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“Bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you”

Well one thing you can do when they come for you is to check your smartwatch for your heart rate, speed, location, blood saturation levels and many more

In this data-driven world smartwatches offer a third eye to look at your body from, gone are the days where you need to go to a doctor to view your heart rate and other data.

Now you can monitor your heart rate, sleep quality and blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂) all from the comfort of your wrist..

Monitor everything

You are now your body’s own data subject, you are your own big brother.

Now we know what you are thinking – “They are just trying to sell us smartwatches” and you would be correct: Smartwatch sales link but at least we are upfront about it 🙂

But there is more…

Our editor at large has been using a smartwatch for 3-5 years and we will just let him share his experience

My experience

I have a Huawei Band 3

Initially, I used the watch as all watches should be used – to tell the time

Over time I started using its workout modes tracking and heart rate monitoring. A few things that annoyed me about it were the short battery life, charging connector, and lack of SpO₂ monitoring. Now I’m a sports nut and love the data but I want more

Recently I tried sleeping with the watch on and I am blown away by the results. I can now view detailed sleep graphs showing when I fell asleep, deep sleep, woke up, and for what duration. Now I can correlate the ratio of sleep/deep sleep and measure it against productivity the following day. I have also set the alarm on the watch so no more loud alarm to wake my wife up as I get up at 5am to start my day.

Now I love my watch and i have turned off the heart rate monitoring as it consumes the battery life, all i need now is the SpO₂ monitoring and I will be happy.

editor at large

Based on this we have compiled a list of key smart watch features you should be on the lookout for

Screen

There are two key technologies with the screens : TFT, Amoled

Amoled is the more advanced and great for in sun screen visibility (great for when you are out for a run or marathon)

Other watches have larger displays that allow you to customize background pics and the likes

GPS

GPS is one of the key smartwatch features, if you ever go out running, walking or cycling and want to sync your watch to a monitoring app that will show where you were on the map then GPS is vital.

This is a key feature that separates budget watches. If you are not really into tracking your every movement on a map but still want the monitoring then a watch like the XIAOMI band 5 is a good option

Battery life

The longer the better. The end.

Okay there is a bit more to it than that and here are some of the prominent watches their battery life

Monitoring

When it comes to monitoring there are some key sensors to consider

• Blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂)
• Sleep monitoring : sleep duration, deep sleep, light sleep, and REM sleep
• PPG biosensor measures your heart rate
• Stress Monitor
• Calories monitoring

If you are looking for a watch that monitors all these then have a look at the XIAOMI SMART BAND 6

Workouts

Most watches have certain excercise/workout modes. These may include cycling, running, free training, pool swimming and open water swimming.

All these workouts require certain seonsors to be activated. There is nothing worse then going for a 50km cycle only to find out your watch is not recording the calories burnt as it senses that your arm is stationery and does not count the calories.

The standout watches here are the Huawei watch fit which has 96 Workout Modes and the XIAOMI MI fit which has 17 professional workout modes and 100 extended workout modes and can be used for triathlons, swimming and HIIT.