Best Android smartwatch 2025

When considering the best Android smartwatches, it's no surprise that our list of hand-picked favorites starts with the top Wear OS brands: Samsung, Google, and OnePlus. Their close integration with Android phones, Gemini, and in-depth health insights make them tough to beat.

But having tested dozens of smartwatches as Wearables editor, I can point you to the other "best" watches for those who prioritize specific qualities like battery life, affordability, or style. Not everyone with an Android phone wants a smartwatch that requires daily charging.

The Android Central team has worn, field-tested, and reviewed the picks and alternates below. I've specifically worn and tested seven of our top nine picks, and my colleagues have strongly recommended the other two. These are the best Android smartwatches available today!

Written by

Written by

Michael Hicks

Michael Hicks is Android Central's resident smartwatch geek, having reviewed or tested dozens of wearables from Samsung, Google, Apple, Garmin, Fitbit, Coros, Polar, Withings, Amazfit, and others. He spends his free time running or hiking while wearing several watches at once, testing which is most accurate.

At a glance

Best overall

The redesigned Galaxy Watch 8 raised eyebrows after four years of circular Wear OS models, but despite how polarizing the "cushion" design may be, it doesn't change the fact that Samsung still makes the most consistently reliable Android watches on the market, and the Watch 8 brings back all the features you loved on the Galaxy Watch 7 while adding some new ones.

Our Galaxy Watch 8 reviewer is actually quite the fan of the design. The boxiness allowed Samsung to shrink the overall thickness of the case and the bottom sensor, so it sits much flatter against your wrist. It's light and comfortable, both for workouts and sleep tracking. Samsung collects a ton of useful data during sleep, from Vascular Load and sleep apnea detection to your energy score and circadian rhythm, so comfort at night matters.

If you already own the Watch 7, you'll find the Galaxy Watch 8 vs. 7 comparison isn't so different that you need the new model, especially since Samsung bumped up the price. They still share the same performance and battery life, with most of the same sensors. Unless you want niche tools like the antioxidant index, you can stick with your older model. But the Watch 7 was our "best Android watch" pick for 12 months, so this isn't a knock against the Watch 8.

A new Watch 8 gives you One UI 8 Watch, with perks like upgraded Tiles and the Now Bar; the software feels more Android phone-like than other Wear OS watches, and Samsung will give you four more OS updates through 2029. That kind of value is darn impressive, not to mention you get to enjoy Gemini on your wrist.

Best for Wear OS

The Android Central staff loves the Google Pixel Watch 3. Even though the Galaxy Watch 8 beats it in a few key areas, more of us wear Google's option than Samsung's. Why? It's partly because of its close integration with Pixel and Google Home devices, and partly because we really like its distinct look.

In my Pixel Watch 3 review, I called the upgraded display "the star of the show." Google improved on the Watch 2 display with a thinner border, doubled brightness, and a twice-as-smooth refresh rate. Just as important, it offered two size options for the first time. I prefer the 1.43-inch model because Wear OS 5 reflows content to take advantage of the extra space, while others will like the 1.27-inch option for the daintier design.

Otherwise, when I compared the Pixel Watch 3 vs. 2, I didn't find many differences besides minor boosts to Bluetooth, WiFi, and UWB. Most of the hardware and sensors remain the same; thankfully, we really liked the Pixel Watch 2 (aside from its display). And Wear OS 5 made the Pixel Watch 3 more efficient, so you can sometimes stretch it to almost two days per charge, on par with Samsung.

The Pixel Watch 4 is expected to arrive soon, but this means Google is clearing out Watch 3 stock in preparation, allowing you to save some money if you're interested. The Watch 3 should receive Wear OS 6 soon, and it's already become a more dynamic device thanks to the new Gemini Wear OS app.

Best budget option

When it comes to cheap Android watches, I tend to point to sub-$200 models like the Galaxy Watch FE or step outside of Wear OS into cheap fitness brands. But if you're looking for a quality experience rather than a compromised one, the OnePlus Watch 2R skirts the line better than most affordable watches.

I really liked the OnePlus Watch 2R during my review period because it spared me the daily charges of my other Android watches. It lasts about three days thanks to a large battery and an efficient, proprietary coprocessor that handles background tasks. And once the battery runs low, it'll recharge in an hour.

It also performed quite accurately during a fitness test in terms of GPS, heart rate, and steps. And many people will appreciate its striking look; when I held a smartwatch beauty pageant, the OnePlus Watch 2R beat every other traditional smartwatch, including popular Samsung and Google models.

If you want the best possible quality, the OnePlus Watch 3 later on this list makes significant upgrades. And OnePlus is slow to update its watches, so you'll have to wait until end of summer for Wear OS 5 and next year for Wear OS 6. But the fact that such an affordable watch will continue to get support for so long is reassuring.

