The Best Fitness Trackers We've Tested for 2026: From Screenless Bands to Smart Rings

Design: The lightweight Fitbit Air feels comfortable enough that I often forgot I was wearing it during testing. The sensor measures 1.4 by 0.7 by 0.3 inches (LWH) and is water resistant to a depth of 164 feet. It easily snaps into different bands, and you can buy them in various colors and materials to match your outfits. Unlike some smart rings, it never bothered me at the gym, even when lifting weights, and it even fit my style when dressing up for a night out.

Battery life: In testing, the Fitbit Air lasted for just over eight full days on a charge. That's much longer than most devices with screens, and it lets you comfortably schedule a time to put it on the charger once a week.

Health tracking: During the night, the Fitbit Air accurately tracked my sleep and assessed its duration and quality, providing a sleep score. During the day, it reliably tracks numerous activities or exercises, offering accurate heart rate readings. It also provides a helpful Daily Readiness Score, indicating how hard you should push in a day, and Cardio Load as a weekly activity threshold to aim for.

Guidance: While the aforementioned health-tracking features are available for free, a premium membership provides access to the Google Health Coach. This responsive, AI-powered coach offers workout classes and provides in-depth guidance tailored to your needs and goals. In testing, I found the Health Coach extremely responsive and adaptable to changing circumstances.

Those wanting less screen time: Other Fitbit models on this list use the same sensors and Google Health app, but the Fitbit Air is the only one without a screen. Go with the Fitbit Air if you want a device to track your health without having an extra dashboard to compulsively check.

Fitness beginners: The Air won't break the bank, so it's an excellent pick for those picking up a fitness tracker for the first time. The premium Google Health Coach learns your goals and schedule, and takes the guesswork out of building a fitness plan. You might not need this feature if you're already in shape, but if you're looking for guidance on your movement journey, the Health Coach is the best AI for the job right now.

Android and iOS users: The Air works with both smartphone platforms via the Google Health app.

Those who want a screen: Be sure you're ready for a screen-free device before buying the Fitbit Air. If you'll miss the apps, the notifications, or even the ability to check your workout stats with a quick glance, stick with a wearable that has a display.

Advanced runners: The Fitbit Air doesn't track running form metrics like cadence and stride length, so if you're looking to fine-tune your trot, many other wearables offer more details. Plus, if you're already an avid runner, you likely don't need guidance from the Google Health Coach.

Design: The Charge 6 won't overwhelm your wrist, but it's big enough to easily read the 450-nit always-on color touch screen most of the time. If you have trouble seeing the display, you can enable the Magnify setting to zoom in with a triple tap. The controls are simple and intuitive, and a slight protrusion makes the side button easy to access even when wearing gloves.

Battery life: While not as long-lasting as devices without a screen, the Charge 6 delivered three days of power in testing with the always-on display enabled. That's still a day longer than most smartwatches, and affords you the flexibility to travel for a weekend without bringing your charger.

Exercise tracking: The Charge 6 offers 40 sports profiles, including surfing, skiing, CrossFit, and HIIT, and it'll automatically track common exercises like running, swimming, and walking. During workouts, it tracks heart rate with reasonable accuracy, and even lets you send your real-time pulse readings to compatible smart home gym equipment.

Sleep tracking: At night, the Charge 6 tracks your breathing rate, heart rate variability (HRV, a measure of your nervous system activity), resting heart rate, skin temperature variation (whether you were hotter or colder compared with your baseline), and SpO2. It gauges the amount and quality of your rest, and lets you know if it senses anything unusual, such as a high or low heart rate.

Anyone interested in improving their health: With tons of tools for monitoring your activity and health, key lifestyle features, and a fantastic companion app, the Charge 6 is one of the best standalone fitness trackers.

Android and iOS users: The Charge 6 is compatible with most phones running at least Android 11.0 or iOS 16.4 via the Google Health app (formerly the Fitbit app).

