The Top 9 Smartwatches From a Fitness Perspective


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If you are an athlete or fitness guru chances are you have considered purchasing a fitness tracker at one point or another. But with so many choices and growing number of features it is difficult to decide which one will work best for you.

So we created a table comparing the characteristics and capabilities of high-end fitness trackers and smartwatches to help you with your search.

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Note: “X” means that watch has that feature.

As you can see, most high-end fitness trackers have the same capabilities, a sign that competing companies are feeding off each other.

Our best advice is to purchase the device that best fits your lifestyle. For instance, the Apple Watch only makes sense to purchase if you are already connected with other Apple devices, namely an iPhone. The Sony and Asus smartwatches use Google’s Android Wear ecosystem. And you can probably guess what operating system the Microsoft Band is linked with.

And then there are the fitness trackers. Most have an accompanying app that provides dedicated fitness features, but unlike smartwatches, do not provide much apart from fitness metrics.

Ultimately it will come down to personal preference, much like purchasing a regular watch. Looks, price and convenience are three metrics at the top of most people’s list.

Let us know down in the comments (or @SportTechie) which smartwatch you fancy and why.