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Apple Watch 7 makes me think bigger upgrades could be coming next year

Apple Watch 7 makes me think bigger upgrades could be coming next year

The Apple Watch Series 7 has some new features, a bigger screen and upped durability. It charges a bit faster, apps load quickly and is fitted with WatchOS 8. But as I flick through it and its watch faces, I have to ask myself: Has anything really changed? 

Of course things have changed, a bit. But the newest Apple Watch feels like a careful polish on the same ideas the Series 6 had. Or, the Series 5 before it. There isn't one big new thing that stands out. Now that the Apple Watch feels like it's cleared the experimental zone of wearable tech and become a mainstream product like the iPhone and iPad, maybe this is the watch's destiny. I still see some clear areas where the Apple Watch should evolve, and the larger-screened, quicker-charging Watch 7 makes it more obvious than ever. Maybe the rumored Apple Watch Series 8 will bring some larger upgrades. 

Read more: How the Apple Watch 7 compares to the Apple Watch 6  and why you might want the Apple Watch SE instead.

Better battery life

There are clear limits on batteries and small devices. Some fitness trackers last up to a week, but make sacrifices when it comes to performance and features. High-powered smartwatches tend to never make it past two days, max. Still, the Apple Watch has hovered at about a day and a half of battery life for years. When will better battery life finally happen? That 18-hour-plus range keeps getting bonuses in performance: an always-on display, a larger screen, faster processor. When will the scale tip and allow longer battery life, like what's been happening on recent iPhones and MacBooks?

Some people are fine with daily charging. It seriously hampers the Watch's use as a sleep tracker, though. Apple suggests a quick recharge in the morning or a top-off at night to make it through a night's sleep. But a lower-power sleep mode seems like a clear need, or some other way to get the battery through to a couple of days (or more). Turning off the always-on display or other features could help the watch extend its battery life, sure. I think about that Apple Watch battery more than ever as something that needs to evolve.

The Apple Watch has lots of watch faces. But they never feel like enough, and their customization has limits.

Scott Stein/CNET

A watch face store

Apple's watch face collection is extensive and customizable, and the watch faces look good. But it's also limited. With Apple investing so much in larger displays and high-performance processors, the lack of a watch face store is a wasted opportunity. I keep trying to find watch faces to show off the larger Watch 7 screen and use it in all sorts of new ways, and I hit limits. I want to show just how many bits of info I can layer (complications, they're called), for instance.

One of Apple's new Watch Series 7 faces, Modular Duo, shows two rows of rich information for apps that support it: a heart rate graph and a weather chart, for instance. There aren't that many apps that use larger complications like this. I'd prefer a way to show a bunch of smaller ones, but also lay it out the way I'd like. There's room on the screen now, so why not? I can't, though, not really.

I've said this a ton of times : Apple Watch is the only major smartwatch that doesn't have an open watch face store. There could be so many more interesting designs on tap, but right now Apple still hasn't made it happen.

Full watch independence

The Apple Watch is nearly a self-contained device, now: a fast wrist computer. It does a lot more than it did back in 2015. But you still need to pair it with an iPhone.

Recent Apple Watch updates allow you to pair a watch for someone else and have them wear it on their own, but you still need an iPhone for it to link to at the start. 

Opening up the Watch to Android would be great, but there's an ever simpler path: It should just work on its own without a phone. You should be able to set it up and fully operate it as its own device. And then, optionally, pair it with whatever phone you have.

The Apple Watch Series 7's display is so large, it wraps around the side a bit. But the sensors on the back are the same.

Scott Stein/CNET

More sensors, or a more complete sleep-to-wake awareness

The Apple Watch's fitness and health features keep expanding, but it still doesn't have a feature that I've started appreciating on a few other watches and rings: a daily health score.

Fitbit and Oura wearables both have a morning score that can be interpreted as a sort of barometer of wellness or stress levels. The scores can seem arbitrary, sure. They're dependent on multiple readings ranging from sleep quality to resting heart rate to even heart rate variability and daily activity the day before. And yet, over weeks and months, I came to love the idea. I find that these scores help remind me of some things I haven't been tending to (not getting enough sleep, not getting up or being active enough), but in ways that are more proactive than the end-of-day activity ring goals the Apple Watch has. 

Sometimes these scores remind me to take it easy, too. They can feel, at times, like a form of subtle alert system that can sometimes (not always) correspond with not feeling well.

The Apple Watch doesn't have onboard temperature sensors, and it still doesn't break down nightly sleep in as detailed a way as other trackers do. Sleep tracking is an imperfect science on smartwatches right now, but I still find sleep scores to be helpful reminders (and motivators).

The more I might wear an Apple Watch all the time, the more I'd expect a little more awareness of my health than the three-ring fitness metric I've started to ignore since being at home a lot.

