Best fitness bracelets 2022 | Articles | Gadgets, gifts and accessories

Mod­ern fit­ness track­ers can auto­mat­i­cal­ly deter­mine the type of sport, count the pulse and oxy­gen lev­els in the blood. Pho­to: wareable.com

Fit­ness track­ers have come a long way from sim­ple step-track­ing bracelets to mod­ern mod­els that can mon­i­tor every­thing from heart rate to how well you’ve recov­ered from a hard work­out. They have var­i­ous sen­sors, basic smart fea­tures and sup­port for many sports modes. In today’s arti­cle, we have col­lect­ed 6 mod­els that are wor­thy of your atten­tion in 2022.

How was it evaluated

To com­pile the rat­ing, we eval­u­at­ed fit­ness track­ers accord­ing to the fol­low­ing para­me­ters:

- Dis­play — the more, the more con­ve­nient it is to inter­act with the func­tions of the fit­ness bracelet.

- auton­o­my — The longer the device works on a sin­gle charge, the high­er the score. Eval­u­at­ed based on infor­ma­tion about the bat­tery capac­i­ty and the dura­tion of work with the max­i­mum num­ber of active func­tions.

- Built-in GPS — a fit­ness bracelet with built-in GPS will receive the high­est rat­ing. The pres­ence of a GPS mod­ule allows you to play sports with­out a smart­phone.

- Detach­able strap — in case of wear, you can change. If the bracelet is not remov­able, you will have to buy a new device.

- The weight — the lighter the gad­get, the less dis­com­fort it deliv­ers, espe­cial­ly dur­ing sleep.

We rat­ed the fit­ness bracelets rel­a­tive to oth­er mod­els on our list on a 5‑point scale for each cri­te­ri­on.

All mod­els in ques­tion can track major sports (run­ning, swim­ming, cycling), have basic smart fea­tures and mobile apps to access detailed infor­ma­tion.

Top fitness trackers

Prices are at the time of rank­ing.

FITBIT CHARGE 5

This is the most expen­sive mod­el in our selec­tion and the only one with a built-in GPS mod­ule. Pho­to: techradar.com

Features of FITBIT CHARGE 5:

• 1.04″ (14.7×21.9 mm) AMOLED col­or dis­play. Goril­la Glass 3 pro­tects the screen from scratch­es. Touch con­trol.
• In 3 days, the fit­ness track­er was dis­charged from 100 to 10% with the max­i­mum num­ber of func­tions used (bright­ness to max­i­mum, con­stant­ly active screen, vibra­tion, 3 work­outs, alarm clock, timer, sev­er­al bike rides, etc.). A mag­net­ic charg­er is used to replen­ish the bat­tery. A full charge takes 2 hours.
• Equipped with an accelerom­e­ter, a heart rate mon­i­tor, an EDA (elec­tro­der­mal activ­i­ty) sen­sor to deter­mine the lev­el of stress and track skin tem­per­a­ture, ECG.
• 20 sports modes — run­ning, cycling, swim­ming, yoga and oth­ers. The watch dis­plays 6 types of work­outs. The avail­able modes change in the appli­ca­tion (which is incon­ve­nient).
• Mea­sures heart rate, sat­u­ra­tion lev­el (blood oxy­gen sat­u­ra­tion or SpO2), skin tem­per­a­ture, tracks sleep and stress.
• Smart fea­tures — receive noti­fi­ca­tions with the abil­i­ty to read mes­sages (no answer), built-in NFC mod­ule, alarm clock, timer. Abil­i­ty to con­trol music. Third par­ty apps, no weath­er.
• There is built-in GPS, you can use loca­tion data from your smart­phone to save ener­gy and dynam­ic mode (auto­mat­ic switch­ing depend­ing on sig­nal qual­i­ty).
• A pro­pri­etary appli­ca­tion gives access only to the basic func­tions of the track­er. The paid ver­sion has a dai­ly readi­ness indi­ca­tor DRS (the track­er col­lects all the infor­ma­tion in under­stand­able blocks, for exam­ple, if you have a lack of sleep, it rec­om­mends skip­ping a work­out), a deep­er analy­sis of sleep indi­ca­tors, meal plan sup­port, a train­ing guide and much more.
• Sil­i­cone strap. Comes with an addi­tion­al wider bracelet. Straps from pre­vi­ous mod­els can­not be used. Avail­able col­ors: blue, plat­inum, black, white, gold.
• The fit­ness track­er weighs 28g and mea­sures 36.7 x 22.7 x 11.2mm.

