Attaining your health targets doesn’t need to be costly or sophisticated. Preserving observe of your progress will probably be essential, however not everybody must drop lots of of {dollars} on the perfect smartwatches on the market. The typical inexpensive tracker would possibly provide simply the precise instruments to assist kickstart your well being journey, like a coronary heart fee monitor, sleep high quality information and so forth. And, after testing quite a few inexpensive health trackers, I can say with confidence that you simply is perhaps shocked by how a lot a $100 (or much less) wearable can do — a welcomed deal with for many who don’t wish to spend a ton of money on an Apple Watch. Many of those devices go effectively past being glorified pedometers, offering in-depth reviews on the way you’re sleeping at evening or supplying you with a breakdown of your coronary heart fee variability throughout a exercise. However given their worth, there will probably be some sacrifices. That can assist you resolve which is best for you, I examined quite a few the perfect low cost health trackers out there right this moment to seek out those which are price your cash.
What to search for in an affordable health tracker
The entire greatest health trackers ought to have at the very least three options: a program to trace exercises or motion of some type, the choice to watch and gather sleep information and the flexibility to measure well being metrics like coronary heart fee and blood oxygen ranges (although, the readings won’t be tremendous correct). Don’t set your sights too excessive and count on metrics like blood strain monitoring; for that, you’d must put money into a dearer wearable like a Samsung Galaxy Watch, which can set you again over $400.
Health options
An inexpensive exercise tracker could be nice for somebody seeking to preserve tabs on small, achievable targets like 10,000 steps earlier than sunset or half-hour of a HIIT exercise to get your coronary heart fee peaking. An skilled long-distance runner seeking to prepare for a triathlon would possibly go for a dearer machine that may measure cadence or floor contact time, and may observe extra customizable exercises, provide completely different sports activities modes or give deeper insights into efficiency information.
On the very least, a price range exercise tracker ought to have the ability to provide health monitoring options past strolling and working — in any other case, it will simply be a pedometer. The variety of actions a tool will acknowledge varies. Some will get funky with it and contemplate skateboarding a exercise, whereas others gained’t have the ability to observe a leaping jack.
At this worth, you possibly can count on a tool to measure a mixture of cardio, machine exercises and power coaching. With every, you would possibly get a numerical or visible breakdown of coronary heart fee exercise, total tempo, and energy burned per session. Though some low cost trackers can provide a very good overview of coronary heart fee zone exercise throughout a exercise, a extra technically superior machine would possibly have the ability to go a step additional and clarify what your outcomes imply and coach you on the right way to preserve your coronary heart fee in a selected bracket in an effort to burn extra fats per exercise. I discovered that the extra budget-friendly the machine, the extra probably it’s {that a} tracker will fall quick in relation to good counseling or providing predictive insights past a given exercise. If a price range tracker does occur to supply some semblance of a training program, you possibly can count on it to take a seat behind a paywall.
Exercise monitoring and planning your restoration is simply as important to any health journey. A sub-$100 machine ought to have the ability to let you know how lengthy you’ve slept and supply a breakdown of deep, mild and REM sleep exercise. It isn’t a assure that you’re going to get a sleep “score” or insights on the right way to get higher relaxation — that information is normally discovered on dearer wearables. Additionally, as a result of these trackers aren’t designed for bedtime particularly — be aware of consolation. The bands and watch face on a price range health tracker will not be superb for getting some good shut-eye.
Connectivity and practicality
Not all exercise trackers, budget-friendly or not, are designed to seamlessly combine with a smartphone. The trackers examined for this roundup can’t instantly make calls or ship texts to contacts on a paired smartphone. They will, nonetheless, show and dismiss incoming calls and notifications through a Bluetooth connection. You possibly can neglect about checking your electronic mail or paying for a espresso out of your wrist utilizing these extra inexpensive units.
Most inexpensive health trackers additionally will not embrace a built-in GPS. As an alternative, they normally rely on a paired smartphone to collect location information. The downside of utilizing a health tracker with out GPS is that it won’t present as exact for monitoring distance or tempo. You can also’t use a price range tracker to get turn-by-turn instructions throughout a stroll or whereas working errands. For the extra outdoorsy customers, having GPS might be a key security characteristic in order for you this type of performance at your fingertips.
Design
You additionally would possibly discover that an affordable health tracker is more durable to navigate than a extra superior smartwatch. Whether or not or not it’s a display measurement problem or just not having a wise sufficient interface, do not count on each characteristic to be one that you may have interaction with instantly in your wrist. Oftentimes, you will want to tug out your smartphone to log data or entry extra in-depth well being information.
