Teenagers today live in a connected world where smartphones and gadgets are ubiquitous. For many parents, deciding when to buy their child their first smartwatch is a difficult decision. A smartwatch allows a teen to stay connected while also promoting independence and physical activity. With so many options on the market, it can be tricky to determine the best smartwatch for your teen. This article will explore the top smartwatches for teenagers in 2023 based on features, style, and budget.
Smartwatches allow teens to access apps and notifications, track their fitness and more, all from their wrist. Critical features like GPS tracking give parents peace of mind while allowing freedom. Modern smartwatches also serve as fitness trackers with heart rate monitoring, step counting, and more to encourage an active lifestyle. Waterproof designs mean teens can wear their smartwatches anywhere. When choosing the proper smartwatch, it’s essential to consider your teen’s smartphone platform, whether you want a focus on fitness tracking or more intelligent features, and your budget.
This guide will highlight the standout smartwatches for teens for iOS and Android users. We’ll cover top picks from leading brands like Apple, Fitbit, Garmin and more. You’ll find options tailored for younger kids and full-featured smartwatches appropriate for teenagers. Read on to discover the critical factors in choosing a smartwatch for your teen, and see our top recommendations for the best smartwatches for teenagers in 2023.
SAMSUNG Galaxy Watch (46mm, GPS, Bluetooth)
The SAMSUNG Galaxy Watch (46mm, GPS, Bluetooth) is a versatile and stylish smartwatch designed for unisex adults. It comes in a classic style with a silver color and a round shape. The watch features a 1.3-inch screen and unique features such as a time display, GPS, and camera. It is compatible with smartphones and can be paired with Android and iOS devices via Bluetooth.
The Galaxy Watch is designed to enhance your life by providing built-in health tracking and a Bluetooth connection that keeps everything at your wrist. Its impressive battery life allows you to go for days without charging. The wireless charger in the box lets you power up without slowing down.
The watch is available in two sizes and three colors, offering stylish faces that look so realistic they hardly seem digital. You can also choose from a collection of interchangeable bands to suit your style. The package includes the Galaxy Watch, an additional strap, a wireless charging dock, a travel adaptor, a quick start guide, and a user manual.
The watch’s software experience is generally pleasant, although some users have noted that the voice-to-text feature is slower and less accurate than Google Assistant. However, the fitness tracking is excellent and does a good job of tracking workouts from calories burned to distance ran/rode etc.
The watch has proven to be highly durable, with no visible marks or scratches even after regular use. Aesthetically, the watch is described as “gorgeous” and “exuding class,” with its more prominent form factor, rotating bezel, and contrasting colors adding to its overall beauty.
Overall, the SAMSUNG Galaxy Watch (46mm, GPS, Bluetooth) is a high-quality, functional, and stylish smartwatch offering various features to enhance your daily life.
Apple Watch SE (Gen 1) [GPS 40mm] Smart Watch w/ Space Grey Aluminium Case
The Apple Watch SE (Gen 1) [GPS 40mm] is a versatile smartwatch with a Space Grey Aluminium Case and a Midnight Sport Band. It is a fitness and activity tracker, heart rate monitor and offers a Retina Display. The watch is water-resistant, making it suitable for various activities, including swimming.
The watch is highly customizable, offering a range of sizes and colors and the option to choose from dozens of bands. Users can also customize the watch face in numerous ways. It is compatible with other Apple devices and services. It allows users to listen to music with AirPods, unlock their Macs automatically, find their devices with a tap, and pay or send money with Apple Pay. However, it requires an iPhone 6s or later with the latest iOS version.
The Apple Watch SE is built to be tough and swim-proof, making it a reliable companion for outdoor activities like hiking, gym workouts, or surfing. It is an ultimate fitness partner with advanced sensors that track movements and measure workouts. It also comes with three months of Apple Fitness+ free.
The watch has several health features, such as irregular heart rhythm notifications, sleep tracking, and fall detection, which can call for help if needed. It also allows users to send texts, make calls, listen to music and podcasts, use Siri, or call for help with Emergency SOS.
The watch is powered by a 64-bit dual-core S5 processor, up to 2x faster than the S3 processor. It has a second-generation optical heart sensor and a Retina display 30% larger than Series 3. The watch also has a capacity of 32GB and uses a USB-C magnetic charging cable.
However, some users have reported dissatisfaction with the band, stating that it comes apart easily, leading to the watch falling off. Some users also expressed disappointment with the battery life, saying it requires daily charging. Despite these issues, many users have praised the watch’s functionality and ease of use.
