Sports Smartwatch
Technology changes everyday and brings more features, more performance and better gadgets. A good sports smartwatch needs to have health tracking features, gps and at least the basic smart watch functions like stopwatch, timer, alarm, messaging from phone, etc. Depending on the brand you choose, features and quality, the price can go from 20 usd up to 1000 usd and beyond. However, if you are not an elite athlete who requires professional features and apps, you can get a nice piece of technology for less than 300 usd. In this post I will list the best options available in the market as 2022 in value/price. I will start with the most affordable watches and finish with the best-in-class below 300 usd. If you need to read about the criteria for my selection, please take a look at the posts: “do I need a smartwatch?” and/or “my next sports smartwatch“. I tried to consider watches of known and reliable brands with sports functions, gps and at least a decent battery life (over 5 days in one single charge -therefore Samsung Galaxy, watches with Wear Os and Apple watch were not considered-). There are many cheap options but, I only recommend to buy watches from reliable companies who also produce and sell their products. If you look into foreign sites like Gearbest, Aliexpress, Bangood and similar, you may find many options from brands like Lemfo, Xiaomi and others but be aware that in many countries (Germany for example) you are not allowed as natural person to return goods (with built-in-batteries) to China, Hong Kong, etc. So, if you are not happy with the product you may not have an option to send it back. I personally prefer to buy locally from sites/ providers that offer local customer service and warranty.
The prices were taken from Amazon.com as of August 7th and may change in time. At the bottom of each item I also added as reference for Europe, the german price (Amazon.de) No matter where you are, the link will take you to the nearest Amazon store.
Best sports smartwatches
Price = 23.75 usd
Features: 1.1″ Round touchscreen. Heart rate, sleep and activity monitor, pedometer, calories burnt, SpO2, GPS, notifications, drink water reminder, 17 sport modes, waterproof, 10 day-battery-life.
Umidigi is a Chinese company which produces cell-phones. This watch is suitable if you are starting as a hobby athlete and look for an affordable option.
Price in Germany: 19,49 €
Price = 51.99 usd
Features: 1.44″ touchscreen. Alexa built-in. Heart rate, stress, sleep and activity monitor, pedometer, calories burnt, SpO2, GPS, sport tracking with 60+ sports modes, notifications, waterproof, up to 9 day-battery-life.
Amazfit has many years of experience producing sports watches. I have used some of the models and was very happy with them. The product portfolio is wide but I suggest buying either this or the Bip 3 Pro because of the price/value ratio. If you can afford more expensive watches, there are better options.
Price in Germany: 39,00 €
Price = 59.99 usd
Features: 1.69″ screen. Alexa built-in. Heart rate, stress, sleep and activity monitor, pedometer, calories burnt, SpO2, GPS, sport tracking with 60+ sports modes, notifications, waterproof, up to 2 Week-battery-life. This is a newer and improved version of the bip u with a better resolution and bigger screen. The rest of functions is similar. The price is still great.
Price in Germany: 44,90 €
Price = 60.99 usd
Features: 1.75″ touchscreen. Heart rate, sleep and activity monitor, Pedometer, GPS, 90 Sports modes, notifications, waterproof, up to 2 Week-battery-life.
Realme is a chinese company which started as daughter company of Oppo (cell phone manufacturer).
Price in Germany 70,04 €
Price = 82.81 usd
Features: 1.55″ touchscreen. Heart rate, stress, sleep and activity monitor, pedometer, SpO2, breathing exercise, GPS, more than 100 trainings modes, notifications, waterproof, up to 10 day-battery-life.
Redmi is a product line of Xiaomi.
Price in Germany 48,99 €
Price = 92.95 usd
Features: Heart rate, sleep and activity monitoring, 5 sport modes, pedometer, SpO2, GPS, notifications, waterproof, up to 25-battery-life.
This model is a little old but still good. Of course you can buy with the price more modern options.
In Germany is no longer available.
Price = 93.99 usd
Features: 1.64″ touchscreen. Heart rate, stress, sleep and activity monitor, pedometer, calories burnt, SpO2, GPS, notifications, waterproof, AI sport assistant/ personal trainer, 96 sport modes, 12 animated training guides, 44 videos to show exercises, breathing exercises, 10 day-battery-life.
Price in Germany: 51,90 €
Please note that there is a new version, the Huawei Fit 2 with some extras like 1,74″ touchscreen, bluetooth calls from watch as well as notification-answering from watch for: 129,00 €.
Price = 99.99 usd
Features: 1.3″ touchscreen, always-on-display. Heart rate, sleep and activity monitor, pedometer, calories burnt, 26 sport modes, SpO2, GPS, notifications, waterproof, up to 2 Week-battery-life, moto OS.
A good looking watch.
Price in Germany: 109,99 €
Price = 99.99 usd
Features: Heart rate, stress, sleep and activity monitoring, pedometer, Calories burnt, SpO2, GPS, 68 sport modes, breathing exercises, notifications, waterproof, Alexa-built-in, 10 day-battery-life, bluetooth calls from watch, MP3 music
Price in Germany: 79,90 € for GTS 2 mini but without GPS. You need to go for the GTS 2 new for 100,00 € but includes GPS & MP3 player with 3GB memory.