App lovers: The Charge 6 features several Google lifestyle apps, including Google Maps, Google Wallet (which replaces Fitbit Pay), and YouTube Music, but it doesn't have the same robust, third-party app support as a smartwatch.

Accuracy hawks: While the heart rate readings from the Charge 6 are accurate enough for most purposes, they aren't as precise as those from more recent trackers and can occasionally lag during large spikes in intensity.

Design: The Apple Watch Series 12 comes in 42mm and 46mm case sizes, in aluminum, titanium, or ceramic, with each material offering its own color options. You can also choose from numerous watch bands in various materials, styles, and colors. In other words, you can really customize the look of the Series 12 to suit your preferences. The always-on OLED retina display reaches up to 2,000 nits of adaptive brightness, and the aluminum model has a durable Ceramic Shield over the screen for protection.

Battery life: While not as long-lasting as the fitness-focused trackers on this list, the Series 12 offers impressive battery life for a smartwatch that's loaded with apps and lifestyle features. In testing, it lasted 54.5 hours on a charge, well beyond the company's 24-hour estimate and the Series 11 (43 hours tested).

Health tracking: The Series 12 has a brand-new health-sensing system that takes heart rate readings much more frequently throughout the day than the Series 11. This enables more detail in various health-tracking apps, such as Heart Rate and Vitals. It now also shows a Readiness Score as a guide to how hard to push your workout for the day, in addition to its existing Sleep Score. It also reliably tracks your activity, body temperature fluctuations, fertility windows, heart rate, menstrual cycle, overnight respiration, sleep patterns, and more.

Safety features: The new health-sensing system in the Series 12 can update the Vitals app during the day if it detects increased stress or signs of illness. The Series 12 can even alert you to high or low heart rate, irregular heart rhythm, and loud sounds that can damage your hearing. It also supports Emergency SOS and international emergency calling, as well as automatic calls for help if it detects a hard fall or a car crash.

iPhone users: The Apple Watch Series 12 is ideal for iPhone users seeking a capable fitness tracker. It requires an iPhone 11 or later with iOS 27, so it's not an option if you use Android.

Runners, swimmers, and cyclists: The Series 12's wrist-based running power measurements can help you gauge your effort in real time, a WR50 rating makes it safe for shallow-water activities like swimming in a pool or the ocean, and automatic bike ride detection ensures you never lose credit for an outdoor cycle workout.

Android users: The Apple Watch Series 12 is not compatible with Android phones. Check out any of the Android-compatible models on this list if that's your preferred phone platform.

Outdoor adventurers: The Series 12 offers IP6X dust resistance and 164 feet of water resistance, but if you need an extra-rugged model for extreme sports like jet skiing, mountain biking, off-grid hiking, or scuba diving, check out the Apple Watch Ultra 4.

Design: I find the curved display and domed glass on the Pixel Watch 5 striking, and Google has watch faces with graphics that bend around the edges to help accentuate the unique look. The Actua 360 display is AMOLED LTPO with DCI-P3 color, measuring 1.27 inches on the smaller watch and 1.46 inches on the larger model. The screen reaches up to 3,000 nits of brightness that adjusts based on ambient light. The aerospace-grade aluminum case has an IP68 weather resistance rating and can be submerged up to 164 feet.

Battery life: In testing, the larger Pixel Watch 5 lasted 56.5 hours on a charge with typical usage. That's an excellent result for a flagship smartwatch loaded with AI, apps, and other lifestyle features. The Pixel Watch 5 also recharges quickly, returning from 5% to full in roughly 45 minutes.

Health tracking: The Google Health app shows a Daily Readiness Score to guide your workout intensity, and a Cardio Load for a rolling seven-day breakdown of your exertion. The watch monitors your blood pressure and insulin resistance trends for signs of trouble and warns you when to talk to a doctor. During exercise, the Pixel Watch 5 accurately tracks heart rate and provides detailed running-form metrics like stride length. During sleep, it reliably monitors the duration and quality of your rest, as well as your breathing and its effect on your blood oxygen levels.

