Almost every story written about wearables covers the top end. Apple Watch Ultra this, Garmin Fenix that, Oura premium subscription the other. Nobody writes about the real story of the category, which is that the features that cost £500 three years ago now cost £65. The entry-level wearable in 2026 does things that a flagship did in 2022, and it does most of them well.
This is a quiet revolution, and it is arguably the most important thing happening in wearable technology. Democratisation does not sell magazines, but it changes more lives than a flagship launch ever does. Here is what the sub-£100 market actually looks like.
Amazfit GTR Mini: the best all-rounder
Amazfit is probably the brand doing the most to expand what an affordable wearable looks like. The GTR Mini is a genuinely well-made smartwatch with a bright AMOLED display, a fortnight-plus of battery life, built-in GPS, and reasonable health tracking. It costs a fraction of what a flagship costs, and for most users most of the time it does the job.
The compromise is the software. The Zepp app is fine, not great. The third-party app ecosystem is limited. Notifications work but are less polished than on an Apple Watch or a Galaxy Watch. If you are looking for a device that does what a smartwatch is supposed to do at a price that makes sense, this is the current answer.
Samsung Galaxy Fit 3: the credible Samsung option
The Galaxy Fit 3 is the Samsung fitness band that most people should have been looking at instead of a budget smartwatch for years. It is slim, comfortable, and has the Samsung Health integration that Galaxy phone users want. Battery life is genuinely strong. The AMOLED screen is surprisingly good for the price.
It is not a smartwatch. If you want a full app ecosystem on your wrist, this is not that. But if you want reliable activity tracking, sleep tracking, and smart notifications from your phone, the Fit 3 covers the brief.
Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro: the spec-sheet winner
If you are shopping purely on specs per pound, Xiaomi is probably the right answer. The Smart Band 8 Pro has a big AMOLED display, built-in GPS, continuous heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen tracking, and reasonable sleep tracking, at a price that undercuts almost everything else in the category.
The catch is the same as it always is with Xiaomi hardware: software polish, app quality, long-term support. The sensors are there. The experience around them is not always up to the price of the hardware. If you know what you are doing and you just want the readings, this is a bargain. If you want a seamless consumer experience, you will probably end up preferring the Amazfit.
Fitbit Inspire 3: the simplicity choice
Fitbit is a diminished brand from what it was a decade ago, but the Inspire 3 remains the best choice for a specific user: the person who wants minimal, no-nonsense activity tracking, a simple app, and a device they will actually wear every day. It does not try to be a smartwatch. It does not try to do everything. It just tracks your day.
For a teenager starting their first fitness habit, or a grandparent who wants to know if they walked enough today, this is still the friendliest piece of hardware in the category. The Google Fitbit integration is now stable, and the platform is not going away.
What this category actually does well
The sub-£100 segment is now competent at almost everything most people actually use a wearable for. Step counting, heart rate, sleep duration, basic sleep staging, workout tracking, SpO2 spot checks, notifications, music controls. These are all solved problems at this price.
Where budget wearables still struggle: fast-changing heart rate during high-intensity exercise, ECG-grade cardiac readings, blood pressure, serious GPS accuracy in trees or mountains, long-term ecosystem support. If you need any of those things, you will have to pay more. If you do not, the flagship market is selling you features you are not going to use.
The important point
For most of the people who buy a wearable, the job is "help me move a bit more and sleep a bit better." The sub-£100 market does that job almost as well as the flagship market, and it does it at a price that does not require anyone to think twice. This is a good thing. It is what mass-market consumer technology is supposed to look like when it works.