7 Best Smartwatches You Should Buy Today

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There are a load of smartwatches to choose from these days, ranging from the ultra-cheap to the eye-wateringly expensive. Every brand has one, Google, Apple, Samsung, Huawei and more, which makes it incredibly difficult to choose which one is right for you.

On top of that, some of them are better for specific uses like fitness or medical tracking. Luckily for you, we’ve reviewed and used a lot of smartwatches which has enabled us to create this list of the best smartwatches to fit every need and budget.

Whether you want cheap but functional, a luxury item for all occasions or something in the middle, this smartwatch buying guide has you covered!

Best Apple Watch

Apple Watch Series 10

– Vibrant and dynamic display
– Much better value than the Ultra version
– Seamless integration with other Apple products

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Best Android Smartwatch

OnePlus Watch 3

– Circular design is a winner
– Brilliant 2,200 nits peak brightness AMOLED display
– Five-day + battery life
– Great value for money

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Best Smartwatch For Exercise

Garmin Fenix 7 Pro

– Marathon 35+ day battery life with solar
– Extensive data outputs
– Tactile buttons
– Comprehensive Garmin app to go with it

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Best Cheap Smartwatch

Redmi Watch 5

– Huge display
– Incredibly light
– Excellent value for less than £100
– Looks premium in black
– No compromises in functionality

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Best Premium Smartwatch

Apple Watch Ultra 2

– Luxurious look and feel from the Titanium frame
– Highly durable
– Top-notch display
– Chunkier design than most other watches
– 48 hours battery life

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Best Budget Fitness Tracker

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro

– All the fitness tracking you’ll need, including swimming
– Great value at less than $50
– Versatile and light

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Best Health Tracker

Huawei Watch D2

– Built-in inflatable blood pressure monitoring cuff for more accurate measurements
– Does everything else other smartwatches can do too

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Best Apple Watch

Apple Watch Series 10

From $399/£399

✅ Pros:
– Sharp, bright and dynamic display
– Entry-level model suits most people’s needs
– Better value than the Apple Watch Ultra 2
❌ Cons:
– Underwhelming battery life

As I said above, any watch that is crowned the ‘best’ in its category has to blend price with great design and a bunch of useful features. That is why I haven’t given the Apple Watch Ultra 2 the best Apple Watch spot.

You can get pretty much all of the features you could ever need or want from the standard Apple Watch Series 10. Yes, the Apple Watch Ultra has a slightly nicer display and some extra features like SCUBA activity tracking, but most people don’t need that. And it costs $799/£799, that’s $400/£400 more than the Series 10.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is a brilliant smartwatch that suits most people’s needs perfectly. It comes with health tracking that extends to ECGs, blood oxygen monitoring and sleep apnea detection among a whole host of other capabilities. It even has a depth gauge up to 40m if you really are into diving.

You can choose between an Aluminium or Titanium frame, both of which look beautifully sleek, and two sizes: 46mm and 42mm. And the display is excellent, one of the best you can buy on a smartwatch. The Series 10 has a peak brightness of 2000 nits, an OLED display, 326 pixels per inch density and the smallest bezels on the market, meaning the display stretches almost entirely from edge to edge.

The Apple Watch Series 10 might be more expensive than Android alternatives and have a significantly worse battery life, but it is a premium bit of tech. If you’re willing to look beyond Apple for a smartwatch, there is better value to be had, but the Series 10 makes the most sense if you are an iPhone user.

Best Android Smartwatch

OnePlus Watch 3

$329/£319

✅ Pros:
– Striking circular design
– 1.5-inch AMOLED display
– 120 hours battery life
❌ Cons:
– More expensive than other Android watches

What a watch the OnePlus Watch 3 is. For a start, the design is excellent. The circular face with some angular parts thrown in makes it stand out from the crowd and offers something different to the rectangular Apple Watch.

I love how it looks on the wrist, passing for both casual and formal occasions depending on the strap you wear. 

