Best smartwatches of 2018: The best watches to give (and get!) this Christmas

It can be very hard to decide which smartwatch to buy.

There are so many different types of high-tech wristwatch you can buy, from sports trackers that help you with your workout to calendars that sit on your wrist. The market has slowly evolved to encompass a growing number of manufacturers, from Pebble, which was funded on Kickstarter, to market stalwarts like Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Fitbit, Garmin and Fossil. Although sadly not Pebble, anymore, which got gobbled up by Fitbit.

Many so-called fitness trackers now include social notifications and other features, blurring the line between exercise watches and smartwatches, however for the purposes of this article, we’re trying to look at the watch aspects as much as possible.

So although there’s a Garmin and a Fitbit in place, anything that’s too limited doesn’t make the cut. If you’re more interested in tracking your steps than getting a buzz on your wrist every time anyone mentions you on Twitter, you’re best served visiting our best fitness trackers page.

But which smartwatch is for you? This is our pick of the best to smarten up your wrist.

The 7 best smartwatches of 2018

1. Apple Watch Series 3

Price when reviewed: from £279 

The Apple Watch 3 is an outstanding smartwatch; the best in the business in our opinion. Now offering a 4G version that gives you an internet connection at all times (providing there’s signal), it provides superior health and fitness features to any Apple Watch before it.

As well as monitoring steps and flights of stairs climbed, the Watch’s Workout app offers a range of different modes to let you accurately track a variety of indoor and outdoor activities. Like the Series 2, the new Apple Watch can be used in the pool, keeping note of lengths, but it now also tells you what stroke you’ve been doing. The heart rate app now also charts your average walking and resting heart rates, as well as your recovery time after workouts. The only slightly disappointing omission is the continuing lack of sleep tracking, although this can be added via a third-party app.

Along with the fitness features, there’s Apple Pay, for making contactless payments, music streaming (including offline storage) via Apple Music, and voice-assistant Siri can help you out when fumbling with your hands isn’t practical. Lastly, there are thousands of useful third-party apps you can run on your Apple Watch alongside the Apple defaults.

With the release of the Apple Watch Series 4, the Apple Watch Series 3 has received a price cut, and so it is now relatively affordable – although it still costs significantly more than other smart watches.

Buy the Apple Watch Series 3 from Currys

2. Samsung Gear S3

Price when reviewed: £349

Samsung’s smartwatches have, to date, been largely disappointing affairs. Limited smartphone compatibility and app selection, plus less than standout hardware have hobbled Samsung’s flagship smartwatch; not anymore. The S3 is a triumph of both software and hardware engineering and not only the company’s best smartwatch but the best alternative to the Apple Watch Series 3 for Android smartphone owners.

The highlight is excellent battery life – the large 380mAh battery and the lightweight Samsungs Tizen OS means the Gear S3 can go for up to five days on a single charge – but that’s not its only strength. It also has built-in GPS, so it’ll track your running and cycling routes without you having to take your smartphone with you, and there’s now a built-in speaker you can take calls on the watch as well. Another standout feature is that the S3 will let you stream your Spotify playlists and even store them offline. 

3. Ticwatch E & S

Price when reviewed: from £140

The Ticwatch E and Ticwatch S are remarkable watches in terms of the value they deliver. With either model, you get a comfortable Android Wear watch with built-in GPS, a heart-rate monitor and 4GB of storage, along with a microphone and speaker. The only noteworthy feature missing is NFC, which is by no means a deal breaker at this price. There are a few clues that the watches are cheaper than their rivals from Apple, Samsung and Huawei, but you’ll probably forget about these after you’ve worn them for a couple of days. In short, both devices offer almost everything you’d want from an Android Wear smartwatch at a fraction of the price of what you’d expect to pay. If a competent all-round smartwatch is what you’re looking for, either of these will fit the bill admirably.

4. Huawei Watch 2

Price when reviewed: £219

The Huawei Watch 2 was one of the best smartwatches of 2017. It runs Android Wear 2.0 out of the box, which means no faffing around with upgrading for the extra features – and its raw specs make it one of the stronger contenders that we’ve seen: a 1.1GHz Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor is backed up with 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and a 420mAh battery. That means it has both power and stamina – and you can even get a 4G version meaning you can take calls and texts directly to your wrist. 

5. Garmin Vivoactive 3

Price when reviewed: £300

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 really is one special fitness watch. It has GPS, an altimeter and a heart rate sensor, and it tracks your swims on top of all the regular fitness activities. Remarkably, it does all this while packing in some degree of smartwatch capability – you can use it to check notifications on your wrist, view the weather forecast, or your agenda for the day. The only major misfire is the lack of phone-free music playback, and frankly, that won’t bother everyone. If Garmin can sort out bank support for its NFC-based contactless payment system it’ll be pretty much the perfect all-rounder.

6. Amazfit Bip

Price when reviewed: £86

The Amazfit Bip has everything most people will want and comes in at under £90. That’s nothing short of astonishing. Despite having GPS, continuous heart rate monitoring and notifications, it also has more stamina that pretty much any wearable we’ve seen, stretching easily to over two weeks. You can buy better-looking smartwatches. You can buy more accurate fitness wearables. But you can’t do either without spending over £100, let alone both. The Amazfit Bip punches well above its weight and, like the best underdog movies, it cheerfully comes out on top.

