Sunday Runday
In this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks in regards to the world of wearables, apps, and health tech associated to working and well being, in his quest to get quicker and more healthy.
When it got here time to replicate on my first full yr as Wearables lead for Android Central, I considered how I’ve been run ragged (actually) making an attempt to check and evaluation one smartwatch after one other, but in addition how I did not thoughts as a result of, by and enormous, a lot of the watches I assessed have been so darn good.
I reviewed (or will end opinions for) watches from Apple, COROS, Garmin, Google, OnePlus, Polar, Samsung, Suunto, and Withings, plus my first-ever sensible ring. And not like my freelance days reviewing TVs, sensible house tech, earbuds, and different hit-and-miss devices that I used and forgot about, there weren’t any smartwatch “duds” the place I needed to discover the silver lining amid the mediocrity.
None of my smartwatches have been excellent, and a number of other have been good quite than nice. Sometimes, they underwhelmed me regardless of being nice. But all of the manufacturers I’d examined earlier than improved in marked methods, they usually all have a stage of reliability that you could belief their sleep stats, coronary heart price zones throughout runs, Location Services monitoring, restoration time estimates, and different knowledge that may’ve been erratic guesswork just some years in the past.
Basically, anybody brief of a professional athlete can rely on the well being, health, and sleep knowledge being adequate — and a number of other choices are trending towards true consistency. That’s simple to take with no consideration! But for me to run a 20-miler sporting 4 watches and have all 4 watches’ outcomes be so comparable is fairly superb, exhibiting that the core knowledge may be trusted should you select the suitable watch.
And exterior of health, Wear OS watches are higher than ever, whereas Apple continues to dominate the gross sales charts, holding its followers pleased by tweaking its acquainted design to be thinner and enhancing its well being evaluation.
Smartwatches and rings performed proper into my expectations this yr
Of course, it is easy for me to really feel pleased in regards to the state of Android watches in 2024; these smartwatch manufacturers catered to my wants and made me look prescient with their latest options.
At the tip of final yr, I argued that conventional smartwatches and health watches have been making an attempt to morph into one another, with Apple and Samsung focusing extra closely on health and types like Garmin making an attempt to make their platform extra accessible to mainstream individuals.
This yr, you had the Pixel Watch 3 lean totally into working teaching, cardio load, and different working perks that positive made me pleased, if not my gym-loving colleagues. The identical goes for the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s dual-band Location Services and further HR LEDs for higher working knowledge, or the Apple Watch Series and Ultra watches including coaching load. They performed proper into my expectations and made health the centerpiece of their advertising and marketing.
I argued that the majority health watch manufacturers would cease utilizing MIP shows and transition to AMOLED at lower cost factors. And identical to that, the Garmin Forerunner 165, COROS PACE Pro, and Polar Vantage M3 all used AMOLED, abandoning MIP tech that was nice for out of doors use however annoyingly low-res and dim indoors. It’s apparent that these manufacturers see higher visible accessibility as the longer term.
In January, I additionally argued that Garmin wanted to supply indoor exercise teaching on par with its Garmin Coach for working and biking. Wouldn’t you realize it, my Garmin Fenix 8 added a power coach with auto-generated multi-month coaching plans, and the software has since come to extra reasonably priced fashions just like the Forerunners. Now, I’ve a helpful solution to get cross-training steerage utilizing at-home weights.
Not each prediction and hope for wearables in 2024 got here true; Google ignored my pleas for a “Fitbit renaissance” and successfully canceled Fitbit watches for good. But it definitely was the “yr of the sensible ring,” with complete gross sales actually doubling from 880,000 to 1,769,000, in line with numbers IDC shared with Android Central.
We’ve solely simply begun to see the uptick of “AI in your wrist,” as analysts assured me would occur, however Samsung’s Energy Score, Wellness Tips, and auto-suggested replies on Wear OS 5 definitely qualify! And I’m assured that 2025 would be the yr Gemini and Apple Intelligence make it onto smartwatches in some type.
Smartwatches have develop into important to lots of people
In 2024, corporations offered 154.1 million smartwatches and 36.6 million health bands, per knowledge shared by IDC. Canalys exhibits that health bands have bounced again barely from 17 to twenty% market share due to reputation in Latin America and EMEA. However, they’ve massively declined from their 50% share in 2020, falling wanting smartwatches and fundamental watches.
Economically, corporations like the larger revenue margins of smartwatches and have largely deserted health trackers to Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and Huawei. Generally, individuals want the look of smartwatches greater than low cost health bands, and the stats present they’re going to pay for type.
But past that, I believe the rising smartwatch gross sales numbers — and better gross sales of premium “Ultra” watches — is the results of smartwatches being marketed so successfully as being life-saving. They sign 911 should you fall, discover in case your pulse is erratic, inform you how lengthy you could relaxation after a run to keep away from severe harm, and catch in case you have sleep apnea or (for some manufacturers) a fever.
It’s not enjoyable when your watch tells you one thing’s incorrect. But even when ignorance is bliss, I’d quite learn about an issue forward of time than have it blindside me when the issue will get worse. And I believe customers would quite pay $300 for a watch that is 90% correct than a $50 band with hit-or-miss stats.
I’m excited to see what new tips health smartwatches pull off in 2025. Some of them will undoubtedly be gimmicky, and never every little thing will work nicely. But the core expertise is healthier than ever, and I’m pleased that I’m privileged sufficient to maintain testing these options and sharing my ideas, guesses, and rants about wearables with you.
It’s simple for tech classes to fall into ruts, and just some years again, it felt like most smartwatches have been these squircle clones of each other with little innovation. But now, a bunch of various manufacturers are enjoying to their strengths and giving customers a wealth of choices.
Since my job is commonly about nitpicking or complaining about smartwatch options, it is good to replicate now and again that issues are, on the entire, good.
