Best smart watches review

Best Smart Watches for 2019 – Battle Between iPhone & Android

Smartwatches are very much a mainstream tech category in 2019, and there’s so much choice if you’re trying to choose the best smartwatch for you. A smartwatch is the ultimate smartphone accessory these days. It not only can tell the time, but it can also additional notifications straight to your wrist as well as run native apps. What is impressive is that many of today’s best models can perform tricks only dreamed just a few years ago, such as enabling you to search the internet with your voice, tracking your workouts and physical activity with GPS, even letting you pay at the grocery store without reaching for your wallet.

With strong options from Apple, Fitbit, Samsung, Fossil, Tag Heuer, Garmin, Huawei and LG, selecting the best one is tougher than ever. To make matters more difficult, they all look absolutely stunning. If you’re thinking that a smartwatch is a pointlessly geeky accessory, think again. they are no longer a gimmick, these watches add serious functionality to a person’s day-to-day.

Below you find our shortlist of the best smartwatch wearables you can buy today with options ranging from the Apple Watch to Fitbit, Garmin to Tizen.

It may sound like nothing, but millimetres make a difference in watches, and this shift makes for the best looking Apple Watch yet. For big wrists (namely men’s) the 44mm doesn’t feel overly large, and because it’s slimmer, it actually feels smaller than the old 42mm. For men with slim wrists, the 40mm is also a decent option. While the 40mm might not feel bigger and most people won’t feel the difference, women, in particular, will need to cope with 2mm more screen estate than before to enjoy the Series 4 as there is no 38mm version. But there’s an upside, and that’s usability. The 38mm was always cramped, and the 40/44mm versions pack in 32/35% more screen real estate, aided by the edge-to-edge screen. The new Apple Watch sizes will probably please more people, and although technically they’re all smaller in volume, they put more screen on your wrist.

And that’s part of the shift. The original Apple Watch was designed to be a glanceable companion, but the improved features, via cellular and the heart rate data, means it now requires more interaction than before. That’s embodied by the new Infograph watch face, which supports eight complications for a medley of on-screen information. The hero watch face for Series 4 is designed to push as much information as possible, and it’s a masterclass of presenting data in tiny spaces. But it’s telling how the use case of the Apple Watch has evolved over time. It is, of course, a matter of choice. If you want a simple design or a lot of info on screen, there are so many watch faces to choose from.To help matters, There’s the improved speaker, which actually makes a big difference on the communication front. Anyone who’s taken a call from their watch or used Siri might have found their Apple Watch pressed to their ear, but the new speaker is certainly louder and clearer.

Part of the logic behind adding a louder speaker was enabling better interactions with Siri – but this is still a mixed bag. Siri still isn’t a leading smart assistant but it’s improved a lot. Siri on the Apple Watch is great for setting alarms, quick reminders, checking the weather and running quick internet searches with your voice. When things got a bit more complicated, it did fall down somewhat. Mapping and directions are still a bit of a pig when going from the watch.

Despite adding 2mm to the screen size (and slimming the case), battery life remains at 18 hours. In real-world tests, we’d find our watch at around 50% drain when heading to bed – so with some careful management you could get it through two “days”. But those calling for a week of battery life are going to be disappointed. If you’re going on a three-day city break or business trip, remember to pack that charger. Our running and sports tests also agreed with Apple that you should get around six hours of GPS tracking, so more than enough to complete a marathon. That part we have no issue with. In the era of smartphones that require nightly charging, we don’t have a huge problem with the Apple Watch only lasting a day. The reality is that to get more longevity, design and features would have to be culled and the Series 4 would be a very different smartwatch.

At just 23 grams, Versa is also incredibly light, even when using one of the heavier metal link bracelets. Swapping the bundled sports band for one of the 16 leather or fabric ones Fitbit is selling is easy enough. Versa’s band options are attractive and affordable, particularly the metal link band. Versa’s display is on the small size at 1.34 inches, and slightly off-centre due to Fitbit’s insistence on putting its name on the front of the device, but it’s incredibly bright and crisp. The bezels are a little chunkier than the ones on the Apple Watch, and without a black-friendly OLED screen, you’ll notice them a whole lot more on Versa. Swipes and taps register much really quick on Versa and Fitbit have tweaked the interface so it’s much more intuitive and touch-friendly.

