![\"cmf](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cmf-watch-3-pro-running.jpg\"\/ "\\"cmf")
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Here in the mobile tech world, we absolutely love slapping labels on products, breaking the market down into categories. Some of those are clearly defined: While they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, no one\u2019s really debating what counts as a \u201cfoldable\u201d smartphone. But others have been far more nebulous \u2014 remember 15 years ago when \u201cphablets\u201d suddenly descended upon us, but no one quite seemed to agree on where to draw the line between those and regular smartphones?<\/p>\n
Some of those ambiguities resolve themselves \u2014 with phablets, at least, phones in general have grown so large that the word has lost all meaning \u2014 but others have really managed to persist.<\/p>\n
One that keeps jumping out at me is \u201csmartwatch\u201d and I think that\u2019s because to my mind, this one should be as much of a no-brainer as \u201cfoldables.\u201d While there are lots of differences between feature phones<\/a> and smartphones, the most important in my mind has been the way a proper smartphone gives you the freedom to run the software of your choice \u2014 it\u2019s a very portable general-purpose computer, and what it can do is only limited by the apps that are built for it.<\/p>\n It only follows that this should be the line for smartwatches, as well \u2014 your Apple Watch or Pixel Watch are full-fat smartwatches specifically because they have access to their respective app stores. And if you can\u2019t find the app you want, there\u2019s little preventing you from spinning it up yourself (maybe even with the help of AI<\/a>).<\/p>\n What\u2019s in a name, after all?<\/p>\n Kaitlyn Cimino \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n But there are smartwatches, and then there are \u201csmartwatches.\u201d Earlier this week, Nothing introduced its new CMF Watch Pro 3<\/a>. It\u2019s got a bigger-than-ever 1.43-inch AMOLED display, tracks all your activity, and gives you a choice from over 120 watch faces. And it\u2019s not<\/strong> a smartwatch.<\/p>\n We also just heard about possible plans for a new Moto wearable, with a leak outing what\u2019s supposed to be the return of the Moto 360<\/a>. It looks the part, offers a smart brushed-metal build, and will almost certainly not<\/strong> be a smartwatch.<\/p>\n Instead, expect Motorola (or, rather, the licensee using the Moto name on wearables through the end of 2025) to deliver yet another model that looks like a smartwatch, and is marketed like a smartwatch, but lacks access to the kind of broader software library that elevates a proper smartwatch above the ranks of a fitness tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019d contrast these two with the recent launch of the Galaxy Watch 8 series \u2014 the first orders of which are just starting to arrive. Samsung\u2019s wearables are arguably some of the best premium options for shoppers looking for a Wear OS smartwatch, not just delivering stunning hardware packed with an impressive array of sensors, but with the sort of broad app support I\u2019d only expect from a capital-S smartwatch. So long as you can get on board with the new squircle design<\/a>, they seem great! And I\u2019d argue they\u2019re massive overkill for most people.<\/p>\n Giving shoppers what they actually want<\/p>\n Jimmy Westenberg \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n Fitbit Sense<\/p>\n For all my hemming and hawing about what actually counts as a smartwatch-smartwatch, these aren\u2019t devices that most people are using in the same way they do their phones. While it\u2019s quite possible to get a lot done on a Wear OS watch alone, particularly when we\u2019re talking about a cellular-equipped model, that\u2019s just not the kind of usage most of us are after. Instead, we want a good wearable that\u2019s a companion to our (properly smart) phones.<\/p>\n If everything else were equal, I\u2019d say go with Wear OS anyway \u2014 having more features than you need doesn\u2019t have to be a bad thing \u2014 but that\u2019s simply not the case, and there\u2019s a huge gulf between these product categories when it comes to the single most important consideration for a wearable: battery life.<\/p>\n How many third-party apps do you even end up using on Wear OS devices?<\/p>\n Smartwatches like the Galaxy Watch 8 simply can\u2019t hold a candle to the CMF Watch Pro 3 when it comes to how often you have to drop your wearable on its charging cradle to top up the battery. With the Watch 8, you\u2019re going to want to be charging it basically every night, while the Watch Pro 3 will probably get away with a charge once a week, if even that.<\/p>\n Keep the price low, make the battery last long, and count steps, and you\u2019re 90% of the way towards the wearable many users are looking for. Some more robust fitness features might sweeten the pot a little, but most of us probably won\u2019t need anything more exotic than run tracking. Music playback can be a nice bonus (that\u2019s sadly getting harder to find<\/a>), as well as support for tap-and-pay purchases, but this still isn\u2019t anything that requires full app support. Some of you will want notifications on your wearable, but in my experience that can easily go either way, and plenty of users are in no hurry to have that kind of annoyance on their wrist.<\/p>\n Kris Carlon \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n I still don\u2019t know the best way to talk about this hardware. High-res touchscreens make using these devices feel like Wear OS smartwatches, and physically all these screen-based watches look like peas from the same pod. Smartwatch-style fitness trackers? Big-screen fitness trackers? None of it really rolls off the tongue, and I suspect we\u2019re going to be stuck lumping (incorrectly, I\u2019d still argue) all these together under the inelegant \u201csmartwatch\u201d banner for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n Whatever they\u2019re called, though, there\u2019s a tangible difference here, and I just wish it were easier for shoppers to recognize and talk about the wearables that are actually<\/strong> the ones that best meet their needs.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Garmin-Vivoactive-6-Menu-vs-5-scaled.jpg\"\/ "\\"Garmin")
<\/p>\n![\"fitbit](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/fitbit-sense-review-design-display-watch-face-1.jpg\"\/ "\\"fitbit")
<\/p>\n![\"Huawei](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Huawei-Watch-GT-4-smartwatch-on-wrist-showing-calorie-counter-scaled.jpg\"\/ "\\"Huawei")
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