Gear and Tech

Wearables, apps, and connected equipment — tested and ranked.

Last updated: September 2026
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Top Gear and Tech picks
Independently reviewed and ranked by our team
#1
Wearable Trackers Editor's Pick
Garmin Venu 4
Best all-round fitness tracker. Dual-frequency GPS, no subscription.
9.1/10
Our score
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The Venu 4 is Garmin’s most polished lifestyle smartwatch yet — a metal-cased AMOLED tracker that finally adds dual-frequency GPS and a genuinely useful flashlight to the formula. After digging into the full spec sheet and independent testing, here’s where it earns its price and where it doesn’t. Quick Specs Price $499–$549 (41mm/45mm) Battery life...

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#2
Recovery Tools Best Massager
Theragun Prime Gen 6
The professional standard for percussion therapy at a fraction of the price.
9.0/10
Our score
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The Theragun Prime Gen 6 is Therabody’s mainstream pick — the same 16mm amplitude as their $600 Pro model, in a more affordable, genuinely rugged package built to survive real training life. Here’s our full breakdown. Editor’s Pick Professional Standard Amplitude 16mm Stall force 30 lb Speeds 5 Battery 120 min Price ~$249 Our rating...

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#3
Connected Home Equipment Best Connected Bike
Peloton Bike+
The benchmark for connected cardio. Rotating screen, auto-resistance, unmatched class library.
9.0/10
Our score
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The Bike+ is Peloton’s answer to “what if the workout could follow you off the bike too” — a 360-degree rotating screen and auto-adjusting resistance built for anyone who wants their entire workout, not just cardio, run through one machine. Here’s whether that upgrade over the standard Bike is worth roughly $2,500. Quick Specs Price...

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#4
Connected Home Equipment No Subscription
Concept2 RowErg
The industry-standard rower, with zero ongoing membership cost.
8.9/10
Our score
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The Concept2 RowErg is the machine Olympic and CrossFit athletes train on — no screens, no subscription, just a flywheel and a chain that turn effort into precisely measurable output. Here’s why it’s still the standard almost every other rower is measured against. Best Cardio Resistance Air, damper 1–10 Monitor PM5, Bluetooth User capacity 500...

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Buying guide
Which Part of Gear & Tech Actually Fits You?

This category spans four genuinely different kinds of purchase — a $150 fitness band and a $4,000 wall-mounted strength machine are both "gear and tech," but they solve completely different problems. Here's how to figure out which subcategory is actually worth your attention.

Wearables vs. Connected Equipment vs. Recovery Tools vs. Apps

Wearable Trackers answer "how hard am I training and recovering" — worth it for anyone who wants data on sleep, heart rate, or training load. Connected Home Equipment answers "what do I actually train on" — a real capital purchase (bikes, treadmills, strength machines) for people building a home gym around guided programming. Recovery Tools address what happens after training — percussion and compression devices that speed up how you feel between sessions. Health Apps are the lowest-commitment entry point — software, not hardware, for tracking nutrition and workouts without spending on equipment at all.

The Subscription Question Runs Through Everything Here

More than any other category on this site, Gear & Tech purchases come with recurring costs attached — Whoop and Tonal effectively require an ongoing membership to function at all, Peloton and NordicTrack need one for their class libraries to make sense, while Garmin, Fitbit, the Omni Health Ring, and Concept2's rowers work fully with a one-time purchase. Before buying anything in this category, know which type you're getting into — the sticker price is rarely the real cost.
Frequently asked
FAQ
Should I start with a wearable tracker or a piece of connected equipment?
A wearable tracker, in almost every case — it's a much smaller purchase that tells you whether you're actually training consistently enough to justify a bigger equipment investment later.
Do I need a subscription for everything in this category?
No. Garmin watches, the Fitbit Charge 6, the Omni Health Ring, and the Concept2 RowErg all work fully without one. Whoop, Tonal, Peloton, and NordicTrack are built around ongoing memberships that carry most of the real value and cost.
What's the best starting point on a tight budget?
A wearable tracker under $200 (the Omni Health Ring or Fitbit Charge 6) or a single recovery tool — both give you real, useful data or benefit without the four-figure commitment of connected home equipment.
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