There was a time when fitness trackers seemed simple. A watch-looking device on your wrist counted your steps, probably hounded you to reach the magical 10,000 per day, and recall how well (or badly) you slept. Garmins were reserved for the serious runners, an Apple Watch if you needed your texts to be handy, and a Fitbit to save some money.
Now though, the fitness tracker market has exploded into a world of rings, screenless bands and increasingly sophisticated watches, all promising to tell us what our bodies are doing 24 hours a day. And they’re everywhere. According to YourGP, one in three adults in the UK regularly use a fitness tracker or smartwatch, and the wearable technology industry is valued at approximately £3.6bn, and continuing to rise.
Since 2020, I have been one of the people obsessively checking a little number on their wrist to tell me how many times my feet had moved, and I’ve tried various brands. Recent years have given us lots of new trackers, from Fitbit’s new faceless bands to the popular Whoop band (who just launched their fifth-generation ring), Oura ring, and the Apple Watch.
It’s impossible to know which one to go for with all of them promising accuracy and comfort so I went about testing five of the biggest names for a month – Whoop, Polar, Oura, Fitbit and Garmin – ranging from £84 to £499, to find out which ones are worth the money.
Polar LOOP
£149.50
Loop is comfortable and aesthetic, but the app is harder to navigate with less informationThis is the first time I’d heard of Polar, so I was surprised to learn that the company have been making heart-rate technology for decades, launching its first wireless heart-rate monitor in 1983, long before most of us were obsessively checking our sleep scores.
The Loop was released at the end of last year as a faceless wristband, and it’s subscription-free, unlike many other brands, so the £149 cost is a one-off which is lovely. It was comfortable to wear and sleek in design, looking very similar to Whoop without the monthly price tag.
That said, it didn’t track as well as I’d hoped, and noticeably has less functions. Everything is put on to the Polar Flow App which is easy enough to navigate but after cleaning my kitchen, it logged exercise into my day and after wearing it on my non-dominant side on a walk, the Loop tracked over 2,000 more steps than the other devices. It also tracked steps when I was typing on my laptop, so I did have to take it off while working.
The automatic tracking system is helpful for walks, less when you’re moving your hand to type. For sleep it tracks light, deep, REM and interruptions which is helpful to know that I averaged around 10 minutes of interruptions, and it accurately tracked my sleep and wake time.
It measures heart rate, but not live, which I like to track when doing cardio, and has less health features than other trackers with no temperature or oxygen levels tracking. The battery life was around 10 days, which is great, and charging and pairing is simple to my iPhone.
2/5
Oura Ring 5
£399-499, £5.99 monthly membership, available from Oura
Oura has impressive tracking but it’s not worth the upgrade if you already own oneThe Oura 5 is my second ring, after owning the Oura Ring 3 for two years, and its now 40 per cent thinner than the bulkier previous generations. It’s noticeably comfier and looks more like jewellery so, as somebody who wears rings, I love the ease of having it on my finger rather than wrist.
Apart from the aesthetic, I didn’t notice much difference from the older generation ring in terms of tracking, but it is extensive and I found it to be accurate. It’s all tracked in the Oura app, which is £5.99 for a monthly subscription, on top of the £399-£499 product cost (depending on colour) but the health tracking has always impressed me.
It automatically tracks my strength training, walks and occasional runs, sleep is given a score for efficiency, and REM and deep sleep is tracked with how rested you are. Each day it gives you a readiness score which I found to be accurate to how I felt, and given its body temperature and heart rate accuracy, it predicted when I was going to get ill before I did, cautioning me to take rest.
I also use the app to track my cycles and it has insights into the cycle phase, body temperature increase and you can track symptoms. Plus, it tells you about your stress and tracks recovery. Each day, you also get a reminder to wind down before the optimal time for your body to sleep, which I listen to when convenient (one day it was 4pm which was never going to work).
It’s comfy, has a battery life of over a week, and is the most insightful in terms of health tracking. For somebody wanting more than just steps and sleep, with more insightful health statistics like HRV and respiratory rate, it’s worth it. For a simple wearable, cheaper options will do the job.
