Best smartwatches that you can buy right now
The convenience of a good smartwatch is hard to beat. There are plenty of devices to choose from beyond the betterknown options like the Apple Watch and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch. The best smartwatch for you will depend on the type of phone you have, your spending limit and which health and fitness tracking features are most important to you.
Most smartwatches provide basic exercise tracking comparable to most fitness trackers. But the best ones should also include advanced features such as heart-rate monitoring, sleep tracking and GPS tracking, along with the ability to show phone notifications on your wrist. Many also support contactless payments, while others have LTE or cellular connectivity, which allow you to actually leave your phone at home.
We’ve rounded up the top smartwatches you can buy right now based on function, price and compatibility. Here we offer three top picks.
Best do-it-all watch for iphone: Apple Watch Ultra 2
CNET take: The Apple Watch Ultra 2is Apple’s best smartwatch, with a tough titanium construction and an Action button to quickly start workouts or launch apps. It has the brightest screen of any Apple Watch at a maximum of 3,000 nits, which makes it incredibly easy to see when adventuring in the great outdoors. For adventurers and athletes, it also has a builtin siren for safety and a dualband GPS for accurately tracking your route. LTE is also onboard so you can venture out without a phone and still stay connected.
Though it’s designed to be an outdoor watch, the Apple Watch
Ultra 2 is still a fantastic allaround smartwatch. Inside is the same S9 chip as found on the Apple Watch Series 9, which supports gestures like Double Tap and allows the watch to process Siri commands on-device. This means you can use
Siri without being online, and later in the year you’ll be able to ask the voice assistant for health data. Like earlier Apple Watches, the Ultra 2 also comes with a blood oxygen sensor, electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) app, fall detection and emergency SOS. The battery also lasts at least twice as long as all other Apple Watch models. It’s only compatible with the iphone, so if you have an Android phone, you’ll want to look at another option.
Best overall watch for Android: Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and 6 Classic
CNET take: Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 is the best Android watch for most people. Both the
Galaxy Watch 6 and 6 Classic have incredibly bright screens that hit a maximum 2,000 nits, so seeing your watch in all lighting conditions is easy.
All the flagship features you would expect are included: an ECG, blood oxygen, body composition and temperature sensors. Note you do need a Galaxy phone to use the ECG, but all the other features work seamlessly with other Android phones. Like the Apple Watch Series 9, you’ll need to charge the Galaxy Watch 6 every day, especially if you want to track sleep.
Last year’s Galaxy Watch 5 Pro remains in the lineup if you need the best battery life of any Galaxy Watch, lasting up to three days on a charge.
Best Android smartwatch for heart rate accuracy: Google Pixel Watch 2
CNET take: The Google Pixel
Watch 2 is a beautiful-looking Android smartwatch with accurate heart rate tracking and health sensors like an ECG. It fills the gaps with many of the features we wanted in the first Pixel Watch, such as automatic workout detection. If you’re familiar with Fitbit, the Pixel Watch 2 has a similar interface for logging workouts and viewing your health data. For runners, the watch can give you pace guidance and heart rate zone notifications.
Beware that the battery isn’t as strong as some other options on this list, and you will likely find yourself charging this watch every day, especially if you like to do outdoor GPS workouts and track your sleep. It does charge faster than the first Pixel Watch. It’s also still available only in one 41mm size.