A perfect fit for exercise fanatics...
Stylish tracker device helps you make the gain, with less pain
The technology business loves a good game. There have even been suggestions that the global smash-hit Pokémon GO could assist with obesity levels in the young. Perhaps, but the phenomenon of gamification is now part of our technological lives. Reaching fitness or exercise goals is a challenge to our human nature, so wearing a device that gently reminds us to move more, and helps us share our results with friends and family online, can reduce some of the pain, while helping us to make the gain.
Fitbit is one of the dominant players in the fitness tracker business. Its new device, the wrist-worn Alta, is a mid-priced gadget that will monitor steps, calories burned, distance covered, active minutes and sleep. Your stats and progress will be displayed on your wrist, and in the free Fitbit app for smartphones.
When I unpacked the device, the first striking feature was how beautifully designed this tracker is. It’s the best-looking fitness tracker I’ve seen: roughly the same size as bracelet, and available in four colours and three sizes. In the box there was also a charging cable and Bluetooth adapter dongle that lets you connect the device to your laptop or PC if you don’t have a compatible smartphone.
After downloading the Fitbit app to my phone and creating an account, I put the device on my wrist. The band pairs with your mobile phone via Bluetooth so they can communicate and exchange information. The Alta has a good-sized, easy-to-read OLED screen that will relay notifications from your phone. The screen can be oriented horizontally or vertically and you’ll receive notifications of phone calls, texts, and calendar reminders.
There is no button on the gadget, so you interact with it by tapping the device. This should be a clever idea, but I found it occasionally didn’t respond. However, that may have been due to my strap being a little large. Once it’s on, you forget about the device and get on with your day. It is monitoring all the time and you do find yourself checking how you’re doing after a few hours.
After a few days of use, you begin to get a feel for how much activity you do ordinarily, as you review the charts on your phone or laptop. Fitbit says the Alta recognises some exercises automatically, using a new feature called SmartTrack, and it recognised my running but seemed to have trouble with some weight exercises. The alarm functionality of the device works well and I found the gentle morning alarm feature really useful.
The sleep tracking feature worked well and gives a good overview of how much, and how well, you slept – measuring not just sleep duration, but quality of sleep, by indicating the number of times you were awake during the night as well as how restless you were.
There is no heart-rate monitor, and it’s also not waterproof – although it will resist the sweat and splashes during ordinary use.
Overall, the features don’t bring a huge advancement on Fitbit’s other trackers, but the compelling reason to buy this is its styling. I wouldn’t upgrade an existing tracker solely for the limited number of new features on the Alta, but if it was the first such gadget I was looking to buy, it would be hard to ignore the sleek good looks of such an attractive device.