Tag:

weve

The best fitness trackers and watches we’ve tested for 2025
Product Reviews

The best fitness trackers and watches we’ve tested for 2025

by admin


Fitness trackers have come a long way from the simple bands that tracked steps and little else. Modern trackers can monitor everything from your heart health to how well you’ve recovered from a hard bout of training. Even flagship smartwatches, which used to be lackluster trackers, have become pretty adept workout companions. Whatever your fitness goals are, there’s probably a fitness tracker that can help you achieve them.

Compared to some other gadgets, wearables are incredibly personal, which means there are a few extra considerations you’ll have to take into account before reaching for your wallet. It makes it hard to say that any one fitness tracker is the best for everyone. Thankfully, the best thing about fitness trackers in 2025 is that there’s enough variety to fit into every kind of lifestyle.

$100

The spiffy Amazfit Active 2 delivers outsized value for its budget-friendly price. It offers a wide array of health tracking features, built-in GPS, and up to 10 days of battery life.

Read More

$750

The Fenix 7S Pro remains a great intro to Garmin’s platform. It features an updated optical heart rate sensor, excellent battery life, solar charging, and built-in multiband GPS.

Read More

What we’re looking for

How we test fitness trackers

Collapse

Fitness trackers are meant to help you keep track of your health and activity. We do a mix of benchmark testing and experiential, real-life testing. That means snoozing with them, taking them out on GPS activities like runs and hikes, working up a sweat in several workouts, and comparing how they do against long-term control devices for heart rate, sleep, and GPS accuracy. Some factors we consider in our rankings are durability, performance, accuracy versus consistency in metrics, and of course, battery life.

Audience

Collapse

Who is this fitness tracker for? The ideal fitness tracker for hardcore athletes will look different than the best one for casual users looking to get a few more steps in.

Battery life

Collapse

A fitness tracker should be able to go at least two to three days between charges. If it’s a flagship smartwatch, it should at least offer quick charging.

Form factor

Collapse

Is it a band or a smartwatch? Is it comfortable to wear 24/7?

Metrics

Collapse

What metrics does this device track? We prioritize active minutes over steps and calorie burn, but health metrics like resting heart rate, VO2 Max, and sleep quality are plusses.

Consistency

Collapse

Accuracy is nice, but it’s more important for measuring progress that your device delivers consistent results for heart rate, distance tracking, and steps.

Platform

Collapse

Certain trackers are limited to specific phone ecosystems — others will work regardless of what your phone is. We prioritize the latter wherever possible.

Best fitness tracker overall

$100

The Good

  • Stacked feature set for the price
  • Looks spiffy
  • Good battery life

The Bad

  • Touchscreen and voice commands are finicky
  • Can’t edit workouts
  • AI chatbots are meh

Size: 43mm w/ 20mm straps / Weight: 29.5g for standard, 31.7g for premium / Battery life: Up to 10 days / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: Five GNSS systems / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: N/A

Hear us out: the Amazfit Active 2 is the best all-rounder on the block. Smartwatches are definitely getting more high-tech, but the Active 2 keeps the spirit of a humble fitness tracker — a good price, all the basic health features with a holistic tracking approach, and a comfy yet stylish design. At $99.99 for the standard version, and $129.99 for the premium version with a leather band, you get an incredible amount of bang for your buck.

The hardware and design are surprisingly chic for the price. The standard version has a stainless steel case and tempered glass screen, while the premium version bumps you up to sapphire crystal and gets you an extra leather strap. The screen itself is nice and bright at 2,000 nits and you get an estimated 10 days of regular use on a single charge. (In testing, I got closer to eight to nine days as a power-user.) European users also get NFC payments.

I almost never get compliments on budget trackers. I got several while wearing the Active 2. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

As far as health features go, you get all the basics like continuous heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen rate, heart rate variability, stress tracking, alerts for abnormally high and low heart rate, and skin temperature tracking. It’s also got a daily readiness score and detailed sleep tracking if you’re into recovery metrics. (There’s also a Zepp Aura AI chatbot if you ever want to get more in-depth insights into your recovery metrics; It costs an extra $77 yearly including taxes, but it’s also totally optional.) For workouts, it supports 160 different sport types, including HYROX and a new strength training mode that automatically counts reps. The Active 2 also adds offline maps, turn-by-turn directions, the ability to connect to third-party peripherals, and Zepp Coach — an AI-powered coach that can generate custom training plans for you. Built-in GPS with five satellite systems is also included.

I don’t have a lot to complain about. My biggest gripes are the touch screen is hard to use with sweaty fingers and the onboard AI assistant for voice commands sometimes requires you to enunciate. You do lack advanced health features, like EKGs or sleep apnea detection, but that’s not really the point of something like the Active 2. This is meant to be a classic, basic fitness tracker that happens to look like a watch — and it does that with aplomb.

Read my full Amazfit Active 2 review.

Best fitness watch for casual users

$189

The Good

  • Bright display
  • Long battery life
  • Tons of training and health features
  • No subscriptions

The Bad

  • Cluttered app
  • Proprietary USB-A charger

Sizes: 40mm w/ 20mm straps / Weight: 38g / Battery life: Up to 11 days / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: All-systems GNSS / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Ant Plus / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 4GB (for Music Edition)

The $250 Garmin Venu Sq 2 is the watch I recommend for anyone looking to replace their aging Fitbit Versa 2, 3, or 4. It’s got a similar look and vibe, with a much nicer OLED display and longer battery life.

Garmin is known for its comprehensive fitness tracking, and that’s not an exception here. Of course, you get the basics, like steps and calories burned, but you get a whole lot more, too. There’s built-in GPS for tracking walks, runs, and bike rides, as well as plenty of other sports profiles like yoga and strength training. For smart features, you get push notifications, timers, contactless payments, and a bunch of safety features like Garmin’s Incident Detection, which is its take on fall detection. (You will need to carry your phone with you, however, as this doesn’t have LTE.)

The Garmin Venu Sq 2 has a bright, beautiful OLED display and long battery life. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If you want the option of onboard music, you can shell out $50 extra for the Music Edition, which comes with enough storage for about 500 songs. I wouldn’t recommend it, however, as you’ll most likely have your phone on you since this isn’t a true standalone watch.

What I like most about this watch, however, is that it’s one that you can grow with. On top of recovery metrics and sleep tracking, it also has Garmin Coach — a built-in, free training program for beginner and intermediate-level runners hoping to tackle a 5K, 10K, or half marathon. For health tracking, you can monitor heart rate, blood oxygen, intensity minutes (how many minutes of moderate exercise you get per week), stress, hydration, respiratory rate, and menstrual cycles. None of these existing data features are locked behind a paywall; however, Garmin introduced a premium tier earlier in the year that provides personalized AI-powered insights and additional features for $6.99 a month (or $69.99 a year).

One note: there is a Venu 3, which adds a newer heart rate sensor and nap detection. I liked it quite a bit, and it ticks off a lot of the right boxes — except for price. It’s $450, which puts it outside what I’d consider ideal for casual users. Another option is Garmin’s Forerunner 165 — it’s a $249 budget training watch that’s quite similar to the Venu Sq 2 feature-wise, albeit with a sportier vibe.

Basically, go with what you find within your budget. I firmly believe older models are still a good choice if all you want is the fitness-tracking basics. This is especially true since newer software updates often make their way to older Garmins. Garmin users also tend to hang onto their devices for a good while. Strava’s 2023 year-end survey found that the most popular smartwatch among its users was an eight-year-old Garmin!

Read my full review Garmin Venu Sq 2 review.

Best for serious outdoor athletes

$750

The Good

  • Hands-free flashlight
  • Long battery life
  • Multiband GPS
  • Upgraded heart rate monitor

The Bad

  • The improved MIP display is still not the easiest to read in dim lighting
  • Too similar to the standard Fenix 7

Sizes: 7S Pro: 42mm w/ 20mm straps; 7: 47mm w/ 22mm straps; 7X: 51mm w/ 26mm straps / Weight: 7S Pro: 63g (Solar), 58g or 65g (Sapphire Solar, titanium or stainless steel); 7: 79g (Solar), 73g (Sapphire Solar); 7X: 96g (Solar), 89g (Sapphire Solar) / Battery life: 7S: up to 11 days, 14 w/ Solar; 7: up to 18 days, 22 days w/ solar; 7X: up to 28 days, 37 w/ solar / Display type: MIP touchscreen / GPS: All-systems GNSS and dual-frequency GPS / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Ant Plus, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 10ATM / Music storage: Up to 32GB

Garmin’s Fenix 7 series is no joke, and the Fenix 7 Pro lineup takes it up a notch. It’s got built-in multiband GPS, solar charging on all models, the option of touchscreen or button navigation, topographical maps, and oodles upon oodles of data. Plus, every Fenix 7 Pro model has a hands-free LED flashlight, an upgraded heart rate sensor, and an improved memory-in-pixel display that’s slightly easier to read in low lighting.

