Any device that you wear on your wrist is actually tracking the swinging of your arm, which pretty closely matches what your legs are doing when you’re walking or running. But humans do a lot more than just walk and run, and these devices can and do perceive any movement your arms make (say, while you’re folding laundry or clapping your hands) as “steps.” The often-lauded touchstone of 10,000 daily steps seems to be arbitrary at best, though moving more throughout the day is rarely a negative.

Google purchased Fitbit in 2021, and the newest Fitbit devices are fully integrated with Google accounts. People who buy certain wearables (including our runner-up pick, the Fitbit Charge 6) new now or who do not already have a Fitbit account are required to sign up for Fitbit with a Google account. For now, you can still buy a new Inspire 3 and link it to an existing Fitbit account. Support for existing Fitbit accounts “will continue until at least 2025,” a company representative told us, after which Fitbit owners will be required to use a Google account for their devices. The representative added that the company will “be transparent with our customers about the timeline for ending Fitbit accounts through notices within the Fitbit app, by email, and in help articles.”

This section introduces the subsystem at the heart of any UAS, the UAV. The UAV can either be a fixed-wing, rotary wing, flapping wing, or lighter-than-air. Each category has specific pros and cons over their counterparts.

Seth Martin, professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, email interview, January 17, 2023

None of the wearables covered in this review are medical devices, and none of the data they collect is regulated or legally protected in the same way that other health data is.

Through the free app you can also (manually) track blood glucose and connect to your phone’s GPS. The app also offers the ability to set reminders to move, create fitness goals, and log details like heart rate, sleep, and activity for a stress management score. The app can also aid you in taking note of food and water intake. While not essential, these are nice add-ons that are presented in easy to understand language for someone interested in recording their nutritional health on another level.

This device is especially easy to use. The display is activated with a swipe across the screen. When the Inspire 3 is synced through the Fitbit app, the home screen can be changed to a variety of backgrounds that show time, heart rate, step count, and other information. A swipe up on the home screen will give you other metrics like distance traveled that day and SpO2 (blood oxygen), while a right swipe on the home screen brings you to timers, exercise programs, and other features.

More exercise options. The Charge 6 comes with 40 exercise modes, a noticeable upgrade from the Charge 5, which displayed just six modes (you could switch different exercises onto the Charge 5 through the app, but six was the limit it could store). Also new to the Charge 6, you can now broadcast heart rate via Bluetooth to some third-party apps like Peloton.

A “drone” or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is one of multiple components in an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). “Drone” according to Webster’s Dictionary is a “pilotless airplane controlled by radio signals”. The term “drone” was adapted during World War II, where UAVs were used as target practice for fighters and anti aircraft guns. Today the UAV developer and user community does not use the term drone except for vehicles that have limited flexibility for accomplishing advanced missions and fly in an indifferent manner, such as a target drone used for combat training. This article is meant to provide a basic understanding of the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) platform and its components.

The best thing the Garmin Vívofit 4, a former pick for basic fitness tracking, has going for it is that you don’t need to charge it, since it runs on a watch battery that’s good for a year. It also looks dated.

To instill healthy habits or reach your fitness goals in this tech-saturated world, it may help to occasionally put down the phone and pick up a pen.

Instead of using step counts as the primary stat, the Mio Slice claims to measure all-around activity with a proprietary “personal activity intelligence” based on heart-rate monitoring.

How easy is the fitness tracker to use and live with? Because these devices are meant to be worn all day, every day, we put a lot of emphasis on comfort, wearability, and user friendliness—of both the device and its companion app. We also paid attention to battery life and syncing capabilities.

The Apple Watch SE delivers some of the most precise readouts and—with a mobile plan—can be used for calls and messaging. But its battery life is much shorter than that of our Fitbit picks.

The Fitbit Inspire 3 was the most accurate fitness tracker for step count and near the top of the rankings for every other test we performed. The touchscreen display is only 1.5 inches tall but is simple to navigate, thanks to its sharp colors and easily readable text and icons. The thin, half-inch band doesn’t feel clunky during workouts or everyday use, and the Inspire 3 weighs just 0.32 ounce—lighter than a typical USB flash drive.

