Although getting smartphone notifications on your wrist is one of the essential functions of any smartwatch, not all models on the market are good enough in this regard. If getting notifications tops the list of what you need in a smartwatch, your best bet is one that does a perfect job at it.
This entails showing notifications instantly, pulling your attention to each new notification, and allowing you to reply to notifications directly on your wrist without having to pull your smartphone.
If you’re in a hurry, take a look at these Amazon Best Sellers. Otherwise, keep reading!
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The Best Smartwatches for Notifications For May 2023
In this post, we’d be looking at some of the best smartwatches for notifications. Our selection was based on thorough research and comparison of several smartwatch models based on notification and alert features, legibility of notification texts and reply functions, brand trust, and buyer reviews.
Here are the top 5 Best Smartwatches for Notifications for May 2023.
1. SAMSUNG Gear S3 Frontier Smartwatch
Specifications
- Display: 3-inch Super AMOLED screen, 360 x 360pp
- Processor: Exynos 7270
- OS: Tizen
- RAM: 768 MB
- Memory: 4GB
- Battery: 380mAh
Design
The Gear S3 follows the smartwatches built for larger wrists, measuring 46 x 49mm and weighing 59g. It doesn’t just look bigger, and it also feels heavy.
The body build indicates that it was built with durability in mind as it has an IP68 certification so that you won’t have any problem with dust and water spillage.
It rocks a stainless steel case that’s quite attractive, and you can swap out any of the straps if you don’t like the one shipped to you. There are two buttons on the side for controls: one to take you to the home screen and your apps, while the other works as a universal back button.
Beneath the smartwatch is a heart rate monitor, which you will find extremely helpful in monitoring changes in your heart rate. 
Display
Sporting a 1.3-inch AMOLED screen, the Gear S3 has one of the best displays you will find in its price category, and this is no surprise since Samsung is known for its great screens.
It has a 360 x 360-pixel resolution, which gives a vivid color reproduction and detailed images. Parts of the unique selling points of the wearable are the “Always on Display” and “Dimmed Setting” features that can keep the screen on and dimmed, respectively, for as long as you wish.
As expected, the Gear S3 is a touchscreen, but there’s a limit to what you can do without the buttons. Gorilla Glass and MIL-SPEC-910G protect the display so that it can withstand drops of up to 5 feet.
It’s essential to add that setting the display always sucks up battery juice, but you can set the screen to turn on instantly when you raise your wrist.
Performance
One of the first things to note about the performance is that the smartwatch runs on its home-grown Tizen operating system, which combines features of Google’s and Apple’s operating systems.
The OS is supported by 768MB of RAM and 4GB of storage for music. The built-in speaker is loud, clear, and can respond to commands.
Also, there are several sensors on the smartwatch, but a significant downside is the absence of significant fitness apps.
When tethered to a Samsung Galaxy S7 via Bluetooth, you can receive and respond to notifications from Facebook messenger as well as emails. However, you need to make sure you stay within the range of the phone to maintain connectivity.
Battery life
Coming to the battery department, the Gear S3 can deliver three days usage, thanks to its capacity of 380mAh.
The battery might drain faster if you use it for battery-consuming tasks like GPS tracking or turning on the Always-on Display. There’s no fast charging technology here.
Pros
- Simple interface with rotating bezel
- Swift performance
- Good voice control
Cons
- Small third-party app support
- Feels heavy
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2. Pebble 2 + Heart Rate Smartwatch with email notifications
Specifications
- Display: 26-inch screen, 144 x 168 pp
- Processor: 1GHZ Cortex-M4
- OS: Pebble
- RAM: —-
- Memory: 16MB
- Battery: 150mAh
Design
There are many similarities between the design of Time Steel and the original Pebble. Still, the first noticeable difference is that this model ditches the cheap-feeling plastic and opts for brushed stainless steel.
It is 1mm thicker and a bit heavier than its forebear. The metal will sit on your wrist all through the day without causing discomfort or irritation.
For controls, there’s a single button on the left side and three on the right, all of which are easy to press. The button on the left acts as the ‘back button, while the top and bottom buttons on the right will move you up and down.
