Such tasks are complex: determine heart rate, measure distance or determine the calorie consumption. And with exactly these fitness functions that are praised by the manufacturers, smartwatches often break. The Stiftung Warentest comes to this conclusion in a comparison of 13 smart watches between 69 and 480 euros ("test" edition 12/19).
Even with basic features such as phone calls, text messaging or navigation, testers were often dissatisfied. In addition, the privacy statements of 9 out of the 13 producers claim to have very significant deficiencies.
Pulse and distance - weak points
The testers determined how well the clocks pulse rate, track length and calorie consumption in both walking and jogging as well as cycling and swimming. Their result: Only the two best and rated the only "well" rated models Apple Watch Series 5 for 480 Euro (overall grade 1.8) and the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music for 335 Euro (2.2) recorded almost everything correctly. The other clocks were often wrong, especially at heart rate and track length.
- Find a SPIEGEL test of the Apple Watch Series 5 here: Almost like a normal clock
According to the experts, the number of steps and calorie consumption are only roughly calculated by the clocks when they know the age, gender, size and weight of their wearers. Users who provide only sparse information about themselves here receive inaccurate values. After all, the testers were unable to determine that fitness data was passed on unasked.
Handling personal data - problematic
When it comes to data protection, however, the product testers criticize that smartwatches when setting up a user account and when pairing with the smartphone query personal information, even those that are not necessary for pure function - such as phone number, name or identification features of smartwatch or smartphone. In addition, six manufacturers gave themselves the right to store personal data and pass it on to third parties.
Many other smartwatches only achieved a "satisfactory", such as the Huawei Watch GT for 191 euros (overall rating 2.8) in third place, followed by the fossil Q Explorist HR Gen 4 for 259 euros (2.9) and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active SM-R500 for 195 Euro (2.9).
Other articles on the topic:
- Training Helpers: How to Find the Right Smartwatch for Sports and Workout
- My Apple Watch and me: What's your problem, Siri?