We’re dangerously close to Black Friday now, and while in year’s prior it’s felt like a fool’s game to predict what devices are likely to see price cuts, we don’t actually have to wait anymore.

That’s because a bunch of great fitness trackers are seeing discounts across big brands like Garmin, Samsung, and even the latest Apple Watch Ultra 4 (which only launched in September of this year).

We’ve rounded up our picks of the bunch so far, but as you can imagine, we expect more deals to come. Still, if you want to skip the queues and delivery timelines, these are well worth a look.

The best pre-Black Friday fitness tracker deals

Google Fitbit Charge 6

The Google Fitbit Charge 6 is able to sync to supported gym equipment, with ECG and EDA included, and 41 exercise modes. It also includes a 6-month free trial of Fitbit Premium, which is an ideal way to get started with your fitness journey since it folds mindfulness, diet, and training information into one place.

Right now, you can save 16% at Amazon, bringing it from $159.95 down to $134.99.

Garmin vívoactive 5

The first of two Garmin models on this list, the Vívoactive 5 is a few years old, but is still a four-star fitness tracker.

The AMOLED display remains bright and easy-to-read, and while the lack of buttons might make controlling it a light challenge for relative newcomers to fitness tracking (or anyone with sweaty hands), it packs on-watch music streaming so you can leave the phone at home.

With 30 workout profiles and a bunch of metric tracking (including swimming and golf), it’s in many ways a jack-of-all-trades.

A much cheaper alternative to the pricier Forerunner or Fenix models that include Training Readiness and better battery life, Best Buy currently has the vívoactive 5 at $169.99 in its holiday deals — an $80 discount from the standard price.

Samsung Galaxy Watch8

It’s not often we call a smartwatch “a triumph”, but that’s exactly what happened with the Samsung Galaxy Watch8 when we reviewed it last year — and awarded it 4.5 stars.

After some relatively minor updates, this felt like the big one – despite being 11% slimmer than the prior model. While we’d have liked faster charging and a better battery life, having Gemini on your wrist makes you much more likely to use it in the real world, and Samsung has outdone itself with the running metrics on offer.

A smartwatch that’s a cut above most fitness trackers, the Samsung Galaxy Watch8 is $259.99 at Target, reduced by $90 now that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 has been released.

Garmin Venu 3S

Another Garmin entry, the Venu 3S is from 2023 and a bit long in the tooth, but it’s still very much worth a look for anyone looking to reach fitness goals. We awarded it 4.5 stars in our review back at release, and called it “an ideal lifestyle smartwatch and fitness tracker blend.” It uses components such as the Elevate V5 heart rate sensor, which Garmins are still equipped with today.

It really does toe the line between functionality, features, and convenience, balancing the various options of a smartwatch with the battery life and fitness tracking capabilities of, well, a fitness tracker. Like its sequel, the Venu 4 (our best Garmin watch overall) it's an ideal 'goldilocks' fitness tracker for people who want it all.

Three years on, the AMOLED display looks great, heart rate data remains accurate, and sleep tracking is still excellent. You can save $90 at Best Buy right now, with the Stainless Steel and French Gray colorway down to $359.99.

Apple Watch Ultra 4

Oh boy, this is the big one. We loved the Apple Watch Ultra 4 when it launched earlier this year, with the latest model of Apple’s rugged wearable earning 4.5 stars from us in our full review.

Imagine our surprise, then, to see Amazon lopping $100 off the latest model, bringing it from $799 to $699. It’s still pricey, sure, but you’re getting a lot of improvements for your money - particularly if you’re coming from an older Apple Watch Ultra.

To be clear, there’s little to no point in picking one up if you don’t have an iPhone to pair it with, but if you do, you’ll see performance gains with the S11 chip, and Apple has managed to eke out a little more battery life, too, bringing it up to 50 hours in total.

Perhaps the biggest draw is the Readiness Score, which offers Apple’s take on Fitbit’s Daily Readiness Score with no premium membership required. Having your watch tell you when it’s good to push on, or when you need a rest, could have a huge impact on long-term training and help you avoid injury.

