Guides · Fitness

Buying a fitness tracker

Battery, screen, the metrics that matter, and why comfort decides whether you keep wearing it.

The tracker that works is the one still on your wrist in three months. Comfort and battery life decide that, not the number of sensors.

Battery

A device that lasts a week gets charged when you shower and worn to bed; a device that lasts a day ends up in a drawer. Decide how often you are honestly willing to charge.

Which metrics

Steps, heart rate and sleep are consistent across price points. Accuracy for anything beyond that varies a lot, and the useful part of the data is the trend, not a single day's number.

Screen

A larger colour screen costs battery. If you mostly check the phone app, a small or no screen is a fair trade.

The app

You will spend more time in the app than on the device. Try it before you buy: whether it shows history plainly, and whether the features you want sit behind a subscription.

Fit

Bands cause more returns than sensors do. Look for a standard band size so replacements are cheap.