Records have made a resurgence in recent years, so now there's a lot more choice when it comes to finding a record player. And the choices can be confusing.

I've put in the work to find out — and at the end of my vinyl journey, I've found that the characterful Rega Planar 1 Plus is the best turntable around for most people.

It's well priced, it sounds excellent, and thanks to the built-in pre-amp, you can use it with your Sonos system. I also think it's one of the best-looking Turntables you can buy today. Apart from, perhaps, my pick for the best premium turntable — the Rega Planar 3 RS and its metal-covered plinth look stunning.

I've rounded up my favorite record players available right now, from portable powerhouses for outdoor listening to customizable heroes, like the U-Turn Orbit Special. If you're looking for an all-in-one package that contains everything you need to get spinning, then make sure you check out the Pro-Ject Colorful Audio System — It's one of the best things I've tested.

Remember that Vinyl is completely analog as well — to that end, there are certain devices to keep things clean and to get the best sound, that you should also invest in.

Meet the testing team

Record players — what does it all mean?

Despite their burgeoning popularity, there's an awful lot of complex language surrounding turntables and their functions. If you don't know your cartridge from your lift arm, I'm here to help.

Platter
This is what your record sits on, and lets your record spin. The material it's made out of can affect the sound of the player — ideally, you want something heavy that's not going to resonate with vibrations. Glass is considered excellent, although most are plastic or cast metal.

Plinth
This is the surface that the platter and the rest of the player sit on. You want this to be isolated from vibration as much as possible, so you'll often find vibration-damping feet underneath.

Tonearm
This is where all the magic happens — it's the long arm that you move over the record. These can be made of metal, or even more exotic materials like Carbon Fiber. You want this to be as light as possible, but also very rigid.

Cartridge
You'll find this at the end of the tone arm. It houses the audio wizard bits that take the wiggly groove on your record and make it into a sound. These are sometimes upgradeable.

Stylus
This is the bit that sits on the record and reads the groove for the cartridge. There are different kinds of styluses, but the most common you'll find are conical and elliptical. These get worn out over time and need replacing after a certain number of uses. Sometimes called a needle.

Best turntable overall

Rega is a household name in my native U.K., making excellent turntables since the 1970s. The Planar 1 Plus is the brand's level deck, and it includes a phono pre-amp so that you can get up and running straight out of the box.

It's a manually operated turntable, so it needs a bit more work than the other models on the list, but that results in a very tactile, satisfying experience. It's not too fiddly either, thanks to some excellent design touches.

In my mind, one of the best bits about the player is the way that it looks. The Walnut finish I tested looked far more premium than its price would suggest, and fitted in well with more expensive equipment.

Sound is really where it's at, though. Rega is all about energy, and the Planar 1 Plus has boundless enthusiasm when you get spinning. It's a beautiful deck, and sounds better and more characterful than anything else in its price range.

There are decks that sound better and cost a whole lot more than those with more money and stronger audiophile tendencies will like slightly more (mostly from Rega). But the package you get here is undeniably incredible.

Design
The Rega Planar 1 Plus is a very simple turntable. From the top, the only thing you see is the tone arm mechanism and the "Rigid phelonic resin platter" onto which you place your records.

There are a couple of color options. The Walnut I tested is a veneer on top of MDF, and then there are Black and White Matte options. Whichever you choose looks great, although I'm partial to the wood-like finish of the Walnut deck.

It sits on three damped feet to mitigate vibrations, and the clear dust cover slips over the top. The hinge mechanism is part of the lid itself, so you don't notice the slots as much if you don't want to use it.

Setting up
Everything is nice and easy with the Planar 1 Plus. You lift the platter from the deck, where you'll find the belt pre-attached to the spindle. Pull the belt from the spindle to the motor, and then put the platter back on top.

The tonearm is easy to set up as well. The counterweight comes separately in the box, but you don't need to adjust it to get it working. Just slide it onto the end of the tone arm.

Plug in the power cable and the RCA connectors of your chosen speaker system, and you're away. If you're using an amp with a phono channel, make sure you don't use it. Instead, use a line input.

Ease of use
As a completely manual turntable, it's slightly more involved to use. You'll need to change the speed by lifting the platter and changing the position of the belt on the motor. It's then hidden again by the platter.

Otherwise, it's the same as another turntable. Turn it on with the switch on the lower left-hand corner, raise the queuing lever, and then move the tonearm over the record. Lower the queuing lever. When the record is finished, there is no auto stop — you'll need to raise the arm with the queuing lever and bring it back to rest.

There's a helpful clip on the tonearm rest, so there's no chance of accidentally knocking it out of place.

Sound
This is where the Rega Planar 1 Plus really sings. There's some excellent detail and resolution out of the homegrown Rega cartridge, and the built-in phono pre-amp takes a great signal and keeps it excellent before it reaches your amplifier or speakers.

It's perhaps lean, edging on the side of energetic as opposed to muscular, but it sounds excellent no matter what you play it through. I found a turntable that sounded better than its price would suggest, with plenty of control and engagement.

Dua Lipa got me dancing, and Bloodbath got me headbanging — I couldn't ask for more.

• Read the full Rega Planar 1 Plus review

Best turntable under $1000

Fluance is generally known for making fairly solid budget-oriented decks. They don’t set the world on fire, but neither do they intend to. That’s until the RT87 — this is a premium turntable in all but price, and it feels mighty impressive when you spin those black discs.

The floating plinth design not only looks cool, but serves to reduce pesky vibrations that can get in the way of listening. The acrylic platter is thick and weighty, again reducing vibrations. There’s a carbon fibre tonearm, and loads of extras to make this turntable feel like it's worth a whole lot more than its price might suggest.

The sound is, as you might expect, excellent. You’ll need a phono pre-amp, mind you — this model doesn’t have a built-in option. That does drive the price up, but it doesn’t dampen the luster of this otherwise exquisite piece of audio kit. Just remember to unscrew the transport screws (I initially did not — queue disapointment).

All things taken into consideration — and our very few critisms out of the way — the RT87 is one of the best turntables you can buy right now. The only reasons its not further up the list is because it’s just a bit too expensive if you’re starting your vinyl journey. Otherwise, this would be a shoe-in.

Design
There’s only one thing that I’d hold against the RT87 — it attracts dust and fingerprints from across the room thanks to its otherwise very lovely gloss finish. Other than that, this is a wonderfully styled piece of audio equipment.

The dual-layer floating plinth has to be seen to be believed — that is a proper gap between those two pieces of wood, and it looks epic in person. Add on that lovely wood finish that we’ve got on ours, and you’ve the recipe for a fine turntable design.

The carbon fibre tonearm and acrylic platter are both fine details that nail home the look. It feels and looks like it could be worth more than a grand, but costs $200 less. Impressive indeed.

Setting up
Thanks to its floating plinth, there’s a little extra work to do here. First, you’re going to unscrew the transport screws that secure the two parts of the plinth so that they don’t come apart during shipping. That allows the plinth to float.

Now you’re onto the normal stages of turntable setup. Run the belt around the platter and the motor pulley — there’s no slot on the platter, so it can be a pain. Once on, though, you won’t be moving it thanks to the electronic speed control.

Then you need to balance the tonearm, which is much easier than it sounds. Dial in the tracking force, and then you just need to plug the cables in the back. Then you can listen to your favorite records.

Ease of use
This is a manual deck, but it's still relatively easy to use. You’re going to be raising and lowering the tonearm yourself, and placing the needle onto the record depending on the track you want to play — or whether you want to just listen to the whole thing.

Speed control is electronic, so you select your speed by turning the power knob to your chosen RPM. Then you use the cueing lever to raise the tonearm. Move the tonearm over the record, and lower it with the cueing lever to play the record.

Once you’ve finished, make sure you lift the tonearm and move it back to the rest position. There is an auto-stop mechanism, but you should turn it off — otherwise your stylus will sit, unmoving in the runout groove. That’s not good. Better you just watch the record before it completely finishes, and move the tonearm back yourself.

Sound
The chainsaw guitars of death metal, the disco bass from one Dua Lipa — there are few things the RT87 doesn’t excel at playing. I was particularly a fan of the soundstage the turntable played — it was very open and airy.

There’s perhaps a little missing in the low end, and it can come across as treble-heavy, but it still sounds incredible.

• Read the full Fluance RT87 review

Best premium turntable

Another Rega deck, and for very good reason. The Planar 3 RS isn’t the brand's most expensive or impressive deck, but it balances price with performance better than just about any other deck you buy right now.

Just like the Planar 1 Plus above, the Planar 3 RS is a fully manual deck. The speed controller is a separate device, to avoid electronic interference with the sound. The motor is a little noisy on startup, but it very quickly settles down to a constant, accurate speed.

You will need a phono pre-amp with the Planar 3 RS, but the sound from the deck itself is top-notch. Rega’s High Pressure Laminate not only looks incredible, but adds rigidity to the plinth. The plinth itself features phenolic resin pockets in high-rigidity areas to decrease vibrations. It’s all in the pursuit of great sound.

All in all, the Planar 3 RS is one of the most special turntables you can buy today. Sure, it's not cheap, and yes, some aren’t going to appreciate the entirely manual operation, but its undeniable style and spectacular sound should land it a spot on your shortlist.

Design
Just look at it. That stunning aluminum-smothered plinth, with a lovely brushed metal finish. The glass platter that pulls double duty in reducing vibrations and looking super stylish. On the surface, it's very simple — but it hides a heart of pure audiophile bliss.

That circle punch section looks cool, but below that, there’s phenolic resin to make sure the juncture between tone arm and motor is as vibration-free as possible. The lovely aluminum coating adds rigidity, again keeping unwanted vibrations at bay.

The Planar 3 RS is a statement piece. It sticks out a lot more as a piece of enthusiast hardware, and mileage will vary. I think it's one of the most attractive decks you can buy right now, of course.

Setting up
Setting up the Planar 3 RS takes a little longer than some other decks, but it's no great ordeal. First, you’ll want to get the small belt around the spindle and the motor. From there, you can place the glass platter down over the spindle.

Now, you’ll need to set up the tone arm. Everything comes separately, so you’ll need to add the counterweight to the tone arm and balance everything properly. Balance the tone arm, and set the tracking force with the dial on the side.

Now you need to plug everything in. It’s super easy — just connect the power supply and speed controller to the wall, and then connect that to the turntable. Then, connect the pre-attached RCA cables to your phono pre-amp. It’s all a little more involved than other options, but still simple enough.

Ease of use
As with most modern turntables that aim to make the best sound possible, the Planar 3 RS is a completely manual deck. That means you have to lift the tone arm yourself, and carefully choose tracks if you want to skip around an album.

Still, it's a straightforward turntable to use. Press the power button on the speed controller to get the platter spinning, and then choose your speed with the other button. Raise the queuing lever, and move the tone arm over the record. Lower the tonearm onto the record with the queueing lever. Once the record is finished, lift the tonearm with the queuing lever.

When you’re not listening to a record, don’t worry about the tonearm falling out of place or being knocked — there’s a helpful clip to keep it in place.

Sound
I’m yet to have a better time with a turntable when it comes to sound. It’s got all the sonic hallmarks of Rega — loads of energy, buckets of detail — but where the Planar 1 Plus was around an “8” on the sound scale, the Planar 3 RS knocks everything up a notch to 11.

Some might not appreciate the obsessive attention to detail and the eager sound, but to me, it sounds amazing no matter the genre you play on it, be that an R&B classic or a death metal great.

• Read the full Rega Planar 3 RS review

Best value turntable

The Crosley C65 is great for a couple of reasons. First, it's a full system in a box, with solid-sounding speakers to go with your new disc spinner. Second off, it costs around $300, which makes it the cheapest turntable on the list. Which really brings the first point into perspective.

If you’re looking for the best sound quality possible, this isn’t the turntable for you. But for beginners who’ve just inherited Grandad's music collection or those looking to dip their toes into the world of vinyl, it’s a great option. At the very least, it's a step up over the classic Crosley briefcase turntables.

The sound is plenty good enough for most listeners, bringing that lovely vinyl warmth to proceedings. We loved the way that the turntable sounded when we tested it, especially considering how little everything cost.

There were a couple of issues. The biggest was the vibration-damping feet — or the fact that they didn’t. Bumping the table next to the turntable disturbed the playback, which is irritating. Otherwise, this is an excellent turntable package at a very affordable price.

Design

If there’s one thing that Crosley has really got nailed down, it’s the way that the C65 looks. It’s got a wonderful retro aesthetic, throwing back to a time when everyone had some form of turntable in the house. But there are still some lovely modern touches to make it feel contemporary, like the knurled dials.

The speakers are similarly retro without being too in your face. The whole package together feels like a stylish version of something you might have bought 50 or 60 years ago, and that’s pretty cool.

Setting up

Setup is nice and easy, although there are a couple of extra steps, thanks to the speakers. Everything on the turntable side is pre-attached, though, which is nice.

The speakers just need to be hooked up to the turntable thanks to the binding posts on the back. And then you’re done!

Ease of use

It doesn’t really get easier to use a manual turntable than this. The speed control is electronic, changed with a dial on the front of the deck.

You do have to move the arm over the record and drop it on the disc, and then remove it when you’re finished listening. It’s all fairly easy if you’ve used a turntable before.

Sound

We weren’t expecting much from the Crosley, but the little deck that could surprised us with its sonic capability. Those looking for an impressive audio experience are going to look elsewhere, but if you want something to spin those special edition Taylor Swift records, then you’re going to be very happy.

Music sounds as it should, with very little to complain about, considering the price.

• Read the full Crosley C65 review

Best customizable turntable

One of the most fun things about turntables is the customization that so many options offer. None, however, are quite as customizable as the U-Turn Orbit special. I can't think of a turntable with so many options available straight from the factory.

There are an incredible number of options available for the turntable, from the normal Orbit basic all the way up to the most expensive Orbit Theory model. You can choose the material of the platter, the plinth, and even the kind of feet the turntable has.

My Orbit Special lives in the middle of the line, and it's the blue model (one of seven different color options), and it has some great specs for the price. It sounds excellent too, and it barely needed any setting up when it arrived into my eager fingers.

My choice gives me solid electronic speed control, a high-mass acrylic platter, and the Ortofon 2M red cartridge. It all adds up to a very solid platform that you can upgrade with different components down the line, should you want to.

Design
I really like the way that the Orbit family of turntables look, with a comparable style that's consistent through the range. That not only ties the line together, but also makes it trickier for the unaware to detect if you've spent less on your turntable, which is cool.

They're all put together very well, with a good quality of craftsmanship from the U.S. factory in Woburn. My favorite finishes are the Blue or the Walnut, with the acrylic platter. Bear in mind that different finishes and platter materials will cost more.

Setting up
Depending on how you've specced out your turntable, you'll find a different setup process. Up to the Special, you need only set the platter on the spindle, and then wrap the belt around the motor.

If you've bought the Theory, you'll have to set up the counterweight, which adds a little complexity to the deck. Alongside that, you'll also have to dial in the feet to make sure the deck is flat. There's a spirit level in the box to help you do this.

Ease of use
This will depend on whether you chose an option with an electronic speed controller or not. If you've gone for a fully manual deck, you'll need to swap the belt between the 33 and 45 rings on the motor side.

Electronic speed control is managed with a switch on the front left corner of the deck. From there, you just need to move the tonearm over the record and lower the tracking lever down to bring the stylus onto the groove.

There's no auto start stop, so you'll need to use the quieing lever to lift the arm back out of place when you're finished listening.

Sound
Thanks to well-damped components and the excellent Ortofon 2M red cartridge, our Special sounded excellent. It was warm and welcoming, and no matter the genre you spin up, you'll find an engaging, fun listening experience.

