If you’re stuck on a strict budget but want to add both form and function to your wrist, there are plenty of cheap Android smartwatches to choose from. Which you choose will depend on how you define “cheap” and whether you want a proper Android smartwatch with Wear OS or merely a smartwatch that works with your Android phone.
Suffice it to say, there are options for every type of wearable user and every budget under the sun, you just need to choose the watch that works for you.
Depending on where you’re willing to compromise — whether it’s on price, apps, fitness features, or design — you’ll be happy with at least one of the best cheap Android smartwatches available.
At a glance
1. Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
Best overall
The Galaxy Watch 5 comes complete with a 50-hour battery life, lightning-fast performance, and all of the fitness tracking features you could ever want.
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Best runner up
The Mobvoi TicWatch E3 uses an ultra-efficient Snapdragon processor to deliver premium performance for less cash. Keep an eye out for discounts.
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Best fitness smartwatch
Although it’s a few years old at this point, the Fitbit Versa 3 nevertheless delivers all of the health and fitness tracking features that the brand is known for.
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Best value
Typically retailing for less than $150, the Amazfit GTS 3 comes with onboard GPS, excellent battery life, and intelligent activity/sleep tracking capabilities.
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Best style
Sleek and durable, the Garmin Lily smartwatch delivers the looks and features of a wearable twice its price. The perfect choice for users with small wrists.
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Best fitness tracker
If you just want a simple health and fitness tracker, the Fitbit Charge 5 has everything you need, such as heart rate, SpO2, and ECG monitoring, alongside GPS and NFC support.
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Best hybrid watch
Pairing the look of a traditional timepiece with the power of a smartwatch, the Vivomove Sport comes with health and stress tracking features and up to five days of battery life.
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Best alternative
The Polar Pacer is the best cheap smartwatch that you’ve never heard of, complete with onboard GPS, a durable construction, and reliable battery life.
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Best overall
Companies often discontinue flagship devices when a newer version comes out, but Samsung didn’t stop selling the Galaxy Watch 5 once the Galaxy Watch 6 launched. Instead, Samsung discounted it to an affordable $215.99, and many retailers have it on sale for even less. Considering it launched in 2022, and the Galaxy Watch 6 vs. Galaxy Watch 5 is more competitive than you might think, there’s every reason to still buy the watch that we considered the best Android watch in the world before the Galaxy Watch 6 arrived.
Our Galaxy Watch 5 review lays out the ridiculous amount of perks you get with this watch, to explain why, at the time, we couldn’t recommend anything other than the Galaxy Watch 5 if you need a smartwatch for Android. For starters, you get a lightweight aluminum frame with IP68 water resistance and military-grade protection, so it’ll never die on you. The 40-hour battery is respectable for a lifestyle watch with this many features. Its built-in heart rate monitor, temperature sensor, Pulse Ox, ECG, and body composition tools give you a complete look at your health, from irregular heartbeats to body fat percentage. Many fitness watches cost more while offering a less holistic look at your health and not looking nearly as stylish.
The biggest catch here is that if you own one of the best Android phones not made by Samsung, you’ll miss out on things like ECG and blood pressure monitoring. But all-in-all, this is still one of the best smartwatches on market, and won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Best runner up
It’s no secret that Wear OS watches have always been a topic of debate due to so much untapped potential, but hopefully, things are changing in that arena. The TicWatch E3 is a truly affordable Wear OS watch running the powerful Snapdragon Wear 4100 chipset on 1GB of RAM, and while it’s still stuck on the old Wear OS, it should receive Wear OS 3 very soon because TicWatch has promised the update in 2023.
You get one and a half to two days of battery life per charge — respectable for a lifestyle watch — with more days added with Essential Mode. It has the same core features as the pricier TicWatch Pro 3 GPS, though that has a larger dual display with a backlight and smaller bezel, as well as a larger battery.
Our TicWatch E3 reviewer had a laundry list of positives when describing it. He noted “little to no delay in opening apps or loading up the Play Store on the watch,” something you can’t say for many fitness watches. And on that note, it has heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring for workout and sleep tracking, with the results on par with those he measured on Samsung and Amazfit watches. The 20 built-in sports modes also cover all of the essential activities most casual athletes would need.
