How we test smartwatches at ZDNET in 2026

With superior options resembling voice assistants, crash detection, name and textual content help, and lengthy battery lives, fashionable smartwatches are excess of simply an adjunct. And because of highly effective sensors and in depth app suites, they’ve change into one of the vital fashionable well being and health trackers, too.

How will we take a look at and consider these smartwatches at ZDNET? How effectively is the watch supported by a smartphone companion? What capabilities and options stand out for every smartwatch? This is the complete breakdown.

Additionally: One of the best smartwatches you should buy

In most cases, the smartwatches we consider right here on ZDNET are bought after being launched to the general public, so there is no such thing as a urgency in making an attempt to publish a evaluation primarily based on a brief interval with the watch. Watches additionally require no less than a pair weeks of 24/7 put on to check battery life, well being and wellness monitoring, GPS positioning accuracy, coronary heart charge sensor reliability, and numerous design options.

We have now relationships with most smartwatch manufacturers, so we are able to ship questions concerning the watch as we consider it and search clarification on the {hardware}, software program, and different features. We additionally take a look at a handful of third-party purposes, however with 1000’s of apps obtainable on most of those watches, your private experiences will differ from our testing.

Smartwatch efficiency additionally relies upon upon an individual’s physique geometry, the match of the band on the wrist, the particular smartphone that the watch connects with, mobile reception high quality (for related fashions), and extra. We offer readers with our perspective from testing the watches with our large-size wrists and telephones.

Worth and battery life are elements in our suggestions however are much less important as a result of most smartwatches solely final for a day or two between charging, until you might be contemplating extra fitness-focused smartwatches which have fewer third-party apps and battery life measured in days or perhaps weeks. Most fashionable smartwatches additionally vary within the $300 to $500 vary so there is not a significant value component to contemplate.

What makes a smartwatch ZDNET beneficial? 

A smartwatch serves as a companion to a smartphone and infrequently stands alone. Since now we have excluded value and battery life above, the premise for whether or not a smartwatch is beneficial or not is decided by 5 different elements. Your desire for these 5 elements would possibly differ from ours, however we began carrying smartwatches greater than 20 years in the past (Fossil Wrist PDA powered by Palm OS) and have refined our testing and analysis processes.

Additionally: Finest Garmin watches

The 5 elements we consider, so as of significance, are core performance and efficiency, construct high quality and sturdiness, well being and wellness, purposes, and superior options. The superior options are features of the smartwatch that set it aside from rivals and will goal particular kinds of customers. 

How we take a look at smartwatches in 2026

Core performance and efficiency

To justify occupying a spot in your wrist, a smartwatch has to supply core capabilities reliably. If the smartwatch creates any friction within the consumer expertise, it’s unlikely to be embraced as a day by day wearable. In the beginning, a watch ought to clearly present you the time with a fast look. Smartwatches have advanced through the years with customized watch faces that match your outfit and/or your persona so every watch can stand aside from others with the identical mannequin. 

Some watches make the watch face much more succesful, with numerous problems or widgets exhibiting you glanceable data past the time and date. Watch faces with problems normally additionally help responses to finger faucets, the place a show filled with superior metrics and traits will seem after your activation. Third-party apps typically add customized complication choices, so there are various methods to customise and optimize your watch face.

A technique {that a} smartwatch distinguishes itself from a regular watch is that it serves as a distant in your cellphone and gives an accessible means to triage your key notifications in order that your cellphone can stay on the charger, in your pocket, or in your bag. The smartwatch enables you to look shortly at notifications with out totally eradicating you out of your present exercise. Voice-to-text has additionally improved considerably over the previous few years, so you’ll be able to shortly and simply reply to many notifications all out of your watch.

These core capabilities should additionally work reliably, with the time and notifications showing at any time when the consumer must see them. If a smartwatch gives inconsistent efficiency, it would possible find yourself on the market or in a drawer. We do not want wearables demanding our consideration until they’re completely in sync with the related cellphone.

We join smartwatches to varied telephones, join them to mobile service, measure the consistency in receiving notifications, monitor the reliability of launching problems, and hold monitor of inconsistent habits after we consider every watch.

Construct high quality and sturdiness

Each smartwatch immediately has a stage of water resistance that helps carrying your watch in most circumstances, though not all of them help submergence in water for prolonged intervals of time. The watch face is roofed by robust glass that’s resilient to scratching. The physique of most watches is constructed of polymer fiber, aluminum, titanium, or chrome steel, and buttons are constructed for urgent and/or rotating to navigate the consumer interface.

Additionally: Finest waterproof smartwatches

Default watch bands come together with your authentic buy, however most smartwatches help customary 20, 22, or 26 mm bands. Amazon has an nearly limitless choice of watch bands, so yow will discover a dependable band that may hold the watch mounted in your wrist even throughout strenuous actions. 