You can opt for more impressive cartridges the further up the range you go, into the 2M Blue and Bronze cartridges. These are both stellar options, although the bronze will only really make a difference if you've invested in your audio setup.

• Read the full U-Turn Orbit Special review

Best portable turntable

Audio Technica has a long history of making turntables, and the Sound Burger is a larger part of that legacy than you might expect. It was first released in 1983, and then in 2022, the firm released this — an identical model that housed some modern convenience.

Look, I love this thing. There's something crocodilian about its shape, as it snaps open and closed to swallow your records. In the review I said "It’s not trying to look retro, because it is retro." It's the 80s reborn in the best way.

It's also a very solid turntable beneath its colorful plastic shell, thanks to the AT cartridge at its core. It's a slightly edgier sound, with less low-end on offer, but there's plenty to enjoy with the Sound Burger.

It's the portability that lands it here though. There's a 12-hour battery on board, as well as the 3.5mm output. Bluetooth rounds out the feature set and makes it perfect for trips to record fairs.

Design
I mean, just look at it. When I had the turntable sitting on the dining room table, my mom asked me if it was something old — and then remarked that it looked "like a round crocodile." I love the way it looks, especially in yellow.

To some, it might seem a bit plasticky, but it's still built very well. It certainly doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart in use, or when you put it in your backpack. There are a couple of foibles — the transport screw, the losable record clamp — but it's almost certainly earned its 'design icon' status.

Setting up
This is about as easy as they come — from the moment you get it out of the box, there's no adjustment to do at all. There are speed adjustment screws in the bottom if things are running a bit fast or slow, but everything else is set up from the factory.

That does mean there's no customization. You can't change out the cartridge for example, and there's no way to change the slightly weighty tracking force.

Ease of use
It's a very simple turntable to use, but it's fiddly in places. First of all, you need to remove the travel screw at the back of the player. Then, you need to open the player, move the tonearm to its rest position, and place the record on the platter. Clamp it down with the clamp-cum-adapter.

It starts spinning when you move the tonearm over the record — and then you need to carefully place the stylus onto the record. Don't drop it — it'll skip, and potentially damage the record or the stylus. That's the fiddly bit. Once the record is finished, you have to do everything in reverse.

And make sure you remember the travel screw, otherwise the tonearm might slip while in transit, risking potential breakage.

Sound
The Sound Burger sounds good. Will it stand up to the other options on the list? No, but then it's also far cheaper than both of them. There's a focus on the high-range frequencies in the Sound Burger, making for a more detailed listen.

Playing over Bluetooth doesn't diminish the sound very much either, which is a big bonus. I had a lot of fun listening to my test vinyls on the Sound Burger, and I reckon you will too.

• Read the full Audio Technica Sound Burger review

Best forever turntable

So first off, what do I mean by forever turntable? I’m thinking of the kind of turntable that gives you everything you need, so that you want to upgrade. The turntable that might not be the cheapest, but will last you for years and years. The Goldring GR3 and its lovely glossy plinth are just that turntable. It’s a little costly, but you’ll love it so much that you’re unlikely to want to change it out.

The built-in pre-amp makes sure that it sounds really good, but also means you can plug it into any kind of speaker without worry (or spending on an extra device). The hidden belt drive works smoothly and accurately, but doesn’t take too much effort to adjust.

Then there are the looks. It’s a simple thing, but the materials make it feel as expensive as the price would suggest. It’ll fit right in, no matter where in the house it ends up, or the audio hardware you pair with it.

It’s a great deck if you’re just looking for something to buy and never upgrade. You’ll be happy from day one with the way that it spins your records — and I’m not sure that praise gets much better than that.

Design
The GR3 is simple and understated, but it still manages to make an impact on the visual senses. I really like the shiny black plinth, even if it does attract fingerprints from every corner of the known universe, and beyond. Just make sure you’ve got a cloth handy.

The only thing that might hold it back is the phenolic resin platter, because it looks slightly plasticky. Still, the whole deck is marvelously well put together, and the gold accent logo is a lovely touch.

Setting up
Out of the box, you’ve got your fairly standard setup. The counterweight needs to be twisted onto the tone arm, and then adjusted once you’ve got the belt in place under the platter. That’s easy enough as well, thanks to the proximity of the spindle wheel and the motor.

Once you’ve hooked everything up, you just plug the RCA cable in and away you go — super simple.

Ease of use
The GR3 is about as easy to use as any of the other turntables on the list — turn it on, drop the needle with the queuing lever, and away you go. The only strange thing here is that the speed adjustment is under the platter — it’s no great usability problem, as long as you remember you need to lift the platter before changing it around.

Sound
It sounds great. It’s a shame that you can’t change out the pre-amp for your own device later on down the line, but it sounds so good, you won’t have to worry. There’s plenty of detail retrieved from your discs, giving you a wonderfully musical experience. There’s perhaps a little lacking in the low end, with slightly less drive than some of the competition, but it still sounds epic.

• Read the full Goldring GR3 review

Also Tested

The all in one solution

One of the most intimidating parts of choosing a new record player is often the thought of having to align all of the correct parts of a stereo system so that you can get the very best out of your vinyl.

The Colorful Audio System E makes this selection a whole load easier, As you can get everything you need in one box. That's an amplifier, a pair of passive bookshelf speakers, the turntable, and some top-quality cables to connect everything together.

Does it save you money over buying everything separately? No, but it does mean that everything matches well, with complementary design touches and color schemes.

The turntable at the core of the system, the Debut E, is a gorgeous piece of kit, and it sounds excellent when paired with the Speaker Box 5 E Carbon. I loved playing my vinyl through them during my testing.

The amplifier is very flexible as well. There are extra inputs, should you want to add in other devices at a later date, and the remote control in the box is very intuitive. I particularly liked the Bluetooth connection, so you could play streamed music from your phone over your fancy speakers.

• Read more about the Pro-Ject Colorful Audio System E

Don't forget to buy

Vinyl is a tricky beast — there's plenty of extra stuff you should consider picking up so that you get the best out of your records, and that they last for a lifetime. These accessories will maximise your vinyls potential.

Where (and how) to find great vinyl

Finding vinyl is a fine art — you have to have some idea of what you’re looking for, and whether it's even still available to buy brand new. I find the best way to check all the details of an album or a single is to check it out on Discogs. This will tell you all the printings of an album so that you can go and find it and add it to your collection. You can even buy on site and create a collection digitally, so you can track and make wishlists.

As for buying albums, your first port of call should be Amazon. It’s not perfect, but it's a good starting place to find albums that are released right now. You won’t find some older albums, however, and you might not get the best pressings.

Sometimes, it's best to go to the source — see if the band you like has albums available on their merch store. They tend to have good-quality pressings.

Then there are the old classics. Head to a record store and meet people, fellow vinyl fans. They might be able to share the best places to get the records you’re looking for — and they’re always up for a nice chat. Alternatively, head to a vinyl show or event, where you’ll often find second-hand records. Make sure you evaluate them before buying, of course, checking for warping and the amount of dust it might have accumulated.

Buying and collecting vinyl is a wonderful hobby, even if it is expensive. Hopefully, this has given you a good idea of how to get started!

More vinyl jargon busted

Some of the language in the guide still causing you some confusion? No problem, here's more of everything you need to know about vinyl records. You'll be an expert in no time!

Phono stage/pre-amp
The signal directly from the stylus and the tonearm is actually very weak, and you need to make that signal louder. That's where a pre-amp, or phono stage, comes in. It takes the signal and boosts it for your speakers or main amplifier to play. Some players have this built in, while others need a separate unit.

Tracking weight
This is the force with which the stylus presses into the groove of the record. This changes depending on the cartridge, although it's usually between 1.5-3g. Some very heavy tracking forces are said to damage records, although this is mostly anecdotal.

Anti-Skate
Because vinyl spins, the stylus can often find itself moving to the outside of the record. This is called skating. To counteract this, turntables often have anti-skate devices that pull the stylus into the groove, to stop things from skipping around. This has to be adjusted. It's usually a dial, or a counterweight that sits at the end of the tonearm.

Vibration-dampening
Vibrations can cause a lot of problems during vinyl playback, and you want to make sure that they don't make their way to the stylus. To this end, many turntables are filled with vibration-damping devices to make sure that the sound is as good as it can be.

33/45 RPM
These are the speeds at which your records play. Make sure you choose the right one for your record, otherwise, you'll be in for a comedic audio performance. Some players change between these speeds manually, where you adjust the drive belt, while some are electronic. These you change with a button, or a switch.

Belt drive/Direct drive
This is the method that drives the platter, and thus, spins the record. Belt drive is the most common, and it uses a belt from a smaller motor to move the larger platter like a bike chain moves a wheel. A direct drive motor sits directly under the platter to drive the movement. This is often more reliable, but also a lot more expensive and difficult to fix if things go wrong.

FAQ

Still got some questions? No worries, I'm here to help!

How we test

I'm extremely thorough in our testing of turntables, making sure that I look at every single facet of the performance of the device.

Setting up
I want to evaluate how easy it is to get the turntable situated and playing. That means testing how easy it is get the tracking weight, anti-skate, and other features dialled in, and how much stuff you have to screw in. Does it come ready to go from the box, or did I have to build the turntable when it arrived?

Features
What extras does the turntable offer, and do they work well? Is there a special tonearm, is there interesting anti-skate, or is there a built-in phono pre-amp? I evaluate what they actually add to the deck, and their function.

Build
These tend to be expensive devices, so we want to make sure that they're constructed and that they're going to last. I look at the tonearm mechanisms, the materials that the plinths and platters are made of, and even how the dust cover hinges function. If it's not built well, I don't want to see it.

Sound
I listen to it! The turntable joins the Tom's Guide testing audio system for a whole two weeks, so that I can really evaluate its quality. It's then compared to the turntables on this list, so that we can work out where it should sit on the list, or whether it even makes it at all. The Tom's Guide testing system is:

• iFi Zen Phono 3 pre-amp
• Cambridge Audio EXA-100 Amplifier
• KEF LS50 Meta speakers

It's the best fitness tracker you can buy right now, because it focuses on the essentials, strips away the smartwatch features and doesn't require a subscription. And without a display, it's never a distraction, as it just passively gathers data about your activity and wellbeing throughout the day.

If you're looking to keep costs down further, then I'm a big fan of the Xiaomi Smart Band 10, which is half the the price of the Air, but with a display and many of the features you'd find on the (more expensive) Fitbit Charge 6. Like the Air, you don't need a subscription either, and the battery lasts for a few weeks between charges.

The best fitness trackers you can buy today

Best fitness tracker overall

It took three years for Google to follow up the Fitbit Charge 6, but that time away seemed to remind the company of the brand's strengths, and it ended up releasing the best fitness tracker to come from Fitbit in a very long time. And it's an unusual little device, with no screen, no phone notifications and no subscription.

The pebble-sized tracker sits inside a wrist strap (there are lot of options for you to customize the look too), pairs to your iPhone or Android phone and the data syncs to the new Google Health app, which has replaced the Fitbit app. The Air is a return to the core of what make Fitbit a success in the first place; activity tracking.

While it looks a lot like my old Fitbit One from 2013, the Air benefits from years of progress and includes more sensors, so that you can track your steps, activity, heart rate and blood oxygen levels. The only feature you'd miss from higher end trackers is the built-in GPS for recording running or outdoor workouts without your phone.

Although it's a great tracker in its own right, the Air may have been at least a little inspired by the recent success of the Whoop 5.0, a screen-less tracker worn inside a wristband. The Air is cheaper and doesn't require a subscription (as you do with Whoop), yet held up well against the Whoop 5.0 in our testing.

We also directly compared the Air against the recently-released Garmin Forerunner 70 for sleep. The numbers didn't quite match, but were pretty close, showing the Air can hold its own against more expensive devices. The only downside we found with the Air is that it takes 15 minutes to begin auto-tracking activities.

• Read our full Fitbit Air review

Best budget fitness tracker

The Xiaomi Smart Band 10 is a great option if you're looking for a capable fitness tracker on a budget. It's not as discreet as the Fitbit Air, but the design isn't awkward either, with a comfortable strap and fairly small color screen for interacting with the menus and starting/stopping activities.

If I was to compare it against a tracker from Fitbit's range, it looks most like the Inspire 3, but it's half the price of that tracker (and the Air) for close to the same experience (admittedly with less Google too, which could be a bonus depending on your thoughts about that Big Tech company).

The Smart Band 10 can track 159 activities, including rogue ones like card and board games. We wore it alongside the Oura Ring and found both reported similar step counts. Plus, the on-screen running metrics like heart rate, pace and distance were clear, even though the display is relatively small.

One of its more...interesting features is how it analyzes sleep. You get all the usual graphs, but after an initial week of sleep, you get an animal to reflect your sleep quality. In our reviewer's case, that animal was a shark. It's a novelty, sure, but why can't some features just be for fun, anyway?

The only thing missing from this affordable fitness tracker is actionable insights. What's on offer here is an extremely competent wearable, but most premium trackers now offer (often AI-based) insights into your data, which you can use to adjust your behaviors to effect how you feel throughout the day.

Compared to something like the Oura Ring 4, which really popularized in-app insights and recommendations, the Smart Band 10 feels of an older generation. But, if what you want from a fitness tracker is to learn more about how you sleep and move throughout the day, there's little better at this price.

• Read our full Xiaomi Smart Band 10 review

Best fitness tracking smart ring

The Oura Ring 5 was released earlier in 2026, but I still believe the Oura Ring 4 is the best smart ring. It also makes for a fantastic and discreet fitness tracker. The Fitbit Air also doesn't look like a bit of tech on your wrist, but the Oura Ring actually looks fashionable, like wearing a bit of jewellery to track your metrics.

I wore the older Oura Ring Gen 3 for a while and found that I mostly forgot I even had it on. The Ring 4 is slimmer than that model and we found it was even more comfortable too, as the sensors on the internal surface are now flush with the ring, so you barely notice you're wearing a smart ring.

We reviewed the Oura Ring 5, and while it is thinner and longer-lasting than its predecessor, it's the Oura app which is actually the most valuable part of the ring, making it hard to recommend spending more on the Ring 5. We've got more used to personalized advice, but Oura was among the first to nail the format.

The data from the ring syncs to your iPhone or Android phone. The app takes all that information and turns it into easy to understand graphs and summaries. So you can just open the app and see a snapshot of your health and activity at a glance. And in 2025, the company launched the AI-powered Oura Advisor.

This in-app feature is designed to make it easier to get actionable insights from your data, so instead of just telling you how you have been, the app can let you know how to improve your sleep, recover from workouts and even suggest when you should take a break if the ring has spotted signs that you might be getting ill.

This kind of insight extends to fertility and cycle tracking. Your Oura Ring can sync temperature data to Natural Cycles for dedicated fertility tracking. And the app was even able to tell that our fitness editor was pregnant, even before she did. It's impressive, but just be sure you're okay with the privacy implications of that.

• Read our full Oura Ring 4 review

Also tested

How we test the best fitness trackers

For each new fitness tracker, we evaluate its hardware design and comfort; you need to be able to wear the device all day, and we’ve found that some larger trackers don’t fit well on smaller wrists.

If the device has a touchscreen, we look to see how readable it is, especially in bright sunlight. We also examine how easy it is to navigate the fitness trackers' menus; you don't want to have to dig through multiple screens to change your music if you're out running.

We also evaluate features such as step counting and sleep monitoring, distance calculations, and when applicable, GPS and heart rate accuracy. And, we see how well a manufacturer's battery life claims hold up in real-world testing.

Finally, we test how well a device pairs with its companion app, and evaluate the experience of using the two together. We also look to see what features the device's app supports, such as coaching and diet tracking, and if it can sync data with third-party apps, such as MyFitnessPal.

