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Getting into shape can have many roadblocks, be they mental or physical, but mobile gadgets such as fitness trackers can do wonders to help you get a move on! There is something about seeing your progress represented in numbers like your heart rate, calories burned, lung capacity, etc., which helps you stay focused and dedicated.
We have handpicked the top fitness trackers that are available right now on the market from some of the most popular brands like Fitbit, Garmin, Xiaomi, and more. There are more than a few options to choose from, so keep reading on to find the best fitness trackers to fit your needs.
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If you are serious about your running and want the most detailed information of how you are progressing, how your run went, what your level is, and how you need to recover, then the Garmin Forerunner 265 is what you need. That is, of course, if you are okay with paying the $450 it costs.
The Forerunner 265 has an extremely accurate heart rate monitor, and is great for evaluating more specific metrics such as elevation gained, cadence, power output, vertical oscillation, and more. Just keep in mind that it is a watch best suited for running, it is not very good at tracking other sports such as cycling for example.
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Garmin Forerunner 265
The Garmin Forerunner 265 offers detailed insights into your running performance, making it a top-notch choice for runners.
The Fitbit Charge 5 improves on almost everything from its predecessor - the Charge 4. It's the best fitness tracked you would ever need (well, until the next best thing comes along, of course), and it's packed full of features.
The display is just great - a 1.04-inch AMOLED that's 10% larger than the screen in the previous model, and also much brighter. While the display in the Charge 4 can output 200nits, the Charge 5 can do 450nits and it counts, especially on a bright and sunny day.
There's a whole bunch of sensors to track your activities - plus a new EDA sensor that takes care or tracking your stress levels. You also have an ECG sensor, SpO2 tracking to keep an eye on your blood oxygen levels, automatic sleep and exercise tracking, 5ATM water-resistance, onboard GPS that works like a charm - the whole package.
The battery life of the Fitbit Charge 5 is amazing - you can get a week out of the tracker easily, and last but not least - the price is pretty good at around $180.
The Vivosmart 5 from Garmin's latest fitness tracker, and it improves greatly on its predecessors. The newly added physical button makes it much easier to interact with the interface, which is much needed with such a small monochrome screen. Despite having no color reproduction, though, the screen gets quite bright, so that helps out when you are in bright sunny conditions.
One of the best parts about the Vivosmart 5 is that Garmin does not require you to make any kind of subscription to use all of the fitness features, unlike Apple Watch, and other brands like Fitbit, for example.
The Vivosmart 5 also excels in sleep tracking, so if you are looking to keep tabs on the quality of your sleep, this is a great option to consider buying. There are also safety features like LiveTrack that can send information on your live location to your emergency contacts in case of an incident (needs to be connected to your phone).
Garmin vívosmart 5
The Garmin vívosmart 5 is one of the best fitness bands you will find on the market right now. It comes with great sleep tracking, live-location sharing, all the 7 days of battery life, and much more!
Samsung isn’t a stranger to fitness bands and sports trackers - some of you might remember the Gear Fit and Gear Fit 2 Pro bands. These were great apart from the fact that they were a bit overpriced. The Galaxy Fit2 is an attempt to make things right, and a great successor to the already affordable $100 original Fit.
The Galaxy Fit2 costs just $59.99 and it’s a steal at this price, especially considering the features you get. There are some basic smartwatch capabilities such as notifications, quick replies, music controls, weather forecasts. The AMOLED screen is gorgeous, and the battery life is quite good, although the advertised 15 days are a bit of a stretch.
The Galaxy Fit2 can automatically track exercises, you can swim with it (it’s waterproof up to 50 meters), there’s sleep tracking on board, and everything is packed into a lightweight and sleek design. There’s no GPS, so distance-related activities rely on the step counter but at this price point, it’s understandable and also quite common among most fitness trackers.
The first Fitbit Versa coined a clever idea - let's offer a premium design and some solid health and fitness features but at a really good price? The successor - the Fitbit Versa 2 - improved on that idea and made the Versa family quite popular and also a favorite among casual fitness enthusiasts.