The cost of the FITBIT CHARGE 5 smart bracelet is from 22,490 rubles.

FITBIT CHARGE 5 pros:

• good dis­play;
• many func­tions;
• accu­rate mea­sure­ment of heart rate;
• water­proof.

Cons of FITBIT CHARGE 5:

• expen­sive;
• no altime­ter (passed floors, ele­va­tion changes dur­ing train­ing are not con­sid­ered);
• does not record laps dur­ing work­outs (can be added after class man­u­al­ly in the appli­ca­tion);
• does not accu­rate­ly count steps (more than a few hun­dred).

Xiaomi Mi Band 6 NFC

Xiao­mi Mi Band 6 NFC is the light­est fit­ness bracelet. It is equipped with an NFC mod­ule. Pho­to: www.gsmarena.com

Peculiarities:

• A 1.56″ col­or touch­screen AMOLED dis­play with a res­o­lu­tion of 152x486 pix­els, a den­si­ty of 326ppi, an oleo­pho­bic coat­ing and pro­tec­tive glass Goril­la Glass 3+ is installed.
• Mi Band 6 NFC is pow­ered by a 125 mAh bat­tery. It lasts for a week with heart rate mea­sure­ments every 30 min­utes, noti­fi­ca­tions, about 50 time checks and sleep mon­i­tor­ing (no heart rate, no breath­ing track­ing). With­out mea­sur­ing the pulse — about 18 days of bat­tery life. Charg­ing with a pro­pri­etary mag­net­ic device from 5% to 100% takes about 2 hours.
• The bracelet is equipped with an opti­cal heart rate sen­sor, a 3‑axis accelerom­e­ter (for deter­min­ing accel­er­a­tion), geo­mag­net­ic (for deter­min­ing car­di­nal points).
• Pro­tect­ed from water up to 5ATM (you can take a show­er and swim in the pool).
• There is no built-in GPS, but the loca­tion can be deter­mined in con­junc­tion with a smart­phone.
• The fit­ness bracelet works with the Mi Fit app with var­i­ous set­tings (for exam­ple, you can change the order of work­outs) and detailed infor­ma­tion about sports and health.
• Xiao­mi Mi Band 6 sup­ports 30 sports modes, includ­ing bad­minton, yoga, exer­cise bike, danc­ing, jump­ing rope and oth­ers. Auto­mat­i­cal­ly rec­og­nizes 6 sports — cycling, walk­ing, out­door run­ning, tread­mill, ellip­ti­cal train­er, row­ing.
• Smart fea­tures — noti­fi­ca­tions, music con­trol, weath­er fore­cast, alarm clock, timer, stop­watch, find bracelet/find phone.
• The fit­ness track­er can count heart rate, steps, SpO2, eval­u­ates the dura­tion and qual­i­ty of sleep, stress lev­el, time need­ed to recov­er, there is a PAI met­ric for indi­vid­ual activ­i­ty.
• The strap is remov­able, com­pat­i­ble with Mi Band 5 bracelets, sev­er­al col­ors are avail­able (black, orange, blue, yel­low, ivory, olive).
• The Xiao­mi smart bracelet mea­sures 47.4 x 18.6 x 12.7mm and weighs 12.8g.

The cost of the Xiao­mi Mi smart Band 6 NFC fit­ness bracelet is from 3,350 rubles. There is a more afford­able ver­sion with­out NFC at a price of 2,850 rubles.