Fitness planning: The premium Google Health Coach creates a workout schedule for you based on your goals and preferences, and can update your plan on the fly if circumstances change. You can even have it create a strength training or HIIT workout based on the muscles you want to target or the weights you have on hand. You can also log a workout just by taking a picture of a whiteboard with your listed sets.

Android users: With cutting-edge fitness and health-tracking tools plus AI-generated advice, the Pixel Watch 5 is the best Android-compatible smartwatch I've tested. It's exclusive to devices running Android 12.0 or newer, and pairing it with a Google Pixel phone specifically enables access to AI-based features like proactive notifications.

Fitbit fans: The Pixel Watch 5 offers access to Fitbit's robust suite of health sensing tech. A Readiness Score lets you know how much to push it on a given day, and Cardio Load provides a weekly benchmark that updates as you exercise so you can see how close you are to hitting your goal.

Fitness beginners: If you're trying to turn over a new leaf in your health and fitness, the premium AI-powered Health Coach will be an incredible aid. It can keep you motivated by adapting its schedule to your needs and desires. It's responsive and encouraging, and makes it incredibly easy to log activities and even calories, so it has the information it needs to offer detailed advice.

iPhone users: The Pixel Watch 5 is exclusive to Android phones, but other Fitbit devices like the Air and the Charge 6 also work across smartphone platforms.

Accident-prone individuals: The curved glass and rounded display don't offer much peace of mind if you tend to be rough on gadgets. The Pixel Watch 5 has held up well in testing and is fully repairable, but if that's not enough reassurance, you can find plenty of other smartwatches with a flat display.

Value: The Fitbit Inspire 3 starts at $99.95, and you can almost always find it for less than that price. The design is thin, comfortable, and durable enough to be submerged to a depth of 164 feet. The AMOLED touch display is bright, responsive, and easy to read in most lighting conditions. It also offers most of its health insights for free, so it's an excellent buy if looking for an affordable tracker with a screen.

Battery life: With the always-on display enabled, the Inspire 3 lasted for three days in testing, but that number jumps to eight days with the always-on display option disabled. That's an impressive battery life result for a device with a screen. Being able to go a week without charging is a nice perk.

Exercise tracking: For fitness and health tracking, the Inspire 3 features an accelerometer, an optical heart rate monitor, and red/infrared sensors for overnight blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements. It tracks a wide range of activities and exercises with reasonable accuracy, especially for the price.

Sleep tracking: While you sleep, the Inspire 3 monitors overnight health metrics, including breathing rate, heart rate variability (HRV), skin temperature, SpO2, and resting heart rate (RHR). It calculates a nightly sleep score based on the quality of your sleep, and offers tips to help improve your shuteye over time.

Newbies: The Fitbit Inspire 3 is a top choice for fitness beginners just starting on a path to better health, as well as for those on a budget. The main limitation is the lack of a built-in GPS, so it must connect to your phone to accurately track your pace and distance during outdoor walks, runs, hikes, and bike rides.

Android and iOS users: The Inspire 3 works with both major smartphone platforms via the Google Health app.

Farsighted individuals: The display on the Inspire 3 is small, and you can't adjust the font size. If you have trouble reading small text, look for a device with a bigger screen.

Avid exercisers: The Inspire 3 doesn't support on-demand SpO2 readings, it can't track your form while running, and its heart rate readings lack the precision of more premium devices. If you need highly accurate and detailed data that goes beyond the basics, look elsewhere.

Design: With a slim and lightweight build, the Garmin Lily 2 is a lot more chic than a traditional fitness tracker and much more comfortable than a bulky sports watch. You can pick from multiple interchangeable bands and easily swap between them if you buy more than one. The durable frame is less than 0.4 inches thick, so it fits well under long-sleeve shirts.

Battery life: The Garmin Lily 2 lasted over five days on a charge in testing, which is an excellent result for a device with a screen.

Fitness tracking: You can track a wide range of activities, exercises, and sports with the Lily 2, including biking, cardio, dance fitness, elliptical training, Pilates, pool swimming, running, stair stepping, strength training, treadmill running, walking, and yoga. In testing, its heart rate readings proved accurate during workouts.

