Best smartwatches for heart health monitoring
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Smartwatches can be incredible tools for monitoring your heart health. They provide an easy way to monitor your heart rate, get alerts on abnormal heart activity and even take an ECG.
If your doctor has told you to monitor your heart health — or if you want to be more active, or are just interested in gaining new insights into your health — the Heart Check out these great smartwatch options for health monitoring.
Top products in this article
Apple Watch 8 (41mm), $330 (down from $399)
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, $220 and up (under $280)
Why is a smartwatch with heart monitoring important?
Keeping a close eye on your heart rate is useful for several reasons. It can help you track how hard you’re working, help you manage chronic conditions, and possibly even tell you when something is wrong. Is.
If you’re shopping for a smartwatch to monitor heart health, it can be difficult to know where to start. If you’re new to heart monitoring, there are a lot of new features that can seem a bit complicated. To help, we’ve put together this guide to help you understand what to look for and which smartwatch will be right for you.
Best smartwatches for heart health monitoring
These smartwatches have the features you need to monitor your heart rate, take an ECG, and more.
Apple Watch Series 8
Apple via Amazon
The Apple Watch Series 8 is a durable smartwatch that is swim-proof, dust-proof and crack-resistant with advanced heart-monitoring features. It has a number of health tracking features, including an optical heart sensor, an electrical heart sensor for ECG, a blood oxygen sensor and a new body temperature sensor.
You can tap into yoga, meditation and other exercise programs. Apple Fitness+. (Apple Fitness+ is a subscription service. It costs $9.99 a month. Apple Watch buyers get the first month free.) It also comes with a new crash detection feature, which detects where the wearer is in a serious car crash and alerts emergency services.
Apple Watch 8 (41mm), $330 (down from $399)
The 45mm version of the Apple Watch Series 8 does everything the 41mm version does, except it’s bigger.
Apple Watch Series 8 (45mm), $429 (down from $478)
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
Samsung
gave Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Offers ECG functionality when paired with a compatible Samsung Galaxy smartphone. You can take an ECG on your watch and then open the ECG report on your smartphone to dive into your data.
The Galaxy Watch 5 has an advanced bioactive sensor that collects more accurate data than the Galaxy Watch 4. This data can be managed and tracked in the Samsung Health app. It also offers an advanced exercise algorithm, listening rate monitoring and sleep tracking technology.
The Galaxy Watch 5 is available in 40mm and 44mm display sizes. It is also available in five colors.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, $220 and up (under $280)
Google Pixel Watch
Best buy
gave Google Pixel Watch Round face with lots of customizable watch faces and band options. It offers all-day battery life, up to 24 hours on a single charge. The watch includes the Google Home app to adjust your thermostat or connect to your smart home devices. Users can play music, track fitness activity and receive notifications from their connected phone.
The Google Pixel Watch is the first Android smartwatch to include Fitbit integrated features. The watch’s health features include heart rate monitoring, exercise tracking, sleep tracking and more. Google suggests that the fall detection feature will be available in 2023. The watch comes with six months of free subscription to Fitbit Premium and three months of YouTube Premium.
The watch comes in black, silver and gold.
Garmin Vivoactive 4
Garmin Store via Amazon
Garmin Vivoactive 4 uses Garmin’s Pulse Ox technology to track your energy levels, respiration, menstrual cycle, stress, sleep, heart rate, hydration levels and more. It can stream music downloaded from Spotify and Amazon Music. When paired with your smartphone, the watch can receive notifications.
This Garmin smartwatch comes with over 20 pre-loaded GPS and indoor sports apps. Want a personal trainer on your wrist? This watch can show you dynamic workouts through your watch screen.
Available in different colors. The price below is for the black watch, as pictured.
Garmin Vivoactive 4 (Black), $230 (down from $330)
Garmin vino 2 plus
Amazon
gave Garmin vino 2 plus Offers advanced heart and health tracking. The smartwatch samples your heart rate several times per second and tells you if it’s too high or too low when you’re resting. It also helps estimate how hard you work during activities, including swimming. Garmin has also recently introduced an ECG app, which is available on the Venu 2 Plus.
