Smartwatches are like tiny smartphones strapped to your wrist. Most support texting, calls, voice assistants, maps, fitness tracking, tap-to-pay and more. For many folks at NBC Select, a smartwatch is an essential wearable that enhances your everyday life.
But the best smartwatch for you is almost entirely decided by which smartphone is in your pocket. Many of the best smartwatches only work with iPhone or Android phones, not both. Some even have features that only work when paired with a specific type of smartphone. Smartwatches are often tailor-made to a specific smartphone, like a square peg built for a square hole, working in-tandem to deliver the best experience possible.
That’s why I’ve tested over a dozen smartwatches using Apple, Samsung and Google phones. Below you’ll learn about how smartwatches work and where each brand excels. There’s also a batch of new smartwatches that each brand has released, which we plan on testing soon.
SKIP AHEAD Staff-favorite smartwatches in 2025 | How to get the most out of your smartwatch | Why trust NBC Select?
How we picked the best smartwatches
Most NBC Select staffers use a smartwatch — either for notifications, exercise or sleep tracking. Combining their experience with my time testing, we selected smartwatches keeping the following in mind:
- Ease of use: Smartphones have so many features and options that they can easily become overwhelming. We selected products that are easy and enjoyable to use out of the box, both glancing at your wrist and scrolling in the app. We also favored watches that let you customize settings, watch faces and notifications to your liking.
- Compatibility: Not all smartwatches are compatible with all smartphones — it’s quite the opposite. We included wearables for people with all kinds of smartphones.
- Price: Most smartwatches cost between $100 and $500. We included wearables across different price points, but again, your choices are largely limited by which smartphone you own.
How I test smartwatches
I’ve tested over a dozen smartwatches for NBC Select. I am a runner and cyclist, and often use them to track and monitor stats like heart rate, pace and time. I am also the tech reporter at NBC Select, so I tend to spend hours tinkering with product settings, exploring what a product offers out of the box and what I can fine tune later.
I receive smartwatches from different brands, and test each watch for at least a week, using as many of the features as possible. I pair each watch with either an Apple, Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel smartphone, depending on its compatibility.
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Staff-favorite smartwatches in 2025
Most of our top overall picks come from Apple, Samsung and Google, companies that make up a large majority of smartphone sales in the U.S. All of our top picks have very similar features — they can all send and receive texts, make calls, use a voice assistant, track health and wellness metrics, log workouts, use apps, find your phone and more.
Our budget picks are slightly more limited — some cannot answer calls or lack an on-watch keyboard to type out texts. We discuss all of these limitations in each recommendation.
We linked to the Wi-Fi versions of these devices, but many of them also have Wi-Fi plus cellular versions that, when set up with their own phone plan, can do most tasks without being connected to your smartphone.
Best smartwatch for iPhone: Apple Watch Series 10
- Info-rich display
- Syncs with most iOS apps
- So-so battery life
Despite constantly testing new smartwatches, the Apple Watch stubbornly remains on one of my wrists, at the very least to compare to other smartwatches. The Series 10 model has a large, square, always-on display, with narrow bezels (the frame that borders the screen). The watch’s form-factor means it can comfortably show a lot of text on screen at once — I find it easy to read and swipe through notifications without accidental misclicks or swipes.
It easily syncs with Apple apps like Health and Fitness to show data about your workouts, health and sleep. It can also take calls, send texts, make requests via Siri voice assistant and more.
Compared to the previous model, the Series 10 has a slightly thinner case and the bezels around the screen have also been slimmed down. The screen itself is brighter when you look at it off-angle, meaning it’s been easier for me to check the time or a notification at a glance, without turning the watch to face me directly.
It still has all the features I loved from the Apple Watch Series 9, including the double tap gesture, plus some new ones like sleep apnea notifications and depth and water temperature sensors for swimming.
The Series 10 gets up to 18 hours of battery life — less than many of its competitors. It comes in two sizes, 42mm and 46mm, in aluminum or titanium versions.
Display: 42mm, 46mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 18 hours with always-on display | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes | Heart-rate monitor: yes, with EKG | Water resistance: yes, up to 50 meters | Compatible with: iPhone
Best smartwatch for Samsung: Samsung Galaxy Watch 7
- Sleek and comfortable
- Easily customizable
- Some features only for Samsung
The Samsung Galaxy Watch stands out because of its sleek design, comfortable fit and customizable screen. It has a circular always-on display that’s bright and responsive. The watch has two buttons, which, by default act as a home and a back button. However, you can reprogram these buttons to do other things like open a specific app or show your most recently used apps. I love physical buttons on watches — touch controls are not ideal for outdoor runs, hikes or bike rides, especially in bad weather or while wearing gloves.
You can customize watch faces directly on the watch itself or through Samsung’s Galaxy Wearable app. I use it to create multiple faces with custom stats, colors, fonts and layouts in minutes, and find the experience easier and more intuitive than with most other wearables.
Like other smartwatches, it can send texts, answer calls, receive app notifications and more. It supports tap-to-pay, which I have used to pay for groceries and public transport with no issue.
This latest version has a few new features, including sleep apnea tracking and a hands-free Double Pinch gesture very similar to the Apple Watch’s double tap gesture. It is compatible with all Android phones, but some of its features only work if you pair it with a Samsung phone, such as EKG readings, irregular heart rhythm notifications, fitness energy score and smartphone camera control.
