While smartwatches today are heavily focused on detailed 24/7 health and wellness tracking, most also provide other advanced features, such as a companion Android application, touchscreen displays, call and/or text messaging support, installable applications and watch faces, and voice assistants. Starting in 2021, there are several powerful options available to help you get work done through a wearable device. With Wear OS 3 powered by Samsung, the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is clearly the best smartwatch available for Android phone users with Samsung setting the bar for other Wear OS smartwatch makers. And with the holidays upon us, we figured now is an excellent time to provide the best smartwatches for Android users. Also: Best smartwatches
Samsung used to have the Galaxy Watch Active line that offered a smaller option with no rotating bezel and this year we have that model labeled as the Galaxy Watch 5. It is offered in 40mm and 44mm size options so it will appeal to more people than the larger Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. It is also lighter with aluminum rather than stainless steel construction. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 offers enhanced sleep and fitness tracking features. You can receive vital stats, such as body fat readings and your Body Mass Index. And the watch earned a IP68 rating, allowing you to submerge it up to five feet of water. While it pales in comparison in water rating to the Apple Watch Ultra, it is also significantly less expensive, making it a more reasonable purchase if you do much in the way of lap swimming. Samsung is clearly not standing by as Apple continues to update and improve the Apple Watch. Samsung’s latest Galaxy Watch 4 Classic offers many of the same advanced health tracking features, such as blood oxygen monitoring, ECG, and sleep tracking. We also see the addition of body composition measurements in the Galaxy Watch 4, along with blood pressure monitoring in select countries. Hopefully, Samsung can deliver on blood pressure support in the US, but it’s been more than a year past its last estimated approval by regulatory agencies. The major change for the Galaxy Watch 4 is the partnership with Google so that the watch is no longer powered by Tizen, but is a Google Wear OS 3 powered by Samsung watch. This means it still looks like a Samsung smartwatch, but also supports Google Pay, Google Play Store, and many more Google apps with the possibility of Google Assistant in a future update. It has a sleek rotating bezel and an operating system optimized for the round watch design. Fall detection, messaging, phone calls, and more are available on the watch, with advanced fitness data such as VO2 Max and advanced running dynamics data also supported. While Google has not put much effort into developing its Wear OS platform, companies like Mobvoi continue to offer solid smartwatch competitors running Wear OS. The latest watch from Mobvoi is the TicWatch Pro 3, the first smartwatch sporting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform. The TicWatch Pro 3 is the best non-Samsung Wear OS device available with a unique layered display design with an LCD display on top of an AMOLED display so users can have extended battery life, up to 30 days more limited watch experience. While not as well supported as the Apple Watch, Wear OS is still a very capable wearable platform with an extensive number of available watch faces, plenty of popular third-party apps, Google Assistant voice support, advanced health tracking, and much more. The TicWatch Pro 3 has all of the latest advanced health metrics, such as blood oxygen monitoring, and is also a very capable GPS sports watch. At just $200, it’s also tough to beat the TicWatch Pro 3. It works with Android and iOS smartphones, too, so if you are considering a smartwatch for multiple platforms, this is a very capable option. Why not read our full review of TicWatch Pro 3. Amazfit has some very compelling smartwatches powered by a RTOS (real-time operating system) optimized for the watch so that extended battery life is provided. There is a companion Android application, Zepp, that provides access, collection, and analysis of an extensive amount of health and wellness data. The GTR 2 also has a microphone and speaker on the watch so that phone calls can be managed directly from the watch through a Bluetooth connection to your Android smartphone. The Huawei Watch 3 was launched in June 2021 and is the first watch running Huawei’s own Harmony OS. Like other smartwatches today, it is heavily focused on capturing data 24/7 that is related to your health and wellness. It supports all forms of GPS and can be used to track more than 100 activities. Huawei’s older generation Android Wear watch was one of the best available, and it looks like this hardware is designed to compete with the best. Unfortunately, it is not available in the US. It is available in Europe and the Middle East. Fossil is the biggest name brand still releasing smartwatches powered by Google’s Wear OS. The Fossil Gen 6 lineup was recently revealed and offers some new internals with the older version of Wear OS. Wear OS 3 is likely coming to these watches in early 2022. The Fossil Gen 6 Smartwatch is available in various colors with different band options, starting at just $189. The Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 powers this Fossil smartwatch lineup, and with Wear OS, users enjoy the power of Google Assistant on the wrist. Google Pay is supported, so you can pay wirelessly with your phone in your pocket. Integrated GPS also means you can track your outdoor exercise with the Fossil Gen 6 Smartwatch. New features in this latest generation include a SpO2 blood oxygen sensor, an improved heart rate sensor, and fast charging. The Fitbit Sense has a stainless steel ring around the watch face and additional sensors on the back so that it offers support for ECG, skin temperature, and a few more advanced health metrics. If you want to save $70, then you can buy the Fitbit Versa 3 and lose out on a few advanced wellness metrics. A significant improvement in this watch compared to previous Fitbit watches is the integrated GPS receiver that will help you track your outside activities more accurately. The Fitbit ecosystem is well supported, with many people on the platform to help motivate you toward achieving your daily activity and fitness goals. The smartphone app is fantastic and offers a ton of insight, recommendations, and understanding of the data collected by the watches. Android smartphone users enjoy a better experience with support for quick text message replies. Google Assistant is also now available for the Fitbit Sense, so we see a bit more of Google’s influence now that it owns Fitbit. We also read other reviews and reviewer guides provided by the smartwatch makers to make sure we have explored all of the available features. Samsung Galaxy watches are optimized for Samsung phones, including support for Samsung Pay and the Samsung ecosystem. While the watch can act as a stand-alone mobile device, a phone is required to set up the watch for cellular connectivity fully. A world with your watch as your phone is not yet an option, but technology is advancing, and we’ll get there someday. All of these smartwatches can also serve as capable GPS sports watches to track the details of your outdoor activities. Exercise guidance is provided on the watch with connected health applications on your smartphone so you can keep track of your progress too.
