Fitbit is no slacker when it comes to activity tracking. Every one of its many wearables is simple to use and precision built to appeal to your self-improvement urges.
However popular Fitbit is though, you could never accuse the company of being fashionable. Its latest band Alta wants to change that. An antidote to the Marmite-styling of the chunky Blaze, its slim stainless steel wristband design represents a chic update to last year’s Charge HR. Available in a variety of coloured plastic, metal or leather straps, the Alta is aimed at the stylish but casual gym goer.
So does their latest wrist looker deliver enough motivating smarts within its pretty shell? There’s only one way to find out.
SHINY, SHINY FACE
In other words, the Alta looks kind of classy. In contrast to many of the chunky trackers it’s pitched against, this Fitbit fits securely on your wrist and tucks in snugly under long sleeves, while its scored matt black straps feel comfortable against your skin. In training for a triathalon? This lightweight, unisex band won’t give the game away and it’s all the better for that.
Swapping between its interchangeable straps is easy enough as well. All it takes a click and twist – simple enough to do intuitively but there’s zero chance of the thing popping undone and your Alta dropping to the cold, hard ground.
SNOOZE AND LOSE
Like some other users, we did have some bother getting the speed of the double-tap right to wake up the screen. So much so that we abandoned this for the wrist-twist activation that happens as you turn the screen towards you, which is a much more ergonomically pleasing method anyway.
While it’s streamlined and a breeze to use the smartphone text, call and calendar notifications, when they do come, they frustratingly scroll past once and then disappear. Want to view them again? You’ll have to whip out your smartphone. Furthermore, only the first seven words or so of a text scrolls past, with longer sentences cut off, which slightly defeats the object of this feature in the first place. And by ‘slightly’, we mean totally.
LASTING THE DISTANCE
One day-to-day issue we had with the Alta was its strange lack of waterproofing. It can cope with your sweat and the odd water bottle splash but you have to take the Alta off before diving into a pool. Other activity trackers we’ve used have managed to survive accidental spin cycles so it’s a bit inconvenient. It inevitably led to us leaving it behind a couple of times as we flew out of the door.
STEP TO THE FEAT
Where the Alta interface has got it right is with the new addition of step mini-goals of 250 steps for each hour. Rather than waiting for you to fall behind and then suddenly berate you with a ‘Stand’ or ‘Move’ reminder like the Apple Watch, the Alta will give you until 10 minutes before the hour is up and then prompt you with a target as in ’73 steps to win the hour!’ and make up your 250 steps, which is the equivalent to 2-3 minutes of walking.
This neatly swaps low-grade electronic nagging for a ‘you can do it!’ target, which we found much more motivating, as well as a useful reminder to take mini screen breaks. The one-screen distance total and calorie count throughout the day was also useful to know.
GET YOUR SWEATS ON
That said, the ability of the Alta to detect that exercise has started and after 15 minutes to decide if it’s one of five types – running, outdoor cycling, walking, elliptical trainer and general cardio is useful. One clever feature is an audio cue of your distance, time and average or split pace that can play through your headphones. The frequency of the cue can be adjusted according to time or distance, which is great if you’re training to a race pace.
However, the lack of GPS tracking is a real loss for the Alta. For runs, bike rides and walks you’ll have to open the app on your smartphone in order to map and track your route.
SLEEPER BELL
After being woken up by the silent vibration alarm, it soon becomes a morning ritual to open the Fitbit app and log the number of hours clocked in the land of nod. You can compare your ‘restless’ times on the app’s timeline to how rested you actually feel. The sleep stats aren’t as complex as those on the Jawbone UP, which can sense deep sleep and REM patterns, but who really needs those numbers anyway?
‘APPY WITH THAT
VERDICT
Ropey touch-mechanics and text notifications aside, the Alta offers a week’s battery life and ties in neatly with Fitbit’s excellent app. Spend a few weeks with this svelte tracker and it might just make a fitness fanatic out of you after all.