Best fitness smartwatch
We were fully prepared to sub in the newer Fitbit Versa 4 in this slot when it launched in 2022, but it actually ditched a ton of Versa 3 features that make it such a good cheap Android smartwatch. Specifically, you have support for Google Assistant (or Amazon Alexa) as a smart assistant and a limited selection of third-party apps, including a few music apps. For now, we’re keeping the Fitbit Versa 3 as our recommendation over the Versa 4, since it’s still a great device and frequently costs less than its sticker price.
Our favorite cheap Android smartwatch doesn’t actually run Wear OS, relying instead on Fitbit OS. The Fitbit Versa 3 prioritizes health and fitness tracking over smart features, but it does offer essentials like a built-in mic and speaker to answer phone calls and speak to an assistant, plus NFC for tap-to-pay and clear Android notifications.
Beyond these tools, you receive core fitness features for getting and staying healthy, including activity/sleep tracking, heart-rate monitoring, women’s health tracking, blood-oxygen monitoring, and Active Zone Minutes. The latter tracks your overall time spent at a high level of exercise activity, as an easy way to see your weekly progress towards a fitness goal.
Best value
Amazfit might not be quite as well known as some of the other smartwatch players, but it produces stylish and affordable fitness watches that offer plenty of fitness tech at a low price. The first thing you’ll notice is the attractive design, which is both lightweight and comfortable. The Amazfit GTS 3 delivers many key features that users look for, as we covered in-depth during our review of the watch.
Some of the best features include onboard GPS, a mic, activity/sleep tracking, heart-rate monitoring, stress tracking, blood-oxygen monitoring, smartphone notifications, and Amazon Alexa built-in. Not to mention that you’ll get up to 12 days of battery life with typical usage. The convenient 4-in-1 health measurement feature lets you record your heart rate, blood oxygen, stress, and breathing rate all at once. Let’s not forget about Amazon Alexa built-in, which makes it easy to use voice commands. You can set an alarm, start a workout, check the weather, and more.
However, there’s no speaker on the watch so you won’t receive audible responses when using the voice assistant. This also means you can’t make calls on your watch. The Amazfit GTS 3 doesn’t offer NFC payments or third-party app support, either. These are drawbacks worth considering, but if you’re looking for a cheap Android smartwatch that offers unbeatable value, this is it.
If you want an even cheaper Android smartwatch, you might prefer the Amazfit GTR Mini if you prefer a circular dial. On the other hand, if you want a speaker onboard and don’t mind paying around $50 more, get the newer and improved GTS 4 with a speaker built-in instead.
Best style
Women deserve to find a cheap Android smartwatch that offers both the features and fashionable aesthetic they’re looking for. Fortunately, the Garmin Lily checks all these boxes. It comes in a small but efficient 43mm case, which is ideal for small wrists. The Sport model has an aluminum bezel and comes with a silicone band. The Classic model, which is slightly more expensive, has a stainless-steel bezel and a leather band.
As our Garmin Lily review explains, it has plenty of perks underneath its fashion-accessory surface: activity/sleep tracking, heart-rate monitoring, women’s health tracking, blood-oxygen monitoring, stress tracking, and more. And it lasts five days of juice on a single charge. Put together, it adds up to one of the best smartwatches for women, especially if style matters to you.
As a downside, its grayscale LCD isn’t quite as bright or beautiful as an AMOLED display, and you’re missing smart features like NFC payments or a mic/speaker. Garmin lets you tailor your notifications to only receive buzzes for the ones that matter and its touchscreen is more convenient than other Garmins that rely on buttons. But you’ll have to pay a lot more for something like the Garmin Venu 2 Plus to get the missing smartwatch features you may need.
Best fitness tracker
While the Fitbit Charge 5 may not look like a typical smartwatch, it certainly functions like one. If you’d prefer a compact design that’s ideal for frequent workouts, this wearable might be right up your alley. Keep an open mind, especially considering the Fitbit Charge 5 offers more health and fitness features than some of the other options on this list. It offers an AMOLED touchscreen and a full week of battery life. The sleek, refined design is an improvement from the previous models, too.