Pros of Mi Band 6:

• afford­able price;
• decent auton­o­my;
• large, col­or dis­play;
• Lots of sport modes, use­ful smart fea­tures, and health track­ing with accu­rate rest­ing heart rate read­ings.
• com­pact, light­weight, water­proof.

Cons of Mi Band 6:

• there is no built-in GPS, which may cause inac­cu­rate train­ing data;
• heart rate mea­sure­ment dur­ing high-inten­si­ty train­ing is incor­rect;
• incor­rect sleep track­ing (if you lie still, the bracelet con­sid­ers this time as a light sleep);
• no voice assis­tant sup­port out­side of Chi­na.

Garmin Vivosmart 4

The Garmin Vivos­mart 4 has an advanced app. This is the only mod­el with a non-remov­able strap. Pho­to: digitaltrends.com

Peculiarities:

• The screen is very nar­row (6.6 x 17.7 mm), which caus­es prob­lems with the choice of para­me­ters (with mov­ing around the inter­face, every­thing is in order) and the dis­play of text (it is not always ful­ly vis­i­ble).
• With heart rate mea­sure­ment and sleep track­ing, the bat­tery lasts 4–5 days. With the help of a brand­ed device, it is ful­ly charged in about an hour.
• Garmin Vivos­mart 4 is equipped with sen­sors for heart rate, light, Pulse Ox for SpO2 detec­tion, baro­met­ric altime­ter and accelerom­e­ter.
• Garmin Con­nect app with detailed sta­tis­tics, many set­tings (includ­ing removal and addi­tion of sports modes) and the abil­i­ty to com­pete with oth­er users.
• Sports modes — run­ning, swim­ming in the pool, walk­ing, yoga, strength train­ing, and more. Auto­mat­ic activ­i­ty track­ing (walk­ing, swim­ming, cycling and ellip­ti­cal train­ing) and count­ing rep­e­ti­tions (for train­ing in the gym).
• Mea­sures blood oxy­gen lev­els, sleep, stress and recov­ery time, ath­let­ic age. Body Bat­tery func­tion avail­able — reflects the lev­el of ener­gy based on the received data on class­es, sleep, stress lev­el (for more effec­tive train­ing plan­ning).
• Intel­li­gent modes include check­ing the weath­er, con­trol­ling music, find­ing a smart­phone / bracelet, dis­play­ing incom­ing noti­fi­ca­tions on the phone (Android has the abil­i­ty to answer), remote con­trol of the cam­era. No sup­port for third par­ty apps.
• The strap is non-remov­able. Avail­able col­ors are bur­gundy with a gold bor­der, sil­ver, blue with sil­ver, and black.
• Weighs 20.4g and mea­sures 15 x 10.5 x 197mm. Also avail­able in large size (15 x 10.5 x 223 mm, 21.5 g, black only).

The cost of the Garmin Vivos­mart 4 smart bracelet is from 14,369 rubles.

Pros of Garmin Vivosmart 4:

• holds a charge for a long time;
• water­proof;
• Body Bat­tery func­tion to track energy/fatigue lev­els;
• Accu­rate­ly counts the pulse.

Cons of Garmin Vivosmart 4:

• nar­row screen, there are prob­lems with respon­sive­ness (some­times does not respond);
• no GPS and no link to smart­phone nav­i­ga­tion (because of this, it does not count dis­tance and pace);
• detach­able strap.