Display: 40mm or 44mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 30 hours with always-on display | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes | Heart-rate monitor: yes, with EKG | Water resistance: yes, up to 5 feet for 30 minutes | Compatible with: Android phones
Best smartwatch for Android: Google Pixel Watch 3
- Syncs easily with Google apps
- Automatic workout detection
- Love it or hate it round shape
- Fiddly charger
The Pixel Watch 3 is the best Pixel watch yet, with major design and fitness improvements over the previous model that make it a solid option, especially for someone with a Google Pixel phone.
The watch has built-in Fitbit fitness tracking, although it is more in-depth compared to something like the Fitbit Charge 6. Like the previous models, it automatically detects walking, running, biking, treadmill, elliptical, rower and spin exercises after five minutes (15 for walking), and asks if you’d like to start the workout. As someone who often forgets to log walks, I love this feature.
New to the Pixel Watch 3 are running features like custom runs you can build yourself, with warm up, cool downs, intervals and heart rate targets. As you run, the watch will buzz and cue your next section or indicate if you are on, ahead or behind your target goals. I use custom runs all the time on Apple Watch and Garmin devices, which is a great feature to now have on Google Pixel Watch.
It comes in two sizes, 41 millimeters and 45 millimeters, with screens that are up to twice as bright as the previous version. Battery life is also improved — it lasts up to 24 hours, according to the brand.
Display: 41mm or 45mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 24 hours with always-on display | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes | Heart-rate monitor: yes, with EKG | Water resistance: yes, up to 50 meters | Compatible with: Android phones
Best smartwatch for fitness: Garmin Venu 3
- Excellent battery life
- Robust fitness tracking
- Pricey
- No on-watch keyboard on iPhone
Garmin makes some of the best fitness trackers, and the Venu 3 is one of its smartest wearables.
It is one of the most comfortable smartwatches I’ve tested. It has a metal case and silicone band that feels soft and flexible. The watch itself is very flat, mostly because the sensor on the back is much flatter than sensors on the Apple Watch and Google Pixel Watch. It has three buttons along the side that are especially useful for starting and stopping a workout, or logging laps or reps mid-exercise.
The Venu 3 puts fitness and health data front and center, with detailed charts and graphs about metrics like pace, heart rate, cadence and more. It is also very customizable — you can change everything from the home screen to the exact metrics that appear when doing different workouts. This is great for anyone who loves data, but can be a little overwhelming for Garmin newcomers.
Another strength is battery life — the Venu 3 gets up to 5 days of battery life with the always-on display. 5 days. That is far longer than our other top picks, and more than most smartwatches on the market. I averaged about 6 days before needing to charge.
The Venu 3 is available in black or white, and the smaller Venu 3s is available in five colors.
Display: 41mm, 45mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 5 days with always-on display | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes | Heart-rate monitor: yes, with EKG | Water resistance: yes, up to 50 meters | Compatible with: iPhone and Android phones
Best budget smartwatch for iPhone users: Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen)
- Competitive price
- Syncs with most iOS apps
- So-so battery life
The Apple Watch SE cost much less than the Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, but has much of the same design and features that make those watches great.
It syncs seamlessly with your iPhone and iPhone apps — it feels like a natural extension of your phone, straight out of the box. Like the Series 10, it connects with Apple Health and Fitness apps to show detailed workout, sleep and health data, with more info than many competitors at this price point, no subscription required.
Compared to the Series 10, the SE is a little slower, smaller and has a dimmer screen that cannot be changed to an always-on mode. It also does not have an on-screen keyboard — you can send pre-set responses or dictate using voice-to-text with Siri. It comes in two sizes, 40mm and 44mm, with many watch band options.
Display: 40mm or 44mm touchscreen | Battery life: up to 18 hours (no always-on display) | Built-in GPS: yes | Sleep tracking: yes (not including naps) | Heart-rate monitor: yes, no EKG | Water resistance: yes, up to 50 meters | Compatible with: iPhone
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How to get the most out of your smartwatch
Smartwatches have so many features that they can be overwhelming out of the box. Most people I know complete the initial setup and never customize anything aside from the background on the watch face. Below are a few of the most useful features across every smartwatch you may want to try out:
Watch face
Almost every smartwatch lets you customize the default watch face. Scroll through the watch or watch companion app settings and tinker with customizing the watch face. All of our top picks let you change the layout, colors, background and stats, with many more options if you dig a little deeper. One NBC Select staffer has her Apple Watch face set to a picture of her cat, for example.
Safety tracking
Most smartwatches have robust safety features available. This means you have the option to manually or automatically send your live location to a list of emergency contacts, depending on how you set it up. If you are planning an activity where you would feel safer having the option to automatically reach out to emergency contacts (or emergency services), be sure to set up this feature.
Contactless payments
Smartwatches generally support one form of contactless payment, think Apple Pay, Samsung Wallet, Google Wallet or Garmin Pay. These apps can store your debit or credit information and let you tap-to-pay at supported businesses like cafes, restaurants and even most public transport. This is a useful feature to set up if you hate carrying your wallet everywhere you go.
Battery-saver settings
You can get much longer battery life if you change a few of the settings on your smartwatch. Turning off the always-on display, lowering your screen brightness and adjusting background app refresh settings, can all help extend the time you get between charges.
Why trust NBC Select?
I am a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology and fitness including recent stories on fitness trackers, running shoes, workout earbuds and more. For this piece, I tried over a dozen top-rated fitness trackers and smartwatches. For a broader perspective, I spoke with other NBC Select staffers about their experience with smartwatches.
Catch up on NBC Select’s in-depth coverage of tech and tools, wellness and more, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok to stay up to date.
