The Best Fitness Tracker | The Wirecutter
The Best Fitness Tracker
Every fitness tracker currently available has strengths and weaknesses. Even though there is no perfect device, the $130 Garmin Vivofit’s (also available from REI) flaws are easy to forgive given the convenience of its wrist-mounted, waterproof design and a legible, always-on display that tracks your stats in real time.
There’s also a “move bar” that flashes red anytime you’ve been inactive for too long—a feature we, along with other reviewers, found highly motivating. It is currently the only fitness tracker that combines these features with the added benefit of never having to be hooked up to charger. Unfortunately, since the Vivofit relies on disposable battery power, the display is not LED or backlit for low-light conditions and the current mobile app/desktop software is still pretty basic. But we have four words for you: one-year battery life.
Last Updated: April 24, 2014
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Updated to note that the Misfit Shine no longer needs physical contact to sync between devices and is compatible with both iOS and Android now. While these are real improvements that put the Shine closer in competition with other fitness trackers, it's not in danger of unseating our Garmin pick.
If you can do without the wrist strap, the Fitbit One is the clip-based tracker with the most consistently positive user reviews and is still your best bet. At a bit less than $100, it’s a better deal as well. The Fitbit One may also be more appealing to those who prefer the Fitbit ecosystem for its compatibility with a wide variety of third-party apps and the social competition with your friends. But unless you’re opposed to wearing a tracker on your wrist, the Vivofit’s wristband design is a lot more convenient and harder to forget.
Finally, if you have an older Android phone, then the Withings Pulse is your only option for Bluetooth syncing. Reviews of the Pulse are not as positive as the One’s and syncing some devices takes about 45 seconds to complete, but at least it will work with your older phone.
What do I know about fitness trackers?
As a residency-trained podiatrist and distance running coach, I understand the importance of setting goals and measuring your progress toward achieving them. By calculating and graphically displaying a person’s daily activity, fitness trackers have the potential to be a very valuable tool. Through hours of research and testing, my Wirecutter colleagues and I have determined the best device to assist you in living a healthier life.
What does this do?
Fitness trackers, in general, don’t just measure activity– studies show they actually motivate people to exercise more.
In 2007, researchers at Stanford’s School of Medicine released a study that found pedometer use helped improve blood pressure and increased physical activity and weight loss. “Much to my surprise, these little devices were shown to increase physical activity by just over 2,000 steps, or about one mile of walking per day,” said the study’s lead author, Dena Bravata, MD, MS, a senior research scientist in medicine. Basically, they’re perfect for those who want to lead a healthier lifestyle but could use a little outside motivation to get there.
So what exactly is a fitness tracker and why would you want one? Basically, it’s a wearable mini-computer that uses sensors to gather different types of data about your activity and body. The most commonly included sensor is an accelerometer, which measures steps and other movements. It then uses algorithms to translate these readings into more helpful figures like distance traveled or number of “very active minutes.”
We all know that not all steps require the same amount of effort. A number of trackers have a built-in altimeter that allows them to factor in stairs and hill climbs to get a more accurate gauge of how hard you’re working.
Some models can even estimate and log sleep data. Most trackers monitor, record, and interpret movement to provide some general information about sleeping habits. Until some long-term prospective scientific studies are conducted, consider this feature a nice add-on to most trackers and not a precise measurement of sleep quality.
Additionally, a number of trackers allow you to log your meals and can estimate the number of calories burned on a given day. Daily vital body functions, such as breathing and brain activity, use energy and burn calories. These functions comprise Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and are estimated by taking into account an individual’s height, weight, age, and gender information. Fitness tracker software provides an estimate of calories burned by making calculations with both BMR and recorded activity data. As this Wired article explains, it’s far from an exact science, but it is another metric to serve as motivation.
All of this information is then synced with a smartphone app or computer where you can analyze your habits and gain insight into your health and wellbeing as laid out in neat little charts, graphs, and data tables.
Who’s this for?
Anyone who’s looking to measure their daily activity as they progress toward fitness or weight loss goals would benefit from a fitness tracker. The social or other motivational features baked into most activity trackers to encourage accountability between family and friends can serve as a strong motivating factor. They’re designed to be tiny and unobtrusive so you won’t think twice about taking them wherever you may go.
Anyone who’s looking to measure their daily activity as they progress towards fitness or weight loss goals would benefit from a fitness tracker.
If you’re a serious runner/triathlete and care mostly about recording your speed, distance, and route, this is not the right device to perform those functions. You will be better served by a GPS running watch.
If you don’t care about the data and are just looking for some motivation, a pedometer and a self-imposed goal could be sufficient, but that won’t paint a picture of your broader physical activity the way a fitness tracker would with automatic logging and visualization. You also lose out on the motivation from social network sharing.
How we picked
(Clockwise from top) Basis B1, Fitbit Flex, Nike+ Fuelband SE, Garmin Vivofit, Withings Pulse, Jawbone UP24. (Middle) Misfit Shine.
