Here are five affordable smartwatches compatible with iOS that offer features similar to the Apple Watch, including Amazfit Bip 6, Huawei Watch Fit 4, Huawei Watch Fit 3, Garmin Vivomove Trend, and Amazfit Active 2. Picture: Huawei
Image: Huawei
If you’re all about making fashion statements by showing off an Apple Watch, then this article is not for you.
If you’d like all or most of the features of an Apple Watch without breaking the bank, there are a number of good alternatives on the market.
The cheapest smart watch from Apple currently available on the iStore is the Apple Watch SE that retails for R5199. Here’s a device that is five years old but is still being sold by the tech giant. For R700 more, you can purchase the latest Apple Watch SE which came out in September. This is where Apple gets you, always making you pay that little bit by offering a vastly inferior product as its cheapest offering.
If you’d like to find a smart watch that isn’t an Apple, here are five great alternatives to the 18-hour (32 hours in lower power mode) battery life SE 3. The only caveat to these alternatives is that they will never fit into the Apple ecosystem as seamlessly as one of its own products, but if you’re willing to find some workaround, you will likely save some (or a lot) of your hard-earned money.
This little 1.97-inch AMOLED display powerhouse has over 140 sport modes, a 14-day battery, and works with iOS to support health tracking and syncing with Apple Health. Some users, however, report that they are unable to reply to messages from their phone with the watch, but for me, this is not a deal-breaker.
Sporting a 1.82-inch AMOLED screen, it also offers long battery life of up to 10 days. This is also compatible with iOS through the Huawei Health App.
The predecessor of the Watch Fit 4 is definitely also worth considering. It too is compatible with iOS through the Huawei Health App, and coming in at just over R2k, it’s perhaps the best bargain on this list considering the features it provides, like the seven to ten day battery life.
This is a hybrid analogue and smart watch; it still tracks fitness well. It looks more like a traditional watch and has a five-day battery life. This is perhaps the most stylish, at a price, among the Apple alternatives due to its traditional design and could probably stand out more than its fruity rival.
The second priciest alternative on this list, the Active 2 features GPS, health tracking, a good battery, and is compatible with iOS.
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