We doc any display scratches that seem, put on the watches within the rain and through bodily actions, and take a look at out numerous bands as a part of our analysis. You’ll be able to try a number of choices we like to make use of with our Apple Watch Extremely.

Well being and wellness

One of many largest enhancements in smartwatch know-how over the previous few years has been the combination of superior well being and wellness options that beforehand had been present in devoted well being gadgets. A few of these devoted sports activities watches went the opposite method and have embraced the smartphone by integrating notifications, third-party purposes, messaging, and extra in order that we now see the convergence of those applied sciences within the smartwatch.

Apple continues to aggressively transfer ahead with integrating superior well being and wellness within the Apple Watch and just lately demonstrated a number of new options coming quickly in watchOS 11 that may problem its rivals. Well being and wellness monitoring make good sense in a smartwatch as battery life improves and ecosystems are constructed that present sensible insights and steerage to assist smartwatch customers enhance their well being and wellness. 

Google’s newest Fitbit Premium service with AI teaching takes issues to the following stage, due to the intelligence supplied by Gemini and essentially the most customizable coaching plan choices ever seen on a smartwatch. Samsung has additionally embraced AI, and gives a compelling customized teaching expertise with Samsung Well being. With the superior well being and wellness experiences supplied by each of those corporations, Apple’s fundamental Apple Well being expertise is in want of a significant overhaul.

Smartwatches are not solely utilized by informal athletes, however skilled athletes are utilizing them to assist enhance their efficiency as detailed sleep monitoring, restoration metrics, and efficiency traits are precisely supplied with a smartwatch that additionally serves as the primary cellular gadget that’s picked up within the morning.

Additionally: One of the best Apple Watches

Well being and wellness testing is my favourite side of evaluating smartwatches because it helps inspire me to run, bike, hike, row, stroll, sleep, and take part in actions with the intention to take a look at the accuracy of the placement monitoring, the center charge monitoring, and extra. I pay for a subscription and use the DC Rainmaker Analyzer to match information that I seize with numerous smartwatches.

Purposes 

Within the early days of smartwatches, third-party purposes had been pretty restricted. At the moment, Google, Samsung, Apple, Garmin, and others have embraced builders by extending smartphone purposes to the watch type issue. Apple units the bar with the variety of purposes obtainable, the in depth options of the purposes, and the interface optimized for the small display, however Google’s focus once more on Put on OS has resulted in critical competitors for the area in your wrist.

Additionally: Finest Android smartwatches

Google’s purposes have been revived with the main focus of the partnership with Samsung on the Galaxy Watch platform, however there are nonetheless many gaps that change into clear if you evaluate a Google Put on smartwatch to an Apple Watch.

Once we take a look at smartwatches, now we have a core set of 10-15 purposes that work effectively on a smartwatch, and we take a look at out which watches these purposes work with and the way effectively these purposes work. Presently, Google carefully matches what is obtainable by Apple, however the depth of the performance is missing in lots of instances.

Superior options

This final issue is usually essentially the most attention-grabbing a part of my evaluation course of since it’s the place I discover what a smartwatch can do above and past the usual fare. We noticed that 2025 was the 12 months of satellite tv for pc help on smartwatches, with Google, Apple, and Garmin offering connectivity to things in area with a various stage of communication help. All three of them present satellite tv for pc SOS help, so in case you are ever exterior of mobile vary and need assistance, you’ll be able to provoke emergency providers.

Garmin set the bar with its incredible LED flashlight functionality that I take advantage of each single day. We have now seen others (Suunto and Amazfit) launch sports activities watches with LED flashlights, and I anticipate we might quickly see Apple, Samsung, and Google provide this key performance.

Apple’s Watch Extremely 3 mechanically launches a cool submerged water interface if you take your watch into the pool or lake to train. Some Samsung fashions have a rotating bodily bezel the place you’ll be able to spin the dial across the watch bezel to shortly scroll by way of lists.

Different frequent superior options embrace music controls, crash/incident detection and notification, navigation, hands-free voice help, and blood strain monitoring (with Apple’s new Hypertension Detection characteristic, and on Samsung watches exterior of the US). There are nonetheless many different doable options and capabilities to return on future watches, so keep tuned as we proceed to find these superior options and look to the way forward for hologram wearables.

I take advantage of reviewer guides and even crack open the manuals to attempt to discover these superior options on numerous smartwatches. After spending time with the watches, I then additionally try evaluations from others testing the watches to search out superior options. It’s also useful to dive into the various ranges of settings in watches to find superior options. At the moment’s smartwatches are engineering marvels, and you’ll spend days and weeks diving into all the particulars, capabilities, and choices discovered inside them.