Sleep tracking: During the night, the Lily 2 keeps track of your sleep duration, the amount of time you spend in each sleep stage (awake/restless, deep, light, and REM), as well as your resting heart rate, stress, Pulse Ox (blood oxygen saturation), and respiration rate. It grades the quality of your rest with a sleep score, and its metrics proved accurate in testing.

Women: If you want a female-friendly fitness tracker that seamlessly transitions from workout classes to fancy dinners, the Garmin Lily 2 is a top choice. This aesthetically pleasing wellness wearable is much more comfortable for small wrists than a bulky sports watch.

Newbies: The Lily 2 offers activity profiles for all the basics, from dance fitness to pool swimming to yoga. It reliably tracks your calories burned, heart rate, sleep, steps taken, SpO2, and more to help you stay motivated and lead a healthy lifestyle. Just keep in mind it lacks an integrated GPS, so you have to carry your phone to record your distance, pace, stride length, and running route during outdoor workouts. Moreover, it doesn't sync to gym equipment, so if you want to track your real-time pulse on your Peloton screen, you'll need a separate heart rate monitor.

Android and iOS users: The Lily 2 works with both major smartphone platforms via the Garmin Connect app.

Men: This watch is designed specifically for women, with a small, feminine design that isn't ideal for large wrists. That said, to heck with gender norms. If you're a guy and you want to wear this watch, go ahead.

Serious runners: Without GPS on the watch itself, you have to carry your phone while you run to accurately record your distance, pace, stride length, and route. Plus, it lacks the detailed running-form metrics of some other models on this list, such as vertical oscillation and ground contact time.

Design: The Garmin Venu Sq 2 features a 40mm case with an aluminum bezel and a matching textured silicone band. The standard model is available in dark gray, mint, or white (with a gold-tone bezel). It features a bright and colorful 1.41-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 320 by 360 pixels. The responsive touch screen is easy to read, and the Sq 2 offers water resistance down to 164 feet.

Battery life: In testing, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 lasted 8 days on a charge, powering through a weeklong vacation. While it might not have the app support of lifestyle-oriented smartwatches, its battery life is stellar for a model with a large touch screen.

Exercise tracking: The Venu Sq 2 offers more than 25 built-in indoor and GPS activity profiles for tracking your workouts. While tracking a workout, the watch displays a timer, your heart rate and heart rate zone, and other activity-specific metrics, such as real-time stroke rate while rowing. Its heart rate readings were generally accurate in testing, and on an outdoor walk or run of 15 minutes or longer, it can calculate your VO2 Max, a key measure of your cardiovascular fitness level.

Sleep tracking: The Venu Sq 2 is one of the best options for sleep tracking in the Garmin smartwatch lineup due to its svelte design and weight. Its sleep metrics are generally accurate, and it scores the quality of your rest based on duration, average overnight stress score, and time spent in each sleep stage.

On-the-go fitness enthusiasts: If you're looking for a fitness-focused smartwatch with long battery life, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 is worth checking out. It can easily go a week or more without charging.

Android and iOS users: The Venu Sq 2 works with both major smartphone platforms via the Garmin Connect app.

App lovers: As a Garmin watch, the Venu Sq 2 has access to the Connect IQ store, letting you download a variety of apps. While somewhat robust in health and fitness tools, the selection still pales in comparison with what you can get on an Apple Watch or Android watch.

Climbers: The Venu Sq 2 cannot track floors climbed, so it's missing a few related activity profiles available on the round Venu 2 series, including bouldering, indoor climbing, and hiking.

Design: The fifth-gen Oura Ring is so thin that I often forgot I was wearing it during testing, and its elegant, stylish design always caught my eye when I looked down. At a glance, it looks like ordinary jewelry, and it adds some panache to a fancy outfit. The titanium ring comes in a range of sizes and finishes and is durable enough to withstand dust and submersion to 328 feet.