Best premium pick

After first releasing the Galaxy Watch Ultra in 2024, Samsung rereleased it with doubled storage and a new Titanium Blue case but otherwise left it unchanged. With the Galaxy Watch 8 adding a 3,000-nit display and the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic adding the Ultra's extra Quick Button, the Watch Ultra doesn't stand out quite as much. Still, power users will want the Ultra's extra day of battery life.

In my Galaxy Watch Ultra review, I highlighted some excellent perks like the excellent fitness accuracy, its better display brightness, and its "undoubtedly faster" performance compared to previous generations. I appreciated the extra Quick Button for shortcuts, though I wished that (A) it doubled as a crown to make up for the missing Classic bezel and (B) it let you add multiple shortcuts outside of workouts.

Like the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, the Watch Ultra has a 590mAh battery, larger than the 325–435mAh capacity found in the Watch 8. It consistently lasts 60+ hours with the always-on display feature active; while it can't match the OnePlus Watch 3, it does mean you won't have daily charging.

Best fitness

The quality of Amazfit watches has climbed significantly in the last couple of years. We originally chose the Amazfit Balance as our favorite budget fitness watch, but the new Balance 2 has reached a level of quality that it deserves to go toe-to-toe with other fitness watch brands, even if it's not quite as affordable as its predecessor.

Its scuba-quality aluminum build, sapphire-glass display with 2,000 nits of brightness, weeks of battery life, offline maps for hiking, golfing, and skiing, and built-in mic and speaker for calling all make this a compelling fitness watch option. Add in the training load and recovery data after workouts and the AI coaching recommendations, and this option will impress athletes used to spending more on a fitness watch.

While we're still reviewing the Amazfit Balance 2, my colleague Nick loves its fitness software, from the auto-tracked reps and muscle groups at the gym to its option to log meals by taking a photo and having the app's AI recognize what it's looking at.

There are some limitations to accept. Without Wear OS, you don't get Google Assistant or Android apps like Spotify, though the Zepp Store does have some utilities and games. Zepp Pay works in Europe but not in the States, limiting tap-to-pay here. But at least there are on-watch options for messaging, and the excellent battery life may be worth those trade-offs.

Best battery life

The OnePlus Watch 3 has the best battery life in a Wear OS watch, easily lasting between four and six days per charge and then recharging in an insane 30–40 minutes, so you almost never need to take it off.

While the OnePlus Watch 2 and Watch 2R had strong battery life, the Watch 3 uses a denser silicon-carbon battery for a further capacity boost. And this model made several key improvements over its flawed predecessors.

The rotating crown is no longer decorative, offering useful controls. The new 1.5-inch LTPO AMOLED display hits a much brighter 2,200 nits but uses flicker-free DC dimming to spare your eyes. And while the Watch 2 had a slow coprocessor that struggled with RTOS tasks, the new 6nm coprocessor has a 200% CPU boost that handles background tasks like sensor readings and notifications without the same bugginess.

Our OnePlus Watch 3 reviewer had tons of praise for the overall experience. It's much more accurate for workout and step tracking, it delivers on OnePlus's battery estimates for real-life use, and it has the "best digital crown on any smartwatch" with excellent haptics.

But he did complain that the Watch 3 can feel a bit heavy if you're not used to Ultra-sized watches. We're still waiting on a smaller OnePlus Watch 3 Mini. And OnePlus will only give the Watch 3 two Wear OS updates — less support than Google and Samsung offer.

Still, this is a great option for fans of OnePlus phones, or Android users in general that need longer battery life than Samsung and Google can offer. And now that OnePlus has dropped the price from $500 to $350, it's more tempting than before.

Best for athletes

You can't discuss the best Android watches and not mention Garmin. Frankly, any of the best Garmin watches could be in the conversation to join this list, and serious athletes will want the Forerunner 970 or Fenix 8 instead. But the Venu 3 is a "mainstream" and high-quality smartwatch that's much more affordable, so it keeps its spot.

As outlined in my Garmin Venu 3 review, it has tools unavailable on most other Garmin watches: a mic and speaker for Bluetooth calls and passthrough voice commands, an ECG sensor, skin temperature data, a Sleep Coach, a keyboard for texting, and a new UI that makes apps more accessible. That makes it less of an adjustment if you're used to "regular" watches.

As for why Garmin watches belong on this list, it's all about the fitness tools. It tells you how fit you are and how much your Body Battery has recharged based on HRV and sleep data. It lets you follow a Garmin Coach training calendar or see daily auto-suggested workouts based on your VO2 Max. After a run, you'll see what kind of training effect it had and how long before your body recovers. The above watches have some of these tricks, but not to the same extent as Garmin.

