The best smartwatches for Android

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Wear OS is overmuch amended than it utilized to be, truthful there’s ne'er been a amended clip to see a smartwatch.

Editor’s note: Fossil confirmed to america that it is leaving the smartwatch business. As a result, we’ve removed its Gen 6 smartwatch from this database arsenic we measure different options.

After a agelong long of slim pickings, the past mates of years person been huge for Android smartwatches. Now determination are much bully options than ever.

But this is inactive a transitional era. While we’re encouraged by the stronger third-party app options, the marketplace is inactive fragmented. Wear OS 4 is already present for Samsung’s Galaxy Watches and some versions of the Pixel Watch — and now, the OnePlus Watch 2. However, the larger ecosystem is inactive catching up. Some features, similar Google Assistant, are not yet disposable connected definite Wear OS 3 smartwatches. It whitethorn travel via an update sometime successful the future, but it’s been a agelong hold frankincense far.

If you’d alternatively hold until Wear OS settles down a bit, determination are platform-agnostic smartwatches and fittingness watches you tin bargain successful the meantime. Otherwise, you’ll privation to beryllium alert of the spot and Wear OS mentation powering your watch. Mobvoi, for instance, only conscionable started rolling retired Wear OS 3 to its eligible Wear OS 2 watches. Speaking of Mobvoi, its TicWatch Pro 5 was the archetypal to athletics the caller Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus successful the US, and portion it’s a large watch, you whitethorn privation to hold until determination are much W5 Plus watches to take from. The Pixel Watch 2 has the W5 (no Plus) chip, and the effect truthful acold has been zippier show and amended artillery life. The OnePlus Watch 2 besides has the W5 Plus, but we’re inactive putting that 1 done its paces.

So agelong arsenic you support the aforementioned caveats successful mind, Android users person much smartwatch options than ever before. I’ve rounded up my apical picks, but if nary of these is the close fit, you tin ever cheque retired our fitness tracker guide.

Best smartwatch for Samsung phones

Sizes: 43mm, 47mm / Weight: 77g, 85g / Battery life: Up to 30 hours with AOD, 40 without AOD / Display type: Always-on OLED / GPS: Built-in GPS / Connectivity: LTE (optional), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: Up to 50 meters, IP68 / Music storage: 16GB

If you person a Samsung phone, you’ll get the astir mileage retired of a Samsung smartwatch. And of the 3 watches Samsung has successful its existent lineup, I urge the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic.

First off, it’s got a rotating carnal bezel — and said bezel is present 15 percent thinner than the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. The updated plan is sleeker than its predecessor, and the larger show is easier connected the eyes and is lone somewhat bigger astatine 43mm and 47mm. I person tiny wrists, but the 47mm was inactive rather comfy for mundane wear. It’s launching with Wear OS 4, which adds extended artillery life, and finally, unreality backups. One UI 5 Watch besides adds immoderate insignificant wellness and slumber tracking improvements, but this volition yet marque its mode to older models. While I similar the Classic, the basal Watch 6 exemplary whitethorn beryllium the amended enactment if you privation a smaller, lighter, sleeker, and cheaper smartwatch.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The 40mm Galaxy Watch 6 and the 47mm Watch 6 Classic are iterative updates, but present a acquainted yet elevated experience.

Overall, the Galaxy Watch 6 bid is an iterative update, but I admit that artillery beingness has improved to the constituent wherever I’m nary longer anxious whether it’ll past maine the full day. Of course, your mileage volition alteration depending connected your idiosyncratic usage and which settings you enable. For example, turning connected continuous SpO2 sensing astatine nighttime tin marque the artillery drain faster, but utilizing bedtime mode tin mitigate that truthful you lone suffer 10–15 percent overnight alternatively of 25–30 percent.

Last year’s $449.99 Galaxy Watch 5 Pro volition besides get you a large wide experience. It’s not a large upgrade from the Galaxy Watch 4, but the main benefits of the Pro implicit different models are other durability, neat GPS features, and artillery life. I urge picking the Pro if you’re a play warrior oregon if multiday artillery beingness is your apical priority. We got up to 65 hours successful testing, though if you alteration the always-on display, you’ll much apt get astir 48 to 50 hours. Still, that’s a notable bump implicit the Galaxy Watch 6 series, the basal Watch 5, and the Watch 4 lineup. Software updates (and bigger batteries connected newer models) person improved the artillery beingness connected these watches, but you’ll inactive person to complaint them regular oregon each different day. And the Pixel Watch lone lasts astir 24 hours.

