• Samsung is phasing out the Vascular Load feature on Galaxy Watch in the US
• It's replacing it with Blood Pressure Trend in late July
• Users believe this is due to FDA compliance issues

Samsung's range of smartwatches covers every base when it comes to fitness tracking, but the tech giant is pulling the plug on a health monitoring tool it rolled out only last year. Don't fret; a replacement feature is on the way.

The company’s experimental Vascular Load feature, a tool that was introduced alongside the launch of the Galaxy Watch 8 at last year’s Galaxy Unpacked 2025, will be phased out in the US by late July. Its removal aligns with the upcoming Samsung Health 7.0 and One UI 9 watch updates, but it appears that Vascular Load will still be available to users outside of the US following the changes.

When Samsung removes Vascular Load at the end of the month, you'll no longer be able to access this data in the Samsung Health app. However, you can download your existing data by opening the app and tapping Samsung Health Settings, then find Samsung Health Information to continue.

Users are currently being notified via the Samsung Health app, but the company has yet to issue a wider announcement, which is a little frustrating, as I can imagine users just want a bit of clarity. That said, Samsung isn’t leaving you high and dry.

Vascular load feature being removed in the US from r/GalaxyWatch

To make up for the loss of the Vascular Load monitoring tool, the company is offering an alternative: Blood Pressure Trend — which Samsung says will be available in the upcoming Galaxy Watch (we assume this is referring to the Galaxy Watch 9).

While Vascular Load uses your heart rate data to measure factors like changes in blood volume, Blood Pressure Trend is designed to monitor your blood pressure periodically and show you a trend over time. In addition to this, it will also offer you tips and tricks to help maintain healthy habits.

To get started with Blood Pressure Trend, Samsung highlights in the notification that you’ll need to use a blood pressure cuff with your Galaxy Watch, and then once every 28 days to maintain accuracy (according to Android Authority). The company also shared that Blood Pressure Trend “is for wellness only”, and “not for the diagnosis and treatment of any medical condition”.

It’s still early days, and Galaxy Watch owners are awaiting further information on the upcoming changes, which have sparked online debate regarding the reasons for its US removal.

A vast majority of the online commenters believe that Samsung is concerned about Food and Drug Administration (FDA) compliance — one user says that the FDA often drags out approvals like this. While this idea gives the removal credibility, Samsung has yet to detail the reasons for its decision to stop access to Vascular Load, so we have to take this speculation with a pinch of salt.

If you've been making the most of the sunny weather by getting out and exercising, then you'll no doubt have considered buying one of the best fitness trackers around. But with so many different brands and models to choose from, it can be difficult to decide which is best for you.

Well, maybe the decision became a whole lot easier because the Fitbit Charge 6 is now on sale at Amazon for just £79 (was £139.99). That's a spicy 44% discount for those interested in the numbers.

For the price, it has excellent exercise tracking, sleep tracking, ECG functionality, and irregular rhythm notifications, all of which add up to an impressive feature-rich smartwatch.

Today’s best Fitbit deal

If you've had a look at our Fitbit Charge 6 review, then you'll notice that we only awarded it 3.5 out of five stars. That might put you off, but it's worth stating that the rating was given when we compared it to full-on fitness watches.

If you're only looking for a watch for occasional health tracking and some exercise tracking, then the Charge 6 is well worth a look, especially at this price.

Our reviewer actually concluded by calling it a “solid companion for all kinds of activities", and with a widespread array of features, including an ECG heart health reader and full GPS, there's a lot to commend it.

And let's not forget that it's a Fitbit, which means you get all the benefits of the Fitbit ecosystem with a six-month free trial to Fitbit Premium bundled in.

Still exploring your options? If you're a runner, then one of the latest Garmin deals is worth a look. Alternatively, if you want a better all-rounder with broader smartwatch integration, such as receiving and responding to texts, then have a look at the best smartwatch deals available right now.

• SVP at Samsung says the Galaxy Ring 2 is officially in development
• It could come with a slew of design upgrades as well as deeper integration with other Samsung devices
• The biggest improvement is support for iOS, a first for Samsung wearables

When Samsung released the Galaxy Ring in 2024 it shot to the top of our list of best smart rings, but the Korean tech company has been rather silent on plans for the next-gen wearable — until now.

Speaking with Forbes, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Health Team at Samsung, Hon Pak, shared that the company’s next smart ring (presumably named the Galaxy Ring 2) is officially in development; “We are working on the next generation. I can tell you that,” he shared.

The announcement arrives just after the new Oura Ring 5 hit the shelves which, compared to its predecessor, is roughly 40% smaller with an even longer battery life, although does come with a higher price tag. It’s about time Samsung returned to the smart ring world given how fierce the competition has grown over the last two years — so how will the Galaxy Ring 2 stand against its rivals?

When Samsung released the first Galaxy Ring, Pak described it as “a comprehensive and simplified approach” to health and sleep, and it seems that he wants to build on this across both hardware and software.

For starters, if we look at the Oura Ring 5’s slimmer redesign, it wouldn’t come as a complete surprise if Samsung replicated a similar ‘smaller but tougher’ approach to its own smart ring for added comfort improvements.

Additionally, Samsung could take a page out of Oura’s book and remove skin contact bumps from the inside of the ring, all while extending its battery life — we also predicted that it will come with a solid state battery.

Though design upgrades are likely, Pak hinted that this won’t be the biggest difference with the Galaxy Ring 2. “If you look at the comparison of other rings, regardless of the competitor, the sensors are not that different right now,” he said, adding “It’s really about what services you create on the top layer. It’s really the software differentiation that you see.”

With these remarks in mind, the Galaxy Ring 2’s main focus will be on developing deeper software integration rather than reupholstering the hardware. Pak also shared that Samsung has plans to build on its connected ecosystem to help users receive more accurate metrics and get a better sense of their health habits.

Instead of using just the Galaxy Ring 2's collection of metrics to present the full picture of your well-being, Samsung takes your data from the smart ring and blends it with other devices in its network via the Samsung Health app. This could include Galaxy Watches and smartphones, and even its range of SmartThings home appliances to give you more detailed context into your daily activity and overall well-being.

For users who are deep into Samsung’s ecosystem of devices already, it’s a huge win, but one of the biggest setbacks with the first-gen Galaxy Ring is its lack of support for iOS. While Samsung has the overall edge over the likes of Oura, the latter supports iOS, giving users more reason to opt for its wearables over Samsung’s — but this could change with the Galaxy Ring 2.

In addition to software upgrades, Pak heavily teased that iOS support will finally be coming to the Galaxy Ring; “I’m smiling but I can’t say anything,” he hinted. Out of all the new upgrades, iOS support would throw the biggest curveball into the competition, giving non-Android users even more reason to make the switch to Galaxy Ring over rival wearables.

While it’s not exactly a formal announcement, it’s certainly a promising affirmation of what to expect from the long-awaited wearable. Despite not giving any details on an official launch date, Galaxy Unpacked 2026 is just around the corner where we’re expecting the announcement of the S26 lineup — could Samsung also throw the Galaxy Ring 2 into the mix?

• The Fitbit Air is getting its first software update
• It should fix problems with automatic workout detection
• An old Fitbit app workaround is going away

The first software update for the Fitbit Air is rolling out now, and the hope is that it's going to fix one particular bugbear for users — but there's also bad news for those who are still using the older Fitbit app rather than the Google Health replacement.

First up, the update is rolling out now, as reported by 9to5Google, though you might not see it right away: look for a notification inside the Google Health app that an update is ready. As per Google, it contains "bug fixes and general improvements".

There's a bit more detail in a post on the Google Health support forum from last month, suggesting that there are fixes to exercise tracking, split runs, exercise exports, multiple device support, and how the device deals with lost connectivity when tracking.

As noted by Android Authority, one of the most commonly reported problems on the Fitbit Air has been the inaccurate labeling of workouts that are detected automatically — tagging runs as general workouts, for example — and this issue now seems to have been resolved.

No more Fitbit app workarounds

Google Ending Support for Fitbit App July 15, 2026 from r/fitbit

While a software update is positive news for Fitbit Air owners, those who have been clinging on to the old Fitbit app on their phones won't be pleased that Google has now closed off a workaround for avoiding the upgrade to Google Health.

As explained by Gadgets & Wearables, some users have been sideloading older versions of the Fitbit app: these older versions don't get automatically replaced by Google Health, so it's a way of sticking with the old app interface and layout.

From July 15 though, these older versions of the Fitbit app are going to stop working. Users will have no choice but to switch to Google Health, which moves around a lot of the key elements on screen and introduces a new AI coach.

Fitbit fans have been complaining loudly about the changes that the Google Health app brings with it, and many are unhappy about being forced to upgrade: "I think I'm going to have to find an alternative to the AI slop," writes one Redditor.

The countdown to the end Amazon Prime Day has officially started and after today, all the deals you didn't take advantage of will be gone, so take this as a nudge to make the most of what's still available.

One of this year's most popular products have been the best fitness trackers but despite the popularity, there are still plenty left on Amazon to our surprise. And the best thing is that you don't have to break the bank to get started with your new fitness craze — I've selected four that are under $100.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

Fitbit devices are usually your best shot at scoring a fitness tracker that's not only affordable and beginner-friendly, but on that's going to cover every health tracking tool you'll ever need — even if you know you'll use some more than others.

Right now, the biggest saving you can score is on the Fitbit Charge 6 which is now $85.45 down from $159.95, taking it to its lowest-ever price and saving you $70 at the same time. However, it doesn't end there, and there's more than meets the eye when it comes to Prime Day deals on wearables.

Today's best fitness tracker deals in the UK

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

It's the last day of this year's big Amazon Prime Day sales event, and I assumed many of the discounts were pretty much fixed at this point. However, I certainly didn't see a second price drop on the Oura Ring 4 coming today.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

Our engagement editor Amelia Schwanke wrote about the 4.5-star Oura Ring 4 hitting a record low price earlier in the week, but I'm excited to report that it's dropped even further, as you can get the Oura Ring 4 for just £199.99 (was £349.99) at Amazon in Black, Brushed Silver, Silver, and Stealth colours. The Gold and Rose Gold colours are still a little bit more expensive at £229.99, but even if you do want to shell out for these, it's a hell of a deal.

Check it out below. If you're in the US and you've found yourself here, there's good news too — you can also get the Oura Ring 4 for just $226 (was $349).

Today's best Oura Ring 4 deals

It's an incredible piece of technology (it even won our health and fitness device of the year award), made even better by this crazy discount. Remember: Prime Day ends tonight, so you don't have long to snap this up.

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

The sun is setting on this year's Amazon Prime Day, but thankfully, the offers on the best fitness trackers haven't gone anywhere.

Finding a new fitness tracker can be a little overwhelming given all the options that are available, but if it's a simple, easy-to-use yet effective device you're after then the search becomes a lot easier.

I've chosen five of the best deals on entry-level fitness trackers, and the best part is that they're mostly under £100 (one is just a few pounds over), so you can start your fitness journey without breaking the bank.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

The standout deal for me is the Fitbit Charge 6, one of our favorite devices, which is down to a record-low £75.05 (was £139.99). You can also snag the Fitbit Inspire 3 for even cheaper at £59.99 (was £84.99).

If you've been thinking about taking the plunge and getting a new fitness wearable, this could be your final chance to bag some of these deals for a while, so don't miss it!

Today's best fitness tracker deals in the UK

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire, Ring & Blink from £13.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: up to 33% off AirPods & Apple Watch
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja & Tefal
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from £5
• Fans: from £20
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: £90 off PlayStation 5
• Headphones: up to 50% off Beats & Sony
• Laptops: from £149
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £79.99
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Shark & Roborock
• Wearables: up to 30% off Garmin & Oura

As TechRadar's Senior Fitness and Wearables Editor, I'm usually testing at least one smartwatch, and sometimes two at once. But occasionally I get overwhelmed with the volley of notifications or the compulsion to check my metrics, and swap the tracker out with something more discrete and screenless.

I'm not the only one. 'Focus' wearables are on the rise, be they fitness bands without screens, smart rings, or something else like hybrid watches. They're different form factors, but they all do fundamentally the same thing — passively track your health and fitness in the background, rather than actively show you information during a workout like the best smartwatches.

Below is a trio of fitness trackers I've personally tested, along with my verdict about what kind of person they're best suited for — and where to find the best deals for Amazon Prime Day.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

If you dislike the idea of a smartwatch but still want a useful fitness tracker — maybe you want to wear a proper analog/digital watch — then I would recommend you start your search by looking at these three wearables.

1. Google Fitbit Air

• Best for: everyday exercise, budget buyers

I recently reviewed the Google Fitbit Air and really liked it. The old Fitbits have been redesigned as a screenless fitness tracker, around 12g including strap, with all the information being fed into the app so you can check it at your leisure. There's a haptic alarm you can tap to get rid of, but that's really all the interaction you have with the wristband, other than charging it around once a week.

It's very comfortable to wear during sleep because of its lightweight, and it cleaves very close to chest-based heart rate monitors and the likes of the top-tier Apple Watch Ultra 3. It's very popular because it's cheap too, at just $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199 — at its base tier.

It does have an AI-powered premium health coach attached, which is an optional extra costing $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$14.99 a month, or $99.99 / £79.99 / AU$140 annually. Without this, you get your base stats such as sleep, steps, recovery, heart rate, and workout tracking. As you'll see later on in this article, premium tiers and subscriptions are becoming a theme. But whether you choose to subscribe or not, the Fitbit Air remains a solid choice for screenless tracking.

Read our full Google Fitbit Air review

2. Oura Ring 4

• Best for: holistic wellness, sleep tracking

The Oura Ring 5 is out, true, but that just means there are lots of deals on the Oura Ring 4 this week. Another subscription-based wearable, starting at $349 / £349 (less if you snag a Prime Day deal) with a $5.99-in-all-regions subscription attached, the Oura Ring 4 sits firmly at the premium end of the finger.

But it is undeniably impressive. It's even more comfortable than the Fitbit above (and thus a top-tier sleep tracker), boasts accurate metrics, and has an impressive suite of features, including a tag-based system to allow you to add context to your day's metrics and a sophisticated auto-exercise detection feature. It emphasizes holistic wellbeing, with emphasis on balance and mindfulness, even if the option for in-app blood tests is a bit creepy and, for want of a better word, 'biohacky'.

It comes in a range of finishes and colors, so it is a lot more discreet than the cheap plastic Fitbit. Price aside, it's an excellent fitness tracker, and the Prime Day deals should help soften that blow.

Read our full Oura Ring 4 review

3. Whoop 5.0

• Best for: serious athletes, optimizers

The screenless fitness tracking pioneer, Whoop is a wearable for perpetual optimizers. Whoop is designed to effectively be never taken off: the charging puck included with two of Whoop's three membership tiers effectively allows you to charge the device while it's still attached to your wrist, so you need never, ever take it off at all. Whoop collects and organizes an enormous amount of data, spitting it out in the form of all sorts of metrics, from your Whoop Age to its proprietary Strain score.

Its app is fantastic, implementing AI features well and housing an intuitive, comprehensive workout builder for gym rats. It's an excellent device for competitive athletes, casual CrossFit and Hyrox enthusiasts, and weekend warriors.

But Whoop is a premium device which you don't exactly buy: you rent access to it each year, starting at £169 / $199 / AU$299 per year for the Whoop One 5.0 and rising to £229 / $239 / AU$419 per year for the premium Whoop Peak tier, which nets you extra features like Whoop Age.

The highest tier is Whoop Life, which gets you a premium Whoop MG device with medical-grade heart health features, costing £349 / $359 / AU$629 per year. In my opinion, paying that each year in perpetuity doesn't represent good value — unless you can score an Amazon Prime Day deal on it.

Read our full Whoop MG review

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire, Ring & Blink from £13.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: up to 33% off AirPods & Apple Watch
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja & Tefal
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from £5
• Fans: from £20
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: £90 off PlayStation 5
• Headphones: up to 50% off Beats & Sony
• Laptops: from £149
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £79.99
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Shark & Roborock
• Wearables: up to 30% off Garmin & Oura

An Amazon Prime Day deal on Garmin’s Vivoactive 6 for £169 (was £225.62) has tempted me to jump back into the smartwatch arena after a bad experience with an Apple Watch caused me to abandon smartwatches entirely.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

I don’t run or jog and I’m not overly obsessed with statistics about how well I slept and how many steps I’ve taken today, but I think it’s time I got a smartwatch again.

My colleague Matt Evans first brought the Garmin Vivoactive 5 for £117 (was £174.99) to my attention with the great price he’d found it for as part of Amazon Prime Day.

But after researching the Vivoactive range for a little while I decided I actually wanted the Garmin Vivoactive 6 (currently on our best Garmin watches list) and the chance of saving 25% was too tempting — I was sold.

Today's best Garmin Vivoactive 6 deals

Slave to technology

It’s not that I hated my Apple Watch, I just couldn’t be bothered to keep charging it every day. I actually started to resent the watch because it was forcing me into this daily ritual of caring for it that felt like I was a slave to technology, not the other way around.

The main thing that attracted me to the Garmin was that it’s got an 11-day battery life. Why hasn’t Apple made something that will last that long on a single charge? Yes, I know that you can do more with an Apple Watch, but I rarely used the voice control features.

I have definitely missed some aspects of not having a smartwatch. For example, notifications on my wrist are a lot easier to deal with than having to fish my phone out of my jeans pocket to see the latest Whatsapp from a family member.

It’s the same with payments — having the device on my wrist would make it a lot easier to pay for things when my hands are full. And finally, general health tracking, including sleep tracking, would be nice to get back into. I’ve got more and more curious about what kind of sleep quality I’m getting, and even if it’s just counting my steps all day. I miss having all those stats at my fingertips.

Body Battery Score

There is a Garmin subscription service called Garmin Connect+ that has AI and coaching features I don’t want or need, but you’re not required to join it to get any of the watch’s features to work. All the health and fitness features remain gloriously subscription-free.

In fact, the only downside I can see with the Garmin is to do with transferring music to it. I’ve got a subscription to Apple Music, not Spotify, and you need Amazon Music or Spotify Premium to transfer music to a Garmin. (You can transfer MP3 files you've purchased, of course), but if I eventually get back into jogging I might have to be content with podcasts if I want to leave my phone behind.

I'm looking forward to getting to play with a smartwatch again, and to seeing whether Garmin's much-praised Body Battery score really is as useful as its fans claim. But mostly, I'm curious to find out whether a smartwatch has finally become something I actually want to wear every day.

The irony is that the feature that brought me back isn't AI, advanced health tracking, or even fitness coaching. It's battery life. After years of increasingly clever gadgets demanding more of my attention, the thing that finally tempted me back was a watch that promises to stay out of the way for nearly two weeks at a time.

If the Vivoactive 6 can manage that while quietly handling my notifications, music, payments, and the occasional sleep report, then it might just convince me that smartwatches were worth another chance after all.

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire, Ring & Blink from £13.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: up to 33% off AirPods & Apple Watch
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja & Tefal
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from £5
• Fans: from £20
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: £90 off PlayStation 5
• Headphones: up to 50% off Beats & Sony
• Laptops: from £149
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £79.99
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Shark & Roborock
• Wearables: up to 30% off Garmin & Oura

• Real-life experiment shows bug spray can kill Fitbit Airs
• It's to do with the chemicals inside the repellent
• Spray carefully, as you won't be covered under warranty

Here at TechRadar we've been rather impressed by what the Fitbit Air has to offer, but one unfortunate user has found out the hard way that you shouldn't use bug spray when the fitness tracker is wrapped around your wrist.

The problematic incident was recorded on Reddit (via Phandroid), and it seems that a thorough and protective application of bug spray has eaten into the plastic component of the Fitbit Air, stopping it from functioning.

"Went on a hike this weekend with my Fitbit Air," reads the original Reddit post. "I've had it for 14 days now, and I found out that bug spray will destroy it. I had put some on the cuffs of my hiking shirt and it transferred over to the device and broke down the plastic."