How to choose the best fitness tracker

I know you've landed on a page dedicated to the best fitness trackers, but before you dig too deep in your research, it's worth taking a step back and considering why you want a fitness tracker and what you need it to do.

The line between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch has got a bit blurry, but for me, a fitness tracker is a small device that focuses on monitoring your steps, activity, heart rate and sleep. If it's main purpose is to record those, it's a fitness tracker.

I first bought a Fitbit in 2013 because I was going through some medical issues and wanted to have something that could track how much I was moving but also keep me motivated to work toward my step goal, as walking helps manage the symptoms.

So for me, steps and heart rate are the main priorities, and anything else is a bonus. Deciding which elements or metrics are most important to you will help you filter down the list of devices and stop you overpaying for things you don't need.

If monitoring your health or menstrual cycle is the top priority, then a device like the Oura Ring 4 might suit you best, as the device and Oura app are more focused on building a picture of your overall health and wellbeing, more than movement.

You also want to think about whether you need it to work on different platforms. While the Fitbit range are designed for iPhone and Android phones, Google's other fitness tracker-adjacent wearables like the Pixel Watch 4 only work on Android.

And the same is true of the Apple Watch, which only works on iPhone. But the trackers I've included in the main roundup all work on both platforms, so you won't have to change your tracker if you upgraded your phone, for example.

We've defined a fitness tracker as focusing on the core functions of activity, steps, sleep and heart rate. The benefit of this is that keeping things focused generally means you get better battery life too; trackers last a week or more, watches generally a few days.

FAQs

To test these watches, we go running in them! Several members of the team run regularly, and we even have a resident marathon runner who puts these watches to the test during training and longer endurance sessions.

After combining all of our experiences, the best running watch you can buy right now is the Garmin Forerunner 570. It's not the most feature-packed Garmin, but it has everything you need to comprehensively track your runs and improve your performance, and it won't break the bank.

If you're working on a budget, our favorite cheap running watch is the Coros Pace 3. It offers a Garmin-like training experience, but jettisons that brand's smartwatch features, to make a watch that is truly focused just on helping you train.

But these are not your only choices. We've rounded up the five best running watches we've tested from Garmin, Polar, Coros and Apple to help you find the right one to hit your goals. And if these don't quite hit the mark, check out all the other running watches we've tested too for more options.

Best running watches available right now

Best running watch overall

Our pick for the best Garmin watches is also our top running watch: the Garmin Forerunner 570. It comes in two sizes (44mm, 47mm) with a bright and vibrant AMOLED display that we found you can easily see, even in sunny conditions, while out running. And it's lightweight and comfortable enough to wear all day.

Garmin watches are a popular choice for runners, and you could make the argument that the whole range could appear in this roundup. But what makes the Forerunner 570 standout is its features-to-price ratio. It's not the most premium watch (that'd be the $1,100 Fenix 8) but it also has more insights and data than the Forerunner 55.

Central to the whole experience is the Elevate V5 heart rate sensor, which is the most recent and accurate in Garmin's range, and the dual-band GPS that creates detailed records of your runs, even on busy, dense city streets or twisting, wood-lined trails.

Plus, the Forerunner 570 comes with Garmin's Incident Detection and LiveTrack safety features. If the watch detects that you fall while on a run, it'll alert your emergency contacts. While LiveTrack lets you share your location with specified contacts during your workout once you activate it by holding down the light button on the watch.

We found that the heart rate readings were as accurate as a chest strap and the battery lasted around five days with heavy use and daily runs (and was partly run down by the bright display). It is a little disappointing that the 8GB of onboard storage is only for music, though, and not offline maps (which are available on other Garmin models).

Finally, not that it makes a difference to the running experience, but the Forerunner 570 is also one of the most colorful in Garmin's lineup. The company isn't known for bold or vivid designs, but the 570 comes with several color options for the bezel, helping it standout among the (slightly boring) rest of the range.

• Read our Garmin Forerunner 570 review

Best budget running watch

Coros isn't as well-known as Garmin, but it should be, because the Coros Pace 3 is easily the best budget running watch you can buy right now. It comes with reliable tracking, accurate multi-band GPS and near week-long battery life in real-world settings.

Like the Polar Vantage V3 (which we feature later on this guide), the Pace 3 is a multi-sport watch that has dedicated (and useful) running modes, and is comfortable and lightweight to wear throughout the day and during workouts.

To support your training analysis, there's an optical heart rate sensor, pulse oximeter for measuring blood oxygen levels and a barometric altimeter to track elevation. You can also connect a Bluetooth heart rate chest strap, but the (relatively) common ANT+ standard isn't supported here.

All of this data feeds into Coros' EvoLab, which gives you an overview of your weekly training load, and analysis of your longer term training and fitness level, so you can work out if you're doing the right amount of exercise to hit your fitness goals.

The EvoLab analysis is available on all Coros watches, even the more expensive ones, so the Pace 3 is a more affordable way to get these insights. And, like the Garmin Forerunner 570, you also get a recovery advisor and race time predictor, which are useful if you're training for a specific event.

We tested the Pace 3's heart rate accuracy against the Polar H10 chest strap during warm conditions, where the optical readings are generally better than in cold weather, but it was impressively close to the Polar strap's readings. It's still worth pairing a strap with the watch, but even if you don't, you'll still get accurate insights.

• Read our full Coros Pace 3 review

Best running watch for beginners

If you're just starting to get into running, there's no need to spend hundreds of dollars on watches that have more features than you really need. What'll serve you best is something that is a step up from a fitness tracker, focused on running and won't break the bank. In short, you need the Garmin Forerunner 55.

It is designed to be an entry-level Garmin and it replaced the Forerunner 45, which served a similar purpose. The watch looks quite a lot like other Garmin watches, but with less flourish, which is partly why it's also a fraction of the price of the Forerunner 570.

You still get many essential Garmin features though, like the PacePro training tool, which gives you gentle speed and cadence suggestions on your run. And the more you track, the better the watch's recovery recommendations become. This kind of coaching it what separates the Forerunner 55 from the best fitness trackers.

What you won't find here is third-party apps, music storage (for phone-free runs) or mobile payments through Garmin Pay. Plus, the display is relatively small at just 1.08 inches. So long as those aren't dealbreakers for you, the Garmin Forerunner 55 is an excellent way to ease yourself into running.

• Read our full Garmin Forerunner 55 review

Best adventure running watch

The Polar Vantage V3 is probably the best value running watch (not the cheapest, but with the most features for your money). We were impressed by the range and diversity of activities you can track and the volume of sensors packed into a watch that is half the price of the Garmin Fenix 8, but offers a similar experience.

It's an outdoor adventure watch at heart, which is why you can record more than 150 activities, including things as varied as badminton and jazz dance. Each of these modes are actually customized for the activity, as we found when we tried the Vantage V3 on a snowboarding trip, and it showed distance, speed and session maps.

All of this is sort of par for the course with sports watches, but what makes the Vantage V3 really stand out is its training metrics. This is an area Garmin used to dominate, but it lost a lot of goodwill from the running community when it launched a paywall for some digital features.

Polar puts them all out there for you to access, and the training plans and metrics are easy to digest, while the recovery insights are genuinely actionable and helpful. There's the Leg Recovery test, which tells you how long to wait until your next tough run. And it factors in things like your sleep to create more personalized recommendations.

The only drawback on the Polar Vantage V3 is that it's not a smartwatch. You can't store music, use it for mobile payments or download a wide range of third party apps. But Polar seems to be happy not to compete with Apple here, and was comfortable designing an incredibly impressive sports watch at a good price.

• Read our full Polar Vantage V3 review

Best running watch for iPhone

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is the best running watch if you're after a multi-functional option that can track your runs, keep tabs on your health and integrate well with your iPhone. Unlike Garmin, Coros and Polar devices, which are running watches with smart features, the Ultra 3 is a smartwatch that can track your runs.

Of course, many of the best smartwatches can do that, but the dual-band GPS here pits it against the top Garmin models and makes it reliable enough to run out in wooded areas and dense urban areas like cities.

Plus, the customizable Action button can be used to take laps, which puts it ahead of the standard Apple Watch 11 (which was released at the same time in late 2025). The main thing you miss out on compared to Garmin et al is the detailed training analysis. Apple's is fine, but it's surface-level, and doesn't give you in-depth insights.

And you may have heard that Apple watches have terrible battery life, and most of them do, only lasting around a day between charges. The same isn't true of the Ultra 3, which makes use of its larger body to increase the battery capacity to up to 42 hours. Still a fraction of the weeks you can get elsewhere, but it's better.

So it depends what you need from a running watch. If you have an iPhone, like the sound of an Apple Watch, and do some runs (but aren't aiming for elite tracking/training analysis), then the Ultra 3 is a fantastic option that can support your daily activities and outdoor workouts.

• Read our full Apple Watch Ultra 3 review

Also tested

There are a lot of running watches out there, and even from those we test, not every model can be the best. So these are the models that didn't quite hit the mark, but are worth considering if you're after more options.

How we test the best running watches

We take our testing seriously because runners rely on accurate, reliable data to train smarter, stay healthy, and improve performance. Even today’s entry-level running watches pack in features like GPS, heart rate monitoring, and step tracking, but we go deeper than the spec sheet.

Our reviewers are experienced runners who put each watch through its paces in real-world conditions, including open parks, urban streets with tall buildings, and forested trails. We look at core performance factors like GPS accuracy, heart rate tracking, and battery life, and also assess advanced features such as VO2 Max estimates, recovery time, sleep tracking, and music storage.

To ensure heart rate data is accurate, our tester Nick tests the watch against a chest strap monitor, which is widely regarded as the gold standard for heart rate accuracy, and includes this comparison data in his reviews.

We also consider how intuitive the watch is to use mid-run, how comfortable it is to wear for long periods, and how well its companion app presents and stores training data.

How to choose the best running watch for you

The type of running watch you need largely depends on how often you run and your running goals. Casual runners should find they have all they need in a simpler model with GPS and heart rate tracking, while runners and athletes training for marathons or triathlons may need advanced features like interval training, VO2 max monitoring, and recovery suggestions to aid their training.

For beginners, basic tracking of distance, pace, and heart rate should be enough to monitor progress and stay motivated. Those who consider themselves as a more intermediate runner looking to improve performance may want watches with metrics like cadence, stride length, and heart rate zones to help fine-tune their training.

Meanwhile, for those training for races or aiming for specific fitness goals, advanced features such as lactate threshold, VO2 max, and interval training support can offer more detailed insights.

Battery life is key if you’re running long distances or doing multi-day events. Watches designed for ultra runners or adventurers can last for days on a single charge, while others may need daily charging if you use GPS and other features regularly.

FAQs

Quite a few of these are also platform-locked to Android, and some have features restricted to the brand's phones. On the one hand, that makes them less versatile or flexible if you change phone, but also gives you the most seamless experience.

So it's no surprise that we found the Google Pixel Watch 4 is the best Android smartwatch by some margin. Since Google develops the operating system, the Pixel Watch 4 is deeply tied into almost everything Android (especially on Pixel phones) does.

If you want something that has a consistent experience no matter which phone you use, our favorite fitness-focused Android smartwatch is the Garmin Forerunner 265. The watch is packed with tools for runners and other exercisers, though it is a little light on 'traditional' smart features, like voice commands and on-watch messaging.

But these are just two of your choices. I've rounded up the best Android smartwatches we've tested for a range of phones, budgets and uses, so you'll find something to suit your needs. Plus, there are a few others we tested that didn't quite make the roundup but are great additional options if you need them.

The best Android smartwatches you can buy today

Best Android smartwatch overall

The Google Pixel Watch 4 is the best smartwatch for Android users right now because it’s longer lasting than the Galaxy Watch 8 with easier access to Google’s excellent Gemini AI voice assistant via a simple (and exclusive to Google) wrist raise gesture.

While the standard Galaxy Watch 8 lasted roughly 30 hours in our testing, and the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic lasted for 40 hours, the 45mm Pixel Watch 4 easily surpassed 60 hours of juice per charge.

Similarly easy-wearing to the Galaxy Watch 8, but arguably sleeker, both device boasts ultra-bright displays that max out at 3,000 nits. You also get similarly comprehensive sleep tracking and fitness insights. The latest Pixel and Galaxy Watches also sport dual-band GPS and onboard altimeters for accurate outdoor adventure tracking

However, only the Google Watch offers Loss of Pulse Detection, which can call for help if a cardiac event is registered. Similarly, only the Pixel Watch 4 (LTE models) boasts the latest smartwatch safety feature, satellite SOS messaging, which you’ll only find on the $799 Apple Watch Ultra 3 right now.

Finally, while the Samsung Galaxy Watch used to be somewhat of a bargain compared to the Pixel Watch, that’s no longer the case now that Samsung has increased pricing by $50 across the lineup. As a result, both the Galaxy Watch 8 and Pixel Watch 4 start at $349.

With the Pixel Watch 4 offering just a little more pizazz than the Galaxy Watch 8, all for the same amount of dough, it claims our top spot in this guide.

• Read our full Google Pixel Watch 4 review

Best budget Android smartwatch

With the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, it's easier than ever to find the Galaxy Watch 7 on sale for well under $300. Despite being one generation from the newest model, the Galaxy Watch 7 remains a competent Android smartwatch with the same best-in-class sleep tracking insights and most of the same features.

(Here's an in-depth comparison of the Galaxy Watch 7 vs. Galaxy Watch 8 across eight key categories.)

The Galaxy Watch 7 is a little less bulky than the newer model, which features a cushion case compared to the 7's circular case design. Like the latest model, the Galaxy Watch 7 comes in 40mm and 44mm, but there's no bezel-sporting 46mm "Classic" edition for the Galaxy Watch 7.

Battery life is good for roughly 24 hours per charge in our testing; however, you can stretch that to 40 hours per charge by using low-power mode.

In addition to detailed sleep reports, which are generated after just one night of wearing the device, the Galaxy Watch 7 also offers a useful daily Energy Score to help plan your exertion levels for the day. It also tracks a huge range of physical activities with impressive accuracy, offers recommendations for rest and recovery, and monitors for health anomalies like sleep apnea and irregular heartbeats.

Better yet, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 supports Google's Gemini AI voice assistant if you're running the latest software.

• Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review

Best looking Android smartwatch

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 series is nearly as good as the Google Pixel Watch 4. Both smartwatch lines boast best-in-class health and fitness tracking tools, useful safety features, and access to a Gemini-based voice assistant that's surprisingly handy.

AI-powered fitness coaching is all the rage in 2026, and Samsung's personalized Running Coach tool, aimed at beginners and the marathon-curious, is both comprehensive in its training recommendations and encouraging in its delivery of data and tips.

While the Pixel Watch 4 delivers better battery performance, if you opt for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic edition — the classy one with the rotating bezel — you can expect over 40 hours per charge (or closer to 30 hours for the standard models).

That's a lot better than the latest Apple Watch Series 11, which lasts roughly 30 hours per charge in my testing, but still well behind the 45mm Pixel Watch 40, which surpasses 60 hours per charge.

Design-wise, the Galaxy Watch 8 embraces the cushion case introduced with the Galaxy Watch Ultra a year earlier. On the standard 40mm and 44mm models, the now rectangular-ish case feels slightly bloated. However, the updated aesthetic works much better, IMHO, on the Classic edition.

All of the Galaxy Watch 8 models deliver an impressive maximum screen brightness of 4,000 nits, the same as the Pixel Watch 4 series, making the watch highly visible in bright light. However, the Classic model boasts a tougher, albeit heavier, stainless steel case compared to aluminium. You also get an additional customizable button and that lovely, lovely clicky bezel.

• Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 review

Best Android smartwatch for runners

The Garmin Forerunner 265 is the best Android-compatible smartwatch for runners and workout enthusiasts in 2026, with excellent battery, a durable, sporty design, and loads of fitness tools.

Lightweight and comfortable, the 265 offers everything you’d want in a running watch, including a wealth of accurate tracking metrics, music controls, customizable workout routines, and more. You also get access to Garmin’s wide range of training insights, which can help you plan workouts and periods of recovery.

During testing, we found the Garmin Forerunner 265's beautiful AMOLED screen easy to view in direct sunlight. Users can navigate the watch's interface via touchscreen or physical buttons; I prefer the latter when I'm sweaty. Battery life is ample enough for marathons, even while listening to music.

The 265 supports tracking complex multisport training sessions using the triathlon mode. Plus, users have access to advanced features usually reserved for Garmin’s more expensive running watches, like Training Readiness Score and Morning Report.

One thing the Forerunner 265 doesn't offer is a wealth of smart features (like the other devices here). Sure, you can view smartphone notifications, support for offline music, and NFC payments, but that's about it.

Ultimately, the Forerunner 265 is a fantastic improvement on an already fantastic watch and a great buy for all levels of runners and fitness-focused individuals. However, for something nearly as competent but a little more wallet-friendly, check out the Garmin Forerunner 165.

• Read our full Garmin Forerunner 265 review

Best rugged Android smartwatch

The Galaxy Watch Ultra is the best rugged Android smartwatch for adventures thanks to a tough-built, lightweight titanium case, ultra-bright 3,000 nit screen, accurate GPS tracking, offline maps, and Samsung's latest BioActive health monitoring tech.

It also has a Track Back feature to help you find your way home, a customizable Action button that can be set up as a flashlight, and up to 48 hours of battery life, behind only the 45mm Pixel Watch 4.

Sleep analysis and insights are industry-leading (and a match with the Galaxy Watch 7 and 8). You also get AI-powered tips and suggestions for improving your health, along with monitoring for conditions including sleep apnea and irregular heartbeats.

Water resistance is 100 meters, though Samsung advises against wearing it while diving or during other high-pressure water activities. Still, the thing is built to take a beating with its screen protected by the metal bezel and side buttons guarded by bumpers.

Finally, similar to the Galaxy Watch 7, those running the latest firmware version can unlock access to Google's powerful Gemini voice assistant.

• Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review

Also tested

There are a lot of great Android smartwatches out there, but not every model we test can be The Best. So these are the watches we think are still worth considering if you need more options than we've listed in the main roundup.

How we test the best smartwatches for Android

The simple answer to how we test the best Android smartwatches is that we wear them. Sorry, that's not very exciting, but it's the most important aspect of how we check to see if they're actually worth your money.

Just like headphones, these are items that you can't really gauge until you have them in your hand (or on your wrist), so the first thing we look for is how the materials feel against your skin, whether the watch feels too (for want of a better word) bulky and if it's comfortable to wear, even when you're sleeping or working out.

Once its set up, we use it in the same way you would. We connect it to our phone, mirror notifications, test out how easy and useful it is to take calls or issue voice commands to the onboard mic, and whether any notable smart features work in the way they should.

One of the areas we can't feasibly test are the watch's safety features, like crash or fall detection and medical alerts like the Pixel Watch 4's Loss of Pulse detection. And since we can't check whether these actually work reliably as intended, I don't recommend that you buy a watch solely on the strength of those features alone.

Smartwatches are useful for the way they connect to your phone, but increasingly they are fitness and health trackers too. Since we also test the best fitness trackers, we put the best Android smartwatches through similar paces, measuring heart rate and blood oxygen readings, comparing workouts and looking at sleep scores.

Then, one of the most significant specs, we look at battery life. Brands often overestimate on the best-case, least-power scenario, so we run them through cycles to see how long the watch actually lasts between charges in everyday scenarios with a bit of fitness tracking, some GPS recordings and leaving the screen on.

How to choose the best smartwatch for Android for you

Some of the best Android smartwatches actually work with iPhones too, not that you need to worry about that for now. But it's important to consider whether you're likely to switch phones at any point so that you buy a smartwatch that'll work with either.

Likewise, even from the Android-only watches, some are locked (or have exclusive features) to specific phones, like the Pixel Watch 4 and Google's Pixel range or the Samsung Galaxy Watch and Samsung Galaxy phones.

There are often two sizes to choose from too, so you can find one that best works for your wrist. Though, smartwatches are quite bulky anyway, so you may find them slightly awkward to sleep with compared to a fitness tracker. Still, the larger screen makes it easier to read what's on the display, like notifications and messages.

Then you need to decide are you looking for a smartwatch with fitness features, or a fitness watch with smart features? These sound like I'm saying the same thing twice, but the latter is best if you primarily need something to track your exercise and health stats, but they'll often be lighter in traditional phone-linked smart features.

But the smartwatch with fitness tracking niche can also be a great option, especially if you want to casually track workouts, but also need the watch to blend in during social events or with work outfits as it won't look quite so, well, sporty.

Battery life is important, but you'll find most smartwatches generally last a day or two between charges. If you need something more than that, I'd recommend checking out the best sports watches instead, as those are designed to get several days or weeks between top ups.

Frequently asked questions

To help you out, we've spent weeks installing, testing, and uninstalling the best antivirus apps. and taking a close look at their features, extras, and design. Plus, we contacted each brand's customer support to see whether it's actually easy to talk to a person who can solve your issue when something goes wrong.

And this is why I feel confident telling you that Norton 360 Deluxe is the best antivirus software overall. We found it easy to use and it offers impressive malware protection without slowing down your computer. It's not the cheapest, and there are a lot of extras that you might not need, but it is the best right now.

If you're looking to keep costs down without compromising on protection, Malwarebytes Plus is my favorite budget antivirus. It focuses on keeping your device free of viruses, and the scheduling is pretty quick to set up so you can install and forget about it while it protects your computer in the background.

The 3 best antivirus apps at a glance

The best antivirus software you can buy today

The best antivirus software overall

Norton is practically a household name in the antivirus world, and for good reason. Its software is powerful, yet easy to use, and shouldn't have a great impact on your device's performance.

Norton's 360 range isn't extraordinarily expensive or super cheap, but offers a lot for your money. And you get a choice of tiers, which cost more and come with extra apps and features. The version we recommend is Norton 360 Deluxe, which has a good first-year rate but the price jump in the second year may feel whiplash-y.

When it comes to antivirus protection, Norton 360 Deluxe offers everything you could want — a firewall, a hardened browser, malware and ransomware protection, and a Wi-Fi scanner. There are four scan types: Quick, Full, Targeted (custom) and Startup.

The Startup scan scans your files when you boot up the computer, which is something I haven’t seen other antivirus software suites offer. This variety of scan types means that you have a choice of what and how long this scan takes, as well as giving you the option to check your device's status every single time you launch your computer.

In testing, we found that these scans won't impact your device's performance, either. We played a high-resource video game with Norton 360 Deluxe running in the background, and system impact was minimal.

Frames per second (fps) only dipped from 118 to 105 while doing a Full Scan of almost 900,000 files. This is barely noticeable, meaning you should be able to perform all your usual tasks and activities as normal, without even noticing Norton 360 Deluxe is running.

In independent protection testing, Norton performed incredibly well. AV Test’s February 2026 report certified Norton 360 as a “Top Product” with a 6/6 score across Protection, Performance and Usability — the same score as Bitdefender Total Security and McAfee Plus Premium.

Plus, in AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test, Norton scored 90/100 and 5.3 in Impact. The lower the Impact score, the better, as it means the antivirus won't slow down your computer when it's running. Norton outperformed Bitdefender (9.6 Impact), but was outperformed, by McAfee, which achieved a 3.3/10 in Impact.

Finally, SE Labs awarded Norton's macOS edition a AAA rating with 100% protection accuracy in its April 2026 report, meaning it was fully able to detect and prevent threats.

When it comes to extra features, Norton 360 Deluxe has quite a few:

• VPN: encrypts your internet connection, hides your virtual location, and prevents others from snooping on your internet traffic
• Dark web monitoring: scours the internet for your personal data and alerts you if it has been involved in a data breach/leak
• Parental control software: monitor and manage your child's online activity
• 50GB of cloud storage: upload and store files securely on the cloud
• Scam protection: AI-powered protection against phishing, scam texts, and fraudulent calls in real time
• Password manager: saves and securely stores your passwords, allowing you to create a unique password for each account without worrying you won't be able to remember them
• Deepfake protection: detects AI-generated voices and audio scams in a video to prevent you from becoming a victim to them

All these features are impressive at first glance, although they are not completely necessary to protect yourself online. I won't lie, they are definitely useful, and in the current age, things like scam and deepfake protection are definitely good for online peace of mind.

However, they're not crucial, and if you follow online safety tips and research how to spot scams or phishing attempts, you can protect yourself without software.

The most important piece I can give for online safety is this: if whatever you're reading is trying to elicit an emotional response in you (positive or negative) and is urging you to act quickly without thinking, be very wary and treat it with caution.

Norton 360 offers a range of different support options, including a support center with detailed help pages and troubleshooting guides, and an official forum where you can discuss issues with other users, as well as 24/7 email, chat, and text support.

To get support, all you need to do is type in the email address you have registered with Norton, then select the topic you need help with. Norton will then suggest contact methods for you to use. This is pretty helpful, and in testing we were able to get connected to an agent pretty quickly.

The one negative about Norton's support was that its Ask Genie AI assistant was a lot slower and more inconsistent than the AI assistants offered by competitors such as Avast and Malwarebytes. This is a little frustrating, especially if need to solve an urgent problem.

Our time with Norton 360 Deluxe was easy to recommend, but be sure to watch out for the sharp price increase at renewal time. Also, some of its protection features (like SafeCam) are Windows-exclusive, while others are only available on its most expensive subscription and its AI-powered chatbot can be a little slow.

Still, these are relatively minor shortcomings — Norton 360 Deluxe is still one of the most dependable and feature-rich antivirus software suites on the market.

• Read our full Norton 360 Deluxe review

The best budget antivirus software

People often say "you get what you pay for" to mean that paying less means you get a worse product. That's not always the case, as Malwarebytes Plus shows. You pay less annually because it's a stripped-back app that focuses solely on effective antivirus and malware protection without the extras.

The Standard plan starts at $44 for three devices, but we generally recommend Malwarebytes Plus because it comes bundled with a VPN for a lot less than you'd pay for a standalone VPN. And it has a 60-day money-back guarantee, which effectively means you have two months to decide whether or not it's right for you.

While it does have everything you'd want from an antivirus, it doesn't offer some features you'd find in other antivirus apps, including cloud storage or parental controls. You don't need these, but if you want additional security, you'd be better off with Norton 360 Deluxe or Bitdefender Total Security.

Malwarebytes offers three scan levels: Threat Scan (quick), Deep Scan (full), and Custom Scan (targeted). The quick scan option is nice to see, and gives it an edge over the likes of Bitdefender, which doesn't offer these options.

In testing, its Threat Scan was completed within an impressive 22 seconds, having scanned over 176,000 files without detecting any anomalies or threats. The Deep Scan took 14 minutes and two seconds to finish, and scanned a total of 427,157 files — falling a little short of Bitdefender, which scanned over two million files in 26 minutes.

It had a bit of trouble keeping up our game's frame rate up (87 FPS down to 75 FPS during a scan), so Malwarebytes Plus is more of a system hog than others in this roundup. But that doesn't nessecarily mean it's a problem, as the game was still easily playable and didn't stutter or lag, even during resource-heavy sessions.

In AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test report, Malwarebytes scored 75/100 and 17.6 in Impact. The Impact score confirms what we found in testing — Malwarebytes negatively impacts your system's resources. Bitdefender (9.6), Avast (5.5) and Norton 360 (5.3) all performed better than Malwarebytes in this area.

In SE Labs April 2026 report, Malwarebytes Premium was awarded an AAA rating with 97% protection accuracy. This is clearly a great number, but does fall short of Bitdefender, Norton and Avast, which all scored 100% protection accuracy. Even if it's a little down on the others, Malwarebytes Plus is still an excellent option.

The company offers 24/7 customer support via email and online chat, which is a similar level of support to what’s offered by Bitdefender, Avast and Norton. It also has plenty of troubleshooting guides available, as well as an extremely active blog called Malwarebytes Labs, where the team posts news and updates.

There's an AI chatbot for quick questions and it was pretty easy to get a viable answer to our questions. Plus, you can get it to connect you to a human, who took around two hours to get back to our queries. However, there's no option for telephone support.

• Read our full Malwarebytes review

The best antivirus software for fraud protection

If you're looking for an antivirus that offers in-depth scanning to root out any issues on your device, then Bitdefender Total Security is a great option. It's about the same cost as Norton 360 Deluxe, although it's harder to find a first year discount with Bitdefender.

We reviewed Bitdefender Ultimate Security, which is a fantastic internet security suite, but is overkill if you're looking for just the best antivirus. Bitdefender Total Security has the same antivirus protection, but without the extras like scam and identity protection, real-time breach notifications, a password manager and a VPN.

These are all nice-to-have rather than need-to-have. Total Security offers protection against malware, ransomware, and network threats, which is what you need from an antivirus. But it does have a few extras, like active app monitoring, protection against cryptomining and tools to avoid phishing, fraud and spam.

Its protection doesn't hamper your computer's performance, either. We performed a full scan (of over 2.3 million files) while also running a heavy-resource video game, and it only dipped from 100 FPS to 97 FPS. This is barely noticeable dip, so you probably won't ever notice performance impacts during a scan.

However, it does only offer one scan option — a full system scan. This scans every single file on your machine, which does mean it may uncover some you were previously unaware of. In-depth scanning is great, but it would be good if it had a Quick Scan option, especially as Bitdefender's scan took us over 26 minutes.

Bitdefender's independent testing scores were decent. It achieved 6/6 scores across Protection, Performance, and Usability in AV Test’s February 2026 report, the same as McAfee and Norton.

Though its AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test results were not as good. This test uses benchmarking tools to assess system impact. It scored 85/100 and 9.6/10 in Impact. This is good, but McAfee performed better, with a 90/100 and 3.3 impact score. Interestingly, it was the only test Bitdefender underperformed in.

SE Labs (U.K.) gave Bitdefender a AAA rating (the highest possible) with a 100% protection accuracy. And we were impressed with the company's support, which you can contact by email, live chat or on the phone. We also tried the brand's Helper AI, which was useful for quick questions and connected us to a human too.

If we could change anything about Bitdefender Total Security, it would be to add a Quick Scan option and make the app resizeable on Windows computers. These are tiny complaints, though, which is why it's easy to recommend Total Security as one of the best antivirus apps you can get for your devices right now.

• Read our full Bitdefender Total Security review

The best free antivirus software

Avast One is a great antivirus to use if you want to protect yourself without breaking the bank. It offers a completely free tier, with the option to add paid add-ons for any extra security features you might want.

This free tier blocks viruses and malware and offers protection against ransomware, and includes Avast’s AI-powered assistant for catching scams. And you get a 60-day free trial of SecureLine VPN as part of your subscription. Avast keeps the base subscription cost low because you can add several security features later, like:

• Premium Security: includes Wi-Fi protection, WebGuard, which uses AI to block scam websites, and Mail Shield, which monitors your email address for threats
• SecureLine VPN: encrypts your connection to protect your internet traffic
• Cleanup Premium: temporarily disable apps, remove junk files and data, minimize freezes or crashes by fixing issues, and keep apps and software up to date
• BreachGuard Premium: monitors your personal info, sends alerts if any of your data leaks online, scans the dark web for data breaches, sends you online account security tips, and gives you smart privacy advice

Avast One has a few scans options (unlike Bitdefender Total Security with just a full scan): Smart (quick), Full, Targeted (custom), and Boot-Time. We ran a Full Scan in 6 minutes and 12 seconds, which is a lot quicker than Bitdefender's full scan (26 minutes and 23 seconds).

