The best fitness trackers in 2023 will help you establish a healthier lifestyle. Beyond counting steps, tracking your activities, and telling you if you've slept well, modern fitness bands can motivate you to form healthy habits and offer a holistic overview of your health and fitness, which makes them an excellent companion on your road to a healthier lifestyle. Of course, some fitness trackers are better than others, and you want to make sure you choose the one that offers the best value for your money.
An excellent fitness tracker must be comfortable to wear, intuitive to use, and have a long battery life. It must also be reliable in sending notifications and accepting or rejecting calls.
We have listed the top 5 fitness trackers and their key features, plus the things you need to consider to help you choose the best one for you.
5. Fitbit Lux
The Fitbit Lux is the number five of the best fitness trackers in 2023 thanks to its excellent health monitoring tools, stylish design, and the strength of the fantastic Fitbit app that works alongside it. When we put the Lux to the test, we were particularly impressed by its heart rate monitoring accuracy, which was on par with much more expensive running watches. Your daily data is presented on a super-sharp color AMOLED display, which offers lots of detail in a very small space, which means less scrolling, which is always a win in our books.
The Lux is also Fitbit's best-looking fitness tracker today, with a stainless steel case and buckle and a choice of either a soft silicone band or a gold-tone stainless steel bracelet. In our tests, it was comfortable to wear all day and night, allowing us to build a complete picture of our activity and sleeping habits. Fitness trackers work best when worn every day so they can build up a full picture of your habits and lifestyle, and the Lux is one that you'll genuinely want to use. There's no on-board GPS; instead, the Lux needs a connection to your phone, which is its only real drawback. If that's a deal breaker for you, the slightly pricier Fitbit Charge 5 would be a better choice.
4. Fitbit charge 5
The Fitbit Charge 5 is Fitbit's latest tracker and has a number of exciting features usually reserved for more expensive devices, such as an ECG heart rate monitor. During testing, we found that the bright, always-on-color touchscreen is a massive improvement over that of the Fitbit Charge 4. It's easy to read in bright sunlight, and it's great to use during a workout or on a hike, although we found the lack of physical buttons made it a little fiddly to navigate around when running the Fitbit Charge 5.
It also has Fitbit's daily readiness score feature, which gives you an idea of how ready you are for a big workout based on three different metrics. Fitness, fatigue, activity, heart rate variability (HRV), and recent sleep If you're looking for a tracker that looks beautiful against your wrist, is easy to read in the bright sunlight, and has some impressive features for the price tag, this is a good buy. Also, if you're using a Fitbit Charge 3 or older, the upgrade is worth it for the color screen alone. If you want to save money, the Fitbit Charge 4 was the best fitness tracker before the Charge 5 was released and is likely to be on sale.
3. Fitbit Sense 2
The Fitbit Sense 2 is the company's top-shelf smartwatch and comes with more advanced health and wellness features than the Versa line. During our testing, we found that the Fitbit Sense 2 helped us gain a better overall view of our overall health compared to the original Fitbit Sense. The sense 2 features an upgraded design interface and Eda sensor, making it Fitbit's most holistic smartwatch, yet an update to the stress-detecting Eda electrodominal activity sensor plays a large role in the device's success.
Now called C Eda C for continuous, the sensor monitors stress levels or heightened responses throughout the day, prompting the user to take action on mood monitoring with body response notifications as one of the best fitness trackers. The Sense 2 works with both IOS and Android and comes with on-board GPS, a native app store, Alexa, and more. No longer is Fitbit just a brand with products for tracking our steps. Fitbit devices like the Fitbit Sense 2 make for excellent smart watches, too.
2. Garmin Phoenix 7s 7 and 7x
Garmin's flagship Phoenix 7 Series is no joke. It's got built-in multiband GPS, weeks worth of battery life, the option of touch screen or button navigation, topographical maps, and oodles upon oodles of data. There's also a handy new real-time stamina feature that helps you figure out how much you've got left in the tank depending on the model you get. You might also get a built-in LED flashlight and solar charging. Garmin wearables are also known for providing extensive, in-depth metrics, and the Phoenix is no exception. You get excellent recovery metrics as well as helpful training guides and coaching programs. The best part is that Garmin doesn't charge extra for those features. That's good news since the Phoenix 7 Series starts at $699.99. We appreciate how quickly the Phoenix 7 watches are able to pick up a GPS signal; that's a must if you're training in the dead of winter.
These watches can also take a beating. All models are built to military-grade standards and feature up to 10 ATM of water resistance, which means they're more than capable of a dunk in the ocean. Another plus is that the Phoenix 7 comes in some attractive colorways, making it less of an eyesore than some other rugged fitness watches. This may help people who may want a watch that can double as a daily driver. The transflective screen isn't our absolute favorite, but the Yolad or the Garmin Epics 2 are a lot easier on the eyes. The Epix 2 is also a good option if battery life isn't your highest priority. However, the Phoenix 7 lineup's multiple size options make it a more versatile pick if you don't have large wrists.
1. Apple Watch series 8
If you're looking for great GPS and heart rate hardware, the Apple Watch Series 8 is a fantastic health and fitness watch. Apple really does offer "Best in Class" when it comes to health and safety features, and in the Series 8 you'll find an ECG monitor that can detect abnormal heart rhythms. a blood oxygen monitor and sleep tracking too. There's also an advanced gyroscope for full detection as well as ovulation tracking for those with a menstrual cycle. These are all features that you can find in other trackers, but in our experience, the heart-tracking capabilities of Apple outstrip those of its competitors. On top of that, the watch has an app library that's bigger than all of its competitors put together. You can find second-party apps that will improve your yoga flows, help track your workouts, and guide you in meditation. Compared with its predecessor, the Apple Watch Series 8 offers more in-depth data for activities like running, including heart rate zones. You can even create custom workouts and save them to your watch, but it's not without its faults. The watch is only compatible with iPhones, and the battery life only lasts for one day, but we still think the model is the best combination of value features and performance available on the market.
How to Choose the Best Fitness Tracker
When choosing a fitness tracker, you must consider what type of activity you enjoy most. If you're primarily interested in getting outdoors and walking more, you can get away with picking up a more affordable watch that doesn't offer GPS tracking. If, however, you're getting into cycling or running, a device like the Fitbit Charge 5 with its built-in GPS module would be a better choice to track your route and speed accurately. Next, just how much detail do you want? Some fitness trackers, like the Charge 5, give you a vast array of stats with detailed analysis. While others, such as the Xiaomi Mi SmartBand 6, keep things uncomplicated, there's a matter of personal style.
As we've already mentioned, a fitness tracker works best when you wear it all day and night, so it's not frivolous to think about how it looks. If you already have a favorite watch that you don't want to stop wearing, the Ura smart ring is a good alternative and is so light and compact you'll forget you're even wearing it. Screen size and resolution are a consideration too. If you sometimes struggle to make out the text on a small screen, it might be worth investing in a fitness tracker with an AMOLED display, which is clearer and emits more light than the typical memory and pixel MIP screen used by many devices.