The 10 Coolest Wearable Tech Gadgets Of 2021
Our picks for the top wearable devices are from Apple, Bose, Fossil and Oculus this year.
With a treasure trove of earbuds and smartwatches on the market, 2021 may be the year that wearable devices finally officially met mass consumption.
Make no mistake about it: the market for wearable technology is hot, driven by the pandemic and interest in health and fitness tracking, according to market research firm IDC. In fact, global shipments for wearables grew a solid 9.9 percent during the third quarter of 2021 reaching 138.4 million units, according to data from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker.
And although Apple owns the top spot in the wearables category with its popular watch, AirPods and Beats headphones, there are a lot of other stellar gadgets that debuted this past year.
What follows are our picks for the top 10 coolest wearable tech gadgets from Apple, Bose, Fossil, Oculus, Lenovo and others.
For more of the biggest startups, products and news stories of 2021, click here.
Apple Watch Series 7
The Apple Watch Series 7 has the largest display to date, with more than 50 percent screen area than the Series 3, which enhances usability and the overall experience.
Buttons have also been redesigned to take advantage of the larger display, so using apps like the calculator are that much easier. The new QWERTY keyboard allows for easy typing and sliding to each letter using QuickPath. Machine learning is also used to predict the word you’re typing.
You can also use Scribble to write letters to compose a text or email, which is that much capable with the larger screen. The always-on retina display no longer requires you to raise your wrist or tap the screen to wake it up. The screen is also 70 percent brighter indoors when your wrist is down. The Series 7 is by far the most durable: it’s crack, dust and water resistant.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds
The noise-canceling earbuds provide a comfortable wear and high-fidelity audio with exclusive acoustic architecture while volume-optimized active EQ keeps the sound crisp and balanced.
The earbuds have simple touch controls to swipe, tap or press are weather and sweat resistant and provides non-static, clear calls all for up to six hours.
The earbuds come in four colors–triple black, soap stone, stone blue and sand stone–so you can listen to your favorite playlist or podcast or take calls in style. The buds securely and comfortably fit into your ear with an added extra of comfort with StayHear Max tips.
The wireless earbuds are perfect for canceling out distractions. They’re made from silicone and come in three sizes.
The charging case gives an additional 12 hours via the included USB-C cable or any wireless Qi-certified charging station.
Fossil Gen 5 LTE Touchscreen
The Fossil touchscreen smartwatch allows you to make or take calls with its built in speaker directly from your wrist. You can also receive notifications, previews and alerts, reply to texts, use contactless payment methods and use up to eight GB of storage.
The smartwatch’s display is always on and has both a daytime and nighttime mode, has a screen waking capability by either touch a button or tapping the screen, tracks your steps and heart rate and is Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS enabled.
The watch features multiple modes and be charged in an hour with a battery allows for multi-day use.
The daily mode allows you to use the watch daily and charge nightly, the extended mode uses only essential features daily and allows for charging every few days, time one mode allows you to only use your watch as a clock for up for a week without charging and custom mode allowed you to customize your settings and pick the features you use most often.
Jlab JBuds Frames
It’s wireless audio, for your glasses. The JBuds open-ear audio fits onto any glasses frame for easy listening anywhere you go.
The JBuds allow for up to eight hours of listening time, duely connect to your wireless device and has a microphone to pick up calls wirelessly.
It also features respectful sound with powerful 16 mm drivers that produce just the perfect sound for you.
Two hooks secure the JBuds to any glasses or sunglass frame with optional sleeves for a secure fit on smaller temples. The JBuds simply slides on to the frames and lock in place.
It also features a convenience button on the top of each device to choose the sound of your audio or answer calls.
And they buds are not always listening. You have the controls to turn on your smart assistant, SIRI or Alexa when you want to.
You can use the JBuds to up to 30 feet away from your wireless device and it fully charges after two hours.
