Best Fitbit: the best options for casual exercise and fitness fanatics

The Fitbit Charge 5 is a great visual improvement over its predecessor thanks to its bright and detailed AMOLED screen, which adds a great deal of life and vibrancy to this handy wearable. It’s also an ergonomic success too, with a very comfortable and secure strap and an aluminium casing which is more appealing than the resin of the previous generation. This unit is waterproof up to 50 metres, so you can safely take it for a dip as well.

The tracking is particularly good when it comes to counting your steps or monitoring your sleep, which is accurate and gives you the data you need to keep a better eye on your health. The heart-rate sensor is also very accurate, but the on-board GPS was a little more wobbly and took a long time to lock on to your location. The generous battery life is also likely to give you a week’s worth of use before you need to charge it back up again.

The Fitbit Sense 2 is an all-round smartwatch that has a bit more functionality than a basic fitness tracker. It’s got a thin and light build, an appealing colourful AMOLED touchscreen display, and a physical button on the side.

However, it has to be said that the smartwatch experience here isn’t as well-executed as other brands’ offerings, because the support for certain key apps is lacking (at least at launch, when even the likes of Google Maps and Google Wallet were unsupported), and the performance is a bit laggy too due to an underpowered chipset.

However, the fitness and health features – including in-built GPS, ECG and skin temperature sensors, and blood oxygen tracking – all combine to help give you a strong picture of your overall wellbeing. The watch makes it easy to keep tabs on your sleep and on your stress levels, but if you want to get a deeper look into your athletic training then this one isn’t the strongest.

We found that the Sense 2 could hold up for around six days before needing a charge, though that’s reduced to 3 days if you keep the watch in always-on mode.

The Fitbit Versa 4 is the latest device in Fitbit’s Vera line-up, but we actually preferred its predecessor and that’s the one we’d choose out of the two. Why? Well because the feature list is more or less the same as this one, and actually some have been lost; the newer watch doesn’t have Wi-Fi connectivity or a music player, both of which are present here.

For the price this watch delivers plenty of features and is therefore a tempting proposition, though features such as the GPS and the heart-rate tracking are not highly accurate and even the step counter can be a bit over-generous.

However, if you’d like a Fitbit with some smarter features, and want to save a bit of money, then this is a decent option.

Slim and attractive, the Fitbit Luxe is light to wear and has a selection of appealing metallic cases, and equally appealing watch bands, that make it a tab more fashionable to wear compared to standard fitness tracker and smartwatches. The screen is also sharp and bright, and it’s purely touchscreen without any input buttons.

In terms of health monitoring, this watch will gives reliable continuous heart rate sensing and comfortable and accurate sleep tracking too. There aren’t tonnes of additional exercise-tracking options here, but this is a handy little tool for keeping an eye on your day-to-day health and wellness.

You’ll get around five days’ battery life from this wearable before you need to charge it back up, which isn’t brilliant, and it’s fairly slow at recharging too as it takes two hours to go from 0-100%.

This tracker isn’t right for you if you want intensive exercise logging or a host of smart features on your wrist, but it’s still a handsome and helpful little accessory.

The Google Pixel Watch might not be branded as a Fitbit on the box, but to all intents and purposes that’s exactly what it is; Fitbit fitness tracking is well-integrated on this watch, so if that’s a major selling point for you then you’ll be relieved to see the familiar interfaces on this product too.

Google’s first-ever own-brand smartwatch is sleek and elegant, and it’s also remarkably small too with just a 41mm casing. There’s a crown and a side button to complement the touchscreen, which is a rich AMOLED panel that’s bright and brilliant despite the bezel running around the edge.

There’s very little lag on this watch when you’re zipping around the interface, though there are occasionally long loading times, and the Wear OS software feels particularly clean and pure. Part of the appeal lies in the close collaboration with Fitbit, which is responsible for step counts, sleep tracking, and exercise tracking. There are handy ECG and blood oxygen sensors here too.

We found that health metrics such as heart rate and sleep were reliable, but it was a different story when it came to exercise tracking, as the on-board GPS was fairly inaccurate, and the swimming tracking was so dreadful as to be useless. Another bad miss was the battery life, which is far shorter than other Fitbits; it will get you through the day, as long as you don’t use the GPS too much, but that’s it.

The Fitbit Inspire 2 is our choice if you’re new to the world of fitness trackers and would like to be eased in gently. There’s no on-board GPS or NFC payment option here, as this device isn’t about premium features, but it does fit very comfortably on your wrist, offers great battery life, and has that same slick and useful Fitbit companion app.

If a daily step count, good sleep tracking, and a heart rate monitor is all you need, then this little watch will deliver it subtlely but reliably, and will help you get used to the idea of wearing a fitness tracker without demanding too much attention. However, if you’re already a keen fitness fanatic then you’ve graduated beyond the need for a watch like this.