To make matters worse, the user reports that the same fate befell his wife's Fitbit too (though it's not clear if that's also a Fitbit Air). The original post ends with a recommendation to "save your cash for something built better".

Little sympathy

Fitbit air and bug spray don't mix from r/fitbit

The Reddit detectives went straight to work, determining that it was likely the chemical DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) causing the problem. It's widely used in insect repellents, and is pretty harsh on plastics as well as bugs.

And sympathy seems to be in short supply on the Reddit thread. "The documentation very clearly states that it shouldn't come in contact with sunscreens and bug sprays," writes one poster, while another says: "This is on you buddy."

Google isn't being particularly sympathetic either, telling the affected user that the damage counts as environmental or accidental damage, and so isn't covered under the warranty. No replacement Fitbit Air will be forthcoming in this case.

There have been other stories like this in recent days, so it seems a substantial number of people aren't aware about the damage that insect repellent can do. As ever, always read the small print — on both your fitness trackers and your bug sprays.

Every smartwatch and fitness tracker comes with heart rate tracking, but they're not all accurate, so we test them against a Polar H10 chest-mounted heart rate monitor. The Polar H10 is used by athletes all around the world, and can be linked to a smartwatch to provide incredibly accurate metrics using its electrode system. Now it's on offer in the Amazon Prime Day sales, and if you care about fitness tracking, you should probably get one.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

The Polar H10 works with a strap that goes around your ribcage underneath your heart, and connects the device to the electrodes running along the underside of your band. These electrodes monitor the electricity generated by your heart when it expands and contracts.

This is very different to (and more reliable than) the way smartwatches and the best fitness trackers measure your heart rate on your wrist. These devices use LED-based optical heart rate monitors, shining lights through your skin to measure your heart rate by detecting the changes in your blood flow. Electrical heart rate monitors are simply more accurate.

Fortunately, most smartwatches allow you to pair up a heart rate monitor like the Polar H10 via Bluetooth or ANT+ networks, so you can incorporate the more accurate data from the chest strap into your recovery and health metrics. Most heart rate monitor users tend to wear them only during workouts for the more accurate data, then rely on other fitness trackers for a general 24/7 overview. So, if you care about your fitness tracking and you already have a smartwatch you like, the Polar H10 should be your next purchase.

Where to buy

Right now, you can get the Polar H10 heart rate monitor (with black M-XXL strap) for $76.99 (was $104.95) at Amazon US. Those who need a small strap will need to pay a little extra — it's in XS-S for $89.21 (was $104.95) so you still get a little discount.

In the UK, you can get the Polar H10 with XS-S strap for £59.92 (was £70.49) and the Polar H10 with M-XXL strap for £65.99 (was £86.70).

Polar alternatives

There are other heart rate monitor designs out there, such as the more expensive Garmin HRM 600 that interfaces with the Garmin Connect app in a less roundabout way than Polar.

Armbands exist too, if you prefer those to chest straps, although these tend to use optical technology rather than electrodes. The Polar Verity Sense and Coros Heart Rate Monitor are armbands, and during testing they've proved nearly as accurate as the H10 due to the placement on the arm being better than the wrist. Check out the best deals on those products below.

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Amazon Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire TV, Ring & Blink from £21.99
• Apple: AirPods Pro 3 for a record-low price
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja, Tefal & Sage
• Essentials: household goods from under £10
• Laptops: from £149.99
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £125
• TVs: from £129.99

The Amazfit Active 2 got a whopping five stars in our review, because a watch this good simply shouldn't be this cheap. Now the Amazfit Active 2 Premium, which boasts a sapphire-glass screen and NFC payments in addition to the base Active 2's suite of health features, has received an Amazon Prime Day price cut in the US and the UK, and it's the perfect price point for anyone who's looking for a cheaper fitness tracker, and who's dissatisfied with the changes to the former Fitbit app as a result of its rebranding as Google Health.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

Right now, you can get the Amazfit Active 2 Premium at Amazon US for $108.99 (was $129.99). In the UK, you can get the Amazfit Active 2 Premium at Amazon UK for £104.49 (was £129.99). Check out the deals in full below:

Today's best Amazfit Active 2 Prime Day deals

As we previously reported, many people aren't happy with the changes that have been made to the Fitbit app as part of its rebranding to Google Health, and are looking for alternatives — but most of the best-known alternative device ecosystems such as Garmin, Apple and Samsung are prohibitively expensive.

Not so with the Amazfit Active 2 Premium, which gives you a lot of great smartwatch features for comparatively little money. Those looking to move away from smartwatches like the Fitbit Sense or Versa ranges, or trackers like the Charge 6, will find the Active 2 Premium is now attractively priced, and offers a lot of great features.

The other recommendation I'm making this week is the Garmin Vivoactive 5, another smartwatch that, thanks to Amazon Prime Day discounts, is not excellent value. You can check out the best deals on this watch below.

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Amazon Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire TV, Ring & Blink from £21.99
• Apple: AirPods Pro 3 for a record-low price
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja, Tefal & Sage
• Essentials: household goods from under £10
• Laptops: from £149.99
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £125
• TVs: from £129.99

It's a tale as old as tech time: a new flagship device appears on the scene, which means the device it's replacing gets a price drop, and potentially offers better value for money for the discerning gadget buyer.

For this guide, we're going to be looking specifically at the Oura Ring 4 (which launched in 2024) and the Oura Ring 5 (launched in 2026). The Oura Ring 4 is likely to see some great Amazon Prime Day deals, but should you go all in on the latest and most expensive model? Or is the older model the better investment when bought at a discount?

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

There's no doubt that both models qualify as two of the best smart rings on the market right now, but which one is right for you depends on your budget and what your priorities are. Here's how they compare.

Oura Ring 5 vs Oura Ring 4: pricing

While pricing varies as special offers come and go, the Oura Ring 5 launched for a starting price of $399 / £399 / AU$649, with some finishes costing extra at $499 / £499 / AU$799 – that's a little more expensive than the original Oura Ring 4 (note that the prices for Australia are for third-party resellers, not from Oura directly).

There's an upgraded charging case available for $99 / £99 / AU$159 for the Oura Ring 5, and then there's the monthly subscription: $5.99 / £5.99 / AU$9.99 a month or $69.99 / £69.99 / AU$109.99 a year. While a subscription isn't technically necessary to use an Oura Ring, you do need one to access the bulk of its features.

So what about Oura Ring 4 price drops? At the time of writing, the starting price is $349 / £349 if you go through the official channels, and we're seeing some good deals on the Oura Ring 4 already, which you can find below. Given that it's an older model, you're much more likely to see discounts on this smart ring on both the Oura shop and third-party retailers like Amazon.

Oura Ring 5 vs Oura Ring 4: specs and features

What you need to know first is that the Oura Ring 5 is notably slimmer than the Oura Ring 4: for the most affordable finishes, it's 6.09 mm (0.24 inches) wide and 2.28 mm (0.09 inches) thick, down from 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) and 2.8 mm (0.11 inches), which is a reduction of about 40%.

That can make a difference when it comes to comfort and day-to-day wear. The new model is lighter too, with those reduced dimensions, weighing 2 grams rather than 3.3 grams. Both models are available in a variety of ring sizes to fit your finger, though the Oura Ring 5 introduces a new sizing scheme that doesn't match its predecessor.

The Oura Ring 5 is also more scratch resistant, while both models offer the same level of waterproofing (down to a depth of 100 meters). Battery life has been improved on the new model too, with the official estimates standing at 5-8 days for the Oura Ring 4, and 6-9 days for the Oura Ring 5.

As for sensors and health tracking features, this is where the rings are mostly tied. Oura says the fifth-generation model is more accurate because of a change in the sensor layout, but the core sensor tech is the same between the two models, and the software experience through the app is the same for tracking steps, activity, heart rate, and more.

Oura Ring 5 vs Oura Ring 4: Verdict

There's clearly a lot that's new and improved in the Oura Ring 5: it's slimmer and lighter, and offers better battery life. Oura says it's also more accurate, though that's not something we've finished testing ourselves just yet. That said, the tracking capabilities, sensors, and app features are more or less identical between the models.

Where the Oura Ring 4 really has the potential to outdo the newer model is in terms of pricing. As time goes on, you're likely to see bigger and bigger discounts on the fourth-generation model — and don't forget that we awarded it our Health & Fitness Device of the Year award for 2025. It's a seriously impressive bit of kit, and if the right discount comes along during Amazon Prime Day, it'll certainly be a better-value package than the Ring 5.

Regardless, you'll need to weigh up what's most important to you for your next smart ring, and how much you're prepared to spend to get it. Both of these premium smart rings from Oura will give you years of use — so we might be talking about the Oura Ring 6 before you need to think about upgrading again.

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.99
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $29
• Beauty: 50% off toothbrushes & hair tools
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Garden: tools, mowers, planters from $24.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $186
• Patio: outdoor furniture, rugs & decor from $19.99
• Sports: 50% off fitness gear, treadmills & clothing
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $34

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: sign up for a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: Fire TV, Ring & Blink from £24.99
• Amazon Haul: up to 30% off
• Apple: AirPods Pro 3 for a record-low price
• Appliances: up to 45% off Ninja, Tefal & Sage
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: household goods from under £10
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Headphones: up to 50% off
• Laptops: from £149.99
• Tablets: Samsung & Lenovo from £125
• Toys: up to 25% off Lego and Tonies
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 40% off Eufy & Roborock
• Wearables: Garmin & Huawei from £36.99

I'm still using my Apple Watch SE 2, and while it's an easy-to-use device that gets me through my day I was bitterly disappointed to learn that Apple is shutting it out of the upcoming watchOS 27 rollout, along with a slew of other devices.

Luckily, Amazon Prime Day is just around the corner and there are already early deals on the best Apple Watches. If you're in the same boat as me and want to get a kick out of watchOS 27 but your device is being shunned, stay put.

• Browse all the early Prime Day deals

The best part about these early deals is that each of Apple's new wearable models have a discount in some shape or form. For me, the Apple Watch Series 11 tops the list not just because it's now $279 down from $399 (£317 in the UK), but because it sits perfectly between the basic Apple Watch SE 3 and the advanced Apple Watch Ultra 3, both of which are also discounted ahead of Prime Day.

Why does having watchOS 27 matter? I can see most people getting by quite fine with watchOS 26, but for me it's a huge revamp for the smartwatch experience. For starters, the new Siri AI comes to your wrist, and although EU restrictions will delay its arrival, there are other upgrades to look forward to like its redesigned app grid and its added Workout Buddy insights.

In addition, watchOS 26-only watches will only get security updates from hereon out, becoming increasingly out of date as future upgrades arrive each year.

Best US Apple Watch deals

Best UK Apple Watch deals

When I tested the Google Fitbit Air recently, I rated its new app powered by an AI fitness coach to be quite useful, on the whole, but acknowledged that it's not for everyone. The structure of the app is messy and cluttered, and in order to create this new AI-forward app experience, the existing Fitbit app was bulldozed, with cornerstones like challenges and badges deleted.

Furious users took to forums, Reddit, YouTube comments and even our inbox to vent their frustrations. Plenty of people aren't happy that their library of historic digital rewards were deleted, and their regular app has been completed retooled into an AI experience they didn't want.

For those interested in switching, the Garmin Vivoactive 5 is an ideal purchase. For one thing, it's on sale at Amazon right now in both the US and the UK as a result of the Amazon Prime Day deals. Right now, you can get the Garmin Vivoactive 5 at Amazon US for $189.99 (was $299.99), which is just $10 away from its lowest price ever according to our deals-checking tools. In the UK, you can get the Garmin Vivoactive 5 at Amazon UK for £149.99 (was £209.99), a lowest-ever price. Check out both deals in full below:

The best Garmin watches are normally very expensive, but Amazon Prime Day is an excellent opportunity to snap up a good Garmin deal. At $190 / £150, this deal on the Vivoactive 5 isn't too far off a Fitbit Charge 6's price tag, making it an ideal purchase for disenfranchised Fitbit users looking to switch.

I've personally tested this watch and it's great: it's a smartwatch yes, so you do get some notification and connection features, but it's mainly a fitness tracker and an excellent one at that, all while being equipped with Garmin's stellar GPS features.

In our review, we called it "an excellent watch for those with an active lifestyle, who might not be power users or marathon runners". I'd agree with that assessment, although it's also got the juice and some advanced in-app running features to help you train for your first marathon should you wish to do so. Now the Vivoactive 6 is out, the Vivoactive 5 is dropping to record-low prices, making it temporarily better value for budget-conscious buyers.

Amazon Prime Day Garmin deals: Quick links

• Garmin deals in the US
• Garmin deals in the UK

Circular Ring 2: One minute review

The Circular Ring 2 is an ambitious smart ring. On paper, it has almost everything you need. Alongside standard health, recovery and sleep tracking, it offers features you won't find on many rivals, including electrocardiogram (ECG) readings and atrial fibrillation (AFib) detection. Circular is also promising blood pressure and blood glucose trend monitoring in future updates.

At first glance, it feels like a genuine challenger to the likes of Oura, RingConn and Samsung. The ring itself looks good, feels lightweight on the finger and comes with a charging case, which is a welcome upgrade over the previous Circular model. Battery life is solid too, lasting around six days during my testing.

But unfortunately, the day-to-day experience doesn't live up to that impressive spec sheet.

The biggest issue is the software. Smart rings don't have screens, which means the app is incredibly important. That's where the Circular Ring 2 struggles the most.

Syncing regularly took several minutes, occasionally failed altogether and often required multiple attempts. Several times I opened the app to check my data, waited for it to sync, gave up and closed it again.

The app itself feels cluttered and unintuitive. Health data is scattered across multiple screens, navigation can be confusing and the language often feels strangely robotic.

One morning, for example, I was told my sleep was "Incorrect" and the next my wellness summary informed me: "Your sleep was correct. Your energy seems low. Your body and mind are unbalanced." Rather than helping me understand my health, experiences like this often left me more confused.

Some of the ring's most exciting features also failed to impress. ECG and AFib monitoring never fully worked during my testing, while promised blood pressure and glucose tracking features have yet to arrive.

What makes all of this especially frustrating is that when I revisited my Circular Ring Slim review from back in 2024, I found many of the same complaints. The hardware has definitely improved, but the software experience still feels a step behind the competition.

The Circular Ring 2 isn't a bad smart ring. It has a good design, respectable battery life and an ambitious feature set. But in a market increasingly dominated by the best smart rings from polished competitors like Oura, RingConn and Samsung, ambition alone isn't enough. Right now, Circular still feels like a company with great ideas struggling to execute them.

Circular Ring 2: Specifications

Circular Ring 2: Price and availability

• Pricing starts at £280 / $349 / AU$497
• Rolled out after a Kickstarter release in late 2025 / early 2026
• No subscription needed, but premium features expected soon

Rather than arriving as a traditional retail release, the Circular Ring 2 began life as a Kickstarter project in 2025 before gradually rolling out to customers through late 2025 and into 2026.

Pricing starts at £280 / $349 / AU$497 for the black version, rising to £360 / $449 / AU$639 for the silver model I tested. The gold and rose gold finishes sit at the top of the range at £440 / $549 / AU$782.

At first glance, the Circular Ring 2 looks competitively priced. One of its biggest selling points is that it doesn't require a mandatory subscription to access core features, unlike the Oura Ring 4, which starts at £349 / $349 / AU$534 and also requires an additional monthly membership fee of £5.99 / $5.99

However, the picture becomes a little more complicated when you look closer. Circular is already promoting upcoming premium features, including blood pressure and blood glucose trend monitoring, which aren't available but are expected soon. The company says these features will either require a subscription or can be unlocked using Circular Coins, which are earned through regular use, but details remain limited and pricing has yet to be confirmed.

Looking across the wider smart ring market, the Circular Ring 2 sits in a crowded middle ground. It's cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Ring, which starts at £399 / $399 / AU$699, but more expensive than the RingConn Gen 2 at £299 / $299 / AU$460. There are also budget-focused options now, like the Amazfit Helio Ring, which costs significantly less at £149.90 / $149.99 / AU$269.

The problem isn't necessarily the asking price here but more that the performance doesn't justify it. While the Circular Ring 2 undercuts some of the biggest names in the category, like Oura, Samsung and RingConn, they all currently offer a more polished experience. That makes the Circular Ring 2 difficult to view as good value, even before any future premium features are brought into the equation.

• Value score: 2.5/5

Circular Ring 2: Design

• Lightweight, slim design
• Silver color doesn’t scratch
• Nice new charging case included

I liked the design of the Circular Ring 2. The fit was very comfortable throughout testing, even when I was sleeping, and at just 2g it felt light on my finger. The silver finish also looks fairly premium.

Circular offers a wide range of sizes here, from 6 to 14, which beats most rivals. I tested a size 8 on my left index finger, which matched the recommendation from Circular's new digital AI sizing tool.

While the company still offers a traditional sizing kit as well, it's nice to see a less wasteful digital alternative that actually proved accurate in my case. Especially considering you’ll need to pay an extra £5 / $5 for Circular's traditional sizing kit.

The Circular Ring 2 has softer, more rounded edges than rivals like the RingConn Gen 2 or previous Circular Ring Slim. Whether that's a positive or negative will come down to personal preference, but it does make the ring feel slightly chunkier than some competitors despite it being one of the slimmest choices available at 2.5mm thick. A small circular logo on the outer edge makes it easy to get the right way round so that the sensors are where they need to be.

I tested the silver model, which I'd recommend over the black version. Black smart rings tend to show scratches more easily, and that was one of the big problems on the previous Circular Ring Slim. After two weeks of wear, my ring had picked up a few minor scuffs but was in good condition overall.

Another welcome improvement here is the charging case. Unlike the Circular Ring Slim, which relied on a charging cable and small plinth, the Ring 2 ships with a compact clamshell charging case that's easy to carry and use.

Overall, the ring's design is one of the Circular Ring 2's biggest strengths. The company has clearly refined the hardware. Unfortunately, as we'll see later, the software hasn't evolved at the same pace.

• Design Score: 4/5

Circular Ring 2: Features

• Lots of features
• ECG and AFib
• Glucose and blood pressure readings on the way

The Circular Ring 2 has an ambitious set of features. Alongside standard health, sleep and activity tracking, it measures metrics like heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), skin temperature and breathing rate.

There are also women's health features designed to track hormonal shifts and fertility, plus stress monitoring, guided breathing exercises, medication reminders and an AI assistant called Kira.

The headline features are ECG measurements and AFib detection, both of which are rare in smart rings. Circular is also promising blood pressure and blood glucose trend monitoring in future updates, though neither feature was available during testing and both will sit behind a premium-ish model when they arrive. Blood pressure is not easy to measure with LED-based optical heart rate sensors, without an inflatable cuff for calibration: it will be interesting to see what form the blood pressure feature eventually takes, and whether it will be accurate.

On paper, it's an impressive package that rivals, and in some cases actually exceeds, what you'll find from bigger names in this space.

• Features Score: 4/5

Circular Ring 2: Performance

• Disappointing app
• Slow to sync and update
• Battery life is improved

The Circular Ring 2 made a good first impression. Basic metrics like steps, heart rate and sleep tracking all seemed reasonable during the first few days of testing. But the longer I wore it, the more problems started to emerge.

The biggest issue is the app. Smart rings don't have screens, which means if you think about it, the app effectively is the product, much like a Whoop band. That's where the Circular Ring 2 falls behind rivals.

Syncing is frustratingly slow. Pulling data from the ring often took several minutes and occasionally failed altogether, forcing me to try again. That might sound like a small complaint, but it adds unnecessary friction. Several times I found myself opening the app, waiting for data to sync, then simply closing it again. If I owned this ring long-term, I suspect I'd eventually stop checking the app altogether.

The app itself feels cluttered and unintuitive. Health insights, scores, charts and features are scattered across multiple screens, while the home page is filled with circles, cards and widgets competing for attention. Even as someone who tests wearables for a living, I often found it harder than it should be to locate specific information.