Keeping up with the latest fitness tracker announcements and product releases these days is no easy task. Every company on the planet seems hellbent on releasing their own device into this space. With the recall of our most recent pick, the Fitbit Force, we’ve had to go back to the drawing board to re-evaluate every option available.
In a perfect world, we would be able to find a tracker that is worn on the wrist; is waterproof; and has wireless syncing, a legible screen, comprehensive app support, and a long battery life. Ideally, it would accurately track steps, pulse rate, sleep quality, and altitude. Unfortunately, that remains a pipe dream for now. If you take the sum of all the currently available trackers, it’s possible to do all these things, but there’s not one tracker that does it all. So picking the best is all about figuring out which device offers the best combination of those features for the least amount of compromise.
To find the best tracker, we searched the most reputable online resources, review websites, and message boards to get a general sense of which devices people are using. We talked to and got opinions from the writers who are covering fitness trackers. After these steps, it became clear that there is not one fitness tracker to rule them all.
While the Force was widely acclaimed as the best fitness tracker by a great number of reviewers and websites, the same can’t be said of the Vivofit. The Garmin device definitely has its share of backers, including DCRainmaker, Wired, and Engadget, but the folks over at PCMag and Gizmodo weren’t very impressed by the device. So the final step in making our pick was some hands-on testing of the devices and their respective apps/software.
How we tested
In order to confirm the findings of reviewers and help determine the best use cases for each tracker, we tested the Vivofit along with six other top trackers: the clip-based Withings Pulse, Misfit Shine, Basis B1, Jawbone UP24, Nike+ Fuelband SE, Fitbit Flex, and the Moves app for iPhone.
I wore all these devices simultaneously for two weeks while walking, running, and playing floor hockey to collect some comparative data…
Overall, however, I found that the Vivofit’s weaknesses were the easiest to overlook, which made it the best tracker to live with. That’s why we think that it’s the best fitness tracker for most people. But again, none of these are truly bad devices, and it’s possible that you might be better served by a different model. As such, we’ve done our best to explain who might benefit more from each of the other options.
Our pick
The Vivofit fits securely on your wrist, has an easy-to-read display, and can be used in the pool, shower, or ocean. It can basically live on your wrist for a year before you need to change the battery, so no weekly recharge.
*This price has changed. Shop wisely.
The Vivofit has a rather large display.
This means it can basically live on your wrist for a year before the battery needs to be changed. While it’s fairly basic in terms of what it tracks (just steps and extrapolations from them), it’s more motivating than other trackers, which is more important. Christina Bonnington from Wired called it the most motivating tracker she’s ever worn, due to the fact that it never has to be taken off and the simple yet effective way the screen keeps you going by displaying red bars during extended periods of inactivity.
…it can basically live on your wrist for a year before the battery needs to be changed
Above all else, the Vivofit’s wrist-mounted, waterproof design and one-year battery life make it more effective than most trackers. The less time you spend taking it on and off or trying to track down where you left this thing, the more time you will spend wearing it and collecting data.
The clasp on the Vivofit.
As for the strap itself, it shares a similar clasp closure to the Fitbit Force—the latter of which generated usability complaints—but so far there has been no similar uproar in the Amazon reviews. For what it’s worth, when we talked to Garmin at CES, a representative told us that they were originally planning to launch the Vivofit in time for the 2013 holiday season but delayed its release to work on the strap. So far, this decision seems to have paid off. While Brent Rose from Gizmodo mentioned that he experienced a few instances of the device falling off mid-workout, the majority of other reviewers (including myself) have found the Garmin’s closure to be secure and more than adequate.
The Vivofit’s display tracks your progress.
The wrist-mounted design also has the added benefit of making your tracking data more visible, which makes it more difficult to ignore and thus more motivating. Instead of sending you an easily ignored vibration alert when you’ve been sitting around too long, the Vivofit displays a red bar at the top of the display.
Wired’s Christina Bonnington explained: “You come to dread the blinking red bar on the Vivofit display… But as exasperating as this bar of shame can be, heeding its gentle prodding does have a measurable effect. Using the Vivofit, I got up from my chair more, took more walks, and, in general, felt better.” In addition to the bar, I found during my own testing that getting instantaneous visual feedback on my step count and calories burned proved to be a more concrete motivation than the mere buzz that I got from the Jawbone UP24.
Wired’s Christina Bonnington explained: “You come to dread the blinking red bar on the Vivofit display… But as exasperating as this bar of shame can be, heeding its gentle prodding does have a measurable effect. Using the Vivofit, I got up from my chair more, took more walks, and, in general, felt better.” In addition to the bar, I found during my own testing that getting instantaneous visual feedback on my step count and calories burned proved to be a more concrete motivation than the mere buzz that I got from the Jawbone UP24.
