New fitness trackers seem to be popping up on a daily basis. Thanks to the lovely folks at Fit Approach, I’ve had the opportunity to test drive one of the newest bands, the Runtastic Orbit.
Like many other trackers, this one tracks steps and sleep but has some fun features that other bands lack. My favorite is that it’s waterproof. You can shower, swim, do the dishes and not worry about your band getting wet. The actual device is excellent and seems like it can hold up against intense activities.
Some other trackers are a bit too fragile for my taste (and activity level) but when I wear the Orbit I’m not worried that I’ll break it (I’ve already broken three UP bands!). The look of the band is fine. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it. What I do love is that you can view the time and your steps on the device. If I’m going to wear one of these bands it might as well tell me the time. If you don’t like it as a watch you can use a clip to put it elsewhere. You also have the option of a variety of band colors so you can switch it up every so often. I do wish it looked a bit more fashionable. I’m not sure why Tory Burch+FitBit is the only brand to make a fitness tracker a fashion accessory but other brands need to get on it!
The Orbit comes with an app and the band uses blue tooth to automatically upload your data when you open the app. This is a huge plus, it takes only a few seconds to get your data in the system. The app is pretty basic, it shows where you are against your sleep and step goal, your active minutes, your calories and your total distance walked. If I could change the app I’d make it social so you can connect with friends using the Orbit, for now though it’s just you viewing your data. You also can only scroll backwards one week to look at your data and you aren’t given any overall data, just day-to-day.
There are some functions I haven’t quite figured out yet because it seems like there are multiple Runtastic apps that you can use with the band (like a running/workout specific app). I’d prefer if all features were included in the one app to make it a bit more user friendly. I’m new to Runtastic and am not sure of how to get the most out of the band. Within one app I would add a workout tracker (so I can note if I’m cycling, running, playing tennis, etc) and a food tracker. The battery life is only about 5-7 days. I wish that it said exactly how many days were left before your battery died but instead it shows you a bunch of lines and how many are left, this isn’t super helpful when figuring out when you need charge it. It will vibrate when it’s almost dead so that’s something.
The sleep function isn’t perfect. When you’re going to sleep you press the button to indicate you are going to sleep and then you press the button again when you wake up. The tracker notes all of this time as “sleep” but obviously I didn’t immediately fall asleep upon hitting the button. You get a sleep efficiency percentage number but I don’t really know what this means in terms of my total time asleep. I think that all trackers are slightly flawed when it comes to tracking sleep (how does it know if I’m awake or just moving in my sleep?) but this one still needs work.
Overall, I think this is an excellent tracker in terms of the actual device. The steps recorded seem accurate, it makes me take more steps than I would if I wasn’t wearing one and I’m not worried that I’ll break it. Bonus points for being able to wear it in the pool! I’d love to see a more sophisticated app to go along with it and I believe there are changes/updates coming. I’m looking forward to seeing what Runtastic has in store!
Do you use a fitness tracker? Which one do you like?
