The first link you’ll, find in the youtube description right now, is a link to the full article where we list, i think 15 smart watches we’re, just gon na be talking about the top five today in this video, we don’t mention any smart watches that suit your Needs head there find out all about them there. Also in the description you will find links that will take you to the best deal you can currently find on that smartwatch. Very clever. Indeed, they update automatically makes my life very easy uh. We do, of course, in affiliate commission from those links, but we at tech radar supported by you our audience, and we appreciate you very much for that with the rigmarole out of the way james let’s jump in at the number five spot. The samsung galaxy watch active two tell us all about it sure um. This is sort of the choice to go for if you’re, looking for a fully fledged smartwatch with a cheap price tag, um it’s, a lot of what we’ll be speaking about during this list is compatibility um, depending on whether you have an iphone or an android phone. This will work with both of those devices which is a godsend for some people, especially if you ever think you’re. Switching between those two elements and the price is really good as well you’re getting a a genuinely lovely design, it’s, not the it’s, not the absolute best design that samsung’s ever made it’s a much more fitness led watch than this galaxy watch series, hence the hence the Active in the name in the uk at the moment it costs around 200 pounds i’m, not really sure how much it costs in the us, but it’s one of the cheaper options on our best smartwatch list.
As i say, much more focused on its fitness features than it is on its fully fledged smartwatch experience, so this is probably more of one if you’re looking for what you can track you’re running with built in gps, it also has a rotating bezel but it’s a It’S it’s, not a physical bezel it’s. Essentially, you can run your finger around the edge of the screen and then cycle through menus. We’Ll talk about that a little bit more when the galaxy watch three comes off in this little later, because that’s a feature that i love personally, the rotating bezel of just giving you a slightly different way to interact with your smartwatch rather than uh, flicking through menus. Yeah it’s it’s, a lovely piece of design from the galaxy watch active two and again the price is probably the real highlight here as well. Yeah, absolutely absolutely you know i think as well. When we talk a lot about these smart watches, it comes down to design as well right people want their watch to be a bit of a fashion piece and something i’ve always struggled with smart watches is their square design. I hate it but yeah so the more traditional circular design on the on the samsung watches something that really appeals to me. Um so it’s good to hear that that’s in there and obviously we’re going to be chatting about another one as we get further up the list, but right now moving on to number four and the fitbit versa.
Three. So what deserves this to be in the number? Four spot on to our first square watch: uh yeah! Well i hate it uh well, it’s number, four: i’m, sorry matt fitbit versus three yeah. This is um. This is sort of essentially the the best smartwatch you can get from fitbit. At the moment, it is the best models you can get from fitbit at the moment, um it’s first summer, verse ahead. Uh versa, smartwatch is featured built in gps, which is something that people have been begging for for a while again, if you look for fitness features, this is the one to go for. You’Ve got a fantastic app from fitbit, which brings in a variety of different fitness features everything’s in there, from even sleep tracking down to how much you’ve been drinking water and all of the fitbit premium features as well. You’Ve got access to all of those wise. It again works with both android phones and iphones. Again with much more focusing on fitness here, i personally don’t think the design is as premium as the samsung choice. We just spoke about it’s a little bit slimmer and a little bit a little bit lighter, which for some people, that would be an even better thing, especially if you’re looking for fitness, fitness related devices, and you want something that’s going to be something you can go Running with and it’s not bouncing around your wrist and you’re annoyed at it. Essentially, this is a combination of everything that fitbit’s done right over the last 10 years or so.
However long they’ve been making smart watches for fitness trackers for um versa, 3 sort of the the top end fitbit device you want to be going for if you’re looking for fitness related stuff yeah, absolutely i think you’ve hit the nail on the head. You know the price point is similar of that to the samsung watch we just talked about, but yeah. If fitness is your focus, fitbit is the first brand you think of when you come to these right and so uh yeah absolutely worth checking out. If you’re a fitness fanatic, so then moving on to our number three slot and apple’s most premium watch at this point, the apple watch, six james tell us a little bit about this one yeah. So this may surprise some people, because the apple watch has always been a mainstay of this list and it’s quite often ranked in the first position between between that and the samsung watches. We’Ll be talking about later um this year we changed things up because apple didn’t really change things up, it’s a very similar device to the apple watch. Five there’s, a few different elements here: you’ve got in you’ve got sleep tracking involved. You’Ve got a new chipset in here, which makes it a little bit more powerful, a little bit less battery battery hungry, but it’s still a generally very similar device to both the apple watch 4 and the apple watch 5.. If you own one of those devices, you probably won’t want to be upgrading to this immediately.