Not in the US? Check out the best pre-Black Friday deals on those smartwatches below:

Andreas Almgren won last weekend's New York City Marathon. The 31-year-old Swedish runner broke the tape in 2:06:01 — a frankly silly amount of time for anyone to run 26.2 miles. But although running fans are now analyzing everything from his nutrition strategy to his pacing, it's his watch that's got my attention — the Coros Pace 4, one of our best running watches.

Record-breaker Sebastian Sawe, who finished first at London earlier this year, used Garmin's cheapest watch, the now-outdated Garmin Forerunner 55. Almgren also opted for a budget-friendly, light running watch to help cross the finish line, rather than an expensive powerhouse like an Apple Watch Ultra 4 or Garmin Fenix 9 Pro.

It just goes to show that you can spend under $250 / £230 and still get a fantastic running watch worthy of the best runners in the world.

Coros Pace 4

We reviewed the Coros Pace 4 in February this year and awarded it 4/5 stars. Our reviewer praised its performance compared to its price, calling it 'a specialized, budget-friendly watch that balances high-end display technology and dedicated functionality for athletes'.

It's less a smartwatch and more a dedicated training tool, made entirely of lightweight plastic rather than any stylish (but heavier) metal elements. It packs up to 19 days of battery life, a huge improvement over smartwatches from Apple, Samsung, or Google, and even most Garmins, making it ideal for athletes who are doing a lot of GPS-powered, battery-sucking long runs and want to track their sleep on top, all without charging.

Speaking of GPS, that dual-frequency GNSS chipset ensures that the watch will be able to find you better amongst tall buildings — a perfect choice for, for example, the New York City Marathon. As our review put it, 'the ability to connect across two frequencies is designed to improve positional accuracy in challenging environments such as cities and forests'.

However, it's not as smartwatchy as other watches; it has limited notifications and call management functionality, and no third-party apps to speak of. Samsung and Google have the Play Store, Apple has the App Store, and even Garmin has the ConnectIQ store, but Coros is strictly a self-contained training ecosystem.

You can link it to other apps like Strava or control media through the watch, but you don't get custom-built applications on the watch the way you do with other devices.

However, elite runners don't want those things: they want a lightweight, long-lasting training tool that works, with virtual pacing, accurate positional GPS, and heart rate tracking. In all of these aspects, the Coros Pace 4 delivers — and at $249 USD / £229 UK / AU$479.95, it's surprisingly well-priced.

A Black Friday bargain?

We're currently reviewing the Coros Pace 4 Pro, the Pace 4's successor. It's shaping up to be every bit as good as the standard 4, but even more exciting is what this means for the Pace 4 — when a new watch comes out, the older one is likely to drop in price, especially during big sales events.

With Black Friday on the horizon (November 27), if you're shopping for a new running watch, I'd keep an eye out for the Coros Pace 4. With the Pace 4 Pro out, the Pace 4 could drop from an already excellent value price down to an absolute steal. Check TechRadar during the Black Friday deals period — if the Coros Pace 4 drops, we'll tell you about it.

If you've ever used a shared e-bike in the UK, you'll know it can be a really convenient, cheap, and environmentally friendly way to get around. They're good exercise, too. But until now, their use has been largely unregulated — and that's created some big downsides, too.

Now Downing Street wants to change that. The UK government is putting forward a swathe of measures to tackle issues like e-bikes blocking the pavement, too few parking spaces, and problems with anti-social rider behaviour.

“I think the fact that we are consulting on this new licensing regime means that we can start to bring some order to the chaos that some people see in some parts of big cities where these e-bike schemes, rental schemes have popped up,” Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told the Press Association.

"There are a small minority of people who choose to behave recklessly but sadly, that is true of any type of way that people move around in a town or a city, and you can’t legislate for the idiots. But we can take sensible steps to give local leaders more power over the way in which these types of schemes operate,” she added.

A law has already been passed to begin the process of licensing e-bike hire companies. What's new now is this public consultation, running until the end of 2026, during which citizens, lawmakers and e-bike companies can have their say.

Why is 'nuisance' e-bike parking still such a problem?

It's estimated that there are around 350,000 shared e-bike trips every day in London alone, and that's a lot of bicycles. In most regions, there are no rules about where bikes can be picked up from or left, and not enough designated parking spaces to go around — the accompanying apps simply direct users towards them via GPS.