4/5
Garmin Forerunner 265
£319.99, available from Argos
Garmin have kept a screened tracker with an app that’s easy to navigateIf you are buying a fitness tracker primarily because you want to improve your running, Garmin is the obvious choice of the five.
The Forerunner 265 is much more of a sports watch than the screen-free bands I’ve been testing, with an AMOLED touchscreen and built-in GPS alongside the usual health and activity tracking. It also tracks sleep, stress, heart rate, blood oxygen and menstrual cycles, while Garmin’s body battery gives you an estimate of how much energy you have available throughout the day.
The biggest plus is how much information Garmin gives you during your workouts. There are training-status features, GPS and a huge amount of information for runners, making it feel more like a coach on your wrist than a tracker simply recording what you’ve done. This is where having a screen, which is now a rarity in new trackers, is extremely helpful, and I do wish there were more new options that still included a screen.
Having the option to head to an app (with no subscription cost) for extra information, or just look at my wrist for the overview of steps or in-workout heart rate couldn’t be beaten. Though the amount of information can be slightly overwhelming at first. I strength-train more than I run, but as someone that would like to get out on more jogs, I’ll be relying on this more as a running coach on my wrist.
It’s quite bulky but the band is comfortable and has a good battery life of almost two weeks, slightly less with GPS mode on.
4.5/5
Google Fitbit Air
£84.99, available on the Google store
Fitbit Air has an easy-to-use app and a great affordable optionFitbit has been around for years, and is probably the go-to for tracking, especially for beginners. It was my first wearable tech I owned in the form of the old Versa 2, but Google bought the company in 2021 and the Air, which launched in May, is the first tracker that has been released in almost three years. It comes in the form of a screen-free tracker designed to be a much cheaper alternative than Whoop.
You don’t need a subscription to access data on the app, and it’s easy to pair with a long battery life (I charged it every 10 to 12 days) although Google does offer a premium subscription for £7.99 to access personalised fitness plans and a 24/7 AI coach. I went with the basic free plan that tracks things like heart rate, steps, calories, sleep, blood oxygen and skin temperature and lets you input meals and water which made me use the app more to track my macro intake.
It’s a small lightweight band that’s comfortable, although I found the velcro got dirty and needed cleaning more frequently, and it accurately matched other fitness wearables for steps during the day.
One of my favourite features was Smart Wake where you set your desired wake-up time, and the band tracks your movement and heart rate to wake you during a lighter stage of sleep rather than deep sleep within 30 minutes of your alarm time. It then vibrates on your wrist to wake you which is one of the handiest features, and I found I was waking up less groggy. It also came in useful as a silent vibration on my wrist to wake me up on a long train journey without my iPhone blaring out.
The biggest selling point is, of course, the price, with it being a fraction of Oura and no mandatory subscription like Whoop. Still, as somebody that owned the older Versa 2, I preferred the Fitbits with a screen but if you want a discreet product without another screen, it’s a great cheaper choice.
3.5/5
Whoop Life MG Health & Fitness Wearable
£349 per year membership, all plans available from Whoop
Whoop has the most advanced tracking but the price is hard to justify if you’re not an elite athleteI’ve avoided Whoop in the past as technically you’re buying a membership not a band. The Whoop Life plan costs £349 per year (and includes the device) but it does have cheaper alternatives like the One membership at £169 and Peak at £229.
It’s similar to the other screenless trackers in that it’s tracked through an app, including all the basics with sleep, heart rate variability, steps and strain and it also comes with ECG capability. One of my favourite features was the Whoop Journal that lets you log your daily activities or behaviour, like getting a sports massage, and each morning it gives you a prompt to fill in. You can also input any alcohol consumed, how you’re feeling that day, any cramps or hot flushes or anxiety.
Its focus seems less on counting your steps and more on understanding how your body is responding to training, sleep and stress, which I did find useful and it was in-depth.
The battery lasts around two weeks and you don’t have to remove it from your wrist to charge which is a great extra too.
It’s a great piece of wearable technology but I’m still not sure I’m sold on the membership yearly price, which equates to over £700 over two years. Personally, I’d rather pay the fee and own my wearable.
3/5
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