The Fitbit Charge 6 offers a few upgrades from the Charge 5 , which we previously recommended as a runner-up pick. The most notable upgrade is a haptic side button that allows for easier screen navigation than swiping on the touchscreen (which, we found, sometimes isn’t responsive). The Charge 6 also has built-in GPS, which the Inspire 3 doesn’t have, in addition to access to Google Maps, Google Wallet, and YouTube Music (with subscription). But when it comes to tracking distance, the Inspire 3 performed better in our tests.

Max Paquette, an associate professor at the University of Memphis who also consults athletes on optimizing performance, warned that trackers ​​often make people less in tune with their bodies. “They’re so reliant on data, and they forget to feel what they’re doing. They like to be told by their watch what they’re doing. To me that is a disadvantage, honestly. You can learn so much from your body while training.” Nicole Hagobian, a sport psychology consultant at California Polytechnic State University, added that for a person who fears failure and tends to engage in negative social comparison, a tracker can add anxiety and unnecessary stress to workouts.

The Apple Watch SE delivers some of the most precise readouts and—with a mobile plan—can be used for calls and messaging. But its battery life is much shorter than that of our Fitbit picks.

Some have reported losing workouts or activity. Wirecutter readers have reported losing activity on the Fitbit app or the Charge 6 not tracking workouts properly. A Google spokesperson said the company rolled out a fix “so that non-walking activities, such as Running, Weight Lifting, etc., properly appear in the Fitbit app.” We’ll continue to monitor.

The type and size of the payload generally sets the restriction on the type and size of the UAV to be used for the task. Various payload types are capable of being carried by a UAV:

A tracker’s GPS accuracy (whether it has its own onboard GPS or uses your smartphone’s) is okay but not perfect (GPS rarely is). More-advanced metrics—such as breathing rate, blood oxygen saturation, and A-fib (atrial fibrillation) detection—are best viewed as guides, not replacements for medical assessments.

When it comes to tracking distance, the Fitbit Charge 6 performs well and has built-in GPS, which the Inspire 3 does not. Its predecessor, the Charge 5, was previously a pick in this guide and is still widely available, but several reviewers have noted difficulty syncing the fitness tracker to the Fitbit app. We did not experience any such difficulty with the Charge 6, but you’ll need a Google account even if you already have the Fitbit app. The Charge 6 added a helpful haptic side button for easy screen navigation.

Andrew Jagim, PhD, director of sports medicine research at the Mayo Clinic Health System, phone interview, September 9, 2021

Max Paquette, associate professor in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Memphis, phone interview, January 19, 2023

We’ve added the Armitron Connect Quantum to the competition. We’re testing Whoop’s new step count tracking and will update this guide with our findings.

If you want a budget tracker: The Amazfit Band 7 provides fairly accurate readouts and has a very strong battery life. It’s advertised as lasting 18 days, and after two days of continuous use we found it still had 90% juice. The Amazfit Band 7 is strikingly similar in aesthetics to the Mi Xiaomi Smart Band 7—a representative for Amazfit noted the company shared equipment manufacturing for Xiaomi until late 2022. The Amazfit Band 7 performed better than the Mi Xiaomi Smart Band 7 in our tracking and distance tests, but still below the capabilities of our top pick.

If you have concerns about the appropriateness of a new exercise routine or suspect that you may have a health condition, see a medical professional. And if an abnormal heart rate is a health concern for you, don’t rely on an activity tracker to help manage your condition.

This easy-to-use tracker is comfortable to wear all day and provides accurate measurements, without too much clutter on the homescreen.

The ornithopter or “flapping wing” utilizes bird flying mechanics as the power source of the UAV. This technology has been used by the military to develop a small “bird-like” UAV capable of surveillance. However, there are a few downsides to this technology. One downfall is the lack of flight time due to the extreme power requirements needed for the flapping mechanism. Another downfall is the lack of maneuverability. However, as this technology advances the ornithopter UAV may become increasingly more popular to the public.