Series 7 is the perfected Watch as we know it, but what's next?

I can see the Apple Watch as a fast, large-screen wrist successor to the iPod, and going a lot more places next. I love the bigger screen, but it also feels like an opportunity that's not being taken advantage of enough. And that makes me more frustrated than ever that I still have to take it off every day for a charge-up.

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How the Apple Watch Could Become an Even Better Fitness Tracker

How the Apple Watch Could Become an Even Better Fitness Tracker

The Apple Watch, like many modern health trackers, can measure an almost dizzying number of statistics. It added blood oxygen saturation measurements to that growing list in 2020, and reports from The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg suggest a temperature sensor could be next. But what I really want is more ways to make sense of that data... and more context to go along with it. 

Who knows whether any of these capabilities will ever arrive on the Apple Watch. Apple is doing a lot of things right, but there's room for improvement. 

More customization for daily goals

A day doesn't feel complete if I don't have at least one Activity Ring. But not every day is the same, and the Apple Watch shouldn't act like it should be: I want different move and exercise goals depending on the day of the week. On days when I'm commuting to the office and know I'll have time for a long workout, I'd like to set higher goals for my exercise minutes and burned calories. 

I also imagine setting a schedule like this could be helpful for building a regular exercise routine. While you can change your activity goals anytime on the Apple Watch, there's no way to customize goals according to specific days. – Lisa Eadicicco, Senior Editor

Apple Watch's Workout app.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

Scores for readiness and sleep

After living off and on with the Oura Ring and several Fitbit trackers for the last few years, I've gotten really used to having both sleep tracking and a holistic type of daily "readiness score" as part of my daily watch feedback. A readiness score indicates whether your body is rested enough for a heavy workout or if you should skip the gym. The score takes a variety of factors into account, such as sleep, recent activity and heart rate variability among other metrics. 

Similarly, a sleep score indicates the quality of your slumber through statistics like time spent asleep and whether you were tossing and turning, along with other elements. Both Oura and Fitbit offer their own versions of sleep and readiness scores. 

To be sure, readiness scores and sleep scores aren't necessarily perfect predictors of anything, but neither are daily activity rings. I find the calculation of activity, sleep, heart rate and other factors boiled into an overall score interesting as a correlative snapshot of how I might be feeling. 

Both Fitbit and Oura also fold temperature into the mix: Changes in body temperature, resting heart rate and breathing rate could possibly flag a change in how well I'm feeling. Again, it's not perfect, but Apple seems well overdue to add these features to the Apple Watch. – Scott Stein, Editor atLarge

The Apple Watch could improve how it tracks rest.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

More focus on recovery

I'd love to see the Apple Watch lean more into recovery and rest. If the past couple of years have taught me anything, it's the importance of listening to my body. The activity rings are a great way to motivate me to move, but some days it's just not practical to close them -- especially if you feel unwell. Let's have a flag or toggle on the watch to signal when you need a rest day. And perhaps adjust the Move circle to instead reward that recovery or mindful rest.

With all the health data the Apple Watch already gathers, like heart rate variability, sleep and overall activity, it makes sense to consolidate this all into an easy-to-understand metric. Maybe it's a score like Scott mentioned. Or it could be another ring that is automatically filled with how "ready" you are and changes daily based on your body's responses. 

With the mindfulness app in WatchOS 8 and meditation activities within Fitness Plus, Apple already has the tools to support rest and recovery. Let's see it come full circle. – Lexy Savvides, Principal VideoProducer

The Apple Watch could perhaps do more with AirPods.

Sarah Tew/CNET

AirPods health tracking with Apple Watch

There's huge potential for AirPods to pair even more closely with the Apple Watch -- beyond just music. Perhaps it's measuring heart rate or blood pressure from the ear to complement the existing heart-health features on the Apple Watch. Maybe it's even more robust with your ear acting as an additional lead for the electrocardiogram app. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities known for his Apple product predictions, sees promise here, too. He pointed to the addition of health management functions as a potential way for Apple to grow AirPods shipments in the future, according to an investors note MacRumors viewed. – LexySavvides

The Apple Watch could also try out weekly goals as seen on Amazon's Halo app.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

Weekly fitness goals

The Apple Watch's Activity Rings are an excellent reminder to get up and move every day. Unfortunately, I haven't found an equivalent that's as motivating for quantifying progress on a weekly basis.

Amazon's Halo app and fitness tracker made me realize the value of setting activity goals by the week instead of by the day. Instead of a daily goal, Amazon sets a weekly objective of 150 points that you earn by being active. (Points are subtracted if you're sedentary for too long, too.) Measuring weekly activity gives me a better snapshot of how active I generally am throughout the whole week. I could have an extremely busy day and exceed my Apple Watch's move goal, but that might be a fluke. A weekly target may make it easier to establish consistency. 

