Best Budget Smartwatch Reddit 2023

TLDR: If you are in a hurry the Fitbit Versa 3 is the Best Budget Smartwatch according to Reddit

u/HowardTaftMD – I’ve really enjoyed my versa 3. It’s a poor man’s apple watch I guess. Doesn’t do as much but I’m fine with that. I like it for the general health tracking, the alarm is solid in the morning, the timers are great while cooking. I mostly use WhatsApp and you can see WhatsApp messages on it. It feels nice and kind of swanky.

I think for the money it’s worth it, if you find it on sale definitely worth it.

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Fitbit Versa 3 Health and Fitness Smartwatch, Amazon Exclusive Color, GPS, 24/7 Heart Rate, Alexa Built-in, 6+ Days Battery, Thistle/Gold, One Size (S & L Bands Included)

• Receive a Daily Readiness Score that reveals if you’re ready to exercise or should focus on recovery (requires Fitbit Premium membership. Premium content recommendations are not available in all locales and may be in English only)
• Run, bike, hike and more phone-free—and see your real-time pace & distance—with built-in GPS. Then check out your workout intensity map in the Fitbit app
• Active Zone Minutes uses your resting heart rate to gauge exercise effort and gives you a buzz when you step up the intensity so you can make the most of your workouts. Fitbit Versa 3 is water resistant to 50 meters

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In 2023 smartwatches have become all the rage! Everyone seems to have one and there’s so many to choose from the task of picking one seems almost daunting.

If you’re one of those lucky few who’ve got more money than you know what to do with then you wouldn’t have much of a problem but for the rest of us, getting the most bang for your buck seems to be the first priority. Now before you get right to it you might want to ask yourself what exactly does a smartwatch do and what do you expect yours to do for you?

The average smartwatch should give you a variety of features. From events and notifications from your cellphone to health-related notifications. Many smartwatches also support apps that are built-in for various functions. They allow for media management, fitness tracking, and GPS, and several other features. Smartwatches may also be general in their use designed for either Apple or Android phones or specific to certain activities such as smartwatches for running, hiking, and even scuba diving. In this article we’re looking at some of the best budget general-purpose smartwatches starting from the cheaper one all the way to a few slightly pricey ones if you have a little extra dough to spare.

Best Budget Smartwatch Reddit

1. Fitbit Versa 3 – Best Budget Smartwatch According To Reddit

What Reddit thinks about this smartwatch:

u/HowardTaftMD – I’ve really enjoyed my versa 3. It’s a poor man’s apple watch I guess. Doesn’t do as much but I’m fine with that. I like it for the general health tracking, the alarm is solid in the morning, the timers are great while cooking. I mostly use WhatsApp and you can see WhatsApp messages on it. It feels nice and kind of swanky.

I think for the money it’s worth it, if you find it on sale definitely worth it.

u/billymumfreydownfall – I have a Versa 3 and love it. I find the heart rate sensor to be accurate, love all the features.

The Fitbit versa 3 makes a great buy in this price range. It Comes with Alexa, which makes setting alarms, controlling smart home devices easier with voice controls.

It also boasts a 6+ days battery life which does vary with the extent of usage of features, but impressive for a smartwatch. This Fitbit tracks heart rate, steps, distance, calories burned and other activities throughout the day.

Highlights:

• Inbuilt Alexa
• Sleep score to understand and manage your sleep
• Control your Spotify app, download Pandora stations and add Deezer playlists
• The larger display and 6.1m syncing range
• Receive a Daily Readiness Score: that reveals if you’re ready to exercise or should focus on recovery (requires Fitbit Premium membership. Premium content recommendations are not available in all locales and may be in English only)
• Run, bike, hike and more phone-free—and see your real-time pace & distance—with built-in GPS. Then check out your workout intensity map in the Fitbit app
• Active Zone Minutes uses your resting heart rate to gauge exercise effort and gives you a buzz when you step up the intensity so you can make the most of your workouts. Fitbit Versa 3 is water resistant to 50 meters
• Better track heart rate 24/7 with PurePulse 2.0, Fitbit’s enhanced heart rate technology
• Use Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa Built-in to get quick news, set bedtime reminders and alarms, control your smart home devices and more just by speaking to your watch
• 6-month Fitbit Premium trial for new Premium users

2. Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 – Best Cheap LTE Smartwatch Reddit

Reason to buy:  You are tight on the budget but still want that standalone 4G LTE Experience at good performance and aren’t really going to use it more than for making or receiving calls.

Strong Performance with long battery life

The Samsung Galaxy watch 5 comes with a dual-core processor making it super responsive. You’ll be able to comfortably navigate through apps and make calls without any lag on this smartwatch.

