Manual counting is long gone.
Healthy habits can lead to longevity and tracking your workout results can be easily done with just the touch of a button through smart bands. Your steps from your morning walk, calories burnt after a workout session and heart rate during your workout are accurately tracked by fitness trackers.
What is a smart band?
Smart bands are a type of fitness tracker that optimises your workout routine and indirectly helps you be conscious about your health. When you are using a smart band, you can develop a much healthier lifestyle.
You can wear smart bands during sporting, exercising and performing your daily activities. Smart bands measure various things that result from physical exertion, including the number of steps taken, your heartbeat, calorie consumption and the distance travelled.
However, not all smart bands have the same exact measurements. Like smartwatches or ring fitness trackers, smart bands can analyse and detect your movements.
There are other terms that different brands call their smart bands, such as fitness armband, activity tracker, sports wearable or sports band. Additionally, smart bands are different from smartwatches.
Smart bands vs smartwatches
Well, smart bands and smartwatches have nearly the same purpose – to track your physical activities. Choosing between them is personal because some features you can’t find in smart bands and vice versa. You can see that the major differences between these two types of fitness trackers most often always concern screen sizes, dimensions and other complex features.
However, some major factors you should consider when deciding which to buy are specific purposes and pricing. As the name implies, a smartwatch is a watch that is made smarter in terms of its program and features. It can have SIM card slots, WI-FI connectivity, a camera, 4G LTE, standalone apps, an app store and more – which your phone technically already has.
While a smart band is fitness-focused because it provides you with the exact features you simply need, such as time, pedometers, heart rate monitors, sleep monitors and other health-inclined features, smartwatches are also more pricey than smart bands with extra added features like smartphones.
3 best smart bands to buy in 2023
Now that you have the overview of smart bands let’s look at which brands you must buy in 2023 based on your lifestyle and preferences. These products are highly rated and still relevant in 2023 with their updated features and uses.
Xiaomi Mi Band 7 Activity Tracker Review
Best long-usage smart band
4.5 stars from 2,403 ratings on Amazon and Amazon’s choice
First on our list is Xiaomi Mi Band 7 Activity Tracker, which is always one step ahead in producing fitness trackers. In fact, Xiaomi beat Apple as the top-shipping wearable brand in 2021, according to a market research firm, Canalys [2]. Moreover, the Xiaomi Mi Band series has been the preferred budget wearable by many, especially Xiaomi Mi Band 7 Tracker.
Display: In terms of the screen, Xiaomi Mi Band 7 Tracker has a high resolution of 192×490 and an AMOLED screen that you can increase brightness up to 500 nits. Its band is in colour black with a screen size of 1.62 inches. All these are much updated compared to their Mi Band 6, which has only 1.52 inches screen size and 152×486 and 450 nits.
Compatibility: Xiaomi Mi Band 7 has Bluetooth 5.2 that is compatible with smartphones, and has improved sensor technology. You can also excellent pair it with your smartphone with its ‘find my phone’, ‘phone unlock’, event reminder, ‘do not disturb’ mode, lock screen and music control on band features.
Usability and features: You can use this smart band for 15 days with its longer battery life of 180 mAh. When it lowers in battery, the charging time is only 2 hours with a magnetic snap-on charger for your on-the-go lifestyle. It has 120 sports modes that you can choose from depending on your preferred physical activity on a day.
Moreover, its major features are a 24-hour optical heart rate, a new blood oxygen sensor, and a sleep monitor watch. If you want to time yourself while working out, you can use its stopwatch or timer.
Waking up in the morning for a particular time is easier with its alarm clock feature. Also, Xiaomi Mi Band 7 has a remote control for a photo camera and a female health monitor.
Just to set expectations, Mi Band 7 is considered an entry-level fitness tracker; hence, it lacks several higher-end features that you normally see on premium devices. However, the Xiaomi Mi Band 7 is a great choice for smart bands in the market.
Buy Xiaomi Mi Band 7 on Amazon.