The most popular rotorcraft platform is the quadcopter. This provides for a stable and simple to operate UAV that can carry a wide variety of payloads, landing and taking off in a small space, and being harder to detect than many of the other UAV configurations due to small size and quiet rotors.

The second-generation Apple Watch SE has a vibrant, clear display and the best intuitive touchscreen of the devices we tested. Even if you’re not connected to an iPhone, you can take advantage of a large library of apps. Performance-wise, the Apple Watch SE—also our budget pick smartwatch for iPhone users—accurately measured heart rate, steps, and distance. But for people who want to go on a run and just track, say, their pace and distance, the Apple Watch SE might be overkill, especially given its higher price and limited battery life.

The latest version of the Charge series continues a tradition of accurate activity tracking, but many of the new additions require Google integration.

Fitbit has a free app where you can connect with other Fitbit users, log information to learn about stress management, and dig deeper into data such as heart-rate history (a premium version of the app costs $10 per month or $80 per year) and offers access to apps like Calm for sleep and meditation). The Inspire 3’s battery is advertised as lasting 10 days before charging, although we found it to come in a fair bit short of that mark.

The Armitron Connect Quantum has a metal band that you may need to take to a jeweler or watchmaker to adjust for your wrist. The AMOLED screen is bright and easy to scroll through, and the watch includes features like sleep tracking. You can sync the watch to the Armitron Connect app, which is supposed to give you more detailed breakdowns of your metrics. But we found the app did not always connect with the watch. In terms of tracking, the watch was not as accurate as our top pick for measuring distances and the heart rate readouts were usually higher than those on our trusted heart rate monitor. It is water resistant up to 1.5 meters. For the price ($75) it’s a fairly sleek watch, but leaves a lot to be desired in tracking capability.

There are two types of rotorcraft. One being a helicopter, consisting of a single rotor system. Another type being a multirotor. A multirotor can have up to 8 rotors on the platform. The added motors provide greater stability, redundancy, and greater lifting capacity.

It has lots of add-on modes but does the simple stuff well, too. There are dozens of workout modes to choose from—more than Fitbits offer, including activities like Tai Chi and pickleball—so you can really get specific. We found that the watch trailed the Fitbit Inspire 3 only when it came to measuring step counts accurately. The SE also performed solidly in our distance testing.

To capture data like heart rate, fitness trackers—and other wrist-worn devices, such as GPS running watches—use photoplethysmography, a technology that uses light (most often green, the most commonly used LED color to measure hemoglobin) to measure changes in blood volume within the wrist. It is, of course, open to foibles. How a tracker is worn—how it’s positioned on the wrist, how tight the band is cinched—can affect readings. Studies have been conducted on other factors too, like skin tone, body hair, and tattoos might affect the accuracy of wrist-based heart-rate readings. Studies into skin tone specifically have had mixed findings.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be used in various applications. The 4 components of UAS mentioned above allow UAV's to be used for good, but they also open up an avenue for UAV's to be used for harm. Depending on the user, these applications can be beneficial or cause harm to the community. To ensure UAV's are safely implemented into today’s technology driven communities it is necessary to inform individuals, commercial entities, and government personnel about this rapidly growing industry.

For this guide, we focused on evaluating the key features that people who might choose a dedicated fitness tracker are looking for: step count, distance, and resting heart-rate readouts. We also considered smaller bands and displays (something that looks more like a traditional fitness tracker than a watch) and price. (We have also tested the daily-activity-tracking capabilities of the comparatively pricier Apple Watch SE and the screenless Whoop 4.0).

The band can be difficult to adjust. The Inspire 3 has a flexible silicone band that closes with a plastic buckle and tang (think of how you fasten a belt buckle). While this is not uncommon for fitness trackers, it sometimes took a few tries to close—this is one instance where the slim design of the Inspire 3 may be a drawback. The band doesn’t lay flat like, say, that of a thicker Apple Watch SE, and the tang is a bit flimsy, causing it to not stay in place when adjusting on the wrist.