…the Vivofit automatically sets a daily step goal for you based on your activity level in recent days.
While some trackers hope to motivate by tapping into your friends and social network, I can’t say that seeing the step count of a friend has really ever compelled me to make any big fitness changes. If anything, I’ve found these social integrations only let me know who is wearing and who has lost or isn’t wearing their Fitbit anymore (and are also limited to those who use Fitbit). Through Garmin Connect you can connect with friends and compare step counts if you so desire, but overall, Garmin’s solution is more self-sufficient and thus more likely to succeed if you don’t have a bunch of friends who use the same fitness gadgets as you.
The Vivofit taken out of its replaceable band.
Beyond motivation, having an always-on screen attached to your wrist is just more convenient for quick glances (most other trackers with screens require an additional button press to turn on the display). There’s no need to stop to pull it out of your pocket (like with clip-based trackers) or to sync it with a smartphone (like the screenless Jawbone). The inclusion of the display makes the device a few millimeters wider than the Flex but without any noticeable increase in weight.
Another nice bonus of the Vivofit is the freedom from recharging. The Vivofit’s batteries only needed to be changed once per year, giving it the ability to stay on your wrist where it avoids being forgotten and maximizes the data it can collect. The days of losing or misplacing your charging cable are gone with the Vivofit.
The Vivofit can also help estimate your sleep. Hold down the button before you hop in bed and the Vivofit’s accelerometer monitors how much you’re tossing and turning. While not a precise measure of sleep quality, the feature can give you some general feedback about your sleep habits if taken with a grain of salt.
Currently, the Polar Loop and the Vivofit are the only two fitness trackers that can accurately determine heart rate during vigorous exercise. While the Polar trackers use a Bluetooth Smart chest strap, the Vivofit will work with any current ANT+ heart chest strap with or without the monitor. Pairing the tracker to a heart rate monitor was very straightforward and switching to the heart rate screen begins recording the session.
The Vivofit records your pulse every 15 seconds and updates the screen with that information every second. This screen also displays heart rate training zones, which can be customized in the Garmin Connect app or website. If you’re looking for more than this simple implementation of monitoring heart rate offered by fitness trackers, a GPS running watch is an upgrade to consider.
The Vivofit records your pulse every 15 seconds and updates the screen with that information every second. This screen also displays heart rate training zones, which can be customized in the Garmin Connect app or website. If you’re looking for more than this simple implementation of monitoring heart rate offered by fitness trackers, a GPS running watch is an upgrade to consider.
As far as the actual tracking goes, the Vivofit won’t give you the most accurate data, but it will give you the best data. That’s because our testing showed that its readings are consistent and that—combined with the fact that you never have to take it off—means it will give you the most complete view of your fitness and activity level trends, which is really the whole point of these things for most people. What matters more than how many steps you took on any given day is that your activity level is consistent with what you personally deem to be healthy based on your past activity level and goals you’ve set for yourself.
Our testing over the course of two weeks showed that the Vivofit consistently measured the second or third most steps compared to the others tested, but it also showed that the measurements were pretty consistent.
As you can see in the graph above, the Vivofit (green trace) easily falls in line with the rest of the pack over the 13-day test period. This indicates that it provides consistent data that you can rely upon to deliver good information about trends in your activity level. Compare that to other trackers like the Fuelband and Misfit, which vary in the degree to which they differ. This implies that they’re both inaccurate and inconsistent, which makes them far less useful for tracking trends.
All of this daily information can be read on the Vivofit’s built-in display, but if you want to take a look back at previous days, you’ll need to view the data on a smartphone or computer. To sync with a compatible Bluetooth smartphone, you just need to push and hold the Vivofit’s button for about two seconds. As long as your phone is nearby with the Connect app running in the background, your data will upload.
Unlike the devices from Jawbone, the Vivofit does not require a smartphone (though it can make use of one).
After syncing your Vivofit’s data, you can then review and analyze it in great detail with the Garmin Connect iOS/Android apps or desktop portal. The Garmin Connect home screen design is very upfront with your current day’s info and makes it easy to access data from the past few days as well as historical data to look at trends in your activity levels.
For comparison, Jawbone’s app deemphasizes data visualization in favor of an activity stream on the home screen (think a Facebook newsfeed that only contains the fitness data for you and your friends). You have to scroll down a little further via the sidebar to get to more data, but you can quickly go look at the past couple of days via their own screens. We think Garmin’s approach is a bit more useful for most people because your own personal data is more important to you than seeing what your friends are up to.
Who else likes it?
As previously touched upon, professional reviewers have some nice things to say about the Garmin Vivofit.
Christina Bonnington, Wired: “The Vivofit, while perhaps not the most fully featured wearable, is the most motivating one I’ve tried thus far. The fact that it doesn’t need to be charged daily or weekly is a huge plus over competitors…If I were getting a wearable for a family member or friend, this is the one I’d buy.”
