Activity trackers, the small wearable digital devices that
count your steps, calories, and your sleeping patterns made an introduction a
couple of years ago. Consumers quickly caught on this new device for many
reasons, for example to better understand their daily rhythm, exercise
monitoring, or diet information. This an initial comparison between the most
popular wearable activity trackers and more information on numerous tracker
devices can be found later in the post, skip to this part now if you are not
interested in my rant of old-school technology.
Many might think this
is a new innovation but similar products have been existing for a long time. The
earliest memory I have of applications in today's tracker devices is an analog step counter and distance meter that I used some 15 years ago. I
would love to show a picture but haven’t found one yet, it was a boxy thing I
clipped on to my pants at the waist after having used a scroll wheel to set the
length of one single step. The length of a step was read from a piece of paper
that came with the thing that plotted the length of my legs, or inseam, against the length of my step. Once this boxy thing knew the length of my step it
could measure distance by detecting a step by the movement of my waist and multiply by my
step length. You can easily imagine how inaccurate this could be, for example if
I started to walk slower or start running the length of my step would not be
the same.
Ending my distant memory of the step-counter I had on my
waist while walking to school as a youngster it’s time to look at the new
generation. These devices come as bracelets, clip-ons, or necklaces and are
all small enough to be worn unnoticed. The idea is simple that you wear it
while it collects data on your movement, what you are doing, your heart rate
etc and then you can find out more about this data in an intuitive manner,
perhaps even share it with your friends on social networks. Most of them are
paired with your smartphone and you’ll sync with an app on the phone to view
what the tracker is collecting or you log-on to a website to further analyse the
data. As I have been thinking of getting one for a quite some time I made a
list to compare the devices on a number of factors. There’s a plethora of
options out there in different forms and prices so to limit my search further I
narrowed it to models you wear on the wrist and that doesn't cost more than
US$200. I searched the web to find as many options as
possible and composed the list below. There are links to official product pages and at the end of this post you'll find a spreadsheet with a direct comparison for each model.
 |
|
|---|---|
| Fitbit Flex |  |
| Jawbone UP |  |
| Larklife/Larkpro |  |
| LifeTrak Move 300 |  |
| Misfit Shine |  |
| Nike+ Fuelband |  |
Choosing which one to buy is a highly personal choice and before
picking one over the others numerous questions should be asked to yourself.
- Will I wear it to replace my regular wristwatch or do I want to wear both?
- Do I want to track what I eat and get information on of my diet?
- Will I share the information with friends and family?
- Do I want it to measure my pulse during my activities?
- Is long battery life important or can I remember to charge its battery every other day?
- Will I use it for swimming or other water activities?
- Do I want to read real-time information on my wrist or am I happy with logging in to a website or using a smartphone to view my data?
- Will I use it for specific exercise activities or am I happy with knowing the distance I walked during the day?
- Do you need to send the collected information to your doctor, coach, or do you want to analyze it further yourself?
The
spreadsheet is found here. I will try to update it with more information
and add new models as they come on sale. I haven’t bought any of them yet but
with the information I collected I’m ready to make a choice and submit my
order. I hope this will be useful for anyone else out there considering a
tracker device and are having a hard time deciding which one to pick. The information
is very concise and offers a direct comparison between each one on selected
features. Please do not make a decision solely on this or similar information.
These are all products that cost less than a regular shop-shelf wristwatch, and
are manufactured on a small margin I would assume. We have all bought a cheap
watch sometime from a street vendor only to have it break down in a few days.
That some of these trackers are sold and manufactured by well-known brands doesn't
mean that you should trust that you can use yours for years without problems.
Before making an order spend some time reading reviews and experiences from people
that are using the tracker you are interested in. Find out about the customer
service, measurement accuracy, firmware upgrades, and the overall experience as
a customer.
I hope the information becomes as useful as it was for me
for anyone else trying to decide which activity tracker to wear on the wrist.
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