Smartwatch buying guide: How to choose your smart wristwear

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Watches have been around for hundreds of years, and mostly, they’ve served as a way to tell the time. But in the last few years, watches have progressed significantly and are more capable than ever.

Now, many people are shunning traditional analogue watches in favour of new-fangled smartwatches.

These not only tell the time and date, but also allow users to make and receive phone calls, send and read text messages, use applications, track their health and fitness, pay for things on the go, receive phone notifications, and so much more.

While smartwatches offer a wide range of capabilities and benefits, choosing one isn’t the most straightforward task when you consider all the different types, makes and models available today.

But to help you, we’ve put together this guide on everything you need to know when buying a smartwatch.

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Before choosing a make and model of smartwatch, it’s important to understand the different types of smartwatch available on the market and to decide which one would best suit your needs. There are three main categories: classic smartwatches, hybrid smartwatches and fitness trackers.

Classic smartwatches link up to a smartphone via its Bluetooth connection to notify you of incoming calls, text messages, emails, social media updates, calendar events, alarms, and other types of notifications. This information is typically displayed on a touchscreen display, which you can also use to navigate a compact interface and use smartwatch-friendly apps.

Many classic smartwatches will also enable you to make and receive phone calls and send and read text messages. In fact, some classic smartwatches can be purchased as part of a contract and have their own mobile connection, allowing you to use online apps, ring people, and send text messages without being connected to a smartphone.

Classic smartwatches often sport fitness and health tracking capabilities too, and of course, they tell the time and will let you change the style of the watch face.

Hybrid smartwatches are a combination of classic smartwatches and analogue watches. They look like any standard analogue watch, with mechanical arms instead of a touchscreen display. However, they can be connected to a handset via Bluetooth to provide phone notifications, fitness metrics, and other important information.

Read more: 9 best smartwatches for kids that have games, cameras and trackers

Hybrid smartwatches can differ in how they work, but often, they’ll use mechanical watch arms, vibrations or a tiny screen for alerting users to new notifications on their phone.

Compared to classic smartwatches, hybrid smartwatches may be more durable in terms of design and sport a battery life that can last for weeks on end. Hybrid smartwatches are an excellent option for those who want a traditional watch that also offers some of the features provided by classic smartwatches with a touchscreen display.

If you’re a health and fitness fan, you’ll no doubt love fitness trackers. These are smartwatches that put health and fitness first. The best fitness trackers not only monitor your steps, calories, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep, breathing, and other metrics, but also offer a wide range of fitness modes and many other features to help you to stay healthy.

Considering they’re a type of smartwatch, fitness trackers provide the time and date. What’s also great about fitness trackers is that they tend to be cheaper than classic smartwatches, although this is often because they have fewer features overall.

Now that you have a better understanding of the different types of smartwatches out there, you’re probably wondering which make and model to choose. We’ll now discuss the main smartwatch brands and models.