The Fitbit Versa 4 is the latest version of the popular fitness tracker and it brings even more improvements to the proverbial smartwatch table and rectified some of the complaints people had with the previous-gen model. It has the same sleek and lightweight design that Versa fans love, and it can automatically track workouts, too. In addition, it now has a more advanced heart rate sensor, improved GPS tracking accuracy and longer battery life than than many fitness trackers on the market.
Fitbit Versa 4
Health & Fitness Smartwatch, 40+ Exercise Modes, Built-in GPS, 24/7 Heart Rate Tracking, Google Maps, Google Wallet.
Now, if you're serious about your cardiovascular health, you should be familiar with Polar. The company is well known among fitness experts and enthusiasts. Polar manufactures heart rate sensors, widely recognized as the Gold Standard of heart rate tracking both by regular users and researchers around the globe.
What most people don't know is that Polar also makes fitness Watches. The Polar Ignite 2 takes Polar's expertise in heart rate monitoring and crams it into a stylish and durable everyday gadget. This fitness watch is perfect for gym, group exercise, swimming, running, cycling, walking, yoga, and practically anything that gets your heart racing.
Polar Ignite 2
Fitness Smartwatch with Integrated GPS - Wrist-Based Heart Monitor - Personalized Guidance for Workouts, Recovery and Sleep Tracking
The Polar Ignite 2 comes with some neat smart features as well. You can control your music, receive notifications from your phone, check the weather - all the basic stuff. There's built-in GPS inside, alongside a bunch of training guides and programs, and because the heart rate sensor is so good in this one, you also get top-notch sleep tracking and analysis.
The Polar Ignite 2 comes in a variety of colors and the price is also quite affordable. This one's among the best fitness trackers you can get for pure fitness tracking, period.
Pros
Top-notch heart rate monitoring
Comprehensive list of exercise programs
Premium watch faces
Stylish
Lightweight
Affordable
Cons
Not very smart
UI feels a bit cluttered
Garmin Vivosmart 4
Garmin Vivosmart 4
The Garmin Vivosmart 4 is occupying the same “under $100” market space as the Fitbit Inspire 2. It’s very slim and comfortable, although the screen is tiny and sometimes difficult to read. There is a range of activities to choose from the Vivosmart 4’s menu, including walks, runs, strength training, yoga, pool swims, and more.
You also get all-day stress tracking, VO2 max readings, and the Body Battery energy monitor. Sleep tracking is detailed and accurate, with blood oxygen readings from the SpO2 sensor. The Garmin Vivosmart 4 uses your heart rate data to track your stress levels, and there are breathing exercises and relax reminders to help you calm down.
This one doesn’t have a built-in GPS but can receive notifications, and all in all offers a great pack of sensors and health insights at a very attractive price.
Xiaomi has a great record under its belt - every year its Mi Band fitness trackers receive a ton of "best affordable" awards. That's not only because they're, well cheap, but also for the great features they offer.
The Mi Band 7 is no exception - it has a very pleasant design, bright and colorful AMOLED screen, 15 days of battery life, a good slate of smart features and an accurate heart rate monitor. All this can be yours for less than $50. It's really a great bargain.
The Mi Band 7 can track 110+ sport modes, including outdoor running, treadmill, cycling, walking, pool swimming, and the catch-all freestyle, elliptical, jump rope, indoor cycling, yoga, and rowing machine exercises. Sleep tracking is also great with the addition of REM tracking, while the heart rate sensor has also been upgraded and now can track your pulse continuously (no funny things like skin temperature tracking though).
Xiaomi Mi Band 7
If you want to go as budget as possible but still get a great product, this is the sports band for you!
Garmin's flagship smartwatch, its most advanced and most expensive one is made for high-performance athletes. The Fenix 6S Pro is a rugged multisport GPS fitness watch that just begs to be taken outside. There are preloaded tracking profiles for trail and track running, swimming, running, biking, hiking, rowing, skiing, golfing and more. The Fenix 6S Pro comes with onboard maps for 2000+ ski resorts as well!
Granted, it may lack the body composition feature but it comes packed full of sports goodness. You still get the heart rate and blood oxygen saturation sensors, and Garmin has perfected its sports tracking algorithms through the years to the point where the watch doesn't actually need more sensors to do the job.