Ticwatch E3 Smart Watch Wear OS by Google
The Ticwatch E3 Smart Watch is a versatile wearable device for both men and women. It operates on Google’s Wear OS and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 Platform. The watch has a health monitor, fitness tracker, GPS, NFC, microphone, and speaker, making it a comprehensive tool for tracking health and fitness data.
The watch comes in a sleek Panther Black color and features a polycarbonate and glass fiber case. The screen is made of 2.5D glass, and the strap is made of interchangeable silicone rubber. The watch’s dimensions are 44 x 47 x 12.6mm, weighing approximately 32g.
The Ticwatch E3 boasts over 100 workout modes, including mountain climbing, swimming, indoor cycling, pilates, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT). It also offers advanced health and fitness monitoring capabilities such as sleep tracking, stress monitoring, and blood oxygen saturation detection.
The watch has a high-density 1.3″ display with a 360 x 360 pixels resolution. It uses Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi for connectivity and supports GPS, GLONASS, and Beidou for navigation. The watch also allows for NFC payments through Google Pay.
One of the standout features of the Ticwatch E3 is its Essential Mode, which kicks in automatically when the battery drops below 5 percent. This mode allows the watch to continue telling time, tracking steps, and performing several other functions for days.
However, despite its impressive features, the Ticwatch E3 does have some drawbacks. Some users have noted that the large black ring around the watch face may not appeal to everyone. Additionally, while the watch is lightweight due to its plastic build, there are concerns about the durability of the screen. Lastly, the battery life of the eye could be improved, as it typically requires daily charging.
Overall, the Ticwatch E3 Smart Watch is a feature-rich and functional wearable device that offers a wide range of health and fitness tracking capabilities. Despite some minor drawbacks, it provides good value for its price.
Amazfit T-Rex Pro Smart Watch for Men Rugged Outdoor GPS Fitness Watch
The Amazfit T-Rex Pro is a rugged smartwatch designed for men, tailored explicitly for outdoor and fitness activities. It boasts a robust design that has passed 15 military-grade tests, making it capable of withstanding extreme conditions such as hot deserts, humid rainforests, and polar glaciers. The watch features a 1.3-inch HD AMOLED color screen with an always-on display, ensuring easy access to critical information without interrupting your activities.
The T-Rex Pro offers over 100 sports modes, allowing users to monitor critical data like workout heart rate, distance traveled, movement speed, and calories burned in real time. This helps users track and improve their athletic performance. The watch also includes a PAI health assessment system that uses an algorithm to transform complex health data into a single numerical value unique to each user, providing a personalized health evaluation.
The smartwatch is water-resistant up to a depth of 100 meters, making it suitable for surfing, swimming, or underwater exploration. It also features a robust 18-day battery life, ensuring continuous tracking of activity and progress.
Regarding health monitoring, the T-Rex Pro offers 24-hour heart rate monitoring, blood-oxygen saturation measurement, and sleep quality monitoring. It can recognize different sleep states and monitor potential breathing problems during sleep.
The watch also serves as a personal assistant, notifying users of incoming text messages, calls, scheduled alarms, and events. It can control music playback and sync data to popular health and fitness apps through the Zepp OS APP.
The T-Rex Pro’s design combines practicality, strength, and comfort. Its outer bezel undergoes a metal-spraying process, enhancing the rich textures of the light 60g watch body. The watch has a skin-friendly silicone strap with a sweat-wicking design, ensuring it stays dry and comfortable.
The Amazfit T-Rex Pro is a comprehensive fitness and outdoor companion, offering durability, functionality, and comfort.
Garmin 010-02173-11 Venu, GPS Smartwatch
The Garmin 010-02173-11 Venu is a GPS smartwatch designed for an active lifestyle. It features a bright AMOLED display and a battery life of up to five days in smartwatch mode or six hours in GPS mode with music. The watch case measures 43mm and fits wrists with a 125-190 mm circumference.
The Venu offers a range of health monitoring features that operate 24/7, including body energy monitoring, animated workouts, and a pulse ox sensor. It also allows users to download music for phone-free listening and comes preloaded with more than 20 GPS and indoor sports apps.
The watch’s Body Battery Energy Monitoring feature provides insights into the wearer’s energy levels throughout the day, helping to identify optimal times for activity and rest. Venu can receive emails, texts, and alerts directly on its screen when paired with a compatible smartphone. Android phone users can even respond to readers from the watch.
The Venu supports music downloads from Spotify, Deezer, or Amazon Music accounts (a subscription may be required) and can connect with wireless headphones for phone-free listening. It also includes safety and tracking features, allowing the user’s location to be sent to contacts manually or automatically during outdoor activities when paired with a compatible smartphone.