Plus, measuring weekly activity makes every bit of movement feel like it counts. A brisk walk to the subway won't be enough to close my Apple Watch's daily Activity Rings, so it almost feels pointless. But it's comforting to know it's contributing toward my weekly Halo activity goal. I'm not saying Apple should replace daily goals with weekly ones, but it would be nice to at least have the option. 

There are other ways to track weekly and monthly progress on the Apple Watch, but none of them have felt as rewarding as closing an Activity Ring. For example, you can view your weekly and monthly activity in Apple's Fitness app. There's also a section in the app that shows how your last 90 days of activity are trending compared to the previous 365 days. Apple also rewards you with special app badges for meeting certain milestones, like working out all seven days in the same week or reaching your move goal 500 times. – Lisa Eadicicco

The Amazon Halo View.

Lisa Eadicicco/CNET

Apple never discusses product plans before publicly announcing them, so there's no telling whether any of these wish list features will become a reality. We're expecting to learn about the Apple Watch's next major software update at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the company typically announces new Apple Watch models in the fall. If Apple's history is any indication, we can expect health and wellness to be a large part of both announcements. 

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Garmin Lily review: One of the best smartwatches designed for women

Garmin Lily review: One of the best smartwatches designed for women

The Lily's circular design and slim bezel comes closer to the look of a traditional women's wristwatch than any other smartwatch I've tested. That's because the $200 Garmin Lily is one of the first smartwatches designed specifically for women. Despite its smaller footprint, the Lily doesn't miss out on key health features you'd expect from a watch released in 2021. It offers SpO2 (or blood oxygen) readings, sleep tracking, workout tracking and 24/7 heart-rate monitoring with high and low heart-rate alerts. 

If you want the fitness chops of a Garmin watch without the bulk, then the Lily is your jam. But if you want the Lily to act as a true second screen for your phone, this is not your watch. It doesn't have built-in GPS and it falls short on smart features offered by many other watches in the same price range. It's missing a voice assistant, contactless payments, music storage and the ability to run third-party apps.

A round watch face with a distinct style

The Lily is a petite 34mm circular watch with a simple touch screen and no physical buttons. It looks completely different from any other smartwatch that Garmin (or any company, really) has made before. It's also a far cry from some of Garmin's other sports watches, which have thick bezels and multiple buttons. There are two versions of the Lily: a $200 Sport edition with a silicone band and aluminum bezel, and a $250 Classic edition with a leather band and stainless steel bezel. I've been wearing the Sport edition for over a week and it's been comfortable to wear all day and all night. I sometimes forget it's on my wrist because it's so light at 24 grams (0.8 ounces).

Lexy Savvides/CNET

I've been wearing smartwatches for so long now that I've almost forgotten how clunky they can look on me. Even though I'm just shy of 6 feet tall, I have fairly small wrists and even "small" smartwatches like the 40mm Apple Watch ($349 at eBay) or 40mm Galaxy Watch Active 2 ($200 at Amazon) seem to overpower them. The Lily is the first smartwatch I've tried that almost looks too small for me, so it would be perfect for even daintier wrists than mine. That said, I've never had an issue with reading text or interacting with the watch and I've mostly gotten used to the small size.

Rather than a color OLED display like some of the smartwatches mentioned above, the Lily has a monochrome LCD touchscreen that disappears into the background when on standby. There's also a cool pattern that's etched in the background of the watch that gives it a unique look when the screen is on or off.

There's also a haptic button in the lower part of the screen you can use to bring up the main menu to access workouts and settings. 

The screen quality is not as disappointing as I expected after reading the specs on paper, even if it's not as sharp as some of its competitors. Text is legible, the icons are easy to recognize and the haptic button works as promised to bring up the main watch menu. The sacrifices in screen quality meant that I didn't have to charge this watch every day like some of its competitors, which felt like a fair trade in my book. I managed to get around 3.5 to 4 days out of the Lily before needing to charge. Unlike other recent Garmin watches that use the same charging cable, the Lily uses an alligator-style clip charger that clamps over part of the screen. It's a bit awkward to use. You'll be able to change out the band with a special tool that comes when you buy a replacement from Garmin.com.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

The Lily's biggest downside

Garmin's focus on size and simplicity also meant the Lily doesn't have onboard GPS, which is something I look for in a smartwatch, particularly one that's main focus is fitness. Instead, it relies on connected GPS from your phone in order to track your distance and route information. This means you have to take your phone with you on an outdoor bike ride, run or walk. 