Ray Maker, DCRainmaker.com: “I think Garmin has nailed the device side of Vivofit. As an activity tracker, it checks off almost all the major boxes of what I want.”
James Trew, Engadget: “There are a lot of good things going on here. For once, we have an activity tracker that permanently shows your steps/time/goal, with little to no user interaction required. ”
Jill Duffy, PCMag: “Garmin’s Vivofit modestly covers the fitness tracking bases and hits a few sweet spots that will certainly cater to a particular crowd. If you are in the market for an activity tracker, have used Garmin products before, and are in need of a new chest strap HRM, the $169 price for the Vivofit bundle is a great offer.”
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Before we move on, we should make one thing abundantly clear: Making a waterproof device that runs on watch batteries requires trade-offs. You may note that the Vivofit has only a 3.5 star average on Amazon, but the vast majority of the negative reviews come from people who were expecting it to be something it never claimed to be.
You’ll find complaints about a lack of GPS, the lack of an altimeter, the lack of a backlit screen, etc. Basically, these are people who didn’t read the specifications and thought they were getting something that they weren’t. Don’t be that guy. If you exclude these reviews, you’ll find only a couple of complaints of broken devices and a few people who had some issues setting up the device, contrasted with mostly positive feedback.
As touched upon earlier, the main thing Garmin could improve on is the software support. Garmin Connect lacks the polish and features of the software and apps that are currently available for some competing trackers. “When it comes to ‘the little things’, that’s an area that Garmin has really stumbled on with the web site. It’s just lacking in features compared to other activity tracker sites like FitBit’s,” explained DCRainmaker. Though the Vivofit does estimate the number of daily calories burned, one notable omission from Garmin Connect is the ability to log meals.
…if it’s a must for your tracker to communicate with Lose It!, MyFitnessPal or your Withings Smart Body Analzyer, you’ll need to consider a different device.
And since it lacks the additional juice of a rechargeable battery, you can’t get fancy, power-hungry features like a built-in pulse sensor (though you can add a wireless strap), sweat sensor, automatic background wireless syncing, or vibration alerts (which also means no silent wake-up alarm).
Gizmodo’s Brent Rose found the lack of vibration to be a bit of a dealbreaker, but we found that the blinking red bar was enough to attract attention to our inactivity. This is especially true if you’re sitting at a keyboard and happen to glance down at your hands from time to time anyway. Besides, once you get in the habit of checking the time and your stats on your wrist (which won’t take long), there’s little chance that you’ll go much longer than an hour without glancing at your wrist. And when you do, the bar will be there, judging you silently with its judgment blinks until you get off your butt and get active.
There’s also not enough processing power to distinguish between various activities—though it’s not clear if the trackers that claim to be able to do this are even capable of such a feat. The one feature that they could and should have added is some kind of button-activated Indiglo backlight system for viewing the screen in the dark. If a $20 Timex can do it, a $130 fitness tracker should be able to as well.
Finally, if your main goal is to get as much data as possible and have it be as accurate as possible, the Vivofit is not for you. Accuracy isn’t a strong point of fitness trackers in general, and the Vivofit is no exception (no GPS here, despite Garmin’s navigation and tracking heritage), but it is consistent, which is what really matters here. No matter what you use, it’s a good idea to pay attention to the trends instead of exact step count. And in order to get the best trend data, you have to be using it more often, which you will be since you never have to take it off. The Vivofit will log the estimated distance you’ve walked, the approximate number of calories you’ve burned, and the approximate amount of sleep you’ve clocked over the preceding three weeks.
If this sounds like a lot of flaws, that’s because it is. But that’s not to say that it’s a bad device. If what you want is a no-hassle way to track your activity level and motivate yourself to be more active, you really can’t do any better right now. The waterproof, wrist-mounted tracker with an always-on screen and year-long battery life will always beat a more advanced tracker with umpteen specific sensors that has to be recharged every few days when it comes to meeting those needs. But if you have different expectations and priorities, there are other options that will serve you better—which we are more than happy to highlight for you.
If you prefer a clip design, or you’re into the Fitbit ecosystem
Also Great
The Fitbit One is our favorite clip-on tracker. It performs just as well as the Force, though it's a lot easier to lose or accidentally run through a rinse cycle.
Why would you care about the Fitbit ecosystem? Fitbit has been in the fitness tracker space with competitive social features for longer than the competition, meaning there’s already a pretty solid community of users on Fitbit’s website (and that community probably contains many of your friends already). There’s an argument to be made for the friend rankings acting as an extra motivating factor for many users —maybe not everyone, but there’s certainly a reason why people like to see how they’re doing compared to their friends and send taunts over the Internet.
Fitbit’s ecosystem also means that you can import your step data into a wide variety of third-party apps and services. This cannot be said of our new main pick, the Garmin Vivofit (though we still stand behind the Vivofit for its currently superior feature set). Additionally, since Fitbit also offers its own smart scale, you might be in the camp of those who want all their stuff to remain in sync through the same service. If you’re one of those people, we still think Fitbit is the way to go.