Beyond looks, it has WearOS which is just as good as Apple’s watchOS and comes with as much detailed fitness and health tracking as you’ll ever need. The display is a stunning 1.5-inch AMOLED with a peak brightness of up to 2200 nits (yes, that’s more than the Apple Watch Series 10) and a 466×466 resolution.

Best of all, it has a mega 120 hours of battery life which is seriously impressive for a watch with a display like this. And this is a huge reason to look beyond Apple when after a smartwatch. Their battery life game is inexplicably sub-par. Most Apple Watches last about a day. Most Android watches last a week.

The OnePlus Watch 3 is easily the best smartwatch I’ve used when you consider the value at $329/£319. As an Android user, I’d consider this watch before all others.

Best Smartwatch for Exercise

Garmin Fenix 7 Pro

From $749/£749

✅ Pros:
– Solar charging provides month-long battery life
– Extensive fitness tracking data
– Tactile buttons
❌ Cons:
– Expensive

No matter what the big tech companies will try and tell you, there is no comparison with Garmin smartwatches when it comes to exercise and fitness tracking. If I’m honest with you, you could pick pretty much any Garmin smartwatch and be happy with it. But the best we’ve tested is the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro.

The spec list for the Fenix 7 Pro is very long and there simply isn’t any point in me reciting it all here. Put simply, if you’re looking for a watch that can track your favourite type(s) of physical activity under pretty much any condition and deliver a boatload of data points each day, the Fenix 7 Pro fits the bill.

There are some highlights that need mentioning, though. For a start, there’s the battery life. If you buy the solar version the battery can last up to 37 days. Yes, days. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 will barely get you past 48 hours if you’re lucky.

The Fenix also has this great retro feel too, combining touch screen with real, tactile buttons that you can use to do things like start and stop exercise tracking. There are some drawbacks though. For example, you can only view notifications instead of being able to interact with them and the display isn’t as bright as other flagship smartwatches.

If you have an iPhone, it isn’t as seamless to use with a Garmin watch compared to an Apple Watch; you have to use the Garmin app which is excellent by the way. But that’s the beauty of the Apple Ecosystem for you. If that doesn’t bother you, then the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro is the best watch out there for the health enthusiasts amongst you, or if you don’t need all the bells and whistles that something like a more conventional smart watch brings.

Now, all of this doesn’t come cheap. In fact, it is very expensive as smartwatches go. But, totally worth it in our opinion. It’s your call for your needs but if you want the best fitness tracking out there, this is the way forward.

Best Cheap Smartwatch

Redmi Watch 5

From $119/£89

✅ Pros:
– Stellar battery life
– Huge, bright display
– Top build quality despite price
❌ Cons:
– No sleep apnea detection

To be crowned best in this category, the watch needs to retail for less than $120/£100. When you dip below this price point, you can find some seriously dodgy devices. But as ever, Xiaomi (who own Redmi) know what they’re doing when it comes to providing quality at low prices.

It’s true right across the board from phones to earbuds. And the Redmi Watch 5 is no different. I was astonished when I reviewed it.

For a start, the display is massive at 52mm whilst maintaining a slim profile. It looks stunning on the wrist in any colourway and makes viewing things on the watch so easy. The display has a peak brightness of 1,500 nits too, so there’s no slacking there either.

The Redmi Watch 5 is super light at 33.5g meaning it feels great when exercising and has a scroll wheel on the side for added navigation, something other watches at this price lack. 24 days (again, days) of battery life (with continuous blood oxygen monitoring turned off) also means it blows other competitors out of the water in that department.

You do compromise on some things of course. It is made from Aluminium rather than Titanium, but if that bothers you then you won’t even be considering a watch at this price. You also don’t get sleep apnea monitoring or SCUBA capabilities. But all the other health tracking features you need, like sleep and heart rate monitoring, are there.

It’s a staggeringly good watch for the money, coming in well under £100 at £89. You can’t buy it in the USA directly from Xiaomi but you can from third-party retailers. If you want a capable all-rounder with a mega display and marathon battery life, discount the Redmi Watch 5 at your peril!

