Smartwatches have made great strides in recent years, with new health features and improved sensors attracting new entrants to the sector while enticing current owners to replace their existing devices. But maybe you don’t need to buy one anymore. You may be tired of being a slave to your smartwatch, constantly responding to alerts and notifications, or fiddling with all the different apps it offers. Plus, there’s the hassle of having to recharge it almost daily.
The good news is that the wearables market, while dominated by smartwatches, is becoming increasingly diverse, offering a range of alternatives that offer real benefits without the traditional smartwatch experience. Think smart rings, sleep earbuds, and posture trainers, among others: devices that deliver real value with less distraction and better battery life. Let’s take a closer look at some wearable devices currently available, other than smartwatches, to get a clearer idea of what’s available and the benefits they offer.
Smart rings for health information
Smart rings are a notable and viable alternative to smartwatches and can even do things that some smartwatches can’t do. Smaller, lighter and more discreet, you can slip a smart ring on your finger and forget about it until you open its companion app to see the health information it’s collected for you. Oura, the Finnish company behind the popular Oura Ring, which tracks sleep, heart rate, temperature and physical activity, is a leading player in the smart ring market. It can also measure your blood oxygen levels and heart rate variability, and offer things like activity and sleep scores. Another big advantage is battery life. Most high-end smart rings last between five and seven days on a single charge (depending on usage), outperforming typical smartwatches like the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch that often require a daily charge.
Feedback from a smart ring’s app can encourage you to improve your fitness or suggest ways to improve your sleep if you’re struggling to get quality shut-eye. It might even alert you to a health problem that needs to be discussed with a doctor. However, the disadvantages include a possible monthly subscription to access the entire data set. The Oura Ring 4, for example, charges $5.99 per month (or $69.99 per year) after a one-month free trial. If you’re interested, there are a few other things you should know before purchasing an Oura ring.
Headphones for optimal sleep
If you’ve ever worn regular headphones to sleep, you’ll probably find that they come off in the middle of the night. Or worse yet, you might wake up with earaches because they pressed too hard against your pillow. This is why, in recent years, some manufacturers have been working on headphones specifically designed for sleeping. These so-called sleep headphones have a shallower design than regular headphones to reduce discomfort if you sleep with the side of your head on the pillow. They should also come with carefully designed seals that block outside noise, which can range from your partner’s snoring to the squeaky noise of the city. High-end sleep headphones often feature a library of soothing sounds, Bluetooth Low Energy for longer battery life, and a built-in alarm that gently wakes you up. Some headphones even store audio on themselves for extended operation without Bluetooth.
Anker’s A30 sleep headphones, for example, launched in 2025 and are one of the best sleep headphones you can buy. They include features like active noise cancellation and adaptive snore masking. To achieve this, the charging case uses mics to analyze nearby snoring and adjusts the masking sound to drown it out. If you have trouble sleeping, whether due to outside noise, stress, or another problem, sleep headphones might be worth a try. They can help create a calmer, more sleep-friendly environment, leaving you feeling more rested the next morning.
Posture trackers for less pain
If you are reading this sitting or standing, what is your posture? Many of us sit, stand and walk with poor posture which, over time, can cause serious neck and back pain. It’s easy to sit up quickly when you suddenly think about it, but a few minutes later, without even realizing it, you can find yourself in that awkward slouched or hunched position, putting unnecessary pressure on our joints and bones. This is where a posture tracker can help.
A posture tracker is usually a small, discreet device that you wear like a necklace or stick to your upper back. It monitors your body position using tiny accelerometers and gyroscopes. If it detects poor posture, the device will emit a short haptic buzz to remind you to adopt a more appropriate posture. Most of these trackers also come with a companion app that records your posture data and shows your progress over time. Some can even create personalized workout plans to encourage you to adopt better posture habits. The idea is that over time, good posture will become a positive habit and the number of reminders will decrease.
The Upright Go 2 is one such device aimed at improving posture. Priced at $99, the Go 2 launched in 2019, improving on the original Go that landed two years earlier after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Pain from poor posture can build up over time, so a device like this aims to straighten you out before things go wrong. Good posture can also help you breathe better, sending more oxygen to the brain for prolonged mental acuity and reduced fatigue.
Smart glasses for more comfort
Smart glasses are another wearable product that, although still a niche product, are attracting more and more attention from gadget lovers. Meta’s high-end Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, for example, let you use voice commands and hand gestures (via the included Meta Neural Band) to control the device. They sport an in-lens private display that can show things like step-by-step walking instructions, live captions, live translations, messages, Meta AI responses, and camera preview. Launching in 2025 for $799, the high-tech glasses also let you take photos and videos using a built-in camera. This is a more controversial aspect of smart glasses, as many people are uncomfortable with the idea of being recorded by a stranger without their knowledge. However, smart glasses can provide more comfortable and smoother interactions with data compared to a smartphone, which must always be taken out of a pocket or bag and then wielded with at least one hand.
While still not perfect in terms of usability, technological advancements mean that smart glasses are now showing real promise. The device certainly works better than Google’s failed attempt with Glass, which launched for consumers in 2014 but was discontinued the following year due to issues including high prices, limited features and privacy concerns.
Fitness bands to stay in shape
Most fitness trackers strap to your wrist and, as you would expect, offer features like heart and sleep monitoring, activity tracking, and stress management. They can also track your progress over time and help you achieve personalized fitness goals, sending data to a companion app where you can see trends and even share results with your friends.
A notable newcomer to the field is Google’s Fitbit Air, part of a selection of wellness gadgets that are definitely worth buying in 2026. The $99.99 Fitbit Air is a more affordable screenless wristband that weighs just 0.42 ounces and can run for up to a week on a single charge, with a full charge achieved in just 90 minutes. Besides activity, the group tracks metrics such as heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen level and skin temperature. It also collects sleep data, offering a sleep score every morning right after you wake up. Helpful for your bank balance, you can use the Fitbit Air without a subscription, although paying $9.99 per month (or $99.99 per year) for Google Health Premium gets you access to the full suite of features.
Fitness trackers can improve your life by helping you focus more on your health to get in shape smoothly. Many people opt for fitness trackers over smartwatches because they provide a low-maintenance solution to targeting their health goals. Notably, they also offer better battery life and fewer distractions than a smartwatch, and often come at a more attractive price as well.
