10 Smartwatches To Flaunt Wearable Tech: The 2022 CRN Mobile 100
As part of the 2022 Mobile 100, CRN stops for a wrist check on 10 cool smartwatches.
10 Smartwatches To Flaunt Wearable Tech
The smartwatch segment is the largest portion of the wearables market. CRN takes a look at some of the most interesting smartwatches currently available.
Smartwatches started off as a novelty that played on our nostalgia for science fiction and old spy movies. But with a booming wearable market, smartwatches have gone beyond fad and have entered our daily lives for good.
The Apple Watch dominated the entire wearables market with a 30.5 market share in the first quarter of 2022, according to research firm IDC. Overall, the wearables market slipped as tech shipments overall have cooled on the consumer side. Still, the top five wearable vendors shipped a total of 108 million units during the first quarter.
“Consumers are increasingly becoming aware of their health and with more pricing options, there seems to be a watch available for everyone,” Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC, said in a statement. “Compeition is also on the rise as smaller brands ramp up their basic health and fitness tracking watches at the low end, and as Google along with Samsung and other Wear OS partners finally become more competitive with Apple at the high end of the spectrum.”
As part of the 2022 Mobile 100, CRN stops for a wrist check on 10 cool smartwatches:
Apple Watch (series 7)
Apple wasn’t the first to market with a smartwatch. They were just the first to make a smartwatch work in the market. Apple has a strange power to clamp shut the mouths of naysayers – “Who’d ever buy a tablet when they can just use a laptop?” they scoffed. “Others have tried the smartwatch and failed…” Those other companies weren’t Apple. And the seventh iteration of its iconic proves the company is still in the game to dominate. They didn’t make sweeping changes to their flagship wearable, but a larger screen, magnetic charging, and new colorways will be enough to win over new fans and keep the faithful happy. The latest Apple Watch is priced at $399.
More Specs and Features on Apple.com
Garmin Vivoactive 4
Garmin makes a strong entry in the fitness watch category with the Vivoactive 4, which gives users touch screen features and an affordable price. The device gives some great features for an entry-level health smartwatch, including a 1.3-inch display, onboard GPS, and maximum battery life of up to 8 days. The Vivoactive 4 is larger than its predecessor and has 5ATM water resistance for showering or light swimming. The Vivoactive 4 is priced at $349.99 but online deal abound.
More Specs and Features on Garmin.com
Fitbit Versa 3
The Versa 3 is an admirable fitness watch that’s marketed towards even the least tech-savvy among us. It has an always-on display, built-in GPS, blood oxygen and temperature tracking during sleep and a six-day battery. The Versa 3 is slicker than its predecessor Fitbit lines, looking more like a higher end smartwatch than a fitness bracelet. Fitbit has packed a host of improvements – both physical and software – to up the health wearable game. While the Versa 3 is not cleared by the FDA as a medical device, it gives you a host of important health information. Featuring an AMOLED display, the Fitbit Versa 3 is priced at $229.
More Specs and Features on Fitbit.com
Samsung Galaxy Watch4
Samsung loves going head-to-head with Apple. And the South Korean IT behemoth is really good at it – sometimes even outpunching the Cupertino, Calif. tech legend. So it’s really not a surprise that Samsung’s flagship smartwatch stands up to Apple’s smartwatch – and does so not through imitation. The Galaxy Watch4 is a sophisticated smartwatch that has everything you want in a wearable, with an Exynos W920 processor, Wear OS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and LTE connectivity. It’s durable and has a battery life of 40 hours. The latest galaxy has all the health and activity features you’d expect, along with smartphone compatibility that meets our enhanced connectivity needs. Track your heart rate, take an ECG and read body composition … and if you’re feeling ambitious, run a bioelectrical impedance analysis for an advanced body composition measurement. The Galaxy Watch4 is priced at $249.99.
More Specs and Features on Samsung.com
Garmin Lily
The Garmin Lily is aimed at the feminine user with a fashionable look, jewelry-inspired design with plenty of tech to track health and more for a reasonable price. The Garmin Lily features a patterned face and a svelte band reminiscent of women’s cocktail watches popular in the 1950s. But this classic look belies some modern technical features that allow Lily to keep track of health stats like blood oxygen saturation, calories burned, energy level, heart rate, respiration, sleep, steps taken and more. It does have some smartwatch features like phone notifications and music playback controls. This dainty gadget starts at $199.99.
More Specs and Features on Garmin.com
Amazfit GTR3 Pro
There’s no denying that fitness features have become a smartwatch staple and probably make up a good portion of the world’s obsession with the little gadgets. The Amazfit GTR3 Pro makes smart use of this marketing, serving up some fitness standards and a few smartphone surprises at an affordable price. This attractive little smart device is compatible with Android and Apple, with some nice (albeit limited) smartwatch features that make this gadget a great band for the buck. The Amazfit GTR 3 Pro is priced at $249.99 but better pricing can be found with some smart shopping.
More Specs and Features on Amazfit.com
Oppo Watch
If nothing else, the Oppo Watch should score a lot of points for taking a different approach to a very familiar design. The first thing people will notice is Oppo’s resemblance to Apple Watch. Oppo has a more exaggerated curve, but the similarities exist nonetheless. This is a very nice looking watch with a great looking display that runs on Wear OS. So, if you are a fan of the Apple design, but love the Wear OS smartwatch platform, this may be worth a look. Oppo features a curved, 1.9-inch display available in 41mm or 46mm cases with a ceramic/plastic construction. It’s not currently available from US retailer or networks. Pricing is around $450 currently.
More Specs and Features on Oppo.com
Huawei Watch GT 3
Smartwatches have all become hybrid fitness devices. Some lean more toward mobile compatibility and some lean more toward the fitness aspect. Huawei Watch GT 3 falls into the latter category. This is a fitness watch with enough smartwatch bonafides to compete with the pack leaders. The GT 3 comes in two sizes: 42mm and 46mm. The largers version has a 1.43-inch display and case that’s 11 mm think. GT 3 offers tracking via GPS, Beidou, GLONASS, Galileo and QzSS – an impressive array of satellite constellations to pinpoint location. Health tracking features, including an Sp02 sensor, abound. Price is about $300 but the device is not available in the U.S.
More Specs and Features on Huawei.com
Fossil Gen 5
Fossil is a well-known brand in the mall/fashion watch industry. They make decent looking quartz watches that are attractive and affordable. But Fossil may have really found their niche crafting well-designed smart watches powered by the Wear OS. For a device that is three years old, the continued success of the Gen 5 makes it a stubborn classic. The watch runs on the Snapdragon 3100 chip, has custom battery modes, lots of RAM and, get this, a built in speaker. The Gen 5 comes in three different models: the Carlyle, the Julianna and the Garret. At the end of the day, this watch has some tried and true features that have allowed it to compete for a long time against competitors who constantly upgrade. Pricing starts at $249.
More Specs and Features on Fossil.com
Google Pixel Watch (announced)
It’s fun to take a look at an announced-but-not-yet-released device and the Google Pixel Watch may be one of the most anticipated examples of that phenomenon. Riding the success of the Google Pixel flagship smartphones, the company doubled down with the watch announcement earlier this year at Google I/O 2022. The watch is slated to arrive this fall alongside the latest Google Pixel 7 smartphones. All of the features are mere rumors so far, but one thing is certain: This watch will be a shot across the bow of the two major smart wearable vendors: Apple and Samsung. Samsung and Apple’s smartwatch offering range in starting prices from $249 to $399 respectively. It’s expected Google’s watch offering will be competitive in that range.
More Specs and Features on Store.Google.com