The language doesn't help either. As mentioned above, the app kept telling me my sleep was “Incorrect”, or my body was "unbalanced", which left me confused rather than enlightened.

The AI assistant, Kira, wasn't much better, largely repackaging existing data in a confusing format with tiny fonts and a huge chunk of text with generic recommendations, like "stay hydrated". Some of the ring's most exciting features also failed to deliver. ECG and AFib monitoring never fully worked during my testing, repeatedly getting stuck on a loading screen.

Sleep tracking was generally accurate when I followed a conventional sleep schedule, but it struggled with fragmented sleep and occasionally recorded inaccurate sleep times. On several occasions I woke up for a few hours before going back to sleep, only for the ring to record the entire period as one continuous sleep session.

Workout tracking isn’t what smart rings do best. But here it still feels like an afterthought. Sports Sessions are hidden away, must be started manually and there's no automatic workout detection, unlike competitors like the Oura Ring 4 and Samsung Galaxy Ring. I also experienced a handful of smaller bugs, including random disconnections and occasional time zone changes despite not travelling anywhere.

Battery life is one area where the Circular Ring 2 performs well. Circular promises up to five days in Performance Mode and I managed six days during testing. That's competitive with most major rivals and a significant improvement over the Circular Ring Slim.

Overall, the Circular Ring 2 feels like a smart ring with excellent ideas but inconsistent execution. Yes, the hardware is good, the feature list is impressive and the battery life is solid. But the software experience remains frustratingly rough around the edges, and in an increasingly competitive smart ring market, that's difficult to overlook.

• Performance score: 2.5/5

Circular Ring 2: Scorecard

Circular Ring 2: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested

I tested the Circular Ring 2 for 2 weeks. I wore it 24/7 and only took it off to charge it and when I was lifting weights — I learned the hard way testing smart rings over the years that they're very easy to scratch. It was on throughout workouts, working, socializing, relaxing on an evening and sleeping at night.

I've been reviewing smart rings since the very first iteration of the Oura ring came out in 2017 and have tested almost every generation from every smart ring brand since. Which puts me in a great position to compare models, tell you which is right for you and bring you that all important context about the smart ring industry.

• First reviewed: May 2026

• TechRadar is running a live Q&A in the lead-up to our Oura Ring 5 review
• Leave a comment with what you're most interested in hearing about below
• You can ask questions all week before the Q&A closes

The Oura Ring 5 only started shipping just over a week ago, but it's already causing a stir, with early impressions mostly positive across the board — thanks to being such a substantial, visible upgrade over the previous model.

I'm currently testing what Oura claims to be "the world's smallest smart ring", and while I can't yet access every feature in the app — some require at least 30 days of continuous wear to establish personal health baselines — the ring design itself is a big step up.

It's significantly more petite than the Oura Ring 4, both in form and weight, which gives it a much better fit and makes it more comfortable to wear. While I'm still in the process of determining a final verdict on its performance, accuracy and value, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Want to know if it feels noticeably different compared to the Ring 4? If you can still wear it while typing or lifting weights without it feeling bulky? Or how long the battery really lasts? Drop your question in the comment box below, and I'll get back to you.

This live Q&A will remain open until early next week, when my Oura Ring 5 review will be published. Because I won't yet have unlocked every new feature that's available, my verdict will be based on an early assessment of what I have been able to test in just over two weeks.

That's why I'm opening this testing period up to you. I want to know what your biggest questions are about what could be the best smart ring available. Of course, I'll be looking at its price, design, features, and performance to determine a final value score, but I know that won't cover everything.

There are countless questions I imagine many of you will likely have before clicking buy on a $399 / £399 / AU$649 smart ring — or $499 / £499 / AU$799 if you're considering one of the more premium finishes — so let me know what you're weighing up, and I'll try to help where I can.

What are TechRadar saying about the Oura Ring 5?

I already know from the early results of the poll above that most TechRadar readers don't want to spend the extra $50 / £50 / AU$80 that the Ring 5 costs over the Ring 4, but many of you said you would wait to see what the reviews say.

If that's you, this is your chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the testing process. As I noted above, I haven't yet been able to explore all the new features Oura Ring 5 brings, but some of the basic features are unlocked after 10 days of wear, so I can give you early answers on whether they're actually useful.

Which brings me to another caveat, because I live in the UK, I don't have access to every new feature that Oura is currently rolling out, which means I won't be able to test the new 'Lab Uploads', 'Brain Health Study,' and 'Health Radar' at all.

That's a shame because those three features are among the most sought after, judging by the results of the above poll, which shows that the majority (40%) of TechRadar readers are most excited to try 'Health Radar: Blood Pressure Signals'.

'Brain Health Study', 'Nighttime Breathing', which is part of 'Health Radar', and 'Lab Uploads' also ranked highly among readers, raising the question of whether the Oura Ring 5 is most suited to those who live stateside.

Let me know if missing out on those new features is a deal breaker for you? I'll be considering all aspects, like these regional limitations, in my review.

• This Whoop hack matches heart rate to meeting attendees
• It can link coworkers with higher levels of stress
• The unofficial hack was made with the help of Claude Fable 5 AI

We've seen several examples of people hacking their Whoop bands before (including recently), but nothing quite on this level: one enterprising user has hooked his Whoop up to his meetings schedule on Google Calendar, and can now work out which of his coworkers raise his stress levels the most.

Developer Pankaj Tanwar posted his custom-made setup on X, and it's clearly something a lot of other people are interested in — at the time of writing there are more than 10 million views registered on the post.

We don't get too much in the way of detail about how this was done, but Tanwar says he used the Claude Fable AI model to reverse engineer his Whoop and extract the heart rate data. That was then matched up with calendar meetings, and the colleagues attending.

"I now have a leaderboard and I think about it daily," says Tanwar, who has sensibly edited his screenshot so that we can't actually see which people get his blood boiling more than others. It's a really neat idea and a great example of a hardware and software hack that produces some genuinely interesting data.

More please

Of course this isn't an exact science — heart rate can vary for all kinds of reasons, including time of day and eating and drinking routines. It's possible that it's the subjects of the meetings that are getting Tanwar's heart rate spiking, rather than the coworkers that are sitting in there with him.

Still, it's a fun experiment, and even if the Whoop isn't correctly identifying the colleagues that cause the most stress, the data can be used to manage health and well-being during the working day, in and out of meetings.

It's something I'd love to have on my own fitness tracker: the sort of insight that these AI-enhanced trackers should be giving us. Which colleague annoys me the most? What parts of my commute are the most stressful? Which TV shows calm me down?

This is also more evidence for the increasingly capable AI models that we're all getting access to. Fable 5 has only just been released to the world at large, and is already being used to produce next-level apps and tools with just a few lines of prompting — see also these alternative Fitbit apps.

• A certification listing has been spotted for a device believed to be the Garmin Cirqa
• It lists Bluetooth as the only connectivity option, suggesting this won't have Wi-Fi or GPS
• That puts it in line with rival screenless wearables

If you’ve been looking forward to the Garmin Cirqa, we’ve got some slightly disappointing but unsurprising news — it seems this screenless wearable will lack ANT+, GPS, and Wi-Fi.

This is according to a certification listing for a device believed to be the Cirqa found on the Integrated Regulatory Information System (IRIS) in Singapore, as spotted by The5kRunner (via NotebookCheck).

The listing reveals just Bluetooth for connectivity, which means the Garmin Cirqa — assuming that’s what this is — would need to be paired with a smartphone in close proximity in order to track things like distances and routes when running or cycling.

So if you prefer to work out without your phone, this rumored wearable might not be the one for you.

Putting it in line with rivals

While that’s a shame, it’s not really surprising considering that rival screenless devices like the Fitbit Air and Whoop 5.0 also lack built-in GPS.

But that means the Cirqa will probably fall in line with them, rather than rising above them. This could have been a clear differentiation that would help Garmin’s upcoming device beat its key rivals, but the brand seemingly hasn’t taken that opportunity.

Still, for those who already wear a Garmin watch, or simply like the Garmin brand but want something without a screen, the Cirqa will probably still be the obvious choice, so there’s likely to be a built-in audience for it.

We’ll probably find out exactly what the Garmin Cirqa has to offer — and whether it has any other ways of standing out — soon, with previous leaks pointing to a mid-2026 launch.

• There's now an open source app available for Whoop bands
• You can install it for free on Android and macOS
• Whoop has yet to respond, but may block access to its trackers

If you own a Whoop band or have read any of our Whoop reviews, you'll know that the premium fitness tracker comes with a monthly subscription attached. However, thanks to the efforts of an independent developer though, you can now get at your Whoop data without paying anything.

The app is open source, available for Android and macOS, and called Noop (via Android Central). You do need to do a little bit of work to get it set up (it needs to be sideloaded on Android), but instructions are provided on the GitHub page. It should work with the Whoop 4.0, Whoop 5.0, and the Whoop MG bands.

"I built it for one reason," the app creator Kabir Khalil said in a post on Reddit. "To read my own data, off a strap I own, on a machine I control, without it living in someone else's cloud. That's the whole idea."

As Whoop's own algorithms aren't available to the developer, Khalil says he's used "my own maths" based on "published methods" to come up with fitness scores and data interpretations from the raw figures that are grabbed from the tracker device.

Positive feedback

WHOOP with no subscription, no cloud, no account — it's OUT today. Fully open source, Mac + Android. from r/whoop

While the idea of a cloud-free, offline experience will appeal to many, it's the zero cost that Whoop users will be most interested in. Whoop subscriptions start at $199 / £169 / AU$299 per year, though the device itself is included in that cost.

And users seem to be keen to give this a try: "this looks awesome" one Redditor has commented, in a thread that's full of positive feedback (as well as some requests for technical help from those who are having trouble getting the app working).

We've contacted Whoop about the app and will include the company's response here if we get one, but it clearly won't be happy about users sidestepping the need for a subscription on their hardware. It's possible that future updates to the bands will lock out access for third-party apps like this one.

Noop does seem to be part of a small trend however. A similar app called Goose has also just popped up, though it's at an earlier stage in its development than Noop, and another one called Whoof has apparently been running for a little while now — so if you want an alternative Whoop app, you've now got several options.

Google Fitbit Air: One minute review

For a simple device, there’s a lot going on with the Google Fitbit Air. People feel very strongly about it, for better or for worse, and there’s been a lot of chatter and interest surrounding its release. My experience actually wearing the device has generally been very positive, with tracking accuracy comparable to that offered by my Apple Watch Ultra 3, which is pretty much the gold standard for wrist-based health tracking. Metrics relying on the tracker’s onboard heart-rate monitoring are reliable, matching the Apple Watch closely during work, rest, and exercise during my week with the Fitbit Air.

Set-and-forget trackers are clearly having a moment. Oura has released the Oura Ring 5 just one year after the Ring 4, and Whoop’s success has given rise to a number of copycats from brands looking to recreate the experience of a distraction-free screenless ‘focus band’ for a less premium price.

Google is one such copycat, but the screenless, slender form factor suits the Fitbit brand — the original Fitbit was a digital pedometer — down to the ground. It speaks to the core of what Fitbit used to be, before it became just another company churning out mediocre smartwatches running a limited proprietary operating system. Your Fitbit was always meant to be a discreet little device, and devices don’t come more discreet than the Google Fitbit Air. Weighing just 12g and using a very slender 17mm-wide band, the Fitbit Air is a lovely and (crucially) comfortable device to wear and use. It’s much more comfortable to wear during sleep than any full smartwatch I’ve ever tried (and I have tried a lot), or even the Whoop.

However, it’s hard to separate the Fitbit Air from the Google Health app, with Google’s redesign of the Fitbit app causing particular ire amongst Fitbit users. The app is a bit of a mess, and not intuitive to use, with features dotted all over the place. It feels like it’s designed to primarily function as a home for the AI Health Coach chatbot, which is very intelligent and perhaps the best in-app AI assistant I’ve tried, but it’s not the best way to operate a health app. Whoop’s balance of AI and on-page metrics is much better.

If you’re looking for a consistent screenless focus band to track different sorts of workouts like gym, sports, and yoga, alongside sleep, heart health and general wellness, you can use the Google Fitbit Air as is, paying just the up-front price, and keep your tracking simple.

Whether or not you can get onboard with the Premium option will depend on how much you like chatbots — I found its flexibility immensely helpful, but its constant chirpy summaries and insistence on hiding my data inside walls of text became annoying, so it’s a mixed bag for me. Overall, though, this is the best, most interesting Fitbit to have been released in years.

Google Fitbit Air: Price and availability

• $99.99 in the US
• £84.99 in the UK
• AU$199 in Australia

The Google Fitbit Air costs $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199, and for that you get the tracker, a band of your choice, and a charger specific to the Google Fitbit Air — proving once again that Google seems to be allergic to making a charger that’s compatible with more than one device.

The Google Health Premium subscription, which gives you access to Google’s AI Health Coach, costs $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$14.99 a month, or $99.99 / £79.99 / AU$140 annually. Existing Google AI Pro members get it at no extra cost.

For comparison, the cheapest Apple Watch SE 3 starts at $249 / £219 / AU$399, while Whoop’s complex pricing structure begins at £169 / $199 / AU$299 per year for the lowest tier. The Google Fitbit Air’s pricing is cheap for what you get, with the Health Coach as an optional add-on rather than a mandatory subscription.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Google Fitbit Air review: Design

• Simple, screenless and elegant
• Light and comfortable
• App design is chaotic

The Google Fitbit Air’s design can be split into two components: the physical device, which is excellent, and the new Google Health app, which is a bit of a misfire.

Let’s start with the positives. The Fitbit Air comprises the tracker itself, and a wraparound band in a choice of three styles — a silicone Active band, the woven Performance Loop, or the polyurethane (pleather) Elevated Modern band. Each comes with their own color options, and a plastic clasp. On the underside of the tracker are the optical heart rate sensor, skin temperature sensor, and an accelerometer and gyroscope for counting steps.

It weighs just 12g, even with the Performance Loop strap, so it’s light and easy to wear, which is crucial for sleep tracking. I wore it on my right wrist, with a watch on my left during the day, and I didn’t feel like an obnoxious techie: unless someone looks closely, it just looks like a wristband, with the lack of a screen helping here. The Performance Loop strap that came with my review unit is the best-looking of the three options in this respect, but none of them look bad.

The tracker also has a haptic vibrate function — if you set an alarm in the app, this can be disabled with a tap on the top of the device. And that’s pretty much all the interaction you have with the sensor and band as a whole; everything else, as with one of the best smart rings or other screenless tracking options, is done via the app.

The app is where Google’s design falls down. Split into four tabs — Today, Fitness, Sleep and Health — the Google Health app features a dashboard with key metrics at the top, and insights or libraries of content below it.

But with information scattered across a quartet of tabs, it’s hard to find certain granular metrics or content you’re looking for compared to the old Fitbit app. I searched for Mindfulness content for 10 minutes before finding the five-minute meditation I was after, for example, and I often ended up starting new chats with the AI coach rather than resuming a chat from my history. It’s just not intuitive to use.

What is right in your face, for Premium users, is the AI coach, which cloaks your metrics in paragraphs of cheery text, so it takes longer to get to your information. It’s clever, and we’ll get onto its functionality in a moment, but I wish it summarized and contextualized less, and just offered more 'glanceability'.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Google Fitbit Air review: Features

• Set-and-forget tracker with a haptic alarm
• Good metrics
• AI Health Coach is a flexible macro-feature

The Fitbit Air records the usual metrics you’d expect with a modern fitness tracker, including step count, heart rate, floors climbed, sleep stages, and so forth. Fitbit’s Daily Readiness score shows you how prepared your body is for exercise, based on recent activity and sleep scores, while it also surfaces weekly cardio goals, hydration, and basic food logging. It can offer irregular heart rate rhythm notifications, which is great for potentially diagnosing atrial fibrilation, and allows you to take an ECG scan manually to monitor your heart health.

Basic tracking is all the free version gets you; there’s no workout builder, mindfulness content, way to log sickness, or any other extras beyond the numbers. It doesn’t add any special metrics for runners, such as stride or cadence, as many of the best running watches do. For some users who just want the numbers, this will be fine, with no need to subscribe to the Premium tier.

For Premium users, food logging can be done via the AI Health Coach, by taking a picture of your food. It’s very good at logging packaged food (it was bang on logging a crinkled package of chips with the message ‘log this’ as a 74kcal snack, also breaking down macros and salt content) but can struggle with plates of homemade food, although a basic description such as ‘log this lentil curry’ is enough for it to provide an estimation. The more information you can provide (weights and measures, etc), the more detailed it gets.

Those without the Health Coach can log food manually, as you can in other apps like MyFitnessPal.

The app also has access to Fitbit’s library of workout and meditation content, including individual moves, which you can use to build your own workout. Again, this is only available through the Premium subscription.

Through it all runs the AI Health Coach, which I actually found to be useful. Although there was no field to input illness as such, I typed my cold symptoms out to the Health Coach, and it remembered I was ill and adjusted its messaging and advice throughout the rest of the week based on my symptoms. I went to the gym without following one of the app’s pre-prescribed workouts, typed my sets and reps into the Coach’s ‘Ask Coach’ field, and it not only logged the workout, but suggested complementary routines to work different muscle groups for the rest of the week.

The AI Coach is a flexible ‘macro-feature’ that works well in conjunction with the rest of the app, and almost allows you to bypass the chaotic layout: you can just ask the Coach to serve you up what you need, which I’m sure was Google’s intent. Your use of the Coach will depend on your tolerance for chatbots: those who use Gemini or ChatGPT for everything will get a lot out of it, while those who loathe AI and just want numbers will likely loathe the Premium tier.

• Features score: 4/5

Google Fitbit Air review: Performance

• Performed well compared to the Apple Watch Ultra 3 in most scenarios
• Poor run estimations
• Battery life as described

As I noted when I compared the Google Fitbit Air against the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the tracker performed well during my 10K test run, at least for the metrics like heart rate and calorie count, which it can use its onboard sensors for. The metrics it uses my phone's GPS to estimate, like distance, were off significantly.

I’ve embedded the results below, but generally there was no statistically significant difference between heart rate or calorie estimations from the two devices. I'll be updating the review with confirmation of heart rate scores tested against a new Polar H10 chest strap, as my old testing unit has malfunctioned.

Previous

1 / 4

Next

Average heart rate

Google Fitbit Air

158

Apple Watch Ultra 3

161

050100150200

Average heart rate Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	158
Apple Watch Ultra 3	161

Average Pace

Google Fitbit Air

5.37

Apple Watch Ultra 3

5.47

01.534.56

Average Pace Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	5.37
Apple Watch Ultra 3	5.47

Calories burned

Google Fitbit Air

773

Apple Watch Ultra 3

750

0200400600800

Calories burned Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	773
Apple Watch Ultra 3	750

Distance

Google Fitbit Air

10.43

Apple Watch Ultra 3

10.03

03.757.511.2515

Kilometers

Distance Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	10.43
Apple Watch Ultra 3	10.03

My experience of tracking my sleep with the same two devices — I wore one on each wrist — was similar to the above, with close enough metrics but slightly different outcomes.

The Fitbit Air’s total sleep time estimation was within five minutes of the Apple Watch, and sleep stages were similar. However, while my sleep score was 90 with the Apple Watch, Fitbit registered it as only 81, citing a 10-point difference in sleep quality. However, the Google Fitbit Air’s sleep tracking has consistently registered my wake-up times during testing, successfully recording my early-hours bathroom trips and my cat jumping on my legs at 5am.

Because of the lack of a screen, GPS, and specialist metrics, regular runners won’t get a whole lot out of the Fitbit Air. Compared to my usual wealth of data from Apple or the best Garmin watches, I found it lacking, and my GPS map — imported from my phone, as the Air has no GPS of its own —- inaccurate, off by 400m compared to the Apple Watch.