If you choose the One, be aware that it will require a certain amount of diligence to integrate into your daily routine. The One is perfect for those who’d prefer to wear a watch or aren’t excited about wearing a wrist-mounted device. Its small size makes it easy to hide, but know that the lack of a wristband means there is a greater probability you’ll forget to wear it—or worse, forget to take it off before doing laundry. If you want to know your daily progress you’ll need to unclip it or sync it up with your smartphone.
For non-Samsung Android users and/or a more complete picture of your health
Also Great
This is another clip-on device that isn't as good as our other picks but works with more devices since it supports Bluetooth 2.0 and 4.0.
For owners of older Android phones, it’s worth taking a look at the Pulse because Fitbit will not work with those phones.
As far as features go, the Pulse has everything you’d expect from a fitness tracker with one major differentiator: a sensor on the back of the device that measures heart rate. After removing the device from the clip, place your finger over the sensor and your heart rate is displayed and recorded. The whole process takes about 30 seconds for resting pulse rate measurements. There are medical studies that show the benefits of paying attention to this metric, but again, this is for resting pulse only. For those whose number one priority is health tracking as opposed to mere motivation and movement tracking, the Pulse gets a slight nod over the Fitbit One. We think this is a good idea in theory, but the fact that you have to unclip it to use it means that you’ll probably forget to do it a lot.
The Withings Health Mate app and desktop software are well-liked by reviewers and I found them both pleasant to use during my own testing (they’re a lot like Fitbit’s). These programs organize the activity data in a clean and simple manner, are easy to use, and place more emphasis on health metrics than social components for motivation.
As we previously mentioned, we think that wrist trackers are the best choice for most people, and at this time Withings only produces a clip tracker. Not everyone is happy with the current design. There’s a fair number of negative reviews on Amazon discussing the security of the clip and stories of the Pulse popping out. During my testing, I experienced one instance of my Pulse escaping the rubberized clip. Luckily I noticed and didn’t end up losing the device.
For those who love and have bought into the Withings ecosystem of products, the Pulse is a great addition. But the pulse rate measurement is more of a gimmick at this stage. Overall, until some of the small flaws of this device are rectified, we still think that the Fitbit One is the best clip fitness tracker available. While generally positive, Daniel Cooper of Engdaget saw some shortcomings with the Pulse: “As you may have gathered, we generally like the Pulse, but it has some problems that could ultimately hamper its success.” Mathew Honan of Wired said, “It’s a solid choice, and it has many strengths. Having said that, it’s not my current favorite, due entirely to the fact that it is an attachable device, not a wearable device.”
If you want a lot of accurate data (even for sleep tracking)
Also Great
The Basis collects the most data but it’s also expensive and the heart rate sensor will not work properly while exercising.
It’s got a retro-minimalist design and is available in white, black, and a recently released “Carbon Steel Edition” with some additional perks. The Basis is also one of the few trackers with some nice automatic features, like the ability to distinguish between running and walking and to start sleep tracking without the need of a button push. The sleep tracking is especially impressive compared to the competition because it’s able to use perspiration and pulse data to supplement movement data.
Formost trackers, sleep tracking is nothing more than measuring your movement during sleep. Basis is pushing the fact that they’ve made a big step forward with “Advanced Sleep Analysis,” including the ability measure REM sleep. A recent Huffington Post article showed that it provides sleep data that’s similar to what you’d get from a full-scale sleep study polysomnogram—pretty impressive! But one case study is not enough evidence to prove their claims. If these claims are confirmed with further research and testing, this would really separate Basis from the competition.
A lot of expert reviewers named this as one of their favorites, but they are connoisseurs who are willing to deal with a bit of hassle…
If you must have vibration idle alerts and silent alarms…
Also Great
The UP24 is now the only tracker from a major company that supports both vibration idle alerts and silent alarms, but it lacks a display and offers no way to differentiate between alerts.
If you’re willing to go without a screen, prefer goal-oriented tracking to data-oriented tracking, are more motivated by alerts than numbers and aren’t troubled by a spotty reliability record, then it’s not a bad option, but that’s a lot of “ifs.” Mathew Honan of Wired summed it up well: “While wonderfully useful, this band (UP24) feels like its playing catch-up.”
With their March 2014 software release, Jawbone has expanded the types of actions that can trigger a vibration alert. While it’s nice to have more programmable options, this could lead to confusion as to whether that last vibration was triggered because you’re late to a meeting, have been idle too long, or just reached your next 2,000 step goal.
