Criss Lyn's blog : Top Verified Smartwatches of 2022

GARMIN VENU SQUARE
FEATURES GARMIN VENU SQUARE
Fitness trekking and HR
20 preloaded sports profiles
Golf Tracking
Stress monitoring
body battery
SpO2
Breath
Notifications
Six days of battery life
Price at time of review: $199.99 – £179.99
Buy it if... The Garmin Venu Sq gives you Garmin sports tracking for less. It's a simple watch with few bells and whistles, but Garmin Connect comes alive with health and fitness information.

A budget version of the Garmin Venu smartwatch with a full AMOLED display, but cut down and with a significant price reduction.

The Venu Sq is pretty stripped down and just offers access to a number of Garmin sport profiles.

You get exercise, running and biking on board with GPS, as you'd expect, plus yoga and even golf within yards.

Fitness tracking is pretty up to date as well, and your day view also comes with data, including stress monitoring and Body Battery, which measures your energy levels and estimates when you need to take a break.

However, this is a very simple experience. There are several widgets on the watch itself that you can explore. A swipe down opens the My Day view, and the home button takes you to sports profiles. That's all.

But it streams a lot of data to the Garmin Connect app - and if you're a keen athlete looking for accurate sports tracking and Spotify compatibility on your wrist, then don't let the Venu Sq go unnoticed.

AMAZFIT NEO

KEY FEATURES OF AMAZFIT NEO
Only works with Android phones
1.2" STN display
Activity and sleep tracking
Heart rate monitor
Sports Tracking Modes
Phone Notification Alerts
28 days battery life
Price at time of review: $39.99 / £34.99
Buy it if... There's so much to this retro amazfit that it can still be a useful fitness tracker. And at this price, it would make a great gift or a fun toy.

The simplest smartwatch on this list, the Amazfit Neo, doesn't even remotely compete with the Apple Watch, but that doesn't stop it from being a delightful option.

Styled like a Casio digital watch from the 90s, the Amazfit Neo still offers a heart rate monitor, smart activity tracking and sleep tracking, all for less than $50/£50.

Connected to your smartphone, it will deliver messages and app notifications, but will just tell you when you have something to read.

However, the retro design, decent features and fantastic price come together in something really nice. It would make a great gift or present and there are plenty of things to love.

TICWATCH PRO 3 ULTRA GPS

MAIN FUNCTIONS OF TICWATCH PRO 3 ULTRA GPS
Case size 47 mm
Runs on Wear OS 2.0. Will be updated to Wear 3.0 in 2022.
Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform.
1.4" AMOLED and dual FSTN display
Support for GPS, Beidou, Glonass, Galileo and QZSS satellite systems
20+ workout modes
Atrial fibrillation detection
Assessment of mental and physical fatigue
Google Pay
MIL-STD-810G certified durability
Up to 72 hours of battery life
Waterproof IP68
Price at time of review: £299.99 / £289.99
Buy if: A rugged Wear OS smartwatch guaranteed to get a big new update in 2022.

A modest 2022 update for the TicWatch Pro 3, the Ultra GPS version is also set to work with the new Wear 3.0 when it releases in 2022.

The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS uses a dual display: a large 1.4-inch 454x454 AMOLED display overlaid on a basic low-power FSTN monochrome screen that displays the time when you're not using the watch.

This doubles the battery life of Wear OS competitors, and it will last 72 hours on a single charge.

As for health sensors, there are several of them on board. SpO2 means you can pinpoint your blood oxygen, and there's an app to alert you to noisy conditions - and this version includes atrial fibrillation detection driven by a PPG sensor, not the specific ECG we've seen on the likes of the Apple Watch.

There are over 20 sports tracking modes, but we found issues with accuracy in the heart rate monitor. However, if you want to store accurate biometric sports tracking data, this smartwatch might not be right for you.

It's pricey for what you get, but the TicWatch Pro 3 offers a great experience - and by getting Wear 3.0 next year, you know your purchase is future-proof.

WITHINGS SCANWATCH

FEATURES OF WITHINGS SCANWATCH:
30 days battery life
ECG
24 hours a day 7 days a week
Sleep tracking
Automatic atrial fibrillation warning
SpO2 Blood Oxygen Tracking
Nocturnal breathing problems
Workouts/Connected GPS
Price at time of review: $329.99 / £279.99
Buy if: You want a powerful health watch, not a computer on your wrist.

We didn't recommend the Withings ScanWatch given its lack of availability in the US, but now this powerful hybrid health watch has gone global.

Beneath the analog dial is a powerful health smartwatch dominated by an ECG and heart rate monitor.

Withings has been involved in health wearables for a long time and their app is excellent. The quality of the data is top notch, as is the accuracy of sleep tracking and analysis of metrics such as resting heart rate.

All the usual health metrics are here too, and it's a good activity monitor and step tracker, and an internal dial on the watch face will show your progress toward your goal.

It's also not exactly analogous. The watch face houses a small OLED screen that displays basic information such as real-time heart rate, steps and calories burned, and you can also get some basic notifications.

It's not designed to track workouts in terms of real-time information, and it's certainly not a Garmin competitor, but you can record workouts and get data in the stats panel. And it could be GPS training if you bring your phone with you.

And the battery life is incredible too. The ScanWatch will last 30 days on a single charge, including nighttime sleep tracking and 24/7 heart rate monitoring is aan Impressive things.