We list the best fitness trackers and health monitors wearables from the point of view of a health conscious consumer.
What we mean by “best” because this is not just a buzzfeed list.
The best fitness tracker and wearable health monitor should be durable, have a long battery life, and accurately measure what it claims to measure. If you are a smartwatch type, that works too, since most of them have the technology to measure these health metrics. However, the non-clinical smart trackers are not the most accurate heart rate monitor or sleep monitor, and the wearable accessory design is not generally designed for athletic activity or sleep.
Fitness trackers, health monitors, and other wearable accessories to track sleep, heart rate, and more all have one thing in common – they are hyper-focused. How do you get the whole picture? Learn what you could be missing behind your data with the Live Learn Innovate Foundation nonprofit data dashboard for personal health data insights, weather impact, symptom tracker, mood journaling, and more.
How much should a person spend on a fitness tracker or health monitor wearable?
Prices can range from $25.00 to more than $400.00. Depending on the intensity of your motivation to track and monitor your health metrics, there is certainly an option for you on the market today. We recommend a one-time cost for this device if you only purchase the device to measure health metrics.
We do not recommend or endorse the practice of subscription-based data insights. Amazon Halo, Whoop Strap, Fitbit Premium, and other options provide a device at the start of your subscription plan and require ongoing payments or withhold certain metrics when users opt out of the additional fee.
Withings Steel HR. It looks pretty cool, too.
This hybrid fitness tracker and smartwatch include round-the-clock 24/7 heart rate monitoring, activity tracking, and sleep monitoring, is mostly waterproof, and has a battery life of up to 25 days. In this wearable, you get your heart rate monitor, sleep tracker, step counter, GPS, and alarm.
Unfortunately, there is the common problem that this creates a single data silo that though it integrates with some partner apps, it is blocking you from seeing the whole view of your data.
There are more features, but they seem like overkill for the point of this article.
Polar Vantage M. This feels like a “Crossfit” type of product.
This fitness tracker watch measures heart rate, swimming, and other activities. It’s fairly focused on athletic performance. The Polar tracker measures your activity breakdown, recommends training and improvements, measures your calories burned and your nightly recovery, and offers breathing exercises to finish workouts. Includes GPS as well for the distance measurement.
Their website does not mention battery life but boasts a powerful waterproof rating. Bonus points for Polar outright listing their data export capabilities. You can upload that to a data dashboard to get a big-picture view of your health with weather and mood.
Suunto 9 Baro. We can’t pronounce it confidently, either.
The features are as intense as this price tag. Performance mode (up to 25 hrs. of battery life) provides the most robust data and best GPS accuracy. Oriented for the outdoorsperson in life, the Suunto 9 Baro includes heart rate monitoring, activity tracking, sleep tracking, pool lap tracking, interval training features and more.
To complement the accuracy of other features, the Suunto 9 Baro has a battery life of up to five days. This fitness tracker is a top-shelf option if you have been wearing other options for a while already.
Fitbit Inspire 2. Of course they are being mentioned.
Fitbit offers a reliable line of health tracker products that measure heart rate, sleep, activity, and come with different style options to integrate seamlessly with your everyday attire.
Galaxy Watch4 by Samsung. The missing space in their branding is annoying.
Aside from the would-be typo, the Watch4 is a reliable, affordable smart watch for Android users. It certainly is competitively priced as a smart watch in general, plus having the fitness tracker and health monitor add-ins we are mentioning it for.
This fitness tracker smart watch option ranks well, measuring heart rate in real-time, accurately and clinically tested, tracking sleep, tracking physical activity, and offers advanced run coaching as a nice differential.
Bottom line, figure out what device you find most comfortable for your use and get it. It’s time to start obsessing over your numbers with insightful charts and graphs.
Who we are
The Live Learn Innovate Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit entity that empowers software users to regain control of their personally generated health data, gain intuitive insights about their social data, learn the impact of their environment on health, and build a foundation of data analytics that empowers research, academics, and innovation in economic development.
Use cases for this secure, private data aggregation method appear everywhere, expanding to family care, community growth, agricultural planning, and many more things still unseen. Help us keep going by getting involved today.