The budget smartwatch segment in India has grown quite a bit in recent years. The primary reason is the advent of affordable smartwatches in the below Rs. 10,000 price segment.
These budget fitness watches are primarily fancy-looking fitness trackers as they lack the option of installing third-party apps, and the ability to reply to messages independently or rarely have advanced features. But you really don't need all that if you want a no-nonsense watch that supports every feature that you would actually need.
Though apart from integrating most fitness-focused features, these smartwatches offer extremely long battery life which most full-blown smartwatches would envy.
Other features that you can easily find are an AMOLED display for more vividness, built-in GPS, more accurate heart rate, and SpO2 sensors. Additionally, you will easily find many sports modes to help you get started with a workout regime.
Bluetooth calling has emerged as a must have requirement among consumers looking for a budget smartwatch, a feature that was reserved for watches priced much higher previously.
Customizing the watch faces according to your preference is an added advantage. Most in this price segment also support voice assistants like Alexa and built-in storage to store music.
We have compiled a list of smartwatches that offer great features at a value-for-money range. The list includes smartwatches from Realme, Amazfit, and Xiaomi.
The price cap means we are primarily looking at affordable smartwatches whilst eliminating most of the premium watches that run on Wear OS, Samsung Galaxy watches, and Apple watches.
In this list, we have smartwatches from Amazfit, Realme, Fire-Boltt and Xiaomi in this list; here are the best smartwatches under Rs. 10,000.
The Amazfit GTS 2 Mini is a watered-down version of the GTS 2 with sacrifices of a few features. You get a 1.55-inch AMOLED which is bright and colorful. It comes with an array of health and fitness features, including packing Huami’s latest BioTracker health sensor and SpO2 monitor.
For sports tracking, built-in GPS performs well in general and it is also compatible with third-party apps like Strava. There’s a nice collection of customizable watch faces as well. It misses out on features like voice assistant, built-in music player, and ability to take Bluetooth calls as seen on the GTS 2. In terms of battery life, you get about a week between charges.
The Amazfit GTS 2e is a slightly lower-specced version of the Amazfit GTS 2e. It is a compact smartwatch that gives you a lot of features for the money. With a bright OLED display, good battery life, and a raft of impressive workout tracking tools.
The GTR 2e is packed with a 1.39-inches AMOLED screen with a circular design while the GTS 2e comes in a square design and brings in a larger 1.65-inch AMOLED panel. The new GTR 2e and GTS 2e come with only Bluetooth 5.0 support and exclude Wi-Fi connectivity. As for the sensors, the wearables offer BioTracker 2 PPG heart rate sensor and it also supports a SpO2 monitor which measures your blood oxygen level.
The sleep monitoring will determine the sleep stage such as light sleep, deep sleep, REM. It also can track daytime naps over 20 minutes. They also come with an in-built microphone with support for voice assistants. However, there is no speaker on board. The watch mirrors all notifications from the phone.
The latest smartwatch from Realme, Realme Watch 3 Pro is a stunner. It comes with a 1.78-inch AMOLED display with a square dial, which supports always-on-display. Realme flaunts the refresh rate of the display, 50 to 60FPS and also calls it retina-grade on the sales page. You get a peak brightness of 500 and a collection of over 100 watch faces and an always-on display feature. The wearable is packed with a 345mAh battery which is said to last up to 10 days.
As for fitness tracking, it offers 110+ sports modes including cycling, cricket, football, running, swimming, strength training, and more. With its inbuilt standalone GPS, users can leave their phones behind and continue tracking their sessions. Sensors include heart-rate monitoring, SpO2 blood oxygen saturation levels, a gyroscope, and an advanced 6-axis accelerometer.
There is also support for Bluetooth calling feature, a highly sought-after feature in smartwatches. Other smart features include calls, notification mirroring, music control, camera shutter remote, drink reminder, sleep monitor, and more.
Fire Boltt shot up in popularity recently, becoming the number 1 smartwatch brand in the country now. Fire Boltt Invincible is Fire Boltt's flagship smartwatch. And it features the best the brand offers. It has every feature you want in a smartwatch, but without the premium pricing even though it is the brand's flagship offering.
It comes with a 1.39-inch AMOLED display with a 454x454px resolution. And it is having 2.5D curved glass. It also supports always-on-display mode.
Bluetooth calling feature is supported, with calling and receiving calls on the watch with its built-in mic and speaker. You can call from the watch and even save up to 200 contacts on the watch.
The watch has 8GB of internal memory, which can be used to store songs in the watch. And the music can be connected to any TWS via Bluetooth. There is support for 100 in-built watch faces and it also supports 200 watch faces in the cloud.
Fire Boltt Invincible comes with SpO2 monitoring, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, blood pressure monitoring and meditative breathing. There are 100 sports modes. The watch comes with a battery life of 7 days as claimed by the brand.
The Mi Watch Revolve Active is Xiaomi’s second smartwatch in India which is priced less and also offers a better set of features. It includes over 100 fitness-tracking modes, along with built-in GPS, and a 1.39-inch AMOLED display with 450 nits peak brightness, Alway on Display. You get two crown buttons on the side to navigate across the UI.
The Mi Watch Revolve Active is perfect for those who want to keep an eye on their health and fitness, without needing nuanced and detailed breakdowns of their wellness. The watch also lasts long which is rated to last up to14 days on a single charge.
The Amazfit T-Rex features a rugged design, decent battery life, and solid activity tracking. It offers a lot that others don’t, such as a big AMOLED display and military-grade ruggedness.
Huami says the T-Rex is built to military standards, so it can withstand freezing temperatures and extremely humid ones. It also bears a waterproof rating that means you can take it swimming up to 50 meters deep.
There’s built-in GPS, a heart rate monitor, the sensors to track activities indoors along with additional outdoor metrics, and there’s swim tracking support too. There are 14 sport modes in total. There’s a 390mAh capacity battery that should deliver 20 days of life.
Best smartwatches under Rs 10,000
