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I've tried a lot of fitness trackers, and this under-$50 one is truly great
I've tried a lot of fitness trackers, and this under-$50 one is truly great
The best cheap fitness tracker you can buy is the $47 Mi Band 6. It's hard to pass up if you're on a budget but still want features like automatic workout detection, a blood oxygen sensor, sleep tracking and 24/7 heart rate monitoring. Bonus: it's compatible with Android and iOS.
There's no shortage of fitness bands and smartwatches under $100. The $70 Amazfit Bip S and newer Bip U are some of our favorite budget watches, but if you're looking for something smaller, with very similar health and fitness tracking and a nicer screen, the Mi Band 6 is a great choice. I'm a big advocate for finding cheaper alternatives to big-name products, even making an entire YouTube series dedicated to the cause. Here's why I think the Mi Band 6 is a viable competitor to similar products from big-name brands like Fitbit and the new Amazon Halo View.
A bright screen makes the Mi Band a pleasure to use
This thing is so light, I often forget it's on my wrist. Which is a good thing in the middle of a workout when I'm trying to concentrate on my next rep, or at night when I don't want to feel a chunky smartwatch rubbing against my pillow.
A 1.56-inch AMOLED display might sound small, but thanks to its pixel density of 326ppi, the Mi Band 6's text and graphics look incredibly crisp. I never feel like I need to pull out a magnifying glass or squint to make out what a text message says. Most importantly, it's easy to see the display in bright sunlight.
The screen and interface are also responsive and I haven't experienced any performance issues or lag. One thing I'd add to the wish list for the next generation is an auto brightness sensor so it can detect the ambient light and adjust the intensity of the screen on its own.
The screen is easy to see.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
Here's the laundry list of smart features you get on the Mi Band 6:
Music playback control
App notifications from your phone, plus call and message alerts
Find my phone
Phone muting option (Android only)
Calendar and event reminders
Remote camera shutter
As you can see, there's no shortage of tools onboard and it even goes one better than Fitbit's $180 Charge 5 by having a find-my-phone app and camera remote. While I'd like a speaker and mic so I could take quick calls from my wrist, for the price, I can't expect that much.
The Mi Fit app is the weakest part of the whole experience. Compared with the slick experience and icons you see when navigating the band itself, the app feels like an afterthought. Even weeks later, I still take a beat to work out exactly where each feature lives, like my sleep metrics and workout stats.
On the plus side, plenty of third-party apps can tap into the Mi Band 6 to customize almost every aspect, from watch faces to remapping actions for the music control app. My favorite is AmazTools because it lets me export my workout data with GPS and map details to services like Strava.
Workout tracking on the Mi Band 6 is fine for the price
Just some of the stats the Mi Band gives you post-workout.
Screenshot by Lexy Savvides/CNET
One of my main criticisms of earlier Mi Bands was the limited range of workout tracking options. If you wanted to record a Pilates or yoga session for instance, there was only a generic "exercise" type that wasn't particularly precise in calculating overall effort. Now, the Mi Band 6 gives you 30 fitness modes from the usual running and cycling all the way to Zumba, HIIT and indoor ice skating. It can also autodetect activities like running, walking and cycling if you forget to manually start recording the workout.
You also get sleep tracking and a blood oxygen sensor that can take a spot reading, or check it during the day and night in the background.
For the price, I'm happy with how the Mi Band records workouts. You get detailed breakdowns of your pace, splits and heart rate zones post-workout in the app. The band also tracks a physiological activity indicator or PAI score for you. It measures the amount of moderate to intense physical activity you do each day, similar to Fitbit's Active Zone Minutes metric. The PAI score is a bit vague and trickier to understand than the Fitbit score, but I do like how it recommends what intensity workout I should do if I'm lagging behind on my score that day.
But if you're looking for the most accurate heart rate tracker for cardio-based exercise like runs and walks, this will not be the best fit for you. During a leisurely outdoor walk with a few small hills, the Mi Band said my heart rate peaked at 180bpm -- way higher than the number my chest strap said. There's also no onboard GPS, which is not a surprise given this costs $45, so you will need to take your phone with you on workouts to record distance and route information. But that phone-assisted tracking is still a step up from the new $80 Amazon Halo View, which lacks any kind of distance tracking. I also needed to manually sync the band in the Mi Fit app every time I started a workout to get the GPS tracking to kick in, which was a bit annoying.
The Mi Band 6's battery life takes it to the next level
I'm used to wearing smartwatches and trackers that barely last two days between charges. That's why when I read about the Mi Band's 14 days of battery life, I had to do a double take. Surely, that can't be right? Turns out there's a bit of a catch. If you're doing a lot of workouts, using the blood oxygen and heart rate sensors frequently, plus keeping the screen brightness on high you're more likely to reach need to charge after five days. That's still pretty good compared with some alternatives and I can regularly get to a week and change before needing to juice it up again. I'm sure I could push it to 14 days if I was only using this to get notifications from my phone and to track steps.
The Mi Band 6 is my favorite budget fitness tracker of the year, especially if you're just looking to dip your toes into the world of fitness wearables and want something you won't need to charge very often.
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Best budget fitness tracker: Fitbit Inspire HR or Mi Band 4?
Best budget fitness tracker: Fitbit Inspire HR or Mi Band 4?
Fitbit has long been the king of fitness trackers with bands like the Inspire HR, but there's no shortage of wearables looking to take the crown, such as the Samsung Galaxy Fit and Garmin Vivosmart. They can track your steps, monitor heart rate and keep an eye on your fitness, plus have smart features like getting notifications from your phone. All these fitness trackers cost between $80 and $100, but Xiaomi's new Mi Band 4 is significantly cheaper -- it's around $35 in the US from Amazon or Walmart -- and shares many similar features. So which is the best budget fitness tracker?