That's led to plenty of overcrowding on the pavements, and e-bikes being left in areas that make life difficult or dangerous for pedestrians. Earlier this year, e-bike hire operator Lime apologised for one of its parked e-bikes forcing a blind man into the road with his guide dog. There have also been issues with riders not being able to complete journeys because of the patchwork of different rules and guidelines across individual London boroughs.

Anti-social behaviour from riders has been an issue, too: Users who hire the cycles when drunk, or in a way that endangers themselves other people around them. There have long been calls for the operators to take more responsibility for how their bikes are used.

Making the operators more responsible is difficult for councils that have no real powers and very little data about how the e-bikes are being used — at the moment they're relying on the goodwill of the e-bike companies and the voluntary agreements that are in place, which is something the government wants to improve upon and formalise.

What is the government proposing to do about it?

There's quite a bit to dig into when it comes to the new measures. The government says there will be new parking plans that make sure e-bikes aren't "inconveniencing the public" when they're not in use, and there will be fleet management plans too, designed to reduce bike overcrowding (think limits on the total number of bikes in an area).

In addition, fleets of bicycles will need to be properly maintained under the new guidelines, so you can be sure that you're getting on something safe when you ride a shared e-bike — and that pedestrians and other road users aren't going to be put in danger by a faulty battery or wheel.

Speaking of pedestrian safety, the proposals might also potentially cover insurance requirements for operators, so they'd be able to pay out compensation if someone got hit by a shared cycle and its rider. More parking spaces for e-bikes and more accountability for operators in regards to how their e-bikes are used are also planned.

With stronger rules in force, and closer partnerships with the e-bike companies involved, councils will have greater powers to punish those who are found to be in breach of the guidelines — whether that's leaving an e-bike in an appropriate and unsafe space, or getting behind the handlebars while intoxicated.

What have the e-bike companies said?

The e-bike companies are largely for the proposals. Certainty over the legitimacy of bicycle hire schemes means investment can be increased, while the confusion over current guidelines — which are largely voluntary and vary from council to council — isn't really helping any of the parties involved. Under the government's new proposals, hire companies might also get funding help for infrastructure like parking bays.

"We welcome the government’s consultation on national standards for shared e-bikes," said Georgia Heathman, Public Policy Manager at Bolt. "98% of Bolt rides already end with a correctly parked bike, which shows what clear rules and effective management can achieve. We want to see that standard applied consistently across the country, and support the consultation’s ambition to give local leaders the tools to licence schemes that suit their communities and raise the national bar."

"We recognise the current patchwork approach is confusing for riders, councils and operators, all of whom deserve greater clarity and certainty," commented Wayne Ting, CEO at Lime, which is the largest shared e-bike operator in the UK. "Today’s consultation is an important step forward."

The CEO of Forest, Agustin Guilisasti, chimed in with a call for "national standards", and for a "coherent, well-regulated" system going forward, while Prime Minister Andy Burnham said one of the main aims of the new consultation would be "giving communities more control over where [shared e-bikes] are parked and making sure companies and riders play by the rules".

Will this really solve the problem?

Time will tell, but there seems to be cautious optimism among those involved at the moment that new laws and regulations will make a genuine difference to the experience of shared e-bikes for those riding them and the general public at large. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is taking the lead here, promising that local leaders will ultimately get powers to "stop nuisance parking, tackle anti-social behaviour and make journeys safer".

"We hope licensing can be a way to provide suitable and well-enforced parking spaces for this highly popular, low carbon mode of travel and so help the government deliver on its own commitment to scale up shared mobility," Richard Dilks, CEO of shared transport organisation Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK), told TechRadar. "Any regulation should protect the many benefits that these schemes bring, including boosting the rates of active travel, improving air quality, and reducing traffic congestion."

Mike Wordingham, Head of Policy at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, acknowledged that "tackling rider behaviour will be difficult, and it’s vital the desire for local flexibility doesn’t lead to a patchwork of regulations and inconsistency in implementing them".

"There's clearly a case for regulation of dockless e-bikes to ensure everyone can travel around cities safely and quickly," Anthony Breach, Director of Policy and Research at Centre for Cities, told TechRadar. "A key test will be how much responsibility the mayors have — different cities are different, and it's right that mayors can design policy on dockless bikes that work for the city as a whole."