Battery life is excellent, exceeding the seven days the device promised. Charging is fast, with just five minutes delivering a full day of battery life, and a full charge taking around an hour. The device is very comfortable to wear, as previously mentioned — I’ve barely needed to take it off all week.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Google Fitbit Air: Scorecard

Google Fitbit Air: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested

I wore the Google Fitbit Air for eight days straight. I ran a 10K while wearing an Apple Watch Ultra 3 and (malfunctioning) Polar H10 chest strap, and a shorter run with a Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro, as comparison testing alongside my usual workout routines. I also wore the Apple and Fitbit side-by-side during sleep. I tested its alarm, tried the features of its premium Health Coach, and used the app's workout and mindfulness content.

First reviewed: June 2026

• Samsung Galaxy Watch users are getting a completely redesigned health app with new features
• These new features include Vitals, Cardio Load and a dedicated Heart Health score
• The app is now AI-first, designed to turn Galaxy Watches into 'AI-powered health companions'

Samsung Galaxy Watch and Samsung Galaxy Ring users are going to see some big changes in the Samsung Health app. Referred to as 'a new experience' by Samsung press material, the redesigned health app includes new metrics and AI-powered summaries to break it all down for you.

Samsung says the new app 'uses AI to translate overnight and daily biometric data into personalized health guidance, helping users better understand everything from recovery and heart health to training load and overall wellbeing'.

This sounds familiar. Fitbit has recently undergone a complete AI-first redesign, too, including a name change to Google Health. It's not all been sunshine and roses, as many Fitbit users intensely dislike the forced pivot to AI, with what was Fitbit Premium now entirely revolving around its new AI Google Health Coach tool.

Samsung Health already uses AI in the background, such as using machine learning to calculate stats like your Energy Score, but this redesigned app is also shifting generative AI to the forefront. The timing of this move is likely to draw serious ire from Samsung users.

Don't panic, Samsung users

Fortunately, it's not as bad as all that, despite Samsung's similar AI-forward messaging and app redesign, so Galaxy Watch users can lower their pitchforks (for now). For one thing, Samsung hasn't introduced a paywall to Samsung Health; otherwise, there would be riots in the streets.

Second, on closer inspection, the redesign is also slightly less drastic than Google's: rather than being entirely oriented around an AI chatbot, as Google Health has chosen to do, Samsung has instead decided to use GenAI to summarize and explain your metrics, adding new ones so the user can drill down into different aspects of their health in more detail.

Existing tools such as Samsung's Sleep Score, Energy Score, and Antioxidant Index remain, and Samsung hasn't announced that it's removing any features — again, unlike Fitbit and Google, which removed features like Badges and Challenges.

I've listed all the new features below. Each of these features will get contextual AI summaries, explaining what the numbers mean and, where necessary, how to improve them.

• Vitals: Similar to Apple Health's feature, Vitals will analyze 'five key overnight bio-signals — heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen — against their true resting baseline'. Essentially, Samsung will notify you if one or more of these metrics are abnormal, indicating you might be getting sick.
• Heart Health Score: Combining Samsung's Vascular Load metric with the Body Composition features on its watches, which can measure muscle and fat in the same way as the best smart scales. If you've got low Vascular Load and an in-range body fat percentage, your Heart Health Score is likely to be good.
• Daily Cardio Load: Accumulated strain based on recent cardiovascular exercise, like runs and cycle rides. Will contribute to your Energy Score.
• Fitness Index: A radar chart of five different metrics (Strength, Flexibility, Endurance, Cardio, Body Composition). The strangest so far: how Samsung intends to accurately measure flexibility with a Galaxy Watch remains a mystery to me. I've reached out to Samsung to clarify this.

The timing of this upgrade is certainly interesting: reports recently surfaced of a Samsung Galaxy Fit 4 that, when paired with this AI-powered Samsung Health upgrade, would make for a real Google Fitbit Air contender.

Today, smart wearables and health tracking apps are part of everyday life for millions of people in the UK. From heart rate and blood oxygen levels to continuous glucose readings and home ECGs, a growing share of the population is generating real time health data from their wrist, phone or patch.

This is more than a consumer trend: it is fundamentally changing how patients understand their own health and their awareness of what medical technology can offer. Patients no longer arrive at appointments in the dark about their health.

Rather, they present months of data to clinicians, who can then use this information to support their own decision-making.

It is important, however, to distinguish between consumer wellness wearables and regulated medical devices (such as CE- or UKCA-marked technologies) that inform diagnosis and treatment in clinical pathways supported by NICE guidance.

We see this shift towards on-the-go health tech across the industry including developers of wearable cardiac monitors, continuous glucose systems, therapeutic wearables and portable diagnostic tools.

The public taking prevention into their own hands

Wearables have not only normalized constant and convenient access to health information, but have also empowered individuals to take personal responsibility for their own health. Checking a resting heart rate or sleep pattern has become routine, often prompting earlier referral to NHS services when anomalies appear.

Fitness trackers were the catalyst, but the public is now increasingly familiar with clinically focused technologies. Their presence in pharmacies, online, and in the media has raised awareness that precise, preventative tools exist, even when not supplied through the NHS.

Patient autonomy and appetite for diagnostics

This growth in patient autonomy has direct implications for health tech adoption. A decade ago, wearing a cardiac monitor for longer than 24 hours might have deterred patients; today, many people have adapted to this change, wearing devices day and night.

Key implications of this shift for health tech adoption include:

1. Willingness to use clinical devices: Familiarity with wearables makes patients open to long-term clinical monitoring if it yields a definitive result.

2. Stronger demand for accuracy: Patients understand that a 24-hour snapshot can miss intermittent issues and are more inclined to support technologies that monitor over days or weeks, even if this requires more commitment in the short term.

3. Reduced tolerance for repeat appointments caused by inconclusive tests: Once patients realize high-quality data prevents repeated hospital visits, they naturally prefer comprehensive, first-time investigation.

Ambulatory ECG monitoring illustrates this well. Traditional 24-hour Holter monitors frequently miss intermittent arrhythmias, leading to delayed diagnoses and increased stroke risk. Modern devices monitoring for 14 days provide higher diagnostic yields and a far better patient experience.

When tariffs lag behind patient expectations

Unfortunately, we often see that NHS reimbursement structures rarely keep pace. Long-term monitoring technologies are often grouped under the same tariff codes as short-duration, less accurate options.

In ambulatory ECG, for example, extended continuous monitoring is frequently reimbursed at the same rate as a basic Holter monitor. This structurally disincentivizes providers from adopting more effective diagnostics, compelling Trusts to rely on cheaper, short-term tests that fit existing codes but result in avoidable repeat appointments.

To harness patient autonomy in support of health tech adoption, reimbursement must recognize wider system benefits - such as avoided admissions and reduced outpatient appointments - rather than focusing solely on unit cost.

Supporting bringing care closer to home

These issues are particularly relevant in the context of the Neighbourhood Health Framework and 10 Year Health Plan. Moving toward integrated neighborhood teams and prevention-focused, community-based care depends on timely insight into patient risk.

Neighborhood teams are expected to manage long term conditions closer to home, prevent avoidable non-elective admissions and reduce pressure on acute services. Virtual wards are already doing this at scale: in January 2026, more than 11,000 patients in England were being cared for on virtual wards, with around 90% of the 12,700 available ‘beds’ occupied. Patient-generated data from wearables can support this by flagging risk earlier, enabling timely intervention and safe remote follow-up.

Longer term monitoring, postal diagnostic pathways and remote review are consistent with the Framework’s aims. They can contribute to mandated success measures, including reductions in non-elective admissions and bed days, improvements in cardiovascular and diabetes outcomes, better access and fewer avoidable outpatient appointments.

However, local providers will only realize this potential if adoption and market access mechanisms are aligned. If tariffs and coding frameworks undervalue longer-term monitoring, local systems will struggle to invest in the tools that best support these objectives.

Harnessing the “wearable generation” for system change

The rise of health tracking has created a population comfortable with health data, more focused on prevention and more aware of the possibilities of health technology. Whilst this can lead to more ‘worried well’ presentations - where non‑specific alerts from consumer wearables drive anxiety and extra GP appointments - it is largely an asset for the NHS.

The answer is not to discourage engagement, but to channel it. Clear guidance on how consumer data should be interpreted, and regulated devices with proven accuracy sitting within structured pathways rather than operating in isolation, can reduce unnecessary demand while accelerating appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

If procurement and commissioning are adjusted to reflect this reality, informed patients can accelerate responsible health tech adoption. They are already willing to track their health, use monitoring devices for longer periods and engage with digital tools if this results in clearer answers and less time on waiting lists.

The task now is to ensure that adoption pathways, tariffs and neighborhood care models are designed to support this engagement and to translate prevention on the wrist into better outcomes for patients and the health system.

We feature the best telemedicine software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives, our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

• Samsung could be developing the Galaxy Fit 4 for a 2026 launch
• It won't be showcased at Galaxy Unpacked 2026, and will instead go on sale in September
• We don't know how much it will cost or what its new features are, but Samsung could give it a GPS boost

Affordable fitness trackers are rising in popularity, and Samsung could be gearing up to launch its next Galaxy Fit model — just as Google launched its budget-friendly Google Fitbit Air.

SamMobile first reported on the rumor, who claims it received information that Samsung is currently developing the next gen device in its lineup of budget wearables, which it says will launch later this year. It would mark the first Galaxy Fit device since the Galaxy Fit 3 from 2024.

The Fit 3 made our list of the best fitness trackers, and it's easy to see why:, they’re solid options for fitness novices who want a simple device with enough health monitoring tools.

The original report says the Galaxy Fit 4 is due for a September launch around the time of IFA 2026, which is set to take place from September 4-8. That said, the outlet also mentions that it’s unlikely that we’ll see the device make an appearance at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 in July, and will instead go straight to launch alongside the Galaxy Tab S12 and the Galaxy S26 FE.

Despite the launch date information, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what improvements Samsung plans to make with the device, but we have a hunch at what it won’t be getting.

It’s unlikely that the Galaxy Fit 4 will be able to run Wear OS like its Galaxy Watch sibling range, and will probably still run on the RTOS system like its predecessor. This is because of Samsung’s cost-cutting strategy, skipping the full power of Wear OS so it can list the device for a more affordable price, though we don’t know how much the Galaxy Fit 4 will cost just yet.

As for health tracking features, it’s unclear if there’ll be any new additions joining its roster of basic functions, but we’re confident that it’ll allow you to make the most of tools such as step, heart rate, and sleep tracking, as well as control music playback and phone notifications. It may even get some more AI-powered Samsung Health features to steal the Fitbit's lunch.

The most likely upgrade would be the addition of GPS, which the Galaxy Fit 3 doesn’t have. If Samsung gave the Galaxy Fit 4 a GPS boost, it would not only allow you to track outdoor activity more precisely, but it would also mean you can use your on-wrist device without needing to have it connected to your smartphone.

As we’ve seen with the Google Fitbit Air, basic fitness trackers seem to be all the hype at the moment. I can see why this is; why spend money on a premium smartwatch like the Apple Watch Ultra 3 if you know you don’t need all the advanced bells and whistles?

Although Samsung’s Galaxy Fit devices aren’t screenless, they still sit in the same ballpark as screenless fitness trackers due to their limited, yet sufficient health functions, adequate smartphone controls, and affordable price points.

Now that everyone’s flocking to the Fitbit Air, it creates tough competition for Samsung to really pull through with the Fit 4. However, Samsung could have the upper-hand if it chooses to bestow GPS upon the Galaxy Fit 4 — which the Fitbit Air doesn’t have.

The Google Fitbit Air is here, and early adopters are getting to grips with the new screenless fitness tracker and its AI-powered premium Google Health Coach.

I've shared my early thoughts after a few hours of testing and we've covered existing Fitbit users' disappointment and anger over some of the app changes — but how does it compare against an Apple Watch, perhaps the best-known and certainly the most commonly-spotted fitness wearable on wrists everywhere?

To find out, I went on a 10-kilometer evening run (braving the UK heatwave) with the Google Fitbit Air on one hand, and the Apple Watch Ultra 3 on the other. I was also wearing the Polar H10 heart rate monitor, intending to use it as a litmus test for accuracy, but the chest strap malfunctioned so I don't have any meaningful results to publish here.

I'm primarily looking at metrics such as heart rate and calories burned. Both wearables use optical heart rate sensors — LED lights that monitor blood flow on your wrist to estimate your heart rate. The estimation of calories burned combines your heart rate data with movement data and other metrics to calculate your energy expenditure.

As well as calories burned and average heart rate, I've included the results for average pace here too. I'm expecting the Apple Watch, with its built-in GPS, to be more accurate than the Fitbit Air, which is piggybacking off the GPS from my iPhone as it doesn't have any GPS capabilities itself.

It's also worth noting I have not linked Google Health and Apple Health at the time of writing, so these results are separate.

The results

Below are the results from my 10km run. Tap the 'next' tab on the graph to cycle through all three metrics.

Previous

1 / 4

Next

Average heart rate

Google Fitbit Air

158

Apple Watch Ultra 3

161

050100150200

Average heart rate Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	158
Apple Watch Ultra 3	161

Average Pace

Google Fitbit Air

5.37

Apple Watch Ultra 3

5.47

01.534.56

Average Pace Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	5.37
Apple Watch Ultra 3	5.47

Calories burned

Google Fitbit Air

773

Apple Watch Ultra 3

750

0200400600800

Calories burned Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	773
Apple Watch Ultra 3	750

Distance

Google Fitbit Air

10.43

Apple Watch Ultra 3

10.03

03.757.511.2515

Kilometers

Distance Data

Product	Value
Google Fitbit Air	10.43
Apple Watch Ultra 3	10.03

As you can see in the graphs above, both heart rate and calorie readings are quite close. The average heart rate for my workout was just a 3bpm difference between the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and the Google Fitbit Air. It would have been nice to have information from my chest strap to compare this as well, but I'll try this again before my full review with a different electrical heart rate monitor.

However, on previous tests the Apple Watch Ultra 3 matched the electrical heart rate monitor exactly, indicating that the Google Fitbit Air is pretty dang accurate too.

Likewise, the calorie counts on both wearables were relatively similar, with the Google Fitbit Air exceeding the Apple Watch Ultra 3's calculation by less than 25 calories. No two wearables are going to be exactly alike here, but this is close enough that I'd feel comfortable using the Google Fitbit Air day-to-day.

Average pace is a different matter. As previously mentioned, the Google Fitbit Air has no onboard GPS of its own, and although it showed a lovely map of my route obtained via my iPhone's GPS, it also overestimated my pace and thought I was a whole 10 seconds faster per kilometer than the Apple Watch did.

I know how my paces feel — it was a hot day and I had steep declines and inclines at either end of my run, so I ran slower than my usual brisk clip. I'm far more inclined to agree with Apple's assessment than the Fitbit's pace estimation here. Apple also gave me far more detail about my run, such as stride length and vertical oscillation (how bouncy I was during the run), whereas the Google Fitbit Air collects no such information. What Fitbit does surface, however, is steps taken during the workout (9,342 to be precise), which the Apple Watch Ultra 3 doesn't.

Fitbit also massively overestimated my run at 10.43km rather than 10.03km, even though it shows exactly the same map as my Apple Watch, with an identical finishing point, as you can see below in the comparison pic. Unlike 3bpm or 23kcal, over 400 meters and 10 seconds of pace are big differences.

Apple Fitness

Google Health

Analysis

In terms of the metrics relying on the onboard heart rate monitor, the $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199 Google Fitbit Air is very accurate compared to the $799 / £749 / AU$1,399 Apple Watch Ultra 3.

I wouldn't have expected the Google Fitbit Air to be as reliable for run tracking as one of the best running watches, considering it doesn't even have GPS — as long as it's consistent for casual users, that'll be fine for most people. Anyone (like me) who cares enough to want maps, technique information like stride length, and pinpoint-accurate pace will likely gravitate towards a dedicated running watch anyway. Still, I was hoping for a smaller difference here.

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 has proven itself to be a very accurate wrist-based optical heart rate solution, so far superseded only by dedicated heart rate monitors. Based on this, I'm happy the Google Fitbit Air cleaves closely to this standard — although it's a shame I can't rely on GPS data harvested from my phone for more than a rough estimation.

• The Oura Ring 5 has a smaller design, longer battery life and higher price tag
• Six new features are coming to the Oura app, but not for all members
• You can pre-order today and have it delivered by June 4

The Oura Ring 5 is officially here, and it’s a big step up from last year's model. Oura says it has completely overhauled the design, making it 40% smaller, lighter, longer-lasting, more accurate and its most scratch-resistant ring yet.

Almost everything has been completely redesigned, allowing it to last for up to a week (we noted six days of charge in our Oura Ring 4 review), take more accurate, consistent readings thanks to a new signal architecture that uses more powerful LEDs and sensors, and be less susceptible to scratches because of a new extra-strong 'physical vapour deposition' coating.

Even the portable charging case has had a nifty upgrade; while the previous generation was buttonless, there’s a new dedicated button to make it easier to see the battery status and quickly pair with your device. On top of this, Oura is also adding 'Locate' to help you keep track of where your smart ring is, which will also be available for the Oura Ring 4.

Priced at $99 / £99 / AU$159 for the case, and $399 / £399 / AU$649 for base finishes (silver and black) and $499 / £499 / AU$799 for more premium styles (there’s a new shade of gold and deep rose on top of the usual brushed silver and ‘stealth’ options), the Oura Ring 5 is more expensive than the previous generation and rivals, like the Samsung Galaxy Ring and Amazfit Helio Ring. Although the upgraded case will cost the same as last year's model at $99 / £99 / AU$159.

Pre-orders are available now, with shipping set to start on June 4. Because the smart ring is significantly smaller than the previous generation, Oura is encouraging existing customers looking to upgrade to use their dedicated Oura Ring 5 sizing kit, as the fit may feel different at the same size.

Membership remains $5.99 / £5.99 / AU$9.99 a month ($69.99 / £69.99 / AU$109.99 a year), which is great because there are various new features rolling out to different regions and generations. Not all of these will be available at the same time, though.

Every new app feature coming to Oura Ring owners

When the new smart ring launches, Oura Ring members will get several new features, including 'Live Activity Tracking' for seeing your health metrics in real-time while working out, ‘Menopause Insights’ for assessing sleep, mood, cognition and daily functioning symptoms, and 'Hormonal Birth Control', which builds upon its existing 'Cycle Insights' dashboard by offering a "first-of-its-kind" view into how biometrics shift across hormone and hormone-free days.

The two latter features have already been introduced in the US as part of Oura's continued expansion into women’s health data, making this a great free update for all existing subscribers around the world.

On June 30, 'Lab Uploads' will also launch globally, allowing members to import their lab and blood work directly into the Oura app to help compare lab results alongside their Oura biometric data.

With even more personal health data being tracked and stored in the app, Oura has added a new security protection tool that lets you delete your stored data from a specific time window without having to cancel your entire account, which will be available to all members at launch.

Those in the US are also set to get even more new features as part of the launch. Starting today (May 28), you'll have the choice to opt into a new 'Brain Health Study' to measure how your sleep, stress and behaviour relate to your brain’s cognitive function and body’s performance. The study has been developed with Cambridge Cognition, a neuroscience technology company in the UK.

Launching at the start of June is 'Health Radar', a new always-on data collecting feature for estimated blood pressure readings and nighttime breathing that builds on 'Symptom Radar' alert system, and 'Health Records', which builds on the new 'Lab Uploads' by letting you store all your clinical reports in one place.

These updates are all part of Oura's mission to help find more 'actionable' solutions from their health insights. Oura has partnered with an on-demand care platform called Counsel Health, that connects medical AI with licensed physicians so that you can ask questions directly in the app and get personalized medical advice from licensed healthcare providers .

Last but certainly not least, members can expect GLP-1 medication self-management to come to the app as part of an expansion of its metabolic health offering. Oura says that global adoption is projected to surpass 100 million by 2030, making this a great solution for patients that have to juggle several apps for tracking dosages and biometrics.

Oura’s chief product officer, Holly Shelton, says the "Oura Ring 5 is the most significant leap in smart ring history". Looking at the new specs and features announced, this could set a new standard in smart rings as it also delivers on almost every upgrade we wanted to see for the Oura Ring 5 (the price is higher than we expected). But of course we’ll have to test it out ourselves to confirm that.