The Up24 originally launched with only an iOS app, but in March 2014 Jawbone released an app for the Up24 that works with Android devices running version 4.3 or later with Bluetooth 4.0. That includes the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z1, Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Moto G, Moto X, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Note 3, Galaxy S3, and Galaxy S4. The Jawbone app features a visually appealing food logging system for those dedicated enough to use it and integrates with other fitness apps and health ecosystems. If they ever release a model that is cheaper and has a display of some sort, this openness could feasibly push it ahead of Fitbit, but only if third parties actually adopt the platform. For now, the Vivofit is the better buy.
The competition
As mentioned earlier, our previous pick for this category was the Fitbit Force. While we didn’t experience it ourselves, there have been many reports of Fitbit Force users developing skin irritation from the band. After more reports piled up, on February 21, Fitbit stopped selling the Force and issued a voluntary recall. In March, a lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed against Fitbit on behalf of customers who developed the rash. The company is offering full refunds to any Force owners. To return yours and get your money back, follow the link for the return form on this Fitbit FAQ page or call 888-656-6381
888-656-6381 to order a prepaid shipping envelope.
888-656-6381 to order a prepaid shipping envelope.
The $85 Flex, Fitbit’s original wrist tracker, lacks the digital readout of the Vivofit. Instead, it has an LED strip that tracks battery life and progress towards your activity goal for the day. This wrist-mounted design means you’re less likely to lose it, but it has some pretty major compromises besides the lack of a screen. Peter Ha reviewed it for Gizmodo and found that readings from the One and Flex differed dramatically on a day-to-day basis: “Over the course of four days, the number of steps tracked on the Flex versus the One varied from as little as a few hundred to several thousand.”
For those seeking the most minimal, stylish fitness tracker available, the Misfit Shine is worth a look…
For $150, you’d expect the Nike+ FuelBand SE to do more, not less, than its cheaper competitors. This updated version does feature the brightest and most colorful tracker display with some noted improvements, including Bluetooth 4.0, more band colors, sleep tracking, and the ability to measure and display steps. While we are pleased that Nike has included a real-life metric, “FuelScore” is still the emphasis here. Even with these improvements, there’s still no Android support. Reviewers aren’t impressed either. Scott Stein at CNET said, “The FuelBand SE comes closer to being a smarter continuous activity-tracking must-have than its predecessor, but the software’s still not as good as the feel and look of the band itself.” Nike has the cool factor and it has the brightest, most colorful display of any tracker, but until a Fuelband collects and display a broader range of actionable data, pass on this one.
Samsung has a $199 wrist-mounted fitness tracker called the Gear Fit that is full of promise but fails to deliver. On the positive side, the device features a curved, rectangular color touchscreen, which displays text clearly and is easy to read at a variety of angles, according to Gigaom. It can receive phone notifications and has swappable bands and a built-in heart rate sensor. The Gear Fit only works with these 17 Samsung devices, and while most trackers will last a week, Scott Stein of CNET found that the power usage of the Fit’s screen requires recharging every two days (with notifications enabled). Ray Maker of DCRainmaker.com had pretty stern words for the Gear Fit, calling it “the pinnacle of fitness failure.” He found that it can’t transmit step data to Samsung’s newest flagship phone, the Galaxy S5, and the optical heart rate sensor only works half of the time. Maker concluded, “This is a product I wanted to love, but ultimately, it just ended up being a huge disappointment.”
For those who want their fitness tracker to provide more information during serious exercise and prefer a display that works better in low light than Vivofit, the Polar Loop might be worth a look. The Loop measures the standard array of activity data and, similar to the Vivofit, it can display heart rate. While Polar’s $100 wrist tracker requires the purchase of an additional $55-60 chest strap, it’s one of only two trackers that can accurately monitor and record your heart rate data during vigorous exercise. In April, they released an Android app (that supports just three phones right now) and added inactivity alerts that will show up the Loop’s display.
There are also a couple of offerings for the budget-minded crowd. For those seeking a less expensive device to start tracking their activity, Fitbit offers the Zip. This $50 device features a small clip form and syncs via Bluetooth. The lower price means no backlit screen and the device is limited to three metrics: steps, distance, and estimated calories burned. That said, many users do seem to like the Zip, but they’ve chosen to make that feature trade-off in favor of an affordable, simple device.
The budget-minded Fitbug Orb has Bluetooth 4.0, an app, and accessories to go along with it, but at $50, you have to question its quality. While it’s very possible it could be serviceable as a device, there’s no chance the ecosystem and app will be as good as Fitbit’s. You will see many similar cheap trackers, but really, they’re just pedometers with Bluetooth and are not worth your money.
With their line of clip-based trackers, Striiv offers a different approach to getting people active. The Striiv Play and Smart Pedometer attempt to turn 10,000 steps a day into a game, donating to charity and competing with friends. While we applaud them for their original ideas in the category, we think the instantaneous feedback provided by a wrist-mounted device and seamless syncing beat out gamification.
What to look forward to
Fitness trackers are a hot category this year and there are a few so far that might be worth waiting for (if you can).
