Are fitness trackers worth buying? Or should you just stick to wearing a watch? In this guide, we’ll look at the best of both worlds. The best smartwatch with fitness tracking features. We’ll compare their strengths and weaknesses, and see which ones are worth buying.
Fitness trackers are great if you want to keep tabs on your activity levels without having to carry around a phone. They’re also useful if you want to monitor your heart rate during exercise, or if you’d like to know how many calories you burn during a workout. But they don’t typically have some of the advanced features you would find in a smartwatch.
Features such as music control, advanced GPS tracking, built-in Bluetooth to connect to other devices. Basically, a smartwatch is like having a built in computer on your wrist. But what if you could have the best of both worlds. Technology has made it possible to have all of the benefits of a fitness tracker with the features and benefits of a smartwatch as well.
In this post we will discuss the specific details of the 3 best smartwatches with fitness tracking.
The Best Smartwatch With Fitness Tracking (Updated List)
| # | Preview | Product | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch | Best Overall |
| 2 |  | Fitbit Versa 3 Health & Fitness Smartwatch | Runner Up |
| 3 |  | Garmin 010-01769-01 Vivoactive 3, GPS Smartwatch | Budget Friendly |
Why You Should Get a Smartwatch With Fitness Tracking
You might think that the only reason to buy a smartwatch with fitness tracking is because you want to wear a watch and have the ability to track your overall fitness activities. That’s true, but with today’s wearable technology there are plenty of reasons why you might want to consider having the best smartwatch with fitness tracking.
Here are five good reasons:
1. Monitor Your Heart Rate During Exercise
Fitness trackers are great for monitoring your heart rate during exercise. If you’ve got a heart condition, then you’ll want to check your resting heart rate before starting any intense workouts. After that, you can use your fitness tracker to monitor your heart rate while working out. This way you can make sure that you’re not pushing yourself too hard. You can even set up automated alerts so that your fitness tracker sends you an email every time your heart rate goes above a certain threshold.
2. Track Sleep Quality & Quantity
If you want to get more restful sleep, then you need to be aware of when you’re getting tired. A fitness tracker can help you figure out when you’re falling asleep and waking up throughout the night. It can tell you how long you spend sleeping each night. And it can give you a better idea of whether you’re getting enough sleep.
3. Keep Track Of Steps Taken
A lot of people who work out walk less than they really should. So keeping track of your steps taken can help you stay motivated to move more often. Plus, walking is one of the easiest ways to lose weight.
4. Get Alerts For Important Events
A fitness tracker can alert you when something important happens. Maybe you need to take medication, or maybe you’re supposed to meet someone at a particular place. Either way, a fitness tracker can let you know about these events.
5. Stay On Top Of Social Media Activity
Social media apps are constantly sending us notifications telling us to do things. These notifications come from our friends, family members, and business contacts. But sometimes we just don’t pay attention to them. A fitness tracker can remind you to respond to messages from social media apps.
What to Look for When Buying Smartwatch With Fitness Tracking
Everyone has different preferences on what is important or not when deciding on a smartwatch with fitness tracking, but I want to offer my opinion on the most important things that the best smartwatch with fitness tracking should have.
Extended Battery Life
A good smartwatch with fitness tracking should have an extended battery life. So, what do I consider extended? I believe the fitness smartwatch should have a minimum of 5 plus days of battery life in the smartwatch mode. This would allow someone to adequately monitor their health and fitness metrics without being interrupted.
Accurate data for Calorie Burn and Measuring Heart Rate
In addition, this type of device should also provide accurate data on calorie burn, which is essential for losing weight. Calories burned are calculated using accelerometer data. Accelerometers detect movement and calculate the amount of energy used while moving.
In addition to this, it is a must that it accurately measures your heart rate. Monitoring heart rate is very important because it tells you if you’re exercising too much or too little. When you exercise, your heart beats faster. That’s normal. However, if your heart starts beating fast and feels like it’s going to beat right through your chest, then you may be doing too much. Your body needs to recover after exercise.
GPS Tracking
Fitness trackers use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to track workouts over distance. Step counters can be inaccurate when measuring distances. A fitness tracker with GPS capabilities helps you track your progress by providing real live data about your level of physical activity.
This means your smartwatch has the ability to more accurately measure and record speed, distance and elevation during your fitness and/or outdoor activities such as running, swimming or cycling.