The standard and construct of shows and bands may also range on this class. Don’t count on the very best decision OLED shows or the fanciest supplies within the bands. However you possibly can count on some degree of sweat and water resistance.
Finest low cost health trackers for 2024
Xiaomi
Tracks: Coronary heart fee, sleep, stress, blood oxygen, girls’s well being | Supported Working System: Android 6.0 and above, iOS 12.0 and above | Reminiscence: 100GB | Display screen measurement: 1.62” | Waterproof: 5ATM water-proof | GPS: No | Battery life: 16 days
The Xiaomi Good Band 8 stood out on many fronts — it not solely has the simplest interface to navigate when recording exercises, it additionally has probably the most snug band to sleep in. This machine has just about all the pieces you’d count on on a health tracker, and it comes at a worth that’s exhausting to beat. The 1.62-inch, 192 x 490 pill-shaped AMOLED show is full colour and shines fairly shiny each indoors and out. Though it would not have a bodily navigation button, you possibly can transfer by means of the UI by swiping up and down, or left and proper.
The Good Band 8 is sort of snug, however what actually made it safe the highest slot is how detailed its exercise reviews have been. In contrast to among the different trackers we examined, the Good Band 8 doesn’t require you to obtain any workouts from its companion app. Which means, you will get proper into monitoring workouts as area of interest as snowboarding. When a exercise is full, you get all the data you’d need in your wrist – from coronary heart fee readings to tempo and velocity, to energy burned and extra. It might sound fundamental, however among the different trackers we examined solely report step depend and distance traveled after a stroll. The period of time spent in every coronary heart fee zone will seem in your abstract, from mild, intensive, cardio to anaerobic.
Xiaomi’s tracker additionally has a novel “Pebble” mode, which lets you clip on the tracker to shoelaces utilizing a particular case to collect working and biking information. Utilizing Pebble mode, you will get a greater breakdown of the way you carried out throughout a dash -– particularly stats like flight ratio and floor contact time, together with common details about your working kind.
The tracker was straightforward to go to sleep with due to how light-weight and comfy it’s. The do-not-disturb characteristic is simple to activate from the watch face and I did not have any points with the display waking me up at evening. The sleep insights after sporting it in a single day impressed me with their element. Proper on my wrist, I used to be in a position to learn the way lengthy I slept and in addition bought an in depth sleep graph that confirmed me after I was in mild and deep sleep. This was all free, on my wrist and it was additional damaged down for me within the Mi app. I additionally was in a position to collect data on my common HR throughout sleep and my respiration patterns.
Additionally, importantly, Xiamo’s spectacular battery claims checked out – the Good Band 8 solely wants half-hour on a charger earlier than being fueled up for about two weeks of use. I by no means apprehensive about not with the ability to observe my exercise or sleep.
- Simple to navigate interface
- Full colour show
- Snug design that helps Pebble mode
- Good health monitoring and sleep monitoring
- Lengthy battery life
- No bodily navigation button
$40 at Amazon
Amazfit
Tracks: Coronary heart fee, sleep, stress, blood oxygen, girls’s well being | Supported Working System: Android 7.0 and above, iOS 12.0 and above | Reminiscence: 2.3GB | Display screen measurement: 1.47” | Waterproof: 5ATM water-proof | GPS: No | Battery life: 18 days
The Amazfit Band 7, just like the Xiaomi Band 8, has the entire exercises you possibly can observe pre-loaded in your wrist. It additionally has a novel interface that permits you to set a customized purpose, like burning 500 energy, earlier than beginning a exercise. Plus, it contains a beneficiant 18 days of battery life (or extra should you allow battery-saver mode).
The Amazfit band has a particular scoring system known as PAI, which stands for “Personal Activity Intelligence.” This metric is derived out of your coronary heart fee throughout all actions (even ones that do not contain tracked exercises) and provides you a numeric rating from 1 to 100. You wish to get your rating as near 100 as potential, by means of exercises and relaxation, to maintain your total coronary heart well being robust. Just like the Xiaomi Good Band 8, the Amazfit Band 7 offers a person a breakdown of their total coronary heart fee zone exercise on the watch face.
The watch additionally has a novel “one tap measure” that offers you insights into your coronary heart fee, blood oxygen ranges and even a stress rating based mostly in your coronary heart fee variability.
There are some downsides to the Band 7, although, particularly that it’s significantly slower than the Xiaomi Good Band 8 in relation to beginning and ending train classes. It additionally doesn’t have a bodily navigation button, making it generally exhausting to exit a web page. That will have been one thing I may have neglected if the watch’s show had been a bit on par with the Xiaomi Band 8’s. Regardless of having an AMOLED colour show, the Band 7’s display was generally exhausting to view even indoors.
