Sunday Runday
In this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks about the world of wearables, apps, and fitness tech related to running and health, in his quest to get faster and more fit.
Back in 2023, I wore six smartwatches for 6,000 steps to judge the most accurate brand. Garmin beat Apple, Samsung, and others, but over two years later, I decided to run a more thorough test, with more brands and newer models!
To see if Garmin is still the step-count king, I charged 10 of the best fitness watches I own — one each from Apple, Samsung, Garmin, Google, OnePlus, Amazfit, COROS, Polar, Suunto, and Withings — and jammed them onto my skinny runner arms for two 5,000-step walking tests and one 5,000-step jogging test. As a control group, I manually logged steps on a counting app.
Since I couldn’t fit more than five watches on my arms simultaneously, that meant 30,000 steps in one tiring day. But it gave me some fascinating data! These are the most (and least) reliable fitness watches for hitting your daily 10,000 steps!
Tests 1 & 2: Step count while walking
Fitness watch model | Test 1 (5,000 actual steps) | Test 2 (5,000 actual steps) | Total difference from actual steps |
|---|---|---|---|
Amazfit Active 2 | 4,863 (-137) | 4,936 (+64) | 201 (#6) |
Apple Watch Ultra 2 | 4,998 (-2) | 5,014 (+14) | 16 (#1) |
COROS APEX 4 | 5,077 (+77) | 5,019 (+19) | 96 (#5) |
Garmin Forerunner 970 | 5,053 (+53) | 4,993 (-7) | 60 (#3) |
Google Pixel Watch 4 | 4,980 (-20) | N/A | N/A |
OnePlus Watch 2R | 4,978 (-22) | 5,037 (+37) | 59 (#2) |
Polar Vantage V3 | 4,967 (-33) | 5,060 (+60) | 93 (#4) |
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic | 4,749 (-251) | 4,953 (-47) | 298 (#8) |
Suunto Race 2 | 3,081 (-1,919) | 3,191 (1,809) | 3,728 (#10) |
Withings ScanWatch 2 | 4,830 (-170) | 4,908 (-92) | 262 (#7) |
My Apple Watch Ultra 2 undeniably had the most consistent and reliable results; its “high dynamic range gyroscope” lives up to the fancy name, whereas the old Series 7 I used in 2023 had more pedestrian results.
Otherwise, any watch that’s within 100 steps after 10,000 is still quite good by my measure, which puts the OnePlus Watch 2R, Garmin Forerunner 970, Polar Vantage V3, and COROS APEX 4 in a reliable tier.
The COROS APEX 4, while not perfect, did much better than the APEX 2 Pro in my 2023 test. The Garmin Forerunner 970, on the other hand, actually did better in my original hands-on testing, only differing by one step after 10,000. Either that was a fluke, or my first test today was; it did significantly better for the second test. And Polar is another fitness brand that lived up to my expectations.
I have no idea why the Suunto Race 2 did so unbelievably badly; it was perfectly accurate in the run test, as you’ll see, but ignored thousands of walked steps, whether it was on my wrist or higher up my arm.
The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic results were more clearly off than I’d expect from a major brand, but Samsung has never done especially well in past step test, either.
The Pixel Watch 4, by contrast, did much better than my Fitbit Sense two years ago…at least at first. During the second test, the Fitbit app refused to track any new steps, then subtracted about 4,000 steps when I got home. I think this was just a weird bug, but it means I can’t rank Google’s watch properly.
Test 3: Step count while jogging
Fitness watch model | Running test (5,000 steps) |
|---|---|
Amazfit Active 2 | 4,995 (-5) |
Apple Watch Ultra 2 | 4,977 (-23) |
COROS APEX 4 | 4,966 (+34) |
Garmin Forerunner 970 | 5,027 (+27) |
Google Pixel Watch 4 | 5,010 (+10) |
OnePlus Watch 2R | 5,004 (+4) |
Polar Vantage V3 | 4,984 (-16) |
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic | 4,998 (-2) |
Suunto Race 2 | 4,992 (-8) |
Withings ScanWatch 2 | 4,994 (-6) |
For this test, every single watch met the quality standard I expected, even the fairly mediocre (Withings ScanWatch 2) or poor-performing (Suunto Race 2) watches from the first two tests.
I think it’s just easier for watches’ accelerometers and gyroscopes to detect the deliberate, consistent motions of a running stride than the subtler, more ambiguous arm motions during walking.
An accidental test: Pocket step tracking
For my last walking test, since the forecast showed imminent rain, I wore five watches and kept the other five in my pocket so I could swap quickly. This led to a fun surprise when I realized some watches had tracked close to 5,000 steps from my pocket!
To be specific, the Forerunner 970 tracked 5,037 steps, the APEX 4 had 5,041, and the Ultra 2 showed 5,088. Other watches tracked far fewer steps, like Samsung (~2,000) and OnePlus (~3,000), but I won’t hold that against these brands; I can hardly say it was a fair test.
I still find it exciting, though, because I’ve spoken to several people, including my brother-in-law, who complain about how inaccurate their step counts are when pushing a stroller or hiking with a trekking pole, as their arm movement isn’t a “normal” step motion. But based on this test, putting your smartwatch in your pocket might be a useful workaround, depending on the brand!
Why an accurate fitness watch matters for your step goals
Walking 10,000 steps a day may have started off as a marketing gimmick for a fitness company, but I can point to several scientific studies showing major preventative health benefits from walking at least 6,000–8,000 steps a day, including reduced long-term risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, sleep apnea, reflux, dementia, depression, and obesity.
So let’s say one of your New Year’s resolutions is to hit a benchmark like 10K steps per day. A 200-step accuracy gap might not seem that drastic, but that’s 6,000 extra steps per month or 72,000 in a year! Ideally, you want a smartwatch that’s pinpoint accurate.
If you use a smart ring for step tracking, it does surprisingly well for walking steps, but it tends to add thousands of phantom steps during the day while you’re typing at your desk. You’ll end up being much more sedentary than you realize if you’re getting “10,000 steps a day” with an Oura Ring.
You may not want to spend $700+ on a fancy Apple or Garmin watch just to get slightly better accuracy than, say, a $100 Amazfit Active 2. It’s just nice to know that (Suunto aside) most fitness watch brands — and mainstream smartwatch brands that take fitness seriously — are actually tracking your steps, not just estimating.
And runners, in particular, are getting very accurate step data, no matter which watch they use!
