Best Fitness Tracker 2023: Fitbits, Hybrid Watches & Wearables

The Xiaomi Mi Band 7 is the best fitness tracker around, with a tempting price tag and an impressive array of sensors to track your health, fitness, and workouts.

The large always-on display is a particularly nice addition, helping showcase the vivid watch faces on offer while making it easier to read text at a glance, though the always-on tech comes at a heavy cost to overall battery life.

Fitness tracking includes all-day SpO2 monitoring, new workout metrics (including VO2 Max), and the ability to track more workouts than ever before.

The lack of built-in GPS may irk fitness fanatics, but this is a great little inexpensive tracker for keeping an eye on your general health and fitness.

Xiaomi has launched the follow-up Band 8 in China, which features a new design meaning it can be worn as a necklace or elsewhere, but for now there’s no word on when the Band 8 will go on sale in Europe and elsewhere worldwide.

The Charge 5 is easily Fitbit’s best tracker, which is enough to make it a safe choice for anyone looking for an activity band.

It covers all the basics – tracking steps, distance, calories burned, hourly activity, heart rate, swim-tracking and advanced sleep; not to mention it has most of the company’s exclusive top-end exercise features too, including Active Zone Minutes.

Its built-in GPS and health measurements mean it closely matches the more expensive Fitbit Versa 3 smartwatch too, though bear in mind that the most comprehensive tracking features are locked behind the paid Fitbit Premium plan.

Our only complaints are very occasional performance stutters, the removal of an altimeter (to count floors climbed) and a few features that Fitbit has been slow to add, but those shouldn’t put you off grabbing the Charge 5, as it’s constantly getting improved upon (thanks to frequent software updates from Fitbit).

If you don’t mind a monochrome display, you can also always check out the older
Charge 4 and save some money too.

When it comes to design, the Withings Move is so classic and simple that it could pass as an everyday watch. It has the longevity of one too, using a standard watch battery that will last for a whopping 18 months.

On the fitness tracking side, the companion Health Mate app does almost everything you need it to and more, combining basic fitness tracking with sleep tracking too.

If you love the sound of the Move but want that little bit extra, check out the Move ECG too, which takes the same design but squeezes in an electrocardiogram sensor.

The Inspire 3 is the cheapest model in the current Fitbit line-up, making it an excellent entry point to tracking.

It’s still more expensive than rivals like the Xiaomi Mi Band 7, but Fitbit’s software experience and ecosystem are both excellent, so for some it may be worth paying a little extra – though paying more for a smaller display does sting a little.

It helps that you get up to 10 days of battery life (though a little less if you use the new always-on display feature), 24/7 heart rate monitoring now bolstered by SpO2 data, and sleep tracking. Just bear in mind that there’s no built-in GPS support, and that, as with all Fitbits, you’ll need to subscribe to the paid Fitbit Premium plan to get every bit of data out of it.

Aside from a lack of GPS, Withings’ ScanWatch is a compelling hybrid tracker, with a classic design and rich tracking capabilities.

The name relates to its ability to more accurately get a read on your heart health than any other tracker here, albeit for a premium that makes it more of a niche proposition.

AFib detection, an SpO2 sensor, and detection of breathing disturbances like sleep apnea are smart inclusions, while the small PMOLED display grants some degree of smartwatch-like functionality on top of its fitness-tracking skillset.

If you can spend a little more, the ScanWatch Horizon offers the same excellent health features in a heftier dive watch design.

With good looks, sturdy construction, a big display, decent battery life, solid exercise tracking (for the most part), and simple software, the Huawei Band 7 makes a great first impression.

Lacking any kind of scratch or drop resistance, slightly squiffy sleep tracking, and a few other niggles keep it from true greatness, but for the price it is more than good enough.

If you are looking for a good value smart band today, the Huawei Band 7 should be near the top of your list.

If you want a running watch that lasts several days on a charge, tracks your workouts effortlessly, spits out insightful data, and won’t bug you with notifications, the Polar Pacer is it.

The Pacer supports a variety of exercise types but the focus is on running, with GPS tracking and a post-workout ‘running index’ to let you know how you’ve performed across a variety of metrics.

If you’re trying to get into running, or even if you’re already hitting the trails, the Pacer will prove an excellent addition to your kit with strong battery life, a superbly readable display, lightweight construction, and the smarts to show you how you are performing and to help you improve.

The Garmin Vivomove Trend is a smartwatch hybrid similar to the Withings ScanWatch, pairing analogue and digital design elements along with some basic smartwatch functionality.

If you care mostly about steps, sleep, monitoring heart rate 24/7, and being motivated to move more each day, then that is absolutely where the Trend impresses. It can do more, but this is where its strengths as a hybrid smartwatch lie.

It also impresses by including wireless charging using the common Qi standard, meaning you can drop it onto almost any wireless charger to top it up – a level of convenience few other trackers can match.

Crucially, it delivers those features with an analogue look that rarely feels like it’s getting in the way of that digital display behind it showing off your stats and notifications.

The Fitbit Ace 3 is built to suit childrens’ rough-and-tumble lifestyle, providing both kids and parents with simple but insightful activity and sleep tracking data.

The Ace 3 serves as a way to motivate kids to get more active, but in a roundabout way, could also incentivise the whole family to get fitter together (provided everyone involved has a Fitbit of their own to wear).

Older kids might want to look for a tracker with a little more oomph, however, as the Ace 3 offers a cut-down range of fitness and notification features compared to Fitbit’s ‘adult’ trackers. It counts steps, logs Active Minutes, and monitors basic sleep patterns, but lacks heart-rate tracking.

The Whoop 4.0 is something a little different: with no display and not even any step count tracking, this is far from a traditional fitness tracker. Instead it’s a simple tracker that you can slip into a watch-esque wristband or strap onto workout clothing, and which is primarily intended to measure your strain and recovery, to tell you how hard you pushed your body and when to take a break.

There’s sleep tracking too, along with run recording – though with no GPS, you’ll need to take your phone with you. The Whoop is also best for those who focus on cardio, as it doesn’t always detect strain accurately in workouts like strength training that don’t spike your heart rate.

The big downsides are that you do miss out on basic tracking features you might expect elsewhere – yes, including a step count – and that the pricing structure is unusual. You get the Whoop tracker for free, but only if you sign up for a subscription, which at its cheapest is $20/£18 per month if you commit to two years in advance.

Committing to pay so much to try out a relatively basic fitness tracker will put some people off, but if you want a tracker that focuses on cardio data and makes you more mindful about strain and sleep, it’s a good choice.