Garmin wearables are also known for providing extensive in-depth metrics, and the Fenix 7 Pro lineup is no exception. You get excellent recovery metrics as well as helpful training guides and coaching programs. The best part is that Garmin doesn’t charge extra for those features. That’s good news, as these are expensive watches.

I appreciate how quickly these Fenix 7 watches can pick up a GPS signal. That’s a must if you’re training in the dead of winter. These watches can also take a beating. All models are built to military-grade standards and feature up to 10ATM of water resistance. That means they’re more than capable of a dunk in the ocean.

The hands-free flashlight rules! Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Although the screen is brighter, MIP displays still aren’t my absolute favorite — the OLED on the Garmin Epix 2 and the Epix Pro are much easier on the eyes. It’s admittedly tough to pick between the Fenix 7, Fenix 7 Pro, Epix 2, and Epix Pro lineups — especially now that the Epix Pro also has great battery life, the LED flashlight, and now comes in multiple sizes. What it boils down to is whether you prioritize a brighter display, longer battery life, or price.

Personally, I prefer the Epix Pro for better readability, but the Fenix 7 Pro is the better choice if this is your first introduction to Garmin’s platform. You’ll get better battery life, the same LED flashlight, all the same training features, and a lower starting price. You should also consider Garmin’s Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970, which were released in late May for $547.99 and $749.99, respectively.

Both watches have an OLED screen, built-in microphone and speaker system, skin temperature sensors, and the ability to generate a daily report that includes information about your upcoming workouts, events, estimated sleep needs, and the weather. The new watches also support Garmin Coach, a free tool that helps you train for fitness events like marathons. The 970 has three exclusive fitness features called running tolerance, running economy, and step speed loss, which analyze your running efficiency and give you suggestions on how many miles to run each week. Some of these features require Garmin’s $170 HRM 600 chest strap, which provides non-wrist-based heart rate metrics. (You can check out our Garmin buying guide if you’d like even more alternatives.)

Technically, there’s the Fenix 8 series on the block. That said, I still think the standard Fenix 7 or 7 Pro lineup is the better overall value. The Fenix 8 adds diving features and voice assistant capabilities, but it also ups the standard Fenix 7’s starting price of $650 by an additional $350. That’s tough to swallow, especially since retailers may offer discounts on older models to get rid of existing inventory.

Read my full Garmin Fenix 7S Pro review.

$349

The Good

  • More sizes
  • Slimmer design
  • Expanded auto workout detection
  • Redesigned app
  • Better battery life

The Bad

  • Subscription required to get all features
  • I still wish this had a charging case

Sizes: 12 proprietary sizes, 4–15, sizing kit needed / Weight: 4–6g (depends on size) / Battery life: Up to seven days / Display type: None / GPS: None / Connectivity: Bluetooth / Water resistance: Up to 328 feet / Music storage: None

The vast majority of fitness trackers are worn on the wrist, but the $349 Oura Ring isn’t. The smart ring is a good option for people who are looking for something a little more discreet. It’s also less distracting than some other wrist-based options, as it lacks a screen and doesn’t mirror push notifications from your phone.

The Oura Ring 4 isn’t functionally that much different from the previous Gen 3. It’s slimmer, features a all-titanium design, has improved battery life, and has an updated sensor algorithm that Oura says is more accurate. None of these software features are gatekept to the Ring 4, so Gen 3 owners shouldn’t feel the need to upgrade unless their ring no longer lasts more than two days on a single charge. That said, the fourth-gen ring has an expanded size range spanning from 4 to 15. If you felt your Gen 3 was a bit snug or couldn’t find a size that fit right, you may have a better option now.

The Oura Ring 4 has an expanded size range, spanning sizes 4 to 15. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

While smaller than your average wearable, the Oura Ring still tracks a ton of metrics, including heart rate variability, body temperature, blood oxygen, all-day heart rate monitoring, and cycle tracking. Since launching, the Oura Ring has also added activity tracking, blood oxygen levels, chronotypes to help visualize your circadian rhythms, a social feature called Circles, improved stress tracking, and cardiovascular age and capacity metrics.

More recently, it’s added an AI chatbot, meal logging, and glucose tracking, though you’ll have to purchase a $99 Dexcom Stelo CGM to take advantage of the latter. It’s rolled out a more accurate sleep stages algorithm as well, and the app has been entirely revamped to better organize these features and metrics. An update that rolled out in May improved its step-tracking accuracy by using an algorithm that can better detect when movement is the result of a step. The same update improved its calorie burn estimates by using heart rate measurements to determine the intensity of your workouts.

The Oura Ring tracks typical metrics — such as steps and calories burned — but its main focus is sleep and recovery. Each day, you’re given three sets of scores for your readiness, sleep, and activity. It’s a simple, holistic look at your overall wellness and an ideal pick if you want a more hands-off experience with your data.

If you’ve got a Samsung Galaxy Watch, you may want to consider the $399.99 Galaxy Ring. It’s a bit more expensive than the base Oura Ring, but it doesn’t come with a subscription, and you get much better battery life when used with the Galaxy Watch. The hardware is also excellent, especially the charging case. That said, this is only an option for Android users, and even then, you don’t unlock its full potential unless you’ve got other Samsung gear. I also recommend the $349 Ultrahuman Ring Air for folks who don’t like the idea of Oura’s monthly subscription.

You can read my experiences with a bunch of other smart rings, but right now, the Oura Ring is the most polished with the best overall experience.

Read my full Oura Ring 4 review.

$50

The Good

  • Super affordable
  • Good feature set for the price
  • OLED display looks nice
  • Comfortable and lightweight
  • Long battery life

The Bad

  • Hard to put on one-handed
  • Some app quirks
  • GPS can be wonky

Size: 42mm x 24mm x 12.2mm with 16mm straps / Weight: 28g / Battery life: Up to 18 days / Display type: OLED / GPS: Tethered / Connectivity: Bluetooth / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: None

It’s truly hard to beat the Amazfit Band 7’s $49.99 price — doubly so since you can often find it on sale for even less. Wearing the Band 7 feels like a throwback to 2014, which is great if all you’re looking for is a simple and casual tracker that won’t break the bank.

No one is going to compliment you on the Band 7’s design, but it’s got a handful of cute watch faces that make good use of its OLED touchscreen. And despite having an OLED display, you’ll still get roughly 14 days of battery life on a single charge. It’s also incredibly lightweight, making it a good option for sleep tracking as well.

The Amazfit Band 7 won’t turn heads, but it’s the type of capable yet affordable fitness band that’s much harder to find nowadays. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

You also get an absurd number of features for the price. That includes Amazon Alexa, continuous heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen monitoring, stress tracking, advanced sleep tracking, training metrics like VO2 max and load, abnormal heart rate alerts, menstrual tracking, push notifications, find my phone, a camera remote, and even a Pomodoro timer. You’re sacrificing contactless payments and will have to settle for tethered GPS, but this is a fair tradeoff considering everything else you’re getting. It’s not the best option for hardcore fitness tracking, but this is a great option if all you’re looking to do is casually track activity and your steps.

Amazfit’s been making surprisingly good budget trackers for a while. That said, if you’re a little wary of a lesser-known brand, the $159.95 Fitbit Charge 6 is a decent alternative. It’s pricier, but you get a lot of what Amazfit is missing. That includes Google services like YouTube Music, Google Wallet, and Google Maps. Plus, it has built-in GPS and the ability to broadcast your heart rate with some Bluetooth-compatible gym equipment.

Read my full Amazfit Band 7 review.