The middle button acts as the ‘accept’ command. Underneath the watch is charging pins connected to the magnetic charger to top up the battery. Unlike the leather, the Pebble Time Steel is waterproof up to 30m.
Display
There’s practically no improvement to the display. The Pebble Time steel uses the same 1.25 inches screen and 144 x 168 resolution color ePaper display, both of which are on the original Time.
The slight difference is that more of the surround is taken up by Gorilla Glass rather than the steep outer part, giving it a more curvaceous appearance when you look from it from different angles.
The watch comes pre-set to an always-on display, and this is why the manufacturer opted for a screen that conserves power instead of the popular LCD and AMOLED screens.
Hence, it’s obvious that sacrificing the choice of a quality screen for a longer battery life affects the overall display quality as the smartwatch isn’t as crisp and detailed as its rivals.
Performance
By now, you should know that the Pebble Time Steel was manufactured to meet the basic needs of a fitness enthusiast and not to compete with the flashiest smartwatches out there.
There are very few apps to cater to the needs of the average fitness newbie. The 1GHZ Cortex-M4 chipset and 16MB memory show that the performance was average and not spectacular, despite some of its exciting features.
One of the biggest selling points of the smartwatch is the way it organizes and presents notifications, so you don’t have to miss anything anymore.
It lists emails, social notifications, and texts that are forwarded to your smartphone. It even bolds unread notifications, so they scream at your eyes.
When you receive an email, it pops up on display to read the few lines, so you don’t have to wonder about the content of the email.
Battery life
Thankfully, the battery life offers some encouragement as the smartwatch can stay powered on for up to ten days, a feat many fitness trackers are yet to achieve.
The battery life might get shorter if you tinker with the settings, as the duration of use depends on the amount of time the display is on. The battery capacity is 150mAh.
Pros
- Colour e-paper display
- Decent battery life
- Comfortable
- Impressive notification presentation
Cons
- More expensive than Pebble Time
- Limited abilities without a phone
- Basic apps
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3. Amazfit T-Rex Smartwatch
Specifications
- Display:28inches 176 x 176 pp Transflective colour display
- Processor: —-
- Operating system: Proprietary OS
- RAM: —
- Storage: —–
- Battery: 190mAh
Design
The Amazfit Bip Smartwatch takes after the Apple Watch in terms of design – it is fairly attractive for the price and a pleasure to wear.
Weighing 1.1 ounces, the Bip is so lightweight that you could easily forget you’re wearing it, but that doesn’t mean the body build cannot resist wear and tear.
It actually has a polycarbonate, matte-plastic build to make it durable, while its IP68 water and dust rating mean it won’t develop problems if you submerge it in water for up to 30 minutes.
On the right side is a glossy button that triggers an animation on the screen to indicate that you’ve woken it, and you can assign it to an app when you press and hold the button.
Display
The Bip sports a 1.28-inch touchscreen with 176 x 176-pixel resolution, which a 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass protects. The screen is very responsive, allowing you to interface with the watch.
However, the resolution falls short of expectations as the display doesn’t have auto-brightness, which means you have to adjust the brightness in the day and night manually.
The raise-to-wake feature can allow you to illuminate the face with just a flick of the wrist, and you can also use the always-on feature but keep in mind that it drains battery juice so fast.
Performance
The Bip puts up a great performance for its pricing, even though opinions might differ. For starters, the companion app, Mi Fit, works flawlessly and links to the Apple Health App.
It tracks keeps a record of all activities so that you can get the data organized for you. It also presents notifications for you to read, but you can’t respond to emails, texts, or phone calls as you need to pick up your smartphone to handle the rest from there.
Regarding fitness, the Bip shines brightly, proving it is the ideal choice for people who want a wearable that can handle a lot.
It can help track and monitor a range of activities like walking, running and cycling, etc. It takes accurate heart rate readings, sleeping tracking, and the in-built GPS can map your progress.
Battery
Advertised to last up to 30 days on average use and 45 days with minimal notifications, the battery life is one of the huge draws of the Bip.
It boasts a 190-mAh lithium-polymer battery unit that drains slowly and can be recharged in a couple of hours to 100% using the two contact pins on the charging dock.