The power to Wear OS means you’re getting a overmuch much robust third-party app acquisition than connected Tizen-powered Samsung smartwatches, similar the Galaxy Watch 3 and the Galaxy Watch Active lineup. You besides get much flexibility connected services than with immoderate different Wear OS watch. For example, if you privation to footwear Bixby to the curb successful favour of Google Assistant, you can. If you privation a much in-depth look astatine however the Galaxy Watch 5 stacks up compared to the Pixel Watch successful particular, you tin cheque retired our Versus video. (The bulk of the points inactive use to the Watch 6, arsenic not a full batch has changed.)

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro wears tiny for a fittingness smartwatch.

Samsung Health besides delivers a bully wide fittingness tracking experience, particularly since you tin alteration turn-by-turn navigation for hiking and cycling activities. Samsung is expanding this to include walks and runs with One UI 5 Watch. We weren’t excessively impressed with nightly SpO2 readings, but Samsung’s wide slumber tracking continues to improve. You besides get built-in GPS, assemblage creation analysis, irregular bosom complaint notifications, autumn detection, exigency SOS features, and EKGs.

We don’t needfully urge the Galaxy Watch 6 bid oregon 5 Pro if you don’t person a Samsung phone. EKGs necessitate the Samsung Health Monitor app, which is constricted to Samsung phones. Also, portion you tin customize the buttons to motorboat your integer adjunct of choice, the shortcut for contactless payments is hard coded to Samsung Pay / Wallet — which is besides gated to Samsung phones unless you sideload the APK — and requires you to motion up for Samsung’s service. You tin enactment astir it, but each Samsung watches enactment best with different Samsung devices.

Read my afloat reappraisal of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 series.

Best Android smartwatch for non-Samsung users

Sizes: 41mm / Weight: 31g / Battery life: Roughly 24 hours with AOD enabled / Display type: Always-on OLED / GPS: Built-in GPS / Connectivity: LTE (optional), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Safety Signal with Fitbit Premium / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 32GB

The $349.99 Google Pixel Watch 2 is simply a important betterment implicit the original. The Galaxy Watch 6 lineup volition inactive get you a much polished wide experience, but the Pixel Watch 2 is the amended prime for Android users who aren’t connected a Samsung smartphone.

That’s due to the fact that of ecosystems. Some features of Samsung’s watches lone enactment with Samsung phones. Broadly speaking, the Pixel Watch doesn’t attraction what Android telephone you have; you’ll get the aforesaid acquisition regardless. That said, its call screening feature volition lone enactment if you brace it with a Tensor-equipped Pixel phone. It’s a small disappointing, but compared to Samsung, the Pixel Watch 2 doesn’t gatekeep wellness features based connected what telephone you have. It’s besides ever going to person the latest updates to Google services similar Google Maps, Google Wallet, YouTube Music, and Google Assistant because, well, it’s Google’s smartwatch. With the Pixel Watch 2, Google besides added Calendar and Gmail to its database of supported apps. Speaking of which, buying the Pixel Watch 2 volition besides get you a six-month proceedings of Fitbit Premium and a one-month proceedings of YouTube Music.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Pixel Watch 2 tin present past a afloat 24 hours without needing battery-saving settings.

The astir important upgrade from past twelvemonth is that the artillery reliably lasts 24 hours with the always-on show enabled. Some of this is owed to the much power-efficient Wear OS 4 and a caller Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 processor. (It besides means zippier show overall.) It’s besides switched to a pin-charging system, which translates to overmuch faster charging. You tin get astir 50 percent successful 30 minutes, and a afloat complaint takes astir 75 minutes. Because of a firmware update, the archetypal Pixel Watch now charges much slowly — truthful the quality is other noticeable.

Compared to past year, Google has besides done a amended occupation this twelvemonth of integrating Fitbit’s wellness and fittingness features. The Pixel Watch 2 present has a multipath sensor that enables 40 percent much close bosom complaint tracking for vigorous exercises. Plus, you tin utilize bosom complaint portion and gait grooming — features different fittingness smartwatches person had for a agelong time. The workout views are besides easier to read. It besides present has a tegument somesthesia sensor and the Fitbit Sense 2’s continuous electrodermal enactment sensor (cEDA). This means the Pixel Watch 2 is present susceptible of proactive accent tracking. When signs of physiological accent are detected, you’ll beryllium prompted to bespeak connected your mood, instrumentality a walk, oregon bash a breathing exercise. It’s imperfect, but it’s 1 of the champion implementations of mindfulness features we’ve seen frankincense far.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Safety cheque is simply a proactive timer that notifies your loved ones of your determination if you neglect to cheque in.

