2024's greatest smartwatches: the coolest wrist-worn devices

If you’ve got an iPhone, the Apple Watch Series 9 is the most obvious choice from our list of the best smartwatches. Of course, the access to Apple’s ecosystem is great, but this thing also has all the lifestyle, fitness, and safety features you could ask for, as well as an elegant design. Even better still, it’s half the price of the Apple Watch Ultra.

While the design is very similar to the last couple of generations of Apple Watch, the performance of the ninth version is much better thanks to the S9 processor – which takes inspiration from the iPhone 14’s A16 chipset. We’re also big fans of the ‘Double Tap’ gesture controls, allowing you to answer calls, view messages, and snooze an annoying alarm without touching the screen.

The biggest letdown is battery life, which averages 18 hours, while the Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro 5 boasts more than 80 hours. But if you’re an iPhone owner, the Apple Watch Series 9 is one of the slickest smartwatches on the market and the best Apple Watch for most.

Read our Apple Watch Series 9 review.

The Galaxy Watch 6 is the primo smartwatch for Samsung users thanks to its seamless connectivity with the brand’s fantastic smartphones. It utilizes Google’s Wear OS for silky smooth performance and offers a plethora of fitness and lifestyle features to help you accurately track everything from your average day-to-day activities to marathon running.

The rotating bezel lets you navigate through most of the features without leaving smudge marks on the screen. This is all the better as the display is one of its most impressive features, offering a peak brightness of 2,000 nits and a varied collection of clock faces. The battery life is less impressive, and daily charging is necessary. While Samsung suggests a life of up to 40 hours, or thirty with the Super AMOLED ‘always on’ display, we found it to be more like 20-25.

Like the Apple Watch 9, there are two case sizes, and you get access to excellent fitness monitoring, sleep tracking, navigation, and messaging features. There are some Galaxy-only features, including heart rhythm notifications and phone separation alerts, so we’d recommend this smartwatch with the best Samsung phones.

Overall, there’s little between the Samsung Galaxy Watch6 and Apple Watch Series 9 in terms of features, so it comes down to whether you’re an Android or an iPhone user – as there’s no iPhone support.

The Google Pixel Watch 2 is Google’s latest smartwatch arena, using its own Wear OS software to offer a lifestyle and fitness-enhancing wearable. It offers real-time location sharing, a check-in countdown to alert your loved ones if needed, and the option to add any medical ID information. If you often feel vulnerable during workouts or excursions, this smartwatch could alleviate some of those concerns.

It’s one of the sleeker devices out there, with a classic design that blends in with most outfits. The display is slightly smaller than others on this list, but the Pixel Watch 2 has improved some of the maligned features of its predecessor, offering 24 hours of juice with an ‘always on’ display’.

Google locks some of the more impressive fitness features and in-depth tracking behind the Fitbit Premium service. You get a six-month subscription on purchasing the device, but then the plan costs $9.99. Still, the Pixel Watch 2 makes the most sense if you’re after a cost-effective smartwatch to pair with the best Google Pixel phones.

Read our Google Pixel Watch 2 review.

The Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro is the natural fit if you have one of the best Xiaomi phones. It’s cheaper than the latest Google Pixel and Samsung smartwatches but now features Google Wear OS to give you Google apps like Maps and Pay directly on your wrist.

Xiaomi’s latest offering is simple to use while offering a full suite of fitness features you don’t need to pay for through a subscription service like Fitbit Premium. There are over 150 sports modes, plus heart rate, SpO₂, and sleep tracking, but tracking accuracy isn’t as good as the Apple, Galaxy, or Pixel watches.

The design is elegant, with an intelligently placed bezel to guard the glass against scratches and nicks. Our main complaint is that this wearable doesn’t link up well with Apple devices, and there are major connectivity issues with iOS. It’s also not available in the US, which makes it harder to recommend.

Read our Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro review.

Despite being in the smartwatch game for less than a decade and competing with some huge names like Google and Apple, Mobvoi has built a reputation for delivering solid smartwatches with decent build quality and performance – and the Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro 5 is no different.

The Ticwatch Pro 5 enjoys almost all the features we’ve come to expect from modern smartwatches, plus the addition of a few nifty extras. Its Wear OS offers access to all the essentials including Google Wallet, YouTube Music, Google Maps, and Play Store, but its focus on fitness is where it truly shines.

Offering surprisingly accurate GPS tracking, you can rely on precise GNSS-based positioning, so you don’t have to worry about getting lost, even if you’ve got no cellular data signal. It boasts a wealth of features for gym-based workouts, too. TicExercise offers dedicated tracking for a range of activities from running and swimming to the ‘high traveling bear crawl’ (though we’re still not quite sure what that is).

The display is bright and easy to use, and the battery life is very solid – in fact, we found the advertised 80-hour battery life to be an underestimate, beating out the Samsung and Apple entries on this list. Additionally, its Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ chipset makes for a very smooth experience, allowing you to switch between apps and menus in no time at all.

The only real downsides with this little beauty are the steep price, and the fact that it isn’t compatible with iPhone or Google Assistant. However, if you’re an active person, then it’s certainly worth taking a look at our full Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro 5 review – and is definitely worth picking up if you can find it on sale.

The Carbinox Vortex is an excellent, rugged smartwatch. With an IP69K waterproof rating, you could practically live in a lake and have no problems with this thing, making it perfect for any avid adventurers who like to keep track of health data while exploring the wilds.

Of course, as any good smartwatch should, the Vortex has plenty of health tracking features and can even keep you up to date on goings on with social media notifications. It’s not as elegant a system as you might get with a Samsung or Apple watch, but it works, and if you’re happy with the basics, it’s a fair bit cheaper, too.

There are a couple of caveats with the Vortex, though. For one, we’ve seen some reports of connectivity issues, though not from all users. It’s also worth saying, though it’s pretty obvious, that the military-style design isn’t for everyone, even if it’s pretty standard in the rugged watch arena.

If you’re looking for a smartwatch under $50, there aren’t many to choose from, but the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 is the pick of the bunch. This thing marries a lightweight and minimal design with excellent fitness and sleep-tracking features for the smartwatch user who doesn’t want to break the bank on something new.

The big caveat here is that Xiaomi smartwatches don’t always play nice with iPhones, so this might be a no-go if you’re an iOS user who isn’t willing to make the leap to Android just for the sake of a budget smartwatch. The Smart Band 8 and iPhone are technically compatible, but it often doesn’t feel like it.

It’s also worth pointing out that the slim display isn’t for everyone, though you have to stretch your budget a little further to get something with a more traditional clock face.