I’ve only had access to the Google Fitbit Air and the new Google Health app for a few hours, at the time of writing, and already there are some interesting things to say about one of this year's biggest contenders for the best fitness tracker crown.

While the stats and numbers you get in the free tier are a little basic, they’re roughly in line with what you’d expect from a $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199 tracker. But it’s the premium AI health coach that’s impressed me with its ability to incorporate contextual information and change your weekly plan just by chatting to it.

The tracker is light and comfortable, it’s got some cool features even at the free tier, and Whoop (the other big player in the screenless fitness tracker space) should be worried.

While Whoop offers more detailed metrics, it’s also prohibitively expensive and doesn’t allow you to buy the fitness tracker or use it for free after purchase in any form: it entirely relies on an expensive subscription service starting at £169 / $199 / AU$299 annually, and going up from there. Cancel that subscription, and it’s just an inert hunk of plastic. You can read all about it in my Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop breakdown.

My early impression of the Google Fitbit Air and its Google Health Premium AI coaching service is that it’s designed to help beginner-to-frequently-training athletes, with simple metrics, round numbers, and a friendly interface that does a lot of its calculations behind the scenes.

Those who are already heavily invested in Whoop’s ecosystem won’t get the granularity of data they are used to, and thus might not be tempted by the lower price of the Fitbit. However, for the rest of us, I think this is going to do very well.

Design and comfort

The Google Fitbit Air weighs just 12g. It’s light, slender, and the performance loop band I’m wearing is very comfortable, although it does have a tendency to get a little… dank during a very sweaty workout, such as my first test run completed during a heatwave here in the UK.

It offers no interaction on the device at all, just a charging LED. As I said in previous pieces, it’s almost like an older pedometer-style Fitbit that clipped to your clothes, just in a modern form factor and made by Google.

I have to say, it’s very unobtrusive, being around two-thirds the width of the Whoop MG. It’s very easy to wear this in conjunction with another device or a non-smart analog watch on the other wrist. Funnily enough, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

Early comparison testing

I immediately incorporated the Google Fitbit Air into my smartwatch testing routine. I went on two runs with the Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro on one hand (the device I’m currently closing out on testing, which on previous runs matched very closely with the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro), a Polar H10 chest strap, and the Google Fitbit Air on the other.

Unfortunately, the usually pinpoint-accurate chest strap malfunctioned, but the average heart rate between the two wrist-based wearables was just 1bpm apart. I know the Huawei Watch Fit 5 Pro is quite accurate based on previous testing, so it’s a positive early sign, but before my full review I’ll be using a (working) chest strap to test the Google Fitbit Air.

What I was most impressed with was the Google Health Coach, the app’s flagship AI feature that encompasses everything else. After a brief chat about my goals, it set up an early plan for me, comprised of three gym sessions and two runs a week, to build muscle while maintaining baseline cardiovascular fitness.

After I completed my test runs, Google noted the extreme weather here in the UK, and mentioned it in the workout’s summary as something to take into account when viewing my metrics, as my heart rate was likely to be higher than normal. Very clever: exactly the sort of contextual information fitness trackers have been missing since their inception, pulled in automatically using location and weather data as well as fitness data.

Impressed, I tapped the ever-present blue ‘Ask Coach’ button and typed “I might swap one of my gym sessions for a long run this week. Can you update my plan?”

Hey presto: not only did it update my plan, but it also surfaced the Long Endurance Run activity profile for me to use on my next running day. I must admit, my early experiment with this AI Health Coach is a resounding success.

But at what cost?

All of this, unfortunately, comes at the expense of existing Fitbit badges and features. The app has been renamed, rebranded and redesigned overnight, with all badges and community features lost in favor of the AI-first approach.

Existing Fitbit users are not happy: on the Fitbit subreddit, one complaint thread garnered over 1,500 upvotes and over 600 comments, with users mentioning they are "beyond frustrated" at the changes and calling the app "slop", or a victim of "enshittification".

A particular target of criticism is the food logging feature, which I’ve not yet tried, but Google says "fixes are coming".

Coros has been launching sports watches and wearables for less than ten years. In that time it’s done enough good to see its name mentioned in the same sentence as the best Garmin watches, Polar and Suunto models.

Whether that’s hitting the sweet spot for price, features and performance with watches like the Coros Pace 4 or rolling out big software features, Coros is making ground on competition that has been around for much longer.

Like those brands, Coros is always looking at what’s next to ensure it remains in the sports wearable conversation for many years to come. In 2025, Coros launched the Coros Nomad, an outdoor watch that became its first to include a microphone. Since then, mics have been added to its Pace 4 and Apex 4 watches.

Microphones popping up on sports watches isn’t unique to Coros. Garmin’s Venu 2 Plus, launched in 2022, was the first Garmin watch to include one alongside a speaker. That was to enable calls over Bluetooth and to let you engage with your phone’s smart assistant, along with simple on-watch commands such as setting timers. Since then, Garmin has rolled out similar hardware to a host of its watches, such as the Garmin Fenix 8 and Forerunner ranges.

Coros has taken a different approach to giving its watches a voice. It’s not using mics to build a watch that behaves more like one of the best Apple Watches or a Wear OS smartwatch. Instead, voice pins — a feature that’s available on the Pace 4, Apex 4 and Nomad watches — allow users to record voice notes during workouts and mark where it was on a GPS map of your run. Voice pins are used to capture how you felt during the session or to remind you of the conditions for the next time you tackle that route.

“We believe voice is the future,” Coros co-founder and CEO Lewis Wu tells us. “When the era of AI comes in, a lot of the interaction between the watch or the app with consumers will change. Voice is the easiest way for the system or app to understand you. With the AI in the background, that can give you feedback. It’s like two-way communication.

“If you look at training, it’s more than pace and heart rate. Training is also about your subjective opinion, like how you feel. If I feel tired, my legs are sore or my ankle has an issue, these are all things that a coach wants to know — and now AI will know this.

“The more information consumers put into the computer, into AI, the better the system will understand you. This is why we built microphones in every single new watch going forward because we believe that's the future. If you want to get future-proof hardware or a running watch for yourself, consider those with a microphone. This is our vision.”

Using voice to shape how its watches can be better training companions isn’t the only thing on the agenda for Coros as it looks ahead. It also wants to take existing features that have been present on its watches for much longer than the voice ones and make them work better for users.

“We are committed to building a better wellness system,” says Wu. “I have to admit, our health and wellness system is not top notch. We need to get better, but the way we get better could be slightly different from other companies.” This seems to be an acknowledgment of features such as sleep monitoring, wellness checks and continuous heart rate monitoring that, in our testing experience, don’t feel as polished as other elements of the Coros ecosystem.

“We know most people want to do sports.,” says Wu. “They want to be active and healthy. The philosophy for most companies is trying to get people out to do some activity and that doing that will make them feel good.

“Most of the consumers are athletes or at least very endurance driven. Serious athletes are committed. So we thought about it another way. How do we keep consumers healthy so they can do sports? So it's not that you do sport to be healthy, but you need to be healthy to do sports. This is how we position our wellness system. To support consumers when you don't train and want to stay injury-free or stress-free.”

Huawei Band 11 Pro: One minute review

The Huawei Band 11 Pro sits right between a simple fitness tracker and a full-blown smartwatch. Released in early 2026, it goes beyond the capabilities of the standard Huawei Band 11 by featuring a more sophisticated build and an upgraded set of sensors. In comparison to many of the best fitness trackers, the Band 11 Pro feels more premium than most cheap ones that I've worn, such as the Amazfit Bip 6, but I'm far from convinced about the 'pro' label.

To give it its due, one feature inclusion that sets it apart from budget counterparts is the onboard GPS for tracking outdoor runs, cycles, and hikes, which is reason enough for the higher price tag compared to the likes of the Xiaomi Smart Band 10, which requires users to "piggyback" on a phone's GPS connection.

Despite its core focus being a simple tracker for exercise and health, the watch also includes basic smartwatch features such as notification handling, quick-reply texts, and even a remote camera control. These are handy features that help people feel connected to the world around them, but they're far from deeply integrated due to the lack of a QWERTY keyboard for the text replies, along with non-existent third-party app integration.

In terms of health tracking, Huawei looks to push the boundaries at this price point with Pulse Wave Arrhythmia Analysis for detecting irregular heart rhythms and Sleep Breathing Awareness to monitor for potential issues like sleep apnea. I wouldn't want to rely on these for perfect accuracy, but they're helpful indicators of potential health problems.

Within the broader market of the best smartwatches, the Huawei Band 11 Pro sits in the premium budget sweet spot, directly challenging rivals like the Fitbit Charge 6. While it is considerably more affordable than flagship smartwatches like the Apple Watch or Huawei's own Watch GT series, it provides nearly all the same core health and tracking features, even if they're not quite as accurate.

Huawei Band 11 Pro: Specifications

Huawei Band 11 Pro: Price and availability

• $97 USD / £69.99 UK / $139 AUS
• Very reasonably priced considering the onboard GPS feature
• Stiff competition from Fitbit, Garmin, and Amazfit

At this price, the Huawei Band 11 Pro is an absolute steal. Getting onboard GPS, an AMOLED display, and an aluminum case is almost unheard of at this price. Unfortunately, it’s not available in the US.

Comparable options include the Amazfit Bip 6 ($79.99 US / £79.90 UK) and the Fitbit Charge 6 ($159.99 / £139.99). If you’d like a cheaper alternative and are happy “piggybacking” onto your phone’s GPS, then you could go for the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 ($73.99 / £39.99).

The Band 11 Pro ships with a fluoroelastomer strap in either Black or Isle Blue finishes. If you’d prefer a braided nylon strap, you can have this in Field Green. Whichever strap you choose, the spec of the watch remains the same.

• Value score 4.5/5

Huawei Band 11 Pro: Design

• Large and bright AMOLED display
• Aluminum alloy case, which is a step up from polymer alternatives
• 5 ATM water resistance rating

The Huawei Band 11 Pro is a basic band-style design but with a more premium 'pro' aesthetic than most cheaper trackers. This is most noticeable in the upgraded 1.62-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, which is nearly 30% larger than its predecessor.

As impressive as the size is, it's actually the brightness of it which struck me first. Maxing out at 2,000 nits, it falls short of the much more expensive Apple Watch Ultra 3, but at this price the brightness is excellent; it delivered clear graphics, whether inside in a dark room or outside in full sun. The 347 PPI resolution isn't too shabby either, with text appearing sharp and icons vibrant.

From a build quality perspective, Huawei has opted for a CNC-cut aluminum alloy case which looks and feels markedly more premium than the polymer frames typically found on cheap fitness trackers. This metallic finish is complemented by a slim profile, measuring just 8.99 mm in thickness, allowing the device to sit flush against the wrist. In short, it looks the part, whether you're down the gym, out on a run, or at work.

I tested the version with the breathable fluoroelastomer strap and was surprised how comfortable it was. It’s also easily cleaned when exposed to dirt or sweat. All-day wearability, including at night, is possible due to the 25g weight (with strap), as it’s comfortable and you hardly notice it's there.

To ensure durability, the device carries a 5 ATM water resistance rating, meaning it's waterproof and able to withstand showering, swimming and even water sports.

• Design Score: 4/5

Huawei Band 11 Pro: Features

• Onboard GPS and sleep insights
• Pulse wave arrhythmia analysis
• Sleep insights and emotional wellbeing

The ‘Pro’ label is on account of a number of feature decisions that Huawei has made to elevate the user experience beyond other entry-level alternatives. This begins with built-in GPS (GNSS), which means you can leave your phone at home when going out for a run or cycle and still track your route. It can also detect when you have stopped at a traffic light or for a break and will automatically pause the workout tracking, although like other Huawei watches, you can toggle this feature on or off.

Overnight, it tracks your average sleep HRV, along with heart rate and SpO2, and lets you know when something’s outside your usual range. It also includes Sleep Breathing Awareness, which monitors breathing disruptions during sleep for insights into your nighttime breathing. A basic presentation of your sleep data is provided on the watch, but a more in-depth set of graphs, reports, and advice are viewable in the Huawei Health app.

Next up is 'Pulse Wave Arrhythmia Analysis', which identifies atrial fibrillation (AFib). It utilizes the same optical sensor technology that measures your heart rate, but applies a much higher level of data processing. The best Apple Watches also have an AFib feature, useful for determining whether your heart rate is irregular and whether you need to see a medical professional. If this is an important measurement to you, then I would go with this Huawei rather than a cheaper model.

For users who want help with monitoring their mental health, there's the Emotional Wellbeing Assistant. This provides real-time insights through its comprehensive mood and stress management system. Rather than just showing a "stress score", it uses physiological data to categorize your mood into visual states. These act as quick identifiers of what is going on inside your body.

• Features Score: 4/5

Huawei Band 11 Pro: Performance

• A very easy and enjoyable watch to use
• Sub-par GPS accuracy not surprising at this price point
• Excellent battery performance

As is the case with all Huawei watches, the user experience is a positive one. The Huawei OS interface is clearly laid out with easy-to-understand icons. Moving between features and settings is quick and responsive with little room for confusion about how to navigate around the menus. You can also choose between a list or grid view depending on your preference. The lack of a microphone means there are no voice commands, but that would be a lot to ask at this price.

There are over 100 workouts to choose from with the entire set pre-loaded onto the watch. The order of these, and whether they appear in the quick list, is easily customized. The watch can auto-detect workouts like running, which I made use of a few times when I had forgotten to set things up prior to exercising. As soon as you choose your workout, the watch searches for a GPS signal and alerts you when it’s found. You can begin the workout prior to a GPS lock, but accuracy will be compromised.

I was impressed by how quickly and easily the Band 11 Pro was able to find a GPS signal, even when I was indoors. In terms of GPS accuracy, I ran side-by-side comparisons with the Huawei Watch Ultimate 2, which performed as well as our gold standard, the Apple Watch Ultra series. Unfortunately the Band 11 Pro was left wanting with up to a 10% discrepancy on a range of tracked activities, including runs, walks, and bike rides.

As for health tracking, heart rate and SpO2 were in close range compared to the Watch Ultimate 2. Both watches also reported no abnormalities in relation to the Pulse Wave Arrhythmia Analysis, which was not only great to see from an accuracy point of view but also from a personal health perspective!

When I wore the watch at night, it successfully picked up most of my waking, but not all instances. No surprises there given the low cost of the device and limited complexity of the sensors. Despite its claims to be able to track REM, deep, and light sleep; HRV (Heart Rate Variability), and more, I would take its reports with a pinch of salt. It can give indications and provide general trends, but this isn't medical quality data. The Oura Ring 4, one of the best smart rings, is a wearable sleep-tracking gold standard (or as close as it gets) and is considerably more expensive than this slender band.

The Band 11 Pro excels when it comes to battery performance and is in fact one of its strongest selling points. Despite having a significantly brighter and larger screen than its predecessor, it manages to achieve a maximum of two weeks' use when Always-On Display (AOD) is disabled and GPS tracking is kept to a minimum, worthy of one of the best Garmin watches.

When I turned on continuous heart rate monitoring, performed sleep tracking, and carried out a few workouts per week, the battery stayed alive nearly a week, which is reasonable given that you're not going to be using this type of tracker for long-distance off-grid excursions. I found recharging to be very quick, with 0-100% achieved in a little over an hour.

• Performance score: 4/5

Huawei Band 11 Pro: Scorecard

Huawei Band 11 Pro: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested

I wore the Huawei Band 11 Pro almost non-stop for three weeks. I used it while running, cycling, walking, showering, working out, sleeping, playing with my children, texting, photographing, and daily life. I tested its GPS against the reliable Huawei Watch Ultimate and compared its specs to contemporaries in its price category.

First reviewed: May 2026

Take a read through our Oura Ring 4 review and you'll see there's a lot to like about the smart ring that launched in October 2024: we described it as being "nearly the perfect fitness tracker", while praising its battery life, tracking capabilities, and design.

However, the high score attached to that review — 4.5 stars out of 5 — doesn't mean that the Oura Ring 4 can't be improved upon, and we've got some ideas about the kind of updates that might make the rumored fifth generation model a worthwhile upgrade.

This is an increasingly competitive field as well, with rival devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Ring, another Ultrahuman smart ring and RingConn Gen 3 recently announced, and Apple widely expected to get involved in this product category too, eventually.

That's before we get on to all the other 'focus' screenless fitness trackers that discerning consumers can pick from, including the Google Fitbit Air. The Oura Ring 5 needs to build on what makes the current version such a great device.

Oura Ring 5: leaks and rumors

There's nothing official out there about the Oura Ring 5 yet, but we have an inkling that Oura is working on a new model of its smart ring. We got the company's 3rd-gen device in October 2021 and the 4th-gen wearable in October 2024, so it makes sense that we might see something new later in 2026. The team at Gadgets & Wearables notes that another Oura device has already been registered with US regulators.

While there are only so many ways that a smart ring can be designed, the Oura Ring 5 renders leaked by Android Headlines suggest that not much is going to change in terms of aesthetics — and the 5th-gen ring is apparently going to come with the same charging accessories as well.

What might be different are the colors: the same source predicts that the current Rose Gold color is going to be replaced by Deep Rose. The existing matte black, standard gold, and silver options are expected to be retained, with the silver one apparently going to be available in both a glossy and brushed option.

Other details are rather thin on the ground, though Android Headlines does say that the battery life on the Oura Ring 5 will be more or less the same as on the current model (so around six days, based on our testing). There will be improvements in sensors and health tracking, the report says, though we don't get any details.

More clues about what to expect come from Android Central, which points to patents Oura has registered for modular add-ons, GPS tracking, haptic feedback, and smart gesture support. As always with patents though, they're not always guaranteed to be turned into actual features, even if the company concerned is exploring a certain technology.

It looks as though the Oura Ring 5 will offer an evolution of what we've got with the Oura Ring 4 based on these leaks and rumors, rather than something radically different — though perhaps with some surprises still to come in terms of software, sensors, and fitness tracking capabilities.

Oura Ring 5: what we want to see

At this point it's probably too late in the development of the product to convince the Oura engineers to include features that have or haven't already been locked in, but it's still worth talking about what we'd like to see from the upcoming smart ring — if only to have a list to refer back to when it does arrive.

A slimmer design

You couldn't claim the Oura Ring 4 is bulky, exactly, but there is some room for improvement here, especially when it comes to the larger ceramic version of the wearable. The standard Oura Ring 4 is 2.88 mm thick, while the ceramic version bumps that up to 3.51 mm (and it's heavier too).

The RingConn Gen 2 is a mere 2 mm thick, while the Samsung Galaxy Ring is 2.6 mm, so it's an area where Oura is currently being beaten by its competitors.

Size and weight is so important for a wearable like this, which you're expected to have on around the clock, and Oura might be able to get the new ring fractionally smaller.

A lower price

The starting price for an Oura Ring 4 is $349 / £349 / AU$569, which doesn't compare too badly with the $399 / £399 / AU$699 you pay for the Samsung Galaxy Ring or the $299 / £269 / AU$269 starting price of the Amazfit Helio Ring. However, there's scope for Oura to go cheaper with the Ring 5, especially when you consider the compulsory subscription.

An Oura subscription isn't an optional extra: It's necessary to use your device, and will set you back $5.99 (about £4.40 / AU$8.30) a month. Realistically, Oura isn't going to do away with that steady income stream from its users, but given that commitment, it would be nice to see the up-front price of the next smart ring drop.

A silicon sleeve

The Oura Ring 4 is great for many things, but it's not ideal for activities like racket sports or weight training: the risk of damage to the device or to your own body goes up, whenever you're doing any kind of gripping or holding with your hands, and that's not something you want to have to worry about.

One of the third-party fixes for this, especially when it comes to gym work, is a silicon sleeve to wear over the Oura wearable. If one of these were to be included in the box with the Oura Ring 5, that would save on extra cost for the user (see above), and mean that the device would be more useful right away — without any accessories.