Lenovo ThinkReality A3
Lenovo’s smart glasses are ultraportable and comfortable and created an expanded personal workspace from anywhere. You can be at a virtual monitor at home or a factory floor, these glasses allow you to view your secure data from anywhere from your virtual monitor as you are the only person who can view the data when being worn.
The ThinkReality A3 is also customizable to be the perfect fit for any head size with multiple nose pieces and earn horn extensions.
Prescription lenses can be mounted to the nose piece and can be easily interchanged. It also adapts to different use cases tied to a compatible computer or smart phone.
The eye lenses also provide protection for your eyes if you’re out in the field.
Taking it even further, it is also now tethered for the all-new Motorola moto g100 which allows for 5G speeds and WiFi 6 connectivity. The available AR solutions, which require a software user license to the ThinkReality platform, include easy certified applications to power remote assistance, workflow support, training and 3D visualization.
Oculus Quest 2
The all-in-one headset is filled with hundreds of experiences. There are new ways to exercise, socialize or get lost in the virtual world with this headset. Put Oculus on and sit front row at a concert, climb a mountain, watch a movie and, of course, play an interactive video game.
Quest 2 even gives you the ability to play live games with a friend or instructor.
The headset is made from high-level hardware and resolution displays. Oculus’ mobile app allows for easy setup and Guardian and Passthrough help make every experience safe and secure.
The Quest 2 community is rapidly growing, so it’s easy to find new friends and players on Facebook to collaborate and create in the VR world.
Ordro EP7 Combo 4K Head Mounted Vlogging Camera
This head-mounted camera comes with a one-year warranty, a 65g micro card, remote control, USB cable and a carry case. The hands-free mini body camera is perfect for YouTubers and Vloggers equipped with a Sony 13mp CMOS sensor, making it easy for 4K video output and support.
The lightweight body and ergonomic design makes it comfortable to wear and can be controlled by the app and Wi-Fi. Videos can be edited there and shared via social media.
The headset is equipped with two-axis anti-shake and auto-focus stabilizer to help record smooth and clear videos. And the Sony high ISO sensor and built-in HDR function, the EP7 model provides more details, even in darker settings. The headset is also rain proof, dust proof and sweat proof. The long durability battery also allows for recording while being charged.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro
The Galaxy Buds Pro offer Active Noise Cancellation, an 11mm woofer and a 6.5mm tweeter, which Samsung said is the “best audio experience yet. This new generation earbud is perfect for work purposes with features such as a Voice Pickup Unit and three microphones to enable the user to be heard clearly.
Two microphones detect ambient noise and blocks unwanted sound to keep you fully immersed in whatever you’re listening to.
One microphone on the earbuds has a high signal-to-noise ratio and “wind shield” protection to better reduce background noise.
Additionally, the earbuds can detect when users are speaking automatically turning down music when they are doing so. The Galaxy Buds Pro have five to 18 hours of battery life.
Vuzix M4000
Vuzix’s M4000 enterprise-focused smart glasses use a revolutionary Vuzix waveguide and non-occluded, see-through, heads-up display. The crystal clear, lightweight comfortable glasses make for professional quality streaming.
The headset also features input options with buttons, voice control and a swipe pad.
It includes increased processing power from a Qualcomm’s SXR1 chip which has eight cores as well as more memory and storage. The smart glasses have also been ruggedized and waterproofed with an increased resolution to 854 x 480. The camera has also been improved for scanning and telepresence capabilities.
The glasses come with tinted lens accessories, charge and viewer cable and an extra waveguide.
Whoop 4.0
If you’re an athlete looking to improve performance via extraordinarily detailed metrics, the startup known as Whoop has the gadget for you. The fitness and health tracker that takes its name from the Boston-based company behind it fits on your wrist and records everything from skin temperature to blood oxygen levels as well as sleep quality. Whoop 4.0, the newest iteration of the device, isn’t cheap. The tracker is available through a subscription at $18 a month at the lowest price point. With that, you get the wearable as well as the app that breaks down all of the metrics you’ll ever need. Now you’ll finally be able to train for that marathon.