As a fitness tracker, Versa is pretty much Ionic without onboard GPS, but for the price, the lack of a dedicated tracking chip isn’t a surprise. More bothersome is the absence of NFC on the base model. If you want to make payments using Fitbit Pay, you’ll need to spring for one the more expensive special-edition models, available in graphite or rose gold with woven bands. Otherwise, everything else is here, including on-watch training, specialized exercise tracking, and advanced heart rate monitoring. It runs the same Fitbit OS as well, whose library of apps have been greatly expanded from the early days of Ionic.

While it’s still nowhere near as robust as the Apple Watch store or even Samsung’s Gear store, you’ll find a decent selection of apps, including Yelp, The New York Times, Philips Hue, and Nest, as well as several fitness-related apps. There are 550 apps and clock faces available for Ionic. Like Pebble, Fitbit’s apps are decidedly specialized and mostly single-featured. For example, the Starbucks app is still just a place to store your loyalty card but we can see a similarly passionate community building around it as Versa grows. Fitbit has started the ball rolling with its own Fitbit Labs section, which contains more specialized, nonessential titles, such as Think Fast, a mental agility game, and the upcoming New Parents app that lets moms and dads track diaper changes and feedings.

The Fitbit Versa has three important things going for it: it’s small, it’s attractive, and it has a great battery. Plus it costs less than the cheapest Series 1 Apple Watch. If you aren’t an Apple devotee, Versa is a no-brainer, but iPhone users who don’t want to spend top dollar on an Apple Watch Series 3 should take a hard look at Fitbit’s new smartwatch. And since it works across multiple platforms (iOS, Android, and any remaining Windows Phone users) you won’t be stuck with a piece of costume jewellery if you switch.

From a design point of view, there’s nothing especially new about the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Up close, it looks highly reminiscent of the Gear S3 Classic, except for a few elements that have been borrowed from the more rugged S3 Frontier model. Two flat, grippy buttons are used, for example, instead of the more traditional-looking crown-style buttons of the S3 Classic and there are also numbers around the edge of the bezel to help you read the second and minute hands. The rotating bezel that’s become synonymous with Samsung wearables is still here and still works brilliantly. It’s used to scroll through menus and lists of items on-screen without your fingers getting in the way. And the screen is still a superb 360 x 360 1.3in AMOLED effort.

However, there’s now a 42mm Galaxy Watch too, so if you were previously put off by the chunkiness of the watch, this could be the flagship Samsung watch for you. As well as being 14g lighter (49g versus 62g without a strap), it’s more than 3mm shorter and narrower, and around 1mm thinner, too. It’s by no means svelte, though. The watch is bigger than the Gear Sport in every measurable way, so you’ll be disappointed if you’re looking for something akin to the 40mm Apple Watch 4 but for an Android phone.

The Galaxy Watch has standard strap lugs so you can use it with any standard 20mm or 22mm band to achieve the look you want. The charger is essentially the same as that of the Gear S3, too: a magnetic dock that holds the watch on its side as it charges. This system works well, so it’s not surprising that it remains unchanged. Perhaps the best thing about it is that the watch face automatically rotates when the watch is charging so you can use it as a tiny desk or bedside clock while it charges. 

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Watch improves on the Gear S3 in every conceivable way. Battery life, in particular, is stellar and the watch also fills adds the only significant hole in the Gear S3’s feature set, swim tracking. Bar a few annoying bugs, there’s very little reason not to buy the Galaxy Watch. It’s excellent.

This smartwatch is aimed squarely at casual users with equally casual budgets. Unlike the sport-focused Ticwatch S, this model is unassuming and simple in design, providing little more flourish than a Swatch analogue timepiece in its IP67 water-resistant package.