Fitbit Charge 5
Amazon
The latest in Fitbit’s Charge line, this well-equipped activity and health tracker packs the latest technology into a slim device and includes a color touchscreen. A smartphone-enabled device that helps you manage stress and stay on top of heart health and sleep.
The Fitbit Charge 5 boasts a 7-day battery life on a single charge.
Fitbit Charge 5, $140 (reduced from $150)
Fitbit Versa 3
Amazon
This top-of-the-line Fitbit has a built-in GPS that can be used to track the speed, distance and route of your run, hike or bike ride. The tracker offers heart rate monitoring, stress data and sleep tracking. Google Assistant and Alexa voice assistant support is built-in.
The Fitbit Versa 3 has a 6-day battery life. Its fast charge capability gives you a full day’s battery in just 12 minutes.
Fitbit Versa 3, $174 (reduced from $230)
Amazfit Bip 3
Amazon
What’s so great about the Amazfit Bip 3? It has a color 1.69-inch screen to display incoming calls and texts. It is also loaded with sensors to monitor your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, sleep quality and stress levels. You can even take it swimming with you — Amazfit Bip 3 is IP68 water resistant.
Be sure to apply the coupon before checkout to get the best price on this Android and iPhone compatible smartwatch.
Amazfit Bip 3, $55 after coupon (down from $60)
Top Features to Look for in a Smartwatch for Heart Monitoring
Here are some features to consider in smartwatch options for heart monitoring. These features can be useful for athletes, people with chronic health conditions or anyone who wants to track their heart rate. None of these features or readings are a substitute for medical care or a formal cardiology test.
Heart rate monitoring
The most basic function to look for is heart rate monitoring. Almost all smartwatches and activity trackers include heart rate monitoring, but some include more advanced monitoring options such as heart rate variability monitoring, stress tracking or heart rate alerts. Heart rate alerts can be adjusted based on your own normal resting and active heart rate (what is normal varies from person to person), if your heart rate is below the normal range for a sustained period of time. To provide an alert if there is a beating outside.
When combined with activity tracking, heart rate monitoring can help you estimate how hard you’re working and how many calories you’re burning during exercise. This smartwatch is one of the popular uses for heart monitoring.
ECG capabilities.
Many people are not aware that smartwatches can take ECG, but Apple Watch ECG functionality has been around for generations and both Samsung and Google have started offering this feature. ECG stands for Electrocardiogram (also known as EKG). This is a test that measures the frequency and strength of the electrical signals your heart produces as it beats and contracts. The purpose of this test is to check for abnormal heart activity such as atrial fibrillation (a type of irregular heart rhythm).
Fall detection
Fall detection isn’t technically a heart health feature. However, if you or the person you’re shopping for needs a heart-monitoring smartwatch because of a cardiovascular condition that could lead to falls or fainting, it can help. Fall detection turns your smartwatch into a modern, high-tech life alert device. If the watch detects a fall, it will give you the option to call 911 or a specific emergency contact or report that you’re okay. It will automatically send an alert to emergency services or your emergency contact if you don’t clear the notification within a set period of time.
Pair the phone
You’ll want a smartwatch that can either pair with your phone or provide a compatible mobile app to view the data. It allows you to view reports on your heart rate, exercise activity, ECG readings, blood oxygen, stress levels and other recorded metrics. If you have an iPhone, you may prefer it. Apple Watch 8 For easy pairing. Similarly, Samsung Galaxy smartphone users can get maximum benefits. Samsung Galaxy Watch 5.
Restart yourself! The CBS Essential Guide to a Healthy 2023
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There’s no better time to commit to a better and healthier you. Whether that means exercising more, learning more about fitness and nutrition or doing more to monitor your health, CBS Essentials has you covered with our new series, Reboot Yourself. We’ll cover everything you need to know to live your best life in 2023, from the best water bottles to staying hydrated Best smartwatches for heart health monitoring to do Best earbuds and headphones for working out.
Be sure to check back with CBS Essentials throughout the New Year for the latest in our health and wellness series.