In our review of the watch, we noted the many key features you’ll have available to you, including onboard GPS, activity/sleep tracking, automatic workout recognition, heart-rate monitoring, Active Zone Minutes, and Fitbit Pay. More importantly, there are new advanced health sensors that give you more data. The electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor takes precise temperature measurements and records stress levels while the electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor monitors your heart rhythm and can detect irregular heartbeats. The Daily Readiness Score is designed to help users understand when to prioritize rest and when to be more active.
In some cases, you’d have to make some sacrifices for all these amazing features. With the Fitbit Charge 5, you’ll have to be comfortable with paying for an expensive tracker. But when you consider just how smart this fitness tracker is, that may not be a deal-breaker. This device uses new proprietary bands, so previous Fitbit Charge bands won’t work. Some of the features, like the Daily Readiness Score, require a Fitbit Premium subscription. Your purchase comes with a free trial, but once that expires, you’ll have to pay for it to keep using these perks.
Best hybrid watch
A hybrid smartwatch is another option to consider when you’re shopping for a cheap Android smartwatch. More specifically, the Garmin Vivomove Sport is worthy of your attention. This is one of the latest hybrids from Garmin and it has more to offer than you might think, as we discovered in our hands-on testing. If you love the look of a traditional timepiece, this one might be for you. It comes in a lightweight 40mm polymer case and comes in three colors, including Ivory, Cocoa, Cool Mint, and black. The battery can last for five days on a single charge and an additional day in watch mode.
The unique display is what makes this hybrid smartwatch different from others on the market. Rather than a standard E-Ink display, there’s a hidden OLED panel on the bottom half of the screen. You can wake the display by raising your wrist or double-tapping the screen. Other features include activity/sleep tracking, heart-rate monitoring, Pulse Ox, Body Battery, stress tracking, smartphone notifications, and music controls.
Whether you’re buying your first wearable or you prefer the look of a traditional watch, the Garmin Vivomove Sport is an excellent choice. It comes with the basic perks that most users need in a smartwatch. With that in mind, there aren’t any extra perks such as NFC payments or voice assistants. Additionally, you’ll have to rely on connected GPS via your smartphone to track your route during an activity. As interesting as the hidden OLED concept is, the sunlight visibility isn’t as good as it could be.
Best alternative
Runners who need a cheap Android smartwatch that offers stellar battery life will be in good hands with the Polar Pacer. You might be worried that cheap means compromise, but not in this case. The Pacer is equipped with all the features you need for a successful wearable experience. We haven’t published our Polar Pacer review yet, but our future reviewer has already laid out all of the perks and drawbacks of this watch to help you decide.
On the plus side, it has a reliable seven-day battery life even with plenty of GPS tracking, and its 40g weight and Gorilla Glass 3 scratch protection make it both comfortable and durable. Its MIP display is clearly visible in direct sunlight, and Polar’s fitness metrics are on par with Garmin’s in terms of giving you free access to all the running data you could ever want.
It’s not quite as well equipped as the Polar Pacer Pro, which is just a bit too expensive to recommend here. But as a reliable and affordable running watch alternative, the Pacer Pro is the way to go.
Plenty of amazing smartwatches cost a lot less than you think these days
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Shopping on a budget doesn’t mean you have to pass up on smartwatch ownership. While you may need to adjust your expectations and narrow the playing field a bit, there are still various cheap Android smartwatches to pick from. Think about what features you need and what type of experience you prefer. In general, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 is just about the ideal smartwatch with Wear OS 3 for any kind of user.
Are you looking for a smartwatch that can do it all with impeccable fitness tracking and impressive smartwatch perks? If so, you’ll probably find the Fitbit Versa 3 to be a perfect fit for your needs. You get nearly a full week of battery life and a slim design that’s both comfortable and attractive.
If you’re looking for something more specific, there are many other cheap Android smartwatches to consider. For example, whether you’re seeking a hybrid wearable, a watch that’s made for women, or a model that’s focused on delivering long-lasting battery life, you can find it at an affordable price with all the features you need.