There’s something nostalgic about wearing the Ticwatch E. It kind of feels like a Swatch, utilising a simple design made splashy by a clear plastic coating that gives it a nice sheen. It’s also a good size with its 44mm watch case. One odd design decision here was to put the single button on the device on the left of the case, rather than the right. This feels a little strange at first, and like us, you might be wondering if you’ve accidentally activated “lefty” mode. On the plus side, it keeps the back of your palm from accidentally hitting buttons when you fold your wrist back for any number of reasons. In that way, it’s actually nicely convenient once you’re used to it.

That clear plastic covers a white bezel around a 1.4-inch OLED display that sports a 400 x 400 resolution. It’s a good, bright screen that’s easily viewable in the glaring outdoor sunlight. On the underside, you’ve got a heart rate sensor, and inside there’s GPS, which differs from that on the Ticwatch S, which has the GPS chip built into the strap in an effort to provide better performance. You’ve also got IP67 water resistance here, so don’t you worry your brow over getting caught in the rain. It’s not made for swimming, though.

The straps on the Ticwatch are comfortable and light, but you can also easily swap them out for other 20mm bands, giving you some nice potential customisation. Like I said, the E isn’t an ugly watch, but it doesn’t scream premium design either, so being able to swap in your own bands is a major plus here. The basic lining of the Ticwatch E is Android Wear 2.0, and that means everything you know, love and hate about Google’s smartwatch OS. You don’t have Android Pay (due to no NFC), but you do have music, notifications for every app on your phone and the Google Play Store, where you can download a host of apps for your watch.

The Ticwatch E is a budget-friendly Wear OS smartwatch that still packs in both GPS and heart-rate monitoring. With solid performance and a cute (if chunky) design, this is one of the best value smartwatches around. This is a really good entry-line smartwatch, ideally for people who like to get an overall view of their fitness but in no way are a serious or hard-core “athlete”. If your understanding of fitness involves brisk walks, short runs and/ or casual bursts of energy, this watch will be a great companion, you won’t feel overwhelmed plus it is really simple and easy to use.

The headline feature undoubtedly is the Watch 2 Sport’s ability to work independently, without the need for a smartphone. Every version of the watch has GPS, so you can go on a run and have it track your pace and location accurately, but the 4G facility is the cherry on the cake, allowing you to field phone calls and reply to text messages, too. You need to install a nano-SIM card in the tray beneath the bottom strap attachment, but once you’ve done that, you can use the watch’s built-in microphone and speaker to dial out and answer calls, while Android Wear 2’s new smart replies, dictation and onscreen keyboard let you answer and send texts directly from the watch face.

To be honest, we are not entirely sure why you’d want to answer the phone while you are out on your daily run, but at least there’s the option. And if you don’t think you want or need the 4G connectivity, the non-4G version is cheaper and offers everything else you need for fitness tracking, with built-in GPS and a heart-rate monitor to keep tabs on your ticker. And there’s plenty to like about the rest of the specification as well. Both variants have a circular 1.2in, 390 x 390 AMOLED display with an ambient light sensor that adjusts brightness automatically. This display is sharp and colourful and it is just a shame Huawei’s stock faces are so unsophisticated in appearance.

Both variants are powered by the new 1.1GHz Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor – Qualcomm’s first dedicated wearables chip – and each has 768MB of RAM, which is plenty for a smartwatch. There’s also 4GB of internal storage so you can store music on the watch and listen directly via Bluetooth headphones, NFC so you can use Android Pay from your wrist and, perhaps most important of all, a large 420mAh battery, delivering a 40% increase in capacity over the first-generation Huawei Watch.

Overall, we were pleased with the performance of the hardware. The screen is bright and sharp when you need it to be and it dims to a level where it doesn’t blind you in the middle of the night. Sometimes we did experience the odd pause and delay here and there when swiping round screens, but this is something a firmware update will resolve in time.

The Huawei Watch 2, in general terms, is a watch that we like. The battery life is good, we like the look of both variants, and it’s packed with all the sensors you could possibly need. Android Wear 2 makes it simple to use and adds the ability to use Android Pay, and despite the weaknesses of the Huawei Wear app, it is undoubtedly a bonus to be able to cut loose from your smartphone and go on a run without it. As a whole a good looking (popular) and solid smartwatch.

If you feel having a smart watch is too much or not enough for you, why don’t you try reading our reviews of sport watches and fitness trackers?