Despite its many features, some users have reported inaccuracies in the heart rate measurement and sleep tracking functions. However, the watch’s GPS function has been praised for its accuracy. The Garmin Dashboard app, which displays workout data and steps, is sleek and easy to use. The watch also supports Garmin Pay for contactless payments and allows users to download additional apps, widgets, and watch faces from the Connect IQ Store.
Amazfit Bip U Pro Smart Watch
The Amazfit Bip U Pro Smart Watch is a versatile fitness tracker for both men and women. It comes with Amazon Alexa built-in, making it a handy tool for setting timers, checking the weather, controlling smart home devices, and more. The watch is compatible with Android 5.0 or iOS 10.0 and above devices.
One of its key features is GPS functionality, which allows for precise distance tracking and daily step count. It also boasts over 60 sports modes, including outdoor running, treadmill, walking, outdoor cycling, indoor cycling, yoga, cricket, baseball, basketball, table tennis, badminton, free training, fishing, pool swimming, and more. This makes it an ideal companion for those looking to exercise at a higher level.
The Amazfit Bip U Pro has a 225mAh battery lasting up to 9 days on a single charge. It also has a 1.43-inch large HD color screen with 320×302 pixel resolution, providing a clear and vibrant display for incoming calls, messages, and reminders. Users can choose from 50 watch faces to match their style.
Regarding health tracking, the watch offers 24/7 heart rate monitoring, sleep quality and stress level monitoring, menstrual cycle tracking, and blood oxygen level measurement. It also has a PAI Health Assessment System that uses algorithms to transform complex health data into numerical values for easy understanding.
The watch is water-resistant up to 50 meters, making it suitable for swimming and other water-related activities. It also has a lightweight design, weighing only 31 grams, ensuring daytime comfort.
Additional features include smart notifications, a Pomodoro Timer App, customizable alert vibration patterns, and a Find my Device feature. The watch also supports the Zepp App, which offers excellent customization options and additional settings.
Customer reviews highlight the watch’s small face that fits nicely on the wrist, the easy-to-change 20mm quick-release strap, and the ability to customize the watch face background with personal photos. The long battery life, customizable alert settings, and comprehensive health and fitness tracking capabilities are also highly praised.
Garmin 010-01769-01 Vivoactive 3, GPS Smartwatch
The Garmin 010-01769-01 Vivoactive 3 is a GPS smartwatch designed for an active lifestyle. It comes with contactless payment capabilities, allowing users to purchase directly from their wrist. The watch is compatible with the Connect IQ store, where users can personalize their devices with thousands of free watch faces, apps, and widgets.
The Vivoactive 3 is built to withstand all kinds of weather conditions. It is safe for swimming and showering, and its Garmin Chroma Display is easy to read even in direct sunlight. Extra-durable Corning Gorilla Glass protects the display. The watch also features the Side Swipe interface for quick scrolling and swift navigation of menus and widgets.
The smartwatch comes preloaded with over 15 GPS and indoor sports apps, including yoga, running, swimming, and more. Users can create custom workouts and download them to the watch, tracking exercises, reps, sets, and rest time. The watch also monitors fitness levels with VO2 max and fitness age estimates and tracks how users handle stress.
The Vivoactive 3 has a battery life of up to 7 days in smartwatch mode and 13 hours in GPS mode. When paired with a compatible smartphone, it offers smart notifications, automatic uploads to Garmin Connect, LiveTrack, and other connected features. The watch also supports Garmin Pay, a contactless payment solution that lets users pay for purchases with their looks.
The watch has a round shape, a screen size of 1.2 inches, and a display type of 240 x 240 pixels. It is available in black and silver and is made with a leather band material. The watch is targeted at unisex adults and is compatible with smartphones.
Customer reviews highlight the watch’s accurate tracking capabilities, good battery life, and impressive fitness tracking features. Some users have noted issues with the stair counting feature and the time it takes to receive a GPS signal. However, overall, the Garmin Vivoactive 3 is highly regarded as a versatile and reliable smartwatch for casual and formal wear.
Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle Stainless Steel Touchscreen Smartwatch
The Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle Stainless Steel Touchscreen Smartwatch is a versatile, feature-rich wearable device. It comes with a 44mm case diameter and a 12mm case thickness, making it a substantial presence on the wrist. The band is made of silicone and is 22mm wide, offering a comfortable fit. The watch has a black digital dial and provides a day-date-month calendar function.