The Venu 3 itself lasts a ridiculous 2 weeks per charge, or 26 hours of GPS tracking. It has a thinner, steel-edged design compared to most plastic-heavy Garmins, with a bright AMOLED display. It's not the "smartest" watch, in that it has no third-party apps and doesn't communicate with Health Sync, but it's still a great option for athletes.

We may see a Garmin Venu 4 soon, but in the meantime, the 2023 Venu 3 doesn't feel dated at all.

Best health tracking

The Fitbit Sense 2 tracks your heart rate, heart rate variance (HRV), possible atrial fibrillation (AFib), blood oxygen, sleep quality, electrodermal body response (cEDA), stress levels (HRV), and skin temperature. When it first launched in 2022, these were all cutting-edge features; since then, Google coopted Fitbit tech for the superior Pixel Watch 2 and 3, and the Sense 2 became less special.

As someone who owned the original Sense, I appreciated how the Fitbit Sense 2 took advantage of the Fitbit-Google acquisition to add Google Maps and Wallet, as well as use a Wear OS-lite UI that was more intuitive than Fitbit's original OS and the new physical side button instead of the finicky capacitive button that I hated.

At the same time, I agreed with our Fitbit Sense 2 reviewer's frustrated response to the newer watch: Google cut out several smart features, disabling the wifi antenna, removing music storage and playback, cutting out limited third-party apps, and removing Google Assistant support. It was as if Google decided any smarts that weren't Google-branded weren't worth including.

So why include the Sense 2 on this list? Simply put, the fact that it has a bright, skinny AMOLED design and a six-day battery life, and that it's frequently found on sale these days for far less than the Pixel Watch series. If you want the health tools and Fitbit workouts of the Pixel Watch but a better battery life, the Fitbit Sense 2 is a very reasonable alternative. You'll have to accept the lack of smarts and phone integration, but that won't bother everyone.

Since Google has essentially confirmed that there won't be any new Fitbit-branded watches, the Sense 2 is the best option left for the brand for the foreseeable future.

Best hybrid

I'm rounding out this Android smartwatch list by focusing on hybrids. Most smartwatches look good to tech geeks but won't appeal to fans of traditional watches; I previously gave this slot to the Garmin Instinct Crossover for fans of rugged Casio-style timepieces, but I more recently reviewed the Withings ScanWatch 2, and while it certainly isn't perfect, it's a much better option for traditional style paired with useful health insights.

Winner of my informal smartwatch beauty pageant by a landslide, the Withings ScanWatch 2 disguises its small grayscale display so that it's only visible when you lift your wrist in response to a vibration. The tiny cutout is too small to show much information, but it's enough to give you the gist and decide if it's worth pulling out your phone or not.

Packed with health sensors, the ScanWatch 2 will fill your Withings app with data about your resting heart rate, sleep zones, body temperature changes, blood oxygen, and cycles, with a few other metrics like overnight HRV and respiratory rate supposedly coming soon. It also has some basic fitness tracking and accurate HR data during workouts, but the ScanWatch 2 is better suited for passive health tracking and ECG readings.

I wasn't the biggest fan of navigating through menus on the tiny screen, but it's not something that should come up very often. Buy any of the watches above for a proper touch-enabled smartwatch; buy the ScanWatch 2 if you want to shed your life of another distracting AMOLED screen and just want a watch that'll last a few weeks to a month per charge and keep you generally informed — while looking stylish.

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Other watches we tested and recommend

Our picks for the best Android watches focus as much on balance as possible, because we can't know what your priorities are. You might choose the Galaxy Watch Ultra or OnePlus Watch 3 for battery life, but otherwise they bring very different things to the table. And we have other watches in mind that last even longer than both, but do other things worse.

That's why we're including this section on picks that didn't quite make the cut, but still qualify as great Android watches in their own right. They're all devices that I or my colleagues have tested and liked, but may fall short to the above picks in key ways. Still, don't sleep on these watches!

FAQ

What brand makes the best Android smartwatches?

Why you can trust Android Central Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Samsung has the most picks on this list for a reason. You can choose between the premium Watch Ultra, all-rounder Watch 8, mid-level Watch 8 Classic, or affordable Watch FE based on your budget, and get an excellent level of value from even the cheap models.

They get more software support than any other Wear OS watch brand, and since Samsung is the most popular Android brand worldwide, the Galaxy Watch is statistically most likely to sync with your current Android phone, adding exclusive features.

We also like Google and OnePlus for quality Wear OS software, and brands like Garmin for those who use Android but prefer battery life and fitness coaching to responsive messaging or phone-watch app connectivity. But if we can only pick one brand, it's Samsung.