It was especially disappointing after just having reviewed the Garmin Venu Sq ($200 at Crutchfield), which does have built-in GPS and costs the same as the Lily. If you're looking to track your steps, yoga, Pilates or stationary weights sessions, for example, the Lily is ideal. But runners or cyclists will probably want a watch that can track routes without a phone. 

SpO2 and sleep tracking, but no new health features

There are no big surprises with the health tracking features on Lily, especially if you're familiar with any other Garmin watch. It tracks your sleep and gives you a breakdown of the different stages of sleep (REM, light or deep sleep) through the Garmin Connect app when you wake up. There's also a pulse oximeter that can give you a spot reading of your blood oxygen on demand and also takes background readings while you sleep. The app then uses all this data to come up with a body battery score for the day which gives you a sense of how rested you are and help you determine what kind of exercise (if any) you should focus on for the day.

Sleep tracking on the Garmin Lily.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

The Lily also has health tracking features specifically for women, like pregnancy tracking and cycle tracking, but they're not exclusive to the Lily. Garmin's most recent smartwatches like the Garmin Venu Sq have them as well. 

All your health and fitness stats are consolidated in the Garmin Connect app which makes it easy to interpret your data. You can read my full review of the Venu Sq for a deeper dive into all the health tracking features that are shared with this watch. 

Note that the Lily doesn't have fall detection like the Apple Watch SE ($280 at eBay) or Series 6, or the Galaxy Watch 3 ($399 at Amazon). But Lily does support Garmin's LiveTrack, which lets you send your location during a workout to specific contacts in case of an emergency. 

Lexy Savvides/CNET

Smart features are pretty bare bones

This watch feels more like a sophisticated fitness tracker than a fully fledged smartwatch. You can do the basics on the Lily, like seeing notifications from your phone on the screen, but there's no voice assistant, third-party app support, or third-party watch faces to download. There's also no onboard music storage (although you do get music playback control) and it also lacks a speaker and microphone to dictate text responses, or taking a quick call from your wrist.

The watch is compatible with both iOS and Android phones, but only Android users can respond to text messages using quick replies. The vibration motor is a little noisy when you get a notification, or when you want to start and stop an activity, but it's strong and I never failed to notice it buzz on my wrist. I also found I needed to turn gesture sensitivity to its highest setting so raising it to wake the screen would work reliably.

There's also a calendar, alarms and the ability to ping your phone from the watch if it's in Bluetooth range.

A pretty watch that's more fitness tracker than smartwatch 

If you've been put off by chunky sports watches before, the Garmin Lily is a capable fitness watch alternative that offers style and substance. It's ideal if you've never owned a smartwatch before, or you're looking for an upgrade from a basic fitness tracker.  

But looks (and maybe battery life) are pretty much the only things setting this smartwatch apart as there's no shortage of competition in the $200 to $300 range from other unisex options (including Garmin's own Venu Sq) which offer more smart features and built-in GPS.

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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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Garmin Venu Sq review: A solid fitness tracker without the frills

Garmin Venu Sq review: A solid fitness tracker without the frills

The $200 (£179, AU$300) Garmin Venu Sq has almost every fitness- and health-tracking feature you could want in a smartwatch for less than competitors like the Apple Watch ($349 at eBay) and Fitbit Versa 3 ($170 at Target). It has a bright LCD touchscreen, built-in GPS, SpO2 (blood oxygen) tracking and up to six days of battery life, which makes it a compelling buy, especially if you want a watch that's compatible with both Android and iOS. 

It's not the most premium-looking smartwatch out there and it misses out on features like a voice assistant and altimeter, but it makes up for it in health and fitness features that elevate it from the rest. 

A functional watch without the wow factor

Like the name suggests, the Venu Sq has a square watch face with rounded edges, unlike the original Garmin Venu and almost every other Garmin sports watch with circular designs. Its 1.3-inch color LCD display feels a bit cramped compared to other Garmin watches, but it's clear and easy to read even in bright sunlight and you can keep the screen set to always-on. Having used the larger Garmin Venu for a while, the smaller size of the Venu Sq took a bit of getting used to, especially during workouts when I couldn't see as many stats at a glance and had to scroll to find the right metric like heart rate, which was all the way on the last page.

The overall build quality is sturdy enough thanks to an aluminum bezel, although the plastic case and buttons make it feel like a cheaper watch than it actually is, especially compared to something like the Apple Watch SE ($280 at eBay), Galaxy Watch Active 2 ($200 at Amazon) or Fitbit Versa 3 for example, which all have metal finishes and OLED displays. The Venu Sq has two side buttons: one to start/stop activities and the other to navigate back and forth between menus. Once I figured out which did what, it took me a few days to get completely comfortable using them to navigate the interface. 