To find out if the cheaper Mi Band 4 can keep up with its higher-end rivals, I wore it alongside the Fitbit Inspire HR for two weeks. (Note that Fitbit just launched the Versa 2, a new smartwatch with Alexa. We're yet to fully test it.) Find the full review in the video above and read on for the abridged version.
Fitbit Inspire HR vs. Xiaomi Mi Band 4
Fitbit Inspire HR
Xiaomi Mi Band 4
Display
Monochrome OLED touchscreen
Color AMOLED touchscreen
Heart-rate tracker
Yes (24/7 monitoring)
Yes (24/7 monitoring)
App and call notifications
Yes
Yes
Water resistance
Up to 50m
Up to 50m
Battery
Up to 5 days
Up to 20 days
Sleep tracking
Yes
Yes
Female health tracking
Yes
No
Price (USD, GBP, AUD)
$80, £83, AU$180
$35, £40, AU$59
Angela Lang/CNET
Fitness and health tracking: Advantage Fitbit
Where the Fitbit really shines is exercise tracking. There are 15 activity types ranging from kickboxing to Pilates to swimming, although you can only have six of them active on the band at any one time. The Mi Band 4 only has six activity types total -- running, treadmill, cycling, walking, pool swimming and a generic "exercise" type you can choose if your workout doesn't fall within any of the existing categories.
For step tracking, I felt the Fitbit overestimated my effort slightly and I could game the system with arm movements (case in point: chair dancing made me hit 10,000 steps one day) when I had only got around 8,700 on the Mi Band. But heart rate tracking during exercise, such as my outdoor run, was fairly consistent between both trackers. Average and maximum heart rate readings were within a few beats per minute of each other.
Neither one has built in GPS which means you will need to take your phone with you for outdoor exercises. But only the Fitbit has automatic workout detection in case you forget to start your workout on the tracker.
I wore both trackers to bed for several nights and found the Fitbit was far more accurate in reading my sleep patterns. One night, I remembered I was awake for what seemed like an eternity. The Fitbit said I had been awake for an hour, while the Mi Band said I had 0 minutes of awake time.
Fitbit's app is also a lot nicer than the Mi Fit app and the data is much easier to interpret than the Mi Fit app when it comes to heart rate zones. The Fitbit app tells you if you're in areas like fat burn or cardio after you've finished an activity, so you know how hard you worked. The Mi Fit app has heart rate zones as well, but for me it was easier to understand what fat burn meant, rather than anaerobic or VO2 max.
The Fitbit is the only one that can monitor women's health through menstrual tracking.
Angela Lang/CNET
Mi Band 4 wins on smart features
For those looking for smartwatch-like features, the Mi Band has more to offer. For starters, it allows you to play back your music by swiping across from the main screen. There are also plenty of watch faces to choose from, including a myriad of third-party options, while the Fitbit is limited to about 15 in the app.
The screen itself is much nicer, too. The Mi Band has a color AMOLED display with adjustable brightness. The Inspire HR has a monochrome OLED screen which is hard to see in bright, outdoor situations like when I was on my run. I also found it easier to interpret my workout data faster on the Mi Band because it shows distance and pace on the main screen rather than having to flick through different screens to find it on the Fitbit.
That said, the Mi Band 4 did give me intermittent issues with raise to wake; sometimes it would take a good second for the time to display on the watch when I moved my wrist, other times it wouldn't detect at all. The Fitbit was a lot more reliable.
Both can mirror notifications from your phone, although you won't be able to respond to them (except for rejecting a call on the Mi Band 4).
The Fitbit is only officially rated to give up to five days battery, but I ended up getting about a week's worth of use, which was a nice bonus. That said, it was no match for the Mi Band 4. I got two-and-a-half weeks out of it before I had to give it a charge.
To find out which fitness tracker got my vote in the end, watch the video above.
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Xiaomi Mi Band review: Ultracheap fitness band gets the job done
Xiaomi Mi Band review: Ultracheap fitness band gets the job done
Though still not a household name outside of Asia, China's Xiaomi is gaining in global market share for smartphones , and it's not stopping there. Like so many of its rivals, it's also breaking into wearables, with its debut device being the Mi Band fitness tracker.
Perfect for anyone who wants to try out a fitness tracker, the Mi Band's minor flaws are easily ignored, especially when you consider its exceptionally low price. On sale in China at 79RMB (which converts to around $13, £7.50, AU$13.50), it undercuts other basic models like the Misfit Flash and the Fitbit Zip that retail at around $50 (roughly £3o or AU$60) while still delivering the same features.
Good luck getting one, however. There are no plans yet to release the bracelet for other markets, so you'll have to either get it through an online reseller (and pay a little premium), or hope you manage to snag one while in China at the Xiaomi online store.
The Mi Band is actually a dongle on a bracelet.Aloysius Low/CNET
Design
Xiaomi keeps the design simple for the Mi Band. There are no buttons you need to press and the Mi Band comes in two parts -- a rubber strap and the fitness module. Once on the wrist, the 13g Mi Band doesn't stay in your mind.
As it's water-resistant -- the Mi Band has a IP67 rating -- you can bring the Mi Band with you in the shower, though the rubber strap is uncomfortable when it's wet. The strap is adjustable, so you can either wear it loose or tight depending on your preference.
The Mi Band lacks a screen. Instead, it has three indicator lights that flash when you do a "look at your watch" gesture. However, the Mi Band is really picky about when it lights up; you'll have to actually have your arm fully extended at your side, then raise it up like you're looking at a watch before it works.
This shows I'm two-thirds of my way through my daily target of 8,000 steps.Aloysius Low/CNET
The three lights show your walking progress for the day, so if you set the target to, say, 8,000 steps, when you hit around 5,000 the second light will be fully lit. When you hit your target, the Mi Band will vibrate to alert you while the lights will blink for a few seconds.
