Exercise Bikes · Buying Guide
Best Exercise Bikes With a Screen
A built-in touchscreen turns an exercise bike into a studio in the corner of your room. Instead of clipping your own tablet to a holder, you get a large integrated display that streams classes and scenic rides and adjusts your resistance as you go. Here are the best exercise bikes with a screen in the UK, ranked on FitRank, with prices and who each suits.
These are premium bikes, running from just under £1,000 to £2,999, and they earn that price with heavy, quiet flywheels, commercial-grade frames and the big screen itself. The screen is the point, it is what makes a guided class feel immersive and keeps you coming back, and it removes the fiddle of propping up a phone or tablet every session.
One thing to be clear about from the start, because it defines this whole category. A built-in screen almost always means a subscription, because the screen exists to stream a platform’s classes, iFIT on the NordicTrack and ProForm bikes, and Echelon’s own membership on the Echelons. The bikes still ride manually without it, but if you are buying a screen bike, you are really buying into the platform behind it. If that is not what you want, our best exercise bikes without a subscription guide is the better place to look. This list runs in FitRank order.
The quick list
- Best overall · NordicTrack X24 · FitRank 4.6 · £2,499
- Best value screen bike · Echelon EX-5S · FitRank 4.5 · £1,099
- Best premium · Echelon EX-Pro · FitRank 4.5 · £2,999
- Best big-screen Echelon · Echelon EX7s · FitRank 4.4 · £1,999
- Best NordicTrack value · NordicTrack Studio 24 · FitRank 4.3 · £1,899
- Best recumbent with a screen · NordicTrack GX10 Recumbent · FitRank 4.2 · £1,499
- Cheapest way to a screen · ProForm Carbon Pro10 · FitRank 4.1 · £999
NordicTrack X24
The best screen bike we compare, and a proper studio machine. A large 24-inch rotating HD touchscreen runs iFIT, so a trainer takes you through scenic rides and studio classes while automatically controlling your resistance, and the screen swivels so you can step off for floor workouts. The ride is heavy, quiet and commercial-grade.
It is the closest thing to a live studio class you can put in a spare room, and the screen quality and auto-resistance are a clear step above the cheaper options.
Best for Anyone who wants the closest thing to a live studio class at home, with the budget to match.
Watch-out It is a serious £2,499 outlay, and the screen exists to run iFIT, which is a paid membership after the trial.
Echelon EX-5S
The value pick, and the one that makes the most sense for most buyers. A 22-inch HD touchscreen runs Echelon’s live and on-demand classes, with app-controlled resistance and a smooth, quiet ride, for around half what the top studio bikes cost.
It delivers the full screen-led class experience without a top-tier price, which is why it is the sweet spot of this list.
Best for The immersive, screen-led class experience without a flagship price.
Watch-out The screen is built around Echelon’s membership, so budget for that on top of the bike.
Echelon EX-Pro
The premium, commercial-grade Echelon. A large HD touchscreen, the heaviest and smoothest ride in the Echelon range, and studio-grade build made for hard, frequent use. This is the top of the tree if you want the best and price is a secondary concern.
Everything about it is built for a rider who trains often and hard and wants a bike that will not flinch.
Best for Dedicated riders who want a commercial-quality screen bike and are not counting the pennies.
Watch-out At £2,999 it is the dearest bike here, and like all screen bikes it leans on an Echelon membership.
Echelon EX7s
The step up from the EX-5S, with a larger screen and a more substantial ride. It sits between the value EX-5S and the commercial EX-Pro, for riders who want more screen and more bike without going all the way to the top model.
Think of it as the EX-5S with the volume turned up, more display, more flywheel, more presence.
Best for Riders who want a bigger screen and a heavier ride than the EX-5S, at a mid-premium price.
Watch-out A big jump in price over the EX-5S for gains many casual riders will not need, and an Echelon membership still applies.