Minor Drawback:

Bad App Support: We have to admit the app support isn’t that great meaning you won’t get as many apps as compared to the apple watch 8. However, if you are planning to use your smartwatch more for the convenience of receiving and making calls then the frontier is definitely a smart buy.

3. Blackview Smart Watch – Super Cheap Smartwatch Reddit

The Black View smartwatch seems like the perfect bargain. It’s got a 1.3-inch full-color touch screen, shows smartphone notifications, and has an incredible battery life of up to 10 days with almost a month of standby time. It even has a find my phone feature. It goes without saying that it includes all the basics like a 24/7 heart rate monitor and a sleep tracker. It has GPS and sports tracking with 9 exercise modes, a stopwatch, and a countdown timer. It also has sedentary alerts and a relaxation guide to help calm moments throughout your busy day.

Who should buy it?

The fact that it’s IP68 Waterproof means that you can wear it in the shower pool, to the beach and anywhere else you could think of. In addition it mentions that it’s water-resistant up to 50m so it is ideal for beach days.

4. UMIDIGI Cheap Smartwatch

Much like the other smartwatches in this article, the UMIDIGI smartwatch comes with a pedometer so you can track your steps, calories, distance, heart rate, and pace making it the perfect exercise companion. It is 5ATM waterproof so you can take it for a swim, wash it and even use it on a rainy day. It’s 24-hour heart rate monitor automatically analyzes sleep quality. It also has various activity modes such as walking, running, hiking, riding, treadmill, yoga, climbing, spinning, and even workout. For all you social media bugs it allows you to receive notifications from calls, SMS, email, calendar, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. It also allows for easy music control.

Who should buy it?

This watch is ideal for anyone. It fulfills most requirements and should meet anyone’s needs in general.

5. Amazfit Bip U Pro Smartwatch

The Amazfit Bip U Pro may be a little more expensive than the other mentions on this list but it’s still well within your budget. What makes it amazing is that it gives you a 30-day long battery life on a single charge of just 2.5 hours. Even better is the fact that it features an optical heart rate monitor and a built-in GPS so you can keep track of that step count. It helps track calories, distance traveled, and sleep quality too. The watch also features 4 sport modes which are walking, cycling, treadmill, and outdoor running. It also gives you detailed insights into your most frequent activity. Of course it goes without saying that all your notifications from social media to weather forecasts are also displayed and it has a sleek look which makes it a strong candidate in the aesthetics department.

Who should buy it?

Ideal for the average person. Especially if you’re often busy and don’t have the time to charge your watch often.

6. Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2

The Samsung Galaxy watch Active2 is ideal for tracking your way to success as far as your fitness goals go. It automatically detects up to 6 exercises while tracking up to 39 more, all from your wrist. But it doesn’t stop there, the watch actually helps you rest better by analyzing sleep patterns and encouraging you to wind down to keep you at your best, its’s compatible with a Samsung Smartphone, Non-Samsung Android Smartphone (Android OS 5.0 and above RAM 1.5GB and above), iOS 9.0 and above iPhone 5 and above.

It also helps you be proactive about your heart rate by sending you real-time alerts if it detects a heart rate that’s a bit high or low. Sync it with your phone to stream playlists and receive notifications. It can be worn for a swim, has gorilla glass, and is waterproof and dustproof up to 50m however it is not intended for scuba diving.

Who should buy it?

This product is ideal for you if you’re driven by data. It also makes the perfect companion for someone who wants to pay more attention to their heart and overall health.

7. Garmin Vivoactive 4 – Cheap Smartwatch With Long Battery

Reason to buy: You want only the best smartwatch not only for everyday use but also for the sport that is made of highly durable materials.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 Music is the phone-free or standalone sports watch that its predecessor the Vivoactive 4 always wanted to become. Moreover, it’s not only that but also the perfect balance that the Vivoactive 4 has between sports and everyday use making this the best smartwatch Garmin’s ever made! The Vivoactive 4 Music is a great balance of sports and smartwatches.

If you’ve used a Garmin product you probably already know this product is going to be sick in fact the Garmin Vivoactive 4 Music should pretty much explain itself. It is the latest sports smartwatch from the fitness giant that takes the infamous Vivoactive 4 we know and love and bestows on it the gift of music. The Vivoactive 4 music lets you play your tunes from your watch instead of your phone by combining best a sports smartwatch with features for everyday use.

Waterproof rating: 5 ATM (50m)

Pool and open water swim tracking: Pool only

Waterproof details and its usability in water

Till now Garmin has made sure pretty much most of its trackers can be taken and used in a pool. The fitness trackers Vivosport and Vivofit 4 already bring 5ATM to the table so this is not something new for the Garmin. With the Garmin Vivoactive 34 being waterproof up to 5ATM you can take it swimming with you at up to 50 meters depth so think pools or shallow snorkeling. This also means you can wear it in the shower YAY!