You'll need to take out the dongle for charging, but you'll really only need to do this once every 30 days or so. The Mi Band comes with a custom USB cable that attaches to the dongle, and you can plug that into a PC or a USB charger.
Mi Band app
Unlike the more fully featured app that comes with the higher-end Jawbone Up24 , the Mi Band app is clean and simple and supports both English and Chinese. There's no option to measure your caloric intake -- instead, the app just shows the steps you've taken and your sleep patterns, such as when you fell into deep sleep.
You can also set an alarm to wake up to, and the Mi Band will buzz at the appropriate time. An early bird alarm is also available and will wake you 30 minutes before your preset time if the band detects that it's the best time to wake you up.
Screenshot by Aloysius Low/CNET
Apart from the two functions mentioned above, the Mi Band app also adds a sit-up and jump rope tracker. You'll need to manually activate this, though, as the Mi Band itself only works for your steps and sleep. There's also an option in the settings menu to let you vote for other sports such as cycling in future updates.
One feature that's limited to only Xiaomi's phones is a proximity unlocker. If you're holding the phone in the same hand that's wearing the band, you won't need to enter a passcode or perform a pattern unlock.
Currently, the Mi Band only works with Android 4.4 devices, and there aren't any third-party apps available that support this. It's also unknown if Xiaomi will ever add iOS support, though there are pictures on Weibo from Xiaomi developers showing the app running on an iPhone 6 .
Battery life
As mentioned, the Mi Band claims a 30-day battery life, and two weeks with the Mi Band have shown me that this looks to be true. The fitness band still had 75 percent left, meaning it could last as long as 2 months instead of the promised 1. This is pretty impressive, given that the more expensive Jawbone Up24 is only rated for a week. However, the Mi Band's rechargeable battery can't compare to the six-month battery life of the Misfit Flash or the Fitbit Zip.
Charging the Mi Band is quite easy to do.Aloysius Low/CNET
Conclusion
Given the Mi Band's absurdly low price, it's impressive and gets a free pass for its minor flaws. The rubber material used in the band takes a while to get used to, but it's light and not at all unpleasant to wear most of the time.
It's really hard to see how other screenless fitness bands can now justify their exorbitant prices, especially when the Mi Band does the exact same thing but is a lot more affordable. Of course, these fitness trackers do have options such as keeping track of your caloric intake, but these are software-based, via an app, so it's possible Xiaomi may be able to add these in as well in a future update.
Lastly, getting your hands on the Mi Band can be challenging since it's limited to China for now, and until the company starts making it globally available, people in other countries will likely will have to pay a lot more for the current fitness bands. With that in mind, I still heartily recommend the Mi Band, even if you have to get it at a premium from an online reseller. You'll still save quite a bit compared with other brands, and the Mi Band makes for a great entry-level fitness band to try out.
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Best budget fitness tracker: Fitbit Inspire HR or Mi Band 4?
Best budget fitness tracker: Fitbit Inspire HR or Mi Band 4?
Fitbit has long been the king of fitness trackers with bands like the Inspire HR, but there's no shortage of wearables looking to take the crown, such as the Samsung Galaxy Fit and Garmin Vivosmart. They can track your steps, monitor heart rate and keep an eye on your fitness, plus have smart features like getting notifications from your phone. All these fitness trackers cost between $80 and $100, but Xiaomi's new Mi Band 4 is significantly cheaper -- it's around $35 in the US from Amazon or Walmart -- and shares many similar features. So which is the best budget fitness tracker?
To find out if the cheaper Mi Band 4 can keep up with its higher-end rivals, I wore it alongside the Fitbit Inspire HR for two weeks. (Note that Fitbit just launched the Versa 2, a new smartwatch with Alexa. We're yet to fully test it.) Find the full review in the video above and read on for the abridged version.
Fitbit Inspire HR vs. Xiaomi Mi Band 4
Fitbit Inspire HR
Xiaomi Mi Band 4
Display
Monochrome OLED touchscreen
Color AMOLED touchscreen
Heart-rate tracker
Yes (24/7 monitoring)
Yes (24/7 monitoring)
App and call notifications
Yes
Yes
Water resistance
Up to 50m
Up to 50m
Battery
Up to 5 days
Up to 20 days
Sleep tracking
Yes
Yes
Female health tracking
Yes
No
Price (USD, GBP, AUD)
$80, £83, AU$180
$35, £40, AU$59
Angela Lang/CNET
Fitness and health tracking: Advantage Fitbit
Where the Fitbit really shines is exercise tracking. There are 15 activity types ranging from kickboxing to Pilates to swimming, although you can only have six of them active on the band at any one time. The Mi Band 4 only has six activity types total -- running, treadmill, cycling, walking, pool swimming and a generic "exercise" type you can choose if your workout doesn't fall within any of the existing categories.
For step tracking, I felt the Fitbit overestimated my effort slightly and I could game the system with arm movements (case in point: chair dancing made me hit 10,000 steps one day) when I had only got around 8,700 on the Mi Band. But heart rate tracking during exercise, such as my outdoor run, was fairly consistent between both trackers. Average and maximum heart rate readings were within a few beats per minute of each other.
Neither one has built in GPS which means you will need to take your phone with you for outdoor exercises. But only the Fitbit has automatic workout detection in case you forget to start your workout on the tracker.
I wore both trackers to bed for several nights and found the Fitbit was far more accurate in reading my sleep patterns. One night, I remembered I was awake for what seemed like an eternity. The Fitbit said I had been awake for an hour, while the Mi Band said I had 0 minutes of awake time.
