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To find the best fitness tracker for activity tracking on the market, we took a look at the aspects that make for an excellent health accessory, including each option’s display, health features, ease of use, battery life, and design — after all, you will be wearing it all day. Depending on the activities you want to track, and if you seek additional features such as heart monitoring or sleep analysis, we’ve got an excellent option for you. Best of all, we made sure that each fitness tracker is easy to use and won’t have you squinting at a small display.
The best fitness tracker top pick goes to the Fitbit Versa 2. No surprise as Fitbit has been in the fitness game from the very beginning, and the Versa 2 offers a beautiful smartwatch with excellent fitness tracking abilities. The Versa 2 can track your steps, walked distance, calories burned, floors climbed, heart rate, and much more. You can even use the device to receive notifications from your favorite smartphone or to control music via services such as Spotify. Keep reading to learn about the best fitness tracker, and which other options might be great for you.
Award: TOP PICK
WHY WE LIKE IT: Fitbit retains its crown as the king of fitness with the Versa 2; a fashion-forward piece of fitness technology, the Versa 2 can track your fitness and overall health, while throwing in extra features including full Amazon Alexa support.
The Fitbit Versa 2 is a worthy update from the original, providing all the tracking features fitness and health buffs want to see, including step counting, calories burned, floors climbed, heart rate, sleep analysis, and more. We love the built-in always-on display that allows you to easily glance at information, such as your current workout stats, time of the day, or even phone alerts. We’re also excited to see Amazon Alexa built-in so that you can summon her easily when needed.
Related: If you only want to monitor your sleeping patterns, check the best sleep tracker.
The one bit we aren’t thrilled about is Fitbit’s lockdown of more advanced health tools, workouts, and insights, behind a subscription service; although, we do appreciate the included 90-day trial. You can even use the Versa 2 with third-party apps and services, making it the best fitness tracker for MyFitnessPal users. If you already have an Android phone, it may be easier to pick up the best Android smartwatch on the market.
Award: HONORABLE MENTION
WHY WE LIKE IT: Xiaomi offers an impressively high-quality product at an excellent price with the Mi Band 4. Featuring a vibrant AMOLED display, the Mi Band 4 offers fitness tracking, 24/7 heart rate monitoring, and sleep analysis.
Xiaomi is a brand that some in the west may be unfamiliar with, but in China, it’s a well-known and trusted electronics option. Taking a look at the Xiaomi Mi Band 4, we can certainly see why there is much fanfare. A beautifully designed high-quality product, the Mi Band 4 features a beautiful AMOLED display that is easily read in bright sunlight thanks to its 450 nits of screen brightness. If you decide to take a swim to escape the rays of the sun, you can also do so thanks to the band’s 5ATM water rating, allowing you to swim down to 50-meters.
We also like the included ability to customize the tracker’s watch face; however, we aren’t a massive fan of the charging process, which requires you to remove the central watch from the band. On the flip side, the Mi Band 4 does offer the longest battery on our list, coming in at 20 days on a full charge. Don’t judge the low price, the Mi Band 4 is the best fitness tracker for weight loss. If you have blood pressure complications, you might want to also consider the best heart rate monitor too.
Award: BEST FOR IPHONE
WHY WE LIKE IT: Apple brings the best health and fitness tracking experience to iPhone with its official smart watch. The only smartwatch that allows you to view detailed notifications, such as iMessages, while you work out, Apple Watch is a perfect fit for iPhone users (we picked this model for affordability and comparable features to the new model).
If you’re seeking the best fitness tracking companion for your iPhone, look no further than the Apple Watch; here, we suggest Series 3 because of its great price and excellent feature offering. Apple’s fitness tracking algorithms are among the most advanced thanks to its lab testing, ensuring you always get accurate readings. Being an Apple product, it is also the only tracking option that includes the ability to view and respond to iMessages. We also appreciate the SOS feature built-in for contacting emergency services if something was to happen and the need arrived.
The major con to set this option back is the fact that Apple Watch doesn’t work with Android smartphones —iPhone only here. Additionally, most users will find the battery only lasts a single day and will need to be charged nearly every night. That being said, if you want a watch-forward device, the Apple Watch is the best fitness tracker watch. Don’t believe us? Compare it so the best smartwatch already on the market.
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Award: BEST BUDGET
WHY WE LIKE IT: You don’t need pockets full of cash to live a better life with the affordable Lintelek Fitness Tracker. Offering a plethora of tracking abilities, and the ability to connect with your smartphone’s GPS, this tracker feels like a steal.
