Many believe that smartwatches are the solution to keeping track of your health, your fitness, and your daily activity. But you need to keep in mind that these devices are basically wearable computers in the form of a watch. But not all are created equal as it relates to features.
Here are some of the best smartwatches available to Monitor Health And Fitness for iPhone and Android users.
I would love to say that I found one watch that does it all but sadly it’s not the case. What I did find are 4 great watches to consider and do an exceptional job in their category.
Apple Watch: Series 7 – BEST OVERALL
Key Specifications:
Display Type: OLED
Display Size: 1.61 inches
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, LTE
Fitness Features: Accelerometer, GPS, Heart Rate Monitor
Estimated Battery Life: 18 hours
Smartwatch Features: Answer Calls, Walkie Talkie, Voice Memo, Calculator, Compass, Flashlight, Apple Pay, Store Loyalty Cards, Weather Alerts, Get Directions, Messaging, Notifications, Camera Viewfinder, Find iPhone, Stopwatch, notes, and partner Apps.
Health and Fitness Features: Track Your Cycle, Monitor Safe Hearing Levels, Track Your workouts, Heart Rate Monitor, Track Sleep, Check Blood Oxygen, ECG, Mindfulness app,
Pros:
+ Large screen
+ Bright display
+ QWERTY keyboard
+ Charges fairly quick
+ Comes with USB-C magnetic charger
+ Wide range of accessories available
Cons:
– Battery life requires daily charging
– Only works with iphone
The Apple Watch Series 7 is probably one of the best all-around smartwatches on the market. As it does well in several use categories including Business (Alerts, schedules, notes, messaging etc.), Fitness (Fitness+, Close your rings, Workout app, etc.), Health (Heart rate tracker, ECG, Blood Oxygen, Sleep tracking, Mindfulness and etc.) Seniors (Fall detection, Medical ID, Emergency SOS, etc.). Now, it’s still not perfect but it’s still one of the most well-rounded solutions on the market.
Ease of use:
As to be expected from an Apple product, Its probably one of the most user-friendly smartwatches on the market. Apple has done great job with their UI so that its very intuitive and with its USB-C magnetic charger it couldn’t be easier to charge it.
Draw backs:
While we would love the Apple Watch to be perfect it is not it still need to improve in several areas including;
- its 18-hour battery life
- only work with iPhones and ipad, which isn’t ever likely to change.
Fitbit Versa 3 Health and Fitness Smartwatch – BEST OVERALL VALUE
Key Specifications:
Display Type: AMOLED
Display Size: 1.59 inches
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, LTE
Fitness Features: Accelerometer, Blood Pressure Monitor
Estimated Battery Life: 2-4 Days(dependent on # of reading done)
Smartwatch Features: Call Alerts, Text Alerts, Basic watch fuction
Health and Fitness Features: SpO2 monitoring, Track Your workouts, Heart Rate, Breathing rate, Track Sleep, stress management, Track Your Cycle, ECG and more
Pros:
+ Large screen
+ Very comfortable
+ Battery last anywhere between 4-6 days depending on use.
+ Medical Grade
+ Integrated GPS
+ Measures blood oxygen level while sleeping, but it only gives a range from when you are sleeping
+ Supports Amazon Alexa, Fitbit Pay, and Spotify
Cons:
+ Doesn’t Alert you during high and low heart rate notifications like apple does.
+ Touch screen is a bit frustrating at times and a bit laggy to respond
+ Can only use one voice assistant at a time
+Most of the great features require subscriptions. For example; Offline music requires Deezer or Pandora,
The Fitbit Versa 3 is the company’s top-shelf smartwatch that comes with more advanced health and wellness features and has a decent lightweight body and a good holding strap . Not only does it have an FDA-approved ECG sensor and blood oxygen reading, but the Versa 3 has the ability to measure electrodermal activity and skin temperature, too.
In the end if you are an iPhone user, you should really consider Apple Watch Series 7. It offers a much wider selection of downloadable apps, better integration with the iPhone for calls and texts, plus some nice health and safety features you don’t get on the Versa 3, including an automatic handwashing countdown timer and fall detection (but no blood oxygen saturation readings).
Now if your looking at it from a budget angle, then the Versa 3 is for you and offers the better bang for your buck as It costs almost $200 less for a very similar product offering with a much better battery life but limited app library compared to apple. So if price is not a concern, would I recommend it over the Apple Watch Series 7, well… Not really, while the Versa 3 has the advantage in terms of activity tracking, its smaller app library, no iPhone call support and performance lag could be a bit of a turn off.