Best Premium Smartwatch

Apple Watch Ultra 2

From $799/£799

✅ Pros:
– The best build quality out there
– Large, incredibly bright display
– Advanced features like SCUBA tracking
❌ Cons:
– Expensive

Now look, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is not our favourite smartwatch ever made. But that’s for one simple reason; it is overpriced compared to the competition. The Apple Watch Series 10 is a better smartwatch when you factor in value.

But if you remove all concerns about cost, then the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is premium personified in the best way possible. It is Apple at its cocky best, packed with Titanium details, a satisfyingly hefty weight, chunky size and buttery smooth software experience. 

It is the standard Apple Watch but bigger, with a better battery life and a few extra features that most people don’t need. The main benefit of buying the Ultra 2 is that aforementioned battery life. It lasts about 48 hours on average which is double that of the Series 10.

And when you put it on your wrist, it just feels luxurious. There’s no real way to describe it until you try one on. In my personal opinion, it is too heavy for vigorous exercise as you can actually feel it on your wrist and it can sometimes move around. But others will love the extra weight.

The display is beautiful too, the best you’ll get in a smartwatch at the moment which makes a difference when you’re out and about in the sun.

If money is no object to you, and especially if you’re an Apple ecosystem devotee, then you can’t get much better than the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

Best Budget Fitness Tracker

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro

$79/£64

✅ Pros:
– Brilliant value for money
– Hundreds of exercise types tracked
– Light and well-made
❌ Cons:
– Water creates some unwanted touches

If you just want something cheap but great to track your exercise (although this watch does all the other things like show notifications and connect to Spotify), then look no further than the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro.

The Smart Band 9 Pro is not just a fitness tracker. It is a full-blown smartwatch that I wear all the time. But I use it primarily as a fitness tracker because that’s what it feels like to me. It costs the same as something like a FitBit but has more functionality, that’s why I think it offers such great value.

This smartwatch tracks hundreds of exercise variations with things like split training for running and swimming included so you should be covered. You get breakdowns on loads of data like stride length, cadence, stroke length and more when exercising and health tracking like heart rate and sleep monitoring.

Combine it with one of the Xiaomi fabric straps and it becomes a very capable, comfy and stylish watch for only $79/£64. In truth though, if you really don’t care about having a big screen, then the standard Xiaomi Smart Band 9 (which has a slim oval display) does the exact same job but for a staggeringly low $49/£34.

The standard Smart Band 9 remains the best value for money smartwatch I’ve ever used, but I just like having a bigger display.

Best Health Tracker

Huawei Watch D2

$399/£349

✅ Pros:
– Built-in inflatable blood pressure cuff for more accurate readings
– Easy-to-use
❌ Cons:
– Better alternatives if you don’t need the blood pressure monitoring

There is only one viable option in this category. All smartwatches have varying degrees of health tracking capability, but only the Huawei Watch D2 has a built-in inflatable blood pressure cuff. 

I couldn’t quite believe it when I first used it but somehow, Huawei has managed to cram a motor to inflate a blood pressure cuff into their watch chassis without making it stupidly big. It is a bit chunkier and heavier than a normal smartwatch but not catastrophically so. It feels normal on your wrist.

But that doesn’t really matter because this is a smartwatch with a specific function and user in mind. If you have the need to be able to regularly and accurately read your blood pressure then the Huawei Watch D2 is a brilliant device. It doesn’t completely replace the need for a full-size blood pressure monitor but it means you have the ability to take readings on the go and when you’re travelling.

Besides that, it does all the other things you’d want from a smartwatch but isn’t the most stylish-looking design. If you don’t need the blood pressure monitor then you can look elsewhere.

Conclusion

You now have all the information you need to make a smartwatch purchase, whether you need something for Apple, Android, exercise or health tracking. What you’ll have noticed is that there are some excellent watches out there for not much money at all.

If you don’t own an iPhone, you shouldn’t automatically default to the Apple Watch. Considering an Android smartwatch makes total sense from a budget point of view, and there are no worries about sacrificing quality.

Which watch would you buy? Let me know below!