smart watches

Best smartwatch: the top choices you can buy in 2018

The smartwatch is the ultimate smartphone accessory. It can tell the time, of course, but it can also beam important notifications straight to your wrist, and run native apps.

What's more impressive is that many of today's best models can also perform a ton of novel tricks, such as enabling you to search the internet with your voice, tracking your exercise with GPS, and letting you check-out at the grocery store without reaching for your wallet.

Oh – and they look absolutely stunning to boot. If you're thinking that a smartwatch is a pointlessly geeky accessory... think again. These choices are well-made, powerful and can genuinely make you fitter through some smart nudges.

Choosing the smartwatch that's right for you isn't easy, but we hope to make the exciting process of getting paired up with your next (or first!) smartwatch as simple as possible.

• Feeling active
• Own an iPhone
• We've also put together a selection of the best Android Wear watches too

1. Apple Watch 3

A better connection with the world's best smartwatch

OS: watchOS 4 | Compatibility: iOS | Display: 1.53" OLED | Processor: S2 dual-core | Band sizes: Varies drastically per watch size | Onboard storage: 8GB / 16GB (Non-LTE and LTE respectively) | Battery: 18 hours | Charging method: Wireless | IP rating: IPX7 | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC

The Apple Watch 3 (or Apple Watch Series 3, if we're being picky) is the best smartwatch you can buy right now. Yes, it's essentially just the Apple Watch 2 frame with some new innards... but they make a big difference.

The LTE connection is the headline event, although that's not really as useful as some might hope - plus it costs a lot more to use, and drains the battery.

What we like is the non-LTE version, which is a lot cheaper, and offers all the smarts of the Watch 2 but with a longer battery life and faster speeds when flicking through - that's the right kind of upgrade on the best smartwatch in the world, in our opinion.

It's still water-resistant so you can swim about when using it nor worry about getting it wet in the rain when you're out for a jog.

There's GPS onboard to make running that little bit easier plus it comes running the top watchOS 4 software. 

2. LG Watch Style

The thinnest Android Wear smartwatch yet

Compatibility: Android 4.3+, iOS8.2+ | Display: 1.2" 360 x 360 P-OLED | Processor: Snapdragon Wear 2100 | Onboard storage: 4GB | Battery duration: Up to 24h | Charging method: Conductive USB charger | IP rating: IP67 | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

The LG Watch Style (built in collaboration with Google) offers everything that's to love from the best Android Wear smartwatches, ditches the dreaded flat tire, then fills in the gap with cool, useful features and a whole lot of… style.

Roll that all up and you're left with an extremely alluring presentation that makes a mighty strong argument for Google's wearable platform. But there are some familiar wrinkles here.

Battery life is still a low point, and, as independent as Android Wear 2.0 claims to be, Google is still in the early days of filling the new Play Store with compatible apps that are enticing enough to bother with aside from its own. 

The Style's appeal lies more in what it will be soon, rather than what it is at launch.

That said, it’s easy to express why the Style is the only smartwatch we want to put on our wrists. For a recently-lowered price, it offers just as much utility as prior smartwatch attempts, but ups the ante with a slim, dashing design and several welcome features, like the voice-activated Google Assistant and a refreshed user interface that's full of clever tweaks.

3. Samsung Gear Sport

The refreshed, sportier Samsung watch keeps the style

OS: Tizen OS | Compatibility: Android, iOS | Display: 1.2" 360 x 360 Super AMOLED | Processor: Dual-core 1.0GHz | Band sizes: S (105 x 65mm) L (130 x 70mm) | Onboard storage: 4GB | Battery duration: 2 days | Charging method: Wireless | IP rating: 50m | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

Despite a serious lack of original apps, the Gear Sport still merits a place on this list. It's got the same premium build we've come to expect from Samsung, has an exceptionally clear screen.

The main draw is the fact it has Spotify offline playback onboard, and combine that with the inbuilt GPS and you've got an all-in-one running watch that can supply you with millions of tracks on the go.

It's also 50m-waterproof, which means you can take this little wrist beast into the water and get swimming - and it's even compatible with iOS on top of that.

It's not got the battery life of the Gear S3, lowering the time between charges to make the whole unit a little sleeker - and with a rubberised band in the box, it's clear this a smartwatch for the fitness fans from Samsung.