And Jack should be here in just a second five. Four three reporting for duty, Miss Bree at ease soldier, so tell me about these smartwatches well smartwatches are becoming super popular with consumers. Now there are a lot more on the market than there used to be, and people are using them for everything, from tracking their workouts to keeping an eye on their texts and emails. And here at Consumer Reports, we need to test those features to make sure that they’re, both accurate and easy to use Bree is going to show me the scientific methods they used to test smartwatches. But first we’re going to warm up.
Then it’s time to pick a watch Bree, which smartwatch should I use? Why don’t you pick out whatever one you like all right, hey! I like this metal, one to begin Bree hands me a clicker in the real test. The team member uses this to manually keep track of his or her steps if you’ve ever used a smartwatch. You know one of the many things it does is count your steps.
The point of this test is to verify. If that step count is accurate. The technique is to click every time your right foot hits the ground and to walk a carefully measured course, so that the results have a scientific basis. So how do smartwatches actually record steps? Well, they use an accelerometer to track your movement and figure out exactly how many steps you’re taking are smartwatches that accurate yeah.
I mean they’ve gotten better over the years. That’S for sure they all use pretty much the same kind of technology and in our testing we found that even the most basic smartwatch can be really good at tracking steps. Bree says the step test is repeated multiple times by four different testers to verify results. Once all those numbers from both the smartwatch and clicker are collected, the data is analyzed and they grade each device’s performance, but the step test isn’t the only way they put smartwatches through their paces. In the second test team members put on a heart rate, monitor like this.
This is our top rated consumer. Heart rate monitor. This is going to allow us to check the accuracy of that smartwatch you’re wearing. I love exercising on a stationary bike, but when the test team sits in the saddle, the first thing they do is check their resting heart rate. Then the tester pedals to get his blood flowing, comparing the smartwatch measurement to the heart rate, monitor at 110, 130 and 150 beats per minute when you’re up at 150, that’s a pretty vigorous workout.
So how does a smartwatch measure heart rate? Well, smartwatches use a technology called photoplethysmogram, say what again yeah it’s. Basically the green light on the back of the watch yeah. They use that to detect blood flow and from that the watch can calculate your heart rate. Oh that’s great!
So what do we learn from all this testing? What makes a smartwatch really good? Well, good really depends on you, I mean say: you’re a runner, and you want to leave your phone behind. You need to get one with cellular, so you can stream your music and take calls while you’re out and about and say, hey you’re a swimmer. You need something: that’s full swim proof and has the apps for tracking strokes that you need.
We test watches to make sure that they will survive that dunk in the pool they also test them to see how scratch-resistant the face is and before you buy make sure that the watch has the apps that you want. Some do more than others. Bree, there’s a family that wants to ask a question: let’s ask CR: okay, hey Jack, my name is Giuliana and I really like my fitness tracker, but I was wondering what the difference between a smartwatch and a fitness tracker was. We define smartwatches as devices that can take third-party apps things like social media sites, news sites stuff like that fitness trackers generally don’t have those capabilities, but on the flip side they generally cost less Bree. The good thing is, I don’t have to go to the gym today, yeah totally, because you’ve got four more watches to test really yeah.