Price = 159.38 usd
Features: 1.57″ touchscreen always-on-display, heart rate, sleep and activity monitor, pedometer, calories burnt, SpO2, GPS, notifications, waterproof, up to 6 day-battery-life, music player with Deezer and Spotify apps, NFC, Fitbit pay, Wi-Fi connection, Fitbit apps.
Price in Germany: 139,00 €
Price = 160.00 usd
Features: 1.81″ touchscreen. Heart rate, sleep and activity monitor, pedometer, calories burnt, GPS, notifications, waterproof, up to 2 Week-battery-life.
There are new versions of the GT watch (GT 3 and GT Runner) but in USA do not seem to be available for a good price. If you like Huawei, look for the Honor Magic Watch 2.
Price in Germany Huawei GT: 103,00 €, GT Runner for 199,00 € including more sport functions, training plans, etc. Take a look at the post GT Runner.
Price = 169.99 usd
Features: 1.3″ touchscreen. Heart rate, sleep, stress and activity tracking, pedometer, calorie burnt, SpO2, GPS, 20 pre-installed sport modes, training plans, water drink count, breathing monitoring and exercise, notifications, garmin pay, waterproof, weather, up to 2 Week-battery-life.
This is a good watch with a great price to enjoy already of some of the wonderful garmin functions. There is also a “music” version with spotify, deezer, amazon music or mp3 player and of course the Venu round, Venu 2, Venu 2 plus.
The price in Germany is: 149,99 € for the sq, 169,00 for sq music and 299,00€ for the Venu 2.
Price = 184.50 usd
Features: 1.04″ Screen always-on-display. Functions controlled with 5 buttons, no touchscreen. Heart rate, stress, sleep and activity monitor, pedometer, calories burnt, SpO2, GPS, notifications, training coach, training plans, interval training, body (sport) battery, waterproof, up to 2 Week-battery-life.
This is already a watch for intermediate hobby athletes who need more sport apps and advanced functions. Not only for runners but adequate for many other sports.
Price in Germany: 159,95 €
Price = 209.99 usd
Features: 1.3″ touchscreen. Heart rate, sleep and activity tracking, pedometer, calories burnt, breathing exercise, training plans, more than 130 sport modes, training load, GPS, notifications, waterproof, up to 6 day-battery-life.
Even when there are only two watch faces available and it is not the best smart watch (smart functions), polar offers a great training app and plans. It offers through the web or phone app “polar flow” sport modes, training programs, videos, etc.
Price in Germany: 257,11 €
In Germany I would rather go for the forerunner 245 or 255 (description a little further in the list).
Price = 214.99 usd
Features: 1.81″ or 1.65″ touchscreen. All the smart functions you expect from a watch like heart rate, stress, sleep and activity tracking, pedometer, calories burnt, compass, altimeter, weather, barometer, SpO2, GPS, notifications, waterproof, +100 sport-modi, Run training program, GPS and Back-to-start navigation, Bluetooth-calling from watch, Harmony Os and several apps available, 14 day-battery-life.
I personally like Huawei watches and have several including the GT Runner. In the new versions there are many sport functions that make this watch a good combination of smart watch and sports watch.
The GT 3 Pro includes MP3 music player and the possibility to save GPX routes in the watch and use line-navigation for 448,00 usd. But I would instead buy the GT Runner for 278.73 usd.
Price in Germany GT3: 179,00 €, GTpro for 439€ and GTrunner for 199€!!!
For 439 € you can buy a Garmin Fenix or similar.
Price = 231.00 usd
Features: 1.2″ screen always-on-display, no touch function but controlled with 5 buttons. Heart rate, stress, sleep and activity tracking, pedometer, calories burnt, SpO2, GPS, notifications, waterproof, +100 sport-modi, Run training program, Garmin Pay, compass, Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music, 7 day-battery-life. The functions are like the ones on the forerunner 55 with some extras in training functions + music and Wi-fi connection.
Garmin has great sports watches. You will be happy if you buy this.
Price in Germany: 249,99 €
Price = 230.90 usd
Features: 1.2″ screen always-on-display. Control with 5 buttons. Smart functions like Ignite 2 but with improved sport functions. Waterproof, +100 sport-modes, Run training program, 7 day-battery-life.
Price in Germany: 219,95 €
Price = 239.96 usd
Features: 1.2″ screen always-on-display. Control with 5 buttons. Sport functions like Ignite 2 plus improved GPS, barometer, back-to-start or turn-by-turn navigation, course creation (Komoot) quick charge and better sensors, waterproof, up to 7 day-battery-life. This is a brand new model and leaves the Vantage M2 series behind. Therefore is the Vantage M2 a little cheaper.
Price in Germany: 274,95 €vant
Price = 263.12 usd
Features: 1.1″ screen always-on-display. Control with 5 buttons. Heart rate, stress, sleep and activity tracking, pedometer, calories burnt, GPS, navigation with GPX routes, outdoor maps and route planing with Heatmaps, altimeter, weather, notifications, training load and recovery time, training plan, 80+ sport-modes, waterproof, up to 12 day-battery-life.
Price in Germany: 249,00 €
Summary:
A watch can also be considered a piece of jewelry. The truth is that the design, looks, materials, quality and functions have a price. If you will use the sports watch only during training, the design and looks can be set apart and you should choose the one that best suits your sport needs. If you will use the watch 24/7 you should choose the best looking one that also fulfills your sport needs.
Let me know which one you choose. Regards.
Miguel.