Fitbit's app is also a lot nicer than the Mi Fit app and the data is much easier to interpret than the Mi Fit app when it comes to heart rate zones. The Fitbit app tells you if you're in areas like fat burn or cardio after you've finished an activity, so you know how hard you worked. The Mi Fit app has heart rate zones as well, but for me it was easier to understand what fat burn meant, rather than anaerobic or VO2 max.
The Fitbit is the only one that can monitor women's health through menstrual tracking.
Angela Lang/CNET
Mi Band 4 wins on smart features
For those looking for smartwatch-like features, the Mi Band has more to offer. For starters, it allows you to play back your music by swiping across from the main screen. There are also plenty of watch faces to choose from, including a myriad of third-party options, while the Fitbit is limited to about 15 in the app.
The screen itself is much nicer, too. The Mi Band has a color AMOLED display with adjustable brightness. The Inspire HR has a monochrome OLED screen which is hard to see in bright, outdoor situations like when I was on my run. I also found it easier to interpret my workout data faster on the Mi Band because it shows distance and pace on the main screen rather than having to flick through different screens to find it on the Fitbit.
That said, the Mi Band 4 did give me intermittent issues with raise to wake; sometimes it would take a good second for the time to display on the watch when I moved my wrist, other times it wouldn't detect at all. The Fitbit was a lot more reliable.
Both can mirror notifications from your phone, although you won't be able to respond to them (except for rejecting a call on the Mi Band 4).
The Fitbit is only officially rated to give up to five days battery, but I ended up getting about a week's worth of use, which was a nice bonus. That said, it was no match for the Mi Band 4. I got two-and-a-half weeks out of it before I had to give it a charge.
To find out which fitness tracker got my vote in the end, watch the video above.
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Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
I'd love to say that when I first put on the Apple Watch, I'd never seen anything like it before. But of course, that's not true. By late 2014 I'd been surrounded by smartwatches for a few years. So when Apple announced it was making its own watch, my thought (as so often with Apple) was: finally.
The first smartwatch I reviewed at CNET was the Martian Passport, an analog watch that could make phone calls. It sounds so primitive now, but it was cool in early 2013. The Pebble Watch followed, and the Steel version became my favorite: It was like a Casio watch turned into a useful little pager-assistant. It was simple and had long battery life, and it was great.
There were others, too: Samsung's first smartwatches were ambitious (a camera?). Google's first Android Wear watches arrived in 2014. Meanwhile, there were Fitbits and Jawbone trackers galore.
I say this to lay the groundwork for the Apple Watch and what its impact was. Like the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, the Apple Watch wasn't the first smartwatch... but it made the biggest footprint. It was another step validating that a world of wearables was here to stay.
I was able to wear the Apple Watch a month before it went on sale. I spent a ton of time with it, getting used to both how it handled phone calls, and the activity tracking rings. I looked at my heart rate measurements. I accidentally ordered an Xbox One with an early Amazon app.
The Watch was, much like the first iPhone, sometimes feature-limited. But it also had some features that already stood out.
My original review was updated a year later, which you can read here. Some parts have changed, clearly, and Apple has updated the OS. But I'll comment on what I wrote then, and how I felt, and how that's evolved. Quotes from the original review are in italics.
The gold Apple Watch, way back when.
James Martin/CNET
An excellent design, with luxury overtones
Apple wants you to think of the Apple Watch as fine jewelry. Maybe that's a stretch, but in terms of craftsmanship, there isn't a more elegantly made piece of wearable tech. Look at the Apple Watch from a distance, and it might appear unremarkable in its rectangular simplicity compared with bolder, circular Android Wear watches. It's clearly a revamped sort of iPod Nano. But get closer, and you can see the seamless, excellent construction.
The first Apple Watch came in aluminum, steel and ramped all the way up to a gold model costing more than $10,000. Compared to other smartwatches, it screamed luxury.
Certain touches felt luxurious, too: the fine-feeling Digital Crown, which spun ever so smoothly like a real watch part, for instance. The OLED display, which was a first for an Apple product, looked crisp and bright.
The most amazing part, maybe, were the watch bands. Apple created a really nice series of specially designed straps, from a steel link to a clever magnetic Milanese mesh that were extremely expensive and impressively engineered.
Its watch face designs were great, too, and they integrated some information from the iPhone that aimed to add at-a-glance ease of use. There was a Mickey Mouse watch face that danced! The Solar face showing sunrise and sunset, and the astronomy face that showed planetary alignments and moon phases, felt like magic. I wanted more, but Apple's assortment of watch faces was limited, and it didn't allow for third-party watch face design. That's still the case now.
A lot of the Apple Watch reminded me of the strides Apple began with the iPod Nano, which also had watch mode... and a Mickey Mouse watch face.
Sarah Tew
New technologies at first: fantastic haptics, a force-sensitive display
All Apple Watches have a new S1 processor made by Apple, that "taptic" haptic engine and a force-sensitive and very bright OLED display, which is differently sized on the 38mm and 42mm models. The watch has its own accelerometer, gyrometer and heart-rate monitor, but no onboard GPS. It uses Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz Wi-Fi to connect to your phone or your home network. There's a built-in speaker and microphone, but no headphone jack.
As I wore the watch on the first day, I felt a rippling buzz and a metallic ping: one of my credit card payments showed up as a message. Apple's "Taptic Engine" and a built-in speaker convey both a range of advanced taps and vibrations, plus sounds. Unlike the buzz in a phone or most wearables, these haptics feel sharper: a single tap, or a ripple of them, or thumps.
Sometimes the feelings are too subtle: I don't know if I felt them or imagined them. My wrists might be numbed from too many smart devices. I set my alerts to "prominent" and got sharper nudges on my wrist.
The first watch introduced some ideas that eventually made their way to other iPhones. A "taptic engine" delivered on some amazingly refined vibration effects, ranging from a purr to a ping to a gentle tap. These were way ahead of what anybody else was doing -- and they weren't just a gimmick. The notification types associated with unique vibrations felt distinct. Sometimes, the vibrating taps on the first Watch weren't as powerful as I wanted. But with later updates, the haptics made parts of the interface seem real: virtual wheels, clicking as if moving with invisible gears.
