A smartwatch is like a tiny phone strapped to your wrist. Most support texting, calls, voice assistants, maps, fitness tracking, tap-to-pay and more. For me, a smartwatch is an essential wearable that enhances my day-to-day.
The best smartwatch for you is almost entirely decided by which smartphone is in your pocket. 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 means many smartwatches work for iPhone or Android phones, not both, and some have features that only work when paired with specific iPhone, Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
I’ve tested dozens of smartwatches using Apple, Samsung and Google phones. Below, you’ll learn about how smartwatches work and where each brand excels.
How I picked the best smartwatches
Most NBC Select staffers use a smartwatch — either for notifications, exercise or sleep tracking. Combining their opinions with my experience testing, I selected smartwatches keeping the following in mind:
- Ease of use: Smartphones have so many features that they can easily become overwhelming. I selected models that are easy to use out of the box, both by glancing at your wrist and scrolling in the app. I also favored watches that let you extensively customize settings, watch faces and notifications.
- Compatibility: Not all smartwatches are compatible with all smartphones — it’s quite the opposite. I included models best for a range of different smartphones.
- Price: Most smartwatches cost between $100 and $500. I included models across different price points, but again, your choices are limited by your smartphone.
How I test smartwatches
I’ve tested dozens of smartwatches for NBC Select. I am a runner and cyclist, and use them to track and monitor stats like heart rate, pace and time. I tend to spend hours tinkering with settings, exploring what each model has to offer out of the box and what I can fine-tune.
I receive smartwatches from different brands, and test each watch for at least a week, but often for much longer. I pair each watch with either an Apple, Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel smartphone, depending on its compatibility.
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The best smartwatches in 2025
Most of our top overall picks are from Apple and Samsung, companies that make up a large majority of smartphone sales in the U.S, according to analytics from Stat Counter and the International Data Corporation (IDC). 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.
I link 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 for iPhone
Despite constantly testing new smartwatches, the Apple Watch Series stubbornly remains on one of my wrists, at the very least to use as a benchmark to test other smartwatches — it’s that good. Its large, square, always-on screen is incredibly easy to use and easy to read. The watch can take calls, send texts, make requests via Siri voice assistant, use apps and plenty more. Plus, it easily syncs with Apple apps like Health and Fitness to record your workouts, health and sleep.
The Apple Watch Series 11 in particular stands out over the previous version because it has improved battery life: 24 hours, up from 18. Every Apple Watch Series model since the original Series 1 has had 18 hours of battery life — upgrading to 24 hours is noticeable, and makes everything about using this watch day-to-day better. Plus, it has a very fast charging speed: you can go from zero to 80% battery in just 30 minutes. Other improvements include better scratch resistance and 5G LTE (when you buy the cellular version).
It comes in two sizes, 42 millimeters and 46 millimeters, in aluminum or titanium versions, with seven color options.
Best budget for iPhone
The Apple Watch SE 3 costs much less than the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3, but feels nearly identical in its features and design. It syncs seamlessly with your iPhone and iPhone apps, connects to Apple Health and Fitness apps to show detailed workout, sleep and health data, and makes and receives texts and notifications without issue.
Compared to the Series 11, the SE 3 has less battery life (and slower charging), a dimmer screen, and no ECG or hypertension notifications. Still, it’s an excellent value, especially when it’s on sale. It comes in two sizes, two colors and has many watch band options.
Best for Android
Google continues to make big improvements with each model of the Pixel Watch, so much so that the Google Pixel Watch 4 is my go-to smartwatch recommendation for anyone with an Android phone. It does everything you would expect of all the best smartwatches: notifications, texting, calls, tap-to-pay, media controls, offline maps and more, with an impressive up to 40 hour battery life.
Fitness tracking is a highlight: the watch has built-in Fitbit tracking with more than 40 workout types to choose from, and has more in-depth data compared to other Fitbits like the Fitbit Charge 6. You can build custom workouts, including custom runs with stages, intervals and more. The watch can also automatically detect walks, runs, bike rides, and more, and start a workout all on its own. I often forget to log walks, so this feature is one of my favorites. The Pixel Watch 4 now has multiband GPS too, which can lead to more accurate GPS data in certain locations.
Also new to the Pixel Watch 4 is satellite SOS emergency assistance (on the LTE version), a feature found only in much pricier watches like the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Garmin Fenix 8 Pro. It comes in two sizes, 41 millimeters and 45 millimeters, with five color options.
Best for Samsung
The Samsung Galaxy Watch has been a favorite for years, largely because of its sleek, attractive design — it’s one of the only smartwatches I wear that gets me compliments around the office.
The Galaxy Watch 8 continues this winning streak with a new design — the watch is still round, but the sides are straight, leading to a circle-meets-square shape. In practical terms, the watch sits more comfortably on my wrist and is easier to use than previous models.
Like years prior, it has two customizable buttons that can help you more easily control the watch. Touch controls are not ideal for outdoor fitness, especially in bad weather, so I always appreciate physical buttons I can use to open specific apps or navigate menus.
One of the biggest new software features this year is Google Gemini — you can ask the AI almost anything, but it’s still hit or miss with its answers, in my experience. More concrete improvements include Samsung Running Coach, which can create a personalized running plan based on your fitness and goals.
It is compatible with all Android phones, but some of its features only work if you pair it with a Samsung phone, such as ECG readings, irregular heart rhythm notifications and sleep apnea detection.
Best for fitness
The Garmin Venu 4 is the brand’s best smartwatch, but I recommend this Vivoactive 6 to most people instead. It hits the right balance of style and features, and costs far less than the Venu 4.
The Vivoactive 6’s biggest strength is fitness. Garmin is known for its in-depth fitness and recovery measurements, and you get access to most of them on this watch, including training readiness, body battery and sleep coach, all of which helped me better understand when it was time for a push day or a rest day. The watch is particularly good for outdoor running, with easy to read stats and instructions during custom workouts.
Its other superpower is battery life: it gets up to 5 days of battery life with the always-on display and 11 days without it. That is far longer than all of my other picks, and more than most smartwatches on the market.
One useful new addition to the Vivoactive 6 is workout animations — if you use one of Garmin’s built-in strength or flexibility workouts, it will play animations of each movement as you start an exercise set.
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 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 app settings and tinker with the watch face. All of my top picks let you change the layout, colors, background and stats, with more options if you dig a little deeper. NBC Select reporter Zoe Malin has her Apple Watch face set to a picture of her cat, for example.
Safety tracking
Most smartwatches have robust safety features you can set up. With most, 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 most cafes, restaurants and 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 can go between charges.
Why trust NBC Select?
I’m a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology and fitness. I’ve written about fitness trackers, over-ear headphones and point-and-shoot cameras, for example, and have been testing smartwatches for years. I try new models constantly, comparing them against previous versions and similar competitors. For a broader perspective, I also spoke with other NBC Select team members about their experience using smartwatches.
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