Google has besides introduced caller idiosyncratic information features. Safety Check is simply a proactive timer that volition nonstop your determination to loved ones if you’re successful a pickle. You acceptable an enactment (i.e., taking nationalist proscription oregon walking alone) and a timer duration. If you don’t cheque successful erstwhile the timer goes off, your determination volition automatically beryllium shared with your exigency contacts. Another neat diagnostic is Safety Signal. If you get an LTE ticker and person a Fitbit Premium subscription, you don’t request an progressive LTE program successful bid to utilize exigency services.

One happening to beryllium mindful of is durability. While the domed show is beautiful, we cracked the surface connected the archetypal Pixel Watch and got heavy scratches connected the Pixel Watch 2. Google doesn’t connection immoderate repair options, but with the Pixel Watch 2, it has started offering its Preferred Care extended warranty, truthful you person much replacement options should thing happen. It’s not perfect since it’s constricted to the US and Canada, but it’s a measurement successful the close direction.

Read my afloat Google Pixel Watch 2 review.

Best fittingness smartwatch for Android

Sizes: 50mm w/24mm straps / Weight: 44.3g / Battery life: Up to 80 hours / Display type: OLED touchscreen and secondary ultra-low powerfulness show / GPS: GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, Beidou / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 32GB

Mobvoi’s TicWatch lineup has its devoted fans for a reason: ace agelong artillery life. The $249.99 TicWatch Pro 5 is nary exception. It’s got an estimated 80 hours of artillery beingness with modular use, a secondary ultra-low powerfulness display, and a monolithic (for a smartwatch you deterioration connected your wrist, astatine least) 628mAh battery. I didn’t rather get 80 hours successful my testing, but I did get a coagulated 48-60 hours adjacent with dense GPS use. That outclasses astir of the watches successful this class and is utile for backpackers and endurance athletes. It mightiness not clasp a candle to a top-of-the-line Garmin, but it’s besides a smarter ticker for a fraction of the price.

Battery beingness aside, Mobvoi’s watches are a large alternate to the Fossil Gen 6, and the Pro 5 is simply a bully enactment for fitness-focused radical who aren’t keen connected giving up astute capabilities for a Garmin oregon Polar. It’s besides much durable than Fossil’s manner watches oregon the Pixel Watch. This clip around, Mobvoi has besides added a integer crown truthful you don’t person to interest astir scrolling done menus with sweaty fingers. The flatter broadside fastener besides reduces the hazard of accidental presses.

Photo by Amelias Holowaty Krales / The Verge The ULP show helps to widen artillery life.

The Pro 5 besides has an ingenious method of displaying bosom rate. When you assistance up your arm, the backlight changes colour depending connected which bosom complaint portion you’re in. That means you tin instantly gauge whether to up the strength oregon dilatory your roll. The Pro 5 besides adds caller grooming metrics, similar VO2 Max and betterment time.

The TicWatch supports accent tracking, all-day humor oxygen monitoring, fatigue assessments, arsenic good arsenic atrial fibrillation and irregular heartbeat detection. For outdoorsy types, it besides has entree to aggregate GNSS systems, and there’s a caller barometer and compass app, arsenic good arsenic a one-tap measurement app that gives you a speedy look astatine 5 metrics (heart rate, humor oxygen, stress, respiratory rate, and wide bosom health).

It’s besides beauteous susceptible connected the productivity front. You get contactless payments, entree to the Play Store, notifications, and the quality to instrumentality calls. It’s besides the lone Android smartwatch disposable successful the US with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus chip, which is simply a positive successful presumption of futureproofing. The lone large concerns are the 50mm lawsuit that whitethorn not suit smaller wrists and the deficiency of a integer assistant.

Read my afloat reappraisal of the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5.

Best hybrid smartwatch

Sizes: 37mm with 18mm straps / Weight: 45g / Battery life: Up to 39 days / Display type: OLED show / GPS: Tethered GPS / Connectivity: Bluetooth / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: N/A

Hybrid smartwatches are an fantabulous mode to support things elemental and subtle. The $249.95 Withings ScanWatch Light gets you the basics similar propulsion notifications, timers, and alarms. On the wellness front, you tin way steps, sleep, menstrual cycles, and GPS workouts. (That said, GPS is tethered from your phone, not built in.) The plan reminds maine of a classier Swatch, peculiarly if you get the much colorful options successful a minty greenish oregon airy blue. But the large crushed the Light has dethroned our erstwhile pick, the Garmin Vivomove Sport, is its extra-long artillery life. Withings estimates it lasts up to 30 days connected a azygous charge, and I got beauteous adjacent to that successful investigating with 25 days. Despite the Vivomove’s much appealing $180 terms tag, it lone lasts astir 5 days.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The ScanWatch 2 (left) is simply a fancier mentation of the Light and has a fewer much wellness features.

