I walked 12,000 steps with $799 Apple Watch Ultra 3 and $199 Garmin Cirqa — here's the winner

(Image credit: Future)

I’ve been writing about fitness trackers for the better part of a decade, and one thing I always do when unboxing a new device is look at how well it does the basics. One of these easy-to-measure basics is how many steps I’ve taken; hence, these Tom’s Guide walking tests were born.A few weeks ago, I unboxed the Garmin Cirqa — Garmin’s first screenless tracker, which is set to take on the likes of the Fitbit Air and the Whoop 5.0. My first walking test compared the Garmin Cirqa to the Fitbit Air, and it was pretty disastrous. Since then, I’ve customized the button on my Cirqa and worn it continuously for the past few weeks.To see if things had improved, I strapped it on and walked 12,000 steps with the $799 Apple Watch Ultra 3. Of course, I don’t think most people would be trying to choose between these two devices — they are extremely different. But I wanted to see how the $199 Cirqa kept up with Apple’s most expensive and smartest smartwatch. Read on to find out which came out on top.

Watch Ultra 3

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is Apple's smartest smartwatch, with the longest battery life of any Apple Watch, as well as tons of health and fitness tracking features.

Garmin