Get fit for less: The best fitness tracker under £50

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is the latest in Xiaomi's line of ultra-affordable fitness trackers. And the good news is that, despite being an improvement over its predecessor, it still comes in at the same RRP of £34.99. That makes this exceptional value, as well as one of the most feature-rich devices in this price bracket. The company also offers the Smart Band 8 Pro – one of the best fitness trackers under £100.

The Band 9 keeps plenty of the features that made the Band 8 so feature-rich. This includes heart rate and blood oxygen tracking, sleep and activity recording, and support for over 150 different sports and activity types. The 1.62-inch AMOLED is the same size as before, but this time, it can go twice as bright (up to 1200 nits). Battery life has also been extended, going from an already impressive 16 days to around 21 days between charges (obviously, this varies based on usage). Pebble Mode, which lets you put the tracker on your shoe via a special attachment (sold separately) has also been kept.

Arguably the biggest difference is under the hood, where new sensors claim to be significantly more accurate than the last model – around 16 per cent better at heart rate monitoring, for example. There's still no built-in GPS – which would be a real quantum leap for this price range. But the incremental improvements this device offers are enough to put it at the top of the pile.

Another device that comes in just under £50 (RRP £49.99) the Huawei Band 9 is Huawei’s latest affordable fitness tracker, and it packs plenty of features. The vibrant 1.47-inch OLED display is beautiful, and despite the generous screen size, it weighs just 14g.  

It also has many health and fitness tracking features, including heart rate, blood oxygen, and sleep tracking. There’s also stress and women’s health tracking, including period reminders and fertility window predictions. The Band 9 claims to track over 100 different activity types, including swimming. One particularly useful feature for swimmers is the SWOLF metric, which measures swimming efficiency. This is all backed up by an impressive 14-day battery life. 

There are also several smart features as well – call and text notifications, calendar, weather forecasts, and music control, to highlight a few. It’s a solid all-round package. There are a few omissions: it doesn’t have built-in GPS, and it isn’t as accurate as the best devices on the market. But typically, those devices are considerably more expensive.

The Oppo Band has now been superseded by the Oppo Band 2, meaning this version is more affordable than ever. With its RRP of £39.99, and often available for less, it’s one of the cheapest devices on our shortlist, but still offers a basic fitness tracker that all the essential metrics on board.

Heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, sleep tracking, and the usual step, calorie and activity tracking are all available. The Oppo Band also tracks a dozen different types of exercise, has a Fat Burn Run mode to guide you to the ideal intensity level to burn fat during a run, and will even cope with a dip in the swimming pool. A few smart features include music control, call and message notifications, alarms, and weather forecasts.  

The companion app is also simple and presents your data clearly. Of course, the Oppo Band will never be the most advanced or accurate device on the market. But then, again, for under £40, that’s not the aim. It’s designed to provide a simple fitness tracker that gives you all the essential metrics to understand your fitness patterns and behaviours. And it does that job to a more than satisfactory standard.

If you like the style of an Apple Watch, but don’t appreciate the price tag quite so much, then the Amazfit Bip 3 offers a similar rounded-square design, but still costs less than £50. It’s by no means a true smartwatch, but the vibrant 1.69-inch large display, you're able to easily see your incoming calls, messages, reminders and health information. You’re also good for up to two weeks of normal usage between charges.  

Tracking-wise, this fitness tracker has you covered for heart rate, sleep, stress and blood oxygen metrics. There are 60 different sports modes, and it’s water-resistant enough to cope with a swim. Unusually for this price bracket, there’s even built-in GPS, making it easy to track runs, walks and bike rides without needing to take your phone with you.  

The Bip 3 also incorporates a Target Pace function, which means you can set and beat your pace goals. Striking a balance between functionality and cost-effectiveness, the Bip 3 offers a featured-packed fitness tracker with plenty of customisable features for fitness enthusiasts of every level.