Pros
- Stylish design
- Extremely lightweight
- The soft band that fits all wrist sizes comfortably
- Amazing value
Cons
- The auto-pause feature doesn’t work
- Low-resolution graphics
- Cannot respond to notifications
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4. Huawei Watch Black Stainless Steel
Specifications
- Display:39-inches 454 x 454 pp OLED capacitive touchscreen
- Processor: ARM Cortex-M4
- Operating system: LiteOS
- RAM: 16MB
- Storage: 128MB
- Battery: 420mAh
Design
It can be hard to tell if the Huawei Watch GT is actually a fitness tracker or a regular watch as it is a design marvel, something that’s not so common in the world of smartwatches.
It shares a similar design with its forebear having a circular stainless body, except that the dimensions 46.5 x 46.5 x 10.6mm make it slimmer.
It is also notably light and feels good on the wrist. If you don’t like the strap that comes with the one you buy, you can always get any that suits your preference from the offerings available such as Graphite Black, a Saddle Brown leather option, Glacier Grey, and Fluorescent Green.
Around the side of the watch sits two physical buttons, that when paired with the 1.39-inch AMOLED touchscreen, act as the primary means to interact with the watch.
The top button wakes up the watch and takes you to the menu, while the second is a customizable button that allows you to assign any app of your choice. Overall, the build quality is pretty solid, as one would expect from Huawei.
Display
Displays are a strong forte for Huawei, and the Watch 2018 is a strong attestation to it. Its 1.39-inch AMOLED screen packs a resolution of 454 x 454 pixels, bright, sharp, and colorful.
You can read your notifications or look at graphs showing your performance during exercises without straining your eyes.
In other words, you will get much higher visual fidelity than an average runner’s watch as it qualifies to be ranked as one of the best screens on the market.
Everything isn’t entirely flawless, as the refresh rate of the watch is quite low, a flaw that makes it fall behind Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch.
Performance
Under the hood, an ARM Cortex-M4 processor manages the operations of the smartwatch, and it does that flawlessly as there are no serious slow-downs or crashes.
The Watch GT’s array of features is also impressive as you will get GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo, suggesting that the smartwatch is a top performer when it comes to location and distance tracking.
There are plenty of tracking modes for different activities, including indoor and outdoor cycling, running, hiking, climbing, and more.
Another positive to this watch is that it handles phone notifications nicely. The watch vibrates whenever you receive a message or notification from an app and allows you to tap and read further.
But still, the notification feature could do with some improvement to allow for replies either by typing on the screen or using your voice.
Battery life
The battery life of the Watch GT 2019 is one of the biggest reasons you should buy this smartwatch, as the battery can last up to 14 days on a single charge.
That it is impressive is an understatement as it is way better than what other smartwatches offer. However, put in mind that the battery consumption is largely considered on which features you’re using.
Pros
- Amazing battery life
- Comfortable and stylish
- Affordable
Cons
- Limited third-party support
- Sleep tracking is patchy
- Not built for contactless payment
- Limited phone apps
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5. Ticwatch E Most Comfortable Best Notification Smartwatch
Specifications
- Display: 39-inch AMOLED screen, 400 x 400pp
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100
- OS: Wear OS
- RAM: 512 MB
- Memory: 4GB
- Battery: 415mAh
Design
The TicWatch E2 is an appealing smartwatch like the TicWatch E, but it has a bigger screen of 46.9mm. Another notable difference is that the side button is now positioned on the right instead of the left to adhere to the standard design of smartwatches.
This makes hitting the button more natural, but it comes at the expense of the rotating feature, which is now non-existent on the TicWatch E2.
Beneath the smartwatch is a central bump made of polycarbonate rear, which contains the heart rate monitor and charging pins that work with the magnetic charger.
It is water-resistant to 5ATM or 50 meters, indicating that it is safe to swim and surf with.
Display
The screen on the TicWatch E2 is the same as that on its predecessor – a fully circular 1.39-inch display with a 400 x 400 resolution that equates to a pixel density of 404ppi.
Although this isn’t an upgrade, it’s still far better than what you’d find on many expensive Wear OS smartwatches, leaving almost no room for complaints.