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 music has a dedicated swimming screen called the Garmin Connect, which collects real-time data of distance, time, stroke, SWOLF, temperature, pace, speed and more. Also, the Chroma Display ensures you can view your real-time swim data whilst under the water (how cool is that). Currently, there is no support for open water swim tracking but you can get this with the more expensive Garmin devices. If you spend most of your time in the pool, then the Garmin Vivoactive 4 music is a good fit for you.

Design and looks

On looks at least, the Vivoactive 4 was a major upgrade to what Garmin had come up with before it. Garmin morphed from the unsightly bulky rectangle into a beautiful circular watch face. The change between something like that and the Music is not a lot but still, it is very much an improvement to be noted. The Garmin Vivoactive 4 Music actually only comes in black, but this time Garmin’s upgraded its glass by going for a chemically strengthened glass finish that is much more glossier and much better than the former metallic look of the Vivoactive 3’s. We were very quickly collecting scratches on the metallic ring around the former Vivoactive 4’s face, but so far the Music has remained scratch and scuff free! This is all thanks to the strengthened glass finish.

Interface and usability

As we already mentioned earlier, the Vivoactive 4 Music has pretty much all of the same sports tracking features as the Vivoactive 4. However, the Vivoactive 4 Music also works as an everyday smartwatch with support for notifications, infamous Garmin Pay and a few other “smart features”. Garmin is now venturing into the wearable market with this device after pretty much dominating the sports space. Although the Notifications still a work in progress they aren’t handled as nicely as they are on the Apple Watch Series. You still can send quick replies if you’re on an Android (sorry but no iPhone for now)Also using the Garmin’s nifty cut-out responses you can pretty much use it as a smartphone on the go.

Music, Music, and Music

So finally let’s talk music. Garmin’s put aside enough space for close to 500 songs, which can either be uploaded as files directly from a computer using proprietary software i.e Garmin Express program or simply synced from one of the music services Garmin’s partnered with. At the moment this list is solely comprised of iHeartRadio in the US and UK, but soon another music giant Deezer will soon start supporting it.

Sports and fitness tracking

As you may already know Garmin is currently leading the sports wearable space this is as a result of years of dedication towards pushing the boundaries in this niche. To no surprise the Garmin Vivoactive 4 Music is the best sports watch on the market right now. The Vivoactive 4 is essentially a GPS sports watch that comes preloaded with a whole multitude of workouts that include running, biking bot indoor and outdoor, swimming, rowing, skiing, golf, yoga and a bunch of gym activities. The best part is you can now also create custom workouts by taking making custom lists. You also have the ability to tweak data screens and alerts as per your workout!

Battery life

Now although Garmin says you should get a cool 8 days of battery life if you use it in “smartwatch mode” which basically is not powering the GPS or sports modes that’s simply not possible because these are the two features you probably are buying it for.

8. Fitbit Versa Lite

The Fitbit Versa Lite is one of the best budget smartwatches out there. It features 24/7 heart rate tracking so you can optimize effort during your workout. The smart track feature also automatically tracks activities like runs, sports, and aerobic workouts. Steps, calories, active minutes, and sleep are also tracked. There are over 15 exercise modes so you can get real-time stats during your workout. It also helps you have a better understanding of your sleep quality each night. Women can also use it for tracking periods and ovulation cycles. It also offers guided breathing sessions personalized and based on your heart rate. The battery life is decent with around 4 days of use from a single charge. Finally if you’re big on customization there’s several watch faces and even straps you can try.

Who should buy it?

The Fitbit Versa lite has something for everyone. If you’re a pro athlete or a regular person, there’s something you could get out of it.

9. Fitbit Versa 2

The Fitbit Versa 2 comes with Alexa built-in so you can get anything from quick news and information to setting an alarm or checking the weather all from just the sound of your voice. Not only does this watch offer sleep tracking but you can get a detailed break up of time spent in light deep and rem sleep. You can also add 300+ songs to your wrist and control the Spotify app. It goes without saying that all the basics are included like a 24/7 heart rate monitor, calorie and step tracker, and all the other basic features. It also supports payments.  The battery life is around a week which is decent for the features it provides. You can also subscribe to Fitbit premium for thousands of workouts, guided programs, personal insights, and advanced sleep tools. There are also several accessories. If you’ve got the money the Fitbit Versa 2 is the perfect watch for anyone. It’s everything that the Versa Lite is, plus more. Listing out every one of the features would take a while but if you’re keen to find out the details they’re mentioned on the Fitbit website.

Who Should buy it?

Anyone who’s willing to spend a little extra.

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Last update on 2023-02-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API