5 Activity Trackers With Built-in GPS

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See our updated 2016 guide of the best GPS-enabled activity trackers..

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The first thing you might ask yourself when looking at our list of 5 Activity Trackers With Built-in GPS is “Why only 5?” The answer is simply because there aren’t many activity trackers with built-in GPS!

Keep in mind that we havent included GPS sports watches in the list, of which there are many, such as the Garmin Forerunner 920XT, Polar v800, Epson Runsense 810, and many others. Instead we’re focusing on wearables which track your daily activities, like calories burned, steps taken, and sleep monitoring. Also the trackers we’ve included are reasonably priced, whereas some of the dedicated sports watches are around the $500 USD mark

Fitbit Surge

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Fitbit are the dominant force in wearable tech. Their flagship wearable, the Fitbit Surge is an advanced activity tracker with a few smartwatch features. The Fitbit Surge is the company’s only GPS-enabled device so far. It’s not the smallest activity tracker around, compared to the Fitbit Flex and Fitbit Charge it could be considered bulky. Despite its bulkiness, the Surge maintains the high comfort level of smaller fitbit wearables.

The Fitbit Surge has a 1.2 inch, monochrome LCD touchscreen display. It will track your distance travelled, calories burned, steps, average speed, floors climbed and active minutes. It also features a built-in heart rate monitor, automatic sleep monitoring, and of course GPS. Adding to the standard tracking capabilities the Surge has numerous sports modes, including run, bike, yoga, martial arts, tennis and more.

You can also use the Surge to control your smartphone’s music playlist, and receive texts and incoming caller ID notifications. The Fitbit mobile app is compatible with Android, iOS and Windows Phone, it’s rich in features, and works with popular third-party fitness apps.

The Surge has a water-resistant rating of 5 ATM (up to 50 Meters). But, although it has a 5 ATM rating, it’s not recommended for swimming.It has a battery life up to 5 days (without GPS), and up to 5 hours (with GPS).

• Fitbit Surge

Microsoft Band

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The first wearable powered by Microsoft Health, the Microsoft Band tracks your daily activities and enables you to view your stats with a glance thanks to its bright 1.3 x 0.43-inch, 320 x 106-pixel TFT LCD touchscreen display.

Microsoft Band learns about its user over time. It supports Microsoft’s digital voice assistant Cortana (Windows Phone only), so you can ask it pretty much anything. The MS Band is packed full of features and sensors including a built-in heart rate monitor and GPS. It takes care of all the typical activity tracking, such as Steps, distance, calories, speed, automatic sleep monitor, plus the added bonuses of a UV sensor and skin temperature sensor.

With smart notifications the Microsft Band is smarter than the average fitness tracker. It brings caller ID, texts, emails and social alerts to your wrist.

• Microsoft Band

Garmin Forerunner 225

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The FR225 is the first wearable from Garmin with an onboard optical heart rate monitor. The HRM technology inside the FR225 comes from MIO Global, who are renowned for being one of the pioneering companies behind optical HRM’s.

The FR225 is geared up mostly for runners, but it comes with the range of activity tracking features found on the Garmin Vivofit series: Steps, distance, calories burned and automatic sleep monitoring. It has customizable data screens, heart rate zones, goals, alerts, and a move alert which is similar to the Move Bar on the Vivofit.

The FR225 can be paired with an external Garmin HRM chest strap and cadence foot pod. It has a 1.0″ 180 x 180 color display (not touchscreen) and comes with all the benefits of a built-in GPS, such as real-time speed data, elevation and route analysis within the Garmin Connect app which is compatible with iOS, Android and now Windows.

The Forerunner 225 doesn’t feature smart notifications. It has a water-resistant rating of 5ATM (up to 50m) but has no swimming mode.

• Garmin Forerunner 225

Garmin Vivoactive

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The Garmin Vivoactive has a 1.13 x 0.80 inch, colour, LCD touchscreen display, and delivers a mixed bag of features. It has the fitness tracking capablities of the Vivofit series, including Steps, distance, calories burned, and automatic sleep monitoring. The Vivoactive is equipped with GPS and brings far more features than the Vivofit, such as elevation, a real-time speedometer, and plenty of sports modes including bike and swim.

Many of the Vivoactive’s functions and screens are customizable. It has a feature called Auto Goal which automatically learns about its users activity levels and sets appropriate goals.

The Vivoactive delivers Caller ID, texts, emails and social notifications to your wrist, it also includes extra features such as VIRB Remote, Music Player Controls, and a Phone Finder.

The companion app, Garmin Connect is compatible with Android, iOS and Windows. It gives you plenty of fitness analysis and GPS data, plus access to Connect IQ which is a platform driving the new generation of Garmin wearables opening up API’s to developers so they can create new apps, watch faces, and widgets.

The Vivoactive doesn’t have a built-in heart rate monitor, instead it pairs with dedicated Garmin chest straps.

It has a water-resistant rating of 5ATM (up to 50m) and has a dedicated swimming mode. The Vivoactive battery lasts Up to 3 weeks in Activity Mode, and 10 hours in GPS mode.

• Garmin Vivoactive

Polar M400

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The Polar m400 was among the first wearables to tie together a multi-sports GPS watch and an activty tracker. Whether you’re a die-hard runner, or if you just want to track your steps and calories, the Polar M400 is a decent choice.

The Polar M400 128×128-pixel black and white display isn’t touchscreen, instead it’s controlled with buttons on the side.

The M400 tracks steps, distance, calories, pace, altitude, and sleep. On top of the typical activity tracking, it also features multiple sports profiles.

The M400 brings caller ID, texts, email and social notifications, but only for iOS users.

It Keep tabs on your nutrition by connecting with MyFitnessPal, the world’s largest food, nutrition and calorie database (iOS only).

The companion app, Polar Flow is compatible with Android and iOS. You can keep tabs on your nutrition by connecting with MyFitnessPal, which is the world’s leading calorie database (iOS only).

The Polar M400 doesn’t have a built-in heart rate monitor, instead it pairs with the Polar H7 chest strap.

The battery life is up to 8 hours training time (using GPS and H&), and 24 days in watch mode with daily activity tracking.