We'll have to wait and see if the team at Oura has been thinking along similar lines since the launch of the Oura Ring 4, but we'll let you know as soon as there's anything official on a new product (a product that's very likely to break into our best smart rings list).

• A big update is rolling out for Coros watches
• The headline feature is voice commands, currently in beta
• Strength training, auto laps for running, and the control center all get tweaks, along with a new photo sharing feature

Coros users are getting a lovely package of new features and other updates, starting today. Coros' May Feature Update gives Coros users, especially modern ones, a host of new features to play with, chief among them Voice Control.

Currently available only in beta, this moves Coros watches (at least, those equipped with microphones such as the Coros Pace 4 and Apex 4) to match some of the other best running watches such as the Apple Watch Ultra series, along with the best Garmin watches.

Voice Control can be used to start a workout profile on the watch, whether it's walking, trail running or even gravel biking, by pressing and holding the action button. You can also make more granular changes within those profiles, such as changing lanes during track runs, or changing the treadmill speed on a treadmill run profile. You can even 'record a catch' while fishing.

It can also be used for the usual assortment of settting reminders, activating Find My Phone, and so on. If you want to get early access to the feature, you can join the beta program here.

Our writer Michael Sawh recently interviewed Coros' CEO Lewis Wu, and while we'll be publishing the second half of that interview next week, we can reveal that the move towards voice commands is very much in line with Wu's AI-powered vision for Coros.

He said: "We believe voice is the future... "If you want to get future-proof hardware or a running watch for yourself, consider those with a microphone. This is our vision.” You can read all about Coros' AI plans in the second part of the interview, to be published next week.

What else is new?

Other updates include Custom Photo Sharing, which allow you to overlay your stats and recent training sessions with a photo of your choice before sharing it with friends or to social media. It creates a vertical overlay with stats such as speed or elevation — perfect for sharing to Instagram or Strava.

Strength Mode has received an update, allowing users to edit reps and intensity either on the watch or in the app after the session, and rep counting accuracy is reportedly improved as well.

You can now choose to set up Auto Laps when running by distance, or by position, so you can return to where you started to begin another lap. This is perfect for circular runs or hill sprints. The Control Center will also receive an update, with a new easy-access layout.

The update is available from today.

Keen to get started on your running journey? Well, you're in luck. Garmin has dropped three new contenders for our best Garmin watch list, and they're all affordably priced and brimming with running-focused features.

The Garmin Forerunner 70, 170 and 170 Music officially release on May 15. You might have pre-ordered one already, but if you're still looking, you also might be weighing up which model is right for you. Do you need the Forerunner 170 Music, or can you save money and opt for the cheaper Garmin Forerunner 70? I break down all the differences below, with a brief bit of context to explain how they compare to other Garmin watches in the range.

Note that I haven't yet had an opportunity to test the watches myself — I've looked at the statistics and feature lists from Garmin's official websites and promotional materials to put together this comparison.

Garmin Forerunner 70 vs Garmin Forerunner 170: Specifications

Garmin Forerunner 70 vs Garmin Forerunner 170: Price

The cheapest watch of the three is the Garmin Forerunner 70, replacing the aging Garmin Forerunner 55 as Garmin's entry-level running watch du jour.

As you can see in our table above, it costs $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399, while the more feature-rich Forerunner 170 (which replaces the older Garmin Forerunner 165) starts at $299 / £259.99 / AU$479. If you want the Music capabilities, you can pay an extra $50 / £40 / AU$70 for the Forerunner 170 Music.

Garmin Forerunner 70 vs Garmin Forerunner 170: Design

All three watches have a similar design language, and there are few physical differences. There's a single gram of difference in weight between the Garmin Forerunner 70 and its 170 siblings, and all three are only available in a 42.6mm screen size.

They all have the same 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, and use the same five-button configuration as many of Garmin's other watches, such as the Garmin Fenix 8, which makes it easy to operate the watch even while wearing gloves — perfect for running in all weathers.

Embossed Forerunner logos adorn the bands for all three models, while all three are available in a variety of colors, including Black, Whitestone and two-tone models. Each has at least one unique color option too — the Forerunner 70, for example, is available in a pale-yellow Citron color.

Garmin Forerunner 70 vs Garmin Forerunner 170: Features

Here's where it gets interesting. Each watch has the usual suite of heart rate and fitness-tracking features, such as calories burned, sleep tracking, steps counted and 80 sports profiles. They also all have built-in GPS, Glonass and Galileo satellite network connectivity, to make sure the watch is accurately tracking your runs.

Each one offers Daily Suggested Workouts and personalized training plans via Garmin Coach, the service in the Garmin Connect app. Other training features include advanced metrics perfect for runners such as stride, cadence and elevation, along with Running Power — a metric you may not know about. It's a measure of how much power your body's putting out during a run, measured in mechanical watts.

Garmin works out running power using the watch's motion sensors, GPS and barometer. Using heart rate to determine your performance is considered inferior, because it measures your body's response to the run, not the power of the run itself.

All three watches have wellness features galore, such as sleep tracking, nap detection, Training Readiness and Recovery scores to better plan your training calendar around. Course Planner helps you train at the correct distances, creating routes around your neighborhood, and the Race Predictor feature estimates your time based on a course added to Garmin's database and your historic data.

There are some differences, but they aren't major. The Forerunner 170 appears to have all the training features of the 70, while adding Garmin Pay and Smart Notifications features. Smart Notifications allows you to reply to texts when you're on the move (on Android phones), manage notifications from apps and emails, and screen calls, while Garmin Pay is a virtual wallet on your wrist, and works in a similar way to Apple Pay on one of the best Apple Watches.

These appear to be the only differences, aside from the colorways, between those two watches.

The Forerunner 170 Music adds 4GB of internal memory, allowing you to store songs on your wrist. When connected to Bluetooth headphones, you can listen to music right from your watch, without using your phone as a go-between. Combined with Garmin Pay, this means you can leave your phone at home or in a bag, run while listening to music, and even buy a coffee once you're finished.

Early verdict

The Garmin Forerunner 70 is shaping up to be a pretty great training tool, and if you're not looking for a smartwatch to use for notifications and a digital wallet, this is the model for you.

If you are looking for those things, the Garmin Forerunner 170 or 170 Music is going to be the best choice for you, unless you want to go up in price and opt for a more expensive smartwatch like the Garmin Venu 4.

Last week, Google launched the Google Fitbit Air, its much-rumored screenless fitness tracker designed to be its entry into the set-and-forget 'focus wearable' market. I should say re-entry really, as the original Fitbit and Fitbit Flex bands were exactly this type of device: minimalist pucks or bands, with very limited scope for interaction, and no screens to speak of.

Right now the category of simple, screenless wearables is dominated by the likes of the best smart rings and by fitness trackers such as Whoop, which is undoubtedly the most popular of the wrist-based screenless fitness bands out there. Whoop has been in the screenless tracker game for years, and is a popular choice for serious athletes, biohackers and wellness enthusiasts alike.

But Whoop's offering isn't cheap, as you don't buy the device outright; instead you get it as part of an annual subscription to the Whoop app, with the subscription tiers increasing in price as more features are included.

While I haven't yet had any hands-on time with the Google Fitbit Air (I'm expecting a review unit very soon), we can compare the listed specs, features and subscription prices to identify which fitness tracker is right for you.

Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop: Specifications

Above is a table comparing some of the specifications of the Google Fitbit Air to the Whoop 5.0 and premium Whoop MG bands. Perhaps a good place to start here is the weight, as Google states that the Fitbit Air weighs just 12 grams with a band or five grams on its own, hence the name. The Whoop devices weigh more than double that. The Fitbit is also far better for diving, as according to Google it's water resistant up to 50 meters.

The Google Fitbit Air can last for a week, while the Whoops offer only a few days of battery life each. However, they do come with a battery pack that can slot onto the device while you wear it to charge the device, which means you can get 14 days of constant data with no need to take the device off to charge it at all. In theory, the only time you'd ever need to take your Whoop off is to change the band, should you want to.

As more expensive devices, the Whoops incorporate stainless steel into their clasps, whereas the Fitbit is all plastic.

Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop: Price & value

Where Google wins off the bat is that the Fitbit Air is relatively cheap — you can pre-order it now for $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199. Even if you choose not to subscribe to Google Health Premium —Google's fitness service, which gives you access to its comprehensive AI Health Coach feature — after the free trial included with your Fitbit Air is over, you can still log your data using the band on the Google Health app's free tier and use it as a basic, screenless fitness tracker.

If you do choose to subscribe, you're essentially paying for the tracker again on an annual basis in order to get all the AI features and unlock advice to help you use those metrics. There's no doubt this is intended to be a core feature rather than an optional extra, but you do have the option not to subscribe. You could also pay monthly, but you end up paying around $20 US dollars more per year than an annual subscription (international pricing is TBC).

Whoop, on the other hand, requires a subscription to work at all, starting at a fairly reasonable £169 / $199 / AU$299 per year for the base Whoop One subscription, which comes with the Whoop 5.0 device but locks metrics like Stress and Whoop Age behind a paywall.

You get those (along with a nicer Whoop MG band and a wireless charger puck) with a Whoop Peak membership, which costs £229 / $239 / AU$419 per year. Then at the highest level you get the Whoop Life subscription plan, at £349 / $359 / AU$629 per year, which comes with the Whoop MG band and heart health features.

There's no doubt about it: over time, the Whoop will be pricier than the Google Fitbit Air by a significant margin. While the Google Fitbit Air is the cheaper option of the two, the breadth of the AI Coach's features might make it a better value prospect too, unless you want specific features like Whoop's Stress score, workout builder or the MG's electrocardiogram (ECG) functionality.

Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop: Features

The Fitbit Air, Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG all pack PPG LED heart rate sensors, and all the best smartwatch features such as heart rate, step counting, calorie burn estimation, skin temperature and blood oxygen monitoring. I haven't tested the accuracy of Fitbit's sensor yet.

The key difference between the two Whoops, however, is that the Whoop MG has an advanced 'Heart Screener' sensor functionality which can be used for ECG scans, which can aid in detecting atrial fibrillation or irregular heart rate. According to Whoop, it "meets and exceeds clinical-accuracy standards".

The Fitbit Air doesn't have this functionality, but the Fitbit Charge 6 does — so if you're looking to keep an eye on your heart health, you'll need to opt for the Charge series or a more expensive Whoop MG.

The Google Fitbit Air's feature set includes a lot of the same stuff from the Fitbit app, including historic graphs of your movement and sleep data along with a Daily Readiness score, but many of the actionable insights are locked behind the Google Health Coach, the AI coaching service that comes with a Google Health Premium subscription. The Coach shows you demonstrations for different exercises, advises you on how to get better sleep, can generate meal and exercise plans, and can incorporate medical records.

Whoop also has an extensive laundry list of features to rival this. In terms of the amount of features on offer, it exceeds Google's, with all manner of scores for metrics like strain, recovery, sleep (along with actionable insights on how to reduce sleep need), Whoop Age (your body's biological age, only accessible if you subscribe to the mid-tier Peak subscription or the Life subscription), Cardiovascular Age, and lots more.

Whoop's AI coach offers useful, actionable insights too, and its workout builder is based on a comprehensive library of fitness moves that also includes demonstrations. While Google allows you to upload your medical records to the app, serious biohackers can send away for blood tests in the US via the Whoop app, to get results for biomarkers such as hormone levels and vitamin deficiencies that Whoop's AI can incorporate. New features are rolling out that will also allow you to contact licensed clinicians through the app.

However, despite Whoop having a longer list of features, I'm looking forward to spending time with Google's health-focused LLM Coach to identify the breadth of its capabilities. I'm willing to bet that the flexibility of the Coach service, together with the ability to feed it your data, will make it an excellent value proposition.

Early verdict

The Google Fitbit Air is a fairly cheap tracker that looks like a great-value proposition for those who don't want to shell out for a pricey Whoop subscription, especially as over time, it looks like the expense of a Whoop will only increase when compared to the Fitbit's cheaper subscription and one-time purchase. As a consumer, you also have the choice of whether to subscribe to the AI coach or just use the device as a tracker.

The Whoop devices do have some innovations that Fitbit doesn't have, such as that innovative charger, the metallic physical elements and a more comprehensive feature set, but during testing I'll be specifically testing the breadth of the Fitbit's AI coach, trying to see if it can replicate some of the Whoop bands' best features.

• The RingConn Gen3 is now available for pre-order
• It boasts new features including 'Vascular Health Insights, blood pressure and vibration alerts
• At present, vibration alerts are only keyed to health events and reminders, rather than phone notifications

The RingConn Gen 3 is now available for pre-order, and it boasts a range of upgrades and improvements over the RingConn Gen 2. Our reviewer called the slimmer RingConn Gen 2 Air the "perfect entry-level smart ring" and it made our best smart rings list. Clearly RingConn is already doing something right.

While the new model is slightly thicker, it's got a bunch of new features, notably Vascular Health Insights and Smart Vibration Alerts. Vascular Health Insights is RingConn's name for looking at your data longer-term, with the feature said to 'push the ring beyond simple logging and more toward long-term pattern interpretation,' according to the RingConn website. It's 'designed to help users understand broader cardiovascular trends over time'.

RingConn stresses it's turning heart health signals into actionable insight, but at the moment it's unclear how that differs to similar features from Oura and Samsung Health.

Blood pressure monitoring is also on the cards, although RingConn is carefully not framing the ring as a replacement for a blood pressure cuff, as is the case with the best Apple Watches' Hypertension feature. Instead, it's designed as advisory or an estimate only.

Haptic feedback

RingConn's Smart Vibration Alerts are interesting: it's a feature not currently used by the top smart rings like the Oura Ring 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Instead, it represents smart rings adopting an element of interactivity rather than remaining focused, quiet wearables for data collection.

However, rather than get into alerting you to phone notifications, the RingConn Gen 3's Smart Vibration Alerts are only for health events, with the press release stating that 'Gen 3 is not trying to become a noisy mini-smartwatch'.

'The vibration feature is health-first, not message-first. That keeps the ring aligned with what people actually want from this category: helpful guidance without constant distraction.' Presumably, those health events include features similar to the best smartwatches, alerting the user to unusually high or low heart rates. The vibration feature can be toggled on or off.

A solid foundation

The RingConn Gen 3 builds on the Gen 2's solid foundation, with sleep apnea detection, menstrual cycle tracking, and an improved battery life (up to 11 days with vibration on, or 14 with vibration off).

It packs all the usual measuring of wellness metrics such as stress, heart rate variability, blood oxygen, sleep tracking, steps, calories and more. Stay tuned for our full review, and you can preorder the RingConn Gen 3 here for $386 (around £285 / AU$535).

• Garmin just dropped three new watches: the Garmin Forerunner 70, 170 and 170 Music
• Designed to be 'easy to use', the watches are equipped 'with everything a runner needs to start their running journey'
• Some of Garmin's software from more expensive Forerunners makes the cut here, such as wrist-based running power and running dynamics

Our best Garmin watches list has been overdue getting a new budget entry for a while, and we're now spoiled for choice: Garmin just dropped three 'easy-to-use' running watches.

The three models — the Garmin Forerunner 70, Forerunner 170 and 170 Music — are equipped with "everything a runner needs to start their running journey," according to Susan Lyman, Garmin Vice President of Consumer Sales and Marketing.

The Garmin Forerunner 70 is the successor to Garmin's long-serving Garmin Forerunner 55 running watch, and will cost £219.99 / AU$399 (around $300). The Forerunner 170, meanwhile, will start at £259.99 / AU$479 (around $350). The 170 Music, which allows you to download music and connect headphones and which comes with 4GB of memory, costs £299.99 / AU$549 (around $400).

All three watches come with a 1.2-inch AMOLED screen and Garmin's standard Forerunner five-button configuration.

The Garmin Forerunner 70 offers up to 13 days of battery life, while the more feature-rich Forerunner 170 series both get up to 10 days of battery life in smartwatch mode. The Forerunner 170 series also adds more smartwatch features, such as Garmin Pay.

In a press release, Lyman said the "Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170 include premium running and training features pulled in from our more advanced Forerunners, plus popular health and wellness metrics."

Those tools include Training Readiness scores, wrist-based Running Power (a popular metric to base your performance on, a measure of total effort rather than heart rate), and Running Dynamics features, which calculate stride, cadence and more. It's not clear yet whether the watches are packing the older, less accurate Elevate V4 heart rate sensors common in cheaper watches, or Garmin's newer Elevate V5 series.

The Garmin Forerunner 70 and 170 series are available to pre-order now, releasing on May 15.

A well-timed replacement

While there's plenty of entry-level and beginner-friendly language used when describing these watches, Garmin's simpler, cheaper Forerunners are still used by the best runners in the world.

As recently as April this year, the five-year-old, still-cheap Garmin Forerunner 55 was used by marathon runner Sebastian Sawe to break the two-hour time barrier at London 2026.

So, even though these watches are ideal for beginners, serious runners should be looking at them very closely too. Stay tuned for our full reviews.

The Google Fitbit Air is a compelling choice if you want excellent health and fitness tracking features at an affordable price. But what about if I could make it even better? Free, perhaps. Well, that's exactly what's possible with this preorder offer at the Google Store, which could get you a Google Fitbit Air for as little as $0 when you trade in your existing wearable.

Now, to get the Google Fitbit Air for free, you do need to hand over a relatively modern and powerful wearable. Examples on the Google Store's trade-in estimator that will cover the $99.99 upfront cost include an Apple Watch Series 9 or a Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. Undeniably, that would be a big downgrade in terms of overall features, given the Fitbit Air's no-frills, screenless design.

Still, these are much older devices now, and several other options will go some way to paying for the Fitbit Air outright. Trading in a Fitbit Versa 2, an original Google Pixel Watch, or an Apple Watch SE earns a rebate of up to $50.

Google Fitbit Air preorder offer

If the minimalist and lightweight Fitbit Air, with its standard set of health and fitness tracking features, seven-day battery life, and Google Health integration, sounds like the right one for you (and you're currently looking to upgrade from an ageing wearable), this is an offer well worth taking advantage of while it's still available until May 25.

My running pace isn't going to set the race world alight. And while I'm a big proponent of taking things at your own speed, I would like to improve my stats just a smidge — and a fitness tracker is how I'm going to do that. So far, I've either not tracked my runs at all, or used a phone-based app to gather information that I can look at after I've finished. Some on-wrist information, I think, would help me become more aware of my progress, and ultimately, how to improve it.

So I'm in the market for a wearable. Today's best fitness trackers and smart watches are crammed with tech and data, but I don't need something particularly advanced, and I also don't want to splash too much cash. If you're in a similar position to me, I've gathered some top options below. These are highest-rated, budget running trackers we've tested at TechRadar, any of which would fit the bill perfectly.

In the affordable smartwatch arena, the standout is the Amazfit Active 2, which is bafflingly cheap and earned a perfect five stars in our review. Of the fitness bands we've tested, the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is the shining star (provided you don't live in the US or have an iPhone), or the efficient and beginner-friendly FitBit Inspire 3.

Read on for more options — and hit the View Details button to find out more information about each one.

On your marks...

Today marks the long-awaited announcement of the Google Fitbit Air — and the tech giant has revealed that preorders for its upcoming screenless fitness tracker start now, ahead of launch on May 26. The Whoop rival, which features a fabric band and weighs just 12g, is priced at $99.99 / £84.99 (about AU$140), making it a lightweight, minimalist option for health monitoring.

Features are exactly what you'd expect, including sensors for heart rate, step count, calorie burn, skin temperature, and blood oxygen. All that data is fed into the new Google Health app, which offers all the usual exercise, sleep tracking, and health guidance. You also get seven days of battery life and fast charging support, so it's a device that you can quite easily 'set and forget'.

Unsurprisingly, given its size, price, and lack of display, it doesn't offer the advanced features you'd find in other smartwatches. So, there's no notification support, Google Wallet integration, or GPS, just to name a few.

I've gathered up where to preorder the Fitbit Air below, and included any standout launch deals, where available.