If you have a much older apple watch, this is probably one for you and on the compatibility question, it only works with iphone. If you have an android phone, you do not want to be looking at this file watch that’s a bit of a sticking point for some people, obviously, but they just work with iphone, so that’s that’s the situation um. This is a expensive device, it’s uh. I think it is the most expensive device we’ve got on this list, it’s around 400 pounds at launch, so you’ve you’ve got all of those top end features from apple um. You’Ve got a fantastic amount of apps. The compatibility with apps is brilliant on apple’s devices, but again it’s just not changed all that much this year and we’ve. So we’ve mixed up our list a little bit in that way. Yeah, absolutely absolutely, and you know you’re absolutely right if you, if you’re an iphone user and you’re in that ecosystem. I was about to say, if you’re stuck in that ecosystem, sometimes how i feel um, but but yeah, if you’re an apple user you’re in that ecosystem. It works perfectly like you would expect every other apple product work. You know when you open your earpods and they just connect automatically. The watch is the same. The setup process is so easy. It’S yeah it’s that apple magic right there. Everything just works as you expect it to yeah and so yeah, maybe not a huge improvement over the four and five.
But, like you say, if you’re on one of the much older apple watches or never owned an apple watch and you’re. Looking for the best, then it’s a no brainer moving, then from the apple premium side to the samsung premium side, with the samsung galaxy watch. Three james tell us a little bit about this, so yeah for most of you watching this uh, the galaxy 3 will be the best smart watch for you um. It works with an android phone. It works with an iphone at the same time again, you’re getting all of the top end features here that we’ve respected from samsung um it’s, tizen software still probably isn’t as good as apple software, but it has improved a lot over the last few years. Much more much more functionality with apps and a whole variety of new fitness features brought in as well as you were talking about matt. This is a much more the smart watch to own. If you like, the look of a general of a normal watch, um you’ve got this rotating bezel, which is a physical bezel on here. Um it’s really really satisfying to just run your finger around it and you can click it around um that essentially allows you to move through the menus. So you’re not flicking around on the screen as much getting your grubby fingerprints all over the screen and you will still be tapping it and that sort of thing, but just it gives it a little bit more satisfying of a feel again galaxy watch three is going To be more expensive than the watch active 2 that we spoke to earlier.
So if price is your main thing that you’re thinking about maybe look towards those cheaper devices, but if you’re looking for the top design you’re looking for everything you can get from a samsung watch um the galaxy watch 3 is perfect. Yeah exactly you know, like you said it is more expensive it’s on that more expensive side, but still significantly cheaper than the top end of applebee, but to combat that segway apple introduced, the apple watch, s e a cheaper version of their apple watches. So what are we losing here, and why does this deserve to be in the number one slot sure you’re getting you’re getting a very similar design to what you’d expect from apple um and you’re, getting it for a much lower price than we’ve seen before? I think it launched at 269 pounds in the uk which, considering we were just talking about smartwatch. It cost 400 pounds from yeah apple that’s, a that’s, a remarkable thing, you’re getting all of the functionality that you’d expect there. The only things that you’re really missing out on are the always on display, but for most people, that’s – probably not going to matter all that much so everything’s sort of here in the apple watch. I see that’s why it’s taking our top spot this year, the battery life still isn’t the absolute best you’re gon na get a slightly better battery life out of pretty much every other device on this list.
But if you’re happy to recharge your smartwatch every couple of nights and you on an iphone, the apple watch sees definitely one to look towards, especially again, if you own, an older apple watch or you’ve, never owned. An apple watch probably go for this over the apple watch 6, because you’re getting a lot for for that for that remarkably lower price yeah for sure for sure absolutely worth checking out, then j i’m curious james we’ve. Obviously we’ve got two samsung watches in here. Two apple watches and a fitbit watch names that a lot of people would have heard about. Are there any kind of lesser brands? Lesser well known brands out there that are worth considering you think, yeah yeah, there’s there’s, quite a few big names coming over small names. Coming up um, obviously the the number one that isn’t in here is garmin. If you’re looking for a fully fledged fitness watch, um be sure to head to our best garmin watches list, we sort of segment them out because they’re offering a very different experience there and offering the functionality of the devices that we’ve spoken about in this list. But if you’re looking for for full blown fitness um go for that and again there’s a load of other fitbit devices as well. In that sense, other brands coming up we’ve got things like a maze, fit they’re um they’re, a remarkably good brand at the moment for very low prices, we’re seeing uh we’re, seeing the introduction of a few different smartwatches from the likes of oppo there’s room for oneplus Watch coming as well and there’s a whole variety of other watches within the wear os space, which are ranked lower in our best smartwatch list at the moment.
Uh. The fossil sport, for example, is a very cheap smartwatch. Now, considering all of the functionality you’re going to get from that and it uses google’s wear os software. So if you own an android phone, maybe head to the best smartwatch list and look down the rest of the list or head to our best android sports list. As well, absolutely absolutely it’ll be interesting to see how this list develops over the next year or two to see who takes those top spots and if you’re interested in that, maybe maybe you’ll come into this video a little bit later than when we posted it. Please do check that first link in the description uh, obviously that article will have been updated potentially by the time you’re watching this video so well worth a look thanks for joining me. James really appreciate it. Thank you for watching. Please do drop a like on the video if you enjoyed it or find it useful at all. Please do consider subscribing to techradar on youtube, so don’t miss any of our future buying guide videos and finally, remember to head to techradar.com for the latest tech news and reviews. We will see you next time.a8Ha8WsXcys
