Best Smartwatches and Fitness Trackers of 2024

The first off, I’ve put them together on this list because inside they are so very similar if you have an iPhone, one of these will be the best choice for most people as long as it fits your budget and you don’t need a week’s worth of battery life. 

This year, there are brighter screens all around and new processors, the Apple ultra 2 smartwatch is the brightest of all at an eye watering 3,000 nits, it has really good outdoor visibility.

The Apple series 9 also gets a boost to 2,000 nits which is the same as the original Apple watch Ultra on-device Siri is also a nice perk, you don’t need to worry about being connected to the internet to perform tasks like; starting workouts or setting a timer. The double tap gesture is a practical way to control some aspects of the watch especially when you can’t use your other hand.

Battery life is pretty much the same as earlier Apple watches though, so expect a regular charge with the series 9 but the ultra 2 can last for around 3 days with a regular usage.

If you can still find one, it’s really a fantastic watch and you get most of the same great software features on watch OS 10 the same heart rate sensor as the newer watch and all of the rest of the bells and whistles like ECG blood oxygen, emergency SOS and a car crash detection bonus. It looks identical to the Ultra 2 except the screen which is not as bright for Android.

The Google Pixel Watch 2 is now one of the best looking smartwatches out there with an elegant design that does not look like your average Smartwatch, it has some extra coaching tools for runners that was not on the first pixel watch and it’s a very accurate watch for tracking heart rate, all the usual features like an ECG blood oxygen monitoring, skin temperature tracking are there. 

I really like the safety check feature that sets a timer for you to check in with an emergency contact and if you don’t respond to that notification when the timer is up it will share your location with that contact. The main downside is only one side option and that’s if you’ll probably also want to think about getting Fitbit premium that’s the $10 a month subscription service to access some features like the readiness score which is another great choice.

On Android, it’s the Samsung Galaxy watch 6 and the Galaxy Watch 6 classic, and the bezel is back and it’s just as fun as ever to use to navigate the watch. This is the best watch to get if you need the option of two sizes and a couple of extra sensors.

The Samsung Galaxy watch has had a bio pedance sensor for a few generations now which helps determine body composition that’s useful if you’re looking to keep tabs on your weight or muscle mass. 

The temperature sensor is also now active and you can use it to determine not just only your skin temperature but also other items like a cup of coffee or water. The battery life is good but not really great just like most of the SmartWatches we’ve previously talked about. 

By far, the TicWatch Pro 5 is another one of my overall favorites smartwatch for Android and it caters to a slightly different users interface than the Pixel Watch and the Galaxy watch, it has a tough construction and two displays, the first display is an OLED that looks just like your standard Smartwatch and a ULP (Ultra Low Power) display that turns on when your watch is not actively being used and really helps to conserve battery life and you can still see lots of helpful details like the time and your workout metrics. This is a pretty large watch though so small wrists are going to likely be put off by how big and bulky it is and one do need to wear it really tight and a lot higher on the wrist to get a more accurate heart rate readings during workouts. The other downside is it’s still running wear OS 3.5 at the time of recording performance-wise that doesn’t really make any difference at all because this watch is super fast but you are also going to miss out on the Google Assistant which is a bummer.

The Garmin Vivoactive 5 is great at what it does and it works with both Android and iOS which is really becoming a reality these days. It’s a fitness watch with just enough smart features to make you take a second look especially if you thought Garmin watches was only for fitness and sports enthusiasts, it has a great screen that gives detailed analysis on workout’s metrics and Recovery detects naps and has an amazing battery life that seriously blows all of the other smartwatches on this list out of the water with 11 days of battery life at most. You also get mobile payments and Spotify on your wrist, the main things the Garmin Vivoactive 5 is missing out on compared to Smartwatches like an Alpha watch or a Galaxy watch is an ECG, speaker and a microphone. Nevertheless, if you do like to take calls on your wrist otherwise the battery life and fitness tracking on this is unbeatable for now.

Garmin has been releasing some killer SmartWatches over the past few years and Garmin also has the venu 3 Smartwatch which also came out in 2023 that does have a speaker and microphone unlike the Garmin Vivoactive 5 and a voice assistance support. It is significantly more expensive and for most people this is the one I’d recommend because it’s less expensive.

Sometimes SmartWatches are a bit too expensive and you just want something incognito like a fitness tracker then Fitbit charge 6 which has the best of Smartwatch’s features like BYT navigation on Google Maps and a great battery life, this fitness tracker is known to last for almost a week with light usage and it works with both Android and iOS devices too, it has great sleep and activity tracking which are excellent and can now send live heart rate data to supported exercise machines and apps during workouts.

The Fitbit app also helps interpret sleep and stress information with an easy to understand “Readiness score” and sleep score.

If $160 is a little bit too much for your budget to get the Fitbit charge 6 then consider getting the Inspire 3 Smartwatch which is more basic, it doesn’t have an ECG or stress tracking sensor or any of those other apps, either it’s $100 but definitely keep your eye out because I’ve seen it for as low as $70 but the downside to both Fitbit charge 6 and the Inspire 3 watches is that Fitbit premium subscription that I did mention previously costs $10 per month after your free trial is over. Well, it absolutely no compulsory if you do not need to get this subscription but you’re definitely going to miss out on some of those key parts of the Fitbit experience like that Readiness score and more in-depth sleep tracking metrics.

So that’s my list of the best fitness trackers and Smartwatches of 2024. As always, I want to hear what you have on your wrist and if you’re loving it or you’re looking for an upgrade, make sure to put it on the comments and make sure to check out all of our recent reviews of other smartwatches too.