"Regulations have costs, and we should expect there to be at least a small impact on cost and convenience," adds Breach. "But the lack of regulation of dockless bikes is also affecting the convenience and costs of other highway users, too. The challenge for government and the mayors is maximising convenience while minimising price across every form of urban transport."

E-bike operators are already testing in-app features like intoxication tests (via a response time analysis) and safe parking checks (via user-taken photos scanned by AI), but the consultation is an opportunity for everyone to have their say on the best rules and regulations going forward — you can contribute yourself here.

Tech companies continue to shoehorn AI into their product and services, whether it’s justified or not. Within fitness and health tech, we have more AI coaches and advisors than we can juggle — from Google’s Health Coach to Strava’s Athlete Intelligence — and AI interpretations of our stats, that often look suspiciously like the technology we had years ago, just with an LLM flair.

But the shareholders love it and it works to upsell customers, so the game continues. Garmin, however, has been pretty careful about how it has employed the term, and how it has actually used the tech to ‘enhance’ its best Garmin watches and its Garmin Connect+ platform. From a dig into the Garmin website, you’ll mostly only see the term AI attached to one feature: Connect+’s Active Intelligence, which it describes as 'AI-powered'.

Active Intelligence is designed to offer LLM-style feedback and advice within the Connect app on your phone. The pitch is that as the app gets to know you, the insights will become ‘tailored to you and your goals’, according to Garmin.

Garmin is a fairly careful, perhaps conservative, company among its peers. And I imagine there may have been a feeling it couldn’t not jump on this AI bandwagon, given wider industry trends. I asked Garmin COO Brad Trenkle how he sees AI’s role within the company.

“I think because Garmin is a very engineering-focused company, we tend to be very pragmatic in all of our decision making,” says Trenkle. “That has led us to be very thoughtful and discerning about our use of AI.

“One of the key tenets of how we've implemented AI across the company, not just in product but even internally in our own processes, is that any application of AI needs to keep a very keen sense of authenticity.”

It’s an interesting take, when AI front-ends within health and fitness platforms often purport or appear to want to give apps a more relatable or human edge — and seem faker or sycophantic as a result.

TrainingPeaks in the distance

Garmin remains keen to emphasize it’s a human-first company, as proved by the company’s most recent major acquisition, TrainingPeaks, in July.

TrainingPeaks does use some AI-based technologies in its platform but, fundamentally, it’s about matching an athlete (or schlub aspiring to be one) with the knowledge and expertise of a real, actual expert person. This is a platform made for coaches as much as athletes, a business model completely at odds with the current trend of simply getting ChatGPT or Claude to work up a training plan for you.

“We also have taken approaches that we think will give customers choice,” says Trenkle on the buy-out.

“Our recent acquisition of TrainingPeaks is an opportunity for us to make sure consumers who want to be able to engage with a human coach can do so through the TrainingPeaks platform. So we want to make sure that we meet customers where they are.”

Garmin is dabbling on both sides. Connect+’s controversial-at-launch Active Intelligence is a take on the flavor-of-the-month application of AI, using LLM tech to spit out easily intelligible summaries so folks don’t have to spend any mental energy on learning how to interpret their own data. And TrainingPeaks, for now, diligently swims against the AI sludge current. Long may it continue.

It’s also worth noting Connect+, despite receiving a mixed reception at launch due to Athlete Intelligence, is not all about AI. It also offers more classic Garmin-style bonuses like expert coach videos, Livetrack location sharing and offline Trails. Whether it’s worth the $6.99 monthly fee for you is something we’ll leave for another time.

“Some will want simple, basic answers to questions about their data that AI can help provide and create those insights. Others will embrace the idea of a human coach for motivation, accountability, and some of the things that maybe are a little more difficult to get through an AI bot or agent,” Trenkle explains.

He’s also bold on how much he believes Garmin understands its user base, versus the ever-growing competition.

“I think Garmin has shown through our history that we know our customers and we tend to know our customers better than our competition can know our customers, and part of the reason that we're able to do that is because we are vertically integrated, right? We're talking to our customers. We are customers of our own products ourselves,” says Trenkle.

I imagine some folks in the “engineering focused” Garmin eyeroll as much as I do at the attempts elsewhere to make AI a tightly integrated part of its fitness tech. But what the future holds for Garmin and AI? It’s still in the works.