Smartwatches With Fitness Tracking Product Reviews
Here are the reviews of the best Smartwatch With Fitness Tracking:
1. Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch (Best Overall)
As the name mentions, the Fitbit Sense is an advanced smartwatch indeed. It is our top pick and is considered the best smartwatch with fitness tracking features associated with them. The Fitbit Sense has amazing tools for heart health, stress management and skin temperature trends with its EDA scan App.
It also features high and low heart rate notifications that will automatically alert you when it is too low or too high. This is an awesome feature, because you do not have to constantly look at your watch to see if you are working to hard, or too little.
The Fitbit Sense also has more than 20 goal based exercise modes. This allows the user to choose from over 20 exercises and provides real-time statistics during your exercise routine. You can also let the SmartTrack feature recognize and record your workouts automatically. This will definitely help with overall motivation.
I personally own this particular smartwatch and you can view my full Fitbit Sense Review here.
Pros
- Extended battery life – up to 6 plus days
- ECG App. Feature
- Awesome stress management features
- Built-in GPS and WiFi
Cons
- Small third-party app selection
- Some say it’s a bit expensive, but not really compared to similar models with fewer features
2. Fitbit Versa 3 Health & Fitness Smartwatch (Runner Up)
The Fitbit Versa 3 and an excellent runner up. Some have said that it is identical to the Fitbit Sense minus a couple of other features. Before we talk about what it doesn’t have, however, let’s discuss what it does have. It does have the ability to track your heart rate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Plus, it does have the built-in GPS like the Fitbit Sense.
The features that it does not have that the Fitbit Sense has is the ECG, stress sensing and a skin temperature sensor. Although the Fitbit Versa 3 does not offer those features, it still has the GPS, SpO2 and all of the Fitbit tracking you would expect a Fitbit to have.
Pros
- Built-in GPS
- Sleep tracking and Sleep score
- 6 Plus day battery life
Cons
- Does not have the ECG App feature
3. Garmin 010-01769-01 Vivoactive 3, GPS Smartwatch, The Best Smartwatch with Fitness Tracking For People on a Budget
The Garmin 010-01769-01 Vivoactive 3, GPS Smartwatch is an excelling smartwatch with fitness tracking. We consider it to be the best smartwatch with fitness tracking for those on a budget. It is jam packed with fitness features and is nicely priced. There are other lower priced Smartwatches on the market like the CanMixs Smartwatch that you may also want to consider.
It has more than 15 preloaded GPS and indoor sports apps, which include things like running, yoga, swimming and more. Plus, it has a contactless payment feature that lets you pay for purchases right from your watch. This is very convenient. It also has a wrist based heart rate monitor that is pretty amazing in itself.
This device is also safe for swimming and taking a shower with it on. Again, this is jam packed with features at a great price.
Pros
- Battery life up to 7 days
- Built-in GPS
- Contact-less payment feature
- Nicely priced
Cons
- Does not have the ECG App feature
- The heart rate monitor is not as accurate as the more expensive models.
FAQ’s
Here are some commonly asked questions about Smartwatches with fitness tracking.
Can the Watchband be changed on these Devices?
Yes, each one of the three smartwatch above have the ability to change watchbands quite easily. Plus, there is a lot to choose from for each one. You can check out Amazon for a selection for each smartwatch listed above.
Does the Fitbit Sense measure SpO2 Levels?
The Fitbit Sense does indeed measure your Sp02 levels at night, which is vital for anyone’s health. It’s also important to not that it alerts you when your heart rate goes above or below certain numbers. This is a great feature and benefit.
Can I answer the phone with the Fitbit Versa 3?
You can answer calls with the Fitbit Versa 3. This is true for most Smartwatches. If you are an Apple user, however, you cannot text back. If you are an android user, you can text back.
Read Next: How To Clean a Fitbit Band
Conclusion – The Best Smartwatch With Fitness Tracking
So that concludes our list of the best smartwatch with fitness tracking.
As we know, technology has been advancing at a rapid pace over the past few years. We now live in a world where everything is connected to the Internet. This includes our smartphones, computers, tablets, TVs, cars, watches, and many other devices.
We’re living in a world where we can communicate with each other instantly, share information, and access data anywhere, anytime.This means that we can stay updated with news, weather, traffic, sports scores, stock prices, and much more.
So, what does this mean for us? Well, it means that we can now track our health and fitness levels by simply wearing a watch. Wearable technology is becoming increasingly popular because it allows people to monitor their health without having to go to the doctor.
It’s like having a personal trainer right next to you. Overall, the Fitbit Sense is ideal smartwatch with fitness tracking, especially if you’re interested in keeping tabs on your overall health and fitness, especially your sleep habits and heart rate.
