I’ve tested every one of the most popular running watches there are, so trust me when I say most people can get away with a simple fitness tracker to monitor their health. If you want to know how you slept, how much you moved, and whether that “restful” night was 40 minutes of actual deep sleep and a lot of angrily rolling over, a fitness tracker does it for less money and with fewer buttons. But “fitness tracker” covers a lot of ground.
Some are glorified step counters. Some are basically running watches in a trench coat. Some have no screen at all and charge you monthly to read your own data.
I’ve worn most of them, and the expanse between a good fit and a bad one usually has little to do with what’s on the spec sheet. If you want the data without a gadget that’s overwhelming, bulky, and just plain old annoying? Below, I’ll walk you through what to look for, what’s worth paying for, and what’s just nerdy excessiveness, so you can pick one and get freaking at it.
The best fitness trackers, as we see them, cover every budget and every kind of person, from “I just want to hit 8,000 steps” to “I need to hit reset on my goals.” These were all tested over a period of weeks, used as they were intended, with multiple workouts tracked, sleeping, and any possible health metrics available. We evaluated the trackers, their apps, the battery life, ease of use, cost, and overall quality and comfort. The Garmin Cirqa is what happens when a company that makes arguably the best running watches on the planet asks, “What if we took the screen away?” And I’ll be straight up: after years of testing Garmins, I was concerned it would feel lacking comparatively, and while it’s no Forerunner 970 (my sweet baby), it’s a dang fine fitness tracker.
This screenless band sends everything to the Garmin Connect app (which I am still holding out hope for a redesign), so you get the Body Battery, HRV Status, Training Readiness, and sleep data that Garmin watch owners know and love, minus the glowing rectangle. It’s perfect if you want the data without another screen in your life. It’s also a great sidekick if you already own a Forerunner and want to keep collecting sleep and recovery numbers on the nights you’d rather not wear a watch.
What I love as a spec nerd and professional shopper is that the core features don’t need a subscription. Connect+ is optional and adds things like A.I. coaching and live heart rate during workouts. The trade-off is that no screen means no pace or heart rate on your wrist midrun.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
