Best Smartwatch for Heart Rate? Scientific Test of 50 Smartwatches!

🟡 Twitter: @QuantifiedRob
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Conclusions: Overall, the Apple Watch is by far the best heart rate tracker for the Apple ecosystem, and the Huawei Watch GT Runner is the overall winner on android. For instance the Whoop 4.0 and Garmin Instinct 2 also did a good job here. Now, if you want the best battery life out of a device, and pretty good heart rate tracking during cycling, then I would recommend the Garmin Instinct 2. If you just care about heart rate tracking, and you do not need a smartwatch, I would just buy an ECG chest strap, like the Polar H10, which will give the most reliable results.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:29 Overview of Tested Watches
02:05 Test Design
03:18 Test 1: Indoor Cycling (Easy)
09:09 Test 2: Outdoor Cycling (Medium)
12:54 Test 3: Weight Lifting (Hard)
15:50 Recommendations and Conclusions

[adamthewoodworker]

Echoing the comments from several others, this video, once combined with the sleep tracking video you said you have coming up, is going to be an absolute game changer for the smart watch industry in terms of which watches/trackers people are going to buy

[loyrickman]

Thanks for the great analysis Rob! I bought a Charge 5 based on your C5 review. I do notice several heart rate anomalies. It is slow to pick up increased HR when walking running but after 5-7 minutes or starts to match my polar F6 fairly well. It seems to do well in most aspects of health tracking. I look forward to your sleep tracking roundup!

[stephendenagy]

I am a physician and came across this. This is very good! I personally noticed that the Apple Watch didn’t used to seem to correlate well with my Polar strap. But now with Watch 7 it seems spot on. Rare anomalies, like sudden spikes that the Polar did not catch, suggesting error. Very useful! Allows me to leave the Watch on as my main driver. Would be nice to keep adding to the database with time. Especially as the newest Apple Watch, the Ultra, is now released. As it is so focused on sports, would be nice to compare to other high end triathlon and ultra watches. Also, I have always wondered about SaO2. There seems to be such a wide variation. In the day, from low to high 90’s. Makes no sense. I have always felt the the high SaO2 levels are likely accurate, and low values doubtful, what do you think? Great work!

[jatarsiddharth]

This is brilliant. It is by far the closest to a meta-analysis of these devices.
I really hope you do the same for sleep tracking as well.
Thanks for the loooonng hours, much love. <3

[aaronryan]

The amount of research, time and energy that you invest in each of your videos is just applaudable and phenomenal. All the best 👍

[appa]

I've been waiting for this for a long time! TBH, you're the only reviewer everyone needs to refer to when it comes to buying Smart Watches for their features. 😂

[StefanoDurden]

are you thinking about doing something like this for sleep tracking? this analysis is super impressive and would be curious to understand what devices can provide high quality sleep tracking

[marekfoto]

Great summary. There was no such comparison of HR accuracy in the network, especially with the division into the exercise category. Now we are waiting for the same tests but in the GPS accuracy category.
Recently, I tested the Apple Watch 7 and Huawei GT Runner and I am impressed with the high accuracy of AppleWatch GPS tracking e.g. a run in the forest.
I noticed that the smartwatch from Huawei does not "collect" data as quickly in the field as the Apple Watch. By making quick turns during the run or turning perpendicularly, the AW7 does it really impressively precisely, where Huawei can "round" the perpendicular turn and cuts a few meters from the turn. In total, Huawei lost several hundred meters from the 5 km test on the route.

[johnpeterchua]

Will you do one for sleep? Amazing list!

[dzuest]

Nailed it! This is brilliant, Rob. Thanks again for all your time and $$ spent making these videos.
Hopefully some of the companies represented here see this video and make the much needed changes to their products.

[didiavante]

Great work 👏 I’m wondering if there’s any chance if you could test which one of them could be used for AFib/arrhythmia and battery life for 24/7 tracking ❤ and optional if they have Fall Detection ( towards fading not crashing/accident)

[emilch]

So for Android users Huawei watch GT runner is the best option. This watch can replace now my polar m400 with chest strap H7 which I had many years. Thank you for such "scientific" data results.👍 LG

[ankitbytes]

Great video, Rob!! Waiting for a similar video on Sleep and HRV

[fracturedfauve]

This is an excellent video. I appreciate all your hard work on how informative it is and giving a non biased view.

I’ll be looking forward to future videos with other specific health measurements comparing different wearable device.

Thank you Rob.

[setyourhandel]

Huawei band 6 does the job me... I don't need it to make dinner just follow my heart, and footsteps. Good job explaining 😊 thanks 👍

[jagslr]

As always, awesome work to bring this info to your channel. As a recent purchaser of Garmin's new Epix 2, I feel that even though I'm loving the watch, it seems that at the 1K price tag that Garmin could have done a much better job at competing with the Apple product at a third of the cost. I know that we'll hopefully see huge improvement in upcoming software updates but at this price point and their reputation for their expertise in the health field, they should have hit the ground running....

[Alan-xvrl]

I have an Amazfit GTR 2 which tracks my heart rate very closely to my Polar chest strap. It all depends how well they fit.

[pietro]

The low position of the fenix 7 amazes!! Incredible

[evropabg]

Thank you so much for this video. I bought Fitbit Sense two weeks ago so i can track my heart rate during weight lifting. Result - it was never showing it above 109bpm no matter what, only on my cardio days i was able to see 117bpm which is still not reallistic, i should've watched this earlier. Short story is after watching this video the other day since i am not Apple guy, i bought GT Runner and that nailed it. I am able to get accurate heart rate readings again during weight lifting, average 130-150bpm during workout is completely different story. I wasn't aware threre are issues for most devices to get accurate readings during weight lifting. Thank you so much again. And thanks to my wife for taking the Sense so i can buy the Runner :). Keep up the good work !

[matti]

A all over testing Video about sleep trackers would also be fantastic!