The Honor Band 9 has a lot in common with the Huawei Band 9, both in terms of features and its £49.99 RRP. The screen is slightly larger at 1.57-inches and makes reading notifications or using any of its tools extremely easy. If you like a large display, this will appeal. 

It offers all the usual health and fitness metrics we’d expect – heart rate, blood oxygen, stress, sleep and menstrual cycle can all be tracked, while 96 sports modes mean you can track just about any activity you can think of. Honor has also introduced running workouts to add extra support to beginner runners. There are also estimates of your Fitness Age, to give you an idea of how fit you are. If you’re new to running, these may be extremely helpful.  

Weather forecasts, music control, and notifications are all available, while 10-14 days (about 2 weeks) of battery life means you won’t need to worry about charging it every day. There’s no built-in GPS, and as with so many devices in this price range, it won’t be as accurate as other, more expensive models. But it offers all the essentials.

The Amazfit Band 7 has a more traditional lozenge-style design than the Bip 3 we highlighted earlier. But it still offers a generous 1.47-inch AMOLED display, which looks similar to a Huawei Band 7. Unlike some of its rivals, however, there’s no ambient light sensor, which means it won’t automatically adjust to bright light – you'll need to remember to adjust your brightness settings before going outside, as it can be very tricky to do once you’re outdoors in the sunshine. 

Apart from that omission, you’re getting a well-stocked fitness tracker. With 18-day battery life (one of the best we’ve seen), the Amazfit Band 7 offers heart rate, blood oxygen stress, sleep and even nap tracking. It has 120 sports modes, and water resistance that lets you take it for a swim – with a dedicated Pool Swimming mode to provide swimming metrics. A Virtual Pacer function lets you race against yourself, while there’s a quick health check option that lets you check your heart rate, blood oxygen and stress all at the same time. 

It’s got some smart features too, including built-in Alexa voice assistant, call and text notifications, weather controls, and much more. The Zepp companion app isn’t perhaps the most polished, and it’s another fitness tracker that lacks built-in GPS. But once more, for a device that costs less than £50, it’s well built, offers plenty of features, and is a good choice for anyone who’s just getting started.

While it doesn’t have all the health and fitness features Fitbits for adults offer, the Fitbit Ace 3 still provides lots to help youngsters (aged six and upwards) keep track of their activity levels. The Ace 3 counts steps and tracks time spent being active and sleeping. It also reminds kids to get moving and offers badges, animated clock faces and avatars as rewards for being active.  

Best of all, the companion app allows parents and children to keep track of their stats, without exposing children to potentially unwanted data such as calories burned. And while it’s suitable for kids from the age of six, its design means that it won’t start to look babyish as your child enters their teenage years, meaning that this should have some longevity. 

Battery lasts up to eight days, while the interchangeable silicon strap helps protect the screen from damage and gives kids some choice over how it looks. If you want a basic fitness tracker to help encourage a child to get active, this has an RRP of £69.99, but is often available for less than £50.

If you'd prefer your fitness tracker to come from a brand that's been around for a few decades and still doesn't cost more than £50, then check out the Sekonda Track. Sekonda describes this as a smart watch, but the reality is it offers only a few smart features that put it much more in line with a fitness tracker. And for the RRP of £39.99, we'd have been surprised if it was a "true" smartwatch. 

It offers the basics you would expect from a fitness tracker – step counting, heart rate, blood oxygen and sleep tracking, estimated calorie burn, plus eight sports modes. These include running, walking, football and tennis. There's even blood pressure measurement, which is extremely unusual. It can notify you if you've been sitting down for too long. The Sekonda Track has an IP68 water resistance rating. This means it's splashproof, but you are advised to take it off before going for a swim. 

Smart features include message notifications for popular apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and emails. You can check the weather forecast, control your music, and even control the camera shutter on your phone. 

While this is never going to match the sophisticated smartwatches from the likes of Google, Apple and Samsung, it offers all the basic features we'd expect from a fitness tracker at this price point. A two-year warranty helps provide peace of mind.