Purchasing a fitness tracker can appear to be an expensive option, but companies such as Lintelek help make fitness and health more obtainable thanks to trackers that don’t break the bank. The Lintelek can track general stats such as your step count and calories burned, as well as up to fourteen different sports activities, great for the well-rounded athlete. The connected GPS option also allows you to map your runs when connected to your smartphone — an excellent opportunity for seeing your performances during a morning stretch around the block. We also love that the Lintelek is available in nearly a dozen different colors, so you can pick the style that matches you.
We don’t think this is the best option for those tracking heart rate; however, as we found the tracker to be inaccurate from time to time. The Lintelek is the best budget fitness tracker on our list. You’ll love this tracker so much, you’ll forget about even your best exercise equipment.
Award: BEST FOR HEART HEALTH
WHY WE LIKE IT: HalfSun offers a full-featured fitness tracker that is excellent at keeping track of your movement, as well as your heart health. What makes this tracker stand out is its 24/7 heart rate monitoring, as well as blood pressure tracking.
The HalfSun fitness tracker takes special care with its heart health features, making it the best fitness tracker with a heart rate monitor. In addition to standard activity trackings, such as steps, distance, and calories, the HalfSun can track both your heart rate and blood pressure. The Halfsun even offers 24/7 monitoring for heart health, so that you can view a detailed report via the included smartphone app. Are you sitting too long? That’s not great for your health; thus, the HalfSun fitness tracker can be there to remind you to stand up and stretch out for a bit.
We love the overall design of the watch, but some individuals with smaller wrists might find it a bit bulky. HalfSun offers its watch in black, gray, and white colors, so you can best fit your personality. If you’re looking to hit the weights instead, try the best weight lifting gloves too.
Award: BEST FOR FEMALE HEALTH
WHY WE LIKE IT: Offering similar features to the Fitbit Inspire HR, the Fitbit Charge 3 makes an excellent fitness tracker for both men and women, but the Fitbit Charge 3 goes the extra mile for women’s health by helping to track periods, record symptoms, and provide ovulation and fertility estimates.
When it comes to women’s health, Fitbit pulls ahead with its advanced tracking features, and we believe the Fitbit Charge 3 is a great option to pair. A smaller variation of our top pick, the Fitbit Versa 2, the Charge 3 brings all of the features you would want to find, such as activity & sleep tracking, notification alerts, heart rate monitoring, and water resistance. But for female users, the Fitbit Charge 3 pulls ahead with the ability to track periods, record your symptoms, and provide estimations for ovulation and fertility windows.
The design also makes the Charge 3 fit thinner wrists down to 5.5-inches. The only downside we found was a few potential software bugs, but it appears the Fitbit team has squashed most of them since launch, and the company makes one of the best fitness tracker apps available. For a newer model from Fitbit, check out the Charge 4.
When researching the best fitness trackers to get you moving and provide useful feedback on your health, we took a look at the features that define your daily user experience. Factors such as each tracker’s display, health features, ease of use, battery life, and design, all came into view. For each aspect, we also set minimum criteria, so that we only present the best options available to you. No matter which fitness tracker you select from our guide, we know you’ll be happy with a device that can help direct you forward with a healthier lifestyle.
In regards to each display, we made sure that they are easy to read, never causing you to squint or strain your eyes. The smallest display we selected is 0.95-inches on the Xiaomi Mi Band 4, but even then, the AMOLED display features 450-nits of brightness so that it stands out easily in daylight. Even better, most watches in our list opt for displays around 1.3-inches for excellent readability. Ease of use was also critical, so we made sure that each tracker was easy to set up, navigate, and use from day to day — no complex setups, and no menu systems that felt like they went on forever.
Health features are the essential element, and we made sure that each tracker we selected could track the wearer’s steps, burned calories, distance walked, and heart rate — the essential components to a great fitness device. However, quite a few of our selections also feature additional features, such as blood pressure monitoring, sleep analysis, female health information, smartphone notifications, and more. Take a close look to ensure the fitness tracker you are purchasing does everything you desire.
For the battery life, we made sure even the most energy-hungry option, the Apple Watch, could get you through an entire day. That being said, many of our selections can last longer, such as the Xiaomi Mi Band 4, which can last up to 20 days on a full charge. Lastly, we made sure that the design of each device has an opportunity to compliment your style; we even selected trackers with swappable bands and customizable watch faces, so you are always in vogue.
You can find more for a healthy life in our health and wellness section. Some other helpful gadgets include the best fitbit, the best running watches, and the best heart rate monitor.
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