The latest version of the Charge series continues a tradition of accurate activity tracking, but many of the new additions require Google integration.

The display and design are top notch. The Apple Watch SE has a vibrant screen that is customizable in the Watch app, where you can add shortcuts like weather reports or connect to the Nike Run Club app. The rubber band is comfortable and the easiest to put on among the trackers we tested; after choosing which peg fits your wrist size, you tuck the remainder of the band underneath a slit. (Dr. Mary Delahoussaye, director of Split Second Cares, a reintegration program for people who have suffered from a neurological disorder, suggested an elastic or Velcro band should be a standard accessory with Apple Watches, for people who may have difficulty with the multistep process. She noted that while Apple has the most options for universally designed bands, some of the more inclusive designs are more expensive or not available for the SE.)

If you want to keep in-depth records of your workouts, the Garmin Vívoactive 4S is a sporty, advanced fitness tracker with an emphasis on exercise. Its color touchscreen is clear and responsive, albeit more muted than those of a few color-screen competitors. Buttons beside the screen make it easier to toggle between workout modes or to start and stop workouts, and workout-data screens display more than one metric simultaneously.

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Its app is easy to use, too. Fitbit’s free app is very easy to navigate, and peppered with tips and information on specific metrics. It connects you to a large and active social network, which may help motivate you to meet your goals.There’s also Fitbit Premium, the upgraded version of the Fitbit app, which costs $10 per month or $80 annually (first-time Premium users can activate a six-month trial subscription). Guided workouts and audio mindfulness sessions are among the perks with this option.

This easy-to-use tracker is comfortable to wear all day and provides accurate measurements, without too much clutter on the homescreen.

Fixed wing UAVs can carry various payloads and data-link equipment. The fixed-wing has the longest range over any of the other categories. However, the downside to this platform is the requirement for a runway during landing or takeoff. This issue is currently being resolved by UAV manufacturers by developing a fixed wing aircraft with the ability to take off vertically and transition to horizontal flight. This type of fixed-wing aircraft has Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) technology.

How well does it record workouts? For all of the devices, we tested how well they estimated distance traveled by walking a mile on a treadmill.

Nicole Hagobian, running coach, sport and exercise scientist at California Polytechnic State University, email interview, January 30, 2023

Lighter-than-air UAVs are aircraft such as blimps and balloons. These vehicles benefit from quiet operation and endurance. With their long endurance flight capability these vehicles can be used for surveillance and aerial photography. However, due to their lack of maneuverability these systems are usually tethered. The tether allows the user to maintain control and to keep the UAV from drifting due to winds. In some systems the tether can also act as a communication system to download and upload information from the vehicle.

The third-generation Oura Ring did not track our tester’s workouts as well as the wrist-worn devices she tested alongside it. See Wirecutter’s review of the Oura.

Wrist-worn fitness trackers that can monitor your steps and heart rate were once seen as cutting-edge devices. Now these wearables are becoming more high-tech with each release, equipped with features like personalized workout programs and the advertised ability to monitor stress or sleep quality.

New Fitbit users are not only required to register with a Google account, but they have to accept Google’s terms and services, which includes Google’s privacy policy. These terms include how data from your Fitbit is collected and stored by Google and what data from your Fitbit that Google shares with third parties. A Google representative confirmed that existing Fitbit account users who choose not to migrate their account to Google before 2025 can continue to use a Fitbit under the Fitbit terms of service and Fitbit’s privacy policy.

However, one tester, who has both an Inspire 3 and a Fitbit Charge 5, reported having to charge the latter much more frequently, while “I cannot remember the last time I plugged in my Inspire 3.” In a test measuring resting heart rate, the Inspire 3 was off by 1 bpm, one of the best readouts we saw.

