Smartwatches have started becoming one of the essential gadgets of the year. Smartwatches are a superpower for every Android and iOS phone and are available for every budget.
We have become one with technology and the way it affects us has changed a lot. Mobile phones earlier used to be devices which were used to make phone calls alone, and now it has become our go to device for all entertainment purposes.
Recently the same has happened with Smartwatches too. Previously it was phones who got into what was television or laptop territory, and now they have a new competitor. Smartwatch.
Smartwatches can be thought of as an extension of a mobile phone, and some times becomes a mobile in itself. You can attend phone calls, ask questions to it, play music from it, ask it for all your activities, notifications and a million other things. Some watches have become independent and don't need the mobile counterparts even, and can make calls even without a mobile phone.
So which are the best of those?
Best Smartwatches
These are the best smartwatches for men:
- Apple Watch Series 5
- Samsung Galaxy Watch
- Fossil Gen 5
- Amazfit Verge IP69 SmartWatch
- Fitbit Versa Health and Fitness Smartwatch
Apple Watch Series 5
An absolutely brilliant piece of engineering.
Buy from AmazonOperating system: watchOS 6
Compatiblity: iOS
Processor: S2 dual-core
Display: 1.53" OLED retina display
Battery Life: 18 hours
Storage: 8GB
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, cellular
If you ask us to pick the best watch, we would without a second thought, pick Apple Watch Series 5. The watch is a technological marvel with each feature built to perfection.
Apple Watch 5 is a technological marvel featuring even cellular connectivity. This means that you can forget your phone at home, and yet keep in touch with all your friends. And Apple has added an always on retina display, which God knows how stays alive for 18 hours.
If you ask us what our favourite feature on Apple Watch Series 5 is, surprisingly, it is not the ECG or fall detection. It is how it dispells water from the speaker.
Look at the perfection and thought that has gone into the smallest of things. This is how perfect things are. Let's look into the rest of the cool stuff that Apple provides with its watch.
When most of the watches turn off its display to save charge, Apple said, we don't care about that. We will come up with some new technology that uses little power and they've gone and done that. Apple watch has an always on Retina display so that you can always see the time and the cool watch face you have set up.
The watch cares greatly about your health and has a list of apps to take care of your health. It even has an app to take care of your heart. Thinking of it, it's crazy how a device that is strapped onto your wrist can know so much about your heart and its health and it will let you know if something is wrong even before you know.
The Apple Watch can take your ECG. It helps you to know if your heart rhythm shows signs of atrial fibrillation. According to MayoClinic, Atrial fibrillation is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that occurs when the two upper chambers of your heart experience chaotic electrical signals.
Atrial fibrillation means something is wrong with your heart and Apple watch alerting you means you can seek medical help before it's too late. If the sounds are getting loud, Apple watch will let you know that it's harmful for your ears and the Decibel levels are too high. Having an Apple Watch is sort of like a guardian angel who knows a thing or two about being a doctor.
And for the ladies out there, Apple watch has a menstrual cycle tracking app. It makes it easy to log your menstrual cycle so that it doesn't surprise you.
The watch features even maps and compass so wherever you are, you can always return home. Hansel and Gretel should have had bought one.
It also has a feature where if you fall down hard, and you don't respond within 60 seconds, the watch makes a call to emergency services with your location. And it has saveda few lives.
The watch has other features such as tracking your progress when you workout and inspiring you to workout more. It tells you which all days you worked out and on which all days you didn't and what all you needs to do. It also lets you know what your friends are doing so that you can compete with them.
Apple Watch also comes with the Music app and can be paired with your AirPods. That's a couple of million songs on watch. How crazy is that?
Apple Watch 5 is a technological marvel featuring even cellular connectivity. This means that you can forget your phone at home, and yet keep in touch with all your friends. And Apple has added an always on retina display, which God knows how stays alive for 18 hours.
The alloy used to make Apple Watch is 7000 series aerospace-grade aluminium which is very lightweight. Hard to believe a watch so powerful is so lightweight. Apple watch also features a series of straps which you can customise and choose from.
And this is the masterpiece feature, it tells the time, on top of everything we listed above. We are so much in love.
Samsung Galaxy Watch
One hell of a watch created just to rival Apple.
Buy from AmazonWatch OS: Tizen OS 4.0
Compatiblity: Android, iOS
Processor: Samsung Exynos 9110
Display: 1.3" Super AMOLED, Gorilla Glass
Battery Life: 3 days
Storage: 4GB
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, cellular
If you don't have an iPhone, it doesn't make much sense to own an Apple Watch. For those of you who are fans of Android, Samsung has presented the Samsung Galaxy Watch. A watch brilliant in every way and near perfect for daily use.