My biggest complaint with the Venu Sq's design is the vibration motor, which is not particularly strong. Half the time it was the buzzing noise, not the vibration itself, that clued me in on a notification. 

Blood oxygen monitor and heart health alerts 

Garmin's biggest strength is in health and fitness tracking, with the Venu Sq squarely hitting the mark. It has an SpO2 sensor to identify blood oxygen levels, either as a spot check or automatically throughout the day and night, similar to the $399 Apple Watch Series 6. Although setting it to monitor constantly will reduce battery life a lot faster. It's also hard to find the SpO2 option in the menus and I found that adding it as a widget in the settings is the best way to get it to pop up on your wrist. 

Unfortunately I didn't have a pulse oximeter to compare the readings from the Venu Sq to determine accuracy. Either way, it's important to note that the Venu Sq has not been approved to be used as a medical device and should not be used for diagnostic purposes. Always consult with a physician or other qualified health provider about any health-related issues you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Though the Venu Sq doesn't have an ECG, or electrocardiogram, like the Apple Watch Series 6 and Galaxy Watch 3 ($399 at Amazon), it does give you the option to receive high and low heart rate notifications that will let you know if your heart rate spikes above or falls below what it considers to be a healthy threshold. 

The Venu Sq also uses heart rate variability to determine your stress levels, but doesn't really offer much guidance on how to decrease your stress. I found Garmin's Body Battery meter, which takes into account heart rate variability readings, activity levels and sleep, a more accurate representation of how my body was working that day and helped me decide what kind of workout to do and how hard to push myself. It works better than the Stress Management Score in the Fitbit Sense ($240 at Target) that is a bit more difficult to interpret for me.

Garmin also offers breathing rate and estimated VO2 max, the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise, which can be used to gauge and improve athletic performance. The higher the number, the more fit you are. 

Screenshot by Lexy Savvides/CNET

Sleep tracking is also great on the Venu Sq and clearly identifies your sleep stages of REM, deep and light sleep. You'll also be able to see breathing rate and SpO2 levels in the morning. The downside is that the Garmin Connect app doesn't give you any tips on improving your sleep quality. Menstrual cycle tracking is also available on the Venu Sq and like other Garmin watches, it offers pregnancy tracking to log symptoms and monitor baby movement.

The Venu Sq has a range of workouts preloaded onto the watch, including cardio, strength, Pilates and yoga, so you can follow along with a preset routine on your wrist. There aren't any visual cues on the screen though, just text cues, so if you're doing yoga for example, you'll need to know what "standing forward bend pose" or "low lunge pose" means to get the most out of the routine. You can also build your own workout, such as a circuit of weights, a Pilates routine or a run, within the Garmin Connect app and sync them to the watch. There are also over 50 additional Garmin-created workouts you can load.

On top of these preloaded routines, the Venu Sq can track more than 20 different workout types, from the usual running and walking variants to golf and pool swimming. There's also a personal running coach you can use to help you train for a race or to hit a set goal. It doesn't give you personalized feedback on your form or audio cues like the Galaxy Watches ($295 at Amazon), for example, instead it's more a guide for when you should warm up or how long you should run for, displayed on your wrist.

The Venu Sq has built-in GPS, meaning you don't have to rely on your phone for distance tracking when you're outside. Just be warned that it does take at least 30 seconds to lock on to a GPS signal when you are outside (regardless of whether you have your phone with you or not), which seems like an eternity if you're an impatient runner like me who just wants to get on with it. Once it finally locked though, it tracked my route accurately.

The downside is that there is no gyroscope or altimeter on the Venu Sq, so if you need accurate elevation data you'll likely want to look elsewhere. The Garmin Connect app does a good job of clearly showing you all the details after your workout, but it doesn't dive any deeper into metrics than what similarly priced rivals like the Apple Watch SE or Fitbit Versa 3 offer.

Like other Garmin watches, the Venu Sq has Garmin Live Track which lets you share your location with a safety contact when you are doing an outdoor workout. It does however require a cellular connection, so you will need your phone with you to use this feature. 

You can customize the options on this screen to show only your favorite workout types to track.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

Just enough smarts for most people

While the Venu Sq is geared towards fitness and health tracking, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll miss out on smartwatch features. Like almost every other watch, the Venu Sq displays notifications from your phone and pings your phone to locate it if you lose it within Bluetooth range. You'll be able to see call notifications come through regardless of which phone you have the watch paired with, but only Android users will be able to decline calls and respond to text messages from the watch with prewritten responses. There is no speaker or mic onboard so you can't use voice-to-text responses.

The Venu Sq runs Garmin's own operating system (Garmin OS) which is not as seamless as that of Apple or Samsung's smartwatches, but I found it to be stable and more responsive than the Fitbit OS. It's faster to sync updates and doesn't experience any lag in selecting menu options or opening apps.

