The Immortal One
- Withings Steel HR Sport
The Well-Known Superstar
- Fitbit Charge 5
The Luxury Option
- Polar Vantage V2
Fitness trackers don’t just keep track of how many steps we’ve taken in a day, they can also help motivate us, either by reminding us to work out or by showing what we’ve already accomplished. They often combine features like heart rate monitoring, alarms, and of course the titular fitness tracking to make an overall helpful little exercise buddy, right on your wrist.
We’ve collected some of the best ones money can buy you – and there are some pretty awesome devices out there already. From slim, subtle devices to full-on watches with fitness tracking functionality, you have quite the selection of trackers to choose from!
Key Features
- Contactless payments
- Readiness Score and advanced tracking
- On-board GPS
Specifications
- Battery life: up to 7 days
- AMOLED display
- 1.04 inch display
You can’t really have a list of fitness trackers without at least one Fitbit – and the latest generation of Fitbit devices is definitely the way to go. A quick disclaimer – it has failed expectations in some ways and advertised features not available on launch, but overall the device itself is above reproach. With incredibly accurate monitoring and sensing functions for heart rate, body temp, O2 saturation, heart rate variability, and stress levels, you’re getting a lot of functions in an incredibly small tracker model.
The Charge 5 boasts up to 7 days of battery life, and is available with a variety of design features, most of which require you to buy extra straps. The device itself is also available in multiple casing colours. The 5 is overall a pretty huge improvement over previous generations, especially when it comes to accuracy. It has dropped the music control feature the 4 had but replaced it with new functions such as the day readiness score as well as the impressive sleep track functions. The Fitbit app further adds to the Charge’s appeal – it’s a solid program with lots of functions and customisation features for both the tracker and the overall Fitbit experience.
- Colour screen
- Accurate trackers and monitors
- Compact and long battery life
- Some features not available even after release
- Few improvements over previous gens
- No music control
Key Features
- Black and White display
- 50 metres waterproof
- Various health sensor features including SpO2, ECG and AFib detection
Specifications
- Battery life: Up to 25 days
- OLED display
- 42mm and 38mm display options
The ScanWatch is one of the nicest-looking fitness trackers we’ve seen. While it’s not only a tracker but also offers a set of ‘standard’ smartwatch features, it’s the stand-out health trackers that got it a spot on our list. From ECG sensors to alerts in case of AFib detection, the ScanWatch can do more than tell time and track time spent running. It offers sleep tracking, sport tracking and all that with a truly exceptional battery life – up to 25 days!
While it lacks the built-in GPS that the Charge 5 has, for example, it has plenty else to make up for it. The sleep tracking is particularly attractive, even for people who don’t want their tracker for sport – the ScanWatch is even able to detect sleep apnea, among other issues such as AFib. For both these things, it has received clinical validation and CE clearance.
- Fantastic tracking features
- Stylish watch design
- Incredible battery life
- Not fully focused on fitness tracker features
- Sports tracking features aren’t what they should be
Key Features
- Sturdy, rugged stand-out design
- POV navigation, online and offline maps
- Regular updates and software improvements
Specifications
- Battery life: Up to 9 days
- 1.3 inch screen size
- Sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel screen
The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro is ideally suited for anyone who’s into outdoor fitness. TO this end, it doesn’t have the typical OLED or AMOLED display, but rather a MIP display that’s much easier to see in different natural lighting conditions. While it looks less crisp than OLEDs might, it offers peak visibility in the day as well as the night. Of course, the real drawing points of this watch are the extensive fitness and sport tracking features it offers. You could work out for weeks if not months without repeating the same exercise twice – and if you’re into outdoor navigating, the watch can entirely replace your phone with built in GPS and map navigation.
Because of its huge variety of features and functions, the watch is quite heavy on the wrist. That could be an issue for users with smaller wrists – however, if you can put up with the weight and the equally high price tag, you’ve got a fantastic fitness tracker in this watch. The Fenix 6 Pro also comes with the Garmin Coach, a pretty solid training program that prepares you for various types of running milestones, such as a half marathon race.
- Fantastic outdoor features
- Great support and software
- Unusual and appealing design
- Heavy
- Expensive
- Almost TOO many features
Key Features
- Turn-by-turn navigation and FuelWise
- Sleep tracking features
- Nutrition and exercise planning options
Specifications
- Battery life: up to 7 days
- 4.7cm screen size
- Always-on sunlight-readable colour touch display
The Polar Vantage V2 is the most elaborate and well-featured device from the Vantage series – and it boasts some solid abilities. Not only does it have decent battery life, you’ll have plenty to do with it during. The FuelWise functionality lets you plan what you’ll be eating when you exercise – and if that’s not your thing, you also have access to various fitness tests that will help you work out where you’re at, and what you could achieve! There is even a jump test that you can use to check how the muscles in your legs have recovered from a previous workout.
Beyond that, the Vantage V2 is waterproof to 100m, and has various widgets to expand on the base functionality, including a weather tracker for example. New stuff is getting added pretty regularly – something that’s true for nearly all of the watch’s functionality, what with regular updates and improvements happening all the time. The Polar Vantage V2 is an incredibly detailed tracker that allows users to keep track of just about every aspect of their workouts and habits. Some may find the level of detail overwhelming, but used correctly, you can learn a fair bit about your workouts!
- Huge amount of features
- Regularly updated and well-supported
- Multi-colour LED sensors that track well on various skin colours
- Overwhelming number of features
- Expensive
That was our round-up of the best high-end fitness trackers in 2021. Have you recently bought a high-end fitness tracker? What sold you on it and what has your experience been so fa? Let us know down below.
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