Smart Watches

Pick a Watch That Works With Your Phone

Naturally, the first thing you'll want to consider when buying a smartwatch is compatibility.

All Apple Watch models run watchOS, Apple's smartwatch operating system, and connect strictly to iOS-powered devices, meaning they're iPhone-only. The Series 7, Apple's latest flagship model, requires an iPhone 6s or later, running iOS 15 or later.

Samsung's latest smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch4 and Watch4 Classic, run the new Wear OS platform, and only work with Android. They require a smartphone running Android 6.0 or later with 1.5GB of RAM, a departure from 2020's Watch3, which also worked with iPhones. 

All the other models on this list work with both Android and iOS smartphones.

The Best Smartwatch Apps

What separates a smartwatch from a dumb watch? Lots of things, but as smartphones have taught us, apps might be the most important.

Most of the watches we like feature full-fledged app stores, bringing everything from Spotify and Yelp to—yes, a calculator—to your wrist. Much like smartphones, app availability is a good way to determine which product to get, so make sure to check out the app selection for each watch before buying in.