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Best smartwatches for monitoring heart health

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Smartwatches can be incredible tools for monitoring your heart health. They provide an easy way to keep tabs on your heart rate, get alerts about abnormal cardiac 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 interested in gaining new insights into your health — check out these great smartwatch options for monitoring heart health.

Top products in this article

Apple Watch 8 (41mm), $330 (down from $399)

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, $220 and up (down from $280)

Garmin Venu 2 Plus, $450

Why a smartwatch with heart monitoring is 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 let you know if something’s wrong.

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 might sound a bit complicated. To help, we’ve compiled this guide to help you figure out which smartwatch is right for you.

Best smartwatches for monitoring heart health

These smartwatches have essential features for monitoring your heart rate, taking ECG and more.

Apple Watch Series 8

Apple Watch Series 7 (41mm)

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 several 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 workout programs through 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 accident 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

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Samsung

The 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 improved 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 offers an advanced workout algorithm, hearing rate monitoring and sleep-tracking technology.

The Galaxy Watch 5 is available in 40mm and 44mm display sizes. It is available in five colors.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, $220 and up (down from $280)

Google Pixel Watch

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The Google Pixel Watch features a round face with customizable watch faces and lots of band options. It offers an 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 integrated Fitbit features. The watch’s health features include heart-rate monitoring, workout tracking, sleep tracking, and more. Google has suggested that fall detection will be available in 2023 The watch comes with a free six-month subscription to Fitbit Premium and a three-month subscription to YouTube Premium

The watch comes in black, silver and gold.

Google Pixel Watch, $350

Garmin Vivoactive 4

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Garmin Store via Amazon

Garmin Vivoactive 4 uses Garmin’s Pulse Ox technology to track your energy levels, breathing, 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 preloaded GPS and indoor-sports apps. Want a personal trainer on your wrist? This watch can show you animated workouts through your watch screen.

Available in different colors. The price listed below is for the black watch, as pictured.

Garmin Vivoactive 4 (Black), $230 (down from $330)

Garmin Venu 2 Plus

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the amazon

Garmin Venu 2 Plus offers advanced heart and health tracking. The smartwatch samples your heart rate multiple times per second and lets you know if it’s too high or too low when you’re resting. Even swimming helps measure how hard you work during the activity. Garmin also recently launched an ECG app, which is available on the Venu 2 Plus

Garmin Venu 2 Plus, $450

Fitbit Charge 5

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The latest in Fitbit’s Charge line, this sleek activity and health tracker packs advanced technology into a slim device and features a color touchscreen. Smartphone-enabled devices help you manage stress and stay on top of heart health and sleep.

The Fitbit Charge 5 boasts 7 days of battery life on a single charge

Fitbit Charge 5, $140 (reduced from $150)

Fitbit Versa 3

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the 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.

Fitbit Versa 3 has a battery life of 6 days. Its quick-charge capability gives you a full day’s worth of battery in just 12 minutes.

Fitbit Versa 3, $174 (down from $230)

Amazfit Bip 3

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the amazon

What’s so great about the Amazfit Bip 3? It has a color 1.69-inch screen for displaying incoming calls and texts. It is loaded with sensors to monitor your heart rate, blood oxygen level, 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)

The best features to look for in a smartwatch for heart monitoring

Here are some features to look for when evaluating smartwatch options for heart monitoring. These features can be useful for athletes, those with chronic health conditions or those who want to track their heart metrics. None of these features or readings are a substitute for medical care or a formal cardiological examination.

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 rates (which vary from person to person), to provide an alert if your heart beats outside the normal range for a sustained period of time.

When combined with activity tracking, heart rate readings can help you assess how hard you’re working and how many calories you’re burning during a workout. This is one of the most popular uses for smartwatch heart monitoring.

ECG power

Many people aren’t aware that smartwatches can take ECG, but the Apple Watch has had ECG functionality for several generations, and both Samsung and Google have started offering the feature. ECG stands for Electrocardiogram (also called EKG). This is a test that measures the frequency and strength of the electrical signals generated during the beating and contraction of your heart. The purpose of this test is to check for abnormal cardiac 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 due to a cardiological condition that could lead to falls or fainting, it can help. Fall detection turns your smartwatch into a trendy, more high-tech life alert device. If the watch detects a fall, it will give you the option to call 911 or a designated emergency contact or report that you’re okay. If you don’t clear the notification within the specified time, it will automatically send an alert to emergency services or your emergency contact.

Phone pairing

You’ll want a smartwatch that can either pair with your phone or offer 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 the Apple Watch 8 for easy pairing. Similarly, Samsung Galaxy smartphone users can get more from the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5.

Reboot yourself! CBS Essential Guide to a Healthy 2023

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There’s no better time than now to commit to a better, healthier you. Whether that means exercising more, learning more about fitness and nutrition, or doing more to keep track of your health, CBS Essentials has you covered with our new series Reboot Yourself. From the best water bottles for staying hydrated, we’ll cover everything you need to know to live your best life in 2023 Best smartwatches for monitoring heart health from The best earbuds and headphones for work.

Be sure to check back with CBS Essentials throughout the new year for the latest in our health and fitness series.

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