Another big plus is the battery life - unlike the Galaxy Watch 4, the Garmin Fenix 6S Pro can last for up to 9 days on a single charge, which is kinda important when you are, you know, in the mountains. You can also customize your Fenix 6S Pro, choose a sapphire option, or the neat Solar variant that charges its battery with the power of the Sun. The only downside is that the Fenix 6S Pro is rather expensive. But if you are the outdoors type, it can be the best fitness watch for you!
The Oura Ring is the odd one on the list. Obviously, it's a ring, not a bracelet. And for the purists, this can be the best fitness tracker out there. It's light, you practically won't notice it's there, and you can wear it all the time.
This thing is made out of titanium and weights only 4 to 6 grams. It doesn't get any more portable than this. Even though it's just a ring, it packs advanced infrared LED sensors, a NTC body temperature sensor, a 3D accelerometer, and a gyroscope.
The Oura Ring will go on for more than a week on a single charge and you can dive down to 100m with it (if you dare). It integrates seamlessly with Google Fit and Apple Health and can track your sleep and exercises (Oura's Automatic Activity Detection (AAD) feature can detect over 20 different activities).
There are two main downsides with such a design. First, there's obviously no display, so no smart features like notifications, graphs, charts, and all that jazz. And second - the price. The Oura Ring is pretty expensive at 300 euro.
Garmin's Forerunner 945 has one goal and one goal only - to make an athlete out of you. The GPS inside this fitness watch is specifically built with runners in mind. You get very detailed data of your running sessions and other workouts, alongside other fitness-oriented features.
From the daily suggested workouts, to the dedicated coach, the Forerunner 945 boasts a sophisticated training app that can measure the effects of your workouts and even suggest a recovery time. There are lots of metrics on board, including a blood oxygen levels and VO2 Max readings that will show your overall fitness level and progress, and there's a cool feature that's exclusive for Garmin fitness watches, called IERCC.
In case of any sort of emergency, the watch will automatically send your name and location to the Garmin IERCC, a 24/7 staffed professional emergency response coordination center. The Forerunner 945 comes in two variants - there's the vanilla version and an LTE model.
Garmin Forerunner 55
GPS Running Watch with Daily Suggested Workouts, Up to 2 Weeks of Battery Life, White
The only downside of the Forerunner 945 is its price. If you go for the LTE version, you should expect to part with around $600. There's a trimmed-down version - the Forerunner 55 that you can get for less than a third of that, and it will cover all the basics for you.
Pros
The best smartwatch for elite athletes
Tons of useful metrics
LTE option
Garmin IERCC emergency service
Mobile payment
Smart notifications
Good battery life
Navigation with color maps
Cons
Expensive
What to look for when buying a fitness tracker?
There are some important consideration and questions you should ask yourself before pulling the trigger on a fitness tracker. The first and most important question is what are your fitness goals? If you like running and want to get better at it or you're preparing for a competitive run, obviously you need a tracker focused at running.
The next big thing is GPS support. Are you okay with the idea of bringing your smartphone alongside your fitness tracker each and every time? Another consideration is water resistance - if you sweat a lot or you want to go for a run no matter the weather, this should be a key factor for you.
Battery life is always important when it comes to fitness tracking, the longer the better, obviously. You don't want to lose your progress in the middle of a 5-hour GPS trek in the mountains. Last but not least - the price. The best fitness tracker won't be much of a use if you couldn't afford it, right? So with all that in mind, you should be able to make an informed decision and get the best fitness tracker to fit your personal needs.
Conclusion
So, there you have it - the best fitness trackers you can buy in 2022. There are dozens of reasons to be active and ten times more fitness trackers on the market. But we're here for you - this list will be updated on a regular basis to include the latest and the best in the bunch. Now, let's get moving!
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Aleksandar is a tech enthusiast with a broad range of interests, from smartphones to space exploration. His curiosity extends to hands-on DIY experiments with his gadgets, and he enjoys switching between different brands to experience the latest innovations. Prior to joining PhoneArena, Aleksandar worked on the Google Art Project, digitizing valuable artworks and gaining diverse perspectives on technology. When he's not immersed in tech, Aleksandar is an outdoorsman who enjoys mountain hikes, wildlife photography, and nature conservation. His interests also extend to martial arts, running, and snowboarding, reflecting his dynamic approach to life and technology.
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