The more advanced haptics made their way to the iPhone next, making us used to them now. Other phones, game consoles like the Nintendo Switch, and VR accessories, have evolved haptics since, but the Apple Watch was the first mainstream device that upped the haptics game.
Force Touch was another wild idea: Apple made its watch display force-sensitive, meaning a deeper press could work like pushing a button. Though this idea was refined further into 3D Touch on the iPhone 6S, 3D Touch was a technology that never became as necessary as expected, and current iPhone models have dropped the pressure-sensitive display tech completely.
The Apple Watch still has Force Touch, though, and I think it always will.
Digital Touch: I never used it much after that.
Sarah Tew
Lots of features. Too many features?
As you can see, this is a lot of stuff. Did I have fun using the watch? Yes, mostly, but there are so many features that I felt a little lost at times. There are so many ways to interact: swiping, touching, pressing harder into the display, a button and a clickable digital crown-wheel. Plus, there's Siri. Do I swipe, or click, or force touch or speak? Sometimes I didn't know where an app menu was. Or, I'd find getting back to an app I just had open would require an annoying series of crown clicks, swiping through apps, then opening the app again.
There's a reason I used the word "complicated" to describe my feelings using that first Apple Watch. Setting up bits of information, called complications, was slow and not always intuitive. Apps took a while to load, and were sometimes so slow that it was easier to check my phone instead. Quick glances and notifications, and phone calls, were fine. Apple Pay on the watch was clever, but would I use it? I wished the watch had more battery life.
I didn't like the overcomplicated feel. The design of the OS, and the card-like swappable mini-view apps that used to be on the Watch like a dock, changed over time. It's gotten better since.
Storing music on the watch, while it took a while to sync, was easier than attempts on Samsung Gear or Android Wear. Of course, I had to hunt for a good pair of Bluetooth headphones to connect with the watch.
Today I still forget to dive into and make the most of the apps on the watch. I just dusted off Walkie Talkie: it's cool. There's noise monitoring. One app lets me remote control my iPhone camera, which has been a huge help for my stay-at-home self-shot videos. The Remote app helps me when I lose the Apple TV remote every other day.
Third-party apps, and the grid of options? It turns out I don't use them much at all. I don't dig down deep into the layers of functions. I prefer what's on the surface: watch faces, and their readouts. But I've come to appreciate the watch's surprising number of options and settings. It's better than not having them at all.
The rings were the beginning.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Fitness: The ring idea was just the beginning
The Apple Watch doesn't work any fitness miracles that the rest of the wearable world hasn't already invented, and it doesn't ship with any new magical sensors that change the game. But the Apple-made integrated fitness apps, Activity and Workout, are far and away the best fitness apps on any existing smartwatch that isn't a dedicated "fitness watch" (Samsung Gear, Android Wear, Pebble and the like). A clever three-ring method of tracking daily activity, which simultaneously measures and rewards daily calorie burn, active exercise and standing up, feels like a fusion of rewards and metrics seen on the Nike FuelBand, Jawbone Up, Fitbit and others.
I appreciated Apple's complete-the-ring motivational activity tracker, which felt inspired by wearables like the Nike FuelBand (not surprising, since Apple's head of fitness, Jay Blahnik, arrived from Nike). For the red ring's daily goals, it's great. It felt too easy to complete the blue Stand ring, and it still does.
There are tons of fitness advancements Apple has made on the Watch in the last five years: GPS, resting heart rate, workout controls, social sharing, third-party app integration, swimming, modes for accessibility, activity trends -- and I haven't even discussed Apple's massive health aspirations like adding ECG, checking for falls, monitoring elevated or irregular heart rate or women's health tracking. There is some form of coaching and motivation, too. But I'd still love to see more of that. I hit a wall when trying to be fit, and there's only so much watches seem to help.
The first Apple Watch was more of a Fitbit. Now, it's more of a health companion. Those two worlds still feel like they need to dovetail and grow. There are missing features, too, like sleep tracking, which feels like the inevitable next step.
You still need an iPhone, just like in 2015.
Sarah Tew
It was, and still is, an iPhone accessory
Much like most other smartwatches, the Apple Watch isn't a standalone device -- it's a phone accessory. Android Wear, Samsung Gear, Pebble and others work the same way. But here, you must own an iPhone 5 or later to use the Watch. A few Apple Watch functions work away from the phone, but the watch primarily works alongside the phone as an extension, a second screen and basically another part of your iOS experience. It's a symbiote.
One thing I noted back then was that you needed an iPhone to use the Apple Watch. Unlike other wearables that can pair with Android or iOS, or even sync with a computer, the Apple Watch was always designed to live symbiotically with the iPhone.
That's still the case now. Even with independent cellular options, and an on-watch App Store, you can't use the Watch without pairing to an iPhone. And it still won't work with Android. It's a shame, because a fully standalone watch could be a really helpful tool for many people who don't have iPhones, and it could even be a phone alternative (for kids, maybe).
Apple's AirPods created a gadget trinity where the Watch, the iPhone and AirPods can all work seamlessly together. But that trinity is an expensive one. The entry price of the Apple Watch has dropped, at least. But it feels like an extension of the iPhone more than its own device, even now.
The Apple Watch Series 5: much better, with a few similarities.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Today: the best watch in a war of attrition
You don't need an Apple Watch. In many ways, it's a toy: an amazing little do-it-all, a clever invention, a possibly time-saving companion, a wrist-worn assistant. It's also mostly a phone accessory for now. In the months and years to come, that may change: with Apple's assortment of iPads, Macs, Apple TV and who knows what else to come, the watch could end up being a remote and accessory to many things. Maybe it'll be the key to unlock a world of smart appliances, cars and connected places. In that type of world, a smartwatch could end up feeling utterly essential.