Buy the Amazfit Bip from GearFest

7. Fitbit Versa

Price when reviewed: £159

Overall, there’s a lot to like about the Fitbit Versa. It looks and feels better than any other smartwatch that I’ve tested under £200. Indeed, it’s considerably lighter and less bulky than all of its rivals. Next is its outstanding battery life. The Versa lasts some three to four days longer than the Apple Watch Series 3. Let that sink in for a moment. You’ll only need to charge Fitbit’s smartwatch twice a week, at most.

Naturally, Fitbit’s latest smartwatch offers most of the core features that most fitness enthusiasts will look for – there’s heart-rate and sleep analysis, swim tracking, music playback, and of course the basics like step and staircase counting. A popular feature is also the ability to change watch bands, which lets you switch between fitness tracker and smartwatch functions easily – as well as tailoring it to your fashion.

Sadly, what could be the undoing of an otherwise solid product is its lack of GPS. The fact you can’t accurately track a run or bike ride without also bringing your phone with you just won’t cut it for a lot of people looking for a new smartwatch in 2018.

Best smartwatches: Buying the best smartwatch for you

The first question we’re always asked is: “What is a smartwatch for?”

A smartwatch delivers notifications from your phone, allows you to check your email and control music playback and functions as a fitness tracker. More advanced devices can provide alerts about the places you’re going, allow you to dictate messages, play music via Bluetooth headphones or speakers and even download apps. Others, such as Samsung’s Gear Fit or the Intel Basis Peak, concentrate more on the fitness and/or sleep-tracking side of things –indeed, the very purpose of the smartwatch is continually evolving as app developers and manufacturers get to grips with the wearables concept. 

The smartwatch market is still in its infancy, but we already know the platforms that will power the most important ones. As in the smartphone market, Apple and Google are emerging as the key players.

The Apple Watch was announced alongside the iPhone 6, and is designed to work with iPhones exclusively. You won’t need an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s to get onboard, however. Older iPhones won’t work, but the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5s will.

Android Wear is the driving force from Google’s camp: this isn’t hardware, but software that runs on other manufacturer’s watches. Android Wear is now also available on Apple’s App Store, opening up Android watches to iPhone users.

Normally, we’d look at the substance of a product before the style, but the look and design really matter in a smartwatch. Watches have long been as much a fashion accessory as a functional tool – no one wants to carry around an ugly lump of plastic on their wrist. Thankfully, there’s already a wide range of shapes and sizes on offer, from the minimalist, round-faced sophistication of the Motorola Moto 360 to the blandly rectangular, regular LG G Watch.

The Apple Watch may be sold as a single smartwatch, but Apple is offering customers plenty of opportunity for customisation. There are smaller and larger watch faces and various case materials and straps to choose from. The one thing that’s missing is a round-faced model; aside from that, the choice is yours.

However, we’d urge you to check out the models that will launch in the next few months or so in addition to those already on the shelves. Rush into buying a smartwatch now and you may find that the model you really wanted was only a few weeks or months away.

Best smartwatch: Battery life and screen technology

The biggest issue with the Android Wear smartwatches we’ve seen so far is battery life: with a day or two of use the common denominator, you’ll be charging it up almost as frequently as your smartphone.

With this in mind, manufacturers have been hard at work to make this as painless as possible. Wireless charging is a feature that the Apple Watch and the Moto 360 have in common. With these watches, there’s no electrical contact required: just rest the watch on the plate supplied. But even the watches that require an electrical contact for charging don’t require you to plug in a USB cable directly, with manufacturers usually supplying a proprietary clip or magnetic base in the box that attaches to the rear of the watch.

If you’re not keen on such a frequent charging regime, you may want to consider something other than one of the Google or Apple watches. Their LCD or OLED touchscreens are comparatively power-hungry, so there’s a limit to how long they’ll last, no matter how efficient the components inside.

There are a few options that use screen technology designed to provide better battery life. Perhaps the most famous is the Pebble. This watch employs a monochrome LCD “e-paper” screen that uses far less power than backlit colour screens.

A rival screen technology called Mirasol offers colour and the same kind of power-saving effect. You’ll find it in the Qualcomm Toq, although that watch isn’t widely available in the UK at present.

These smartwatches will last almost a week without a charge, making them a good deal more convenient than the Apple Watch or Android Wear watches.

If you want to embrace the smartwatch revolution, however, you’ll need to go with either Apple or Google. Many of the upcoming watch apps will be designed for these devices, and, in a few months, other watches will start to look dated.

Best smartwatches: Prices

How much do you have to spend for a smartwatch? The entry-level mark for Android Wear is around £150, rising to around £200 for the more premium models.

The cheapest Apple Watch is £299, increasing to £349 for a larger-screened Watch. Apple’s wristwear has an incredible upper price limit, with models reaching well beyond the £10,000 mark.