Most stylish fitness watch

$250

The Good

  • Long battery life
  • Also gets you lots of compliments
  • Comfortable to wear
  • Great price
  • Adds period tracking

The Bad

  • Has fewer sensors than the ScanWatch 2
  • Again, the OLED display is tiny

Sizes: 37mm with 18mm straps / Weight: 45g / Battery life: Up to 39 days / Display type: OLED display / GPS: Tethered GPS / Connectivity: Bluetooth / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: N/A

The $249.95 Withings ScanWatch Light is a fetching hybrid analog smartwatch. Think of it as a dressier fitness band with some Swatch-like design sensibilities. It’s got all your basics like simple push notifications, timers, and alarms. Plus, you can track steps, sleep, menstrual cycles, and GPS activities straight from the wrist. It looks spiffy on the wrist, and if you like a pop of color, Withings offers minty green and pale blue color options. It’s also got excellent battery life, with an estimated 30 days on a single charge. I got a little less in testing at around 25 days, but that’s still much better than the vast majority of flagship smartwatches. This also looks way more stylish than beefier multisport watches with similar battery life.

As its name suggests, the Light is a pared-down version of the $369.95 ScanWatch 2. The main things you’re missing are an EKG sensor for atrial fibrillation detection, a temperature sensor, blood oxygen tracking, and an altimeter for tracking elevation. For basic fitness tracking, you don’t really need those sensors. That’s why I think the extra $100 in savings is worth it for the Light, especially since both are lacking in safety features, contactless payments, and some other bells and whistles you can get from other watches in the $350 price range. That said, if you want extras, the ScanWatch 2 also gets you a slightly more elegant look thanks to the second step-counter dial.

The ScanWatch 2 is about $100 more but adds more advanced health tracking. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Another option I like is the $179.99 Garmin Vivomove Sport, which actually dominated this category in the past few years. It’s hard to beat the price, especially since it gets you access to Garmin’s platform. However, Garmin’s “hidden” OLED display can get washed out in bright lighting, and battery life was significantly shorter than other hybrid analog watches at around five days. Still, if you’d prefer a platform with a focus on fitness rather than wellness, the Vivomove Sport may be the better move over a Withings watch.

Read my full reviews of the Withings ScanWatch 2 and Light.

Best fitness tracker for iPhone users

$329

The Good

  • Bigger display but not bulky
  • Wide-angle OLED is neat
  • Much faster charging
  • Sleep apnea detection has potential

The Bad

  • Lack of blood oxygen (in US) may impact your upgrade plans
  • Another year of minor updates

Sizes: 42mm, 46mm / Weight: 29.3g (42mm), 35.3g (46mm) / Battery life: Up to 18 hours / Display type: Always-on LTPO OLED / GPS: Built-in GPS, plus GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, Beidou / Connectivity: LTE (optional), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: Up to 50 meters / Music storage: 32GB

If you’re looking for a smartwatch that does fitness well, then iPhone owners need to look no further than the $399 Apple Watch Series 10. (The LTE version costs $50 more.) This is another iterative update, but the Series 10 is a much more comfortable watch than previous models. It’s thinner and lighter, plus there’s a larger display. If you’ve got a Series 5 or older, now is a good time to upgrade.

WatchOS 11, which was released in September 2024, included a suite of training features. There’s Training Load, which gives you greater insight into how intensely you’ve been working out the past week compared to the last 28 days. There’s also a Vitals app that flags when key metrics, like sleep duration or heart rate, may be out of whack. Plus, you can finally pause your rings for rest days. The software update also brought some savvy updates to the Smart Stack. For example, if you’re in a noisy cafe wondering what song’s playing, the Smart Stack can surface the Shazaam widget. It also supports Live Activities, turning your wrist into a mini Dynamic Island. Health-wise, we also have FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection.

Apple announced new fitness features that will be available in watchOS 26 (out this fall), which the Series 10 and other recent models will support. To name some highlights coming, the Workout app has been redesigned with corner buttons that serve as shortcuts. There’s also a new Apple Intelligence feature called “Workout Buddy,” which generates a persona to give you pep talks, insights, and advice based on your fitness data. Workout Buddy will only be available if you have an iPhone that’s compatible with Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro or newer) nearby and if you’re wearing Bluetooth headphones. For more details about WatchOS 26, you can read my overview of the first public beta.

Recently, Apple was able to reintroduce blood oxygen monitoring to the Apple Watch Series 10 via a software update. Previously, a ban introduced by medical device maker Masimo required Apple to disable the feature on Apple Watches sold in the US after January 18th, 2024. Now, data collected by the Apple Watch will be measured and calculated on the iPhone paired to it, and it will be accessible in the Health app. The data won’t be available on your wrist, but you can still access it pretty easily. That said, this feature isn’t that useful for most people yet, and the Apple Watch’s sleep apnea feature exclusively uses the accelerometer rather than the blood oxygen sensor.

If you’re a first-time buyer, you may want to opt for the second-gen Apple Watch SE. It’s slightly cheaper at $249, and while you don’t get as many features, it’s a good introduction to the ecosystem. Otherwise, if you’re the type of athlete who covets a Garmin, you may also want to consider splurging on the Apple Watch Ultra 2. It’s more expensive at $799, but it has the brightest screen of any Apple Watch, comes with dual-frequency GPS, has diving and hiking safety features, and is made of more durable materials.

Read my full Apple Watch Series 10 review.

Best fitness smartwatch for Samsung phones

$650

The Good

  • Longer battery life than the regular Galaxy Watch
  • Double pinch is useful
  • Adds dual-frequency GPS and sleep apnea detection
  • Cheaper than the Apple Watch Ultra

The Bad

  • Where is Samsung in this?
  • The squircle chonk doesn’t fit small wrists
  • Sleep apnea feature is limited to Galaxy phones
  • AGEs metric is baffling

Sizes: 47mm / Weight: 60.5g / Battery life: Up to 100 hours / Display type: Always-on OLED / GPS: Built-in GPS / Connectivity: LTE (optional), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 10ATM, IP68 / Music storage: 32GB

Truthfully, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra left me a bit disappointed after reviewing it — not because it’s a bad piece of hardware, but because it copies a bit too much from Apple. Even so, this is the most full-featured fitness smartwatch a Samsung phone owner can buy.

Samsung recently released the Galaxy Watch 8, with an all-new squircle design that may seem controversial at first, but allowed Samsung to make the smartwatch slimmer than its predecessor. It also sits flatter against your skin, which made it more comfortable to wear. I preferred the Galaxy Watch 7 over the Ultra for casual fitness tracking and wearability, and that’s still true with the Watch 8, but the improvements over the previous generation aren’t significant. Its battery is barely bigger, and its brighter screen (up to 3,000 nits vs. 2,000) didn’t make a big difference even in direct sunlight.

There’s a new Vascular Load feature, which measures how stressed your vascular system is while you sleep, but it doesn’t give a reason why this metric is important. Its Antioxidant Index, which gauges whether you’ve eaten enough fruits and vegetables, can help encourage you to eat more healthily when creating a new diet.

In testing, the sensor works by using blue, yellow, and infrared LEDs to pick up the carotenoid levels in your skin. Carotenoids are an antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables their color. The sensor could be fooled by pressing any colorful objects — a piece of broccoli, blackberry (which exploded), marker-colored finger, and Cheeze-It — against it. I did find its Running Coach feature, which creates a training regimen based on your performance after a 12-minute run, to be helpful. Its assessment of my current fitness level was fair, and the workouts it suggested were well-structured.

As far as AI is concerned, the Galaxy Watch 8 has Google Gemini, which was hit or miss in my testing. It couldn’t send a message in Slack, and the K-pop-inspired running playlist it created had a few songs outside that genre, but it’s handy if you want to use Google’s AI on your wrist rather than taking out your phone. Google Gemini support is one feature of One UI 8 (Samsung’s fork of Wear OS 6, Google’s latest wearable operating system), which also includes Material 3 Expressive, a redesign optimized for circular watches. Live updates, which let you track things like deliveries, rideshares, and information from navigation apps, will also be coming in 2026. Samsung’s One UI 8 also came to the Galaxy Watch Ultra as a software update.

It’s not the prettiest Samsung watch, but it is the best at fitness tracking. Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

However, there’s still a significant gap between the Galaxy Watch 8 and the Ultra in my testing as far as accuracy, especially for GPS tracking. And what really sealed the deal for me was the difference in battery life. (The gaps are much less egregious between the base Apple Watch and Ultra 2.) The caveat is, if all you want is casual fitness tracking, the Galaxy Watch 8 is the better choice for wearability. It’s just more comfortable for sleep tracking and lighter overall. Just keep in mind it lacks the Ultra’s emergency siren and shortcut button.