One of the standout features of this smartwatch is its array of unique features. These include a time display, an accelerometer, GPS, calendaring, notifications, a heart rate monitor, a sleep monitor, an elevation tracker, and text messaging capabilities. The watch is also water-resistant, up to 30 meters.
The Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle operates on Google’s Wear OS and is compatible with iPhone and Android phones. Depending on usage and updates, it offers a battery life of 24 hours plus a multi-day extended mode. The watch can be charged up to 80% in under an hour using a USB cable with a magnetic charger.
Regarding health and fitness, the watch offers heart rate and activity tracking using Google Fit, built-in GPS for distance tracking, and a swim-proof design. It also allows users to track sleep history, monitor restfulness, and set sleep goals.
The smartwatch also functions as a lifestyle accessory with an always-on display with thousands of watch faces for personalization. It supports hundreds of apps ranging from assistant to fitness, payments, music, social, news, games, stopwatches, and more. It lets users stay connected with calls, texts, apps, and automatic time, time zone, and calendar syncing notifications.
Customer reviews indicate that the watch is generally well-received, with an average rating of 4.3 out of 5 based on over 15,000 global ratings. However, some users have noted issues with battery life and occasional software glitches. Despite these minor issues, the Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle Stainless Steel Touchscreen Smartwatch is considered a reliable and high-performing option.
Garmin Venu 2 Plus, GPS Smartwatch
The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is a GPS smartwatch with advanced health monitoring and fitness features. It is designed to help users better understand their bodies through extensive health monitoring features such as the Health Snapshot feature, Body Battery energy levels, sleep score and insights, fitness age, stress tracking, and more. However, it’s important to note that this device is not a medical device but an estimation tool for your activity and metrics.
The watch has over 25 built-in indoor and GPS sports apps, including walking, running, cycling, HIIT, swimming, golf, and many more. Users can also use preloaded workouts that include cardio, yoga, strength, HIIT, and Pilates or create their own in the Garmin Connect app on their compatible smartphone. The watch also offers Garmin Coach free adaptive training plans to help users prepare for their next running challenge.
One of the standout features of the Venu 2 Plus is its built-in music storage, which allows users to download up to 650 songs to their watch, including playlists from Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer (which may require a premium subscription). This feature enables phone-free listening when connected with wireless headphones.
When paired with a compatible smartphone, the Venu 2 Plus also offers call and text capabilities, allowing users to make and take calls right from their wrist. They can even use their smartphone’s voice assistant to respond to text messages.
Additional features include Garmin Pay contactless payments in supported countries and payment networks, safety tracking features, and more. However, these require setup and your smartphone to be in an area with network coverage where data connectivity is available.
The watch has been praised for its long battery life, with some users reporting up to 6 days of use before the battery falls below 30%. However, some users have reported issues with the watch’s comfort during sleep and a delay in the watch’s face appearing when raising their arm.
Overall, the Garmin Venu 2 Plus is a versatile smartwatch with a range of health and fitness features, making it an excellent choice for those looking to monitor their health and fitness levels closely.
SUUNTO 7 GPS Sports Smart Watch
The SUUNTO 7 GPS Sports Smart Watch is a versatile and high-quality device that combines the sports expertise of Suunto with smartwatch technology. It has a round screen size of 50 millimeters and is designed for unisex adults. The watch offers unique features such as a time display, sleep monitor, GPS, notifications, and a heart rate monitor. It is compatible with smartphones and can be connected to Android and iOS phones.
The SUUNTO 7 is powered by Wear OS by Google, allowing users to see incoming calls and messages, make payments, and download music to listen offline. It also connects to various sports apps and services from the Suunto app, enabling users to share their activities with sports communities and access specific training analysis and guidance.
This smartwatch has over 70 sports modes, GPS, and a wrist heart rate sensor for accurate exercise tracking. It also has an intelligent battery that can last up to 40 days in battery saver mode, up to 2 days of smartwatch use, and up to 12 hours in GPS mode. Users can download their favorite music and podcasts from Spotify onto the Suunto 7, connect their headset to the watch, and listen offline without connection or data charges.
The SUUNTO 7 GPS Sports Smart Watch is made of synthetic material and comes in a graphite copper color. It has a stainless steel style and is suitable for various sports, including cycling, skiing, running, swimming, and fitness. The package includes the watch, battery, and charger.
Despite its many features, some users have reported issues with the heart rate sensor not registering through tattoos. Additionally, while the watch has been praised for its sports features, better water protection, and superior battery life compared to other models, some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the battery life, stating that it barely lasts through a day, even after a full charge.