'I was surprised by just how impressed I was' — the 3 best wearables at MWC 2026 | Tech Radar

Overview

'I was surprised by just how impressed I was' — the 3 best wearables at MWC 2026

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Details

Smartphones are the big draw of MWC –— after all, that first ‘M’ stands for ‘mobile’. They're far from the only gadgets on show, though, and many of the major smartphone players also show off their smartwatches and fitness trackers at the Barcelona conference.

Well, in principle; I’ve been running around different booths at MWC 2026 in search of wearables, but only found three devices which could feasibly be called ‘new’. A few more devices were on display, but they were mostly older models — for instance the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra you see in the picture above.

The good news is that while a pool of three may not be huge, all could seriously impress. Plus I've thrown in an extra model too as a bonus.

MWC 2026 day 2: the 7 best gadgets we've seen today

Launched at an MWC warm-up event hosted by double Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, and costing a princely £349.99 (about

I was struck straight away by how light the Huawei Watch GT Runner 2 is — banish the thought of those chunky running watches which feel as much like a manacle as a fitness aid. This is especially true in one of the models I tested, which had a comfortable fabric band, but I also liked how light the synthetic strap was. Perfect, I’d imagine, for running.

The Runner 2 has a 1.32-inch AMOLED display, with a side button and rotating crown, and is 5 ATM and IP69 protected. Software- and feature-wise, it’s a similar beast to before, but with a few upgrades to fix gripes we had with the previous model, such as the introduction of contactless payment.

I didn’t test the original Runner, so perhaps this is a feature of that, but I liked how many different types of running course or test were present in the app; I’d imagine it’s great for prolific athletes or people trying to become better runners, and I always like a device that can work for different types of users.

Motorola already showed off its latest wearable, the Moto Watch, earlier this year, and snuck it out on sale at the end of January. Like many of Moto's stop-start attempts to create a solid wearable line, it went a little under the radar, so perhaps a showing at MWC can fix that.

Moto’s had limited success with its wearable line for years, but it teamed up with a legacy running watch maker to create this model: Polar, of the likes of the Polar Grit X2. Moto has also drawn on its old buddy Pantone to pick the colors of the watch band, so this is a real team effort.

The Moto Watch has a 47mm round face, protected by Gorilla Glass 3, and a steel crown. It runs home-brewed software very reminiscent of Wear OS, and Moto puts the battery life at 13 days, or 7 days if you use the always-on display,

MWC 2026 day 2: the 7 best gadgets we've seen today

I liked how premium the Moto Watch felt, given that it's an affordable option that starts at

Another device that technically already launched is the Xiaomi Watch 5; this was shown off to Chinese audiences in December, and saw an official international release alongside the Xiaomi 17 Ultra at MWC.

The big upgrade here is that the watch runs the Google-made Wear OS 6, instead of Xiaomi’s Hyper OS, and so it’s a bigger competitor to the Google Pixel Watch 4. This brings with it a few major perks, including access to Wear OS’ large roster of apps, as well as Gemini — which works pretty well here.

I was shown, and then got to try, a demonstration of Gemini on the Watch 5; I could ask my watch for directions to a certain location, and the watch would consult Google Maps to find the route and then display it to me. It felt like a genuinely useful hands-free function — and best of all, Gemini was acting just like Google Assistant Plus, instead of the weird chatbot AI tool that Google forces it to be. I’d be curious to see how many other tasks the Watch 5 can accomplish with Gemini.

Beyond that, the Xiaomi Watch 5 has a 1.54-inch AMOLED display, electromyography sensor for gesture control and six-day battery life; that’s a lot better than most Wear OS devices. It’s on sale now for £269.99 / AU

The Honor Watch 5 Ultra gets a spot for honorable mention not just because of the name, but because it’s not technically a new watch; in fact, it’s nearly a year old. However it was out in force at MWC, mostly to show the cross-device functionality of Honor’s devices, so I’m bringing it into consideration.

This is a big and expensive wearable, costing €279 (about

It was shown at MWC to demonstrate part of the wider brand ecosystem, hiding in the shadows of the foldable Honor V6 and Robot Phone. Apparently if you own other gadgets from the brand, you’ll get some features in common, and tools shared between them — though as this wording implies, I couldn’t figure out what.

Tech Radar is on the show floor for this year’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona, Spain, and we’ll be covering the latest news from some of the biggest names in mobile, computing, fitness and more.

Follow Tech Radar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course, you can also follow Tech Radar on You Tube and Tik Tok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on Whats App too.

Tom Bedford is a freelance contributor covering tech, entertainment and gaming. Beyond Tech Radar, he has bylines on sites including Games Radar, Digital Trends, Whatto Watch and BGR. From 2019 to 2022 he was on the Tech Radar team as the staff writer and then deputy editor for the mobile team.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

1'I was surprised by just how impressed I was' — the 3 best wearables at MWC

2 Steve Jobs derided netbooks, and now Apple’s made one in the Mac Book Neo

3'We wanted something that felt fun and friendly, and fresh, and felt like it really suited the spirit of this product': Apple exec on why their new budget laptop is called Mac Book Neo

4 The 15 best i Phone 17e cases to protect your phone, while still looking cool

5'We can accelerate the adoption of post-quantum resilience for all web users': Google reveals how Chrome will help secure HTTPS certificates against quantum computer attacks — without breaking the Internet

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Key Takeaways

• 'I was surprised by just how impressed I was' — the 3 best wearables at MWC 2026

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• Smartphones are the big draw of MWC –— after all, that first ‘M’ stands for ‘mobile’

• Well, in principle; I’ve been running around different booths at MWC 2026 in search of wearables, but only found three devices which could feasibly be called ‘new’

• The good news is that while a pool of three may not be huge, all could seriously impress