NordicTrack Studio 24
NordicTrack’s more affordable big-screen studio bike. A large rotating HD touchscreen and iFIT with automatic resistance, in a slightly less commercial package than the X24, for around £600 less.
It gives you most of the X24 experience, the big rotating screen and the guided auto-resistance rides, for a good deal less money.
Best for The iFIT big-screen experience for less than the flagship X24.
Watch-out Not quite the heavy commercial ride of the X24, and iFIT membership is needed for the classes.
NordicTrack GX10 Recumbent
The screen bike for anyone who wants comfort with their classes. A built-in touchscreen and iFIT on a fully supported recumbent frame, so you get the guided, immersive experience in a low-impact, back-supported position.
It is the natural pick if a studio spin bike is too aggressive but you still want the screen and the classes.
Best for Riders who want a screen and guided classes but need a comfortable, low-impact recumbent.
Watch-out A recumbent is bulkier and less intense than an upright studio bike, and iFIT membership applies.
ProForm Carbon Pro10
The most affordable genuine route onto a built-in screen. A 10-inch iFIT touchscreen and auto-adjusting resistance on a solid studio frame, for under £1,000. It gives you the screen-led, guided experience at the lowest price here.
If a built-in screen is the priority but the flagship prices are not realistic, this is where you start.
Best for The most affordable route to a proper built-in screen and guided classes.
Watch-out A smaller 10-inch screen than the Echelon and NordicTrack flagships, and iFIT membership is required for the content.
The seven compared
| # | Bike | Type | Price | FitRank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NordicTrack X24 | Studio cycle (screen) | £2,499 | 4.6 |
| 2 | Echelon EX-5S | Indoor cycle (screen) | £1,099 | 4.5 |
| 3 | Echelon EX-Pro | Indoor cycle (screen) | £2,999 | 4.5 |
| 4 | Echelon EX7s | Indoor cycle (screen) | £1,999 | 4.4 |
| 5 | NordicTrack Studio 24 | Studio cycle (screen) | £1,899 | 4.3 |
| 6 | NordicTrack GX10 Recumbent | Recumbent (screen) | £1,499 | 4.2 |
| 7 | ProForm Carbon Pro10 | Studio cycle (screen) | £999 | 4.1 |
Why buy a bike with a built-in screen
The case for a screen bike is immersion and convenience. A large integrated display puts a trainer, a leaderboard and a scenic route right in front of you, which is far more motivating than staring at a wall, and on the connected bikes the resistance adjusts automatically to match the class or the hill, so the workout drives itself. You also skip the daily fiddle of mounting and charging your own tablet.
That last point sounds trivial and is not. The friction of finding your tablet, propping it up and opening an app is enough to lose a session on a tired evening, and over months those lost sessions are the difference between a bike that works and an expensive clothes horse. For riders who struggle with motivation, the screen is often precisely what makes the habit stick.
Screens mean subscriptions
This is the trade at the heart of the category, and it is worth understanding before you spend four figures. The screen is not there to show your speed and time, a cheap console does that. It is there to stream a platform’s classes and routes, and that platform is a paid membership, iFIT on the NordicTrack and ProForm bikes, Echelon’s own membership on the Echelons. Budget for that yearly cost on top of the bike, because without it the expensive screen mostly shows basic metrics.
Put a number on it and the picture sharpens. A membership commonly runs somewhere between £120 and £400 a year depending on the platform and plan, so across three or four years of ownership the subscription can add a meaningful fraction of the bike’s purchase price again. That does not make it bad value, a gym membership costs more and a boutique spin class costs far more, but it does mean the sticker price is not the real price. Work out the three-year total before you decide.
