Best fitness watches 2021: Fitbit, Polar, Garmin - our expert reviews the most popular fitness trackers
Whether you're looking to kickstart a new fitness regime or achieve a personal best, a smart fitness tracker will provide added incentive and a wealth of statistics to aid you with your workouts
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There are now countless ways to measure your performance when it comes to fitness. With a wide range of trackers on the market, measuring a huge range of metrics to improve your performance, there’s an even greater incentive to get out there, get fit and even have suggestions on how to improve your overall health.
More and more, fitness trackers suit our everyday. Of course, they are worn during runs, hikes and cycles, but with sleep-trackers, breathing and meditation functions, step counters and calorie burn measurements they provide vital insights into how our bodies our functioning on a day-to-day basis. They enable us to be more in-touch with our body’s needs, and with a greater awareness comes a far greater impetus to work out.
Should I buy a smartwatch or a fitness tracker?
Of course, it largely depends on what you want to use your device for, but in this article, we’ll be focussing more closely on devices that are designed and engineered more specifically for use in fitness conditions – for example on hikes, runs, swims and cycles.
Smartwatches tend to be more all-round devices, suitable for productivity, call making and taking, calendar organising and app usage. Because they are more general in their approach and include a wider range of different types of technology, these kinds of devices tend to be more expensive than fitness trackers, but we’ve included a range of budget options here.