The Data Link portion of the UAS platform also happens to be the most vulnerable in detection and cyber-attacks. Many UAV detection systems use the data link footprint as their main method of UAV detection.

Approach some metrics with caution. Trackers do not replace the need to discuss any cardiovascular symptoms with a medical professional to ensure an appropriate diagnosis and treatment plan, said Meagan Wasfy, a sports cardiologist at Mass General Brigham. The devices can provide a general idea of your health, though. For example, as one gets more fit, resting heart rate tends to decrease because the heart is stronger and more efficient at pumping oxygen-rich blood to the body, said Seth Martin, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins who specializes in cardiology. “So fitness trackers can help give us insight into how our heart rate trends over time, and store this information for our review.”

The 47 wrist-worn wearables we’ve tested over the past eight years have included the discontinued predecessors of many of the devices reviewed here. In early 2023, we tested the Amazon Halo View before the company announced that it would stop supporting the Halo series on July 31, 2023. (The devices and app no longer function; Amazon said it would refund unused and prepaid Halo subscription fees and help owners recycle Halos for free.

The Apple Watch SE delivers some of the most precise readouts and—with a mobile plan—can be used for calls and messaging. But its battery life is much shorter than that of our Fitbit picks.

If you’re already immersed in the Apple ecosystem, the second-generation Apple Watch SE, our budget smartwatch pick for iPhone users, is a reliable choice for tracking step counts, distance traveled, and heart rate. (Technically, you can use workarounds to use an Apple Watch with an Android phone, but it’s not a straightforward pairing.)

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Swiping down on the home screen gives you access to settings that will allow you to adjust how often you receive notifications and a general settings feature with which you can adjust how long the screen stays on and choose from three brightness levels: dim, normal, and max. Before changing these settings, warnings pop up telling you how switching levels might affect battery life.

There’s an easier-to-use display and band. Many Fitbit Charge users lamented the lack of a haptic side button on the Charge 5, so its return is welcome. It is a small cosmetic change, but it makes screen navigation so much simpler, particularly when you are sweating during a run or wearing gloves (when the touchscreen may not be as responsive). The Charge 6 also comes with a thick, flexible silicone band that is easier to adjust than the Fitbit Inspire 3’s slim band, with its sometimes-difficult-to-close clasp. The colorful AMOLED on the Charge 6’s display is vibrant indoors and outdoors. It weighs 1.02 ounces

The Polar Unite has the sporty look of a fitness watch, and it can hold up to 20 sport profiles. We had a hard time getting it to connect to our phone for GPS use. It was comfortable—its heart-rate sensor is flat, which is a nice touch.

The Fitbit Inspire 3 gives precise readings, has a good battery life, and includes plenty of features to appease people with varying health goals. In some ways it’s a throwback, with its simple interface and small size, which we appreciated. A fancy display and dozens of specialized health metrics doesn’t always equate to a product that can handle the basics, such as measuring step count and resting heart rate accurately, which is all some people need from a wearable.

The first column shows how far off each tracker was in measuring the distance (1 mile) we walked during treadmill workouts. The second column is a tabulation of step count error percentage between readouts from a tested fitness tracker and our pedometer. (Many wrist-worn fitness trackers inflate all-day step counts, in part because they register certain arm movements as “steps.”) The percentages in the third column of the table below show the company’s advertised battery life; the last column shows how much of the battery remained after two days of continual use.

It’s the most accurate and has a long-lasting battery. In our tests of step count accuracy, the Fitbit Inspire 3 was off from our pedometer readout by just 0.32% over a two-day period—the best of all the fitness trackers tested. In a one-mile test of how accurately it recorded distance, the Inspire 3 had one of the better tallies, being over by only 0.03 mile.

There are still some connection problems. While the Charge 6 has built-in GPS and the Inspire 3 doesn’t, the GPS could still use some improvement. We had some connection problems we didn’t encounter when testing GPS running watches. Some testers have also reported experiencing spotty GPS connections and frequent disconnections.