The biggest pain point for me when using the Venu Sq paired with an iPhone ($500 at Best Buy) has been notifications. The Garmin Connect app on iOS doesn't let you filter out what notifications come through on your wrist and simply mirrors whatever notifications you have set up on your phone. It might not be a deal breaker for many, but I like to push only the most important notifications such as calls and text messages to my wrist, rather than everything that my phone shows. Android users get more control over which notifications come through.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

If you want onboard music storage, you'll need to opt for the music edition of the Venu Sq that costs $50 more, which is the version I tested in this review. The Venu Sq Music lets you store music for offline listening from apps like Spotify (with a Premium subscription) or songs you already own. It's also the watch to get for faster data transfers as it has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, whereas the regular Venu Sq only uses Bluetooth.

Garmin has plenty of watch faces to choose from, including third-party options to help personalize the look, plus a fairly wide selection of apps through the Connect IQ Store (a separate app you need to download on your phone). You can also make contactless payments with Garmin Pay on all versions of the watch. The main Garmin Connect app is where you see all your stats and change settings on the watch, while the Connect IQ Store is for adding apps and watch faces.

The Venu Sq, however, lacks a voice assistant, a feature that by now has become standard for most of its similarly priced competitors. This might not be a deal-breaker for you, but it means you miss out hands-free voice control, which I like.

A week's worth of battery life 

The Venu Sq has great battery life and you can get up to six days worth of use before you'll need to charge it up, though that number may start to whittle down if you're using it for a lot of GPS workouts, listening to music or continuously tracking your blood oxygen levels. Garmin quotes up to eight hours of battery when playing back music, 14 hours if you are using it in GPS mode, or up to six hours with GPS and music playback. 

A great fitness watch without extra bells and whistles

If you're willing to sacrifice a few smart features for better health and fitness tracking, the Garmin Venu Sq is a solid choice that works with Android or iOS. That said, I do wish that Garmin wouldn't charge the extra $50 for the music version, as it does alter the value proposition quite a bit, particularly if you are an iPhone user who might also be considering the Apple Watch SE which, at that point doesn't cost you that much more. 

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Galaxy Watch 3 review: A stunning smartwatch with SpO2 tracking and ECG

Galaxy Watch 3 review: A stunning smartwatch with SpO2 tracking and ECG

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 3 has a lot working in its favor. It's one of the best-looking smartwatches out there, with a physical rotating bezel and bright, circular AMOLED display. It also brings new health and fitness tools such as a running coach, better sleep tracking than earlier models, blood oxygen monitoring and an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG). But at $399 (or higher) it's on the pricier end of the smartwatch spectrum, and battery life on the smaller version is disappointing. 

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Watch 4: Samsung aims for the ultimate Android watch

Looks go a long way with this watch 

I was already a fan of the original Galaxy Watch with its round face and physical rotating bezel, and the Watch 3 looks even nicer. It has a bright, beautiful AMOLED screen that's easy to read even in broad daylight. It's also useful if you're on a run and need to quickly check your stats during a workout. The screen can always be on if you need it, although it'll cost you in the battery department (more on that later). I like navigating the interface with the rotating bezel instead of smudging the screen with my fingers. 

Gazing at the Watch 3 on my wrist, I think it could almost pass for a traditional analog watch thanks to its classic design. The smaller bezels mean the screen is bigger than the original's even though the body of the watch has gotten smaller. It still bulges out from under the stainless-steel frame, however, making it thicker than I'd like and not as comfortable to wear at night as the Galaxy Watch Active. 

I tried out the bronze 41mm version (the watch also comes in a 45mm size), with the tan-pink leather straps -- a welcome step up from the silicone straps on the original Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Watch Active series. The bronze is a lot less flashy than the gold of the original Galaxy Watch, and it looks softer and more flattering on my wrist. If you're planning on using it for working out or swimming (or, in my case, bathing small children), you may want to invest in a sports strap as well. I can see the leather getting worn after a while due to frequent contact with water.

A staggered rollout of its health features

Aside from its looks, what really made the Galaxy Watch 3 stand out for me was its impressive list of new health features. It has ECG, an SpO2 app that measures oxygen saturation in the blood, a blood-pressure monitor, fall detection, advanced sleep tracking, period tracking and a detailed post-run analysis. But I have to admit I was a little skeptical as to whether Samsung could deliver on all of these promises. The Galaxy Watch Active 2, for example, also launched with an "ECG feature" which is still pending over a year later. The blood-pressure feature from the original Active was unreliable at best when we tested it and calibrated it against a blood-pressure cuff. 

