No chance against Apple Watch: no fitness bracelet is good

Stiftung Warentest notes that most fitness wristbands measure inaccurately. None of the devices performed better than satisfactory in the test, regardless of whether it was expensive or inexpensive. If you want a good tracker, you should wear a smartwatch on your wrist.

Almost all joggers wear a fitness tracker these days. Ideally, the smart wristbands provide valuable data to optimize training. But with most devices you can't rely on the values. Stiftung Warentest has checked 21 fitness trackers, of which only smartwatches measure accurately enough. None of the eight fitness bracelets tested performed well; a particularly inexpensive device delivers reliable values ​​in at least two of three categories.

Weak pulse

In the test, the examiners examined for the "Fitness" category how exactly the trackers determine their pulse, calorie consumption and route length when walking, jogging, cycling and swimming. Only that Honor Volume 5 performed satisfactorily because it measured the pulse when cycling, the calorie consumption when jogging and walking and the distance when swimming. The other seven fitness bracelets in this category did not go beyond a sufficient rating, that Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 (30 euros) even received a deficiency.

Honor Band 5, which was priced at 38 euros, also received the best rating for fitness wristbands with an overall grade of 3.3. The device impressed with the best handling (2.4) and, like all tested bracelets, is very stable (1.1). However, the auditors found the communication and other functions only sufficient and Honor Band 5 was devalued for deficiencies in data protection.

Although they only performed adequately in the fitness category, they also achieved this Fitbit Charge 3 (120 euros) and that Samsung Galaxy Fit (86 euros) the overall grade 3.3. The Fitbit bracelet owes this above all to its satisfactory performance in communication and other functions, but the device was also devalued due to deficiencies in data protection. The Samsung Galaxy Fit made fewer mistakes in this category.

Apple Watch clear overall winner

Stiftung Warentest found good fitness trackers only among smartwatches, with the around 500 euros being expensive Apple Watch (Aluminum / 44 mm) with the quality rating 1.8 clearly secured the overall victory. It convinced with many good and very good measurements in the fitness category (1.8) and also scored at least well in almost all other sub-ratings. The auditors only complained about the poor data protection declaration, which Apple messed up an even better overall rating.

The second best fitness tracker with the quality rating 2.2 is the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music (330 euros) that was tested last year. Besides the Apple Watch, it is the only device that delivers good measurements (2.5). However, the smartwatch cannot keep up with the test winner in terms of communication and other functions. The newly tested Garmin Vivoactive 4 (305 euros) also achieved a good overall result (2.5), but did not go beyond a satisfactory rating (2.9) in the fitness category.