I think back to what the Apple Watch was competing against back then: Jawbone, Pebble, Fitbit, Google's Android Wear, Samsung's watches, the Microsoft Band. A lot of competitors are gone now. Fitbit was acquired by Google. Samsung still has watches. Garmin makes lots of dedicated fitness watches. There are still plenty of more affordable relative newcomers, too.
The original Apple Watch, with the Pebble Steel, Moto 360 and the original iPod Nano with wristband (clockwise from top left).
Sarah Tew
In a field of fewer alternatives, the Apple Watch's consistent addition of new features and ongoing performance improvements has made it the best option. It's Apple's commitment to gradual improvements that has made it a stand-out watch now, especially compared to the struggles of Google's Wear OS.
The Apple Watch is still an iPhone accessory. And it's still not an essential product. But it's become a really fluid and useful device, one with lots of key upgrades that work, and one that's a lot easier to use.
What's the best smartwatch now? The Apple Watch. That doesn't mean I don't want to see improvements: battery life, sleep tracking, a watch face store and most importantly, Android support and true standalone function. If the last five years are any indication, Apple will tackle these problems on its own... time.
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Best Buy 3-Day Sale: Last Day to Save on Microsoft, Samsung, Fitbit and More (Update: Expired)
Best Buy 3-Day Sale: Last Day to Save on Microsoft, Samsung, Fitbit and More (Update: Expired)
Update, April 11, 2022: This sale has ended. The earlier version of the story appears below.
Today is the final day of Best Buy's three day sale, so it's your last chance to shop markdowns on popular favorites like the Surface Laptop 4, Surface Pro 8 tablet and Fitbit fitness trackers, among others. If you're looking to upgrade your tech, now is a great time. Best Buy has deals on tablets, smart TVs, laptops, headphones and more. You can shop the entire sale below. Just be sure to get all your orders in before tonight as all of these offers officially expire Sunday, April 10 at 9:59 p.m. PT (12:59 a.m. ET).
If you're looking for the right PC to keep you productive at home or on the go, you'll find plenty of tempting offers, with up to $350 off select Windows laptops. But if you don't know where to start, don't worry. We've gone through the sale to highlight some of the best deals currently available. Whether you're upgrading your home entertainment space, grabbing a new fitness tracker or are simply browsing for the best deals, check out a few of our favorite offers below.
Microsoft
This slim, sleek laptop features a 15-inch PixelSense touchscreen built for Windows Ink so you can use split screen for multitasking and write notes directly on your computer. Stream movies, game with friends and jump on video calls with ease. It features HD video and Studio Mics to make sure your calls are clear. Plus, the speakers support Dolby Atmos audio, providing an immersive, cinematic experience.
The Surface Laptop 4 comes with a free upgrade to Windows 11, and the AMD Ryzen processor delivers more speed as well, making the Surface 4 up to 70% faster than previous models. It also has a 256GB solid-state drive and 8GB of memory, which is enough to power all your everyday computing tasks and handle basic entertainment needs. And with fast charging, the battery can charge up to 80% in about an hour.
Read our Surface Laptop 4 review.
LG
Movies, sports and more will look sharp and lifelike with this 4K Ultra HD NanoCell display. Featuring a Game Optimizer, FilmMaker Mode, TV Sound Mode Share, voice assistance and more, this TV has everything you need to upgrade your entertainment space to do it all.
screenshot/Microsoft
Get the power of a laptop with the flexibility of a tablet. The Surface Pro 8 features a kickstand, a 13-inch PixelSense Flow touchscreen, dual front-facing speakers with Dolby Atmos, dual far-field Studio Mics, dual HD cameras and more, so that you can game, stream movies and shows and video chat with no hassle. Additionally, it comes with a built-in Surface Slim Pen 2 -- so you can create like a pro no matter where you are. It also gets up to 16 hours of battery life so that you can stay connected all day.
Read our Surface Pro 8 review.
Sarah Tew/CNET
This two-in-one laptop features a 13-inch OLED touchscreen with 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and durable edge-to-edge Corning Gorilla Glass that shrugs off scratches. It also comes with a 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM, making multitasking and saving your projects a breeze. This model comes with Windows 11, powered by an Intel Core processor and Iris Xe graphics. With this laptop, you'll be able to do everyday tasks with speed and efficiency, as well as stream, create and more.
David Carnoy/CNET
Sleek and stylish, Beats are one of the most popular headphone brands on the market. And fortunately, these Studio 3 over-ear headphones offer plenty of substance along with their flashy looks. They're equipped with Apple's W1 chip, which means they pair seamlessly with Apple devices and are compatible with Siri voice assistant. They feature active noise-canceling capabilities which can be toggled off to help preserve battery, extending it to an impressive 40 hours in low-power mode. They also calibrate your audio in real time for a premium listening experience.
Read our Beats Studio3 Wireless review.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
The Sense is the most advanced Fitbit to date. It's packed with tons of great tools to help monitor your heart health, stress management, skin temperature and even features a built-in ECG function. It's also equipped with a built-in GPS for hikes, bikes and driving and it's compatible with both Alexa and Google Assistant news updates, bedtime reminders and alarms. On a full charge, it has a battery life of up to six days, and you can get enough charge for a full day in just 12 minutes.
Read our Fitbit Sense review.
Insignia
There's a good reason why air fryers are so popular recently. They're fast, convenient and much healthier than traditional frying. And with deals like this, they're affordable too. This midsize Insignia fryer is great for both quick snacks and full meals with a 5 quart basket and a digital control panel with preset food programs. It has a maximum temperature of 400 degrees (F) and the dishwasher-safe basket and pan make clean-up a breeze.