It tracks several unique metrics, some more useful than others. All Apple Watches, including the SE, measure activity by encouraging you to close a trio of rings—red for “Move,” green for “Exercise,” blue for “Stand”—each day, but they’re not necessarily meaningful in gauging your personal health feedback, instead serving more as a daily competition. Unique among trackers we’ve tested, the Apple Watch has a wheelchair option, which tracks pushes instead of steps.

A dependable GPS running watch provides training-enhancing data. After putting thousands of miles on 37 different watches we recommend the Coros Pace 3.

Many fitness trackers, GPS running watches, and smartwatches have accompanying apps that also track data related to sleep, hydration, or menstrual cycles. Aric A. Prather, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences, said that, in general, most wearable devices are capable of accurately estimating total sleep time and sleep fragmentation, but “this is less true when it comes to sleep architecture, like minutes in deep sleep for instance.”

The Inspire 3, like all Fitbit products, has a one-year warranty. Additional bands in various colors and materials like stainless steel (as well as a clip-on option) are available for an additional cost.

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The Fitbit Luxe has a slim, jewelry-like profile, with optional accessories that feel more like bracelets and less like sporty bands. We had a few hiccups, like when the Luxe blacked out during heart-rate testing and we couldn’t get back to the display.

There are various frequencies used in the data link system. The frequencies that are used are based on UAV brand as well as functionality of the UAV. For example, the DJI systems use 2.4Ghz for UAV control and 5Ghz for video transmission. This setup will give the user approximately 4 miles of range. However, if using 900Mhz for UAV control and 1.3Ghz for video, a distance of 20+ miles can be achieved.

Since 2015, we’ve been running, walking, swimming, cycling, sleeping, and basically living with 46 different fitness trackers day and night, to assess their accuracy, ease of use, and comfort. Although no tracker perfectly recorded every metric we tested, we found that the simply designed yet feature-packed Fitbit Inspire 3 is the best option for most people who want to monitor their activities, with metrics like distance traveled, step count, heart rate, and estimated calories burned.

The battery may not last as long as advertised. In one of our tests, the battery fell about three days short of the advertised 10 days of life, not great but not terrible.

If you’re a serious athlete: You may like the Whoop 4.0, a niche tracker that uses a subscription model ($30 a month/$239 annually). It’s a good tracker for people seeking specialized health feedback or data on every workout, movement, and resting period they complete. The band, made of poly Lycra and pima cotton, is comfortable to wear, and the tracker sends information to an app where your workouts and recorded health information lives. A coaching feature suggests how much recovery is needed after a workout and provides insight on how hard certain muscles work during training. You can track recovery trends, and monitor respiratory rate, SpO2 (blood-oxygen levels) and temperature. In October 2024, Whoop added step tracking (daily step count is displayed in the My Dashboard section of the app).

The touchscreen isn’t always responsive. Sometimes when flicking through the touchscreen, we pressed too hard, causing the Inspire 3 to activate a mode we didn’t want or bring up another screen that we had to swipe out of. Again, this may be a slight drawback to the tracker’s relatively minimalist design and smaller-than-most screen.

It also showed signs of a decent battery life; some testers found it middle of the road, while others had excellent results. After wearing the Inspire 3 for two days and two nights, which included several recorded workouts and auto-detected activity, our testing had the Inspire 3 lasting about seven days before needing a charge—it’s advertised as lasting 10 days.

Along with the Mi Smart Band 7, we also tested the Garmin Venu Sq 2 and Garmin Vívomove Sport in 2023. Both devices underperformed in our step count tests, but they do have perks, such as accurate heart-rate readouts and integration with the easy-to-use Garmin app. Both Garmins could easily qualify as smartwatches—the Vívomove Sport is designed like a fashion piece—if you seek more style over substance.

There are also specialized GPS running watches and smartwatches that provide the same health-related information and much more. The lines between fitness tracker, GPS running watch, and smartwatch are blurrier than ever. Generally, fitness trackers are less bulky to wear than GPS running watches or smartwatches and cost less. They can also run for a week or more between charges, while you generally need to charge a smartwatch daily.