Withings announced in April a new accessory that will make its Pulse clip tracker able to be worn on the wrist. Now referred to as the Pulse 02 ($120) the tracker also now has the ability to determine your blood oxygen level. While the wrist strap is only currently available for purchase with the new Pulse 02, measuring oxygen saturation is available to previous Pulse owners via a firmware update. The wrist strap will be available for purchase separately “in the coming days.”
Sony has a new removable smart sensor that can be wrist-mounted called the Core. It features a dot-style display, waterproofing, and a variety of colored straps similar to the Fitbit Flex. Along with serving as a fitness tracker, the Core appears to be closely integrated into Sony’s Xperia line of smartphones. Along with vibration alerts and the ability to mute phone calls, Sony has developed an Android Lifelog app to allow users to journal and log photos. Though it’s not clear if “life-logging” is really what people want from their activity trackers. It’s on track for release some time in the spring of 2014.
A newcomer to the category is trying to stand out with a different spin on trackers: giving a wristband away for free…
The LG Lifeband Touch is a cross between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. In addition to tracking your activity data, it has an OLED touch display that puts your smartphone notifications right on your wrist. If you’d like to also measure heart rate, it’s not available on the wrist device but can be added by using LG’s Heart Rate Earphones. Yes, you read that right. It’s compatible with iOS and Android and will be available sometime in “the first half of 2014.”
As for the rest, Spree Sports and its forehead-mounted tracker are hoping to make body temperature a must-have fitness metric, which is strange, but who knows. The $349 Wellograph is a standalone fitness tracker that features a heart rate monitor and likes to display its data in graphs, but it’s probably too pricey for most people.
Movea’s new G-series fitness tracker claims it has the ability to determine if you’re standing, sitting, walking, or running. The wrist-worn tracker was deemed by The Verge a “Fitbit display paired with a Fuelband.” For runners, the ability to measure cadence and speed are potentially nice additional metrics. Movea says the accuracy of the G-Series will be better than the competition. We’re all for improved accuracy in trackers, but of course we’ll have to wait and see if Movea can back up its claims—this is just a reference design for now.
Office equipment manufacturer Epson is also jumping on the tracker bandwagon, with two wrist-based products, the Pulsense Band and a higher end Pulsense Watch, which measure heart rate and some other activity data. Razer also came out with a fitness tracker, the Nabu, which features two screens and touts some interesting features such as the ability to tap into web services like Foursquare and IFTTT. Meanwhile, if you’ve got terrible posture, help may be on the way from the Lumo Lift. Along with counting steps and calories, this clip tracker says it will be able to detect when you’re slouching and send some vibrations to remind you to correct the way you’re sitting or standing. Notch is a system of small sensors that track activity and body motion. Delivery of haptic feedback and speed and range of motion measurements may appeal to martial artists, dancers, and physical therapists when the Kickstarter project launches next month. But this is not yet a real product you can buy.
Amiigo raised more than half a million dollars on Indiegogo in 2013 promising the ability to recognize and measure different types of activity and exercise. They have yet to ship, so we’ll have to wait and see whether they’ll be able to compete with more established competitors in the future.
Huawei has released a fitness tracker unlike any other—whether that’s a good or bad thing, we’ll let you decide. The Talkband B1 has the basic features of a tracker but also can pop out of the band to be a Bluetooth headset. The ability to do both tasks comes with quite a few compromises, such as limited fitness tracking software and a display that sticks a good distance outside of the band. Ditching the charging dongle for a USB connector built into the band is a nice touch, but we don’t think this $135 marriage between tracker and Bluetooth headset was meant to be.
With a built-in microphone, the Kiwi Move does things that other trackers don’t.
The waterproof Reign wrist tracker from Jaybird has some interesting features, like the ability to detect movement by sport or specific activity. Pressing your finger for two minutes on its fingerprint sensor purports to let you know if you’re ready to exercise (according to how much sleep you’ve gotten, your heart rate, etc.). With a price of $199, it’s more expensive than most trackers so we’ll wait for reviews to determine if these features are worth the extra cost.
Yes, it’s expensive at $450 and not for most people looking to buy a fitness tracker, but Polar introduced the first GPS running watch that features daily activity data, the V800. As batteries and sensors get smaller and less expensive, we may see more GPS watches with this functionality and future activity trackers featuring GPS.
What makes a good fitness tracker?
An ideal fitness tracker would include all the available sensors (an altimeter, heart rate sensor, and perspiration sensor in addition to the standard accelerometer); a screen that shows real data instead of just dots or some proprietary score (ahem Nike Fuelscore, Shinepoints, we’re looking at you); a secure wristband; minimal need for charging; effortless, cross-platform wireless syncing; an effective method to motivate you away from excessive idleness; and enough water resistance to shower and swim with. Unfortunately, this platonic ideal of the fitness tracker does not exist, so let’s break these down in order of greatest to least importance.
