Get Fit and Track Your Progress with the 5 Best Fitness Trackers – Here's Our Top Picks!
Whether you’re trying to accelerate your fitness goals or just looking to keep tabs on your general health or fitness, there’s a fitness tracker out there for you.
Here’s our top 5 recommendations…
Best Overall: Fitbit Charge 3
There’s a reason why Fitbit is the top brand in the fitness band market: The company continues to improve its bands by slowly and steadily adding smartwatch features and streamlining design. The Charge 3 is the epitome of this trend in Fitbit’s lineup. Google are in the process of acquiring the company so we can expect many more features and Google integrations soon.
The Charge 3 has Fitbit’s full suite of fitness tracking features including all-day heart rate monitoring, all-day step counting, SmartTrack to automatically recognize workouts, and even menstrual cycle tracking for women that can be added as an option to the dashboard. All these metrics can be viewed in the Fitbit app, which still has the best app interface for health and wellness tracking. Fitbit also recently enabled the pulse oximeter on the Charge 3 allowing people to track blood oxygen levels while they sleep.
It also uses new goal-based exercise modes that let you set a goal and track how far or how long you need to go to complete it. On the smart notification side, the Charge 3 can receive and respond to text messages, answer or reject calls, and even get social media and email notifications. It’s as close to a smartwatch you can get in the fitness band form.
All this comes at a price significantly below others on this list, makes this the best all rounder on this list.
2. Best for Android: Samsung Galaxy Fit
It’s an outstanding choice for the casual athlete looking for a reliable tracker. The first thing you notice is the Fit’s vivid and colorful 0.95-inch AMOLED display. The Fit has a touchscreen interface that is responsive and easy to navigate.
Fitness tracking is another highlight of the Galaxy Fit. There are over 90 different workouts you can add to the watch, and six that you can track automatically. This automatic detection was one of our favorite features. It allows you to start exercising without having to fuss with the watch and shows the data you need, like distance, pace, and elapsed time. We also appreciate the inactivity reminders that gently reminded us to get out of our chair and spend some time moving.
Priced at under $100, the Samsung Galaxy Fit is not only the best fitness wearable for Android users; it’s also one of the best values in a fitness wearable currently available.
3. Best for iOS: Apple Watch Series 5
For iPhone owners who have the budget, there is no question that the Apple Watch Series 5 is the best full-featured fitness tracker and smartwatch available. Like the iPhone itself, Apple’s wearable has a good deal of support from third-party developers, with every significant fitness app offering compatibility.
The Watch also found a way to deftly mix features and fashion into a single wearable device, offering all-day battery life and a host of features that are tough to find on any competing device.
We all know the Apple Watch delivers plenty of functionality, but it is more fitness-oriented features include GPS tracking, an altimeter that records changes in altitude, and onboard heart rate monitoring. It’s also waterproof down to 50 meters, offers support for a vast number of workout types, and even reminds you to stand after periods of inactivity.
Throw in Bluetooth connectivity with wireless headphones and greatly improved Siri support, and you have a smartwatch that’s head-and-shoulders above just about anything else on the market.
All of this comes at a price. The Apple Watch Series 5 starts at $399 and goes up from there depending on size, the style of the band, and the inclusion of cellular connectivity.
4. Best Waterproof Tracker: Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro
The Gear Fit2 Pro connects to the Speedo app which you can use to track your swim goals, your swim time, your pace, and the distance your swim in a training session.
With a healthy dose of smartwatch capability, the option to store and stream music, built-in GPS, and water resistance, it’s a refreshing, cost-effective wearable.
It does still feature the same, somewhat bulky design as its predecessor but that’s a minor nitpick on what is otherwise a powerhouse of a fitness tracker.
Priced at $200, minimal design and comfortable fit perfectly compliment the suite of fitness tracking and smartwatch features, allowing it to easily stand out in an increasingly crowded market.
5. Best Sleep Tracker: Garmin Vivosmart 4
The Garmin Vivosmart 4 is a very capable fitness tracker that stands out from the crowd because of its sleep tracking. Like most wearables, the Vivosmart 4 uses movement sensors and heart rate data to break down your sleep into stages. The tracker can tell how many hours you slept and you how long you were in REM, light, or deep sleep. It also records how restless your sleep was and how often you were awoken in the night.
Not only does the Vivosmart 4 track sleep stages, but it also has a pulse oximeter which measures blood oxygen levels throughout the night. These values can be used to help identify sleep disturbances like apnea. For most people, their blood oxygen levels stay well above 90% both during the day and at night when they sleep. People with apnea have periods of sleep where their oxygen levels dip below 90% due to an obstruction or some other physical condition that affects their breathing. For clarity, only a medical professional can diagnose sleep apnea so the utility of this feature is to provide an initial screen and some data you can share with your doctor if you are concerned about sleep.
Overall this is a very capable fitness tracker with exceptional capabilities when it comes to sleep tracking.
That’s our top 5, we hope to have covered a broad choice of features and price points in those 5. Please let us know of any recommendations you have in the comments or about your experience using one of the fitness trackers on our list….