Battery life: Despite its incredibly thin frame, the Oura Ring 5 still packs an impressive amount of battery life. It lasted for 10.5 days in testing under ordinary usage. That's near the top of this list for longevity and enables round-the-clock holistic health tracking, since you rarely need to take the ring off your finger.

Health tracking: The Oura Ring 5 can track 40 different types of exercises, movement throughout the day, sleep duration and stages, and stress levels. New to this generation, the Oura Ring 5 tracks overnight blood pressure patterns and long-term sleep trends. It's also a step ahead of the pack in women's health with cycle insights, fertile window estimates, and pregnancy insights.

The app: The ring's polished companion app charts metrics like cardiovascular age, sleep regularity, and more over time, making it easy to spot trends. The well-organized app is my favorite platform for monitoring sleep and stress; data is understandable at a glance and easy to search. The app even offers helpful tips for improving your health.

Comfort seekers: Thanks to its thin, unobtrusive design, the Oura Ring 5 is a more comfortable alternative to wrist-based trackers. With over 10 days of battery life and an excellent companion app (available on Android and iOS), it's the best finger-based fitness tracker we've tested.

Style mavens: If you want a fitness tracker that doesn't look like one, the Oura Ring 5 is a top pick. It comes in a range of colors, including black, silver, and gold, to suit different tastes.

Those looking to stress less and sleep better: The Oura Ring 5 offers a range of useful health insights and recommendations, making it a top choice if you need help reducing stress and improving your sleep. The Oura Ring 5 supports basic exercise tracking, but it's not as detailed as many wrist-based options. For holistic health monitoring, however, the Oura Ring 5 is tough to beat.

Women: Cycle insights, fertile window estimates, and pregnancy tracking make this finger-based tracker a top choice for women. You can even pair it with the Natural Cycles birth control app to track your daily fertility status via your body temperature.

Budget shoppers: While its excellent design makes the splurge seem reasonable, the Oura Ring 5 is the most expensive smart ring we've tested, and it all but requires that you pay a membership fee to get the most out of its companion app.

Weightlifters: Like any smart ring, the Oura Ring 5 gets in the way when clenching a fist around a heavy weight more than a wrist-based tracker. Plus, using it while lifting weights could scratch the finish.

Heart rate watchers: The Oura Ring app shows heart rate zones from tracked exercise, but not exact numbers. Wrist-based trackers still offer better exercise tracking overall than smart rings.

Design: Featuring a 1.6-inch AMOLED display and an aluminum case, the Fit3 is lightweight and comfortable enough to wear around the clock, and durable enough for submersion in water down to 164 feet.

Battery life: The Fit3's 208mAh battery powered through 4.5 days of testing with normal use and the always-on display enabled. That figure puts it well ahead of Samsung's smartwatches, and is enough for a long weekend of tracking without needing to charge.

Exercise tracking: The Fit3 packs quite a few sensors into its small frame, including an accelerometer, a barometer, a gyroscope, a light sensor, and an optical heart rate sensor. During workouts, it accurately captures heart rate data and keeps up reasonably well during spikes and dips in intensity. Between workouts, it measures time active and steps taken.

Sleep tracking: When you wear it to bed, the Fit3 records your sleep duration, sleep stages, blood oxygen levels, and (when paired with a Samsung phone) snoring. It offers a sleep score that assesses how restful and restorative your night was based on sleep time, physical recovery, restfulness, mental recovery, and sleep cycles. It charts sleep stages and blood oxygen, and grades all sleep score factors on a color-coded scale.

Newbies: Affordably priced and accurate for workout tracking, the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is the best entry-level fitness tracker for Android phone owners.

Samsung phone users: The Galaxy Fit3 is compatible with any phone running Android 10 or later with at least 1.5GB of memory, but it works best with Samsung phones. When paired with a handset of the same brand, the devices can work together to monitor your snoring overnight.

Runners: The Fit3 doesn't have built-in GPS or track advanced running form metrics like ground contact time and stride length. It's a capable basic tracker, but you'll need a different device for deeper insights.