Samsung has since received FDA clearance for its ECG feature  which can also screen for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib), and rolled out the feature to both the Watch 3 and the Active 2. But blood pressure that's still pending FDA clearance in the US. (Blood pressure is only available in South Korea at the time of writing.) 

Tracking blood oxygen levels on the Galaxy Watch 3 

Samsung has had SpO2 tracking on past Galaxy devices like the S10, but I was excited to test it out on the watch to see how it had improved. Apple's new Apple Watch Series 6 also tracks blood oxygen levels on demand,  while other smartwatches from Fitbit and Garmin use blood oxygen levels for sleep analysis or to determine VO2 max during exercise.

Tracking blood oxygen has become especially important during the coronavirus pandemic. People with COVID-19 can experience shortness of breath and serious dips in blood oxygen. 

Doctors and hospitals use pulse oximeters placed on the tip of the index finger to measure blood oxygen levels, but these have become a hot commodity during the pandemic as many patients experiencing shortness of breath have turned to these small sensors to determine whether or not to head to the emergency room. 

To test accuracy of the SpO2 app on the Galaxy Watch 3, I took a side-by-side reading using a medical-grade pulse oximeter and both gave results within a few points of each other (98 and 99). It also took a few minutes more to get a read on the Watch 3 and you have to position it correctly on your wrist for it to work. 

Because my oxygen levels were within the healthy range, it's hard to know whether the Watch would be as accurate as the pulse oximeter in the lower ranges as well. It's also important to note that any watch or consumer tech device should only be used as a starting point, never in place of a physician and medical care. 

Like its predecessor, the Watch 3 can monitor stress levels using your heart-rate data. The test takes a few seconds and requires you to keep your arm still. Once it has the information it needs, it'll grade levels on the stress spectrum and give you the option to go through a minute of breathing exercises to help get your rating down.

I took my stress test while on deadline writing this review and it detected very low levels, so I'm a bit skeptical about its accuracy. 

It's also added menstrual cycle or period tracking: You enter the data in your watch and it syncs with the Samsung Health app, which can give you information about your next period and predicted fertility window. The feature isn't native to Samsung and is powered by the Glow app, which was already a relatively established name in the menstrual health tracking category and one I'd used before. 

The other big health feature exclusive to the Galaxy Watch 3 is the trip-detection feature, which I hope I'll never need. If the watch detects that you're not moving after a hard fall, it immediately calls your emergency contact and shares your location. It's not on by default, so you'll have to set it up from the advanced settings option on the Watch 3 and designate an emergency contact. I tried activating it by falling on my bed a few times but I was unsuccessful. The Apple Watch (Series 4 and later) has a similar feature called fall detection that's actually saved lives.

CNET screenshot/Samsung

New ways to work out with the Galaxy Watch 3 

Despite its dressed-up exterior, the Galaxy Watch 3 doubles as a fitness tracker. It tracks 40 different workouts, including swimming (both indoors and outdoors) and will automatically detect and track seven of those workouts. Within about 10 minutes of my starting my walk, I received a notification to start a workout and it gave me credit for the 10 minutes prior. 

A heart-shaped dashboard shows you a breakdown of your active minutes, calories burned and stand time during the day compared with your target. 

I took it on my usual 3-mile run alongside the San Francisco Bay without my phone, and I found it to be fairly accurate at displaying my distance, pace and heart rate. 

You'll have to tweak the settings to display the information you want at a glance during your run, because the default doesn't include heart rate, which I personally like to have on hand. But I liked that it showed me a map of my run and a breakdown of my heart rate zones at the end of the run. It told me I had sustained my maximum heart rate for 2 minutes during the uphill portion of my run. You can also access this data after the fact on the Samsung Health app.

It also has a few bonus features for runners. The first is a running coach, the same one that debuted on the Active 2, which provides real-time feedback about pace and form during a run. Instead of starting a normal run, I selected the running coach on the watch and plugged in my earbuds. A robotic female voice told me to start my warmup. The voice gave me pace alerts throughout the run and generic tips about lengthening my stride and landing on the front of my feet instead of the heel. Be warned that using the running coach will drain the battery a lot faster than if you are tracking a regular run.

What's new to the Galaxy Watch 3 is a post-run analysis, with details including flight and contact time, asymmetry and stiffness to help identify areas of improvement. It's not as comprehensive as the data you'd get on a dedicated running watch such as the Garmin Forerunner, but it could help if you're training for a race or just looking to get more out of your usual route. 

Apparently my "stiffness" needed improvement. Good to know, but it'd be nice to get this feedback live from the running coach so I could have adjusted during my run. It can also calculate your VO2 max, or maximum oxygen consumption during exercise, to give a sense of your overall fitness and tells you what your percentage is within your age group. This is the same metric you'd get if you were doing a VO2 max test in a lab on a stationary bike or treadmill, wearing a mask that measures oxygen exchange. I'm yet to compare them to determine whether or not the reading I got on the Galaxy Watch 3 was accurate. 