It does get brownie factors for being a bit extra snug to sleep in than among the others we examined, but it surely nonetheless takes some getting used to. In the event you do sleep with the Band 7 for per week although, you will get an in-depth sleep evaluation about your susceptibility for circumstances like sleep apnea. The caveat is that you must pay a premium for this extra detailed sleep report. By means of the Zepp app (previously Amazfit) you possibly can pay $10 month-to-month or $50 yearly for a premium subscription, which additionally consists of meditation content material and an AI sleep coach.
- Helps customized purpose setting per exercise
- Good exercise and sleep monitoring
- Snug design
- Sluggish efficiency
- No bodily navigation button
$45 at Amazon
Fitbit
Tracks: Coronary heart fee, sleep, stress, blood oxygen, girls’s well being | Supported Working System: Android 10.0 and above, iOS 15.0 and above | Reminiscence: 6.4GB | Display screen measurement: 0.7” | Waterproof: 5ATM water-proof | GPS: No | Battery life: 10 days
I anticipated extra out of the Fitbit Encourage 3 as a result of, effectively, it’s Fitbit. Additionally, contemplating it is the most costly tracker on the checklist, you’d assume you’d get extra. The tracker does serve its function -– it could document your exercises. Nonetheless, solely 6 sorts of actions could be tracked at a time. So as to add extra area of interest workouts like a weight-lifting routine, you must open the Fitbit app and swap one train widget for an additional. It does give a rudimentary breakdown of your energy burned, coronary heart fee, and the entire belongings you would usually wish to get in a efficiency report. Compared to the Fitbit Cost 6, the Fitbit Encourage 3 doesn’t boast a built-in GPS, so you must take your cellphone with you to precisely document tempo or distance.
One factor I do recognize concerning the Fitbit Encourage 3 is its Energetic Zone Minute breakdown after a exercise is tracked. This can be a characteristic distinctive to Fitbit that calculates how exhausting your exercises have been and the way a lot fats you burned within the course of. The app does a great job of breaking down different well being metrics throughout train and may let you know how a lot restoration you want earlier than your subsequent exercise. It is good to have that data, however the truth that you must pull out your cellphone to get deeper insights could be a nuisance.
The Encourage 3 additionally doesn’t assist you to instantly log menstrual cycle information on it, whereas the Xiaomi Band 8 and Amazfit Band 7 do. The battery life on this tracker is on par with what the corporate says, although. It costs to full in underneath 45 minutes and dies after about 10 days of use. So in between monitoring exercises and gathering sleep information, I didn’t have to fret a lot about lacking an evening of sleep monitoring to cost it in a single day. The Fitbit Encourage 3 is snug to sleep with, possibly even barely extra snug than the Amazfit Band 7, however the truth that its sleep teaching is simply out there for premium Fitbit subscribers does take away from the attraction.
- Helps Energetic Zone Minutes monitoring
- Good battery life
- Snug design
- Can not manually add menstrual cycle information instantly from the band
- A lot of information hidden behind Fitbit Premium paywall
$80 at Kohl’s
Different low cost health trackers we examined
Wyze Watch 47c
I did not have excessive expectations of the Wyze Watch 47c, however I used to be shocked at how little this tracker can do. The 47c can solely observe walks and runs. It has a devoted widget, a small emblem of a person working, and once you faucet it, it begins measuring your tempo, coronary heart fee, energy burned and mileage. It doesn’t auto-detect or auto-pause exercises and it would not differentiate between a run and stroll. Most significantly, this machine can’t observe some other workouts. It’s principally a glorified pedometer.
The 47c was additionally my least favourite to sleep with, primarily as a result of the sq. watch face is so massive and heavy. Even when I did handle to sleep by means of the evening with it on, it solely gave me a fundamental sleep report.
Garmin vivofit 4
The Garmin vivofit 4 has a tiny show that isn’t a touchscreen and all navigation occurs by means of one button. The watch face is not possible to learn open air and the train widget can also be very finicky. To start out monitoring a run, you must maintain down the principle button and flip by means of some pages till you get to a shifting individual icon. As soon as there, you must press the underside proper nook of the bar and maintain down and should you press for too lengthy or within the flawed spot, it’ll change to a different web page, like a stopwatch. It’s extremely irritating.
When you begin a run although, it’ll begin monitoring your steps, your distance — and that is just about it. It doesn’t auto-detect or auto-pause exercises. It would not provide you with a warning of any mileage or calorie milestones.