Latest Smartwatch Reviews by Our Editors in 2025: Top Picks Revealed
Smartwatches are more than just wearable tech gadgets; they're mini smartphones strapped to your wrist. Most models support texting, calls, voice assistants, maps, and even tap-to-pay features, amongst other things. For many folks at NBC Select, a smartwatch has become an essential accessory that boosts everyday life.
However, the best smartwatch for you depends significantly on the smartphone you're using. Many of the top smartwatches only work with iPhones or Android phones, not both. Some smartwatches even come with features that only function when paired with a specific smartphone. Think of it like a square peg designed for a square hole, working in harmony to deliver an optimal experience.
To help you make the right choice, I've tested over a dozen smartwatches using Apple, Samsung, and Google phones. By the end of this article, you'll have a better understanding of how smartwatches work and where each brand excels. Plus, I'll share some new smartwatches released by each brand that we plan on testing soon.
Skip Ahead
- Staff-favorite smartwatches in 2025
- How to get the most out of your smartwatch
- Why trust NBC Select?
Selected: Our top picks
- Best for iPhone users: Apple Watch Series 10 - $299.00 (was $399.00) Amazon - Learn more
- Best for Android users: Google Pixel Watch 3 - $299.99 (was $349.99) Amazon - Learn more
- Best for Samsung users: Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 - $199.99 (was $299.99) Amazon - Learn more
- Best for fitness: Garmin Vivoactive 6 - Price undefined (was $299.99) Amazon - Learn more
How we picked the best smartwatches
Most NBC Select staffers use a smartwatch—either for notifications, exercise, or sleep tracking. Combining their experience with my time testing, we selected smartwatches keeping the following in mind:
- Ease of use: Smartphones can easily become overwhelming with so many features and options. We chose products that are easy and enjoyable to use out of the box, both for glancing at your wrist and scrolling through the app. We also favored watches that let you customize settings, watch faces, and notifications to your liking.
- Compatibility: Not all smartwatches are compatible with all smartphones—it's quite the opposite. We included wearables for people with all kinds of smartphones.
- Price: Most smartwatches cost between $100 and $500. We included wearables across different price points, but again, your choices are largely limited by which smartphone you own.
How I test smartwatches
I've tested over a dozen smartwatches for NBC Select. I'm a runner and cyclist, and I often use them to track and monitor stats like heart rate, pace, and time. I'm also the tech reporter at NBC Select, so I spend hours tinkering with product settings, exploring what a product offers out of the box, and what I can fine-tune later.
I receive smartwatches from different brands, and I test each watch for at least a week, using as many features as possible. I pair each watch with either an Apple, Samsung Galaxy, or Google Pixel smartphone, depending on its compatibility.
Staff-favorite smartwatches in 2025
Most of our top overall picks come from Apple, Samsung, and Google—companies that make up a large majority of smartphone sales in the U.S. All of our top picks have very similar features—they can all send and receive texts, make calls, use voice assistants, track health and wellness metrics, log workouts, use apps, find your phone, and more.
Our budget picks are slightly more limited—some cannot answer calls or lack an on-watch keyboard to type out texts. We discuss all these limitations in each recommendation.
Welinked to the Wi-Fi versions of these devices, but many of them also have Wi-Fi plus cellular versions that, when set up with a separate phone plan, can do most tasks without being connected to your smartphone.
Best smartwatch for iPhone: Apple Watch Series 10
The Apple Watch Series 10 still remains on my wrist despite constantly testing new smartwatches. Its large, square, always-on display, with narrow bezels, means it can comfortably show a lot of text on the screen at once. It easily syncs with Apple apps like Health and Fitness to show data about your workouts, health, and sleep. It can also take calls, send texts, make requests via Siri voice assistant, and more.
Compared to the previous model, the Series 10 has a slightly thinner case and the bezels around the screen have also been slimmed down. The screen itself is brighter when viewed off-angle, making it easier to check the time or a notification at a glance without turning the watch to face me directly. The Series 10 gets up to 18 hours of battery life, which is less than many of its competitors. It comes in two sizes, 42mm, and 46mm, in aluminum or titanium versions. You can learn more in my Apple Watch Series 10 review.
Display
- 42mm, 46mm touchscreen
Battery life
- Up to 18 hours with always-on display
Built-in GPS
- Yes
Sleep tracking
- Yes
Heart-rate monitor
- Yes, with ECG
Water resistance
- Yes, up to 50 meters
Compatible with
- iPhone
Best smartwatch for Samsung: Samsung Galaxy Watch 7
The Samsung Galaxy Watch stands out for its sleek design, comfortable fit, and customizable screen. It has a circular always-on display that's bright and responsive. The watch has two buttons, which by default act as a home and a back button. However, you can reprogram these buttons to do other things like open a specific app or show your most recently used apps. I love physical buttons on watches—touch controls aren't ideal for outdoor runs, hikes, or bike rides, especially in bad weather or while wearing gloves.
You can customize watch faces directly on the watch itself or through Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app. I use it to create multiple faces with custom stats, colors, fonts, and layouts in minutes, and I find the experience easier and more intuitive than most other wearables.