Both watches have the same processor, a 3-in-1 BioActive Sensor, some AI health features, and FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection. The hardware in both current-generation Galaxy smartwatches makes for a more future-proof purchase, but I found the AI health features to be hit-or-miss in practice. As always, some features, like EKGs and sleep apnea detection, are limited to Samsung owners. That makes this hard to wholeheartedly recommend this to non-Samsung Android users.

$299

Samsung’s latest smartwatch features a new squircle design, Gemini, and some new health features like an Antioxidant Index and Running Coach.

Read More

If the Ultra doesn’t float your boat, now is a good time to find the Galaxy Watch 7 series, particularly the base models, on sale. The base Galaxy Watch 8 is not a massive update over the Watch 7 as far as actual use goes.

Read my full Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review.

Best fitness smartwatch for Android

$249

The Good

  • We finally get a bigger size!
  • Moderate battery improvements
  • Lots of neat Google integrations
  • Good running updates
  • Readiness and Cardio Load scores not locked behind paywall

The Bad

  • It’s best with a Pixel phone

Sizes: 41mm, 45mm / Weight: 31g / Battery life: Up to 24 hours / Display type: Always-on OLED / GPS: Built-in GPS / Connectivity: LTE (optional), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: 32GB

Google has added so many updates to the Pixel Watch 3 that there’s too many to call out individually. However, they fall into two buckets: refinement and expansion. The hardware is mostly the same as the Pixel Watch 2 in terms of design. However, we now have a brighter screen, smaller bezels, and a new 45mm size. The larger size is quite nice, especially if you prefer larger screens without sacrificing wearability.

Battery life is also better. There’s a new battery-saver mode that kicks in when you hit 15 percent, and the new displays are also more power efficient. Plus, bedtime mode is automatic now, so that helps the watch last longer overnight for sleep tracking. It’s only a modest improvement over the Pixel Watch 2, but it’s dramatic compared to the original.

The Pixel Watch now comes in two sizes: 41mm (right) and 45mm (left). Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Software is where the Pixel Watch 3 makes the most updates. There are a ton of new fitness and health features, including a new running dashboard, custom running workouts, and AI-generated workout suggestions. There’s also a revamped Daily Readiness Score and a new Cardio Load metric, which gauges how intensely you’ve been exercising. If you’re located in the US or Europe, you can also take advantage of Google’s new Loss of Pulse feature, which calls emergency services on your behalf if it detects you no longer have a pulse.

The Pixel Watch 3 also better integrates with Google services and the Pixel ecosystem. You can now view your Nest Doorbell or Camera feed straight from the wrist — and it’s quite handy if you get a lot of packages or guests. If you have Google TV, you can use the watch as a remote. Now that the watch has an ultra wideband chip, it can also now unlock your Pixel phone. You can also use the Recorder app to capture audio and send it straight to your Pixel phone.

That said, some of these features now mean the Pixel Watch works best with a Pixel phone. If you’re looking for alternatives to Google and Samsung, the $329.99 OnePlus Watch 3 was released on July 8th. We’ve gone hands-on with the smartwatch and are pleased that it finally has a rotating crown, larger brighter display, better battery life, and faster charging. It also introduces new health features, including a wrist temperature sensor and OnePlus’ 60S Health Check-In, which gives you a quick scan of your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, mental wellness, wrist temperature, sleep quality, and vascular age when you touch a side button.

Read my full Google Pixel Watch 3 review.

Best for early adopters and elite athletes

$359

The Good

  • Good hardware and software upgrades
  • More affordable — kind of
  • Streamlined app design
  • Better battery life

The Bad

  • Whoop Age will be my villain origin story
  • The clasp still befuddles
  • That whole upgrade debacle
  • Straps are not backward-compatible
  • It adds up to fresh paint on the same product

Sizes: 34.7 mm x 24 mm x 10.6 mm / Weight: 27g / Battery life: Up to 14 days / Display type: None / GPS: None / Connectivity: Bluetooth / Water resistance: Up to 10 meters / Music storage: None

The Whoop MG isn’t a huge departure from the Whoop 4.0, which I reviewed previously, but it’s still the best choice for elite athletes. Its buckle still annoyed me, and bands from the previous generation are incompatible with this model, though Whoop will give you a credit for trading in your current bands. Its processor is 60 percent faster but I didn’t feel any difference in day-to-day use, save for faster data syncing with Whoop’s app. I did notice the bump in battery life from five to 14 hours, Whoop’s redesigned app, and a handful of new health and wellness features.

A key part of the Whoop MG’s appeal is the dense daily reports on your health and wellness accessible within its app. They verge on overwhelming, with an emphasis on how much activities have strained your body. The new Whoop Coach (an AI-powered chatbot) summarizes information about your sleep duration, activity, and heart rate to give you advice on hitting the fitness goals you selected during setup.

Similarly, a feature called Healthspan calculates your Whoop Age based on three weeks worth of sleep, exercise, steps, VO2 Max, heart rate, and lean body mass data. It’ll update your Whoop Age weekly after its first assessment, but be mindful that it discounts factors like genetics, your environment, and lifestyle, which significantly impact the rate your body actually ages.

The Whoop MG has an FDA-cleared EKG reader, and can send you notifications if it detects atrial fibrillation. It can also give you blood pressure insights, but is currently in beta. Whoop Advanced Labs is an upcoming service that will let you send in a blood test to be reviewed by clinicians to give you even more health insights. If you like the distraction-free design of a smart ring, but want your wearable on your wrist instead of your finger, consider the Whoop MG.

  • Google announced the Pixel Watch 4 at its Made by Google event on August 20th. The smartwatch comes in 41mm and 45mm sizes, starts at $349.99, and begins shipping on October 9th. The Pixel Watch 4 has a brighter screen with smaller bezels and a greater viewing area. Google says its battery lasts 20 or 30 hours per charge depending on which model you choose and that charging speeds are about 25 percent faster compared to the Pixel Watch 3. It also says that both the display and battery are replaceable. The Pixel Watch 4 launches with Wear OS 6, which includes support for Google Gemini and has more rounded widgets that match the watch’s circular shape while also being more glanceable. The watch has a new dual-frequency GPS and Satellite SOS feature, which allows you to use an LTE version of the Pixel Watch 4 to call emergency services even if your smartphone isn’t with you. Read our hands on.
  • Apple revealed it will be holding an event on September 9th. Historically, Apple has used its September events to debut its next-generation iPhone and Apple Watch models. While we don’t have specific details, it’s possible the Apple Watch, Apple Watch SE, and Apple Watch Ultra lines will all be refreshed. A rumor first reported by MacRumors suggests the Apple Watch Ultra 3’s screen may get a little larger.
  • Polar is launching a competitor to the Whoop strap called the Polar Loop on September 10th for $199.99. Polar says the fitness band doesn’t have a screen, lasts up to eight days per charge, and tracks your activity, sleep, and heart rate. The fitness band won’t require a subscription to access any data.

Update, September 4th: Adjusted pricing / availability and information about the Google Pixel Watch 4, Garmin Forerunner 570 and 970, the reintroduction of Blood Oxygen reading on the Apple Watch Series 10, new Oura Ring 4 features, and information about Apple’s upcoming event and the announcement of the Polar Loop. Brandt Ranj also contributed to this post.

0 CommentsFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

  • Close

    Victoria Song

    Senior Reviewer, Wearable Tech

    Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All by Victoria Song

  • Buying GuidesClose

    Buying Guides

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Buying Guides

  • FitnessClose

    Fitness

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Fitness

  • Fitness Tracker ReviewsClose

    Fitness Tracker Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Fitness Tracker Reviews

  • GadgetsClose

    Gadgets

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Gadgets

  • ReviewsClose

    Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Reviews

  • TechClose

    Tech

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Tech

  • WearableClose

    Wearable

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Wearable



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
What we've been playing - cat chases, ninja nostalgia, and wobbly oblong spaceships
Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – cat chases, ninja nostalgia, and wobbly oblong spaceships

by admin


30th August

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, Victoria searches for cats in Paris, Dom practises for Silksong on Shinobi, Ed enjoys the Rogue Prince of Persia, Marie calms herself by building ramen houses, Matt makes a wobbly oblong spaceship, Bertie goes ghost hunting, and Connor blasts through an old Resi.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Hidden Cats in Paris, Switch 2

Found one!Watch on YouTube

Last week was a busy one, and when I got back from Gamescom I just wanted my mind to switch to idle animation for a while. So rather than jumping into a game that would require me to use more brain power than I was in possession of, I decided to take a browse through the eShop for something cheap, mindless (in a good way) and that could be played while cocooned in bed. What I landed upon was Hidden Cats in Paris, which I scooped up for 89p, and ahhh, it ticked all of the necessary boxes.