More great offers from Best Buy's three-day sale:
This story was originally published earlier and has been updated to note that the sale is almost over.
Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
Apple Watch: It's been 5 years since my original review, and it holds up
I'd love to say that when I first put on the Apple Watch, I'd never seen anything like it before. But of course, that's not true. By late 2014 I'd been surrounded by smartwatches for a few years. So when Apple announced it was making its own watch, my thought (as so often with Apple) was: finally.
The first smartwatch I reviewed at CNET was the Martian Passport, an analog watch that could make phone calls. It sounds so primitive now, but it was cool in early 2013. The Pebble Watch followed, and the Steel version became my favorite: It was like a Casio watch turned into a useful little pager-assistant. It was simple and had long battery life, and it was great.
There were others, too: Samsung's first smartwatches were ambitious (a camera?). Google's first Android Wear watches arrived in 2014. Meanwhile, there were Fitbits and Jawbone trackers galore.
I say this to lay the groundwork for the Apple Watch and what its impact was. Like the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, the Apple Watch wasn't the first smartwatch... but it made the biggest footprint. It was another step validating that a world of wearables was here to stay.
I was able to wear the Apple Watch a month before it went on sale. I spent a ton of time with it, getting used to both how it handled phone calls, and the activity tracking rings. I looked at my heart rate measurements. I accidentally ordered an Xbox One with an early Amazon app.
The Watch was, much like the first iPhone, sometimes feature-limited. But it also had some features that already stood out.
My original review was updated a year later, which you can read here. Some parts have changed, clearly, and Apple has updated the OS. But I'll comment on what I wrote then, and how I felt, and how that's evolved. Quotes from the original review are in italics.
The gold Apple Watch, way back when.
James Martin/CNET
An excellent design, with luxury overtones
Apple wants you to think of the Apple Watch as fine jewelry. Maybe that's a stretch, but in terms of craftsmanship, there isn't a more elegantly made piece of wearable tech. Look at the Apple Watch from a distance, and it might appear unremarkable in its rectangular simplicity compared with bolder, circular Android Wear watches. It's clearly a revamped sort of iPod Nano. But get closer, and you can see the seamless, excellent construction.
The first Apple Watch came in aluminum, steel and ramped all the way up to a gold model costing more than $10,000. Compared to other smartwatches, it screamed luxury.
Certain touches felt luxurious, too: the fine-feeling Digital Crown, which spun ever so smoothly like a real watch part, for instance. The OLED display, which was a first for an Apple product, looked crisp and bright.
The most amazing part, maybe, were the watch bands. Apple created a really nice series of specially designed straps, from a steel link to a clever magnetic Milanese mesh that were extremely expensive and impressively engineered.
Its watch face designs were great, too, and they integrated some information from the iPhone that aimed to add at-a-glance ease of use. There was a Mickey Mouse watch face that danced! The Solar face showing sunrise and sunset, and the astronomy face that showed planetary alignments and moon phases, felt like magic. I wanted more, but Apple's assortment of watch faces was limited, and it didn't allow for third-party watch face design. That's still the case now.
A lot of the Apple Watch reminded me of the strides Apple began with the iPod Nano, which also had watch mode... and a Mickey Mouse watch face.
Sarah Tew
New technologies at first: fantastic haptics, a force-sensitive display
All Apple Watches have a new S1 processor made by Apple, that "taptic" haptic engine and a force-sensitive and very bright OLED display, which is differently sized on the 38mm and 42mm models. The watch has its own accelerometer, gyrometer and heart-rate monitor, but no onboard GPS. It uses Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz Wi-Fi to connect to your phone or your home network. There's a built-in speaker and microphone, but no headphone jack.
As I wore the watch on the first day, I felt a rippling buzz and a metallic ping: one of my credit card payments showed up as a message. Apple's "Taptic Engine" and a built-in speaker convey both a range of advanced taps and vibrations, plus sounds. Unlike the buzz in a phone or most wearables, these haptics feel sharper: a single tap, or a ripple of them, or thumps.
Sometimes the feelings are too subtle: I don't know if I felt them or imagined them. My wrists might be numbed from too many smart devices. I set my alerts to "prominent" and got sharper nudges on my wrist.
The first watch introduced some ideas that eventually made their way to other iPhones. A "taptic engine" delivered on some amazingly refined vibration effects, ranging from a purr to a ping to a gentle tap. These were way ahead of what anybody else was doing -- and they weren't just a gimmick. The notification types associated with unique vibrations felt distinct. Sometimes, the vibrating taps on the first Watch weren't as powerful as I wanted. But with later updates, the haptics made parts of the interface seem real: virtual wheels, clicking as if moving with invisible gears.
The more advanced haptics made their way to the iPhone next, making us used to them now. Other phones, game consoles like the Nintendo Switch, and VR accessories, have evolved haptics since, but the Apple Watch was the first mainstream device that upped the haptics game.
Force Touch was another wild idea: Apple made its watch display force-sensitive, meaning a deeper press could work like pushing a button. Though this idea was refined further into 3D Touch on the iPhone 6S, 3D Touch was a technology that never became as necessary as expected, and current iPhone models have dropped the pressure-sensitive display tech completely.
The Apple Watch still has Force Touch, though, and I think it always will.
Digital Touch: I never used it much after that.
Sarah Tew
Lots of features. Too many features?
As you can see, this is a lot of stuff. Did I have fun using the watch? Yes, mostly, but there are so many features that I felt a little lost at times. There are so many ways to interact: swiping, touching, pressing harder into the display, a button and a clickable digital crown-wheel. Plus, there's Siri. Do I swipe, or click, or force touch or speak? Sometimes I didn't know where an app menu was. Or, I'd find getting back to an app I just had open would require an annoying series of crown clicks, swiping through apps, then opening the app again.