Amazon Halo View – BEST VALUE
Key Specifications:
Display Type: AMOLED
Display Size: 0.95 inches
Connectivity: Bluetooth
Fitness Features: Accelerometer, Blood Pressure Monitor
Estimated Battery Life: 5-6 Days
Smartwatch Features: Call Alerts, Text Alerts, Basic watch function
Health and Fitness Features: Heart rate, Activity points, Sleep Tracker, and on-demand blood oxygen levels, includes 12 months of full access to exclusive membership features, workouts, and programs.
Pros:
+ Very comfortable and feels similar to fitbit
+ Battery last anywhere between 5-6 days
+ Price: at $59.99 (6/2022) it cant be matched for features and offerings.
+ Includes 12 months of full access to exclusive membership features, workouts, and programs. Atleast for now…(06/2022)
+ Supports Amazon Alexa
Cons:
+ Doesn’t Alert you during high and low heart rate notifications like apple does.
+ Touch screen is a bit small
+ Still early in development, limited apps.
+ Clip contact charging Cable.
+ No app notifications, only text messages.
+ Sensor readings seem off at times.
The $79 now $59.99 Amazon Halo View smartwatch is a simple yet effective fitness tracker. I wouldn’t call it the most accurate or fully featured watch but it gets the job done. What really makes it worthwhile product is access to the maturing Halo wellness service which makes it a more attractive wearable. Yes, both Apple (Fitness+) and Fitbit (Fitbit Premium) offer their own services but both are at a much higher premium $9.99/mo vs the Halo views’s $3.99/mo. Let’s also not forget to mention that at the moment you get 12 moths for free when you purchase the smartwatch and then auto-renews at $3.99/month + tax.
Now, the Halo Fitness workout service leaves a lot to be desired compared to Apple’s Fitness+, but it still helps you work up a sweat. The Halo view is definitely NOT for serious athletes looking for accurate detailed metrics. But I would say it’s great for the average consumer looking to dip their toes in trying a fitness smartwatch to help develop heathier habits.
OMRON HeartGuide™ Smartwatch – BEST SMARTWATCH FOR HYPERTENSION
Key Specifications:
Display Type: Transflective memory-in-pixel LCD
Display Size: 1.89 inches
Connectivity: Bluetooth
Fitness Features: Accelerometer, Blood Pressure Monitor
Estimated Battery Life: 2-4 Days(dependent on # of reading done)
Smartwatch Features: Call Alerts, Text Alerts, Basic watch fuction
Health and Fitness Features: Track Your steps, BP Monitor, Track Sleep, Heart Advisor app
Pros:
+ Large screen
+ Bright display
+ Blood Pressure monitoring on the go
+ Comes with usb cable charger
+ Fairly Accurate (Keep in mind you do need to run test more than once to get a more accurate reading)
+ Battery last anywhere between 2-4 Days depending on test and activity.
+ Test can be done anywhere at anytime
+ Medical Grade
Cons:
– At times feels a little bulky (This watch definitely draws attention due to its size.)
– No ECG, workout app, etc. as compared to other health smartwatches. (Note: OMRON Connect does do a decent job syncing with apple health and gets your exercise data from your iPhone.)
– No app store
– Charging is not as friendly as newer wireless charging smartwatch devices.
– Price
The OMRON HeartGuide™ Smartwatch is probably one of the most innovative smartwatches available for people who suffer from Hypertension. For those who may not know what that is, hypertension is a condition were people suffer from long-term High Blood pressure that eventually leads to serious health consequences such as heart attacks, strokes, kidney diseases, sexual dysfunction, etc. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in 2020 close to 48% of the United States population suffers from hypertension. Making devices like the ones being developed by OMRON more important than ever before. Unfortunately, in the past, those who suffer from Hypertension have been forced to carry a bulky arm cuff monitor which has led to many not properly keeping track of their health or resorting to devices which are not as accurate. The HeartGuide™ during our testing showed it was off by 4-6 points compared to our traditional digital cuff.
With the introduction of the HeartGuide™ although not perfect and definitely not cheap (You pay for portability) it allows people who suffer from Hypertension the freedom to consistently and regularly track their blood pressure, while at the same time also offering basic smartwatch functionality (call and text alerts) and health and fitness functions (BP Monitor/tracking, Step counter, sleep tracker, etc.).
The Omron HeartGuide™ also comes with an app called the OMRON Connect app which syncs readings, step count and sleep habits, all to a HIPAA-compliant cloud service. The app also syncs with your Apple Health app if using an iphone. The app is its own great tool as it tries to provide the user with blood pressure-based heart insights, such as time of day or days out of the week that have higher than average blood pressure readings and more. This is something I have not seen done before, but is truly the future for these devices.
I do have to commend OMRON for taking a very important first step in making it possible for a blood pressure monitor to be an everyday device. Hopefully making people aware of their own BP health before it becomes an issue. There is still a lot to be desired, but we are pretty impressed with overall performance.
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