Hidden Cats in Paris begins with a monochromatic illustration of a Parisian scene, with cafes, a cabaret, the Eiffel Tower and other French fancies. Hidden within this scene are – you guessed it – cats! The aim of the game is simply to find all of the hidden cats, and as I did so, the scene gradually coloured in. When I found the last cat tucked behind a railing, the French music that had been soothing me in the background swelled, and fireworks lit the inky blue night sky.

Honestly, it was the perfect tonic for the end of a very busy week. I think I may try Hidden Cats in Rome next.

-Victoria

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, PS5

Watch on YouTube

Silksong who? I’m a 2D action platformer sicko, me. And I think this year is shaping up to be a golden year for the genre. We’ve already had the pulpy nonsense of Ninja Gaiden Unbound to drool over, and now we’ve got Sega coming back with a compelling, modern take on one of its most storied icons (no, not Sonic) in the form of Joe Mushashi.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is one of those games that I installed out of a sense of curiosity, but then promptly lost about seven hours to in one evening as I went sniffing out secrets, unlocking upgrades and Ninja Flipping my way over a rogue’s gallery of demons, commandos and rival shinobi. It’s fast, it’s flexible, and it’s hard without being unfair. A perfect training ground for my ageing hands as I try to wake up my synapses and reflexes ahead of Silksong’s launch next week.

-Dom

The Rogue Prince of Persia, PS5

Manage cookie settings

It’s not often a 2D game demands you interact with the background, but it’s one of the things I love about this new roguelike Prince of Persia game. As Matt eloquently put it last week, the series has always been known for its movement but this new game from the team behind Dead Cells is “beautifully balletic carnage”. Part of that is squeezing the left trigger for the Prince to run up and along walls, creating a pleasing rhythm to platforming and an opportunity to dodge attacks too.

Having spent plenty of time in Dead Cells, The Rogue Prince of Persia has proven easy to slip into and to while away a few hours in. I’m having a great time with it. I just wish it was better optimised. Loading often takes an age, and after a recent update I lost a chunk of progress. Thankfully, it was fun enough to do again – and isn’t that the point of roguelikes anyway?

-Ed

Minami Lane, Switch 2

Watch on YouTube

Existing is stressful at times, and while I do have other hobbies to help me relax, sometimes 15 minutes on a calming game is what I need. That’s how Minami Lane found itself in my routine this week.

Management games give me a space where I am completely in control, and for some reason I find that relaxing. Not only are the soothing colour tones and whimsical soundtrack enough to lull me into a calmer mood, but being able to create a small street with an Onsen on, and a Ramen Shop, that the townsfolk are enjoying, makes me breathe deeper and focus better on what I’m doing.

Somehow it tells my mind everything is OK. I don’t know how and I don’t need to know how. Minami Lane has a magic to it and it works wonders on me.

-Marie

No Man’s Sky, PC

It’s happening again! Firstly, this was the week I finally wrapped my rewatch of Twin Peaks: The Return, so – still haunted by the sound of Carrie Page screaming into an unknowable oblivion of an unfamiliar world – today’s WWBP entry is very much served with a side helping of unshakeable existential nightmare. Which is actually pretty appropriate, given the similar vein of bleak philosophy that continues to haunt No Man’s Sky and its doomed universe. Not that I’ve been dipping back in for such lofty matters!

Instead, this week finally saw Hello Games’ exploratory sci-fi sim introduce fully customisable ships, complete with multi-crew capabilities and functional interiors. And while they don’t fundamentally change No Man’s Sky’s familiar survival rhythms, there’s something deeply, wonderfully satisfying about getting to explore the cosmos in a gleaming vessel – or in my case, an awkwardly assembled eyesore – that you’ve carefully (hastily) assembled to meet your own idiosyncratic fancies. So, if you happen to see a garishly coloured oblong teetering through space on your travels, do come and say hello!

-Matt

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, PC

Watch on YouTube

I genuinely don’t know how this passed me by – and props to the Eurogamer Discord for encouraging me in its direction. It’s a Don’t Nod game, a studio known for Life is Strange, though its vampire game, um, Vampyr is probably more relevant. Banishers is similar, you see. It’s a different concept – you’re a ghost banisher working in the 17th century in what Europeans would call the New World, or New England, or New Eden in this case – but the thoughtful adult tone and darkness of the world to me feel exactly the same. I’d even go as far as to say Banishers is a slow game, but slow in a mature way, by which I mean ‘given time to develop, given time to breathe’.

It’s really interesting and creatively brave. On the surface it looks like a lot of other games but underneath are many points of difference. I don’t remember another game revolving around a deeply-in-love couple from the start. I don’t remember a game with ghost-banishing ideas like this, or with such consistently engaging quests. The English language vocal performances of the two main characters are also superb, from Russ Bain and Amaka Okafor. The vocal performances are strong across the game, actually.

Banishers is a surprise package – the sort of game I imagine many people would say they would want to see, if asked. But it didn’t do the business for publisher Focus Home – Banishers performed “well below” expectations, even. Will it mean Don’t Nod simply won’t attempt something like this in the future? Because that would be a shame. A great shame indeed.

-Bertie

Resident Evil 3 Remake, PC

I’ve redownloaded the RE3 Remake while I wait for another game to review properly, or for 2XKO to launch on 9th September. I needed something fast but chunky. Moreish, explosive, and replayable. What better game than the RE3 Remake?

The truth is there are likely 50 games better than the RE3 Remake in this regard, but I already owned it on Steam and it’s like 20GB to download, which isn’t bad. And I’d forgotten how great Jill is in this, and I love Nemesis so much. Carlos is also great, though the hospital defence segment isn’t. I hit credits last night with a B rank, and all but one of the little doll collectables found.

Now I get to go through again, with a bunch of points to spend on little bonuses. I’m going to go for either the fiery knife to save ammo, or a fancy new pistol as I work my way through the pistol kill challenge. Wish me luck.

-Connor



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
What we've been playing - the fabled Hollow Knight, the much-anticipated Bloodlines 2, and more
Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – the fabled Hollow Knight, the much-anticipated Bloodlines 2, and more

by admin


23rd August

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, our away team returns from Gamescom and our home team recovers from Gamescom. What a week! Have you had your head turned by anything?

More importantly, what have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, PC

Watch on YouTube

I’ve been waiting for this for years and now that I’ve finally played it – a few hours of it in a preview – I’m disappointed. It’s not so much that the concept has been narrowed to fit an action game template, because that can work really well – though it’s a shame not to use the outrageous wealth of RPG depth in the existing tabletop RPG game – but being narrower means there’s more pressure on the content that remains. Having less to do means the things you actually do need to stand out more.

The characters need to really impress, the combat needs to really impress, the corridored sequences need to really impress; and they don’t – or at least they didn’t in what I played. The preview build fell a bit flat. With the notable exception that it did make me feel like a very powerful vampire. The action felt great, which does count (Dracula) for a lot.

I still hold out hope for the game; there’s every chance it might broaden into a more fulfilling experience as the campaign goes on. But my confidence has been knocked.

-Bertie

Mina the Hollower, Switch 2

I’ve been looking forward to Mina the Hollower ever since Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games announced its oh-so-adorable looking release all the way back in 2022. Cute? Yes! Nostalgic? Yes! Pretty darn Gothic? Yes! This game had Victoria written all over it. Now after more than three years, the studio has released a demo, offering a bitesized piece of what players can expect. And I am pleased to say that so far, things are looking good.

