Smartwatches are like tiny smartphones strapped to your wrist. Most support texting, calls, voice assistants, maps, fitness tracking, tap-to-pay and more. For many folks at NBC Select, a smartwatch is an essential wearable that enhances your everyday life.
But the best smartwatch for you is almost entirely decided by which smartphone is in your pocket. Many of the best smartwatches only work with iPhone or Android phones, not both. Some even have features that only work when paired with a specific type of smartphone. Smartwatches are often tailor-made to a specific smartphone, like a square peg built for a square hole, working in-tandem to deliver the best experience possible.
That’s why I’ve tested over a dozen smartwatches using Apple, Samsung and Google phones. Below you’ll learn about how smartwatches work and where each brand excels. There’s also a batch of new smartwatches that each brand has released, which we plan on testing soon.
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Most NBC Select staffers use a smartwatch — either for notifications, exercise or sleep tracking. Combining their experience with my time testing, we selected smartwatches keeping the following in mind:
Ease of use: Smartphones have so many features and options that they can easily become overwhelming. We selected products that are easy and enjoyable to use out of the box, both glancing at your wrist and scrolling in the app. We also favored watches that let you customize settings, watch faces and notifications to your liking.Compatibility: Not all smartwatches are compatible with all smartphones — it’s quite the opposite. We included wearables for people with all kinds of smartphones.Price: Most smartwatches cost between $100 and $500. We included wearables across different price points, but again, your choices are largely limited by which smartphone you own.
I’ve tested over a dozen smartwatches for NBC Select. I am a runner and cyclist, and often use them to track and monitor stats like heart rate, pace and time. I am also the tech reporter at NBC Select, so I tend to spend hours tinkering with product settings, exploring what a product offers out of the box and what I can fine tune later.
I receive smartwatches from different brands, and test each watch for at least a week, using as many of the features as possible. I pair each watch with either an Apple, Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel smartphone, depending on its compatibility.
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Most of our top overall picks come from Apple, Samsung and Google, companies that make up a large majority of smartphone sales in the U.S. All of our top picks have very similar features — they can all send and receive texts, make calls, use a voice assistant, track health and wellness metrics, log workouts, use apps, find your phone and more.
Our budget picks are slightly more limited — some cannot answer calls or lack an on-watch keyboard to type out texts. We discuss all of these limitations in each recommendation.
We linked to the Wi-Fi versions of these devices, but many of them also have Wi-Fi plus cellular versions that, when set up with their own phone plan, can do most tasks without being connected to your smartphone.
Display: 42mm, 46mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 18 hours with always-on display | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes | Heart-rate monitor: yes, with ECG | Water resistance: yes, up to 50 meters | Compatible with: iPhone
What we like
Info-rich displaySyncs with most iOS appsImproved wellness tracking
The latest Apple Watch comes with new watch faces with analog-esk second hands.Courtesy Harry Rabinowitz
Despite constantly testing new smartwatches, the Apple Watch Series 10 stubbornly remains on one of my wrists, at the very least to compare to other smartwatches. The Series 10 model has a large, square, always-on display, with narrow bezels (the frame that borders the screen). The watch’s form-factor means it can comfortably show a lot of text on screen at once — I find it easy to read and swipe through notifications without accidental misclicks or swipes.
It easily syncs with Apple apps like Health and Fitness to show data about your workouts, health and sleep. It can also take calls, send texts, make requests via Siri voice assistant and more.
Compared to the previous model, the Series 10 has a slightly thinner case and the bezels around the screen have also been slimmed down. The screen itself is brighter when you look at it off-angle, meaning it’s been easier for me to check the time or a notification at a glance, without turning the watch to face me directly.
It still has all the features I loved from the Apple Watch Series 9, including the double tap gesture, plus some new ones like sleep apnea notifications and depth and water temperature sensors for swimming.
The Series 10 gets up to 18 hours of battery life — less than many of its competitors. It comes in two sizes, 42mm and 46mm, in aluminum or titanium versions. You can learn more in my Apple Watch Series 10 review.
Display: 40mm or 44mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 30 hours with always-on display | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes | Heart-rate monitor: yes, with ECG | Water resistance: yes, up to 5 feet for 30 minutes | Compatible with: Android phones
What we like
Sleek designCustomizable faces
The Samsung Galaxy Watch’s design received the most compliments in the NBC Select office.Courtesy Harry Rabinowitz
Editor’s Note: I’m currently testing the latest Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, which launched in July of this year. I may update this pick after I finish testing.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch stands out because of its sleek design, comfortable fit and customizable screen. It has a circular always-on display that’s bright and responsive. The watch has two buttons, which, by default act as a home and a back button. However, you can reprogram these buttons to do other things like open a specific app or show your most recently used apps. I love physical buttons on watches — touch controls are not ideal for outdoor runs, hikes or bike rides, especially in bad weather or while wearing gloves.
You can customize watch faces directly on the watch itself or through Samsung’s Galaxy Wearable app. I use it to create multiple faces with custom stats, colors, fonts and layouts in minutes, and find the experience easier and more intuitive than with most other wearables.
Like other smartwatches, it can send texts, answer calls, receive app notifications and more. It supports tap-to-pay, which I have used to pay for groceries and public transport with no issue.
This latest version has a few new features, including sleep apnea tracking and a hands-free Double Pinch gesture very similar to the Apple Watch’s double tap gesture. It is compatible with all Android phones, but some of its features only work if you pair it with a Samsung phone, such as ECG readings, irregular heart rhythm notifications, fitness energy score and smartphone camera control.
Display: 41mm or 45mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 24 hours with always-on display | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes | Heart-rate monitor: yes, with ECG | Water resistance: yes, up to 50 meters | Compatible with: Android phones
What we like
Syncs easily with Google appsAutomatic workout detection
Something to note
Love it or hate it round shapeFiddly charger
The Google Pixel Watch 3 comes in two sizes — the larger 45mm version is easy to read but not too bulky.Courtesy Harry Rabinowitz
Editor’s Note: Google announced the release of the Pixel Watch 4, which starts at $349 and is available for preorder right now. It will also be on store shelves starting on October 9th. It has an all-new redesigned display called “Actua 360” with slimmer bezels, an improved battery life and much more. We may update this story once we get a chance to test the latest Pixel Watch.
The Pixel Watch 3 is the best Pixel watch yet, with major design and fitness improvements over the previous model that make it a solid option, especially for someone with a Google Pixel phone.
The watch has built-in Fitbit fitness tracking, although it is more in-depth compared to something like the Fitbit Charge 6. Like the previous models, it automatically detects walking, running, biking, treadmill, elliptical, rower and spin exercises after five minutes (15 for walking), and asks if you’d like to start the workout. As someone who often forgets to log walks, I love this feature.
New to the Pixel Watch 3 are running features like custom runs you can build yourself, with warm up, cool downs, intervals and heart rate targets. As you run, the watch will buzz and cue your next section or indicate if you are on, ahead or behind your target goals. I use custom runs all the time on Apple Watch and Garmin devices, which is a great feature to now have on Google Pixel Watch.
It comes in two sizes, 41 millimeters and 45 millimeters, with screens that are up to twice as bright as the previous version. Battery life is also improved — it lasts up to 24 hours, according to the brand.
Display: 42mm | Battery life: up to 5 days with always on display (11 days with raise-to-wake) | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes | Heart-rate monitor: yes, no ECG | Water resistance: yes, up to 50 meters | Compatible with: iPhone and Android phones
What we like
Excellent battery lifeRobust fitness trackingExercise animations
The Garmin Vivoactive 6 has a bright, colorful screen that’s easy to read even while exercising.Courtesy Harry Rabinowitz
Garmin makes some of the best fitness trackers, and the Vivoactive 6 hits the right balance between features, style and price, making it our favorite smartwatch from the brand.
It’s one of the most comfortable smartwatches I’ve tested — it’s noticeably lightweight and has a soft and flexible silicone band that never irritated my skin. It has two buttons along the side, one opens the workout menu, where there are over 80 activity profiles to choose from, including custom workouts. Through the Garmin Connect app, you can view all your health, sleep, stress and workout stats. But Garmin also has more in-depth fitness measurements like Training Readiness, Body Battery and Sleep Coach, all of which helped me better understand when it was time for a push day or a rest day.
It’s biggest strength is battery life — the Vivoactive 6 gets up to 5 days of battery life with the always-on display and 11 days without it. That is far longer than all of our other picks, and more than most smartwatches on the market.
One useful new addition to the Vivoactive 6 is workout animations — if you use one of Garmin’s built-in strength or flexibility workouts, it will play animations of each movement as you start an exercise set.
Best budget smartwatch for iPhone users
Display: 40mm or 44mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 18 hours (no always-on display) | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes (not including naps) | Heart-rate monitor: yes, no ECG | Water resistance: yes, up to 50 meters | Compatible with: iPhone
What we like
Competitive priceSyncs with most iOS apps
The Apple Watch SE cost much less than the Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, but has much of the same design and features that make those watches great.
It syncs seamlessly with your iPhone and iPhone apps — it feels like a natural extension of your phone, straight out of the box. Like the Series 10, it connects with Apple Health and Fitness apps to show detailed workout, sleep and health data, with more info than many competitors at this price point, no subscription required.
Compared to the Series 10, the SE is a little slower, smaller and has a dimmer screen that cannot be changed to an always-on mode. It also does not have an on-screen keyboard — you can send pre-set responses or dictate using voice-to-text with Siri. It comes in two sizes, 40mm and 44mm, with many watch band options.
Smartwatches have so many features that they can be overwhelming out of the box. Most people I know complete the initial setup and never customize anything aside from the background on the watch face. Below are a few of the most useful features across every smartwatch you may want to try out:
Almost every smartwatch lets you customize the default watch face. Scroll through the watch or watch companion app settings and tinker with customizing the watch face. All of our top picks let you change the layout, colors, background and stats, with many more options if you dig a little deeper. One NBC Select staffer has her Apple Watch face set to a picture of her cat, for example.
Most smartwatches have robust safety features available. This means you have the option to manually or automatically send your live location to a list of emergency contacts, depending on how you set it up. If you are planning an activity where you would feel safer having the option to automatically reach out to emergency contacts (or emergency services), be sure to set up this feature.
Smartwatches generally support one form of contactless payment, think Apple Pay, Samsung Wallet, Google Wallet or Garmin Pay. These apps can store your debit or credit information and let you tap-to-pay at supported businesses like cafes, restaurants and even most public transport. This is a useful feature to set up if you hate carrying your wallet everywhere you go.
You can get much longer battery life if you change a few of the settings on your smartwatch. Turning off the always-on display, lowering your screen brightness and adjusting background app refresh settings, can all help extend the time you get between charges.
I am a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology and fitness including recent stories on fitness trackers, running shoes, point-and-shoot cameras and more. For this piece, I tried over a dozen top-rated fitness trackers and smartwatches. For a broader perspective, I spoke with other NBC Select staffers about their experience with smartwatches.
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