Best budget smartwatches: Cheap picks under $100 – Wareable

If you’re looking for a budget smartwatch there’s never been more choice. And for the first time, cheap sub-$100/£100 smartwatches stack up as excellent options.

The likes of Amazfit and Xiaomi are making genuinely powerful smartwatches for low prices.

While top smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 8  and Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 still command top prices for features like ECG and a wide array of third-party apps, there’s an influx of cheaper devices going big on features and little on price.

If you’ve been trawling the dregs sold on Amazon, check out our guide pulled from devices we’ve tried and tested.

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro

Wareable

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Amazfit Bip 3 Pro key features

• iPhone and Android
• 44mm
• 1.69-inch, LCD
• 7 day heavy use battery life

When it comes to budget smartwatches, the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro rules the roost. We’ve been big fans of the Bip line-up since its launch back in 2020, and the Bip 3 was no disappointment.

What impressed us most is the sheer number of features – and the maturity of the app platform, which is unmatched by most budget smartwatches.

Sports tracking stacks up with smartwatches at three times the price, and if you opt for the Bip 3 Pro, you can get built-in GPS, which works accurately for outdoor runs and cycles.

There are payoffs, of course. The build quality and plastic case are pretty basic – and you get an LCD, rather than the bright AMOLED of rivals. It’s boxy and plasticky and certainly won’t attract any compliments.

But it’s also an adept fitness tracker, and the built-in heart rate sensor produces some decent insights, such as PAI activity score, heart rate analysis, and stress tracking within the Zepp Health app.

It’s a no-frills experience, but you get so much here at a truly exceptional price tag.

Oppo Watch Free

Wareable

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Oppo Watch Free key features

• iPhone and Android
• 46mm
• 1.64-inch, AMOLED
• 7-day battery heavy use

The Watch Free is Oppo’s riposte to the likes of the Huawei Watch Fit 2 – a smartwatch/fitness tracker hybrid with a focus on fitness.

It features a full AMOLED display, which is a big upgrade on the likes of the Bip 3 Pro – and improves visibility and usability. It’s adept for reading notifications and workout data.

Battery life of 14 days catches the eye, but with heavy use, advanced sleep-tracking, and SpO2 turned on, we found it was more like 4/5 days. 

When it comes to tracking your fitness and health, there’s a focus on elements such as sleep, heart rate, and continuous blood oxygen tracking.

There are 100 sports tracking modes, with some decent analysis – and importantly, solid HR accuracy on steady workouts. But there’s no GPS here, so if you want to go for a run and have it tracked accurately, you will need to take your smartphone along for the ride.

The Oppo app platform is well-presented with lots of watch faces to choose from but lacks third-party integrations, and there are no third-party apps.

Xiaomi Watch Lite

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Xiaomi Watch Lite’s key features

• iPhone and Android
• 41mm
• 1.4-inch TFT color display with a 320×320
• GPS
• 7-day typical usage

The Xiaomi Watch Lite is one of the most exciting budget smartwatches on the market, and it offers excellent value – although availability is still patchy in the US, without an official release or price there.

It boasts a 1.4-inch TFT color display with a 320×320 resolution and 5ATM water resistance. That puts it on par with the Amazfit Bip U.

It features 11 workout profiles, with running, cycling, swimming with an open water mode, trail running, trekking, and cricket tracking. You also get GPS built-in for the accurate tracking of outdoor workouts.

Battery life is also excellent and Xiaomi quotes the GPS battery life as 10 hours, and it will last seven days between charges.

There’s a heart rate monitor on board, but no SpO2, which appears on pretty much every smartwatch these days.

We’ve spent serious time with the Mi Watch Lite. While it’s not the most exciting-looking watch, it’s well-built and offers good enough screen quality for the price. Core features work well enough and it’s an easy watch to get along with.

Read our full Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite review

Amazfit GTS 2 Mini

Wareable

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Amazfit GTS 2 Mini key features

• iPhone and Android
• 40mm
• 1.55 inch, AMOLED
• GPS
• 14-day battery life

We need to preface this entry by stating that the Amazfit GTS 4 Mini is now available – and we’re working to review this ASAP. It’s not a huge upgrade on the GTS 2 Mini we reviewed below, and the GTS 2 is available at bargain prices.

The build of the GTS 2 Mini is a little more stylish than the Bip 3 Pro, and you get a superior AMOLED display.

The case materials are better and it’s a smaller watch too. It’s only $20/£20 more than the Bip 3 Pro, and we think it’s worth that little bit extra.

In terms of sports tracking, there are 60 workout profiles built-in, and you get the same feedback in the Zepp app – plus support for third-party APIs such as Strava. It’s compatible with Android and iPhones offering smartwatch basics like notification support and will track your daily activity and sleep with reliable results.

Battery life is officially a whopping 14 days – we found much less with real-world use, but it’s good for more than a week.

Poco Watch

€79 ($84/£66) | Poco, Power Plant Online

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Poco Watch key features

• iPhone and Android
• 1.6-inch AMOLED, 320 x 260ppi
• CASE SIZE
• GPS
• 14 days of’ typical’ use

A clone of the Mi Watch Lite and Redmi Watch 2 – the Poco Watch brings an AMOLED display with a 1.6-inch, 320 x 260ppi resolution to the party. And it even has an optional always-on display, which is very rare at this price point.

It’s compatible with Android and iOS smartphones bring 100 fitness modes and has GPS built-in, so it can track outdoor workouts.