How do I choose smartwatch size?

We've included the weights for our top picks in the specs tables above. Brands measure the weight without the strap to make their watches seem lighter than they are, and every gram matters when you're wearing a smartwatch all day and night.

Several of our top picks ship in two display sizes. While the weight gap between the two Galaxy Watch 8s (4g) and Pixel Watch 3s (6g) isn't that big at first glance, larger models sometimes have larger bands, which can add even more weight. You'll have to weigh whether you can handle a heavier watch in exchange for easier readibility for your notifications.

If you like a larger watch but are concerned about the weight, you can offset it a bit by choosing a nylon strap instead of a fluoroelastomer or metal one.

What features should I look for in a smartwatch?

These are some key smartwatch features that you won't see by default, and may have to go out of your way to find:

• More than one day of battery life
• NFC
• Third-party app support
• Fitness training apps or plans
• LTE support
• Passive AFib detection
• Fall detection
• Multiple tracking satellites
• MIL-STD-810G protection
• Specific controls (e.g., crown, rotating bezel, multiple buttons)
• Specific sensors (e.g., temperature, gyroscope, altimeter)

Of these, we have specific guides on the best smartwatches with LTE so you can make calls or check in without your phone on hand, or the best smartwatches for GPS tracking that offer more than the standard watch antenna that can only follow one satellite at a time.

You'll want to check if your watch supports tap-to-pay, or will register if you've fallen while working out or walking around your home. Folks with heart issues will also want to make sure you can check for irregular heart rhythm, either actively with an ECG or passively with a standard optical HRM.

Also, check the smartwatches' specifications page before buying to make sure you know what you're getting. For example, if you don't see an altimeter, that means your watch can't tell how many flights of stairs you've climbed or properly judge how hard you're working out.

How much battery life do I need in a smartwatch?

Some users can't stand having to take their watch off every 24 hours to charge it. Luckily, there are many multi-day battery life picks on this list.

The Galaxy Watch 8 and Pixel Watch 3 typically last between 1 and 2 days, with features like AOD, voice-activated assistant, and music streaming making them trend down towards daily charges. Even though they're the best Android watches in some areas, they're not the best for battery.

The Galaxy Watch Ultra gives you three-day battery life if you're willing to spend a premium. But you can spend significantly less on a Ticwatch Pro 5 and get comparable performance, or better performance with a OnePlus Watch 3.

Of course, three to five days isn't good enough for some people! If that's the case, then you don't want a traditional smartwatch with a full-fledged OS. You want an efficient fitness watch from Garmin, Fitbit, COROS, Polar, Suunto, or other fitness watch brands. These can last anywhere from a week (the Fitbit Sense 2) to two weeks (Garmin Venu 3), or sometimes even months with something like the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar.

Do smartwatches have a monthly fee?

With a "normal" Android smartwatch, no, you shouldn't have to pay any post-purchase fees. But there are plenty of subscriptions associated with smartwatches.

First, if you buy an LTE version of a smartwatch, then you'll need to add your watch to your cellular plan to make it independent from your phone. The cost for this will vary by carrier, but $10–15 per month is fairly standard in the U.S.

Next, many smartwatches have fitness subscriptions, most notoriously Fitbit Premium on the Pixel Watch 3 and Sense 2. After your six-month free trial ends, you'll have to pay $10 per month for that.

Some of our other picks have optional fitness subscriptions: Garmin watches have Connect Plus, Amazfit watches have Zepp Fitness and Zepp Aura, and Withings has Withings Plus.

Lastly, Samsung has frequently warned that its AI insights are only free through the end of 2025, hinting that Samsung Health might add a subscription for these features in the future. This isn't a guarantee, but the industry is trending in this direction across brands.

How we test

Android Central has been reviewing smartwatches since the original Samsung Gear series a decade ago. Since then, we've taken watches as seriously as phones; we know that smartwatches are both an extension of the Android experience and an important standalone device.

That's why we take weeks with any wearable before offering a "final" review and recommendation. For example, we published an "initial" Pixel Watch 3 review in early September with weeks of impressions, but we didn't publish our "final" Watch 3 review until late October, once we could provide long-term impressions and catch subtle issues.

With each smartwatch, we test its performance speed, battery life for both casual and active use, and its latest software and apps.

Since I took over as Wearables Editor, I've done my best to emulate the testing-heavy approach of popular fitness sites and YouTubers. I never trust the health and fitness data by default: I use chest or arm straps to test heart rate, a pedometer for step count, and multiple dual-band GPS watches to compare accuracy.

I truly mean it when I say that I won't recommend a device without first making sure that it's trustworthy, and I'll never hold back on a device's faults just because it's a popular brand.

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