There's a reason I used the word "complicated" to describe my feelings using that first Apple Watch. Setting up bits of information, called complications, was slow and not always intuitive. Apps took a while to load, and were sometimes so slow that it was easier to check my phone instead. Quick glances and notifications, and phone calls, were fine. Apple Pay on the watch was clever, but would I use it? I wished the watch had more battery life.
I didn't like the overcomplicated feel. The design of the OS, and the card-like swappable mini-view apps that used to be on the Watch like a dock, changed over time. It's gotten better since.
Storing music on the watch, while it took a while to sync, was easier than attempts on Samsung Gear or Android Wear. Of course, I had to hunt for a good pair of Bluetooth headphones to connect with the watch.
Today I still forget to dive into and make the most of the apps on the watch. I just dusted off Walkie Talkie: it's cool. There's noise monitoring. One app lets me remote control my iPhone camera, which has been a huge help for my stay-at-home self-shot videos. The Remote app helps me when I lose the Apple TV remote every other day.
Third-party apps, and the grid of options? It turns out I don't use them much at all. I don't dig down deep into the layers of functions. I prefer what's on the surface: watch faces, and their readouts. But I've come to appreciate the watch's surprising number of options and settings. It's better than not having them at all.
The rings were the beginning.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Fitness: The ring idea was just the beginning
The Apple Watch doesn't work any fitness miracles that the rest of the wearable world hasn't already invented, and it doesn't ship with any new magical sensors that change the game. But the Apple-made integrated fitness apps, Activity and Workout, are far and away the best fitness apps on any existing smartwatch that isn't a dedicated "fitness watch" (Samsung Gear, Android Wear, Pebble and the like). A clever three-ring method of tracking daily activity, which simultaneously measures and rewards daily calorie burn, active exercise and standing up, feels like a fusion of rewards and metrics seen on the Nike FuelBand, Jawbone Up, Fitbit and others.
I appreciated Apple's complete-the-ring motivational activity tracker, which felt inspired by wearables like the Nike FuelBand (not surprising, since Apple's head of fitness, Jay Blahnik, arrived from Nike). For the red ring's daily goals, it's great. It felt too easy to complete the blue Stand ring, and it still does.
There are tons of fitness advancements Apple has made on the Watch in the last five years: GPS, resting heart rate, workout controls, social sharing, third-party app integration, swimming, modes for accessibility, activity trends -- and I haven't even discussed Apple's massive health aspirations like adding ECG, checking for falls, monitoring elevated or irregular heart rate or women's health tracking. There is some form of coaching and motivation, too. But I'd still love to see more of that. I hit a wall when trying to be fit, and there's only so much watches seem to help.
The first Apple Watch was more of a Fitbit. Now, it's more of a health companion. Those two worlds still feel like they need to dovetail and grow. There are missing features, too, like sleep tracking, which feels like the inevitable next step.
You still need an iPhone, just like in 2015.
Sarah Tew
It was, and still is, an iPhone accessory
Much like most other smartwatches, the Apple Watch isn't a standalone device -- it's a phone accessory. Android Wear, Samsung Gear, Pebble and others work the same way. But here, you must own an iPhone 5 or later to use the Watch. A few Apple Watch functions work away from the phone, but the watch primarily works alongside the phone as an extension, a second screen and basically another part of your iOS experience. It's a symbiote.
One thing I noted back then was that you needed an iPhone to use the Apple Watch. Unlike other wearables that can pair with Android or iOS, or even sync with a computer, the Apple Watch was always designed to live symbiotically with the iPhone.
That's still the case now. Even with independent cellular options, and an on-watch App Store, you can't use the Watch without pairing to an iPhone. And it still won't work with Android. It's a shame, because a fully standalone watch could be a really helpful tool for many people who don't have iPhones, and it could even be a phone alternative (for kids, maybe).
Apple's AirPods created a gadget trinity where the Watch, the iPhone and AirPods can all work seamlessly together. But that trinity is an expensive one. The entry price of the Apple Watch has dropped, at least. But it feels like an extension of the iPhone more than its own device, even now.
The Apple Watch Series 5: much better, with a few similarities.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Today: the best watch in a war of attrition
You don't need an Apple Watch. In many ways, it's a toy: an amazing little do-it-all, a clever invention, a possibly time-saving companion, a wrist-worn assistant. It's also mostly a phone accessory for now. In the months and years to come, that may change: with Apple's assortment of iPads, Macs, Apple TV and who knows what else to come, the watch could end up being a remote and accessory to many things. Maybe it'll be the key to unlock a world of smart appliances, cars and connected places. In that type of world, a smartwatch could end up feeling utterly essential.
I think back to what the Apple Watch was competing against back then: Jawbone, Pebble, Fitbit, Google's Android Wear, Samsung's watches, the Microsoft Band. A lot of competitors are gone now. Fitbit was acquired by Google. Samsung still has watches. Garmin makes lots of dedicated fitness watches. There are still plenty of more affordable relative newcomers, too.
The original Apple Watch, with the Pebble Steel, Moto 360 and the original iPod Nano with wristband (clockwise from top left).
Sarah Tew
In a field of fewer alternatives, the Apple Watch's consistent addition of new features and ongoing performance improvements has made it the best option. It's Apple's commitment to gradual improvements that has made it a stand-out watch now, especially compared to the struggles of Google's Wear OS.
The Apple Watch is still an iPhone accessory. And it's still not an essential product. But it's become a really fluid and useful device, one with lots of key upgrades that work, and one that's a lot easier to use.
What's the best smartwatch now? The Apple Watch. That doesn't mean I don't want to see improvements: battery life, sleep tracking, a watch face store and most importantly, Android support and true standalone function. If the last five years are any indication, Apple will tackle these problems on its own... time.