For any device meant to track active heart rate during a workout, we performed two separate tests on the treadmill: a steady-state run of five minutes at an easy pace, and a six-minute walk-jog-run of two minutes at each pace. We compared heart-rate readings from the device against readings from a Polar H10 heart-rate sensor with a chest strap, and later also compared resting heart rates from each fitness tracker with the Polar H10.

Fitness trackers can give you a better idea of how you move your body throughout the day. They’re useful for people who want to set goals to increase daily movement and gain a better picture of their health.

Seth Berkman is a writer covering fitness. He's showered with swim goggles and lugged thousands of pounds of weights on the subway to test durability.

The latest version of the Charge series continues a tradition of accurate activity tracking, but many of the new additions require Google integration.

The battery life is very short. The SE doesn’t have an always-on display, and it has a mere 18 hours of projected battery life, falling far below that of most designated fitness trackers. In a test, we found that the battery had dropped to 9% after 18 hours of use, so if you’re traveling overnight, be sure to bring a charger.

How well does it track activities? To gauge how accurately the trackers record all-day step counts, we wore the devices in pairs, one on each wrist, for two days straight (we switched wrists on the second day). We also compared their step-count readings with the results from a (discontinued) Ozo Fitness SC 3D Digital Pedometer we knew to be reliable.

A gaggle of Google. Fitbit is fully immersing itself into the Google universe, which was anticipated after Google acquired Fitbit in 2021. The Charge 6 comes equipped with Google Maps, Google Wallet, and YouTube Music (subscription needed). You also need a Google account to use the Charge 6, even if you already have a Fitbit account (you can still track workouts through the Fitbit app).

Ground Control stations come in various complexities and sizes. These platforms can range from backpack sized to permanent buildings

Most fitness trackers provide an estimated tally of calories burned that’s based in part on an estimate of your basal metabolic rate. Andrew Jagim, PhD, director of sports medicine research at Mayo Clinic Health System and the co-author of a study on fitness-tracker accuracy, pointed out that each company uses its own proprietary algorithm to calculate that number. Some rely on heart rate, for instance, while others factor in accelerometer data.

It’s still very good at tracking. The Fitbit Charge series of fitness trackers have always been reliable in tracking steps and distance. In our 1-mile distance test, the Charge 6 was -0.02 miles off and had an error rate of 1.3% in our step-count test, performing just below our pick. After two days of use, our battery was at 68%, putting it slightly off pace with the company’s estimate of lasting seven days.

My beat includes home fitness equipment, outdoor athletic accessories, and a wide range of running gear. I’m particularly interested in gear designed for people trying new physical activities.

Data link uses a radio-frequency (RF) transmission to transmit and receive information to and from the UAV. These transmissions can include location, remaining flight time, distance and location to target, distance to the pilot, location of the pilot, payload information, airspeed, altitude, and many other parameters. This data link can also transmit live video from the UAV back to the GCS so the pilot and ground crew can observe what the UAV camera is seeing.

To understand the various components and accuracy of fitness trackers, we consulted cardiologists, professors who study the accuracy of the devices, as well as running coaches and physicians who regularly use wearables in testing.

Some have reported flimsy band attachments that can break. A Google spokesperson said that the company has improved the band attachment on Charge 6 in response to user feedback. They added that customer service can help assist and determine if a broken Charge 6 is under warranty. (For devices no longer under warranty, the company is offering a one-time 50% discount code to purchase a Charge 6, Sense 2, Versa 4 or Inspire 3 on the Google Store. Contact customer service for more information.)

The ground control station is the nervous system of the operation. The GCS will control the launch, flight, and recovery of the UAV. It also processes the data from the internal and external sensors of the payload. To perform this task the GCS incorporates the following subsystems:

Aric A. Prather, PhD, professor of psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences, email interview, May 10, 2023

This easy-to-use tracker is comfortable to wear all day and provides accurate measurements, without too much clutter on the homescreen.