Not that it's a deal-breaker, but I find it a little annoying that Avast One doesn’t tell you how many files it has scanned, like most other antivirus apps do. But whichever scan you use, you won't notice the impact on your computer's resources, as our resource-heavy testing game only dropped from 99 FPS down to 96 FPS during the scan.

Avast was rated as a top product by AV Test’s February 2026 report, achieving a 6/6 score across Protection, Performance and Usability. In AV Comparatives’ April 2026 report, Avast ranked 6th on the list, just under Norton 360, with a 90/100 score and a 5.5 Impact score.

And, impressively, it achieved the highest AAA rating with a 100% total accuracy percentage in SE Labs (U.K.) April 2026 report. So it's clear that you get robust protection without dragging your computer down to a crawl during a scan.

If you need to talk to support, you can use the live chat, text or phone. But first you have to go through a support questionnaire, which will tell you the best way to contact based on your problem. You also have to go through this before you can access the live chat, which is the opposite to the way Bitdefender and Norton approach this.

The main downside — and it's barely a downside — is that the plans max out at 10 devices. This is quite a lot of protection, but if you want to protect everyone in your family, with multiple phones and laptops each, then you'd be better off with McAfee+ Premium.

• Read our full Avast One review

The best antivirus software for families

McAfee+ Premium is a great option if you have a lot of devices you want to cover, as it offers support for an unlimited number of devices. This is a huge benefit of McAfee's protection over the rest, which are usually capped to around 5-10 devices.

The first year price is also exceptionally good value, but it renews at three times the cost. It's still great value and roughly in line with options like Norton 360 Deluxe, and that price increase will feel less steep if you're taking advantage of the uncapped device limit (meaning the per-device cost does down).

McAfee+ Premium just gives you two scan options: Quick or Full. It's not the biggest scan diversity we've seen on this list, but it is still pretty good. Some antivirus apps, like Bitdefender Total Security, don't offer a quick scanning option. In testing, the Quick scan took just 29 seconds for McAfee to quickly scan 38,846 files — pretty impressive!

Unfortunately, the Full Scan was not as impressively quick. The opposite, in fact. While both Bitdefender and Malwarebytes Plus were able to scan hundreds of thousands of files in under 26 minutes or so, McAfee took 34 minutes and 40 seconds to scan 351,968 files.

Still, despite the time this scan takes, it shouldn't slow your device down. When running a high-bandwidth video game and McAfee's Full Scan, the frames per second only dipped from 99 FPS to 87 FPS. This may be a little more of an impact than other scans on this list, but it's still relatively small, and not one you should notice.

Like many of the other providers on this list, McAfee+ Premium offers a number of features alongside standard antivirus protection. As well as antivirus, antimalware, and ransomware protection, McAfee+ Premium also includes:

• Scam detector: detects phone, email and video scams, as well as risky sites
• VPN: encrypts your online traffic and connection
• Identity monitoring: monitors up to 60 different pieces of personal information on the dark web
• Password manager: stores and saves your passwords securely

If you want an antivirus that does have these extra security features, then this is likely a real plus for you. However, I'll reiterate: your antivirus does not need these features to protect your device from viruses and malware.

McAfee's performance in independent tests is excellent. AV Test’s June 2026 report rated McAfee as a “Top Product,” with 6/6 scores across Protection, Performance and Usability, putting it on par with Bitdefender Total Security, Avast One and Norton 360.

AV Comparatives’ April 2026 test report rated McAfee 1st out of the 19 antivirus software suites it tested, outperforming all others in this list. The app scored 90/100 and 3.3 in Impact. The low Impact rating means that the software doesn’t have a negative impact on your system’s resources, which we also saw in our testing.

And SE Labs’ (U.K.) June 2026 report awarded McAfee an AAA rating with 98% protection accuracy and an overall 99% score. Not quite the 100% score that Norton 360 and Bitdefender Total Security got, but still very impressive.

McAfee's support is similar to Norton and Bitdefender, with live chat or phone options. The chat starts with an AI bot which was accurate and quick and connected us to a human agent without a couple of minutes. Unusually, the phone line is open all day too, not just during business hours.

• Read our full McAfee+ Premium review

Also tested

How we test the best antivirus software

We test each antivirus program and evaluate its interface, performance, protection, extra features and, above all, overall value.

After timing and rating the installation process’s ease, we looked at whether the interface was simple and straightforward, convoluted and difficult to grasp — or something in between.

Then we move onto the scans. We measure whether the system slows down during scans by opening up the resource-heavy game Cyberpunk 2077 on a high-performance laptops and recorded how much each app effected the game's frames per second.

For malware detection performance, we looked over results from tests conducted by three independent labs: AV-TEST in Germany, AV-Comparatives in Austria and SE Labs in the U.K.

Each lab subjects major antivirus programs to stress tests that include thousands of pieces of malware as well as hundreds of “zero-day” (where a bug has been identified but not widely known or fixed) samples that the software has to learn to recognize.

As this is a guide to the best antivirus apps, our main focus is on this core function — how easy the software is to use, whether it slows down your computer and how effective the protection is.

But most antivirus software comes with extras like VPN access or file shredding software. We give each extra a go and see whether it's the kind of thing you'd actually use or if it's just bloat used to justify higher prices.

How to choose the best antivirus software

if you're looking for the best antivirus software, then the top priority should always be how well it picks up viruses and malware to protect your computer.

Of course, this is difficult to test on your own (because unless you infect your computer on purpose, how will you know if it isn't picking up issues?), so the best way to check this is to look at the third-party testing labs that perform in-depth analysis.

That's part of how we make recommendations, too. Generally, it's a good idea not to rely on the results from a single lab, but to see how an app compares across all of the testing labs to see if it's performance is consistent, no matter what's thrown at it.

Then, think about how many family members do you have in the home? How many devices does each person need coverage for? What platforms do each of those devices use, and are the features they'll need available on these platforms?

Few antivirus apps come with just core protection now, as most companies bundle other security-focused products into your subscription. So before you dig too deep into the options, make a list of the features and extras you'd actually like and use.

Do you also need parental controls? Is a VPN important to you? Would you like a password manager or file shredder? What about identity theft protection, or scam-spotting technology?

And although it's a given that you'll think about how much you want to spend, there are vanishingly few options where you can buy lifetime access to an app — everything is a subscription. So to keep costs down, be sure of what you actually need.

Some antivirus brands offer 30 or 60-day free trials for you to have a test run of the software (but be sure not to let it auto-renew if you don't get along with it). And there are some which allow you to change the annual payment based on the amount of devices you need protected and the extras you want included.

FAQs

Right now, the best smartwatch for women is the Apple Watch Series 11. The latest model of the Apple Watch boasts improved battery life over its predecessor and is available in two different sizes, making it one of Apple's most comfortable wearables. It only works with iPhone, though, so if you're an Android user, you're better off going for something else.

If you're looking to track fitness, the best watch for women is the Garmin Venu 4. It has pretty much all of the features found on the high-end best Garmin watches, but in a stylish and svelte package.

We've tested dozens of smartwatches and fitness trackers in order to determine the bets smartwatches for women. Here, we'll take you through them, from the best for health tracking to the best if you're on a budget.

The best smartwatches for women right now

Best smartwatch for women overall

The Apple Watch 11 is the best Apple Watch yet. It’s not a major upgrade over the Apple Watch 10 in terms of features, but it does finally crack the 18-hour battery life mark.

While the Apple Watch 11 looks the same as the Apple Watch 10 on the surface, the little watch is twice as tough. Apple has made the protective glass of the screen much tougher, meaning the Apple Watch 11 can withstand more knocks.

The Apple Watch 11 ships with watchOS 26, which means it features Apple's latest Workout Buddy, an AI workout coach, a sleep score, and the first-of-its-kind high blood pressure alert feature (hypertension).

On board, there are more workout modes than you can imagine, as well as the ability to track your sleep, vitals, and cycle from your wrist. The Series 11 also gets a bump from LTE to 5G, giving it better cellular range than ever before.

That's why it's the best smartwatch for women (and for most people) if you have an iPhone.

• Read our full Apple Watch 11 review

Best smartwatch for women for Android

The Galaxy Watch 8 is Samsung's newest smartwatch model, and it offers a handful of new features and wellness tools not currently found on the Galaxy Watch 7, the most notable being Google's Gemini AI voice assistant built in.

While the older model is slated to eventually get this feature via firmware (the Pixel Watch 3, too), at present, Samsung's latest and the Pixel Watch 4 are the only smartwatches that ships with Gemini preloaded.

Gemini is by far the most useful on-wrist AI assistant I've tested, capable of handling a range of tasks and reliable when it comes to providing useful responses to inquiries like, "Can my 20-pound chihuahua mix eat blueberries, and if so, how many?”

There are also a handful of new holistic and fitness features on the Galaxy Watch 8 of varying usefulness. Cardiovascular Load and Samsung's new personalized running coach both impressed me during testing. The former lets you know how your lifestyle may be impacting your overall heart health, and the latter builds a full-blown multi-week training plan based on a simple 12-minute run test and your running goals.

The Galaxy Watch 8 strikes the balance of sleek and sporty, while two display sizes and a large collection of interchangeable bands offer ample customization. But the reason it really stands out as one of the best smartwatches for women is its integration with the fertility-tracking app, Natural Cycles.

Famously, the Oura Ring works with Natural Cycles, but the data syncs from one app to the other and you need a subscription to both to make it work. Samsung's implementation is different.

Natural Cycles' algorithm powers the menstrual tracking and fertility data in the Samsung Health app. So, you buy the watch and get access to some of Natural Cycles' key features without taking an additional subscription.

• Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 review

Best smartwatch for women for fitness

The Garmin Venu 4 has received some huge upgrades, making it well worth considering if you’re looking to upgrade your smartwatch. It comes with a price hike compared to its predecessor, the Garmin Venu 3, but it has a redesigned case, more accurate GPS, and more advanced health and fitness tracking features on board.

he Venu 4 has some of Garmin’s most premium health and training features, as well as a bunch of new ones built in, including the new sleep consistency and sleep alignment features, lifestyle logging, and health status.

From a safety perspective, the Venu 4 has a flashlight, which can change color as you're running at night, adding visibility to your workouts. It can be turned on by holding the back button down for a couple of seconds, and you can change the brightness by swiping up and down on the watch.

During testing, I was blown away by the design of this watch. It looks beautiful. The all-metal casing, rather than just the metal bezel on the Venu 3, gives the newer watch a more premium feel on the wrist. The watch has a bright, AMOLED touchscreen, as well as two physical buttons to allow you to navigate around the watch while wearing gloves or with sweaty hands.

• Read our full Garmin Venu 4 review

Best smartwatch for women for health tracking

The Fitbit Sense 2 is the company's premium smartwatch that comes with more advanced health and wellness features than the Versa line. Not only does it have an FDA-cleared ECG sensor and blood oxygen reading, but the Sense has the ability to measure electrodermal activity and skin temperature, too.

An update to the stress-detecting EDA (electrodermal activity) sensor plays a large role in the device’s success: now called cEDA ('c' for continuous,) the sensor monitors stress levels or heightened responses throughout the day, prompting the user to take action on mood monitoring with Body Response notifications.

During testing, we were impressed by the Sense 2's long battery life and attractive design, as well as the huge number of health tracking options. The Sense 2 works with both iOS and Android, and comes with onboard GPS, Alexa, and more.

• Read our full Fitbit Sense 2 review

Best budget smartwatch for women

The Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro is excellent for those looking for a great fitness tracker on a budget. It's $310 cheaper than the Apple Watch 11 with 20 times better battery life and effectively identical functionality.

At $89, it's by far the cheapest smartwatch on this list. There is a slightly more expensive Ceramic Edition that costs $109, the main draw of which is that it comes with a fluororubber strap instead of a TPU one on the base model. This strap is more resistant to UV rays, oils, harsh chemicals, and dust, as well as overall just looking more sophisticated. In testing, we found it to be more comfortable than a silicone strap, too.

You should note, however, that at the time of writing, the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro isn’t officially available through Xiaomi in the U.S. It is available through certain third-party retailers, although you should be aware that doing so carries some risks.

When it comes to fitness tracking, the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro uses a range of different sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and more, to accurately measure and track over 150 workouts, physical activities, and even board games, as well as passive metrics like steps, stress, and more. In testing, we found its metrics to be very accurate. It gives you an in-depth breakdown of your heart rate, aerobic or anaerobic activity, workout performance, calories burned, and more.

Beyond fitness, it also offers a range of breathing exercises, guiding you through activities like box breathing in times of stress or anxiety.

In terms of smartwatch functionality, you can receive notifications; however, it does not have a built-in mic or speaker, meaning you cannot answer calls via the Xiaomi Smartband 10 Pro. It does allow you to set custom text-based message responses for when you can’t answer calls, though.

If you do want to track every metric you can, you'll need to download the Mi Fitness app and enable permissions manually. Stress tracking, for example, is disabled by default. You should also keep in mind, however, that enabling continuous stress tracking (which can give you in-depth stress analysis and help you determine stress triggers and unhealthy habits to avoid) will impact battery life. In testing, this reduced the promised up to 21 days of battery life down to 13. Despite this, this is still the best battery life of any smartwatch on this list.

You can also use the Band 10 Pro to measure blood oxygen levels and blood pressure, as well as your menstrual cycle and log things like pain and moods, negating the need for a dedicated period tracking app. The Band 10 Pro notifies you when you’ve been stationary for too long, too, prompting you to stretch or walk around.

It will also tell you your sleep efficiency or quality by citing metrics like average heart rate, average sleep HRV (heart rate variation), and how long it took you to fall asleep. It will then assign you a Sleep Animal (we were assigned a koala, for example), and assign you a sleep schedule based on your animal. This is cute, but not as helpful as the sleep tracking offered by other smartwatches.

Overall, if you're looking for a stylish yet inexpensive Apple Watch dupe, the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro is a great option. There are some add-ons that make it more expensive, but these aren't strictly necessary.

• Read our full Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro review

Best screenless smartwatch for women

The Fitbit Air is the latest offering from Fitbit, and it joins the likes of the Whoop band, the Helio strap, and the Polar Loop in a number of new, screenless fitness trackers, which are great if you want to just focus on your fitness goals with no other distractions. While it is less of a smartwatch and more of a fitness tracker, I felt it deserved a place on this list regardless, for being a distraction-free way to track your health and fitness.

At just $99, it offers excellent value for money, and while there is a subscription model for personalized AI-backed health and fitness insights and deeper dives into your holistic trends from Google Health Premium, it isn't necessary, as you can still access the Fitbit Air's core features without it via the Google Health app. Still, if you do want to access it, it's fairly inexpensive compared to other fitness subscriptions at $9.99 a month or $99 a year.

In terms of tracking, the Fitbit Air offers sleep tracking insights on par with the best fitness trackers and best smartwatches, and even has an app for tracking holistic trends, including resting heart rate, average calorie burn, step count, heart rate variability, menstrual cycles, and daily readiness. Its fitness tracking is reliable, too — we tried it out in a comparison test with the Garmin Forerunner 70, and found that Fitbit Air tracks your heart rate with similar reliability to the Garmin smartwatch.

On top of this, it's comfortable to wear, too. Overall, we found it to be smaller and lighter than alternatives from Whoop, Amazfit, and Polar, which is excellent news if you find these models to be a bit too clunky on the wrist.