Huawei Band 6

This mod­el received a large screen and sup­port for almost 100 sports modes. Pho­to: techradar.com

Peculiarities:

• Huawei Band 6 received a 1.47″ AMOLED col­or touch screen with a res­o­lu­tion of 194 × 368 pix­els, an oleo­pho­bic coat­ing.
• Bat­tery capac­i­ty 180 mAh. With dai­ly work­outs and auto­mat­ic blood oxy­gen mea­sure­ment, the bat­tery lasts up to 10 days. From 5 to 90% charged in half an hour, full charge — less than an hour.
• Works in con­junc­tion with the Health app. To install it, you must first down­load the App­Gallery brand­ed appli­ca­tion store from the huawei web­site.
• Huawei fit­ness track­er sup­ports 96 sports modes. 11 are imme­di­ate­ly vis­i­ble on the watch (run­ning, walk­ing and cycling on the street / sim­u­la­tor, swim­ming in the pool, ellip­ti­cal and row­ing machines, jump rope), the rest are hid­den in the “Work­outs” → “Wid­gets” sec­tion. Auto­mat­ic detec­tion of the type of train­ing (includ­ing swim­ming style and pool length).
• The smart bracelet can track sleep, stress, auto­mat­i­cal­ly mea­sure the lev­el of oxy­gen in the blood. Track­ing wom­en’s health only works in con­junc­tion with Android smart­phones.
• Of the intel­li­gent func­tions, there are noti­fi­ca­tions, weath­er, alarm clock, stop­watch, timer, phone find­er, flash­light. Cam­era con­trol is avail­able only for own­ers of Huawei smart­phones. Music can only be con­trolled on Android smart­phones.
• Installed heart rate sen­sor, accelerom­e­ter, pulse oxime­ter, gyro­scope.
• There is no built-in GPS, it uses the phone’s GPS.
• Water resis­tance 5ATM.
• The strap is detach­able, but third-par­ty bracelets can­not be used.
• The fit­ness track­er has dimen­sions of 43 × 25 × 11 mm and weighs 18 g.

The cost of a smart bracelet Huawei Band 6 is from 3,290 rubles.

Pros of Huawei Band 6:

• good screen;
• sol­id bat­tery life;
• many train­ing modes, includ­ing swim­ming;
• SpO2 mon­i­tor­ing through­out the day;
• price.

Cons of Huawei Band 6:

• no GPS;
• lim­it­ed access to the appli­ca­tion;
• incon­sis­tent SpO2 mea­sure­ments (first 99%, then 86%).

Oppo Band

Afford­able fit­ness track­er with fast charg­ing. Pho­to: www.gsmarena.com

Peculiarities:

• 1.1‑inch AMOLED dis­play with a res­o­lu­tion of 126 x 294 pix­els (col­or, touch).
• 100 mAh bat­tery. With con­stant noti­fi­ca­tions, peri­od­ic mea­sure­ments of SpO2 and heart rate, max­i­mum bright­ness and no train­ing, the track­er worked for 10 days. With con­tin­u­ous mea­sure­ments — 3 days. Charg­ing is incon­ve­nient — you need to remove the cap­sule from the bracelet. It takes 70 min­utes to ful­ly charge.
• The data can be syn­chro­nized with the Hey­Tap Health app.
• Sen­sors — 3‑axis accelerom­e­ter, opti­cal heart rate and SpO2.
• Water resis­tant up to 5ATM.
• There are 14 sports modes avail­able. In addi­tion to run­ning, swim­ming in the pool and cycling, there are crick­et, bad­minton and run­ning for fat loss — based on the heart rate, you need to often look at the prompts on the screen, for exam­ple, to increase the pace. There is no auto­mat­ic track­ing. For many activ­i­ties, only basic indi­ca­tors are avail­able, for exam­ple, for swim­ming — dura­tion, calo­ries, pace (exclud­ing style, heart rate, num­ber and fre­quen­cy of strokes).
• There is weath­er (but dis­played only in the appli­ca­tion), breath­ing exer­cis­es, music con­trol (not pos­si­ble dur­ing train­ing), alarm clock, stop­watch, timer, cam­era shut­ter con­trol.
• The fit­ness track­er can track sleep, machine gun­ners mea­sure the lev­el of oxy­gen in the blood and pulse.
• The bracelet receives noti­fi­ca­tions from select­ed appli­ca­tions (not all have icons, emoti­cons are not sup­port­ed, instead of them there are squares). You can reject the call or turn off the vibra­tion of the bracelet.
• Bracelet dimen­sions — 40.4 x 17.6 x 11.45 mm (with heart rate sen­sor — 11.95 mm), weight — 22 g.