Story wise, it turns out titular mouse Mina previously created devices known as Spark Generators, but they are now failing. Not only that, it seems more is afoot than just some technical issues. So, Mina sets off to look into the situation, but before she can arrive at the city of Ossex, her ship is attacked by a sea beast off the coast of Tenebrous Isle. Picking a weapon (I went for Nightstar, which is a mace on a whip-like chain), Mina soon let that Kraken creature know she meant business, but alas, the ship still made a less than graceful arrival to the shore. However, Mina and I remained undeterred, so we made our way through the Blighted Docks…

While only a snippet, I loved my time with Mina the Hollower’s Switch 2 demo. I collected Bonestone, I popped off various goblins and bats, I burrowed my way underneath enemies to spring up excitingly from behind and I negotiated perilous pits, all while bopping along to a gloriously retro-infused soundtrack. It reminded me of a classic Zelda game, but with an extra touch of Castlevania deliciously laced through it all. Oh yes, I am certainly looking forward to Mina the Hollower’s full release this October.

-Victoria

Hollow Knight, Switch 2

Watch on YouTube

After getting wrapped up in the Silksong hype, among other things, I went back to Hollow Knight. And honestly? I get it. I get the excitement, I get the celebrations around Silksong finally receiving a release date this week.

I stopped playing years ago so it all feels new again now. So far, I’m finding the most joy in going down holes I probably shouldn’t go down yet, because I’m not experienced enough to handle what’s there. But I do it anyway because I want to. My number of deaths so far? I’m not saying.

Somehow 10 minutes turned into an hour and I’m itching to get back to it. It’s a feeling few games have given me recently.

-Marie

Rocket League, Xbox Series X

I think I now see myself how my son must see me: old and out of touch. I’ve been playing more Rocket League with him, and I hadn’t realised just how far from the original idea of the game the whole thing had gone. That core car football experience is still the main bit, I guess, but we were playing a mode the other night where the ball was being pulled around in a circular arc, presumably by magnets or something, and the cars could leap into the air and hover there to intercept and push the ball back to the other team. My poor brain can’t take it. What will these people think of next?!

-Tom O

Until Dawn, PS4

Watch on YouTube


Somehow, Supermassive’s cinematic horror game Until Dawn is ten years old next week, and to mark the occasion (as well as for other reasons), I’ve been working my way back through the PS4 original. I always liked Until Dawn (and I absolutely adored creator Will Byles’ summer camp follow-up The Quarry), but I’ve been completely blindsided by just how well the whole thing still holds up today. The 60fps PS5 patch helps a bit, of course, but even without that, Until Dawn is an impressive piece of work. It absolutely nails the distinctive high-gloss slasher vibe that was particularly prevalent the 90s, for starter, Supermassive making the most of its stylish camera angles and wintery ambience. But more than that, it’s just a fun ride, and – as it slowly starts to subvert expectations, taking its slasher tropes and character archetypes to unexpected places – far smarter than I originally gave it credit for. It’s brilliant stuff, even ten years on, and I’m hoping this’ll finally be the run-through where nobody dies.

-Matt

World of Warcraft, PC

Watch on YouTube

I recently learned that World of Warcraft has added a one-button spell rotation to the game, allowing players to put out pretty decent damage without having to memorise anything or take time to learn their class. This I’m sure will have long-lasting impacts on the skill of the average WoW player, but for me it’s wonderful news. Not only as an accessibility feature for those who struggle to play WoW, but also for incredibly tired WoW refugees like me who have been burnt out the game several times now.

Years ago I made a Warlock called Goondan, but having reached level 10, I didn’t have the heart to play on, so I banished the Orc to a lonesome digital hell. Now that I don’t actually have to learn the class, I’ve been blasting through the leveling process, and Goondan may actually hit max level. He may even see the light of day in the upcoming Midnight expansion. Who knows!

-Connor

Balatro, Ballz, and NFL Fantasy Football

Being out in the field at Gamescom, I’ve obviously been playing a slew of things – but half of them I’m not yet allowed to talk about, and untangling the safe from the NDA-breakers is far too much for my con-frazzled Friday brain to handle. But me being away can only mean one thing: being back on my Balatro BS. It’s still as good as ever, and whenever I’m forced to spend time idling on board or waiting for planes, trains, and automobiles, it’s my go-to. It feels like it’ll stay that way forever, as I chip away at that 100 percent completion that still feels a million miles away. I also played a bit of a dumb ad-filled mobile game called Ballz, which is a bit like Breakout. Finally, I’m spending any last spare moment each day doing mock drafts as my NFL Fantasy Football draft is next weekend. For me, that’s one of the most important ‘gaming’ moments of the year. There is pride on the line, after all!

-Alex

Donkey Kong Bananza, Switch 2

I feel like this year I’ve spent a lot of time on very serious games. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and its themes of death. Death Stranding 2 and its themes of death. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and its frequent deaths. So this week I decided to change things up and finally start Donkey Kong Bananza after my partner won’t stop going on about it. And what a contrast! I love its musical themes and catchy tunes, and those brightly coloured worlds are a joy to just smash through – I’ve barely progressed at all as instead I just lay waste to entire levels hunting out those bananas. I hate bananas – they taste and smell repulsive to me – but I can’t stop going “ooh banana!” at every opportunity.

-Ed



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Spirit Halloween Has Made the Most Affordable 'Jurassic Park' Goggles Replica We've Seen
Product Reviews

Spirit Halloween Has Made the Most Affordable ‘Jurassic Park’ Goggles Replica We’ve Seen

by admin


The iconic T. rex escape scene is seared into the collective core memory of Jurassic Park fans. Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster franchise is full of memorable moments, from the jiggling water to the lawyer running to the bathroom. But if you, like me, had the film as one of your earliest and most life-changing cinema-going experiences, there’s not a detail forgotten—especially not the goggles. You know the ones that Tim grabs and the lawyer tells him to put back, because if they’re heavy, “they’re expensive.”

And that’s indeed been a fact of life for Jurassic fans who longed for their own pair of those iconic goggles: all available replicas have been expensive. Until now, that is.

© Universal Pictures

Over 30 years later the wait is now over, as Spirit Halloween has released the highly coveted goggles of our childhood dreams, available at the seasonal spooky retailer’s pop-up near you and online. The officially licensed costume prop is $149.99; a price point that is much more reasonable than a custom prop replica or a 1:1 mantlepiece, such as the Chronicle Collectibles release from 2018. These could have saved little me a ton of sleepless nights as a kid if they would have been on hand in addition to a cup of water on my nightstand, which I’d look at to make sure it stayed still.

The only catch? They don’t detail night-vision capabilities, but hey, it’s for dress-up and not actually spotting Rexy in the distance. Take a look at the officially licensed Universal Pictures Jurassic Park goggles, which are so far the closest we’ll get to the real thing, and we’ll take it!

© Spirit Halloween © Spirit Halloween © Spirit Halloween

 

 

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
The Most Dope Games We've Played During Gamescom 2025
Game Updates

The Most Dope Games We’ve Played During Gamescom 2025

by admin


Gamescom 2025 has begun, and I’m on site in Cologne, Germany, checking out more than two dozen new and upcoming games, ranging from Hollow Knight: Silksong to The Outer Worlds 2 to 007 First Light and beyond! I’ll be doing individual write-ups for a lot of these games, but I’ll also be writing condensed quick-hit thoughts on the coolest games I’ve played so far, and you can read them right here (so bookmark this page, folks!). 

The Most Dope Games We’ve Played During Gamescom 2025

Below, you’ll find a running list of the games I’ve played during Gamescom 2025. They’ll be listed in reverse-chronological order, so the latest game I’ve played will be at the top and the first game I played will be at the very bottom!

Hollow Knight: Silksong

It’s real, y’all. Hollow Knight: Silksong exists and is playable, and I checked out the game’s very first level, Moss Grotto. After a brief cutscene that shows Hornet trapped in a Cinderella-like carriage (that she then breaks out of), I take control. Immediately, Hornet is much faster than the first game’s protagonist, both as she platforms around and with her attacks. She has a new ability called Bind (used by pressing B on an Xbox controller) that heals her. However, you can’t spam this ability as it requires using a bar on screen that must be full. 

It recharges over time and by defeating enemies, and I found it pretty easy to get it full for another Bind. Platforming around Moss Grotto feels a lot like 2017’s Hollow Knight, though Hornet is more nimble and can mantle up cliffs and platforms. The enemies here are easy to defeat, and it’s not until I fight the demo’s boss, Moss Mother, that I’m challenged. It’s a fun fight, but still mostly easy. 