Galaxy AI fans: If you've read about recent features enabled by Samsung's AI, like Energy Score, Fitness Index, and Cardio Load, this is, unfortunately, not a way to access them. The Fit3 doesn't support any of Samsung's AI features.

Design: The Apple Watch SE 3 has a smaller display than the Series 12, but its screen is sharp and vibrant. Its design is attractive, elegant, and modern, featuring a squared case with rounded corners, a ridged Digital Crown and a side button, and a sapphire crystal back cover. It doesn't have a dust-resistance rating, but it can be submerged to a depth of 164 feet.

Battery Life: Given its generous lifestyle feature set, the SE 3 has impressive battery life. It lasted for 46 hours in testing under normal use with the always-on display enabled. During that time, I used the GPS for two different workouts, sent texts, downloaded apps, and regularly checked my activity and sleep stats.

Exercise tracking: The SE 3 accurately tracks heart rate and advanced running metrics, including power, vertical oscillation, ground contact time, and stride length. You can manually start tracking an activity on the SE 3 through the Workout app, and for common exercises like walking, it will automatically start a session after five to 10 minutes of motion. The AI-enabled Workout Buddy is on hand to offer words of encouragement and stat updates during certain exercises.

Sleep tracking: The SE 3 monitors your total time asleep, duration spent in each sleep stage, overnight resting heart rate and respiration, and even checks for sleep apnea. It collects this data in a holistic Sleep Score. Time asleep, time in each cycle, and the associated charts proved accurate in testing.

Budget shoppers: The Apple Watch SE 3 is an excellent choice for its target audience of first-time smartwatch users, budget shoppers, children, teens, and older adults. Thanks to its always-on display, it offers a very similar experience to the Series 12 for a significantly lower price.

Children and older family members: The SE 3 is compatible with Apple Watch For Your Kids (formerly called Family Setup), which lets you set up and manage an Apple Watch for a family member without an iPhone.

Those concerned with heart health: The SE 3 can't take an ECG or monitor for hypertension like Apple's flagship smartwatches. It also lacks the redesigned health-sensing system that captures heart rate data every 5 seconds on the Series 12 and Ultra 4.

Bezel haters: While I mostly like the look of the SE 3's display, its thick black bezel is a telltale sign that it is a budget-friendly model.

Android users: Like other Apple Watch models, the SE 3 does not work with Android handsets.

Design: The Garmin Vivoactive 5 features a 1.2-inch AMOLED touch screen with a resolution of 390 by 390 pixels. Colors and images are vibrant across a variety of lighting conditions, and the touch screen responds seamlessly to input. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 covers the face for added durability, and the watch has a 5ATM water resistance rating. It's available in four color choices, with a body made of anodized aluminum.

Battery life: Under normal use with roughly two to three workouts per week with GPS, the Garmin Vivoactive 5 lasted for eight days between charges. That's an impressive result, nearly matching the Venu Sq 2 for longest battery life on this list.

Health tracking: The Vivoactive 5 has an accelerometer, a compass, a GPS with GLONASS and Galileo satellite systems, a heart rate monitor, and a pulse oximeter that gauges blood oxygen saturation (SpO2). It tracks your calories burned, distance traveled, intensity minutes, menstruation cycles, respiration, sleep, steps, stress level, and more. It considers all that info when calculating your Body Battery energy-level approximation, which updates dynamically throughout the day. It also offers accurate exercise and sleep tracking.

Music storage: With the Vivoactive 5, you can download offline playlists from supported third-party music streaming services, including Amazon Music, Deezer, and Spotify. You can also transfer your own MP3 files using a desktop application.

Garmin loyalists: The Vivoactive 5 is the choice for you if you want the detailed fitness tracking and long battery life Garmin is known for, plus key lifestyle features. It works with both Android and iOS phones via the Garmin Connect app.

Music lovers: You can download .mp3 files directly to the Vivoactive 5, then play music through the watch with Bluetooth headphones, even without your phone in tow. With that plus integrated GPS and nap detection, the Vivoactive 5 offers more versatility than the more affordable trackers on this list, for a still-reasonable price.

