Fitness trackers have come an extremely long way over the years. No longer are they glorified pedometers; most standard fitness trackers nowadays can track your steps taken, distance traveled, how many calories you’ve burned for the day, and even your sleeping patterns. They’re handy little devices if you want a better look at how active you are throughout the day, and there are plenty to choose from.
It can be a little daunting trying to choose the best fitness tracker to suits your needs, so we’ve compiled a list of the best fitness trackers on the market. We’ve divided our list up into separate categories to help you narrow down your options.
Editor’s note: We will update this best fitness trackers list as more devices come to market.
The best fitness tracker: Fitbit Charge 3
The Fitbit Charge 3 is the best fitness tracker you can buy. Its classy, versatile design means it’ll look good in the office and at the gym. It’s also water resistant this time around, and ha an accurate wrist-based heart rate sensor.
Elsewhere, the Fitbit Charge 3 offers a great software experience, plenty of smartwatch features, and a battery that can last almost a week on a single charge. Unless you’re a runner, you probably don’t need GPS. Thus, the Charge 3 is a great option.
Garmin Vivosmart 4
The Garmin Vivosmart 4 is the best fitness tracker you can buy if you aren’t interested in the Fitbit Charge 3.
It’s a wonderful fitness tracker that excels at many of the things it attempts to do. If you don’t need a GPS and can get past the narrow display, this is one of your best options for a feature-packed, reliable fitness tracker. Plus, Garmin recently updated the device to include connected GPS functionality.
Best fitness smartwatch: Garmin Vivoactive 4
The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is the best fitness tracking smartwatch you can buy.
Everything you loved about the Vivoactive 3 and 3 Music is here, along with about 3.5GB of onboard storage for music. You can load up your favorite songs, or download playlists from Spotify, Deezer, and iHeartRadio.
The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a solid upgrade to the Vivoactive 3 and 3 Music, and will certainly please those in need of a midrange multisport watch. It’s not as flashy as the new Garmin Venu, but that might be a good thing: It has a more readable display and longer battery life. If you’re interested, you won’t be disappointed… just be prepared to pay up.
Fitbit Versa 2
The Fitbit Versa 2 takes what made the original Versa so special and improves on it. It has a much better OLED display this year, as well as Fitbit Pay support across all models, and Amazon Alexa support built in. It’s also an accurate fitness, health, and sleep tracker, and Fitbit’s new Sleep Score feature is genuinely useful.
It’s not perfect, though. Alexa integration is limited and buggy, there’s still no built-in GPS, and the quick release straps are still a pain to change.
Fitbit absolutely improved many areas of the Versa 2, but clearly left others out to dry. Overall though, the positives outweigh the negatives here. The Versa 2 provides an overall excellent wearable experience, albeit with some quirks.
Best cheap fitness tracker: Xiaomi Mi Band 4
Xiaomi’s fitness trackers are popular because they’re good and cheap. Really good and really cheap. In terms of fitness features and accuracy, the ~$40 Xiaomi Mi Band 4 rivals the likes of the more expensive Fitbit Inspire HR and Samsung Galaxy Fit (below on our list). It’ll track most of the same activity metrics as the other devices and even has nearly three-week battery life.
If we had a few gripes, we wish Xiaomi would beef up the Mi Fit app. It’s okay, but a little buggy and lacking in features. Also, the Mi Band 4’s heart rate sensor can struggle during high-intensity workouts.
Even so, you’re getting a ton of value with the Xiaomi Mi Band 4.
Fitbit Inspire HR
The Fitbit Inspire HR is a great fitness tracker, health tracker, and sleep tracker. It’s just $100, too!
It’s small and lightweight, supports interchangeable straps, and offers smartphone notifications on your wrist. It might be small, but it doesn’t skimp on the features. The Fitbit Inspire HR offers connected GPS, a heart rate sensor, as well as five-day battery life.
Think of the Fitbit Inspire HR as the “Fitbit Charge 3 Lite.” It removes a few notable features like notification history, an altimeter, and a bigger display in order to reach that $100 price point. If you don’t need those things though, the Inspire HR is a fantastic option.
Samsung Galaxy Fit
If you’re more a fan of Samsung fitness trackers, the Samsung Galaxy Fit will be right up your alley. It has a great AMOLED display, compact design, and week-long battery life. The Samsung Health app is also full of great fitness features, too.
This one doesn’t have connected GPS, though, unlike the Mi Band 4 and Inspire HR. Its heart rate sensor also struggles to keep up with higher-intensity workouts. If you can look past those two criticisms, the Samsung Galaxy Fit is a decent alternative to the Mi Band 4 and Inspire HR.
So there you have it, the best fitness trackers on the market right now. How did you like our list? Did we leave anything out? If so, let us know in the comments.
