Open up Google and search for Fitness Trackers, you’ll get hundreds of results ranging from the downright rubbish to the insanely expensive models the pros use. Don’t let the vastly different price points get you into a muddle. Let’s take a look at some of the budget fitness trackers that are actually really good and worth checking out.
Budget Fitness Trackers Table Of Contents
- Overview of Fitness Trackers
- 5 of the best Budget Fitness Trackers
- Summary
HUAWEI Band 3
Huawei Band 3 is a reliable fitness traker for daily health use.
Fitbit Inspire HR
Get empowered to make a change and embrace your weight and fitness goals with activity and sleep tracking, calories burned & more on easy-to-use Fitbit Inspire and Fitbit Inspire HR. These trackers are easy to use thanks to a touchscreen, backlit display and on-screen dashboard that helps you track sleep, activity and more, all from your wrist.
Amazfit Bip Smartwatch by Huami
With a range of colors and options, the Bip is designed to be worn as an extension of your personal style.
Garmin Vivosmart 3
Sleek, form-fitting activity tracker with a hidden display and Garmin Elevate wrist heart rate technology.
5 of the best Budget Fitness Trackers
I’m writing this article at the time of year where most of us are thinking about all of that lovely (yet excessive) food you are going to be eating! If you’re like me, you’re also thinking about getting out and doing some exercise to burn off those excess calories you’ve consumed or, likely to consume over the festive period. We need balance, remember!
You catch me at a point in my life where I can no longer only train once a week and maintain a healthy body, mind and weight. My metabolism has slowed down. I’ve found tracking my activity to be a great motivator. It allows me to compete with only myself and to see exactly where I am in terms of my fitness goals.
I run 5km three or four days a week. It’s a fairly easy running course with a steep incline in the first 1km which really gets the heart pumping. At the minute I’m just using my phone to track my activity, which is limited in that it doesn’t track the course, my heart rate or pace. I’m using the native Health App on Samsung. For the owner of a tech blog, that doesn’t seem great! So I decided I’d buy a fitness tracker. I don’t want to spend a fortune incase I break it, so the idea of finding a great budget model was born.
Let’s take a look below of the ones that I think fit the brief.
Huawei Band 3 Pro
I was unsure if I should try out the Huawei trackers. I’ve heard good and bad things about the Chinese based company. Concerns about online security arose recently but I decided I’d include this one anyway as most of the concerns haven’t been proven to be true.
Price: It’s currently on sale for less than £50 via Amazon. It’s normally £79.99 so it’s a great price at the minute.
Huawei Band 3 Pro Features
The Huawei Band 3 Pro comes in a variety of different colours. The gold to me at least is particularly appealing, I wear a lot of black training gear so thought the gold watch would look good against my black clothing.
It has a 0.95″ Amoled colour touchscreen. It’s very bright so I had no problems viewing the screen in bright light.
The heart rate monitor is said to be extremely accurate. You can wear it to bed for the first few nights to get a good amount of data for your resting heart rate. Then use it during your workouts to capture data on your active heart rate.
Battery life is great with up to 12 days usage reported. It does drop down quite drastically if you have GPS switched on. It’ll manage just 7 hours. For comparison, the Apple Watch series 3 lasts 18 hours.
Fitbit Inspire HR
When I first started my research for this blog I never imagined that I’d be including one of the brand leaders in this budget feature. After doing some research I came to learn that they have quite a few budget models. They have since slimmed down their budget range to just two models. The Fitbit Inspire HR typically around £69 is a great price point for one of the more premium brands.
Price: Available for £69.99 from most fitness stores or find it online.
Fitbit Inspire HR Features
One of the narrowest fitness trackers on the market. Sleek looking and a very attractive design. Choose from black, white or lilac with matching silicone bands. Third party straps are available but make sure to buy a decent quality one. Most of the straps on eBay are made with cheap materials and I’d be surprised if it lasts more than a month of everyday use.