App lovers: Like other Garmin models, the Vivoactive 5 is limited to the company's proprietary app store, which doesn't offer the breadth of options found on watchOS or Wear OS.

Climbers: With no barometric altimeter, the Vivoactive 5 can't measure stairs climbed or other climbing-specific exercises.

Design: The Pacer Pro is slim and light enough to wear all day and to bed without discomfort. It measures about 1.8 inches in diameter, 0.47 inches thick, and weighs around 1.4 ounces. It's safe to wear while swimming thanks to its WR50 water resistance rating.

Battery life: In testing, the Pacer Pro's 265mAh battery lasted up to seven days on a single charge with continuous heart rate tracking enabled. You can safely schedule time to plug in your watch once a week.

Tracking runs: When you run with the Pacer Pro, it accurately tracks your duration, distance, estimated calories burned, pace, altitude, cadence (steps per minute), power (measured in Watts), and heart rate. The wrist-based power meter lets you seamlessly monitor your real-time output, a useful metric for sprints, short intervals, and hilly terrain.

Assessing runs: For every run longer than 12 minutes, the Pacer Pro calculates your Running Index, an estimation of your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2Max), a score that helps you gauge the efficiency of your training, assess your performance compared with others, and track your progress over time. The Flow app also offers Training Load Pro insights to help you understand how the workout strained your cardiovascular system and muscles. 

Race trainees: If you want to run faster or have another goal in mind, such as running a six-minute mile or completing a 5K in under 30 minutes, the Polar Pacer Pro is a worthy training companion. It works with both Android and iOS phones via the Polar Flow app, or you can set it up on your computer using the Polar FlowSync data transfer software.

Running enthusiasts: With excellent GPS performance, wrist-based running power measurements, and Hill Splitter ascent and descent tracking, the Polar Pacer Pro is ideal for advanced runners. We also appreciate its Komoot turn-by-turn route guidance for outdoor training.

Fans of touch screen: The Pacer Pro has a somewhat dull display with no touch controls.

Fitness beginners: The big advantage of the Pacer Pro comes from its detailed running metrics. If you're just starting a fitness plan, you likely don't need this level of detail, and many other models on this list offer basic heart rate tracking.

Design: The Fitbit Ace 3 comprises a simple black tracker that fits into a removable and colorful silicone strap. The strap comes in several cartoon-like color schemes, including a special Minions edition. In testing, the Ace 3 was comfortable enough for both kids and adults to wear throughout the day and night with no complaints.

Battery life: The Fitbit Ace 3 lasted for six days between charges with moderate use and takes about two hours to recharge. Plan to charge it roughly twice a week to be safe.

Activity tracking: The Fitbit Ace 3 can monitor most types of kid-level movement, such as hopping, stepping, and jumping. In testing, it accurately tracked step counts when compared with two other adult smartwatches. The Ace 3 has enough memory to store minute-by-minute activity statistics for seven days, and daily totals for up to 30 days, and you can view stats in the mobile app.

Sleep tracking: The Ace 3 monitors basic sleep stats and has proven to be anecdotally accurate. It even spotted a few wake-ups in the middle of the night that our tester didn't notice.

Kids ages 6 to 12: If you want to ensure your child gets adequate activity during the day and enough sleep at night, the Fitbit Ace 3 is a reliable pick that won't break the bank.

Android and iOS users: The Ace 3 works with both major smartphone platforms via the Google Health app (formerly the Fitbit app). Keep in mind that a Google account is required to use the Google Health app. To set up this tracker, you'll need to create a Google family group and add a child account.

Location trackers: The Fitbit Ace 3 doesn't offer location or GPS tracking. If you're a parent wanting updates on your child's whereabouts, look elsewhere. The Ace LTE has this functionality.

Data seekers: While it tracks basic activities, the Ace 3 doesn't actually measure specific heart rate values. If you want a device with this capability, look to other trackers on this list.