As soon as the pandemic is over and life gets back in motion, many of us would want to be out and about. The adventure spirits among us would especially want to travel far and wide, engage in high-octane sports or explore the boundaries of the earth which more often than not have extreme environments. So, while you travel to tough terrains like these you’d want to wear a watch that’s smart enough to monitor and inform you about your health, helpful enough to let you keep tabs on your tracks, a big enough battery to last long during the trip and rugged enough to withstand harsh settings. Also, it better not burn a hole in your pocket, right?
So, here we have curated a list of the best smartwatches within or around the budget of ₹20,000 for outdoor sports and adventure activities.
1. Amazfit T-Rex Pro
Amazfit T-Rex Pro has got a 1.3 inch AMOLED round display protected by Gorilla Glass 3. This screen is enclosed in a rugged case that endows more assurance of its durability. Well, it’s not just in the exteriors, Huami claims a lasting endurance of up to 66 days in Primary Watch mode. Meanwhile, if you use it on Daily Use mode, then you can expect up to 20 days on a single charge. The activity tracking features comprise 14 sports modes, along with important health parameters such as heart rate, SpO2, Stress, etc. It also sports built-in GPS, water resistance, and the basic stuff like notification sync, weather, reminders, etc.
2. Casio WSD-F20A
Casio is a name synonymous with watches and its G-shock series is what most rugged watches appear to look like. Now this model, albeit no G-shock has its own unique offering to find a spot in this list. The Casio WSD-F20A comes with a Dual-layer LCD that stretches 1.32-inches with a low-power monochrome ‘timepiece’ mode. This lends the necessary deets in an easy-to-understand format. Rest, if you’re wondering, it does bear the smarts of Wear OS under the hood. You also get military certified build quality, up to 50meters water resistance, a mic, WiFi, low-power GPS for standalone route tracking, Offline map usage capability, Altimeter, compass, barometric pressure, Fitness activity tracker, music playback controls. With all of these and in the GPS mode, you can expect up to 2 days’ worth of battery life. And whence it asks for the charge, plug in the magnetic charging socket which should take about 2 hours to fill the tank. The only noticeable missing feature is heart rate tracking.
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3. Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2
The Samsung offering isn’t cut for outdoor settings but should work well as a decently built smartwatch. You can grab the 44mm size of the Watch Active2 in India. It is available in aluminum and stainless steel bodies. The dial is a 1.4-inch round Super AMOLED touch panel with a 360×360 pixel resolution. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass DX+ on top. You can go out on a swim, wearing it thanks to the IP68 waterproof certification. Watch Active2 ticks on Exynos 9110 processor, coupled with up to 1.5GB of RAM and 4GB ROM. The feature list also includes the staple trackers like heart rate, ECG, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, and ambient light. It lets you monitor 39 workouts. The watch is sentient enough to monitor 7 of these activities automatically based on the spike in physical parameters. It is powered by Bluetooth 5.0 and it also enables wireless calling via the watch. Samsung has stowed in a 340mAh cell that can be charged wirelessly using Samsung Powershare.
4. Fossil Sport
This Fossil watch has Sport in its name. And it is designed to be a light and smart companion on your wrist. The watch flaunts a 1.19-inch OLED fascia with 390 x 390-pixel resolution. The watch lets you see and reply to notifications with help of the mic and voice control support. Other things in the mix are GPS, heart rate logger, 50m water resistance, and the WearOS goodies. Fossil says the watch can offer 2 days of runtime and you can juice it up using the bundled charger in about 2 hours.
5. Honor Watch GS Pro
The Watch GS Pro flaunts a 1.39″ AMOLED panel with a 454×454 resolution and 326ppi pixel density. It is MIL-STD-810H military-grade certified for sturdiness in varied conditions. Other specs and features include a Kirin A1 chip, 4GB of RAM, a mic plus speaker combo for attending calls, up to 25 days of battery life, built-in GPS, 5ATM water resistance, trackers for 24×7 heart rate, SpO2, sleep, and stress tracking. Further, you get support for 100 workout modes.
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6. Garmin Instinct
Garmin Instinct comes with a 45mm watch face with a 128×128-pixel resolution monochrome display. The case is attached to an interchangeable 22mm strap. The whole thing weighs 52g. It works with both iOS and Android. Inside, there is support for GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo location services, 24/7 heart-rate tracking, barometer altimeter for mapping the altitude of an area, multisport tracking (running, cycling, swimming, hiking, skiing, and more), up to 100m water resistance, and up to 16 hours of battery life with GPS on.
7. Apple Watch Series 3
Apple was one of the early smartphone brands to foray into the smartwatch territory. Its watches till now aren’t rugged or long-lasting battery-wise for long journeys. Still, we have given a slot to the third-gen Apple Watch because it holds the ground in other areas of a smartwatch experience. The lower variants of the Apple Watch 3 display is Ion-strengthened glass while the prier models feature sapphire glass for a higher-shatter resistance. Rest, the aluminum case and silicone band should be light on your hand. Further, the Series 3 comes with a heart rate sensor, barometric altimeter, and GPS. The new watches are powered by a dual-core chipset coupled with 8GB of internal storage out of which 2GB is limited to store your music. It will let you stream music as well as make phone calls even when you are away from your phone. The watch is also swim-proof up to 50 meters.
Still, the Apple Watch 3 isn’t a champ when it comes to battery life. Officially, Apple claims, “18 hours after an overnight charge, factoring in things like checking the time, receiving notifications, using apps, and doing a 60-minute workout”. Also, you don’t get any tactile buttons, and neither is it rugged. However, Apple is said to be working on a rugged model for athletes, hikers, and adventurists. The company is also likely to add new swim tracking capabilities to its Watch lineup. So, that’s something to look forward to, especially if are already invested in the Apple ecosystem.
Best Outdoor Smartwatches in India
Here’s a recap of every smartwatch listed above in this article that are priced below or around ₹20,000 in India:
- Amazfit T-Rex Pro
- Casio WSD-F20A
- Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2
- Fossil Sport
- Honor Watch GS Pro
- Garmin Instinct
- Apple Watch Series 3
Of course, there are pricier options in the market, some of which you may already know. So, these are the other best outdoor smartwatches you can consider in India:
