The EE Pocket-lint Awards shortlist has been announced celebrating the best products and devices across 20 categories spanning smartphones and tablets, to cars and smartwatches.
The Best Smartwatch award focuses on devices that offer style and features beyond fitness tracking.
The shortlisted nominees for Best Smartwatch 2022 are:
Apple Watch SE (2022)Apple Watch Series 8 Garmin Epix 2Google Pixel WatchSamsung Galaxy Watch 5 Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro
You can click on each of the titles above to read our full reviews on each nomination, which should give you some idea as to why they have been nominated, or you can read our short verdicts about all six nominees below.
Apple Watch SE (2022)
The Apple Watch SE makes some decent upgrades over its predecessor, predominantly in terms of a step-up in processor, as well as a colour-matched casing that is kinder to the environment, and some extra features like Car Crash Detection.
It doesn’t have the latest display design like the Series 8 (also nominated), the Always-On Display, or body temperature sensor, but as an entry point into Apple Watch, the Watch SE offers plenty and is an excellent place to start.
Apple Watch Series 8
While the Apple Watch Series 8 doesn’t offer huge changes compared to the Watch Series 7, there’s still a lot to be said for this smartwatch.
The Watch Series 8 is a solid upgrade for those with a Series 6 or older, and a great starting place for those new to the Apple Watch world who have decided the Watch SE isn’t enough.
Garmin Epix 2
The second-generation Garmin Epix finds the right balance between offering a bright, colourful display and maintaining strong battery life – all, of course, within a durable, sturdy build, like the rest of Garmin’s premium devices.
The Garmin Epix 2 isn’t for everybody, but it is an outstanding watch for somebody.
Google Pixel Watch
As a smartwatch, the Google Pixel Watch experience is very good. You get pretty much everything you need from a wrist-worn gadget.
There’s contactless payments, great fitness tracking, interaction with notifications/messages, downloadable third party apps and – crucially – watch faces you can customise. It’s a stellar watch.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 makes a couple of tweaks to the design of the Watch 4 to give better protection, while offering a bigger battery and a couple of new features.
It delivers a comprehensive offering and remains one of the top choices of wearables for pairing with an Android phone.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro
Having spent a couple of weeks with the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro during our review period, it was hard to escape the feeling that – at the time of writing – from a features and performance standpoint, it was the best WearOS watch we’d seen on the market for some time.
In fact, maybe the best ever.
How the Pocket-lint Awards judging works
The winner for the Best Smartwatch category is decided by the Pocket-lint team, along with a panel of expert judges from publications across the industry. Following the scoring process, the Best Smartwatch winner for 2022 will be announced at an in-person event on 30 November 2022 in Central London, along with the winners from the other 19 categories.
A Product of the Year winner will also be announced, chosen from the winners of the 20 categories and a winner of the EE Superfast Award, will also be revealed at the event. We will be announcing the results on the Pocket-lint Twitter handle as they unfold on the night so keep an eye out there.