Mitchell Chang/CNET

Another first on the Galaxy Watch 3 is a feature that lets you sync it with home workout videos you can control from your wrist. I wasn't really a home workout videos kind of person before March, but I think the global pandemic has made us all rethink how we exercise and I've since been doing a lot of Pilates and yoga classes on my TV. Having the workout on my wrist was a big step up from my usual routine. 

I selected an abs program on the Health app, which consisted of three 15-minute workouts during the week, and was able to cast the first of the series on my Samsung TV and and follow along with my watch. The watch vibrated to let me know when it was time to move on to the next exercise and let me pause with a press of the button when I had to readjust my position. Plus it gave me the appropriate calorie credit at the end of it (or at least what I think is appropriate based on similar previous workouts). 

This is not the first watch to offer training prompts from your wrist: Fitbit's Premium account gives workout videos that sync with the Versa, and there are third-party workout apps for the Apple Watch. But it's nice that Samsung offers it natively and for free. My one complaint is that the workout I chose had the same robotic woman's voice as the running coach guiding me through the workouts -- and let's just say she's not exactly motivating when you're trying to hold a plank for 60 seconds. 

Sleep tracking finally makes sense on the Galaxy Watch 3

One of my biggest complaints about the sleep tracking feature on the original Galaxy Watch was that it provided little context about your sleep habits, especially for if you don't know much about sleep to begin with. 

The Watch 3 has learned a lot from the mistakes of its predecessors, and now gives a more comprehensive look at your night. It gives you a full breakdown of the stages of sleep (light, REM, deep), and compares yours with a normal range. It also gives you a score based on these factors. 

I've never found the score to be helpful, but having the context of seeing my data compared with a normal range helped me figure out how to get the most out of my sleep. While my total sleep time was good, I found I wasn't spending much time in "deep" sleep compared with what's typical. I tried going to bed an hour earlier, and though my total sleep time didn't change, I was able to extend my deep sleep time and felt more rested in the morning. 

Samsung

The basic smartwatch features, but no MST for Samsung Pay

I tested the Galaxy Watch 3 with an iPhone 11 Pro and a Galaxy S20 Ultra and, while it worked well on both, some of its features, which include text responses and mobile payments, are only available for Android users. The Watch runs on Samsung's own Tizen operating system, which is easy to navigate and offers a lot more customization than some of its competitors. You can set widgets and rearrange apps right from the watch screen.

You can type, scribble, dictate or doodle a response and take calls from your wrist. It doesn't have a huge selection of third-party apps (Spotify and Strava are among the few), but it does receive notifications from most of them including Facebook, WhatsApp and even CNET news alerts.

With Spotify you get full music control, offline listening for Premium subscribers and streaming over LTE (you'll pay about $50 more for the cellular version of the Galaxy Watch 3). 

The Galaxy Watch 3 has Samsung Pay, but sadly it's NFC-only and the feature will only work at NFC-enabled terminals. The Galaxy phones and Gear S3 have MST technology so you can use them for contactless payment at nearly all credit card terminals with a magnetic strip. 

Battery life is disappointing

Samsung says the battery on the Galaxy Watch 3 will last for up to two days, which it can, but there are a few caveats. For starters, this claim only applies to the larger 45mm version of the watch. I tested the smaller, 41mm version and Samsung says this size will last closer to a day and a half with "normal use." As always, mileage may vary depending on how you intend to use it. 

With the always on display set to auto brightness, tracking a full night of sleep and taking it on a 30-minute jog (without my phone) I only just made it to the 24-hour mark. 

The watch offers some battery-saving tips including turning off the always-on feature, limiting the screen timeout and turning off location data. I made those changes and the watch lasted a day and a half when I didn't have time for a run and had the always-on screen off, but I feel like those features should be factored into Samsung's claim.

I was also disappointed to find that the watch doesn't come with its own USB wall adapter, just a cable with the magnetic charging puck, but the upside is that you can charge it on any Qi compatible wireless charger, or get a quick boost on the go using the Power Share feature on Samsung's Galaxy phones (S10 or later). 

A good-looking smartwatch with great potential

The Galaxy Watch 3 has come a long way in terms of its features and user experience. Starting at $400 for the base 41mm model, you're getting a premium-looking smartwatch that can finally keep up as a fitness tracker. But the Watch 3 won't feel fully finished until it can deliver on all of its health features.

If you're not too attached to the design, or the physical bezel, you might also consider the Galaxy Watch Active 2, which shares a lot of the same features for about $200 less.

First published Aug. 10.

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