If the idea of an ongoing fee puts you off, a screen bike is probably the wrong category for you, and you would be better served by a bike that takes your own tablet and any app you like. Our best exercise bikes without a subscription guide covers those in full.
iFIT or Echelon
The screen bikes here run one of two platforms. iFIT, on the NordicTrack and ProForm bikes, is known for scenic global rides filmed on location and for automatically adjusting your resistance to the terrain, which suits riders who like exploring and being coached through a route. Echelon leans more towards live and on-demand studio-style classes with instructors and a competitive leaderboard, closer to the boutique spin-studio feel.
Neither is clearly better, and the choice is more about temperament than quality. If the thought of a trainer counting you through a climb while a leaderboard tracks the room is motivating, Echelon suits you. If you would rather be taken along a coastal road in New Zealand with the resistance rising as the road does, iFIT is the one. It is worth trying each platform’s app on your phone before committing to the hardware, since the bike locks you into that ecosystem for its screen content.
What size screen do you need
Screens here run from 10 inches on the ProForm Carbon Pro10 to 24 inches on the NordicTrack X24. Bigger is more immersive and easier to follow a class on, but it adds a lot to the price, so it is worth being honest about how much it matters to you. If you mainly want the screen for riding, a smaller fixed display saves money without changing the ride at all.
A rotating screen, like the one on the X24 and Studio 24, is the feature worth paying attention to. It swivels to face away from the bike so you can step off and follow a strength, yoga or stretching class on the mat beside it. If you want the bike to be your whole home gym rather than just your cardio machine, that swivel turns a bike into a training hub, and it is the single most useful screen feature here.
What these bikes cost to own
A screen bike is a two-part purchase, and the second part is easy to overlook. Take the ProForm Carbon Pro10 at £999 and add a membership across three years and you are into a very different number, while the NordicTrack X24 at £2,499 plus the same membership sits closer to the cost of a decent secondhand car. That is not an argument against buying one, it is an argument for going in with clear eyes.
Weigh it against what it replaces. A boutique spin class in most UK cities costs well over £15 a session, so a rider doing two classes a week is spending more than £1,500 a year. Against that, a screen bike and a membership is a straightforward saving, and it never gets cancelled because the class was full. Against a £229 bike and a free app, it looks expensive. Which comparison is fair depends entirely on what you would otherwise be doing.
How we chose these bikes
Every bike on this page has been scored with FitRank, our editorial rating out of 5 that weighs performance, build quality, value and features against each bike’s rivals and its price. We do not rank by commission, and the order of this list follows the FitRank scores exactly, which is why the cheapest screen bike sits at the bottom on score rather than being promoted for its price. Our scores draw on published specifications and independent owner and reviewer feedback rather than a single showroom session.
Who should skip a screen bike
Three types of buyer should look elsewhere. If a monthly fee is genuinely unwelcome, the screen is dead weight, and a bike that takes your own tablet gives you the same ride for hundreds less. If you already own a decent tablet and are happy to clip it on, you are paying a large premium for a display you effectively already have. And if you are self-motivated enough to ride to your own numbers without a trainer talking to you, the screen buys nothing you will use.
For everyone else, particularly anyone who has bought exercise equipment before and quietly stopped using it, the screen is the thing most likely to change that pattern. That is what you are really buying, and for the right rider it is worth every penny.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best exercise bike with a screen?
Do exercise bikes with screens need a subscription?
Can you use the screen without a subscription?
What is the cheapest exercise bike with a built-in screen?
Is iFIT or Echelon better?
Are exercise bikes with screens worth it?
What is a rotating screen for?
How much does an exercise bike subscription cost?
Is a screen bike cheaper than a gym or spin studio?
Want the immersive ride without the monthly fee? Our best exercise bikes without a subscription guide covers bikes that take your own tablet instead. For the full range across every type and budget, start with our best exercise bikes guide.
Chris writes the home fitness reviews across our sites, including our sister site HomeTreadmill.co.uk. He compares every machine against its rivals on UK pricing and specs, and scores each one with FitRank.
We may earn a commission if you buy through links on this page, at no extra cost to you. It never affects our FitRank score. See our affiliate disclosure.