Should I buy a smart watch or a fitness tracker?
When you are searching for a fitness tracker or a smart watch, you will notice many options.
Here are the reasons what to buy, according to our source.
When you pick a standard watch that just tells time, you are basing your selection mostly on style, but when you have to decide between a smart watch or a fitness tracker, you establish your preference on what features you are interested in.
If you are querying whether you had preferred a smart watch or a fitness tracker, here is a quick categorization of how they are different, what features each has, and what you should consider before making your choice. If you are a solemn fitness enthusiast, you may be interested in a GPS watch; we will take a look at those too.
What’s the difference between a smart watch or a fitness tracker?
A fitness tracker is created to keep track of your health and exercise.
A smart wristband keeps track of your fitness too, but it also keeps you attached by presenting notifications and updates on your wrist.
There is a lot of overlap between the two. You can discover a fitness tracker that displays texts and app notifications on your wrist, just like a smart watch. Still, a fitness tracker’s designed purpose is to focus on your health and daily activity monitoring.
As a fitness tracker, a smart watch will keep you up to date on how many steps you’ve taken, the distance you’ve traveled, the calories you’ve burned, and some will also give you a 24/7 heart rate.
GPS and GPS watches
If you start your search for a fitness tracker or smart watch, one of the highlights you will see suggested is GPS. GPS or Global Positioning System) can locate wherever you are in the world thanks to a process called triangulation. Triangulation is defined by satellites, and to accurately track you, a signal is bounced back and forth while you’re hiking, walking, biking, or running. GPS can be very precise, and it is a great highlight if you had wanted to look at maps of where you went on your walk or run or even want a more accurate idea of your speed or how far you ran.
If you are interested in GPS is that it’s offered as built-in GPS, connected GPS, or GPS wristbands. Built-in GPS provides you accurate tracking for your distance and will map out your routes right on the smart watch, so you don’t need your phone along for your run. With connected GPS, your fitness tracker or smart watch will use your phone’s GPS to track you, and you’ll always have to bring your phone along if you need to map your workout.
A GPS wristband is a wristband with GPS onboard. While it can have a mere style and tracking like a fitness tracker, GPS may give you smart watch highlights like touchscreens, on-screen workouts, music storage, and text or call notifications.
GPS wristbands are a favorite for runners trying to develop endurance and pace, and cyclists love them because they can distinguish speed, pinpoint accurately where they might have grappled on their rides, and map out where they have been.
Why choose a fitness tracker
With a fitness tracker on your wrist, you can track every step, walk, run, and workout. If your main goal is to have a complete and detailed outline of your health and fitness data, a fitness tracker is a perfect choice for you.
A fitness tracker is easy to use and comfortable to wear
Most fitness trackers are designed like a wristband. They’re usually nearly thin, light, and made from water and sweat-resistant materials, so they stand up to all-weather workouts. Some fitness trackers have small touchscreens, while others are styled like a watch with buttons you can press to scroll through your data.
A fitness tracker tracks all of your daily activity.
Did you walk from the garden back into the house? Your fitness tracker will count those steps. Have you climbed up 10 flights of stairs to get to work? A fitness tracker will track your all-day activity, which means your steps, distance, elevation, and calories burned during that activity.
When you have a fitness tracker with advanced features, you’ll be able to choose custom workout profiles like hiking, HIIT training, and weight training and track those. Depending on which fitness tracker you prefer, you may be able to track swimming too, and some trackers offer multi-sport tracking if you do different sports during your daily workout. Many other fitness trackers will also track your sleep, so you can wear it all night and see how many hours of REM and light sleep you’re getting.
Fitness tracker apps offer additional tracking.
With a fitness tracker, you should be able to look down at your wrist and see if you’re meeting your fitness goals. Once you sync your tracker with the companion app, you’ll be able to track even more. Some companion apps will offer you food tracking, water-intake tracking, and weight loss or gain.
