Consumer Reports tested durability, health functionality, readability in bright and low light, ease of use, and ease of interaction. The top smartwatch scored a 71 our of 100 with the lowest score being 30. You will have to login as a subscriber to see all of the details.
Nine different smartwatches were tested with the following rankings. Consumer Reports tested 11 smartwatches, but I didn't count the 38mm and 42mm Apple Watches as different models in this list below:
- Apple Watch
- Apple Watch Sport and LG G Watch R (tied)
- Pebble Steel
- Moto 360
- Asus ZenWatch
- Samsung Gear S
- Martian Notifier
- Sony SmartWatch 3
The best Android Wear smartwatch is the LG G Watch R, which is indeed an excellent choice. The Pebble Time is not yet available so was not included in this testing regime.
The durability testing includes scratch-resistance testing and the Apple Watch stainless steel model performed the best. This model has a sapphire crystal face. The Apple Watch Sport I have uses an Ion-X glass face and it scored lower at Very Good rather than Excellent. This was the same rating as most all other smartwatches, except for the Apple Watch with sapphire glass.
I found it very concerning that the heavily advertised as water-resistant Sony SmartWatch 3 failed the Consumer Reports testing with two samples and ended up in last place. I've been running in the rain with my SmartWatch 3 and so far it has performed flawlessly. The removable charging door may be causing the water-resistance failures.
Thankfully, my much more expensive Apple Watch Sport passed the Consumer Reports water-resistance tests while the Pebble Steel performed best in this test.
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