Pixel Watch 2 only work on Android devices. 

However, many wearables work on iOS and Android, including the Garmin Epix, the Fitbit Sense 2, and the Fitbit Versa 3. Always cross-reference which operating system a certain smartwatch requires with the operating system of your smartphone before purchasing. 

Can you use an Apple Watch with an Android smartphone? 

No, the Apple Watch is only compatible with devices running iOS. While you can still wear an Apple Watch if you own an Android phone, you won’t be able to get anywhere near the full functionality out of it like accessing any tracked data or downloading apps. 

Unlike smartwatches from Garmin and Fitbit, which work with iOS and Android devices, the Apple Watch only works with iOS devices.

Can you use an Android smartwatch with an iPhone?

No, Android smartwatches, such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, Watch 5 Pro, and Google’s Pixel Watches, are only compatible with devices running the Android operating system. Those with iOS devices should avoid purchasing these watches to ensure their smartwatch’s full functionality.

If you want a device-agnostic smartwatch, opt for the Garmin Epix Pro or Fitbit Sense 2.