Fitness trackers and smart watches increasingly overlap in features, making the choice harder than ever. We wore five popular devices for two weeks each, comparing step counting accuracy, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, battery life, and companion app experience.
Step counting was reasonably accurate across all devices, with daily totals within five percent of manual counts. Heart rate during HIIT workouts showed greater variance: wrist-based optical sensors lagged behind chest straps by up to ten BPM during rapid changes. Sleep tracking was impressive on three devices, accurately detecting wake times and deep sleep phases, while two models consistently misread lying still as sleeping.
For pure fitness tracking on a budget, a dedicated band offers the best value with week-long battery life. If smart notifications, music control, and app ecosystem matter as much as fitness, a full smart watch justifies its higher price. The best middle ground was a fitness-focused smart watch with five-day battery.