Are you looking for a Garmin watch, but not sure what to get? Take our quiz below to find your perfect smartwatch.

Drizzly autumn days can be pretty miserable, but I've found a bunch of waterproof jacket deals that might just put a smile back on your face. Cotswold Outdoor has kicked off its Black Friday sale early, and amongst the deals are a load of seriously strong discounts on waterproofs from market-leading names like Rab, Patagonia and The North Face. I spent two years testing outdoors kit, and I'd trust any of these brands to keep me dry in a deluge.

I've rounded up what I think are the best discounts of the bunch below. Because there are so many strong deals, I've focused on the men's jackets in this particular article, but there are plenty of women's jacket offers too — use the bullet link below to browse them all.

• Browse all women's waterproof deals at Cotswold Outdoor
• Browse all men's waterproof deals at Cotswold Outdoor

This is billed as a Black Friday sale, which is a little premature — the official Black Friday isn't until 27th November. Sometimes in situations like these it pays to hold off and see if a retailer might drop its prices further on Black Friday itself, but I wouldn't suggest doing that in this case. I'm already seeing some sizes selling out on popular designs, and you don't want to miss out on the jacket you really want. Plus, I'm sure we'll see plenty of wet days between now and then...

Wet-weather wonders

• A new Garmin update could share the location of cyclists
• The locations would show up for drivers in Waze
• It appears the feature will be fully opt-in from the user side

Whether you're a cyclist, driver, or both, we can probably all agree that a better awareness of who's using the road is helpful for everyone — and Garmin is rumored to be working on a new feature that would pass on the location of cyclists to the Waze app.

This comes from Gadgets & Wearables, reporting on hidden code discovered in the latest version of the Garmin Connect app. That code includes the text strings "share location with Waze", "share your rides with Waze", and "Waze location sharing", which is telling.

There also appears to be a consent and onboarding flow already included in the app. That all suggests that the feature could be launching imminently, but there's no guarantee that it will roll out until Garmin makes it official.

Clearly this would be very much opt-in, and only available when the cyclist was using the LiveTrack feature for an activity. LiveTrack is designed for location sharing with friends and family, but it could be easily adapted to work with Waze too.

Safer on the road

We don't know much about how this is going to work yet, but presumably approaching drivers aren't going to be able to see your name and health stats if you decide to make use of this — just that there's a cyclist on the road up ahead.

That should make journeys safer for both cyclists and those in vehicles, especially on narrow and winding roads, and in the evening or when visibility is otherwise difficult. It's actually difficult to see many downsides, if this works as advertised.

Waze is already well known for the depth and breadth of information that it displays on its maps, with a lot of real-time details supplied by users. The maps include updates on roadworks, speed traps, accidents, gas prices, and more.

We'll have to wait and see which Garmin wearables will support the feature and exactly how the integration works, but it sounds promising. As Google owns Waze, cyclist alerts might even graduate to Google Maps eventually.

Winter is coming, and I've just unearthed a whole load of deals on cold-weather clothing from one of my favorite outdoor brands: Patagonia. This is especially exciting because good Patagonia discounts don't come along very often, and Patagonia kit is rather expensive. The place to head for said deals is Cotswold Outdoor, and the sale includes everything from lightweight down jackets to cosy fleece mid-layers, protective waterproofs, knitted hats and winter coats.

I've rounded up what I think are the 18 best deals below, but there are plenty more to explore. If you can't see what you're looking for, hit the quick links below to browse the full range of price-drops. I've also focused on men's apparel here, but there's a large selection of women's Patagonia deals too — hit the link below to see them.

• Browse all men's Patagonia deals at Cotswold Outdoor
• Browse all women's Patagonia deals at Cotswold Outdoor

This is billed as a Black Friday sale, and you might be feeling that's a little premature — Black Friday isn't until 27 November, after all. I've been covering these sales events for nine years now, and generally my advice has been that you might as well wait until the 'proper' Black Friday to make your purchases, in case the retailer decides to drop the price a little more for the big day.

However, in this case, I'd suggest it's a better idea to buy now — sizes tend to sell out quickly in sales like these, and at the moment there's a good selection available for all my picks. Plus, you'll have your cold-weather kit ready as soon as the temperatures start to really fall.

Patagonia price-drops