The cost of a smart bracelet OPPO Band is from 3,228 rubles.

Pros of OPPO Band:

• light and com­fort­able;
• bright screen with good response;
• two straps includ­ed;
• water resis­tance;
• price.

Cons of OPPO Band:

• noti­fi­ca­tions needs improve­ment;
• in many activ­i­ties, only basic para­me­ters are tracked;
• no GPS and NFC;
• No barom­e­ter (can­not count floors).

Samsung Galaxy Fit 2

The Sam­sung Galaxy Fit 2 sup­ports 100 sports modes and has a great smart­phone app. Pho­to: pocket-lint.com

Peculiarities:

• 1.1″ touch­screen dis­play with a res­o­lu­tion of 126 x 294 pix­els.
• The Sam­sung Galaxy Fit2 is pow­ered by a 152 mAh bat­tery. With con­stant mea­sure­ment of stress and heart rate, noti­fi­ca­tions (with­out sports), the charge lasts for about 9 days. Dur­ing test­ing, the bat­tery with noti­fi­ca­tions turned on and a 45-minute work­out drained by 10% dai­ly. With more inten­sive use (for exam­ple, longer ses­sions), this fig­ure approached 15–20%.
• There is mois­ture pro­tec­tion accord­ing to the IP68 stan­dard. The bracelet can be used at a depth of up to 1.5 m for half an hour.
• The smart­phone’s GPS is used to track the loca­tion.
• Func­tion­al appli­ca­tion Sam­sung Health, you can com­pete with oth­er users.
• About 100 sports modes are avail­able (includ­ing cross-coun­try ski­ing, mar­tial arts, bowl­ing, wind­surf­ing), 10 types are dis­played on the watch (can be con­fig­ured in the appli­ca­tion). The track­er auto­mat­i­cal­ly detects run­ning, walk­ing, dynam­ic train­ing, row­ing and ellipse. In many views, only basic infor­ma­tion (pulse, calo­ries, and dura­tion) is avail­able. Does not count the num­ber of rep­e­ti­tions and approach­es (the excep­tion is swim­ming, where infor­ma­tion is avail­able on the style, num­ber of strokes, dura­tion, pace, dis­tance, calo­ries, etc.).
• You can con­trol music from the track­er screen, noti­fi­ca­tions are dis­played, mes­sages can be answered with pre-pre­pared tem­plates (con­fig­ured in the appli­ca­tion), there is a timer, stop­watch,
• Sleep mon­i­tor­ing, heart rate and stress mea­sure­ment. The bracelet does not know how to mea­sure SpO2.
• Dimen­sions — 46.6 x 18.6 x 11.1 mm, weight — 21 g.

The cost of a smart bracelet Sam­sung Galaxy Fit 2 is from 3,990 rubles.

Pros of the Galaxy Fit 2:

• bright screen;
• holds a charge well;
• many sports modes, includ­ing swim­ming, you can reply to mes­sages;
• great app.

Cons of the Galaxy Fit 2:

• with­out GPS and NFC mod­ule;
• does not mea­sure SpO2;
• no barom­e­ter.

Results

For con­ve­nience, we have col­lect­ed all the infor­ma­tion for eval­u­a­tion in one table.

Thus, the con­sid­ered fit­ness bracelets received the fol­low­ing rat­ings:

The best in our rank­ing were Xiao­mi Mi Band 6 NFC and Huawei Band 6. Both mod­els offer a lot of fea­tures at an afford­able price.

FITBIT CHARGE 5 is the only mod­el on the list with built-in GPS.

The Garmin Vivos­mart 4 and Sam­sung Galaxy Fit 2 have excel­lent smart­phone com­pan­ion apps. And OPPO Band has a sec­ond strap includ­ed.