Whether you’re swapping out an aging wearable or are brand new to smartwatches, Amazon Prime Day is a good time to get a deal on an Apple Watch. The discounts extend to two of the three models in Apple’s current lineup including the flagship Apple Watch Series 8 and the more affordable Apple Watch SE — both of which are seeing their biggest discounts ever. (The premium Apple Watch Ultra isn’t discounted as of right now.) Options from other brands like Samsung and Fitbit are also on sale. We’ve also included some of our recommended fitness trackers that are seeing Prime Day discounts. Here are the best Prime Day deals on Apple Watches, smartwatches and fitness trackers that we could find.
Apple Watch Series 8
The Apple Watch Series 8 is the brand’s most recent flagship and usually sells for $399 for the 41mm GPS model. Prime Day brings it down to $280, which is the best price we’ve seen. The Series 8 is our top pick in our guide to smartwatches because it combines detailed health and fitness tracking with seamless iPhone integration. New features include temperature sensors, ECG and blood oxygen readings, crash detection, and improved sleep metrics. The upcoming WatchOS 10 will bump the utility even more with widgets plus expanded health, fitness and mindfulness features.
We spent some time with the Apple Watch 8 when it came out late last year and called it “well-rounded [and] fully featured.” Apple claims an 18-hour battery life with average use and the always-on display enabled. Low-power mode (which we found particularly impressive) can give you up to 36 hours. If you want to make calls, get texts and more when you don’t have your phone, you may want to get the model with cellular capabilities. Those versions are down to $380 for both case sizes.
Read our hands-on experience with the Apple Watch Series 8.
Apple Watch SE (44mm, GPS)
The most affordable smartwatch in the lineup is the Apple Watch SE. The 40mm case size went out of stock for a bit, but has returned and is just $200 for Prime members, which is the lowest price we’ve ever seen on the wearable. The larger 44mm case is also on sale. It’s usually $279, Prime Day discounts are making it just $230. We called the SE “the best smartwatch $250 can buy” in our Engadget review. It uses the same processor, matches the 50 meter water resistance and looks nearly identical to the Apple Watch 8, though the SE lacks dust resistance and the always-on display. It also can’t give blood oxygen, temperature and EKG readings. But if you don’t need those things, you can save money while still getting plenty of fitness and health data along with seamless integration with your iPhone.
Our reviewer Cherlynn Low notes that Apple made surprisingly few sacrifices with the SE and named it “the best smartwatch for the money.” In fact, in the wrap up to her Apple Watch 8 coverage, she said if she were shopping for herself, the SE is the watch she’d buy.
The cellular models are also on sale for Prime Day. The GPS plus cellular model lets you take calls, text and stream music even when your iPhone isn’t with you. The 40mm SE with cellular is usually $299, but is now $250. And the 44mm size with cellular is $280 instead of $329.
Read our full review of the Apple Watch SE.
Smartwatches from other brands
Not all smartwatches are made by Apple. Here are a few smartwatches we’ve tested from other brands — all of which are on sale for Prime Day.
Google Pixel Watch
Prime Day is discounting the Google Pixel Watch to $250 for Prime members, which is a $100 off and the lowest price we’ve seen. Google’s first smartwatch only got a 74 in our Engadget review, but it’s a beautifully designed wearable with plenty of useful watch faces and speedy Assistant responses. Our main gripes were with the short battery life and software issues like awkward Fitbit integration — things that the upcoming launch of Wear OS 4 might fix.
We did appreciate the variety and utility of the faces the Pixel Watch offers. After Google bought Fitbit, the company poured the wellness tracking into its new watch. While we think Fitbit offers some of the best wellness-tracking capabilities around, the integration between the watch and the Fitbit app is not as speedy as it should be just yet.
Read our full review of the Google Pixel Watch.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
Of course, Apple Watches only work with iPhones. For those who prefer Android devices, the Galaxy Watch 5 is our top recommendation in our smartwatch guide. Usually $280, it’s currently $151, which is a 46 percent off. Samsung’s latest wearables run on Google’s Wear OS and gives you plenty of health data and fitness tracking along with sleep coaching and body composition analysis.
The Galaxy Watch 5 is a modest update over the previous generation, but it still earned a score of 85 in our review, since the previous generation was already pretty good. This time around, the build is stronger, the battery life is longer and the curved case back makes better contact with your wrist for more reliable readings.
Read our full review of the Galaxy Watch 5.
Fitbit Versa 2
The Fitbit Versa 2 is the budget pick in our smartwatch guide and down to $140 for Prime Day. Fitbit devices have always been fitness-focused and the Versa 2 tracks and auto-detects a slew of different workouts giving you plenty of data. But since it’s a smartwatch, it can play Spotify, has Alexa built in and brings your phone notifications and hundreds of apps to your wrist. It’s also device agnostic, pairing up with either iPhones or Android devices, something that can’t be said for Apple’s wearables.
The battery can last six days without the always-on display turned on (but only around two days with that feature enabled). Since it doesn’t need a recharge every night, you can take advantage of the sleep tracking features and get a sleep score each morning. Fitbit’s Premium membership is required to get a Daily Readiness score and a breakdown of your sleep score, but the subscription also includes sleep content from Calm.
Read our full review of the Fitbit Versa 2.
Fitness Trackers
If all you need is something to reliably track your workouts, fitness trackers are cheaper and tend to have a longer battery life than smartwatches. Here are the picks we recommend that are on sale for Prime Day.
Fitbit Charge 5
The Fitbit Charge 5 is our favorite overall tracker, and is currently $100 or $50 off its usual price. Fitness trackers aren’t as fully featured as smartwatches, but that typically means they have a longer battery life and cost a little less. We like the Charge 5 for its comprehensive activity tracking and health monitoring that comes in a thin profile with a multi-day battery life. It also pairs with both Apple and Android phones.
Built-in GPS accurately tracks runs, bike rides and hikes and the bright OLED screen has an always-on mode which may make it easier to track your progress as you work out (though that feature affects the battery life). The Charge 5 also has heart rate sensors and stress-detecting EDA monitors for deeper insights into your health.
Read our full review of the Fitbit Charge 5.
Fitbit Inspire 3
Our favorite budget fitness tracker is Fitbit’s Inspire 3 and Prime Day is making it even more affordable with a 20-percent discount that makes it just $80 rather than $100. It doesn’t have built-in GPS, but if you bring your phone along, its connected GPS capabilities will give you all the same data. It does offer monitoring for your heart rate, blood oxygen and skin temperature variations.
The Inspire 3 hit the claimed 10-day battery life in our tests, which is particularly useful for sleep monitoring. Fitbit also makes different swappable bands to personalize the wearable to your tastes.
Check out our full guide to fitness trackers.
Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for the best Amazon Prime Day tech deals. Learn about Prime Day trends on In the Know. Hear from Autoblog’s car experts on must-shop auto-related Prime Day deals and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.
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