With the demo and my hands-on time with Silksong behind me, I’m excited to see what else awaits me in the full game. If this first level is any indication, it’s going to be a great Metroidvania, much like the first game. That said, I’m not convinced it’s going to break through the hype and make a mark on the genre like the first game did. I’m also not convinced it needs to, though. 

For more, read my full Hollow Knight: Silksong hands-on thoughts here. 



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
The 7 Best Mattress Toppers (2025) Out of Dozens We've Tested: Supportive, Plush, Memory Foam
Product Reviews

The 7 Best Mattress Toppers (2025) Out of Dozens We’ve Tested: Supportive, Plush, Memory Foam

by admin


Honorable Mentions

Not everything we test makes the cut as a pick, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad mattress topper. Here are a few that our testers slept on and still got a good night’s sleep with, but didn’t love as much as the picks above.

Avocado Alpaca Topper for $809: If you’re looking for a mattress topper that’s extra soft, WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson recommends the Avocado Alpaca Mattress Topper. He says it’s one of the softest things he’s ever slept on, and that it’s like sleeping in a cocoon of fluffiness. While it’s only 2 inches thick, it still has that cozy sinking sensation of deeper mattress toppers. There are two options: medium-firm or plush, with the first using organic wool and the second using what Avocado calls “baby alpaca” fiber. Luckily that’s a reference to how soft it is, not the age of the alpaca itself. It’s certainly a luxury purchase, but a great pick of you want something super soft.

Avocado Eco Organic Mattress Topper for $296: This is another good organic mattress topper, made from latex foam. It’s got a nice bouncy feel to it thanks to the latex, rather than a sinking feeling you’ll get from memory foam. It’s softer than our main organic pick, which might be more your preference.

Brooklyn Bedding 3-Inch Latex Mattress Topper for $509: This latex mattress topper was fine, with a nice spring to it and a good softness without being too soft. But the Avocado Eco was more comfortable and nearly half the price.

Helix Dual Comfort Mattress Topper for $374: If you and your partner have different sleep surface needs—specifically, one of you loves a firm surface while the other wants a softer one—Helix has made a mattress topper with you in mind. The Helix Dual Comfort Topper has a softer side and a firmer side, so each person can get their ideal mattress feel without needing to splurge on a split king bed. The softer side uses memory foam infused with copper gel, which promises the “Luxury Plush” feel that has a gentle sinking sensation, while the firmer side uses high-density foam that kept my back-sleeper husband’s spine nice and straight as he likes. Plus, it has a cooling cover wrapping it up into one cohesive topper.

Helix Premium Memory Foam Mattress Topper with GlacioTex for $374: This memory foam topper doesn’t have as much of a sinking sensation as the Company Store or Tempur-Pedic toppers, for better or worse—my hips felt a little lower than the rest of my body, and I noticed more motion transfer than with the aforementioned foams. But this Helix topper is a good option if you don’t want that super sinking feeling. There’s no heat retention whatsoever due to the hypoallergenic GlacioTex cover, and it has handy straps that attach to each corner of the mattress. Helix also has a trial period and limited lifetime warranty, so you can give this one a try and change your mind, unlike Tempur-Pedic, which has no return policy. —Kat Merck

Nest Soft Latex Topper for $599: Nest’s latex-based topper looks and feels like an incredibly soft pillow top has been added to your mattress. It’s one of the softest toppers I’ve ever tried, and it had a memory foam-adjacent feel of sinking into the topper, but with a little more spring and pillowy feel to it. It’s one of the most expensive ones we’ve tested, though, and isn’t hugely better nor does it offer the most support.

Nolah Mattress Topper for $314: If you’re looking for that new-bed feel, Nolah’s topper adds a fresh layer of a semi-dense proprietary foam inside an organic cotton cover to the top of any mattress. It’s just 2 inches thick, and the firm version softened WIRED reviewer Martin Cizmar’s bed, offering some pressure relief and a plush new-bed feel.

PlushBed Natural Latex Mattress Topper for $301: If you love something firm but want a thicker option than 2 inches, Scott recommends PlushBed’s topper instead. It has five firmness levels, and he’s a big fan of the extra-firm option. It’s also a nice range if you want to pick a really specific level of firmness, as most other toppers only offer one or two options.

Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Adapt Mattress Topper for $359: According to WIRED reviewer Kat Merck, our resident memory foam fan and reviewer, this is a top-of-the-line memory foam topper for softening a too-firm mattress, and it works very well to prevent motion transfer. It doesn’t have her favorite iteration of Tempur-Pedic’s memory foam, but it still works well. It also has a washable cover that zips off, and corner straps keep the topper securely in place, plus a 10-year warranty (but no trial or returns).

Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Cloud Topper for $179: I like a soft bed. In fact, if you had asked me before I tried the Tempur-Cloud topper if a bed could be too soft, I’d have said no. But I have changed my mind. There actually exists a mattress topper that might be too soft. I’m a stomach sleeper, and this memory foam is so plush and so deep that during my week of testing I found myself having to practically fling my body if I needed to move at any point during the night. It also has a tendency to sleep hot, and because a user sinks so deep, there’s a potential for neck pain if they normally sleep with an overstuffed pillow. But aside from that, the Tempur-Cloud topper is basically the last word for soft-bed fans who want to completely eliminate both motion transfer and any trace of a hard mattress. —Kat Merck

Turmerry Latex Mattress Topper for $206: If you want something organic on a budget, this 2-inch latex topper is a good price and our favorite organic topper on a budget. You’ll have to buy the cover separately, but you don’t need it if you want to save the money. Turmerry uses a five-zone design to make the topper firmer in some areas, like your head, and softer around others, like your shoulders.

Toppers We’d Skip

Leesa Mattress Topper for $224: This mattress topper didn’t have great construction. We found it didn’t fit neatly on the bed, had weird spots on the edges, and was too soft.

Brooklyn Bedding 4 lb. Memory Foam Topper for $290: Neither my husband nor I could get a good night’s sleep when this mattress topper was on our bed. It also doesn’t offer the same benefits as other memory foam toppers we’ve tested.

FAQs

What Is a Mattress Topper?

AccordionItemContainerButton

A mattress topper is a sheet of supportive materials—options include memory foam, latex foam, cotton, or even coils—that you add to the top of your mattress to change the feel without replacing the entire mattress. It’s a good option to soften up a mattress that’s too firm, or add some targeted support on a good mattress. Some toppers can make a mattress more firm, too, like our favorite organic topper pick.

How Do You Know If You Need a Mattress Topper?

AccordionItemContainerButton

It’s a great thing to add if you need a surface change without needing to replace your entire mattress. A mattress topper won’t fix an old or unsupportive mattress (check out our guide to the Best Mattresses to fix that!) but it can take a good mattress and make it into a perfect one with the right makeup.

I struggle with back pain and a side sleeper, so I gravitate towards toppers that are soft for my shoulders but aren’t so soft that my back isn’t supported. My editor Kat Merck has a too-firm mattress that she likes to add a memory foam topper to to achieve her ideal level of softness. What you want in a topper will depend on your sleeping preferences and what changes you want in the mattress you already have. But a lot of folks can benefit from a good topper.

What Are the Types of Mattress Toppers?

AccordionItemContainerButton

Wool: Wool mattress toppers are usually filled with wool batting or stuffing—think the stuff you fill a quilt or upholstered chair with—and wrapped in cotton. It’s soft, but not as extremely soft as memory foam and not as springy as latex is, either. Wool is a good temperature regulator, so it’s a nice choice for hot sleepers.

Pillow Top: Pillow top mattress toppers are designed to have the fluffy feel of a pillow on top of your mattress. The insides of a pillow top can vary: Some add a pillow top design over layers of foam, while others are simply a pillowy layer of down feathers between you and your mattress. Our favorite pillow top uses latex but still has a fluffy, slightly sinking feeling of laying down on a pillow.

Latex: Latex is a manufactured substance, made from rubber trees. That rubber base gives it a nice bounce and spring compared to memory foam. Even though it’s not labeled as foam, a latex topper usually has a foamlike sheet similar to memory foam as its base. It’s also sometimes referred to as man-made organic, since its base is a natural substance, but it does have to be processed in order to become the latex you’d sleep on or use in other products. You’ll get less sinkage with latex compared to memory foam, and less heat retention.