You can see all of your data over days, weeks, months, and if you wear it long enough, years. That data is great if you want to see how you improved or where you need to improve.
Fitness tracker with heart tracking and GPS
While a fitness tracker tends to be a more specific device than a smartwatch, you can find models with 24/7 heart rate monitoring and built-in GPS from brands like Fitbit, Samsung, Garmin, and Polar.
Why choose a smart watch
If you want an all-in-one watch that keeps you as up-to-date on everything just like your phone does., a smart watch like Digimmi Smart watch with Heart Rate Monitor be the choice for you.
Wearing a smart watch is a lot like having your phone right on your wrist, and you can receive and answer phone calls, reply to texts and emails, get directions or view maps, and get all of your favorite app updates.
At the same time, a smart watch can also track your fitness, and some models offer you onboard workout programs you can follow along.
Smart watches have a watch-like style.
If you like the style of standard watches and don’t want to wear a fitness bracelet, you’ll love a smart watch.
Several different types are styled like regular watches, with interchangeable watch straps, round faces, and eye-catching bezels. Some have black and white or color touchscreens, while others use buttons to scroll through your options.
With a smart watch, you should see all of your data right on the screen of your watch. While you can sync your watch with your phone or computer, you’ll be able to access the same information on your wrist.
Smart Watches keep you connected via your favorite operating system
Apple Watch Series 6 (GPS) 44mm Space Grey with Black Sport Band
Just like you choose an Android or Apple phone, you can choose a smartwatch that runs on the Android or Apple operating system. The Apple Watch is the only smartwatch that runs the watch OS operating system, but many different Android smartwatches run Google’s Wear OS.
While you don’t have to stick to the same type of operating system your phone runs, you may find some smartwatches have features that only work when paired with a compatible phone.
For example, some smartwatches will only let you answer calls if you have a phone with a similar operating system.
If you choose a Wear OS to watch, you should be able to load apps on it that run independently of your phone. That means you can still track your fitness, but you can leave your phone at home.
Smart watches track your fitness too.
As I already mentioned, some smartwatches offer you step-by-step workouts right on your wrist.
You can also find smartwatches with multiple workout options to customize how you track your fitness, and they’ll also track everything fitness trackers do, including distance, steps, calories burned, and in some cases, elevation.
Like fitness watches, smartwatches have companion apps you can use to track even more data. One of the most significant differences between a fitness tracker and a smart watch is adding apps to your smart watch.
Smart watches offer heart rate monitoring and GPS
There are many different smartwatches with 24/7 heartrate monitoring, and with a touchscreen on your wrist, you can see your heartbeat in real-time. Smart watches from brands like Digimmi, Nokia, Garmin, Apple, Fitbit, and Samsung offer accurate heart rate monitoring, and over time will let you know your resting heart rate and how you perform in different heart rate zones. Some will even offer a Pulse Ox sensor to monitor your oxygen saturation level, and the Apple Watch has a built-in electrocardiogram to detect irregular heartbeats.
While some smartwatches offer connected GPS to monitor your fitness, you will find smartwatches with built-in GPS. They can track your running pace precisely and monitor the routes you run while providing coaching to improve your speed or endurance.
Should you choose a GPS watch, smartwatch, or fitness tracker?
There are advantages to choosing each of these devices. In general, a fitness tracker is perfect for someone who wants basic or somewhat advanced fitness tracking, someone who would wear something to keep them active and give them the motivation to get moving every day.
The person who chooses a smartwatch wants all the features of their smartwatch right on their wrist, and they love having the option to take calls or answer texts without picking up their phone. A smartwatch will track fitness too, and you have the bonus of adding your favorite fitness apps to your watch so you can keep track of your workouts.
A GPS watch is a perfect accessory for a serious fitness enthusiast. With built-in GPS and real-time fitness tracking, you’ll be able to use the features on the watch to improve your endurance, speed, and more.
Will you choose a GPS watch, smartwatch, or fitness tracker? You can find all three on Digimmi right now.