Fitbit suggest that the battery will last four to five days which makes it one of the best for battery life amongst this list of budget fitness trackers.
It’s also waterproof so you can use it for those muddy mountain biking trails and swimming.
Amazfit Bip
Weighing in at only 32g it’s very light and comfortable on the wrist. The Amazfit Bip is quite a bit more expensive than the last tracker on this list but still considered within a budget range. With an always-on 1.28″ display the Bip stands on it’s own in the crowded fitness watch market. It makes it a watch that you can wear all day and use just as a watch if you wanted to.
Price: Under £100 from Amazon, you’ll sometimes catch it discounted.
Amazfit Bip Features
An impressive 45 days battery life. We don’t have any details of use cases and what level of activity this covered but impressive all the same.
It’s a little expensive for a budget tracker but still a great price with a long list of features. The features include a heart rate monitor, GPS and GLONASS.
I’ve seen a few users report online that they have had issues with the backlight. It can sometimes become non-functional after installing a 3rd party watch face. So customisation of the home screen is limited and may affect the overall performance of the watch so be careful! The build quality does feel a little bit more budget than the other watches but the battery life and extended feature list makes it a worthwhile inclusion on this list.
Samsung Galaxy Fit E
Now this is a real contender! You’ll see why this makes the budget list. A first attempt at entering the smart fitness tracker market by Samsung and they’ve got most of it right. A sleek rounded design but it’s quite basic in terms of the features this watch comes with.
Price: Currently less than £30 on Amazon! A recognised brand at a great entry level price point.
Samsung Galaxy Fit E Features
Weighing just over 30g it was launched in April 2019. Only available in black and with a basic feature set this watch is for people who, like me, want a basic watch to ‘test the water’ before moving onto a more expensive and full featured model further down the line.
This watch doesn’t have GPS but it does have cool features such as tracking your sleep. If you have a Samsung smart phone it syncs up perfectly to the inbuilt health app. Without the Samsung phone, it’s basically a step counter with heart rate monitor.
Some users have complained that it feels a bit thick on the wrist due to it being a curved design but the general consensus is that it’s a no frills watch and it does what it says on the tin.
Garmin Vivosmart 3
Another premium brand without the premium price tag. There is a newer model available but that’s the reason this model is now available at such a good price. It’s got a great set of features that’ll suit amateurs or more serious fitness enthusiasts alike. As with all of the smart trackers in this list it is compatible with iOS or Android.
Price: Available for around £60.00 via Amazon or Ebuyer.
Garmin Vivosmart 3 Features
A proprietary stress tracker to check your stress level during the day. Take steps to reduce how stressed you are. A good run helps reduce that.
In terms of features it’ll track steps, distance, reps, sets and rest periods and much more. Garmin have managed to pack a lot of features into a small package. The only thing it doesn’t have is GPS. It’s designed for casual fitness activities or moderate gym use.
You’ll be able to utilise the small screen to skip through your different daily stats and goals as well as customising the watch face. The build quality is great as are all of Garmins products to be fair and it looks fantastic.
Battery life is good at 5 days and will charge really quickly too.
Summary
So which one did I go for? I ended up buying the Huawei Band 3 Pro. I ordered it in gold. It ticked all of the boxes for me in terms of battery life, feature set and price.
Any of the Budget Fitness Trackers I’ve listed in this article will do for most people but if you do want to track the running course and pace then pick one with GPS. In the next year or so I predict all trackers will have GPS included as standard as it’s what most people want now.
The prices I’ve listed are all from Amazon or Ebuyer. You should be able to find some great deals online in the New Year and other peak holiday seasons, so shop around.
Let us know in the comments what you find useful about your fitness tracker.
Mike
About the Author:
Hi, I’m Mike and I’m the chief editor over at CodeWithMike. I love video games and tech. CodeWithMike features gaming reviews, tech giveaways, coding tutorials and tech news.
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