The most important first step in fitness tracker use may sound extremely simple, but it’s much easier said than done: Create a habit of wearing the device at all times. In order to get an accurate look at your activity, the fitness tracker needs to be with you as much as possible. Not in your jeans from yesterday or on the counter next to the shower—it needs to be attached to or worn on you. (This is part of why using a smartphone app isn’t a great idea, because oftentimes it’s in your bag or on your desk—not on your body.)
The best way to get the most out of your device is to purchase the style of tracker that suits your personality.
Along with constant wear, good fitness trackers should last for close to a week without the need to recharge. While rechargeable batteries are standard in most devices, some models, including the Vivofit, contain watch-style batteries. Sure, buying batteries only to throw them away feels like an act from a bygone era, but since we get up to a full year without the hassle of charging, we’re okay with a battery powered device.
A good fitness tracker should clearly display your daily progress and activity data. Trackers range from having no readable display to an array of LED lights to OLED screens that can display legible text. The more expensive devices with the advanced displays will generally give you access to more types of data. If you want to sneak a quick glance at your data, a wrist tracker will give you quicker access to that information than a clip device. Linking to a smartphone to check is a good bonus, but it shouldn’t be the only way to get updates.
A good activity monitor should record your data in understandable units of measurement like steps, distance, altitude, and hours slept. We would suggest avoiding devices that rely heavily only on a proprietary point system (like Shinepoints and NikeFuel score). In order to perform these tasks, good trackers feature an accelerometer to measure your movement and an altimeter to determine the amount of elevation gain during your day. (Accuracy is still an issue for most activity trackers, and even for state-of-the-art running watches that feature GPS, but this will get better as algorithms and hardware improve.)
A powerful, easy-to-use mobile app and/or desktop portal software is also a very important component of a good activity tracker. Using an app or software that displays activity data in functional and clean manner makes it a joy for you to visualize and review your progress. Disorganized or confusing software makes it a hassle to understand and feels more like a waste of your time.
And who says that peer pressure is always a bad thing? The ability to connect with and be held accountable by family and friends with certain apps and software can also really help push you to achieving your goals.
Syncing and backing up your data should be as effortless and painless as possible, and that means it should be done quickly and wirelessly.
The best fitness trackers offer an open data format with the ability to share that data with other apps and software services. This allows your tracker to share your workout and activity data with your favorite weight loss or dieting app. Some tracker companies keep your data locked down or available in formats that don’t play nicely with these other apps or software.
Most good activity trackers will offer some kind of ability to track your sleep or at least measure how much time your wrist stays still at night. Initiating this feature generally requires a manual button push before you hit the hay. While it’s nice to have this feature, you probably won’t get too much from it considering sleep quality is a complex thing and most trackers base everything off of movement. You won’t miss much if you skip a night to charge your tracker.
Slightly more useful than sleep tracking is the ability to wake you up with vibration alarms. Your bed partner will appreciate this feature as well, as it doesn’t beep and can rouse you without waking up others who might have a different schedule.
Waterproofing is also a major bonus. It’s a good idea to take off any and all electronics when showering (even if they are water-resistant), but it’s good to have that extra insurance. Current altimeters require a small opening in the device to record the amount of stairs you go up and down. So if you want to know that data, you’ll have to settle for a device that is not waterproof.
As this product category continues to expand, fitness trackers appear to be converging with smartwatches and running watches. The ability to measure heart rate and perspiration is being incorporated into some current devices. Though these metrics are nice, for now they are just add-ons rather than must-haves when tracking your activity.
Wrapping it up
Most people will be happy with the Garmin Vivofit. For $130 (or $170 with heart monitor), you get a waterproof device to record and give visual feedback about your activity, plus its battery can last you a year before needing a change and it’s more motivating than its competitors. Unless you don’t want a device taking up space on your wrist or feel that measuring stairs is a must, the Garmin Vivofit is the fitness tracker you want.
Footnotes:
1. Android support is limited because of differences in software, as every Android manufacturer has their own chips and drivers. It’s hard to blame Garmin or Fitbit since this is more of a general Android fragmentation problem than a specific tracker company problem, but they say that things should get better when Bluetooth Smart Ready hits. This new standard will allow trackers to connect to a much larger selection of smartphones. Other devices make compromises to get around the problem of Android fragmentation, like the original Jawbone UP, which syncs via headphone jack, and the Withings, which forgoes automatic background syncing for older Bluetooth protocols that you have to activate manually every time you want to sync. If you have an older Android, you’ll just have to make do, but if you have an Apple or recent Samsung device, there’s no reason to compromise on ease of syncing when there’s no need to. Jump back.
Sources
- , Garmin Vivofit: Finally, a Fitness Tracker That Actually Gets You Off Your Butt, Wired, March 7, 2014
The Best Fitness Tracker | The Wirecutter
posted by Zo Heri at 10:19 AM
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