As a result, you get a bright and colorful screen that makes little texts legible and images crisp. You can also turn on the “Always-On Display” so you can see basic information at any time, even when you’re not using the entire display.
Although the smartwatch is waterproof, the screen tends to become less responsive when wet.
Performance
One of the noticeable upgrades on the TicWatch E2 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 processor, supported by 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage.
These specs are similar to what you’d find in its rivals, and it’s not any surprise that the manufacturer didn’t provide a more recent chipset considering the price.
Nevertheless, the performance is smooth as you can do most of your activities without issues. It even comes with GPS, which means you can leave your smartphone at home and still track your outdoor activities.
Incoming notifications are better presented on this model, and you can reply to messages on WhatsApp using context-sensitive quick reply options.
The fitness tracking is also standard, but there’s no sleep tracking.
Battery life
The battery capacity of the TicWatch E2 is 30% bigger than the power pack in its predecessor, and it’s not difficult to notice the result.
You can get up to 48 hours of battery life from the smartwatch, but that is only if you don’t use GPS, as about 30 minutes of GPS tracking consumes around 10%.
Thankfully, the charging is slightly faster than the last generations’ watches as you can go from 0% to 100% in under an hour.
That means you should be able to use it to tactically charge the smartwatch and use it for whatever activities you desire.
Pros
- Inexpensive
- Large, sharp screen
- Decent battery life
Cons
- The chunky, plastic build
- No sleep tracking
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Best Smartwatch for Notifications: Today’s Best Deal!
- Use the WearOS by Google app on your phone running the latest version of Android (excluding Go edition) or iOS . Supported features may vary between platforms and countries with compatibility subject...
- Battery: 24 Hr + multi-day Extended Battery Mode Varies based on usage and after updates install. USB cable with magnetic charger snaps to rings on watch caseback and spins 360 degrees for ease of...
- Lifestyle: This is one smart watch with always-On Display with thousands of watch faces to personalize your look and always see the time. Hundreds of apps from assistant to fitness, payments, music,...
- Use the WearOS by Google app on your phone with Android 6.0plus (excluding Go edition) or iOS 12.0plus
- 24 Hr plus multi-day Extended Battery Mode Varies based on usage and after updates install . USB cable with magnetic charger snaps to rings on watch caseback and spins 360 degrees for ease of use. 50...
- Always-On Display with thousands of watch faces to personalize your look and always see the time. Hundreds of apps from assistant to fitness, payments, music, social, news, games, stopwatches and...
- An impressive 15-day battery, this watch can keep up with anything your week throws your way. Utilize the Citizen Connected app to manage your notifications, change your dials and see your fitness...
- Stay on track with the convenience of information at a glance on your hybrid smartwatch display. You can choose the dial that fits your mood or style and customize the information on display to meet...
- All the activity tracking you want. Whether you’re at the gym, hitting the trails, or running into the office, heartrate and gyroscope sensors provide continuous heartrate tracking, and monitor your...
- Use the WearOS by Google app on your phone running the latest version of Android (excluding Go edition) or iOS . Supported features may vary between platforms and countries with compatibility subject...
- Battery: 24 Hr + multi-day Extended Battery Mode Varies based on usage and after updates install. USB cable with magnetic charger snaps to rings on watch caseback and spins 360 degrees for ease of...
- Lifestyle: This is one smart watch with always-On Display with thousands of watch faces to personalize your look and always see the time. Hundreds of apps from assistant to fitness, payments, music,...
- Smartwatch powered by Wear OS By Google is compatible with Iphone and Android: Preloaded apps include Google Assistant, Google Pay, Google Fit, Google Play Store, Agenda, Alarm, Calendar, Contacts,...
- Keeping track of your health: Track activity goals, heart rate monitor, cardio fitness tracking, steps and sleep. Built-in GPS, head out for a run or hike and leave your phone behind. The CZ Smart...
- Meet your personal assistant: Stay connected all day while getting your personalized notifications on your watch for incoming calls, texts, emails, news headlines and all important notifications. The...
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Last Updated on October 13, 2021 by Emmanuel Pery
Hi! I’m Emmanuel, a passionate fellow who helps you choose the best products!