It's not perfect, however — as with most other screenless wearables, there's no onboard GPS or altimeter, which means you can't track your location or elevation data without carrying a smartphone. Additionally, during testing, we discovered that its automatic workout tracking only kicks in after 15 minutes.

Plus, if you do want to input a workout manually on the Fitbit app to make sure it actually logs it, you'll likely find the amount of activities lacking as compared to that of the Apple Watch Series 11, for example.

Still, if you're looking for an attractive, screenless fitness tracker that won't break the bank, the Fitness Air is an excellent option.

• Read our full Fitbit Air review

Best smart ring for women

Ok, I know this isn't a smartwatch, but I'd be remiss to speak about female health tracking tech without mentioning the Oura Ring. The latest model (the Oura Ring 5) has been released, and we were definitely impressed by its performance in testing.

Oura is consistently one of the best when it comes to tracking your cycle — my Oura Ring 4 worked out that I was pregnant before I did. Plus, it's cleverly disguised as a piece of jewellery, meaning you don't have to worry about a clunky smartwatch ruining the vibes of your outfit.

Still, you may have thought the Oura Ring 4 was a little too bulky to be discreet. Oura has taken these critiques on board, and the Oura Ring 5 is 40% smaller than the Ring 4. It's just 2.28mm thick and weighs as little as 2 grams, depending on ring size.

However, the Oura Ring 5 has slightly fewer sizing options than the Ring 4 — sizes 6-13 versus Ring 4's 4-15. So, if you have smaller hands, you may find the Ring 5 simply doesn't fit.

From a tracking perspective, Oura helps you keep an eye on your recovery and sleep, but also the impact of the day's stress on your body. Its companion smartphone app makes it easy to see daily insights, long-term trends, and an overall picture of your health, as well as more in-depth, impressive analysis if you want to get under the hood with your health, as it were.

There is one major downside, however, and that's that on top of the $399 price tag ($50 more than the Oura Ring 4), the Oura Ring 5 also requires a monthly subscription of $5.99 to use the ring. This may be a step too far for some, especially considering how pricey the hardware is.

However, if you want a discreet fitness tracker that offers you a better understanding of your overall health, it's a great option.

Read our full Oura Ring 5 review

Also tested

How we test the best smartwatches for women

Whenever an attractive smartwatch for women is released, we fully charge it up, then strap it on our wrist for about a week or so to test out all the features.

We gauge how it feels on our wrist throughout our day-to-day, as well as how easy (or not) the interface is to navigate when we need to read notifications, set timers or change other settings.

Next, we look at its fitness features, such as heart rate readings, blood oxygen readings, step counts and, when applicable, GPS. How accurate are all these readings? Does the smartwatch offer female-specific features for menstrual cycle or pregnancy tracking?

Finally we consider battery life claims and compare it to our actual use. Some features like continuous GPS use, playing music or enabling an always-on display chew up juice faster than others. We understand that not all smartwatches last two weeks — we just want our experience to match up with the expectations set by the company.

How to choose the best smartwatch for women

Among the best smartwatches for women, you have a bounty of options to match your needs and style. That said, if you have an iPhone, you’ll probably appreciate the ecosystem experience of the Apple Watch 11.

The same goes for those with Samsung smartphones, your best choice is a Samsung-made Galaxy Watch, but if fitness tracking or working out is your priority, a Fitbit or Garmin wearable might be better for reaching your goals. Plus, both those companies offer diverse design options.

When picking any smartwatch, you’ll also want to get one that fits your wrist comfortably. Those with smaller wrists may find larger smartwatches bulky and cumbersome. All of the smartwatches above have 40mm or smaller size options, though the 38mm Garmin Lily is by far the most compact. The Amazfit Active 3 Premium is also a great choice, with a 1.3-inch screen.

Some of the best smartwatches for women look like high-tech fitness trackers, while others look like traditional timepieces, too. If you want something sporty, stick to sleek materials with fewer embellishments. If you want something you can wear on nicer occasions, look for bezels or other eye-catching accents.

The tracker lives inside a comfortable and nice looking strap that ends up looking more like a wristband than a fitness tracker. But it can do a lot more than my old Fitbit One, with steps, heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep, workouts and temperature tracking.

It's a lot cheaper than many trackers, but to get the most from it, you'd need to take out a recurring Google Health Premium subscription. If you want to keep costs down, then then I recommend the subscription-free Xiaomi Smart Band 10, which has all the fitness tracking essentials for less than $50.

The best cheap fitness trackers you can buy today

Best cheap fitness tracker overall

It's been a long time since Fitbit launched an affordable fitness tracker, but then Google surprised us all with the screen-less Fitbit Air in the summer of 2026. It's an incredible return to form for the brand as it seems like it finally remembered that not everyone wants a smartwatch; some people just want to track their stats.

That's what the Fitbit Air excels at, and all for less than $100. The last time Fitbit released a wearable at that price was the Inspire 3 in 2022. And although it really reminds me of the Fitbit One I used to wear back in 2013, it's got a lot more going on than that — even if you can't see it on a screen.

It's a fully-equipped fitness tracker that keeps tabs on your steps, sleep, activity, heart rate and blood oxygen levels. So although it looks like the pebble-shaped trackers of old, there's a lot more going on, which helps you build a more rounded picture of your activity and wellbeing throughout the day.

Not that you'd know it is a pebble-like tracker; the strap goes over the top, so to most people, the Fitbit Air just looks like a colorful wristband. We found it very comfortable, so it's one of the better trackers to wear while sleeping — smartwatches or larger trackers are quite difficult to sleep with, which inevitably means taking them off.

We tested the sleep tracking against the Garmin Forerunner 70, which costs twice as much, and found that, although there were some differences, the recordings were very close. The fitness tracking also held up well. Of course, since there's no screen, you have to access the data in the Google Health app.

While it's a much cheaper, subscription-free alternative to the Whoop 5.0, it's main competition is the screen-less Garmin Circa. The Circa is great if you're already in Garmin's ecosystem, but it's twice the price of the Fitbit Air for a similar(ish) experience, so if keeping costs down is your main focus, the Air wins every time.

• Read our full Fitbit Air review

Best cheap fitness tracker under $50

The Xiaomi Smart Band 10 looks like a traditional fitness tracker, with a small rectangular screen running in-line with the strap to keep it slimmer than a watch. It's not quite as discreet as the Fitbit Air, but we enjoyed our time wearing it and it's also half the price of the already affordable Air.

It's surprising, really, that a tracker with a screen can be cheaper than one without, but you're not compromising on features either. It looks quite similar to the Fitbit Inspire 3, but has less Google (which could be a plus, depending on your view of Big Tech).

Impressively, it can track 159 activities from your wrist, and as we were scrolling the list, we noticed the usual things — running, cycling, gym workouts — but also some intriguing options, like card and board games. So it has a bit of personality, but you don't realize how much until you go to sleep.

The tracker analyzes your sleep, and after it's gathered a week of data, you get assigned an animal based on your sleep quality. In our reviewer's case, the animal was a shark. Is it useful? Well, no. But it is a lot of fun, and far more interesting than a bunch of graphs can ever be (though you get those too).

Of course, the reason you buy and wear a tracker is for the data it gathers. We tested the Smart Band 10 alongside the Oura Ring 4 (which is six times the price) and found that the step and activity tracking pretty much aligned. And it was easy to see your daily stats on the tracker's relatively small display.

The smartphone app is uncomplicated and straightforward to navigate, but it does lack some of the actionable insights you get on other trackers, like the Fitbit Air or Oura Ring. But if you want to keep costs down and keep tabs on your daily activities, the Smart Band 10 is an excellent choice.

• Read our full Xiaomi Smart Band 10 review

Best cheap fitness tracker for actionable insights

If you want the distraction-free design of the Fitbit Air but a price closer to the Xiaomi Smart Band 10, the Amazfit Helio Strap is the tracker you need. Although I'm comparing it against the Air here, it came out a while before Google's option as a more affordable dupe of the Whoop 5.0.

But it has two big advantages of either of those; it's a lot cheaper and you don't need a subscription to access any of the features or insights. So while Amazfit might not be a household name in the same way as Fitbit or Whoop, you get a lot for your money and save on recurring fees too.

We were impressed at how comfortable and adjustable the default strap is. Every time it felt too tight, you just loosen the hook and loop strap to whatever feels best. Plus, this makes it easier to sleep with. We tried it overnight and were impressed with how detailed the tracking was.

Impressively, the app also has two features normally reserved for expensive trackers; a recovery 'Biocharge' score and PAI, a measure of your week's activity which comes with actionable advice on how to boost your fitness. And you get to use these without any subscriptions or additional fees.

Since the Helio Strap doesn't have a display, it uses automatic workout tracking based on what it thinks you're doing. Generally, this is a useful feature, but we found that it was quite unreliable on the Helio Strap. So while testing, we switched to manually starting workouts on the phone app instead.

Given what you get with the Helio Strap, this isn't a deal-breaker. But unlike the Xiaomi Smart Band 10, you don't have the option to manually start tracking from your wrist, so it does mean you need your phone handy to get the most accurate workout recordings.

• Read our full Amazfit Helio Strap review

How we test the best cheap fitness trackers

For every fitness tracker we review, we look at three main areas; design, comfort and software. But before any of that, we unbox the tracker, and look at how easy it is to set up and whether you can easily change the straps to one that's more stylish, or better suited for sweaty workouts.

A lot of the best cheap fitness trackers don't have a display, but for those that do, we tap away at it to see how responsive it is and look at it in different conditions, like in dark rooms or sunny spots, to see how easy it is to see it, even when it's bright around you (which is important for outdoor activities).

If there are on-screen menus, we play around to see how easy these are to navigate. This is important anyway, but especially if you're mid-workout. So we also fiddle with options when we're running or have sweaty hands to see how the display handles real-life situations.

All fitness trackers will give you things like step count and heart rate, but we check whether these values are accurate. We manually count steps with an analog pedometer and wear one (or several) trackers concurrently to see what each records during the same activity.

Most of the time, you'll check your data on the tracker's companion app, so we install that and explore customizations, figure out where all the data goes and see what additional insights are on offer. After all, you can't analyze trends on your wrist, so you want to be sure it's easy to do on your phone.

How to choose the best cheap fitness tracker

Before you shortlist cheap fitness trackers, it's important to think about what you actually want from it. In the past decade, some fitness trackers have grown from small wrist-worn step trackers to smartwatch-like devices. But you don't want to pay for features you're not going to use.

If you're choosing between the best fitness trackers and these cheaper ones, the main difference is not in the hardware, but in how the software analyzes your data. So if you're after actionable insights, then you'll want to pick something like the Fitbit Air or maybe one of the best smart rings.

And when I say actionable insights, I mostly mean AI-backed recommendations based on your data. So the tracker can look at how you slept, how much activity you've done lately, and give you some guidance on how to approach the day.

It can be useful, but it's good to consider whether that's something you actually want and that'd be helpful for you. Generally, you'll spend more for this type of analysis (and some features might be paywalled behind an extra subscription) so be sure it's what you really need.

Because various forms of fitness tracker have been around for more than a decade now, the tech that powers them has got a lot cheaper. So if you're not that interested in AI insights, you can pick up something pretty affordable like the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 and still get a lot of quality data from it.

Perhaps you want a true fisheye effect, or maybe you're looking for a more effective zoom. There are so many different lenses to improve your iPhone photography at a range of different prices and use cases, and we've tested as many as we can to make sure you get the best for your needs.

All of these lenses have been thoroughly evaluated by our photography experts, so you know that the images you'll get out of them are going to be excellent. So without further ado, here are the best iPhone lenses of 2026.

Best iPhone lens available right now

Best iPhone lens kit

Moment's T-Series lens kit is our top pick and features the best iPhone lenses around. Each of Moment’s smartphone lenses boast premium construction and great image quality. Made with aerospace-grade material and hand-polished glass that is also used for high-end 4K film lenses, Moment’s lenses are designed really well.

You can get a lens for virtually any genre of photography — choose from the Tele 58mm, Wide 18mm, Fisheye 14mm and Macro 10x lenses. With a dedicated Moment case or a drop-in lens mount, all you need to do is twist these lenses on and you’re good to go.

They’re very easy to use and while some of them are weighty, they’re never too heavy, so you can comfortably hold your phone in one hand. Each of Moment’s T-Series lenses costs between $130 and $150, making them pretty expensive.

Add on another $50 for a case (which works much better than a clip on mount) and Moment's incredible iOS app for $9, and you're looking at upwards of $200 all in. However, while expensive, we believe that Moment makes the best iPhone lens kits overall.

This is because they provide the same great image quality as Sandmarc, but offer higher levels of compatibility and can be used with a variety of phones, such as Samsung, Google Pixel, and OnePlus. Moment's iOS app also offers way more creative control and pro features versus the standard iPhone camera app, and you'll find yourself using it for photography even when you aren't using Moment's lenses.

One thing we don't like is Moment's case mounting system. While this is a secure way to mount and align lenses correctly, the lenses have blades on the bottom which twist lock into the phone case and sit right on top of the iPhone's built in lens.

This risks scratching your phone's lenses, so we much prefer Sandmarc's lenses in this respect, which us a screw-thread system instead of blade and don't come as close to the phone lens.

Nevertheless, despite some minor issues, Moment’s lenses are a perfect way to focus on fun and frame your world, and they can give your smartphone photography a boost without the need for bulky gear.

Unlike Sandmarc and ShiftCam, Moment also offers a fantastic smartphone app on iOS, which offers lots of manual control and helps you get the most out of its lenses.

• Read our full Moment iPhone lens review

Best iPhone lenses for video

Moment's T-Series anamorphic lenses are the best iPhone lenses for video, especially if you're after an awesome cinematic effect. As anamorphic lenses, the T-Series 1.33x and 1.55x lenses squeeze footage. When squeezed, everything is much taller while staying the same width. What's the benefit of that?

Well, when you de-squeeze the footage so that everything in frame looks normal, you're left with a super-wide letterbox aspect ratio, without having had to crop your frame to get it (which means losing resolution). The 1.33x lens results in a 2.4:1 ultra-wide aspect ratio, while the 1.55x lens results in an even wider 2.76:1 aspect ratio, which looks truly cinematic.

To de-squeeze footage, you'll need to either shoot using the Moment iPhone app, which does it for you as you shoot, or use post-production software to de-squeeze it later.

We'd opt for the Moment camera app, which is fantastic and gives you lots of awesome pro features, such as manual control over exposure, a histogram, LUTs and focus peaking.

It's an epic app that is way better than the standard iPhone Camera app even for photography without Moment lenses. It is iOS only, though, so if you also use any Android devices, you'll need to find a third-party app or de-squeeze in post.

Thanks to their special coating, these lenses also produce incredible lens flares when pointed directly at light sources, which appear as thick strips of blue or gold light (depending on whether you choose the blue or gold coating). As Moment lenses, naturally the T-Series Anamorphics are also built extremely well, and they attach firmly to your iPhone via a phone case.

So, what are the downsides? Well, firstly, there's the cost. These lenses range up to $149, so they're pricey. A case from Moment will cost you upwards of another $50, and there's the app you'll need to de-squeeze footage, which costs $9 (but is well worth the spend).

• Read our full Moment T-Series Anamorphic lenses review

Best iPhone telephoto lens

In my testing, Sandmarc's 58mm 2x telephoto lens resulted in much better image quality than the iPhone's built-in lenses. Image centers were very sharp, and there was a reasonable level of sharpness out to the edges of the frame (although obviously this is relatively — it isn't as sharp as a large lens on a mirrorless camera).

It delivered decent levels of contrast and is a solid lens for architecture, wildlife or landscapes. Its 58mm focal length will also serve well for portraits, although in my opinion the ShiftCam lens is better for portraiture due to tighter background blur and nicer bokeh. This lens does suffer from noticeable chromatic aberration, but again it's important to remember that this is not a $2,000 mirrorless camera lens.

