What Is the Difference Between a Smart Watch and a Fitness Tracker?

difference between a smart watch and a fitness tracker

Technology has taken root in the modern world. Technological revolutions are dramatically influencing the current way of life of many people. In the world of wearable tech, fitness trackers and smartwatches are the must-have devices for every individual. Going by the smartwatches’ numbers today, we can conclude that wearable tech is slowly taking the show.

Health and fitness wearable technologies are not new in the world. However, today these devices come as standalone or as wearable devices like the fitness tracker and smart watches. These devices tend to confuse many people because both perform almost similar functions. Let’s understand the difference between a smart watch and a fitness tracker.

What is the Difference Between a Smart Watch and a Fitness Tracker?

A smart watch is a wearable standalone gadget worn on the wrist and can act as a regular watch alongside. Smart watches work almost the same way as your smartphones do. They feature LED touchscreens and come with the capabilities to measure your heart rate and other vital signs.

According to https://massagerhouse.com/activ8-fitness-tracker-review Smart watches also feature a fitness tracker. Hence, can be used for monitoring one’s fitness progress. Consequently, you can use a smart watch like your smartphone with the help of your smart watch screen.

Consequently, a fitness tracker is a device used to track and record your daily exercises that are geared towards achieving fitness. Whether you want to measure your running distance, heart rate, and sleep patterns, this device has you covered.

You can wear a fitness tracker either on the wrist or other places within your body. It works like a smartwatch but features other related capabilities. Consequently, you can also check the calories burned by your fitness tracker.

Even if both devices are standalone, they offer multiple functions but for different reasons. A fitness tracker is a standalone device that keeps you in the best shape through your daily exercises and physical activities. On the other hand, a smart watch is a combination of a fitness tracker, a smartphone, and a wrist watch.

As similar as these two devices can be, we have notable differences between the two devices. Let’s dig deep and get the difference between a smart watch and a fitness tracker. In the comparison we shall look at a fewaspects like their features, purpose, price, display, and battery life.

Purpose

We can say that a smartwatch is a wearable multipurpose device with fitness-tracking capabilities in terms of its purposes. It also has other functions like showing call notifications, text messages, and email notifications from your smartphones. You can also access your phone applications with a smart watch.

Consequently, a fitness tracker is a device used to track your fitness-related data like your heart rate and steps. Purposely a fitness tracker is designed to ensure that you are always in the best shape by monitoring your physical activities.

Display Technology

A smart watch has more advanced technology because it is a multipurpose device. A good number of smart watches feature a backlit LCD similar to those display technologies that smartphones use. The latest smartwatches have incorporated the AMOLED display identical to the one that the latest Samsung smartphones have.

Other smart watches use the Passive-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (PMOLED) in their display screens. On the other hand, fitness tracker companies don’t give the display technology much attention. This is because fitness trackers only concentrate on tracking your fitness only. However, the new Fitbit Charge 3 fitness tracker is known to use the OLED display.

Battery Life

When comparing the battery life of the smart watch and a fitness tracker, there is a great difference. They feature a great difference mainly because of their uses. You will realize that a smart watch hardly maintains on after a day. This is because it utilizes many applications and works like smartphones.

On the other hand, a fitness tracker can keep its battery for about five days before recharging. The reason is that it only focuses on fitness tracking so that no other application will consume its power.

Price

Price is another crucial point that determines their difference. Here the smartwatches take the show when we are looking the most expensive. Their price is affected by features like their functions and the quality of materials that make them. 

At around $150, you can purchase your Fitbit Alta HR. If you want a Fitbit Charge, you will require at least $149. That price applies to a fitness tracker. When you want to buy your entry-level smart watch, you need at least $250.

For the case of high-end watches like the Samsung Gear S3, you need at least $349. You can see how expensive this budget is. As if that is not enough, those Apple product lovers will require at least $399 to purchase their Apple smart Watch series 4.

You can therefore note that there is a huge difference between the smart watch and a fitness tracker. A fitness tracker is cheap when compared with a smart watch, but both of them are worth having.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that both the smart watch and a fitness tracker are necessary standalone devices. They are designed to perform specific functions. However, from our discussion about the difference between a smart watch and a fitness tracker, we know they are different. Their difference comes when comparing aspects like their prices and the functions they perform. 

For the workout enthusiasts, you can go for the fitness tracker since it focuses on keeping track of your shape. Consequently, if you want a smart watch, you will likely get multiple services like accessing your phone apps.

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About the Author: Kabbyik

Kabbyik Mitra, a voracious reader and health writer. He is a health & lifestyle journalist. Kabbyik is a yoga enthusiast practicing yoga for last 7-year. He is a certified yoga therapist, a science writer, communicator and journalist. He has been practicing yoga and training people to live a healthy and happy life. Get in touch with him via email: yogatoall2016@gmail.com for any yoga related queries.

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