Samsung Galaxy watch has a lot of tricks up it sleeves. When most of the watches of today need a phone to utilise its full power, Galaxy Watch doesn't care if there's a phone around or not. It has LTE support so that it can stay connected and be on the grid in the most remotest of places.
The watch resembles more of a normal watch rather than something fancy and we loved its design. When Apple went with a square face, Samsung went with the traditional circular face which we are used to seeing.
Samsung watches are far from what Apple provides and gives the feel of authentic watches by having a wariety of faces with depth and lighting effect. To add even more authenticity, Samsung Galaxy watch even makes a ticking sound. That's something small, but something so thoughtful.
Samsung Galaxy watch also can play music and be with you wirelessly giving you almost all the features your phone provides such as sending message, picking up a call and so on. You can pair your wireless earbuds with the watch and listen to music all day long.
Speaking of listening to music all day long, Samsung Galaxy watch has a long battery life. This battery in the phone can last for a day or more.
Samsung Galaxy Watch also tracks your activities. It knows if you're running or swimming or cycling and it will calculate the amount of exercise you did so that you don't have to keep track. This helps in doing more exercise with less planning. It also counts your heart beats and calories and tries to keep you healthy.
The watch vibrates to give you a nudge if you have been doing nothing for a really long time. Sleep tracking is also built into the app to help you track your sleep. It also monitors your stress levels and guides you through breathing exercises to keep you calm and more relaxed.
The assistant in Samsung Galaxy Watch, Brixby unlike the Apple counterpart, is well there is no other way to put this, terrible. It doesn't understand half the things you try to tell it.
Overall this is a great watch with a ton of features. It has a wireless charging dock which is nice and has two buttons which are offset on the side of the watch to prevent accidental presses.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch also like its Apple counterpart puts extreme care in the health department. The watch vibrates to give you a nudge if you have been doing nothing for a really long time. Sleep tracking is also built into the app to help you track your sleep.
The assistant in Samsung Galaxy Watch, Brixby unlike the Apple counterpart, is well there is no other way to put this, terrible. It doesn't understand half the things you try to tell it and doesn't does things properly. We would have prefered Google's assistant instead on the watch.
Overall this is a great watch with a ton of features. It has a wireless charging dock which is nice and has two buttons which are offset on the side of the watch to prevent accidental presses.
Fossil Gen 5
The best looking watch.
Buy from AmazonWatch OS: Wear OS
Compatiblity: Android, iOS
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100
Display: 1.28in AMOLED
Battery Life: 2 days
Storage: 8GB
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC
This is a watch made by a watchmaker rather than a tech company. They've always been making watches and they know what to put in a watch, and they've done it quiet brilliantly.
Paired with Ok Google, the watch is perfect for every Android user out there and can also be paired with Apple. The watchmaking abilities of Fossil has seaped into the manufacturing of the watch and this is brilliant.
The watch uses Wear OS by Google. Wear OS is an operating system made by Google to be used on smart watches and it works perfectly. We love the UI and the fact that it has a ton of apps and watch faces to be paired with your watch.
With Ok Google, all you have to say is Ok Google, set up a meeting for me at 6pm and that's it. The watch sets a meeting. You don't have to move your finger all across the screen and type the time or anything.
The watch lets you access Gmail, messages and phone apps which are on the phone without having to take the phone. It gives all notifications and easy access to most of the features on the phone without having to put your hand into your pocket and pick and look on the screen.
The watch also features a ton of features which are on Apple and Samsung smartwatches. Tons of apps such as Strava, Runtastic and Fit to keep you healthy and running. It also features Spotify and Google Play Music to listen to music, without having to put your hand in the pocket.
The watch is waterproof so that incase you decide to go for a swim wearing the watch you don't have to worry about your watch stopping working. The watch also helps in tracking how much calorie you burn while swimmin or doing any task for that matter.
The watch tracks your heart rate for you to give you a nudge if something's wrong with your overall health.
The battery life of the watch is great and it doesn't feel laggy at all. At no point does it feel slow thanks to its 1GB of RAM. The performance is at par with Apple Watch. Wear OS also feel great to use and is easy to play around. The watch is lightweight and feels great.
Amazfit Verge IP69 Smartwatch
Great watch for fitness enthusiasts.