Like other smartwatches, it can send texts, answer calls, receive app notifications, and more. It supports tap-to-pay, which I’ve used to pay for groceries and public transport with no issue. This latest version has a few new features, including sleep apnea tracking and a hands-free Double Pinch gesture similar to the Apple Watch's double tap gesture. 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, fitness energy score, and smartphone camera control.
Display
- 40mm or 44mm touchscreen
Battery life
- Up to 30 hours with always-on display
Built-in GPS
- Yes
Sleep tracking
- Yes
Heart-rate monitor
- Yes, with ECG
Water resistance
- Yes, up to 5 feet for 30 minutes
Compatible with
- Android phones
Best smartwatch for Android: Google Pixel Watch 3
The Pixel Watch 3 is the best Pixel watch yet, with major design and fitness improvements over the previous model that make it a solid option, especially for someone with a Google Pixel phone. Fitbit fitness tracking is built-in, although it is more substantial compared to something like Fitbit Charge 6. Like the previous models, it automatically detects walking, running, biking, treadmill, elliptical, rower, and spin exercises after five minutes (15 for walking), and asks if you'd like to start the workout. As someone who often forgets to log walks, I love this feature.
New to the Pixel Watch 3 are running features like custom runs you can build yourself, with warm-up, cool-downs, intervals, and heart rate targets. As you run, the watch will buzz and cue your next section or indicate if you are on, ahead, or behind your target goals. I use custom runs all the time on Apple Watch and Garmin devices, which is a great feature to now have on Google Pixel Watch.
It comes in two sizes, 41 millimeters, and 45 millimeters, with screens that are up to twice as bright as the previous version. Battery life is also improved—it lasts up to 24 hours, according to the brand.
Display
- 41mm or 45mm touchscreen
Battery life
- Up to 24 hours with always-on display
Built-in GPS
- Yes
Sleep tracking
- Yes
Heart-rate monitor
- Yes, with ECG
Water resistance
- Yes, up to 50 meters
Compatible with
- Android phones
Best smartwatch for fitness: Garmin Vivoactive 6
Garmin makes some of the best fitness trackers, and the Vivoactive 6 strikes the right balance between features, style, and price, making it our favorite smartwatch from the brand. It's one of the most comfortable smartwatches I've tested—it's noticeably lightweight and has a soft, flexible silicone band that never irritated my skin. It has two buttons on the side, one opens the workout menu, where there are over 80 activity profiles to choose from, including custom workouts. Through the Garmin Connect app, you can view all your health, sleep, stress, and workout stats. But Garmin also has more in-depth fitness measurements like 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 Vivoactive 6's biggest strength is battery life—it gets up to 5 days of battery life with the always-on display and 11 days without it. That's far longer than most of our 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.
Display
- 42mm touchscreen
Battery life
- Up to 5 days with always-on display (11 days without raise-to-wake)
Built-in GPS
- Yes
Sleep tracking
- Yes
Heart-rate monitor
- Yes, no ECG
Water resistance
- Yes, up to 50 meters
Compatible with
- iPhone and Android phones
Best budget smartwatch for iPhone users: Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen)
The Apple Watch SE costs much less than the Apple Watch Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, but has much of the same design and features that make those watches great. It syncs seamlessly with your iPhone and iPhone apps, feeling like a natural extension of your phone straight out of the box. Like the Series 10, it connects with Apple Health and Fitness apps to show detailed workout, sleep, and health data, with more information than many competitors at this price point, no subscription required. Compared to the Series 10, the SE is a little slower, smaller, and has a dimmer screen that cannot be changed to an always-on mode. It also does not have an on-screen keyboard—you can send pre-set responses or dictate using voice-to-text with Siri. It comes in two sizes, 40mm, and 44mm, with many watch band options.
Display
- 40mm or 44mm touchscreen
Battery life
- Up to 18 hours (no always-on display)
Built-in GPS
- Yes
Sleep tracking
- Yes (not including naps)
Heart-rate monitor
- Yes, no ECG
Water resistance
- Yes, up to 50 meters
Compatible with
- iPhone
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 background on 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 companion app settings and tinker with customizing the watch face. All of our top picks let you change the layout, colors, background, and stats, with many more options if you dig a little deeper. One NBC Select staffer has her Apple Watch face set to a picture of her cat, for example.
Safety tracking
- Most smartwatches have robust safety features available. This means 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 supported businesses like cafes, restaurants, and even most 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 get between charges.
Why trust NBC Select?
I am a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology and fitness, including recent stories on fitness trackers, running shoes, point-and-shoot cameras, and more. For this piece, I tried over a dozen top-rated fitness trackers and smartwatches. For a broader perspective, I spoke with other NBC Select staffers about their experience with smartwatches.
The Apple Watch Series 10 and the Google Pixel Watch 3 are examples of smartwatches that come with credit capabilities, as they both support tap-to-pay features. On the other hand, smartwatches like the Garmin Vivoactive 6, Samsung Galaxy Watch 7, and the Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen) do not have built-in credit capabilities but are designed to enhance fitness, health, and overall well-being by tracking various metrics and providing workout suggestions. The selection of a smartwatch primarily depends on the smartphone used, as most top smartwatches are compatible only with iPhones or Android phones, not both.