Google Fitbit Air preorders – US

• Google Store: from $0 with a trade-in
• Amazon: from $99.99
• Best Buy: pre-order for $99.99
• Walmart: limited colors for $99.99

Google Fitbit Air preorders – UK

• Google Store: get £35 in Google Store credit
• John Lewis: get a free Fitbit Air Active Band

Google Fitbit Air: specifications

Should you buy the Google Fitbit Air?

As someone who's still rocking an ancient, slowly dying Fitbit Versa 2, I can see myself being tempted to upgrade to the Google Fitbit Air.

The price is the key thing, and at under $100 / £100, it's definitely well within budget. Battery life is solid at up to 7 days, and it supports all the standard health, exercise, and sleep-tracking features I like about my current Fitbit. So, if you're after a no-fuss health and fitness tracker on a budget, it could be a very smart buy.

However, if you're an advanced user who likes access to your phone from your wrist, or if you're perhaps a running enthusiast who wants GPS tracking for your runs, then I can see the Google Fitbit Air being a bit too feature-sparse for you. If that's the case, I'd suggest a read-through of our best smartwatches guide for all our latest recommendations that may better suit your needs.

• Google has revealed the new Google Fitbit Air, and as expected, it's a screenless fitness tracker similar to a Whoop band
• Designed as a 'set and forget' wearable just like the original FitBit, it weighs just 12g with the fabric band
• The wearable arrives at the same time as a big Fitbit redesign, with the app rebranded as 'Google Health'

After weeks of rumors and teases by Google (via NBA all-star Stephen Curry's Instagram account) Google has revealed the Google Fitbit Air, the next evolution of the best Fitbits, and it's exactly what we were expecting: a budget screenless 'set and forget' fitness tracker to undercut the likes of Whoop.

Priced at $99.99 / AU$199 (around £75), the tracker is incredibly lightweight at just 12g — without the band, it weighs only 5g.

It boasts a seven-day battery life, fast charging, and all the usual smartwatch sensor arrays for heart rate, step counting, calorie burn estimation, skin temperature and blood oxygen monitoring.

The device doesn't have GPS, differentiating it from the Fitbit Charge 6. It includes a subscription with three free months of Google Health Premium (formerly known as Fitbit Premium, but more on that in a minute), usually costing $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$15.49 per month.

So far, so expected. The Google Fitbit Air saves seven days of detailed motion data, minute by minute, and one day of workout data, syncing to the new Google Health app.

What is the Google Health app?

The Fitbit app and Fitbit Premium subscription service are being rebranded as the Google Health app in a mandatory rollout, which includes a sweeping redesign. It's not going to be a popular move for long-time Fitbit users, but we've known this was coming ever since Google made it mandatory to have a Google account to continue using Fitbit devices.

As part of this, Google Health's premium subscription is now based around the Google Health Coach, an AI health assistant based on Google Gemini. The Coach accesses all the data you allow it, from sleep and heart rate from a fitness tracker, to nutrition logging by uploading photos of your meals. It can even take into account your medical records.

Using this corpus of information, the Google Health Coach becomes a personal assistant of sorts, recommending you workout plans, sleep optimization tips, recipes, injury advice and more based on your goals and health.

The Google Fitbit Air was apparently 'designed for Google Health Coach', but unlike Whoop, you can use the fitness tracker with a free version of the app if you don't want to subscribe. You just don't get all the AI-powered advice, instead simply getting readouts, scores and graphs based on your data as you do with most fitness trackers.

Google Fitbit Air: specifications

The bands come in several styles: a woven Performance Loop Band designed for 'a flexible fit' built from recycled materials; a silicon Active Band; and the more stylish Elevated Modern Band. The Google Fitbit Air Special Edition comes with a Stephen Curry branded band designed for "peak performance and elevated style".

Analysis: undercutting Whoop and returning to classic Fitbit

When news first broke about the upcoming Fitbit Air, I wrote that Fitbit's new screenless Whoop-style tracker is a better fit for the brand than a smartwatch, because it's a return to the 'almost invisible' pedometer of 2008.

I stand by that assessment. Fitbit's always been best as an unobtrusive, reliable fitness tracker and pedometer, and despite the new app's AI smarts and Google's heavy hints that you need the Health Coach subscription to get the most from this band, this is exactly where the Google Fitbit Air sits.

Other screenless options, such as Whoop 5.0, the Polar Loop and even smart rings like the Oura Ring 4 are more expensive, making the Google Fitbit Air a cheap option for 'focus wearable' fanciers.

Vote in our Google Health poll and tell us what you think:

Want a seriously powerful watch to handle the great outdoors, but don't want to spend big money on the latest model? The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro is the watch for you.

Right now, you can get the mid-size 47mm Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Solar for just £399.99 (was £599.99) at Decathlon. This model isn't just the advanced Pro version, but it's also got Garmin's Power Glass solar charging tech, which extends the battery if you're out for a while in bright sunlight conditions of 50,000 lux or more.

Want something bigger? The giant 51mm Garmin Fenix 7X Pro Sapphire Solar, with Power Glass tech and a super-hard Sapphire Glass screen, is also on sale at Go Outdoors for just £399 (was £870) — that's cheaper than Amazon's price — with a Go Outdoors membership. Check out both deals below, and our pricing tool below that for the best deals in your region:

Today's best Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Solar deal

Today's best Garmin Fenix 7X Pro Sapphire Solar deal

Why get this deal?

In our Garmin Fenix 7 Pro review, we gave the watch an elusive 4.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "an outdoor watch powerhouse."

"Whether you’re a hiker or want the best sports tracking, training, and analysis features Garmin has to offer, this watch isn’t going to let you down," we added.

We only didn't rate it a full five stars due to the watch's high price and iteration on the already-brilliant Fenix 7. Now that the price has dropped a lot lower, I'd recommend these deals to anyone looking to get serious about an outdoor activity.

In 2025, both Garmin and Polar made the bold move to launch paid subscription services with AI-driven coaching features, putting a host of software features behind a paywall.

Unsurprisingly, the introduction of Garmin’s Connect+ and, to a lesser extent, Polar’s Fitness Program didn’t go down well with many existing users. In particular, Garmin users that had just spent a lot of money on a watch they assumed they’d have access to everything on offer, with few users migrating to the paid tier according to our poll.

Garmin and Polar join Oura, Whoop, Google and most other major wearables manufacturers and fitness apps in offering a paid tier full of AI-powered features. When two of the most established sports watch brands make those kinds of moves, it’s understandable to wonder if everyone else will follow suit.

Coros is a relative newcomer to this space, launching its first watch in 2018. Since then, it’s rapidly grown its presence to appear on the wrists of many runners, cyclists and endurance athletes, and features on our lists of best running watches. Coros’ companion app and features have been free to access with the purchase of a watch, and have been since day one. So would it follow in the footsteps of Garmin and others by starting to make its users pay up for extra features?

“First of all, never say never,” says Lewis Wu, co-founder and CEO at Coros.”It really depends on how things go. “We don’t have a payment subscription plan on the roadmap yet, because so far the development is good enough for us to eat that cost.

“Hopefully we’ll never need to do it. The cost of cloud services and the cost of AI will also go down in the future. So we’ll try very hard to keep it for free. We'll try to be as nice as possible for a long time!”

Wu was speaking to us at the launch of a new collaboration between Coros and Wahoo that now allows training data to be shared across devices from both brands. That includes Wahoo’s new Kickr Run treadmill to boost indoor run tracking accuracy. Again, there is no extra charge for this feature for Coros or Wahoo users.

“One thing we need to look at is, what kind of features are we going to build?,” Wu said. “The second thing is, what’s the cost of that feature? If the profit from hardware sales is able to cover it, then we’ll find a way to offer it for free. We have been building features for existing hardware for years without charging anything.”

As far as the likes of Garmin and Polar deciding to offer a subscription element to their respective software platforms, this is something Wu isn’t wholly surprised by.

“A company needs to make a profit. That’s one thing, says Wu. “That’s part of why you start a company right? Whether you’re a large company or a small startup. We want to keep our business model simple. We want to sell hardware and reinvest the profit into the back end development.

“There’s no problem for an app-only company to charge a subscription because that’s their only source of income. We’re fortunate that we have the hardware sales to support us.”

Is a screenless Coros tracker on the horizon?

Locking software features behind a paywall isn’t the only trend in the wearable space that has pulled in some of those established sports watch brands. In 2025, Polar introduced the Loop, a screen-less band clearly set on offering a subscription-free alternative to Whoop. Garmin is expected to launch its Cirqa band soon and do something similar. Google and Fitbit is set to join the screen-free party with the device likely being dubbed Fitbit Air. So is Coros cooking up something screen-free as well?

“Screen-less devices really land on understanding what kind of problem we want to solve for consumers?” explains Wu. “We’re not a company that sells tons of screen-less devices and makes tons of money from it. What we’re going to do is look at what kind of problems cannot be solved by a watch. For the most part, most problems can be solved by a watch. It’s a device you can wear 24/7. It can record your heart rate and metrics like HRV.”

This kind of problem solving is what led Coros to build and launch an arm-based heart rate monitor. To solve the problem of offering more reliable heart rate tracking across workouts compared to the performance of doing that from the wrist. It also launched the Coros Pod to provide more accurate tracking of running metrics like pace by placing motion sensors closer to your feet.

“We build a watch now and our first step is to build a very established wellness system,” explains Wu. “We’ll see if consumers are happy about it, or if it is absolutely necessary to build hardware. You look at the smart ring companies. They offer a good experience, right? Whatever decision we’re going to make, it’s going to be about solving a problem. It’s not just about another source of income because fundamentally, there's not that pressure.”

So it’s a no to a Whoop rival for now at least and crucially for Coros users, no plans to hit that subscription button any time soon as long as those watches keep shipping.

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: One minute review

The Huawei Watch GT Runner 2 is full of innovative tweaks, making it ideal for running accuracy, and from a design perspective, it’s the best running watch I’ve tried so far in 2026. Because US customers can’t actually buy them, Huawei devices often go under the radar in many lists, which is a shame, as their hardware is stellar.

The GT Runner 2 is another smash hit. It’s light, at 10.7mm thick and just 34.5g in weight, packing a smallish 1.32-inch screen with a 3,000 nit brightness AMOLED display. That’s as bright as the Apple Watch Ultra 3. It fits nicely on my average-sized male wrist and doesn’t move about during runs. It comes in a selection of pretty cool colors and bands. I was partial to the Dawn Orange colorway, but my review unit arrived in Dusk Blue, which also looks nice.

The GPS credentials are where things get interesting. Huawei claims the GT Runner 2 outperforms the Garmin Forerunner 970 (by name) in GPS accuracy for runners, using a new dual-floating GPS antenna structure to improve accuracy. I didn’t have a Garmin Forerunner 970 to hand, but I did have something even better: the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro, perhaps Garmin’s best-ever smartwatch from a hardware perspective, and one that costs three times as much as the GT Runner 2.

On a 10.5 kilometer out-and-back run, the Fenix 8 Pro recorded 10.51km, with 797 calories burned, an average heart rate of 157 bpm, 5.39km average pace. The Huawei GT Runner 2 recorded 10.48km, a difference of 0.03km (or 30 meters) overall, with 785 calories burned, an average heart rate of 167 bpm, and 5.39km average pace. Those are very close results.

Even advanced running metrics were similar, with stride length being recorded as 1.10 meters by both watches. With very little in the way of statistically significant differences, I’m happy that the GT Runner 2 is as accurate as the very top-tier watches in the category. I’d expect nothing less from a watch used by record-breaking marathoner Eliud Kipchoge. You can see the results on the screens below.

Other wellness metrics are good, too: I’ve hyped up Huawei’s TruSense and TruSleep algorithms before as being scarily accurate, and it’s good to see the watch making use of both here. The accuracy of its sleep tracking and the watch's reduced weight made it easy to wear overnight. Marathon Mode, a little like Garmin’s Event Planner with an intelligent coach, and training plans abound on-watch, allowing you to follow programs imported from the Huawei Health app. Battery life is impressive, while features like Emotional Wellbeing that rely on self-reporting, I consider less useful.

A resounding success for design, performance, and health and fitness features, but smart stuff is more of a mixed bag, albeit through no fault of the watch’s designers. Huawei’s inability to work with either Google or Android’s ecosystem left my watch as a self-contained wellness tool rather than an integrated smart gadget in the same way the best Android watches, or best Apple Watches, are.

Huawei says the watch “runs seamlessly with iOS and Android,” but that’s not entirely true. I could see WhatsApp notifications as part of Huawei’s Message Tool, but everything has to be side-loaded from Huawei’s online AppGallery, so I couldn’t get a native WhatsApp watch app, only notifications. There’s no first-party app for Spotify either, so I had to download Petal Maps on my phone to use instead of Google or Apple Maps. As an extension of my phone, this experience is still frustrating and far from reflective of its excellent wellness credentials.

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: Specifications

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: Price and availability

• £349.99 in the UK / Europe
• Not available in US / AU
• Cheaper than most modern Forerunner watches

Huawei’s availability is a far greater issue than its price. Huawei telecomms devices continue to suffer from the ongoing 5G ban, which is a shame for US runners as they’re missing out on some very good hardware. For UK users, the price is pretty reasonable at £349.99, around the same price as the Apple Watch Series 11.

• Value score: 4/5

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: Scorecard

Huawei Watch GT Runner 2: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested

I wore the Huawei Watch GT Runner 2 for a week, taking it on several runs as well as gym sessions, sleeping with it, and draining the battery down. I tested it on a 10.5 km run against the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro to determine accuracy in its metrics.

First reviewed: April 2026

Spring is always the best time to find a discount on a fitness tracker, as the weather starts to warm up and more people get outdoors. I've just spotted TechRadar's best premium fitness tracker, the top-rated Fitbit Charge 6, on sale for $119.95 (originally $159.95), thanks to a 25% discount from Amazon.

• Shop more Fitness deals at Amazon

While the Fitbit Charge 6 was released back in 2023, we still say it's 'the most advanced band-style fitness tracker you can buy' in our review.' The Charge 6 is packed with fitness-focused features, with over 40 unique exercise modes and the ability to track workout stats and heart rate. The Fitbit also includes GPS technology, an ECG sensor, and an impressive battery life of up to 7 days.

Today's best Fitbit deal

You can shop more of Amazon's best Fitbit deals below, including the Inspire 3, the Versa 4, and the Sense 2 with prices starting at just $79.95.

Keep in mind these are limited-time offers from Amazon, and a perfect opportunity to score an insightful fitness companion for your wrist this spring and summer. You can also look forward to more fitness deals at this year's Memorial Day sales event.

Shop more of Amazon's best Fitbit deals

• More details of the Fitbit Air have leaked
• It could launch on May 16 for $99
• Images of the wearable have already appeared

The rumors are that Google is about to launch a Whoop-rivalling, screen-free tracker called the Fitbit Air, and we have some fresh leaks around the device that point to a possible price point and three different color options.

This information comes from Droid Life, and suggests that the tracker price will come in at $99 in the US. That's roughly £73 / AU$138, though Google is unlikely to use a straight currency conversion — something like £99 would be more likely in the UK, where I am.

As for colors, there will apparently be three main options: Obsidian, Lavender, and Berry. They neatly match the colors we've seen on previous Google devices, including the recently launched Google Pixel 10a, adding more credibility to the leaks.

Those main colors are said to be accompanied by a Snow (or white) charging cable, plus a variety of band options — Performance, Active, Elevated, and Metal Mesh. More colors will reportedly be available with the bands, beyond the three mentioned above, including Fog, Moonstone (see also the Google Pixel 10 Pro), Porcelain, Silver, and Warm Gold.

The price is right?

Now the Whoop bands that Google is taking aim at here don't cost anything, but are attached to compulsory subscriptions that start at $149 for the first year, rising to $199 after that — so it's a substantial investment.

It remains to be seen if the Fitbit Air will require a subscription, but Fitbit Premium currently costs $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year. All of the current Fitbit and Google wearables can be used with or without the subscription and extra features.

As well as the leaks about the hardware, there have also been whisperings that Fitbit Premium will be rebranded as Google Health, which may come with new features of its own. Droid Life says May 16 will be the launch date, so we don't have long to wait.

Having been holding on tightly to my Fitbit Charge 6 for three years now, the Fitbit Air is perfectly suited for me — not only am I due an upgrade, I've never really seen the point of a display on a fitness tracker anyway.

I need something light and unobtrusive that I can wear around the clock (unlike my bulkier smartwatch), and this may well fit the bill.

• More leaks about the new Fitbit tracker have hit the web from 'sources familiar with the matter' via 9to5Google
• The screenless band is reportedly being referred to as the Fitbit Air
• Fitbit Premium is also reportedly being rebranded as "Google Health"

More news abounds about the upcoming screenless Fitbit fitness tracker, as teased by Steph Curry on Instagram. This time, we've got a bit more unconfirmed information on the name of the tracker, alongside a revamp of Google's Fitbit Premium subscription service.

According to 9to5Google, which cites unnamed 'sources familiar with the matter', the new Fitbit is named the Fitbit Air. Fitbit has used this moniker before with the Fitbit Aria Air (which featured on our list of best smart scales for a while) but never on a fitness tracker.

The name does make some sense: like a MacBook Air or the Ultrahuman Ring Air, it's likely to be billed as a super-light version of the base device, in this case one of the best Fitbits. It'll be all the lighter for not needed a screen or similar element of interactivity, instead cleaving closer to the pedometer Fitbits of yore.

However, just like Whoop (the current screenless fitness tracker leader), the device will interact with a paid subscription service, in this case Fitbit Premium. Except, it might not be called Fitbit Premium anymore — 9to5Google's sources state the subscription may be rebranding itself as Google Health.

Google continues its Fitbit erasure mission

After Google bought Fitbit in 2019, using the popular brand's Fitbit ecosystem to replace its middling Google Fit app, it began quietly axing models and features from its line that it saw as redundant. These include community challenges and, er, almost all smartwatch models, folding the best stuff into its own Google Pixel Watch line.

Fitbit Premium is an outstanding fitness service — our reviewer gave Fitbit Premium 4.5 stars in our review — and changing the name to Google Health wouldn't necessarily change any of the service's content or functionality, just the branding. But it would go a step towards eliminating the name of Fitbit from Google's ecosystem, strengthening its own brand.

I assume if the rumors are true and the move is successful, Google Health will be incorporated into other Google devices and services, allowing the company to remain consistent, while Fitbits will be reduced to the name of that particular line of trackers. Having 'Fitbit, powered by Google' on a Google Pixel Watch could be complicated messaging for smartwatch buyers who don't know Fitbit and Google are one and the same. If the rumors are true, Google Pixel phones and watches just arrive with Google Health and everyone will know what's up.

Whether any more features will be axed to the ire of existing Fitbit subscribers, only time will tell.

• Whoop is rolling out a new version of its Advanced Labs blood-testing program, Specialized Panels
• The program now tests up to 89 biomarkers
• Once tested, you get the results in-app, and Whoop’s AI can use it to provide better health insights

For a while now, Whoop members in the US have had the option to pay an additional fee on top of their annual subscription for Whoop’s Advanced Labs feature.

Whether you’ve got a Whoop 5.0, a Whoop MG or an old-school Whoop 4.0, you can head to the nearest lab of Whoop's testing partner, Quest Diagnostics, get a blood test for up to 59 biomarkers, and see the results in the Whoop app. Whoop can then add this data to its smorgasbord of collected sleep, heart rate, training and recovery data to provide more personalized health insights.

Whoop has now revealed the next stage of this program, Specialized Panels. For a one-time fee of $299, users can get a blood test drawn with Quest Diagnostics providing between 75 and 89 biomarkers spread across one of five ‘panels’: heart health, performance, metabolic function, women’s health and men’s health.

Just like Advanced Labs, the blood test provides information on cardiometabolic risks, vitamin deficiencies, hormones and so on. That information gets turned into "clear, actionable insights", as Whoop’s in-app AI can grab the info and use it in conjunction with all the other data your Whoop band collects. However, these Specialized Panels allow users to drill down on areas of particular concern. Whoop says "this marks a shift from broad, comprehensive testing toward more focused, goal-based insights".

