Do You Need a $350 Smartwatch for Fitness Tracking? Here’s What the Data Actually Shows

Premium smartwatches cost three to four times more than budget alternatives and, by widespread account, need charging every single day. Here’s what you’re actually paying for — and whether it matters if fitness tracking is the main use case.

There are two types of smartwatch buyer. One spends $350 and charges every night. The other spends $50 and charges roughly once a fortnight. Both track their workouts. The question this piece tries to answer honestly is: what does the person who spent $350 actually get for the extra money — and for fitness tracking specifically, does it matter?

The Battery Gap Is Not Close

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 8 is rated at 30 hours with the always-on display on, or 40 hours with it off. That’s the official figure, confirmed by independent testing — roughly one to two days between charges under normal conditions. It’s a capable watch in many respects, but “charge every couple of days” is simply the reality of owning one, and no amount of optimisation changes that fundamentally.

Budget watches in the Redmi Watch range charge every 10 to 24 days depending on usage. That’s not a marginal difference — it’s a different relationship with the device entirely. A watch you charge twice a month sits on your wrist continuously, including overnight, which matters for sleep tracking. A watch you charge every two days doesn’t.

There’s also a documented recurring problem worth knowing about before buying: routine software updates have repeatedly caused significant battery drain across multiple Galaxy Watch generations, with some owners reporting a full charge gone in 4-5 hours after an update. This has happened more than once. It’s not a defect — it’s a pattern of software updates degrading battery performance on an already-limited baseline.

Samsung is reportedly working on this. The Galaxy Watch 9, expected in late July 2026, is rumoured to carry a 23% larger battery. Whether that translates to a meaningfully different ownership experience remains to be seen.

If you own a Galaxy Watch 8 and want to maximise battery life, this independent video covers the settings worth adjusting — not a Wangdoo production.

What Budget Watches Get Right — and Where They Don’t

Xiaomi‘s wearables — sold under the Redmi sub-brand — have earned a consistent reputation for reliable basic fitness tracking at prices that are genuinely hard to argue with. Step counting is accurate. Sleep tracking works. Resting heart rate monitoring holds up well across models. These aren’t approximations — they’re the metrics most people actually use day to day, and budget watches deliver them capably.

Where the gap shows up is during intense exercise. Real-time heart rate tracking during high-intensity workouts is less consistent on budget optical sensors — the readings can drift in a way that resting measurement doesn’t. SpO2 (blood oxygen) readings run around 3-4% off medical-grade devices, which matters if you’re using it to manage a health condition, and which Xiaomi itself acknowledges by stating the data isn’t for medical diagnosis.

The other genuine gaps aren’t about accuracy — they’re about features. Budget watches rarely include LTE, so leaving your phone at home entirely isn’t an option. Not all include standalone GPS, so check before buying if you run without your phone. The software ecosystem is simpler and more closed than Wear OS, with fewer third-party apps and less smartphone integration. Build materials are typically aluminium and plastic rather than titanium or sapphire glass.

Side-by-Side, In Numbers

Where Budget Watches Genuinely Fall Short

This isn’t a case where the cheaper option is secretly just as good in every way — there are real, honest trade-offs. Budget watches generally run simpler, more closed software ecosystems compared to Wear OS, with fewer third-party app options. Build materials are more often plastic and aluminum rather than titanium or sapphire glass. Cellular/LTE connectivity, useful for leaving your phone at home entirely, is far less common on budget models. And not every budget watch includes standalone GPS — some rely on a connected phone for route tracking, which matters if running without your phone is part of your routine.

Who Should Actually Pay the Premium

• If you rely on cellular connectivity to leave your phone behind entirely during workouts, budget options are far more limited.
• If you’re managing a diagnosed health condition where sensor precision genuinely matters, the closer-to-medical-grade accuracy on premium devices is a real, justified reason to pay more.
• If app ecosystem and deep phone integration matter to you — third-party fitness apps, smart replies, a wider range of smart-home control — premium platforms are still meaningfully ahead.
• If your main goal is tracking workouts, steps, heart rate, and sleep without daily charging anxiety, the evidence suggests a budget watch covers that use case capably, at a fraction of the cost.

Frequently Asked Questions

Clayton Samuel (Mr Wangdoo), QFA

Founder & editor, Wangdoo.com. Clayton holds a QFA designation with a background in financial services, electronics, and cloud infrastructure. He covers tech products from the perspective of someone who actually builds and runs his own stack — not someone reading other people’s press releases.