Here’s What To Consider Before Buying Your Next Smartwatch

Smartwatches and activity trackers are more popular than ever these days—consumers globally are expected to spent 73 billion U.S. dollars on wearable devices by 2022, and around 22 percent of Canadian households already own fitness trackers, according to Statista.

And increasingly, it makes more sense to invest in a single wearable gadget that can (almost) do it all, rather than multiple devices designed for one or two niche measurements. But shopping for the right multi-use smartwatch will require some consideration and market research.

Start by thinking about your individual needs. “It really depends on what question you’re trying to answer about yourself, the accuracy to which you need that question answered, and your budget”, says Dr. Dave Clarke, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University whose research involves wearable technologies.

Other important factors to consider include ease of use, comfort, and whether you’re looking for just data or also visualization and comprehensive insights, Clarke notes. “People will buy a device [and have these] metrics…then it’s a case of actually explaining what the numbers mean, or they’ll overinterpret what the numbers are giving them—that’s a major concern about all of this,” says Clarke. “As we get more and more data, interpreting those data properly can be very challenging.”

And not every smartwatch offers the same list of features. Devices with heart-rate monitoring have been around for a while, but oxygen saturation and skin-temperature measurements are newer features to the market, says Dr. Clarke. “Oxygen saturation is probably one of the newer variables that are becoming more and more prevalent,” says Dr. Clarke. “This measures how much oxygen you have in your blood, and usually you want that [measurement] to be very high—certain disease states can cause it to be lowered.”

It might take time, and some trial and error, to find the right wearable for your needs. “If you’re really serious about wanting to buy something that measures some aspect of your health, then you need to do a lot of research,” says Clarke. “You’ve got to experiment with it, and then be willing to abandon it and buy something else if [it’s not working].” There are a lot of helpful buyer’s guides, and even academic research, available online that you can reference, he adds.

Ahead, six stylish smartwatches that offer a full suite of fitness- and health-tracking features.