Smartwatches come in all shapes, sizes and prices, so there will be a Budget Smartwatch out there for you. We have compiled a list of the most popular Best Budget SmartWatches on the market.
One thing the best budget smartwatches all have in common is that they can perform lots of tricks, like searching the internet with your voice, tracking your location with GPS or even monitoring your heart rate to protect your overall health.
The best budget smartwatch for you depends on your budgets and taste, but there are plenty of them out there that’ll track fitness and ping you with notifications without breaking your bank balance. While they may not have every feature under the sun, they’re all more than enough wrist-tech for most people.
Take a look at each smartwatch and evaluate what you personally prioritise. Do you want health and fitness features for tracking runs and sessions down at the gym, or is a smartwatch something you want to wear to work to ping you with calendar appointments? Despite the cheaper prices here, some watches will have cool functions like NFC for mobile payments and GPS for phone-less run tracking.
Amazfit Bip S
Looks like an Apple Watch, but it's not as smart
OK, this isn’t the most inventive smartwatch you’re going to find to buy in 2020, but it is one of the cheapest. In fact, it may even be the most affordable watch that is actually worth buying.
It looks quite like an Apple Watch, but this device is a whopping six times cheaper than a top-end Apple Watch Series 5 when bought brand new.
It doesn’t do anywhere near as much as the Apple Watch, but it does sport some incredible battery life at 45 days and lots of features for cyclists and runners including a heart rate sensor.
Garmin Forerunner 30
A pared-back run tracker that packs in some serious features
The Garmin Forerunner 30 is the first dedicated fitness watch you’ll find on this list, and this is mostly built for runners. It’s a device you’ll want to wear if you’re big into your jogging, but it does have some features suitable for cyclists too.
It has GPS onboard, a heart rate monitor – that we found to be accurate in our testing – and a few other features that make is stand out as one of the most affordable running watches.
It has a VO2 Max monitor, which allows you to record your fitness level over time, something that is usually reserved for top-end devices. There’s no touchscreen, but it does have a fantastic app that you use to control it.
Huawei Watch GT2e
A Huawei SmartWatch at a great price!!
The Huawei Watch’s potent mix of sport and health features and great price has seen it surge to second in the global shipments leaderboard – and it’s easy to see why.
The 1.39-inch AMOLED display is bright and clear – and you get a bunch of sport profiles including swimming (thanks to 5ATM water resistance), cycling and an excellent running experience and decent sleep tracking.
Android smartphone users can benefit from native music storage and stress tracking too but for iOS people the app feels a little under-cooked and bare.
Polar M200
Another running watch for your consideration
The Polar M200 is one of the most affordable running watches money can buy and you’ll find it includes almost all of the fitness features you’ll want from a smartwatch.
The GPS could be a little slow at times, and the design isn’t as premium as some of the other devices we’ve seen from Polar, but apart this is a solid running watch with great battery life.
This won’t offer notifications and apps like some of the other devices on this list, but if fitness is the main aim for you the Polar M200 is an affordable choice that offers a variety of top features.
Garmin Vivoactive 3
Best cheap smartwatch for sports tracking
As far as smartwatch features go, you can control your phone’s music playback from your wrist, receive notifications and benefit from NFC payments via Garmin Pay. The latter system isn’t perfect, but if Garmin can sort out bank support for its contactless payments, the Vivoactive 3 would be the perfect all-rounder.
If you can go without built-in tunes, you still have one hell of a fitness-based smartwatch on your hands. The Garmin Vivoactive 3 pretty much ticks all the boxes in this respect: it’s easy-to-use and accurate, featuring built-in GPS, an altimeter, swim tracking, a heart-rate sensor and more.
Fitbit Versa Lite
Lighter but not lesser
You’ve probably already heard of the Fitbit Versa in your search for a new smartwatch, but did you know the company now has a less feature-rich and therefore more affordable version of it? It’s called the Fitbit Versa Lite, and it’s now our best cheap smartwatch.
It isn’t the most comprehensive smartwatch experience as notifications are limited, you can’t listen to music and there’s no contactless payment tech, but all of that said, if you’re looking for an attractive timepiece that tracks your workouts as well as offering a few basic smartwatch features this may suit you.
Before you buy the Fitbit Versa Lite, we’d recommend checking prices for the Fitbit Versa. In some markets it has cost a similar amount to the Lite, and if you can get the original watch you’ll get additional features such as music and swim tracking too.
TicWatch E2
A fully-loaded Wear OS watch you’ve never heard of
One of the cheapest devices on this list, the TicWatch E2 is from a relatively small brand called Mobvoi but it has made a big splash with its latest couple of smartwatches.
The E2 is waterproof, comes with great battery life and it’s all available for an affordable price. For health, the watch comes with built-in GPS, an accurate heart rate sensor and sleep tracking. All of the fitness features you’d expect are here, but make sure you note that it won’t be able to do contactless payments as there’s no NFC onboard.
Huawei Band 3 Pro
Best cheap smart band
Do fitness bands qualify as smartwatches? They might when they’re as good as the Huawei Band 3 Pro which manages to pack in an awful lot of value into a £40 wearable.
Not only does it tell the time, track sleep and count steps as with every fitness tracker since the original Fitbit, it also manages to pack in both GPS and heart-rate sensors. On top of this, it also receives crystal-clear notifications on a seriously bright 0.95in touchscreen. The three-week battery life is very much the cherry on an already delicious cake.
TicWatch Pro
The original TicWatch Pro launched in 2018 and two years on, this 2020 refresh doesn’t rewrite the rulebook but that’s really no bad thing.
With such a feature-packed foundation, Mobvoi’s only seen fit to create a hardier and more refined design, as well as adding more memory to deliver a smoother user experience.
The dual display setup is still a very powerful standout feature in the wearable space, though. You can enjoy a fully-featured Wear OS smartwatch for three days or a simple digital watch for up to 30 days on a single charge.
Apple Watch 3
The cheapest Apple Watch right now!!
The Apple Watch 3 may not be the best piece of wristwear from the iPhone company, but it is the cheapest you can buy right now.
Apple continues to sell the Apple Watch 3, and the renewed price at its lowest ever has encouraged us to include the smartwatch on our list of the ten best again albeit right at the end.
The design is looking a little dated when compared to the Apple Watch 6 above – or the Apple Watch 4 and Apple Watch 5 – but it’s still a gorgeous piece of wristwear with a lot of the tech you’d want.
It’s also able to upgrade to the latest watchOS 7 software as well, making this a great addition to your Apple collection of gadgets. It isn’t for you if you don’t have an iPhone, but if you’re after a cheaper smartwatch this may be perfect.
For further reading see our post on Top Best Smartwatches 2020