The best heart rate monitor and heart rate monitor watches

Your heart rate is an important metric when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle and improving your fitness training. Fortunately, tracking your heart rate is pretty easy as most activity trackers and smartwatches have a built-in heart rate monitor. This provides a very convenient way to quickly measure your heart rate, although no wrist-worn tracker will ever be accurate (read this explanation to find out why). Fortunately, there are also dedicated chest straps for heart rate monitoring if you’re looking for something more specific.

But with so many different heart rate sensors on the market, which one should you buy? We are here to help! We’ve rounded up the best heart rate monitors for products like chest straps, running watches, and fitness trackers.

The Best Heart Rate Monitors and Watches (in no particular order):

Editor’s note: We will add to this list as newer heart rate monitors become available.

The best heart rate monitor watches

Apple Watch Series 6

The Apple Watch Series 6 has one of the best wrist-based heart rate sensors we’ve ever used. Seriously.

During our tests, the Apple Watch kept up quite well with our Wahoo Tickr X chest strap even during interval runs and HIIT workouts. Sure, it was triggered when our heart rate got above ~ 170 bpm, but that’s to be expected.

Plus, Apple Watch Series 6 syncs with many other popular fitness apps, so you can keep using Strava, Training Peaks, and other apps if Apple’s fitness app isn’t your favorite.

For more information on the Apple Watch Series 6, check out our full review.

Withings ScanWatch

If you want a good heart rate monitor that focuses more on daily heart health than exercise, you should check out the Withings ScanWatch.

The ScanWatch’s heart rate sensor is fine for most people during exercise, but it has great features for monitoring the remaining heart. It has a medically certified ECG monitor and an SpO2 sensor. Later in the year it will also receive certification for sleep apnea detection. In our review, we named it one of the most reasonable wearables you can buy. However, due to the medical certification process, it is only available in select countries and the US is not currently on the list.

For more information on the Withings ScanWatch, check out our full review.

Garmin Fenix ​​6 Pro

The Garmin Fenix ​​6 Pro is one of our most popular GPS running watches. This is largely due to their generally accurate and reliable heart rate monitoring.

Garmin’s latest generation Elevate heart rate monitor provides heart rate data for the frighteningly accurate energy monitoring function of the company’s body battery, as well as all-day data on heart rate, heart rate variability, and advanced sleep monitoring. During testing, we found that the Fenix ​​6 Pro’s heart rate monitor is consistent with other wrist-based heart rate sensors. Unfortunately, the Fenix ​​6 Pro’s exorbitantly high price tag doesn’t give you the best of the best heart rate monitor, but it will be more than good enough for most people.

Further information on the Garmin Fenix ​​6 Pro can be found in our Garmin Buying Guide.

Fitbit Charge 4

The Fitbit Charge 4 is the best fitness tracker you can buy and it has a decent heart rate sensor. During our tests, the Charge 4 was able to keep up with the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music for the most part during the interval runs, but fell a little behind with fast sprints.

Fitbit added some extra heart rate features with this new fitness tracker. First, Active Zone Minutes are Fitbit’s new way to ensure you get enough exercise each week. The Charge 4 tells you the amount of time you have spent in each heart rate zone after exercising. The goal is to achieve the American Heart Association recommended 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week. After every GPS-enabled workout, the Fitbit app displays a new heat map for the workout intensity, showing your running or cycling route and the heart rate zones you were in at a given point in time.

For more information on the Fitbit Charge 4, check out our full review.

Also read: Fitbit vs Garmin: Which Ecosystem Is Right For You?

The best chest straps for heart rate monitors

Polar H10

At just under $ 90, the Polar H10 is the best heart rate monitor chest strap you can buy right now.

Polar has made a name for itself by manufacturing high quality, precise heart rate sensors. No wonder the H10 is at the top of our list. The H10 uses an entirely new algorithm from previous Polar monitors, and the included Polar Pro strap has also been updated. It contains additional “interference prevention electrodes” to ensure that heart rate data is being captured accurately. It also has a new buckle mechanism and silicone dots that help keep it in place while you exercise.

The H10 also offers some new improvements over its predecessor, the H7. The H10 can now receive wireless software updates, has enough built-in memory for a training session and a battery life of up to 400 hours.

Wahoo Tickr X (2020)

We’ve used the older Wahoo Tickr X chest strap in nearly every fitness product review over the past several years. The 2020 Tickr X chest strap is even better.

The new model is smaller and lighter than the original, and has a more integrated design that aims to keep the tracker in place while you exercise. The indicator lights have also moved to the top of the tracker module.

There are two major functional enhancements for the Tickr X (2020). First, it supports multiple simultaneous Bluetooth connections. In connection with a GPS fitness watch, the ANT + running dynamics can also be displayed in real time.

Garmin HRM-Pro

Garmin’s new HRM-Pro is the best heart rate monitor chest strap to date and is best suited for those already in the Garmin ecosystem. The HRM-Pro is essentially an updated version of the HRM-Tri that previously had that spot on our list. The HRM-Pro is now aimed at more athletes, not just triathletes.

This chest strap finally has Bluetooth as well as extended running dynamics and memory for offline workouts. The latter feature is certainly overdue, but we’re happy that users can finally record workouts without a phone and watch and sync them at a later time.

Scosche rhythm 24

The Scosche Rhythm 24 heart rate monitor bracelet is a few years old at this point, but it is still one of the best heart rate monitor bracelets you can buy.

It’s neither the best-looking bracelet you can buy nor the smallest, but it does offer some additional features over Scosche’s Rhythm Plus sensor. The Rhythm 24 has NFC for quick pairing with certain fitness equipment, a 24-hour battery life with LED displays and an integrated memory with up to 13 hours of training statistics.

Why should you trust the editor?

Not only does Jimmy Westenberg love wearables, he also loves helping people find the right devices for their needs. He was our resident fitness reviewer at Android Authority since 2016 and has reviewed dozens of fitness products and other wearables during that time.

With his rigorous testing of fitness products and his deep knowledge of health devices and services, you can be sure that Jimmy will give you honest recommendations.

Recognitions

These were our top tips for the best chest straps and heart rate monitor watches. Here are a handful of devices that are almost on our list.

• Fitbit Sense: The Fitbit Sense has the new PurePulse 2.0 optical heart rate sensor from Fitbit. The sensor itself is fine, but you really should be recording the Sense for its EKG and blood oxygen monitoring overnight.
• Xiaomi Mi Band 5: The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 actually has a decent heart rate sensor for the price. The Mi Fit app isn’t our favorite, but the device itself is a powerful budget fitness tracker.
• Music from the Garmin Forerunner 245: The Forerunner 245 has the same optical Garmin Elevate heart rate sensor as the top-of-the-line Garmin running watch, the Forerunner 945. In our tests, the sensor of the 245 performed significantly better than previous Garmin devices.
• Garmin Vivoactive 4 and Venu: Vivoactive 4 and Venu are essentially the same device aside from their designs and displays. Heart rate monitoring was good, not great, in our tests. Not quite there compared to the newer Forerunner units.
• Garmin Vivosmart 4: Again, we found that the Vivosmart 4’s heart rate sensor is acceptable, but not quite the same as Garmin’s newer devices.
• Whoop Strap 3.0: The Whoop platform offers a lot of interesting data on recovery, stress and sleep, which is a great training platform. However, the Whoop Strap 3.0 itself provided inaccurate heart rate data during our review.
• Samsung Galaxy Watch 3: The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is a fantastic smartwatch with numerous fitness functions. Again, the heart rate sensor was inaccurate in our tests, although casual users may not mind.

Next: The best smartwatches you can buy