Sandmarc also offers a wide variety of lenses, from wide-angle macro through to 6x telephoto and even a microscope lens. All Sandmarc lenses come with a clip to attach them to your phone, but we found this slipped off easily, moving the lens from the ideal spot, plus it always takes up space on your phone screen.

For best results, you'll want to purchase the additional case. And while Sandmarc offers lenses for iPhones all the way back to the iPhone 7, it doesn't offer lenses for any other phones, so if you switch devices, you won't be able to use your lens collection.

In general, Moment lenses still (just) outrank Sandmarc lenses, although there isn't a lot in it. Moment lenses can be used on lots of devices, which is a big win. Image quality is great across the board, although as I alluded to above, we were far more impressed by Sandmarc's tele lens than Moment's, so if your priority is zoom, opt for a Sandmarc kit.

• Read our full Sandmarc iPhone lenses review

Best iPhone lens for portraits

The ShiftCam 60mm telephoto lens isn't the sharpest iPhone tele lens, which is why the Sandmarc takes the spot as best tele above. However, the ShiftCam 60mm is perfect for any budding portrait photographers out there.

Not every lens has to be perfectly sharp, and there's a lot of fun to be had by embracing imperfection and character. In testing, I loved the characteristics of this lens, which lend themselves nicely to portraits.

It has a steep focus drop off, resulting in atmospheric blur to give a dreamy effect — it looks much more natural than the fake software blur applied by your iPhone in portrait mode. It also generates really tight background blurs to isolate your subject, while its bokeh is much nicer than the Sandmarc 58mm. The lens produces very little chromatic aberration, too.

But since it isn't the sharpest lens, even in the center of the frame, it's not the best for landscapes, wildlife or architecture. However, I can also see this lens being a great one for street photography, or indeed any genre where you're trying to capture the atmosphere of a moment rather than the sharpest portrayal of one.

ShiftCam lenses retail for around the same price as Sandmarc lenses, which means they're cheaper than moment lenses. Nevertheless, ShiftCam's build quality is second to none. This lens is beautifully built and looks premium. It also comes with a sturdy carry case complete with a carabiner for easy attachment to (and detachment from) camera bags or pocket zips.

ShiftCam also uses a screw thread system for attachment to its iPhone cases. This is secure for a start, but is much less concerning than the bladed wingtip system on Moment lenses, which feels like it'll scratch your iPhone camera.

ShiftCam's lenses are compatible with a range of smartphones, but the company only makes cases for iPhones, meaning Android users will need to use an inferior universal clip mount. Overall though, the ShiftCam 60mm telephoto is an utterly lovable little lens that's well worth its price.

• Read my full ShiftCam LensUltra review

Best iPhone super telephoto lens

The Sandmarc 10x tele is my favorite super telephoto lens for iPhone. What do I mean by super telephoto? The Sandmarc 10x lens has a focal length equivalent to 200mm on a full-frame camera, so it has lots of reach. It magnifies subjects far away, making it great for things like wildlife.

This lens has a lot of character, which is good and bad. Admittedly, it demonstrates distinct lateral chromatic aberration and sharpness drop-off around the center of the image. But the trade-off is that its images look interesting. That sharpness drop-off draws attention to subjects in the center and helps isolate them. And its artistic characteristics generate swirly background blur, which looks lovely.

The colors on this lens are much nicer than the standard iPhone telephoto lens at 8x and 10x zoom, with oranges and reds really popping out. Plus, there's a lot more contrast, so images don't feel as flat on the Sandmarc as they do on the iPhone's built-in lens.

This lens is manual focus, but that's pretty normal for these lenses, and something we also saw on the Freewell super tele. I would recommend using a decent smartphone camera app that allows focus peaking, so you can see and control exactly where you're focusing.

• Check out my full Sandmarc 10x telephoto lens review

Best iPhone macro lens

I'll be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of all Freewell's lenses during testing. However, the brand's 45x macro lens is an absolute winner. I wouldn't describe this as a macro lens as much as I would a microscopic lens. With 45x magnification, you get incredibly close into the detail.

You have to be absolutely flat against whatever you're shooting, as you can see in the image below.

However, the results are super cool, as you can see in the sample video below. I was able to zoom right into the coffee card and even see the fibers of the paper!

This lens is very compact and lightweight, with a flat edge that will help you get totally flat against your subject. It also has an LED ring light built-in, that can be recharged via USB-C, to light your subject (given you'll be totally flat on top of it and blocking all light).

You will need to use a third party camera app, though, as you'll have to set where your phone's focal point is. Freewell doesn't offer an app, but I used the Moment app (iOS only).

I was seriously impressed by this little lens, and if I were to review it alone, it would've gotten 4 stars! It uses a 17mm thread to mount to cases (the securest way of mounting), and this size is a universal standard, meaning you should be able to fit this lens to aftermarket cases, and not need to use Freewell's own case, which broke during our testing.

• Read our full Freewell 45x Macro lens review

Best iPhone thermal lens

The TOPDON TC001, TC002 and TC002C are fantastic thermal cameras for anyone who wants to measure the temperature of appliances and tech. Home inspectors and electricians will find it useful, but so will tech journalists who test lots of products.

This smartphone lens delivers excellent value, turning your phone into a thermal camera in seconds. Depending on the model you get, the TOPDON lens will be compatible with USB-C Android devices, lightning cable iPhones, and USB-C iPhones.

The lens measures temperatures ranging from 4-302°F (-20-150°C) and 302-1022°F (150°C-550°C), depending on the mode, and the temperature is easy to read and very accurate.

In our testing, the lens performed impressively, detecting temperature differences as small as 0.1°C, whether measuring indoor heat loss or boiling water. Its compact design, great build quality, and the user-friendly companion app make it a highly portable and versatile tool for temperature monitoring.

Compared to the likes of the FLIR ONE Gen 3 and the Seek Thermal CompactPRO, it holds its own in performance, and it’s cheaper too. And unlike dedicated thermal imaging devices, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars anymore.

However, the camera occasionally freezes due to the sensor recalibrating itself, and it’s difficult to use with a thick hard phone case.

Despite the minor drawbacks, the TOPDON lens offers exceptional accuracy and ease of use. It’s reliable, portable and can be used right out of the box by professionals and hobbyists alike. Its accuracy and affordability make it a great buy.

• Read our full TOPDON TC002 review

The best 2-in-1 iPhone lens

If you’re looking for a telephoto and macro lens in one to elevate your photography, then the Apexel TM6 TeleMacro is the perfect lens for you. Reasonably priced, this 2-in-1 lens offers lots of versatility and is designed for casual photographers on a budget.

The TM6 TeleMacro is a two-in-one lens that combines telephoto and macro capabilities, offering impressive reach and detail without the high price tag of brands like Moment and Sandmarc.

In our testing, this lens produced sharp, true-to-life telephoto images with smooth background blur that adds a nicer aesthetic and professional touch to portraits and nature shots. Its universal clip-on mount is user-friendly and compatible with most smartphones, making it more accessible.

Tele shots taken with this lens have noticeable chromatic aberration though, as we could see color fringing along the outlines of some subjects. Macro shots, while hit-or-miss, turn out well in the right conditions.

The extremely thin depth of field produces a nice aesthetic with a soft and smooth background. The lens also does a great job of isolating a macro subject, revealing hidden worlds that you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

It’s important to note that this is a heavy lens, especially compared to Moment’s and Sandmarc’s offerings. The heavy weight also means that it’s difficult to keep it still. We noticed this especially while shooting macro photos, as the bulkier weight made it tricky to stabilize, leading to mixed results. A vignette-like effect also appears when shooting at 1x zoom, though it’s easily bypassed by zooming in slightly.

Compared to Moment and Sandmarc lenses, the TM6 TeleMacro lens is very affordable, and while it lacks the case-specific fit of premium lenses, it’s a sturdy and versatile option. Ultimately, it’s a good way to bring new depth to smartphone photos without splurging on high-end camera gear.

• Read our full Apexel TM6 TeleMacro lens review

How we test iPhone lenses

When we test iPhone lenses, the first thing that we naturally look at is how well they perform; how do the images look versus an image took with a built-in smartphone lens?

To do this, we take a series of photos with a smartphone built-in lens, then with the external lens, matching the frames of view to give the same scenes. This allows you to see like for like comparisons.

When we analyze the shots, we're looking at a range of criteria to assess lens performance. Firstly, there's sharpness: how sharp and well-defined are the image details when viewed up close.

We look for any noticeable warping from distortion on wide angle lenses, how well macro lenses focus up close, plus the quality and tightness of background blur. We'll also keep an eye out for any artefacts (optical distortions that negatively affect the image) — things like longitudinal and chromatic aberrations.

We then look at build quality, both in terms of the lens' optics and its body, to get an idea of how well they'll stand up to the test of time. We also evaluate iPhone lenses in terms of ease of use: how easy are they to attach and remove from your smartphone?

If it takes longer than a second, you could miss that shot you wanted to get. Do they require or come with a case? Bespoke lens cases are often the best way to attach a lens to your phone, as clip mounts can shake about or misalign, ruining a shot.

Of course, we also look at the price. A general rule in photography is that good glass doesn't come cheap, but we still want you to save your hard-earned bucks wherever possible and avoid overpaying for new photography accessories.

Lenses also get bonus points if they work with more than just iPhones; why can't Android owners have some fun, too? With all of those criteria considered, we're able to compile our list of the best iPhone lenses.

How to choose the best iPhone lens for you

How do you choose the best iPhone lens (or lenses) for you? There are a few things to consider.

1. What phones do they work on?

Many iPhone lenses, like the ones from Moment, work across multiple different devices, so whether you're using an iPhone, a Google Pixel or a Samsung phone, you can still have some fun with external lenses.

However, some lenses only fit certain phones, like the Sandmarc lenses, which are iPhone and iPhone model specific. You'll need to make sure the lenses you buy fit your phone.

2. How do they attach?

Next, consider how the lenses are going to attach to your phone. The best way to do this is using the cases that many smartphone lens manufacturers design for their lenses. These allow you to lock in lenses firmly in the correct position against your iPhone's built-in lenses, aligning the optics correctly for the best shots.

If a case isn't included, we'd advise factoring one into your budget. Usually manufacturers will provide clip-on mounts with their lenses, but these aren't very stable.

3. How large and heavy are the lenses?

Remember, if you aren't a photographer already using one of the best mirrorless cameras, you may be unaccustomed to lugging lenses around with you, and let me tell you, it can be a pain.

Many of the lenses in this guide are large, maybe not compared to lenses on full-sized cameras, but enough so that they'll take up extra pocket room or require a bag. So, consider what size the lenses are and whether this suits your needs.

Telephoto lenses are usually larger, as their optics need to be placed further from your camera's sensor to achieve a greater optical zoom. On the contrary, despite having "wide" in their name, wide angle lenses are usually smaller (at least in the iPhone lens arena). "Wide" simply refers to their field of view, which is wider than telephoto, which we'll cover next.

4. What focal length do you want?

Telephoto lenses provide greater optical zoom, meaning they bring far away objects closer. If you want to increase the optical zoom range of your smartphone, to take wildlife photos for instance, opt for a "tele" lens. Telephoto focal lengths like Sandmarc's 58mm are also better for portraits as they don't suffer the barrel distortion (fisheye effect) of wide angle lenses, giving a more flattering final result.

Wide angle lenses are great for capturing more of a scene, as they have a much wider field of view than telephoto lenses. If you need to squeeze in a whole building, or you're shooting up close, a wide angle is what you want. Bear in mind, though, that wide angle focal lengths tend to cause barrel distortion (fisheye effect) which is unflattering for portraits. Wide angle lenses generally allow for closer focusing than telephoto lenses, too.

Macro lenses will allow your phone's camera to focus much closer than it perhaps can without. Despite modern smartphones featuring macro modes, these are often achieved using digital zoom, which results in worse image quality than optical zoom (using lenses).

Read our optical versus digital zoom face-off to find out more. Macro lenses like those from Moment and Sandmarc allow for a somewhat truer macro experience, so you can get up close and personal with a lens.

They won't provide the same levels of magnification as a proper macro lens for an ILC camera, but they tend to do a better job than your smartphone can alone. With macro lenses, you'll find the depth of field is razor sharp so only a thin sliver is in focus.

What's more, with wide angle macro lenses you often have to get so close to your subject that you cast it in shadow — it could be worth investing in one of the best ring lights to keep your subjects lit.

5. Keep your expectations realistic

While iPhone lenses can improve your smartphone photography and add features otherwise unavailable (like macro photography), all the lenses we test have to be strapped to your smartphone's rear camera lens.

This means they're still using the same sensor and adding more layers of optics, rather than changing the optics completely. Many iPhone lenses will deliver increased sharpness in the center or at the edges of an image, and for the most part, smartphones lens accessories do an admirable job of allowing you to shoot photos that mimic some of the qualities you'll find in high-end cameras that accept interchangeable lenses.

But it's important to remember, the expensive lenses you'd use with an SLR or mirrorless camera are pricey for a reason. In other words, you'll want to dial back your expectations when buying even one of the best iPhone lens kits.

What other iPhone photography accessories do you need?

If you're looking to beef up your other smartphone photography kit, you'll want to check out our guide on the best ring lights, for perfectly exposed selfies and vlogging content every time.

You'll also want to make sure you invest in one of the best iPhone tripods, to make sure you're shooting from a steady platform. Why take photos and leave them unedited? Our guides to the best photo editing apps and best photo editing software will help you decide on the right editing software for you.

And bear in mind that whether you're using one of the best camera phones or best cheap cameras, you'll need lots of storage space for your photos. Don't worry, we've got you covered there too with our guide to the best photo storage sites.

Thinking of upgrading from your smartphone camera? Make sure you read our pick of the best cameras to help you decide which is right for you. If you already know which side you're taking in the DSLR vs. mirrorless debate, check out our guide to either the best mirrorless cameras or best DSLR cameras.

You may note that this brand isn't featured in our guide to the best coffee makers. If we're talking flavor alone, an espresso machine or a drip coffee maker would be a smarter choice than any single-serve coffee maker. Not to mention, Keurigs have a high ongoing cost and produce a lot of plastic waste.

However, over 40% of American households own a single-serve coffee maker, and when it comes to single-serve, Keurig reigns supreme in the U.S. market. Many members of the Tom's Guide team own Keurigs and would never switch. So if you're dead set on buying a neat, affordable and easy-to-use single-serve machine, this is the guide for you.

We tested a number of leading Keurig machines, and put the top five in our list of the best Keurig machines you can buy. Our number one Keurig machine is the streamlined, flavor-rich Keurig K-Supreme, but if you're on a budget or want a more compact option, we recommend the stylish Keurig K-Mini Mate.

For our full reviews, keep reading.

The best Keurig coffee makers you can buy today

The best Keurig coffee maker for most people

For most people, the K-Supreme is the best Keurig coffee maker you can buy. It features everything people look for in a pod coffee maker: a streamlined design with user-friendly controls, and it doesn't skip out on flavor, either. That's due to Keurig's new MultiStream Technology, which you won't find on older models such as the K-Classic.

Coffee quality

To be quite honest, if flavor is your top consideration, you can get a tastier brew from non-Keurig machines. But if you're committed to the Keurig and K-Cup ecosystem, you'll find that the K-Supreme delivers a richer, juicier brew thanks to its MultiStream Technology, which punctures the K-Cup with multiple needles to ensure grounds are evenly soaked and extracted, like you'd get from an espresso machine.

Other Keurigs we've tested run hotter, but the 160-162 degrees Fahrenheit mark was suitable for drinking straight after brewing, which we liked.

