The best fitness trackers for monitoring your heart rate

The Apple Watch is a consistent game-changer. Just when other smartwatches are trying to keep up with the current gen model, boom, Apple drops the brand-new version.

The Apple Watch Series 9 is much new to look at — it’s the familiar Apple Watch design — but it’s packing a seriously fast chip, the all-new S9 processor. It’s the most powerful chip ever used in an Apple Watch. And if you’re already an Apple Watch wearer, you will also notice the much-improved display. At 2,000 nits, it’s double the brightness of the previous Apple Watch. That’s eye-catching stuff.

In terms of health and fitness tracking, the Apple Watch Series 9 is well stacked. It measures your heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep cycles, menstruation, and temperature. It will even let you know if your heartbeat is irregular. That combines with Apple’s fitness app, with lots of metrics on a range of sporting activities and workout guides. And the watch is water resistant for 50 metres, so you can also take it swimming.

What we really like is the Series 9’s new double-tap gesture feature. Just tap your thumb and forefinger together, the equivalent of tapping a touchscreen or clicking a mouse, to control all kinds of features on the watch — take calls, respond to notifications, play and pause music, scroll, and more.

The Fitbit Inspire 3 is arguably the best heart rate monitor for everyday, casual use. That's partly down to its impressive battery life of up to 10 days. Talk about low maintenance — you can slip it on your wrist and let it do its thing without worrying about constant recharging. It monitors your heart rate 24/7, with features to monitor (and increase) calories burned, optimise your workouts, and find personalised health trends that will give you an extra push towards smashing those fitness goals.

It doesn't offer the same range of advanced features as something like the Apple Watch. And you likely wouldn't expect it to for this relatively low price. But you still get plenty of value for your money.

The Inspire 3 tracker comes with a free six-month Fitbit Premium trial, which includes step-by-step fitness and nutrition programmes, personalised insights, sleep tools, and much more. It does mean ongoing costs once the six-month trial is up, but having a mini coach on your wrist will do wonders for health and fitness.

The screen is small and there’s no built-in GPS, which some users would expect as standard on fitness trackers and smartwatches. But there’s no doubt that it's a great little device. It's easy to use and the app is very intuitive, making it a solid option for newbies.

The Garmin Vívoactive 5 fitness tracker offers a hugely impressive range of both everyday and specialist features for keeping track of your every move — not to mention tracking progress and performance, and offering detailed feedback and coaching.

It records all the ways you move with more than 30 preloaded GPS and indoor activity apps, including running, swimming, cycling, weight, strength training, meditation, and much more. And if you are a swimmer, it actually continues to track your heart rate underwater. It has you covered, no matter which kind of fitness or sports activity you prefer. There are also options for wheelchair users.

And if you like to have your music on hand (well, on the wrist) without having to faff about with your phone, the Garmin Vívoactive 4 has onboard music storage. Just download playlists from Spotify, Amazon, or other platforms.

It’s not all about relentless activity, though. The Garmin Vívoactive 5 has excellent features for tracking rest and energy levels. It measures your sleep cycles and actually coaches you on getting better sleep. You also get “body battery” monitoring, which gives insights on your rest, stress levels, workouts, and reports on how ready for the day you are.

If heart rate monitoring is key for you, this tracker also measures heart rate variability while you sleep, which helps gives an overall picture of your health.

The Fitbit Charge 5 fitness tracker is one of the best models around. That goes without saying. Fitbit is still the name in fitness wearables. But what really sets the Fitbit Charge 5 apart from the range of devices offered by the likes of Garmin or Apple? The Fitbit app, that's what. 

The Fitbit app is easy to use and intuitive, meaning you can track your development, set goals, and make progress with ease. The Charge 5 also tracks your sleep time in light, deep, and REM stages and gives you a nightly Sleep Score in the Fitbit app. It also gives you a daily readiness score, which tells you your energy levels and helps you plan the day’s activities, plus ECG reports.

There is a bit of a catch. Daily readiness only comes with a Fitbit Premium subscription. This tracker comes with a free six-month subscription, which is a bonus. But — like the above model — you'll incur ongoing subscription costs once your freebie runs out.

The around the clock heart rate monitoring allows you to better track calorie burn, optimise your workouts, and uncover personalised health trends. There are no music functions, so if you’re out running you’ll need your phone for listening to tunes. There is an upgrade available — the Fitbit Charge 6, which cranks up the Google features — but the Charge 5 is the best reviewed version.

If keeping track of your heart rate while you're on the track is important, check out the Polar Pacer Pro, one of the best fitness trackers for runners. And it tracks a lot more than just heart rate, with metrics for your blood oxygen, energy levels, sleep cycles, cardio, muscle, speed, time, distance, and elevation.

It also measures running power by monitoring how much energy is needed for every part of your run. That helps you assess energy-needed and apply the necessary power to smash those goals. Another great feature for runners is a highly accurate GPS, which keeps tabs of your runs and routes with an excellent level of detail.

One quirk is the lack of touchscreen. It seems strange in this day and age that a fitness tracker of this calibre doesn't have a touchscreen. We've become so used to touchscreens as the standard. With the Polar Pacer Pro, you navigate the interface and features with physical buttons on the side of the watch. There's nothing wrong with it per say, though it might be a dealbreaker.

It's worth noting that while the Polar Pacer Pro is geared towards runners, it has more than 150 possible sports modes — including walking, cycling, swimming, indoor fitness, hiking, and yoga — which it tracks and analyses to boost performance. The tracker only stores 20 at a time, however.

The Amazfit Band 7 offers absolutely loads of advanced features and costs considerably less than other models in this list. Much, much less in some cases. So, what’s the catch? Well, there’s no doubt it’s a budget option. It doesn’t have built-in GPS, for instance, and it feels cheaper on the wrist than Apple or Garmin, but there isn't much else to complain about.

Indeed, the Amazfit Band 7 is a seriously impressive little device, with an even better battery life than previous models. A whopping 18 days is impressive, no matter how much it costs. The Amazfit Band 7 allows you to accurately track all sorts of metrics. That includes your heart rate, oxygen levels, steps taken, sleeping patterns, distance travelled, calories burned, and more.

Features include customisable watch faces, with 50+ designs to choose from, plus built-in Alexa. Ask questions, set alarms, check the weather, get news updates, and more. One nice feature allows you to see three key metrics — heart rate, blood oxygen, and stress levels — with just a tap of the screen.

It stands to reason that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 would suit Android devotees. Samsung makes some of the best Android-powered tech around. And, much like the Apple Watch, it's more of a smartwatch than fitness tracker. But the Galaxy Watch 6 is packing a seriously impressive array of health and fitness metrics.

In terms of your heart, it uses a PPG sensor to measure heart rate and heart rhythm. It sends heart rate notifications and alerts you to your heart rate zone during workouts. It has a body temperature sensor, while also using bioelectric impedance analysis to measure your skeletal muscle mass, body fat percentage, body mass index, and more.

That's not to mention daily blood pressure checks and thorough sleep analysis and interactive coaching. The sleep coaching, for instance, tells you at what part of the day you'll be most productive or ready for a workout. The watch itself gives you an overview of stats, but you'll need to open your phone to really pick through the data.

If you're looking to track activities, the Galaxy Watch 6 has you more than covered. It has the capacity to track 90 sports and workouts. A custom workout feature also lets you to build your own routine. The watch even detects when you take a brisk walk or go for a run and adds that to your activities.