If you privation a spot much retired of a hybrid, you tin besides opt for the ScanWatch 2. It’s an other $100, but you get EKGs and atrial fibrillation detection, somesthesia sensors, SpO2 readings, and an altimeter for measuring elevation. It besides looks a spot much elegant connected the wrist, partially due to the fact that of a secondary dial that tracks your regular measurement progress.

If neither matches your style, the Vivomove Sport is inactive a bully enactment that gets you entree to Garmin’s in-depth platform. Its Vivomove Trend is simply a somewhat much upscale enactment that besides supports Qi charging.

Read my afloat reappraisal of the Withings ScanWatch 2 and Light.

Best platform-agnostic fittingness smartwatch

Sizes: 41mm w/ 18mm straps; 45mm w/ 22mm straps / Weight: 40g for the 3S; 47g for the 3 / Battery life: Up to 10 days for 3S; 14 days for 3 / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Ant Plus, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 8GB

Garmin is champion known for making rugged GPS watches that person fantabulous fittingness features but aren’t truthful astute otherwise. But the $449.99 Venu 3 caters to radical who privation top-notch fittingness tracking without sacrificing productivity features.

It’s got a colorful and vibrant always-on OLED show and comes successful 2 sizes: 41mm and 45mm. Like its predecessor, the Venu 2 Plus, it besides has a microphone and talker truthful you tin instrumentality and marque calls straight from the wrist. It besides has a clever workaround for integer assistants — it uses Bluetooth to enactment with immoderate adjunct is already connected your phone. You’d deliberation much fittingness trackers would bash this, but they don’t. It worked good successful testing, though integer assistants aren’t ever the smartest astatine knowing commands.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Venu 3 bid is simply a small pricey, but it’s the smartest ticker Garmin’s got to offer.

The Venu 3 doesn’t person the champion third-party app ecosystem, but it has Spotify, Deezer, and Amazon Music for offline playback. Android users tin besides nonstop speedy responses for texts, and the ticker works with either iOS oregon Android for folks who privation to support their options open. It besides has autumn detection, unrecorded tracking, and contactless payments.

As for wellness features, it has Garmin’s latest bosom complaint sensor, which enables its FDA-cleared EKG app to observe atrial fibrillation. Otherwise, you get built-in GPS, continuous bosom complaint monitoring, each of the precocious coaching features successful the Garmin Connect app, and Garmin’s celebrated in-depth wellness data. The Venu 3 besides improves slumber tracking with nap detection and adds audio-guided meditation sessions. There’s besides a caller wheelchair mode.

This isn’t the astir hardcore Garmin that wealth tin buy, but it’s decidedly the smartest. The terms is simply a spot precocious compared to astir smartwatches, but by Garmin standards, it’s middle-of-the-pack.

Best fund Android smartwatch

Size: 46mm w/ 22mm straps / Weight: 34g / Battery life: Up to 14 days / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: Dual-frequency and 6 GNSS systems / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 2.3GB

Amazfit’s made a sanction for itself making fund wearables that punch acold supra their weight. I’ve been consistently impressed by the GTR enactment of smartwatches implicit the years, and the $199.99 GTR 4 is nary exception.

Not lone does it person a classical look, but you besides get 14 days of artillery beingness and a color, always-on OLED display. New to the GTR 4 is dual-band GPS — a diagnostic that Apple and Garmin lone precocious introduced to their higher-end smartwatches. Or, if you similar to program your ain way runs oregon hikes, you tin import your ain GPS routes, too. It tracks 150 sports and features all-day continuous bosom complaint monitoring. You tin besides show stress, sleep, and SpO2 levels. For astute features, you tin instrumentality calls connected the wrist, and it has 2 integer assistants: Alexa and a proprietary offline assistant. The instrumentality besides syncs with Strava and Adidas Running.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge The Amazfit GTR 4 is simply a fund enactment that punches supra its weight.

The GTR 4 isn’t the champion smartwatch around. Flagship watches tin bash everything the GTR 4 tin bash but successful a sleeker, much polished package. However, they can’t bash it astatine this price. If terms is your main priority, this gets you unthinkable bang for your buck. Plus, you tin often find Amazfit devices connected sale. The icing connected the barroom is it works conscionable arsenic good connected Android arsenic it does connected iOS.

Read my afloat reappraisal of the Amazfit GTR 4.

Update March 18th, 10:12AM ET: Swapped Garmin Vivomove Sport with the Withings ScanWatch Light.