Memory Foam: Memory foam is actually polyurethane (a plastic polymer) foam, created by adding other compounds—the exact combination of compounds varies by company—to the polyurethane to create the memory foam itself. It’s also known as “viscoelastic” polyurethane foam, or low-resistance polyurethane foam (LRPu). It’s designed to conform to your body but return to its original shape afterward; the “memory” name comes from remembering its original shape. Memory foam tends to be one of the softest toppers, and it has a lot of sinkage (which you might love, might hate) and tends to retain more heat. Some companies add extra ingredients, like cooling gel or graphite, to help make the memory foam cooling.

Serene Foam: Serene foam is a newer trademarked material created by Carpenter Co., the parent company of Casper Sleep. It’s made of billions of polyurethane bubbles like memory foam is but also consists of microscopic air capsules. It’s designed to address some of the downsides of traditional memory foam, including heat retention and variable firmness levels, while maintaining the same plush, pressure-relieving feel. A quick warning if you love a heating pad: polyurethane Serene foam is not recommended for use with heated devices like electric blankets or heating pads.

Hybrid: Hybrid mattress toppers use multiple fillings that can be found on their own. These combinations can vary; our favorite hybrid topper from Helix uses coils and foam, while ViscoSoft’s hybrid topper uses a mix of memory foam and soft fiber for a pillow top feel. If you’re feeling like a single type of topper isn’t suiting your needs—whether it’s too soft or not soft enough—a hybrid option might be best for you.

How Thick Should a Mattress Topper Be?

AccordionItemContainerButton

Mattress toppers are usually available in 2- or 3-inch heights, and some even come in a whopping four inches. The inches aren’t necessarily an indicator of how good a topper will be for your sleeping needs, but if you know you want a super soft experience, you might want a thicker topper to get a softer feel.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore for just $2.50 $1 per month for 1 year. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
What we've been playing - we've made a change but don't panic
Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – we’ve made a change but don’t panic

by admin


16th August

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, we’re making a slight change in an effort to get you a wider view of what the team – the entire team – has been playing. Expect to read more opinions on what we’ve been playing, but slightly shorter entries so we can fit them all in.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Mafia: The Old Country, PC

Don’t be Sicily!Watch on YouTube

I’ve been excited about this for a while because who doesn’t want to live their Al Pachina Sicilian Mafia dream? Those al fresco lunches are to die for. Sometimes literally.

The set-up here is turn of the 20th Century Sicily and you’re a hard-up miner who: has a mine collapse on them, gets into a fight, goes on the run, and ends up working with a Mafia family. So far it’s been linear and a bit boring. Gorgeous though – that scorched Sicilian landscape is to die for. Sometimes literally. (It’s the same joke Bertie.)

But I haven’t been able to experience anything else because the game keeps crashing on me. Six crashes in a row I had so I gave up. I expect it’ll be patched soon, but that a game can perform like this at all, at launch, is outrageous, and definitely not to die for.

-Bertie

Rocket League, Xbox Series X

In an attempt to prove to my son that I’m not an inept old man who can no longer accomplish things in my life, I played a few games of split-screen Rocket League with him. Of course, he won, but importantly I wasn’t rubbish and I did score quite a few goals. Well done me! Not time for the scrapheap yet.

-Tom O

The House of The Dead Remake, Switch 2

It’s been a very busy and stressful time, as you can imagine, getting ready for Gamescom and helping the new, updated version of Eurogamer get to its feet. So as I was browsing the Switch 2 eShop and saw The House of The Dead Remake was going for less than the price of a pint, I snapped it up. There’s nothing quite like the cathartic release of furiously tapping on a screen to blow the heads off zombies. It works just as well with your index finger as it ever did with a light gun.

-Dom

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, PS5

Wuchang, Wuchang.Watch on YouTube

I’m not sure if the Wuchang developers’ interest in sexy ladies with feathers and wings is down to the iconic status of Elden Ring’s Malenia boss battle, or if they just like sexy ladies with feathers and wings. Regardless, it’s a repeated design across the game, though it certainly speaks to the somewhat derivative nature of the game as a Soulslike. However, as I pointed out earlier this week it does have enough ideas of its own and a peculiar rhythm to combat that makes it stand apart. Annoyingly, I finished it a couple of days ago before the most recent patch came to console, with its much-needed balance tweaks and more controversial story adjustments.

-Ed

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, PC

Yes, Drangleic has called to me once more.

I don’t know exactly what it is about FromSoftware’s games, but there’s something about the intricate spaces it creates – the sheer totality of their design – that worms so deep into my brain. Every now and then, I get a yearning that feels impossible to ignore, and this time around it was the melancholy song of Dark Souls 2 calling me back to its blighted peaks and forsaken shores.

I appreciate I’m an outlier here, but I adore Dark Souls 2, warts and all; its sheer ambition, its idiosyncratic invention, and, yes, an atmosphere so overwhelmingly forlorn it practically seeps into your bones. This, I should say, is my very first dance with Dark Souls 2’s Scholar of the First Sin do-over, and it’s a lot like coming home after a long time away and seeing everything with brand-new eyes. Right now, I’m venturing hole-ward into Majula’s suffocating, accursed depths – perhaps the closest From has ever come to full-on horror. It’s good to be back, even if there’s still plenty of pain to come.

-Matt

Silent Hill 4: The Room, PC

This is the video Ian was making that prompted him to play The Room. While he was working in A Room.Watch on YouTube

During a recent edit for a video feature about Silent Hill f, I had to source some gameplay for Silent Hill 4: The Room. I remember playing The Room on the original Xbox at an ex-girlfriend’s house back when it released, but for some reason I never completed it. I’ve long since lost my original copy, but looking back at that footage inspired me to pick it up on GOG and give it another spin.

And you know what, I love the first-person stuff in room 302. It’s kind of a proto-P.T. with its slight, sometimes unnoticeable changes every time you return to the room, which adds more mystery to the experience. There’s some really neat touches too, like looking out of the window to see neighbours going about their business, through the windows of their homes across the street, or seeing handprints appear on the wall outside your room every time someone meets a tragic end.

The Otherworld stuff is definitely on the weaker side of the Silent Hill spectrum though, demonstrated in both its repetitive level design and the fact the game is full of bizarre stock sound effects that really don’t fit the atmosphere. Special shout-out to the nurse monsters that emit echoing Homer Simpson burps every time you hit them.

Despite its flaws, I love that The Room is doing something a bit different. I’m about five hours in and determined to see it through to the end, mainly to finally finish what I started 20+ years ago. But also because I severely doubt this one will get a Bloober remake!

-Ian

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition, PC

I picked up this returning classic yesterday after work and am, so far, a very happy chap. I remember being a teenager and blasting through Dark Crusade on my friends PC, so seeing a lot of those old models reworked with shiny new graphics, in a proper resolution, has been wonderful.

I’m not too far through it yet, having only completed the first three missions of the base games’ campaign, but I do reckon this’ll be a game I’ll chip away at over the next few months. Special shout out to the legendarily horrible yell during the game’s opening cinematic, a relic of the original game the folks at Relic Entertainment could have justifiably removed. It’s a proper AAARGH, one of the all time greats. Also, Chaos Space Marines forever.

-Connor

Tiny Bookshop, PC

Tiny Bookshop has been sitting at the back of my mind ever since I played the demo way back at EGX 2022. Yet, the more I longed for its release, the more a worry grew inside of me – would I enjoy the full game as much as I loved the demo?

Thankfully, the answer is a resounding yes. I’ve easily become completely absorbed in the world of Bookstonbury. In fact, it’s to the point that some evenings I’ve forgotten I can go outside and read at a real beach rather than sell books in a virtual one. Still, it’s a worthy price to pay if it means I can continue selling books and solving the occasional mystery in my little bookshop wagon. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to sell this pile of travel books and discover who destroyed the shopmarket mascot at the same time…

-Lottie

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition, PC

After reading above that Connor is a Chaos Marines guy I had to include this one, if only so I could comment on how appropriate that is. Anyway, it’s an absolute treat of a game – look forward to a thousand-plus more words of waffle to the tune of that from me very soon. Alongside this I’m still chipping away at Pokémon TCG Pocket, and a couple of very, very good things that are under embargo, oooohhhhhh (sorry I realise that’s actually really annoying to do that and not say what it is, promise I won’t make it a habit).

-Chris T



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Close