There’s a heart rate monitor that unsurprisingly produced some iffy results in our testing, but for those looking for basic tracking of workouts, we found solid distance tracking when the GPS was used.

There’s also some decent health tracking, with slightly over-generous sleep tracking, but reasonable accuracy for a device at this price.

Poco touts that the 225mAh capacity battery can last up to 14 days in ‘typical usage mode’. From our real-world testing, we’d say it’s about seven days – half of Poco’s estimate. But that’s still a decent return, and those who don’t work out much will get more.

Overall, the Poco Watch is an impressive performer offering excellent value for money. It comes recommended.

Redmi Watch 2 Lite

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Redmi Watch 2 Lite key features

• iPhone and Android
• 41mm case
• 1.5-inch, 320×360 TFT
• GPS
• 10 days (5 days heavy use)

The Redmi Watch 2 Lite is a square smartwatch option from the Xiaomi spin-off company that offers a strong feature set for both Android and iPhone users.

It’s a little easier to get in the UK than it is in the US right now though.

Design-wise, it shares a close resemblance with the Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite we’ve also tested, but it offers a 41mm matte plastic case with a 1.5-inch, 320×360 TFT display that’s generally up to the task in terms of viewing angles and responsiveness.

For smartwatch features, you’re getting notifications, the ability to download watch faces, control music playing on your phone, and view weather updates. While interacting with the screen has its laggy moments, it’s software that is easy to get to grips with.

When it comes to tracking your fitness, there’s a heart rate monitor, blood oxygen monitoring, and support for GPS,

It also tracks swims too, with 5ATM water resistance.

If you’re a Strava user, you can also fire your workout data over to the third-party app. You’re also getting something that will simply track steps and monitor sleep and it does it in a largely reliable way.

Battery life is anywhere from up to 10 days in typical use to 5 days in heavy usage and it did live up to those numbers in our testing.

The Redmi Watch 2 Lite impressed us in our testing, but for US readers, availability is patchy. There’s no official release there like we’ve seen in the UK/Europe, but sites like Ali Express are listing a global version with international shipping.

Read our full Redmi Watch 2 Lite review

TicWatch GTH

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TicWatch GTH key features

• iPhone and Android
• 43mm
• 1.55-inch 360 x 320 LCD panel
• 10 days

TicWatch has doubled down on budget smartwatches, and its GTH goes big on health.

It’s not much of a looker with a plastic case and a display set inside a sizeable black frame and bezel. It uses a 1.55-inch 360 x 320 LCD panel, so the display is quite basic compared to the AMOLED you’ll find on the Amazfit GTS 2 Mini, though on par with the Bip U Pro.

It has 14 exercise profiles on board, including walking, indoor and outdoor running, indoor and outdoor cycling, jump rope, swimming, rowing, freestyle exercise, mountain climbing, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, and yoga.

But there is no GPS, which means this tracking of outdoor activity lags devices such as the Amazfit Bip U Pro mentioned higher up.

The real appeal here is that it can continuously monitor heart rate, stress, body temperature, and blood oxygen levels. There are few watches at this price that offer that continuous monitoring.

As a smartwatch, it’s pretty basic and the notification support is a bit archaic. The health monitoring features work well, though they didn’t win us over heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking.

We should mention that there is now a newer TicWatch GTH Pro, which offers upgraded health features in the way of being able to track arterial health and monitor factors that could potentially lead to heart disease.

We haven’t been able to test the Pro out just yet, so we’ll include the original GTH for now.

Read our full TicWatch GTH review

Realme Watch S

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Realme Watch S’s key features

• iPhone and Android
• 1.3-inch, 360 x 360 touchscreen AMOLED
• 15-day typical usage

Realme’s second budget smartwatch is a much more polished affair than the first with a round design and AMOLED display.

Front and center is a 1.3-inch, 360 x 360 touchscreen AMOLED display, so it looks like the business, even if it’s lacking under the hood.

There’s no GPS, and only boasts an IP68 water-resistant rating, which unfortunately means it’s not suitable for swimming or showering. That’s slightly unusual, even in the budget smartwatch world.

Despite the lack of GPS, you do get 16 sports profiles, including running, cycling, table tennis, basketball, and indoor rowing and cycling.

There’s an optical heart rate sensor that tracks resting heart rate and measure effort levels during workouts. It can also take blood oxygen measurements using the SpO2 sensor.

On the battery front, you’ve got a 390mAh capacity that Realme claims can get you up to 15 days before you need to reach for the charger.

It’s not shaking it with the Amazfit army, at similar prices to the Bip U Pro, and US availability is shady.

Read our full Realme Watch S review

Amazfit Neo

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Amazfit Neo’s key features

• iPhone and Android
• 40mm
• 1.2-inch STN black and white display
• 28-day battery

The Amazfit Neo isn’t a full-fat smartwatch like the rest of the watches on this list, but if you like the idea of owning a hybrid watch with real retro styling that packs in a surprising amount of features that work well, we think it’s worth taking a look at the Neo.

The 40mm plastic case keeps things light with a 1.2-inch STN black and white display controlled by four physical buttons. That display is split up into sections to show off heart rate data, and weather forecasts, and get pinged when a notification lands on your paired phone.

It also tracks steps and sleeps and motion sensor-based tracking for running, walking and cycling. That’s topped off with up to 28 days of battery life even with continuous heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking in use.

It’s a basic smartwatch experience, but it works surprisingly well. If you like the idea of simple smartwatch features packaged into a retro design, don’t discount the cheap Amazfit Neo.

Read our full Amazfit Neo review