Fitbit Charge 5
Best multi-featured smart band
4.5 stars from 30,895 ratings on Amazon
To complete our top 3, here’s the Fitbit Charge 5 Advanced Fitness & Health Tracker that is perfectly designed with gym-goers in mind. With its multi-function features, you will surely consider the Fitbit Charge 5 smart band.
Display: This smart band brand model has an AMOLED display with a screen size of 1.04 inches and a band size of 5.1 inches to 6.7 inches in circumference for small sizes while 6.7 inches to 8.3 inches in circumference for large ones. Fitbit Charge 5 has a modern style to suit your everyday clothing. It has colour graphite or black that you can choose from.
Compatibility: Similar to what we have picked above, Fitbit Charge 5 can easily connect to your smartphone, either for Apple iOS 13.4 or higher and Android 10 or higher.
Usability and features: Fitbit Charge 5 is designed with many features to make your physical activities more convenient. It has an onboard GPS chip that is great for outdoors, a time display to help you manage your time, and daily workout memory where you can see your previous stats.
Another deciding factor that you must know is that the Fitbit Charge 5 is deeply health-focused because of its precise ECG app to detect arrhythmia, activity tracker, stress tracker and sleep monitoring.
Fitbit Charge 5 has a Health Metrics dashboard where you can see the results when the smart band tracks SpO2, heart rate variability, skin temperature variation and more. Your sleep must be considered as well to achieve overall wellness; hence, the Fitbit Charge 5 offers a feature where you can have a better understanding of your sleep quality with a daily Sleep Score.
Plus, you can optimise your workout routine with its Daily Readiness Score feature that reveals if you’re ready to exercise or should focus on recovery. You can also manage your stress with its daily Stress Management Score, which basically shows your body’s response to stress and provides steps to improve your levels.
The downside of this smart band is that its battery life can only last up to 7 days. Considering its multiple features, they may take up much of your battery life. Moreover, there are no music controls which is a huge bummer as the majority of us love listening to music while we do our routines.
Buy Fitbit Charge 5 on Amazon.
Huawei Band 3 Pro Review
Best water-resistant smart band
4 stars from 817 ratings on Amazon
Next is the Huawei Band 3 Pro All-in-One Fitness Activity Tracker, which is one of the best-selling fitness trackers in the tech-fitness market. One big factor in choosing Huawei Band 3 Pro is its affordability while maintaining its impressive features and specs – perfect for those on a strict budget.
Display: Huawei Band 3 Pro is water-resistant, so you are not restricted to land exercises. You can use this while swimming in a pool or beach and too much sweat while working out is not a problem with Huawei Band 3 Pro. It has a fixed classic Obsidian black colour and a modern style. Its case material is metal with high gloss UV coating, while the wrist strap is silicon rubber.
For the screen size, it is much smaller than others with 0.95 inches which is suitable for those who don’t like big screens on their wrists. It has an AMOLED touch display with coloured screen and adjustable screen brightness, making it still easier to see the screen even with direct sunlight.
Compatibility: In terms of compatibility, it can also be connected to your smartphone without a hassle. In there, you will find its camera remote really fascinating as you can use it when taking selfies, group photos and shots at distances. Now you don’t have to use the timer on your phone and then run to get that group shot! You can simply click the shutter button of your phone through the Huawei Band 3 Pro smart band [3].
Usability and features: Moreover, a fully-charged Huawei Band 3 Pro smart band can last up to 14 days. It comes with a built-in GPS that is perfect for outdoor activities and can track your workout and show the results in real-time or after, including stroke style detection, distance, laps, swolf (a score that measures your swimming efficiency), number of strokes and burnt calories. Furthermore, Huawei Band 3 Pro has a 24/7 heart rate monitor, multi-sports mode and sleep tracking.
This affordable entry-level device deserves a spot on your list to buy in 2023.
Buy Huawei Band 3 Pro on Amazon.
[1] https://www.dignited.com/49707/smartwatch-vs-smartband-which-should-you-buy/
[2] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/xiaomi-beats-apple-to-become-top-wearable-brand-in-the-world/
[3] https://www.techradar.com/best/best-fitness-trackers