Buy from AmazonWatch OS: Proprietary OS
Compatiblity: Android, iOS
Processor: 1.2GHz Dual Core
Display: 1.3in AMOLED
Battery Life: 2 days
Storage: 4GB
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC
You might not have heard of Amazfit and you might be wondering why you should buy a watch from some unheard company. That's because though it's unheard, it is huge. Amazfit is Huami's consumer-facing brand, and Huami works with Xiaomi to make Mi brand fitness bands.
The battery in the watch lasts for around five days with normal use, but with GPS enabled it will last only one. It is a great watch with a lot of watch faces and pairing it with an Android phone is a breeze.
You can't take phone calls on the watch as it doesn't feature a mic, but still I don't think a lot of people use a watch to take phone calls. Overall this is a great watch and has a lot of onboard sensors that tracks all your movements for the fitness enthusiast in you.
Fitbit Versa Health and Fitness Smartwatch
The name health and fitness smartwatch tells it all.
Buy from AmazonWatch OS: Fitbit OS
Compatiblity: Android, iOS
Processor: Dual-core 1.0GHz
Display: TBC
Battery Life: 3-4 days
Storage: 2.5GB
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC
The watch, is it a circle? no. Is it a square? No. Then what shape is it? It's called squircle. The face of the watch is a morph of a square and a circular shape and we feel it looks great. There is great amount of area for touch and the OS is smooth.
The watch has Alexa built into it for voice automation and Alexa feels pretty nice inside a watch. It can store more than 300 songs and can control spotify from the watch. This is a watch mostly meant for fitness enthusiasts. It tracks your REM sleep cycles and calorie burn. It helps you to have better workout session, tracking your heart rate while you rest and you work out.
A guide to picking the best Smartwatch
Smartwatches are extensions of mobile phones. Even though smartwatches today has 4G connection and all, they can't do much of their own. Though the functionality is limited, they're great for daily use.
To start with, you don't have to put your hand in your pocket and pull out your phone for every small task that comes your way. This comes with another added advantage that you don't have to waste battery turning on the screen of your phone either. Pretty cool huh?
Operating System
The main operating systems that are available for smartwatches are Wear OS, Apple Watch OS, Tyzen OS, Fitbit OS and Garmin OS. These are manufactured by the major smart watch makers.
Wear OS
Wear OS is made by Android. These work seamlessly with Android phones since they're made with Android phones in mind.
Wear OS comes with support for OK Google and runs on some of the major brands such as Fossil and LG. Wear OS is not exactly the perfect OS and most of the manufacturers tend to make their own OS as opposed to using Wear OS
Apple WatchOS
This is the most successful OS in watches. Apple Watches dominate the smartphone market and account for around 40% of the entire market. This makes Watch OS very successful.
Watch OS allows running apps on it and has a large amount of apps on the App Store. It supports push notifications, voice calls and a ton of features.
Fitbit OS
Fitbit used to make only fitness trackers, and then they ventured into wearables. The best part is they came with their own OS. The OS can connect to all the latest operating systems with any devices such as iOS and Android.
The app marketplace is pretty limited, but don't let that deter you. Overall this is a good OS and watch.
Garmin OS
Garmin OS is also like Fitbit used to make only fitness trackers and they've ventured into making smartphones and they've made excellent progress. This is also a good OS and works exceptionally with all the latest smartphones.
Tizen OS
Tizen is an open source operating system. This means this doesn't work under a single company and is contributed to by a large number of developers across the world.
The OS can run standalone apps which is available on the Tizen app store.
There used to be other operating systems such as Pebble OS, which no longer exists.
Display
Smartwatches come with two types of display, OLED and LCD.
LCD
Most smartwatches use LCD or AMOLED display and are brighter than OLED. LCD watches use a lot of power and are not very efficient, but on the other hand they're cheaper compared to OLED displays.
OLED
OLED displays are costlier than LCD displays and are used in more expensive watches. They're thinner and was used by Apple on their first Apple watch. They're also used in Samsung Galaxy watch.
Prefer OLED displays over LCD display since they're thinner and require little power in comparison to LCD.
Fitness features
Most of the watches offer a large number of features to track your fitness. Apple Watch offered the most features with even features to track your ECG.
Most Wear OS watches came with heart rate monitor built in, but the Apple watch is most reliable in this area.
Conclusion
These are the best smartwatches in the market now, and if you own an iPhone, we would strongly recommend you go for the Apple Watch otherwise the strongest contender is the Galaxy Watch.