Whoop is one of only a handful of health tech companies that have started incorporating blood tests. Oura, maker of the best smart rings, has a Health Panels feature covering 50 biomarkers which costs $99.

Blood testing and big tech: is there anything to worry about?

Blood tests can show all sorts of things, from levels of the stress hormone cortisol, to testosterone or estrogen levels, to hemoglobin, which helps transport oxygen to your muscles and brain. Low hemoglobin levels, for example, can cause tiredness because not enough oxygen is getting to the body parts that need it, and Whoop will factor this in when analyzing your stress, strain and recovery times.

It’s all very clever, but there’s a hidden worry to this: handing your blood over to big tech, and what companies might do with your sensitive health information.

Whoop’s Head of Healthcare Product, Alex Vannoi, told me via email that: “Specialized Panels are built on the same rigorous foundation as the rest of our platform. We use end-to-end encryption, strict access controls, and continuous monitoring to safeguard data, and only collect what’s necessary to deliver the service.

“When we work with trusted clinical partners, information is shared in a highly controlled way and used solely for its intended purpose.” Whoop also doesn’t train its AI on personally identifiable data.

Whoop works with Quest Diagnostics to draw the blood necessary to deliver these biomarkers. Quest Diagnostics’ privacy policy states that when it collects personal information such as “precise or specific geolocation, information concerning your health, and genetic information”, that info could be passed on to third parties such as “service providers, analytics, marketing, and promotional partners, and third parties for operational purposes.”

Could your blood be used for advertising? It all sounds very Cyberpunk. While blood test results could be considered ‘protected health information’ under US law (specifically the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA), the sharing process between Whoop and Quest Diagnostics, outside of a clinical setting, makes it a grayer area. Certainly Whoop seems to treat your data responsibly, but do its partners?

UPDATE: 04/16/2026

I reached out to Quest Diagnostics to ask whether Whoop user’s data could be shared with third parties for marketing purposes.

A representative for Quest Diagnostics told me that "Quest Diagnostics is a HIPAA-covered entity that performs the lab testing that WHOOP users initiate through the WHOOP application. Quest Diagnostics uses and discloses test results only in accordance with HIPAA. HIPAA restricts the use of test results for marketing and we comply with those restrictions.

"Quest Diagnostics only shares test results as permitted by HIPAA or as authorized by the patient".

• An unreleased Fitbit wearable has been spotted in the wild
• It’s been repeatedly worn in public by basketball player Steph Curry
• The device was previously teased by Curry and Google

Not everyone that’s interested in fitness trackers wants a wearable with a screen. After all, these products might be some of the best smartwatches out there, but with a high-end display thrown into the mix, they can be too bulky, too expensive, and too short on battery life for many people.

Pushing against this, there are many screenless wearables that quantify your wellbeing without the cumbersome screen. Fitbit has been teasing one such device in collaboration with basketball player Steph Curry, and now a whole treasure trove of images has leaked depicting the as-yet-unreleased product.

The pictures were unearthed by Droid Life, with the outlet saying they came across the images on Steph Curry’s social media pages. These photos depict a screenless wearable wrapped around Curry’s wrist, with what looks to be a gray woven strap with an orange border and metallic clasp.

These match earlier leaked images supposedly portraying Fitbit’s wearable, which was officially teased by Google at the start of April. That lends credence to the idea that the product spotted by Droid Life is the same as the one promoted by Google and Steph Curry a few weeks ago.

Aside from the wearable itself, Droid Life also found a Steph Curry video that shows what looks like a modified version of the Fitbit app running on a Google Pixel phone. The Fitbit app in the video is tracking a Sport activity with live data, which Droid Life doesn’t believe the current app is able to do. The implication is that this is a feature that could come to the Fitbit app in order to complement its new wearable.

Seems legit

Interestingly, Curry has been sporting this wearable publicly since at least January 2026, Droid Life claims. He has been seen with it at basketball games, at press conferences and at promotional events, which seems unusual for an unreleased product that, you would think, would be kept under lock and key until it was ready for release.

One possibility is that the parties involved want the device to be spotted in order to build up excitement ahead of its launch date. In that way, it might be an attempt to seed the product into people’s minds before the arrival of any official press campaign.

The claim that the images were discovered on official pages managed by or featuring Steph Curry gives them some weight — after all, Curry is lending his name to the project alongside Google-owned Fitbit. It’s not like Droid Life has spotted an unknown device on the wrist of some other celebrity and has guessed that they’re looking at an in-development Fitbit product.

With the device seemingly making public appearances now, it might not be long until we get official details from Fitbit, such as the product’s name and asking price. If it’s something you're interested in, you might want to keep your eyes peeled.

It's pretty much an open secret at this point that Google is making a new Fitbit fitness tracker. In a teaser video posted on Instagram, the tech giant's brand ambassador and 'performance advisor', basketball legend Steph Curry, promised that something big (or in this case, small) was coming, while wearing a conspicuous screenless wristband.

The upcoming fitness tracker could be a bit of a cash-in on the screenless wearables trend. The Whoop 5.0, the Polar Loop, and the Amazfit Helio Strap all came out last year, and it looks like a Garmin CIRQA smart band is on the horizon too.

However, I think the move makes sense for Google — it's a return to Fitbit's pre-Google acquisition philosophy and formats, and the new tracker has the potential to shoot to the top of our best Fitbits guide.

Back to where it all began

2008 was a simpler time, in which we were all excited about technology and smart gadgets without worrying about being manipulated by tech companies, or that AI was about to take our jobs.

At the 2008 TechCrunch50 conference, a small startup company debuted the FitBit, a wireless smart pedometer that clipped to your clothes, tracked your steps, monitored your sleep patterns with its gyroscopes, and uploaded your data to a server whenever you passed near the Bluetooth-connected dock. You could log in to view your stats, and add information like nutrition tracking.

Back then, TechCrunch's John Biggs said: "the device clips to almost any piece of clothing and is almost invisible", and called it "a tiny fitness gadget that I actually want". It had a very small LED screen, but no other way to interact with the device other than to log onto a computer and tinker with your data. It was a 'set and forget' wellness tracker in the purest sense.

A few years later, the Fitbit Flex popped the tracker on your wrist and the rest is history. The Fitbit Flex was similarly hands-off, with five LED lights indicating your step count as the only interactive elements of the band.

With all that cardio, no wonder Fitbit's eating itself

That minimalist design ethos didn't last. After the success of the Apple Watch, Fitbit joined every other consumer tech manufacturer in going big on interactive watch-format wearables, and in recent years Fitbit only saw moderate success with its watch-style trackers (we gave the Fitbit Versa 4 only 3/5 stars), especially after Google bought Fitbit and used the brand's best features for its excellent Pixel Watches, which ran Google's more advanced Wear OS operating system rather than Fitbit's clunkier software.

Later, Google quietly axed most Fitbit smartwatches after slowly discontinuing many community features. The Fitbit smartwatches were just superfluous to Google's plans.

However, I think the upcoming screenless tracker could represent a return to form for the brand. Similar to the Fitbit Flex, it's a smart band with very little in the way of on-wrist interaction, just passive data collection. While the phone app is obviously much more advanced than Fitbit's early desktop databases, the principle is the same: focus on your workout or sleep, forget the tracker is there, and access your information when and how you want, rather than being subject to push notifications or flashing screens.

If Google gets this right, it could mean Fitbit returns to relevance again as the best fitness tracker, and a top-tier name in a crowded market. I'm waiting for more news with great anticipation.

Have you noticed? We are entering a new era of wearables, as the screen-free tracker trend picks up the pace.

Everyone from Fitbit (an official tracker teased by Steph Curry) to Garmin (leaked information on the in-development Garmin Cirqa) has one cooking. These lifestyle wearables won’t pull your attention away with flashing notifications. And they will record your daily stats and exercise sessions while demanding no intervention at all.

While there are plenty more in-development, let's take a look at the best of the bunch out there right now. Whoop has become the best-known name in this area and is, miraculously, a decade into its existence. Some other compelling contenders have finally entered the field, though, including the Polar Loop and Amazfit Helio Strap.

Similar concept, different approach. Whoop has matured from an athlete-first wearable to a general lifestyle guide, with a highly-polished app that makes swathes of complex information easy to digest. On the other hand, the Polar Loop is a stylish and stripped-back wearable out to court those looking to get away from constant screen use. Crucially, it’s cheaper than the Whoop with no subscription fee.

And the Amazfit Helio Strap? It is by far the most affordable of the trio, being cheaper again than the Polar Loop. The design isn’t flashy, but it is not short on features. Let’s dig in further.

Price and availability

The Polar Loop and Amazfit Helio Strap are a reaction to the success of Whoop. But they’re based around a totally different kind of business model.

When you buy a Whoop you join one of three memberships, dubbed One ($149 / £169 / AU$249), Peak ($239 / £229 / AU$399) and Life ($359 / £349 / AU$599). That includes either a Whoop 4.0/5.0 or Whoop MG band, and a year’s access to the respective service plan — you pay more, you get more advanced data.

Once the year’s up, you’ll need to fork out for another year, or pay a monthly subscription depending on your desired tier: $25 for Whoop One, $30 for Peak or $40 for Whoop Life (available in “select renewal scenarios” according to Whoop).

There’s none of that nonsense with the Polar and Amazfit options. A Polar Loop costs $199, the Amazfit Helio Strap just $99.99. And there’s no obligation to pay more after that, and you can access all your core stats without a subscription. Bliss.

Of course, this being 2026 there are still premium subscriptions on offer from both Polar and Amazfit. Polar has the €9.99 euro Fitness Program (around $11.50 / £8.50 / AU$16) , but as it provides training plans it’s really a better fit for a hardcore Polar fitness watch than the Polar Loop. Amazfit offers the Zepp Aura Premium subscription, at $11.99 (around £9 / AU$17 a month) or $69.99 (around £55 / AU$100) for the year. Its focus is on sleep and wellness, and provides many soundscapes to help you get some rest. It’s neat, but not really necessary for most Helio Strap owners.

• Winner: Amazfit Helio Strap

Design

Whoop set the standard for screen-less wearable styling in 2015 with its first band, and very little has changed design-wise since then. The Amazfit and Polar wearables take a similar approach. There’s effectively a fitness tracker ‘brain’, sensor array and a Bluetooth chip attached to a fabric strap, sending information to your phone.

Whoop actually claims the Polar design is too close to its own, having sued the company on that very point. Tech brands sue each other at every possible opportunity, though, and these three are clearly not clones of one another.

Their designs also give clues as to their three personalities — after a fashion — which bleeds through into their feature list too. The Polar Loop is the least hardcore of the trio, and has the look to match. The mottled fabric finish and metal accents throughout suggest Polar thinks people care about style as well as functionality. It weighs 29g including strap. Not heavy.

Whoop’s Band 5.0 continues the series’s signature style, as pretty much the only recognisable screen-free tracker these days. It too is part-metal with a fabric strap, and weighs 29g.

While it’s the classic screen-free wearable, we are not actually massive fans of one key element, the clasp. Its grip is not all that firm, and has a habit of coming undone by itself which is very annoying. This extends to its more premium sibling the Whoop MG, which we pointed out in our Whoop MG review.

The Amazfit Helio Strap is a little different. Its almost all-plastic design brings weight down to a super-low 20g. This makes it “disappear" on the wrist while wearing it, at least from the wearer’s own perception of additional weight. And while it has the plainest basic design of the three, it’s also available in a Hyrox edition with a luminous highlighter-yellow patch up top.

All three bands have effectively fairly similar water resistance. All are OK for pool swimming, but shouldn’t be used for scuba diving or anything similar. A Whoop 5.0 is rated at IP68, and for submersion at up to 10m depth. Polar rates the Loop at WR30, for “bathing and swimming” but not snorkelling or diving. The Amazfit Helio Strap has a 5ATM rating, which is the norm these days for all but the toughest wearables. It’s a case of three different standards that end up in the same place: you don’t have to take these wearables off to shower, or when at the swimming pool.

• Winner: Tie

Features

The Helio Strap’s sporty design is the best clue as to what the Amazfit wearable is about. It’s positioned as the most fitness--driven of the three bands in the way the companion Zepp app presents data has more of a focus on workouts versus rest and recovery. It uses an Amazfit-created stat called Biocharge, which offsets exertion against sleep and rest quality.

The wearable’s image is that of a tool for busy folks who might realistically be at risk of overtraining if they don’t watch their training load. But it will also do the job as an all-round lighter fitness tracker.

Despite Amazfit’s Zepp Aura Premium being all about wellness and relaxation, there’s less sense of long-term holistic health tracking here. You do get a VO2 Max reading, which is handy for long-term fitness tracking. But the impression the software gives is more of a classic exercise-first fitness tracker, just without the display.

It does have a couple of neat extras not always seen in these screenless wearables, though. The Amazfit Helio Strap has a vibrate motor, for timers, alarms and “find my device” emergencies. It can also live-share its heart rate data with other devices that support the feature, which is useful.

Deeper insight is all part of the Whoop pitch, and part of why it claims to be worth a chunky paid ongoing subscription.

Subscribe to the mid-tier Peak Whoop membership or above and you get stats like your Whoop Age, as well as the Strain score supplied across all three of Whoop’s plans. There’s menstrual cycling tracking too, made possible using a skin temperature sensor.

Or to go all-out, the Life membership adds blood pressure observations and ECG, although this involves using a completely different Whoop MG wearable (it looks similar, admittedly). With that plan you end up paying an awful lot for stats some more conventional wearables do as standard, though, such as the best Garmin watches.

The Polar experience is a bit less focused than that of Whoop or Amazfit. In the Polar Flow app you see “cards” based on your recent activity, and of key stats the band has recorded.

There are zero extras here, though. The Polar Loop won’t share its heart rate readings, and doesn’t have a vibration motor. There’s no skin temperature sensor either, which rules out features like menstrual cycle tracking.

• Winner: Whoop

Performance

The Polar Loop, Amazfit Helio Strap and Whoop 5.0 may come across as part of a newly-popular category, but their sensor hardware is just like that of other wearables. All the stats rely on an optical heart rate sensor (which uses LEDs to estimate heart rate from information taken from your wrist) , motion sensors to determine movement and estimate step count, and for the WHOOP Band 5.0, a skin temperature sensor.

I compared the results of these screen-less trackers with one of the better Garmin watches out there, the Garmin Venu 4, which uses Garmin’s latest Elevate V5 heart rate sensor. We’ve tested this against top-of-the-range watches including the Apple Watch Ultra 3, as well as a Polar H10 chest strap, to determine accuracy, and have no qualms about the validity of the Garmin’s readings.

The results for heart rate tracking were commendably similar between the Garmin and the three other wearables we’re testing against. When peak heart rate results for automatically-tracked with the Amazfit Helio Strap and Polar Loop were typically within 2bpm of those of the Garmin Venu 4. And with early 2026 firmware, there were no obvious classic optical heart rate issues such as the first few minutes of a workout having entirely inaccurate readings, which often happens when the wearable struggles to tell the difference between your heart rate and run cadence.

Even in a static bike class (which can be tricky for bands), the Garmin, Amazfit and Polar wearables all recorded the same 167bpm maximum heart rate score. It’s a reassuring result.

When you use these screen-less wearables, though, it becomes pretty clear we’re not meant to obsess over heart rate date in too much fine detail. After all, for the most part it’s going to be down to the software when any specific activity ends, which will impact average heart rate stats across a session.

What about Whoop? We’ve had a bit more of a mixed experience with the Whoop bands, and the top-tier Whoop MG in particular had a few issues.

We find Whoop competitive with its peers for general heart rate accuracy during workouts and excellent for recovery tracking, but we did have a few issues with its ECG readings. Namely, it would often fail to register a recording. And unlike a watch with a screen, you don’t get that immediate feedback as to why this is the case

The core appeal for Whoop fans is the Strain score, though, and that doesn’t rely on ECG but the basics of the HR tracking. This is where Whoop wins, on generating cogent and actionable advice in the app that feels useful, right down to its in-app workout builder.

It tries fairly hard to insinuate its way into your life, though. You’ll be nagged to go to bed at the right time, and to put the band back on if you take it off, through phone notifications. Is that what you want? Our original reviewer wasn’t quite so sure.

Amazfit’s Zepp app is solid, but ultimately feels a bit more like standard fitness tracker fare than Whoop, leaning on Biocharge, Sleep and Exertion stats alongside familiar numbers including steps, VO2 max and your exertion load. It has a very sporty flavour, which may appeal to some.

Polar we had some more issues with. The Flow app feels less intuitive than either the Amazfit or Whoop apps, bombarding you with graphs rather than a slick interface full of helpful context. And over the months of testing we’ve had a few different issues.

Initially, pairing and sync’ing were intermittently clunky and/or problematic. More recently we’ve experienced issues with the Android app crashing completely when you try to look into a specific exercise session entry. There have been a few too many issues and irritations for what is one of the longest-standing names in fitness wearables.

And battery life? Here things are a bit more consistent. Whoop says the Band 5.0 can last up to 14 days, and with fairly intense use we got around nine days from it. Polar claims eight days for the Loop, and we got a week out of a charge. Amazfit was bang on the money with its 10-day claim too.

While Whoop was the furthest from its battery life claims, it’s also important to remember you can have more of an interactive participation with a Whoop (at its higher tiers) thank to the ECG support, which is a manual process. Whoop also allows you to charge it without taking it off your wrist via the charging puck.

• Winner: Whoop

Verdict

Is the screen-free life for you? Polar, Whoop and Amazfit can all provide their own take on the trend. And all deliver a largely fuss-free experience, with automatic activity logging and long battery life.

There are some other points to note, though. We’re not persuaded Whoop’s highest tier is necessarily worth it for many. It’s just a lot to pay, an an ongoing subscription, particularly when we had a few issues with collecting readings.

Polar’s key issue is in the software, which doesn’t have the slickness or information coherence of the other two — at least as of March 2026.

That leaves us with the Amazfit Helio Strap, the cheapest of the bunch, and perhaps the easiest to recommend if you want to try out the screen-free wearables life. No subscription, solid HR accuracy and an app that while a bit fitness and athlete-focused for some, doesn’t demand too much from you.

• Google appears to be building a screenless Fitbit-style tracker
• The reveal came as Google's 'performance advisor' Steph Curry posted on Instagram
• The tease video featured Curry wearing a screenless wristband

Google is jumping on the same trend as Polar and Amazfit in making what we're referring to as a 'Whoop clone': a screenless fitness tracker.

A screenless Fitbit (perhaps a version of one of Google's best Fitbits without the AMOLED screen) has been raised before, but we finally have proof beyond sketchy leaks. The band appears in an official Google tease video featuring all the usual Google iconography, posted by Google's very own 'performance advisor' — basketball legend Steph Curry, in a paid partnership capacity. So it's legit.

Curry can be seen wearing the band, with his voiceover stating, "I'm excited about what this is going to mean for the world, for health and wellness. It's the first of its kind in a way. I won't spoil it, you kinda have to see it for yourself."

The video doesn't address the band directly, but you can see him wearing an orange wristband with a metal clasp, very prominently, in the footage. No release date or other information is given other than 'coming soon'.

If Google's already releasing official videos about the device, 'soon' presumably means 'later this month' rather than a date later in the summer, the timeframe when Google typically shows off new Pixel devices.

Watch the video below:

Analysis: The latest Whoop clone

Google's new Fitbit (if it is indeed a Fitbit, rather than a Pixel Band or something) is entering the screenless wearable category in good company. Once dominated by the premium subscription-oriented Whoop, screenless tracking has grown to include the Polar Loop and Amazfit Helio Strap.

Even Garmin is throwing its hat in the ring with the long-rumored Garmin Cirqa band. Never mind the screenless options in the best smart rings from the likes of Oura and Samsung.

It's safe to say these 'focus' wearables are having a real moment. Whoop just raised a titanic amount in investor funding, as the company is now worth $10 billion according to TechCrunch.