Smartwatches have come of age. The best ones to buy, other than the Apple Watch
If the Apple Watch is the Mercedes of smartwatches, the Samsung Galaxy Watch is the Lexus. Fossil models are slick, Chinese ones are functional and cheaper, and there’s a hybrid that’s just gorgeous
If you’ve been on the fence about getting a smartwatch, your time may have come.
This autumn marks a coming of age for the smartwatch industry, with impressive offerings from all the big players. Do not be surprised if all these nifty new devices result in some competitive pricing for the holidays.
The big dog in the kennel remains the Apple Watch, which is simply superior to all other smartwatches for both hardware and software. The new Apple Watch Series 4, true to form, does not disappoint.
But what if an Apple wearable isn’t for you? What if you’ve got an Android phone and want to keep things in the Google family?
Most of the top wearables run Google’s Wear OS software, which works best with Android phones but also syncs with Apple’s iOS if you’re an iPhone user. Wear OS recently was upgraded and offers more versatility than Apple’s walled garden of curated functionality.
All smartwatch makers will tell you they think health- and fitness-related apps are the main driver of sales, but I’m not so sure. Yes, people with certain medical conditions will greatly appreciate the ability to monitor cardiac performance, say, or blood sugar levels. But most users are attracted to wearables for more benign purposes.