Time

The MultiStream tech takes a little longer than some other Keurig machines. It took 10 seconds for the machine to heat up, and from there it took around 55 seconds for an 8-ounce drink to brew. Iced coffee took a bit longer, with a 70-second brew time.

Noise

This is a quiet option. The Keurig K-Supreme hit just 65 decibels when brewing, and won't be irritating when brewing back-to-back coffees.

Read our full Keurig K-Supreme review

Most versatile Keurig coffee maker

If you enjoy the ability to make a batch brew for the family but still want the occasional espresso from your Keurig, the Keurig K-Duo Hot & Iced is the machine for you. It features a Keurig dispenser on the right hand side and a conventional drip brewer on the left, with a handy joint control panel that allows you to simultaneously manage both.

Coffee quality

You can adjust both the strength and the heat of your Keurig coffee with the Keurig K-Duo Hot & Iced. We found that it dispensed 165 degrees Fahrenheit coffee as standard. As the name suggests, it can even do iced drinks, although this is better described as drinks over ice because they only brew slightly less hot that typical coffee, as opposed to the K-Brew+Chill which brews actually cold coffee.

Flavor-wise, we had no complaints with our results when testing this machine. It was rich and full-bodied, and holds its own among other Keurig machines. The carafe setting came out a little colder than we'd have liked, but the hot plate keeps it warm for 2 hours after brewing.

Time

The Keurig K-Duo Hot & Iced takes 10 seconds to warm up and start dispensing, and 60 seconds from start to finish to brew an 8oz whole drink. For contrast, the K-Cafe brewed a cup in 36 seconds, making it significantly speedier. The drip side took five minutes to brew a 6-cup carafe, which is pretty standard for drip coffee makers. You don't want to rush this, or you'll end up with a weaker brew.

Noise

When measuring the noise level in the Keurig K-Duo Hot & Iced we registered a fairly standard level of 58-60dB when dispensing pod coffee. Predictably, the drip side was almost silent.

Read our full Keurig K-Duo Hot & Iced review

Best budget Keurig coffee maker

Ousting the Keurig K-Mini as the brand's smallest coffee maker, the all-new Keurig Mini Mate is the ideal companion for your college dorm or cozy kitchen. It can hold and brew up between 6- to 12-ounces and features a 12-ounce removable water reservoir for easy refills. At under 10 inches tall and long and only 4 inches wide, coffee makers don't come much smaller!

Coffee quality

Like many barebones Keurigs that lack a ‘strong’ setting or multistream technology, the K-Mini Mate can’t produce a deep flavor profile, let alone things like cold brew or frothed milk drinks. The coffee produced by this machine is just okay, but that doesn’t match up to some of the higher-ranked models on our list. The K-Mini Mate brewed coffee at 178 degrees Fahrenheit—hotter than some other Keurig machines, but 10 degrees cooler than the coffee we made in the original K-Mini, which actually brewed hottest of any Keurig we've tested.

Time

Every drink we made in the K-Mini Mate took under two minutes, and the smallest size, a 4-ounce drink, took only one minute and 10 seconds to brew in total. This neat and efficient machine is ideal for those mad dash mornings, and it also automatically switches off five minutes after use.

Noise

The K-Mini Mate averages 59 decibels, and peaks at 75 decibels, when brewing. These results are par for the course for a Keurig, so don't worry that shrinking things down has made things noisier.

Read our full review of the Keurig K-Mini Mate

Best Keurig coffee maker for milky drinks

Though it’s quite pricey, this premium Keurig is a superhero for those mornings when you want a barista experience with little time to spare. If you're in search of a Keurig that can replicate that coffeehouse feel at home, or you just want a bolder flavor of K-Cup in the morning, the K-Cafe is your go-to machine. Its incredibly easy-to-use functionality makes it all the better.

Coffee quality

During testing, we found the “strong” brew function provided a deeper, richer flavor of K-Cup coffee, while its “shot” feature, which brews a concentrated, espresso-like 2-ounce pour of coffee, is a terrific recreation of tasty espresso. Its milk frother is an added bonus, with the ability to heat and froth dairy and milk alternatives for lattes and cappuccinos––both iced and hot––at the push of a button, and in less than two minutes.

Time

After brewing three cups of each serving size, we measured the average time it takes for the K-Cafe to brew a cup at 36 seconds, just behind the slightly faster K-Elite and K-Classic. Meanwhile, the frother is a longer process, averaging about one minute and 35 seconds per pitcher. It must be noted that the K-Cafe cannot brew and froth milk at the same time. The frother is also located on the right side of the machine, which could frustrate those who are left-handed during operation. However, this is the only model from Keurig with a built-in milk frother, which makes it arguably the versatile offering from the brand.

Noise

We measured a high of 75 decibels during the K-Cafe’s brew cycle – the second loudest across all Keurigs – but its warm-up process averaged around a much quieter 65 decibels.

Read our full Keurig K-Cafe review

Best for iced coffee

The K-Brew+Chill was designed (as the name would suggest) with iced coffee lovers in mind. Lots of coffee makers are now being released with cold brew settings, but we've yet to find another pod machine that can brew coffee that comes out cold. Not room temperature, cold. This means it won't melt your ice and water down your coffee. However, it has some quirks.

Coffee quality

Iced coffee aside, the K-Brew+Chill has some extra flavor-enhancing features such as its new MultiStream technology. This punctures the K-Cup in multiple places to evenly infuse and extract the coffee grounds, which will lead to a more flavorful brew. Hot coffee came out at 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which is lower than the ideal range of 195-200 degrees. Other picks, such as the K-Slim and K-Mini, came out in the 180 range, closer to the ideal temperature.

When it came to iced coffee, our first brew came out an impressively cold 54 degrees and the second consecutive brew came out at 68.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Because the machine's QuickChill technology will need to re-acclimatise between drinks, you won't be able to brew consistently cold coffee without allowing it to re-charge, which could be annoying if you plan on sharing the machine with your family.

Time

We found that the machine took about 15 seconds to heat up when first turned on, and then took a full 80 seconds to brew an 8-oz mug. So it's a lot slower than the likes of the K-Mini, but this could be attributed to a more meaningful infusion, which will give you a fuller flavor.

In terms of iced coffee, it takes longer to brew and then chill your drink, so it's to be expected that this is a more intensive process. The machine took 45 seconds to begin brewing and a total of 105 seconds to fully dispense the drink.

Noise

Perhaps the biggest issue you might encounter with this machine is that, if you plan on churning out iced drink after iced drink, you will need to leave it on to allow the QuickChill technology to stay cold. And this comes with a baseline noise level of around 45dB when we tested it. It's not noisy, but it is another constant whirring noise that you could grow to resent. When brewing, it was relatively quiet compared to the likes of the K-Cafe's 75dB. It only hit 55dB when brewing, and the following rinse cycle hit a top level of 65dB.

Read our full review of the Keurig K-Brew+Chill

Best for espresso

The Keurig K-Crema was designed to offer the authentic espresso experience with Keurig convenience. Can it rival the best espresso machines? Well, of course not. But it certainly looks the part, and can compete with big-brand coffee chains for a fraction of the price.

With six brew sizes, including four standard cups and two concentrated shot options, the K-Crema adapts to everything from a quick solo espresso-style drink to a full travel mug. Its 66oz removable reservoir is handy. During hands-on testing, we refilled it just twice in a week of regular use, and the side-mount design made the process hassle-free compared to smaller or rear-mounted tanks.

Speed and consistency are clear highlights. In our tests, the K-Crema brewed a standard 8oz cup in under a minute and maintained an average output temperature of 171°F across several cycles. Our reviewer checked cup temperatures throughout the week and found the results steady, making mornings reliably fast and predictable.

When it comes to flavor, the K-Crema delivers solid results for a pod machine. While it won't hit the spot for coffee snobs, the flavor of our finished coffee as bright and smooth, with extraction quality on par with other Keurigs in its class.

Compared to the K-Duo Hot & Iced, which offers carafe brewing for larger gatherings, the K-Crema is focused on single servings but wins for footprint and versatility. It also surpasses the K-Mini Mate by providing a broader range of cup sizes and a higher-capacity reservoir, making it the more adaptable choice if you want flexibility and don't need an ultra-compact brewer.

There are a couple of trade-offs. The concentrated shot setting, while fast, doesn't get as hot as a true espresso (our measured average was 165°F), so if you prefer piping-hot, short drinks, you may notice the difference. There's no built-in milk frother, so you'll need a separate device for cappuccinos or lattes.

Read our full Keurig K-Crema review

Also tested

How we test

Testing coffee makers requires a balance of objective and subjective tests. And by subjective, we're of course referring to that all-important taste test.

For our objective metrics, we looked at comparable factors between the different Keurig machines we tried. This included:

• Time taken to heat up
• Time taken to brew
• Energy consumption over 30 minutes of use
• Size of the machine
• Noise level in dB during brewing
• Temperature of fresh-brewed coffee

For tasting, we brewed at least three cups of the same K-Cup variety, per machine, using a variety of brew settings, like “strong” and iced. We used a decaf roast from Publix so we could taste each cup without keeping our tester awake through the night. (That’s a lot of caffeine!)

We also measured the temperature of every serving size each Keurig machine produced, and recorded our ratings with regards to the depth and flavor of each K-Cup brewed.

The National Coffee Association considers the optimal brew temperature to be between 195 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit. Each cup of coffee we produced with a Keurig measured lower than this, between 160 to 189 degrees Fahrenheit. Furthermore, most Keurig machines have a preset temperature and cap of 192 degrees, which is lower than the optimal suggestion of the NCA.

Any machine with a water reservoir that seemed flimsy or tough to grasp and fill was graded lower than those that featured inserts for fingers or a handle. As most Keurigs have top rack dishwasher-safe pieces, nearly all the machines scored well in terms of cleanliness.

We evaluate the best photobooks according to a number of different factors, from price to print quality. We've been doing it for nearly ten years at this point, and we've seen just about every option available.

Our favorite service right now is MixBook. It offers some of the best print quality and the books themselves feel very premium in hand. If that's too expensive for you, there are plenty of other options — here they are.

The best photo book services

Best overall

Simply put, Mixbook remains the best service of the five we tested for making photo books. While some competitors excelled at one thing or another, Mixbook does just about everything right. Its software was refreshingly easy to use and also a lot of fun. Beginners will love it, but at the same time, advanced users will appreciate the range of ways they can customize their photo books. Most importantly, the image quality of our book was excellent, coming in a close second to Printique.

We named Mixbook the best photo book service last year, but the company is not resting on its laurels. It continues to add editing tools to its software, including some that are powered by AI. We also liked the new Mixbook Movies feature that automatically transformed our photo book into a video presentation with music and panning and zooming effects to give the images a sense of motion.

If you're feeling daunted by the idea of creating a photo book, Mixbook simplifies the experience with its user-friendly and engaging software. It makes the whole process easy and enjoyable. Plus, there are countless customization options available, including 644 design templates for those who want to explore more. Among the services we evaluated, Mixbook stood out for having some of the most attractive and intuitive editing tools, rivaled only by Snapfish. The interface is packed with features yet remains clean and organized, giving you a clear preview of your project.

Regarding image quality, our completed book from Mixbook tied Printique for the best cover and took second place for the interior pages. During our testing, we used a sunset photo of a waterfall we captured at Yellowstone National Park. Mixbook did an impressive job capturing the details in both the bright areas at the top of the waterfall and the shadowy sections in the valley below. On the interior pages, Mixbook’s standard Everyday Semi-Gloss finish provided strong, appealing contrast, accurately reflecting both light and dark skin tones in our portraits.

We also appreciated Mixbook’s well-crafted mobile app, which allows you to manage your projects online or create products using photos from your phone. Additionally, Mixbook offers convenient 24/7 chat support integrated into the design interface, so help is always available if you run into trouble while creating your book.

• Read our full Mixbook review

Best image quality

If high image quality is your top priority for photo books, you should definitely consider Printique. Although some competitors have improved in other ways, Printique still produces the most visually and tactually appealing books. However, its overall ranking remains in second place behind Mixbook. This is mainly due to Printique’s software, which despite some recent improvements, still feels outdated and can be difficult to navigate, which may discourage less experienced users. Additionally, Printique’s photo books tend to be much pricier than those from other providers.

For serious photographers, including professionals, the trade-offs with Printique may not matter much. One of the standout features of Printique’s books is its exceptionally thick, rigid pages, reminiscent of those found in high-quality wedding photo albums. Even the entry-level options come with layflat binding, which eliminates any crease in the seam between pages—ideal for images that extend across spreads. The pages showcase excellent color accuracy, skin tones, contrast, and sharpness. We were also impressed with the black-and-white photos included in our book, which appeared striking while maintaining fine detail.

Although Printique’s software provides the most control of the services we tested, it seems more tailored to advanced users than beginners. Experienced designers will like the array of rulers, gridlines, submenus, and toolbars available in Printique’s comprehensive interface, while newcomers might find it a bit overwhelming. The software has been improved since the last time we tested it and now includes an Easy Books editor, which will automatically place and design your book in a few seconds. We also appreciated the company’s new live chat helper, which gives you real-time answers to design questions from Printique’s customer service.

Printique’s level of quality doesn’t come cheap. The company doesn't offer a budget-friendly, entry-level book option like some other services. Instead, it exclusively provides premium layflat binding with luxurious, thick pages, which comes at a higher cost.

• Read our full Printique review

Best value

If you’re looking for a cheap photobook and don’t mind some print inconsistencies or potential production woes, then the Vistraprint photobooks are a great option. They won’t break the bank, and you’ll get a lovely, glossy hardcover photo book to show off your holiday snaps the next time you have visitors — or fancy a quick trip down memory lane.

Using Vistaprint’s online editor is refreshingly straightforward, with intuitive tools that make it easy to lay out pages and customize designs. We did find it slightly restrictive, though, so those who want game-changing customizability would be better off with one of the more in-depth options from Mixbook. Still, if cheap is your game — you’ve found your winner.

There are some reasons you might want one of the competitors. The print quality of the Vistaprint book was questionable at times. The photos were sometimes washed out, and there was even pixellation on some of our images. The colors, too, weren’t the most accurate, with some bright colors seeming oversaturated. Production quality was also an issue. Some of our pages were stuck together on arrival, and our “Tom’s Guide” pages, with their block blue backgrounds, had some streaking, suggesting print quality issues.

But despite those issues, we’d still say the Vistaprint photobook is a great budget alternative to our other guide entries. While you might miss the glorious photo print quality of Mixbook or the insane customization options of Printique, you’ll love the glossy hardcover and thick pages. So, next time you’re looking to show off those photos of your latest vacation to friends and family (and don’t want to spend loads of money!), then Vistaprint is the way to go!

• Read our full Vistaprint review

Best for novices

Chatbooks is unique among the photo book services we tested in that it's the only one that offers a subscription, which could make it the best option for those who purchase a lot of photo books during the year.

With a Monthbook subscription, you can receive 12 hardcover photo books (5x7 inches, up to 60 pages each) per year. The subscription costs $20 per book when billed monthly or $219.98 per year when billed annually — which brings the cost down to $18.33 per book. Granted, they're not the biggest photo books, but it's something.

Pricing aside, we were very impressed with the quality of the Chatbooks we made. We ordered one of its top-tier items (Luxury Layflat) and found that the photos were as sharp and vibrant as those from Printique and Mixbook.

Chatbooks' design interface was also well-designed and very easy to use. However, you don't get as many options to customize your book as you do with Mixbook and Printique, so more advanced photo book makers may find it limiting.

Novices, however, will find there's more than enough options to keep you more than satisfied — especially when you see the final product.

• Read our full Chatbooks review

Other services we tested