Top 10 Smart Wristband Fitness Activity Trackers

Samuel J Tan Fitness, Sports & Leisure, What's Hot 1

Following a full-on health and fitness daily regime, going to training, exercising at the gym or simply wanting to make sure that you stay healthy and keeping track of your daily activities, here are 5 best health and fitness wristbands to get you started.Generally, these smart wristbands or activity and sleep trackers perform the following functions:

activity tracker (rest, moving or sleeping)
pedometer or step counter calculates the steps taken and distance traveled
calories burned, moving and resting time
sleep monitor lets you see you sleep pattern at night
set goals (sleep, steps, exercise, calories burned, distance traveled)
most devices are water proof or water resistance so you can take this to swimming and shows time of the day
log and sends this wirelessly to an App (and/or) Internet portal so you can access your personal dashboard and track your activities either online or via an app
more advanced models logs heart rate and blood oxygen level.

Table of Contents

Top 10 Best Smart Activity Trackers and Health Monitors

We will look at the following and how they compare:

Fitbit Charge HR [HR Monitor]
Jawbone UP3 [HR Monitor]
Misfit Shine
Withings Pulse O2 [HR and SPO2 Monitor]
Garmin Vivofit 2 [HR Monitor model available]
Garmin Vivosmart [Notifications, HR & SPO2 Monitor]
Prestigio Smart Pedometer
Fitbug Orb
Polar Loop [Optional Separate HR Monitor]
Nike+ Fuelband SE

Fitbit Charge HR

Fitbit Charge is a heart rate monitor and activity tracker wristband with a scrolling OLED display, the highest model in wristband range from Fitbit. If you are after one with bigger screen then there is the Fitbit Surge and the new Fitbit Blaze, a performance wrist watch.

PurePulse Heart Rate continuous monitor
All Day Activity Tracker: tracks workouts, steps, distance, calories burned, floor climbed and time
Caller ID and watch with daily stats and time on OLED display
Track Exercise; record workouts and real time exercise stats and summaries
Battery Life: over 5 days
Monitor Sleep automatically and set a silent alarm
Sync Wirelessly and automatically to smartphone and computer

Available in Black, Plum, Tangerine, Blue or Teal.

Also see Fitbit Flex at the bottom of the article

Jawbone UP3 Tracker

For the fashion conscious, here is the fitness tracking wristband designed with style. Designed to look more like a piece of jewellery or accessory, the Jawbone UP hides the fact that it is a piece of fitness tech very well. The step counter works together with the UP app (iOS and Android to show you if you have reached your goals, motivates you to perform better, compares your performance to other users (the UP community) and track your history.

It also monitors your sleep and tells you how much deep sleep you had in the night and how long you’ve slept for. The wristband can be set to vibrate as a wake up alarm. Available in three sizes; small, medium and large and in three colours; Onyx Black, Mint Green and Bright Blue, it does have a certain appeal in its design.

Heart Health – advanced bioimpedance sensors automatically track your Resting Heart Rate and Passive Heart Rate for a complete picture of heart health
Advanced Activity tracker – monitor steps, exercise and overall calories burned throughout the day
Advanced Sleep – automatically track your sleep stages—Wake, REM, Light, and Deep. Using this data, Smart Coach gives you suggestions to maximize your sleep and improve the quality of your days
Food Logging – log your meals and track calories in no time with the UP® barcode scanner, restaurant menu search and food database
Smart Coach – motivation and personalized insights you need to reach your goals. It gets smarter over time as gets to know the wearer and offers insight and tips
Battery Life: up to 7 days
Splash-proof – do not submerge in water
Sync wirelessly via Bluetooth Smart for real-time progress report.

Misfit Shine

Here is a rather conventional looking wristband in a typical watch profile minus the digital or analogue clock face. Instead, you get a shiny metal disc made from air craft grade aluminium with LED indicators arranged in a circular fashion. The Shine tracks your daily steps, calories used during sports such as swimming, cycling, running and football. Available in Black, Topaz, Champagne and Chrome. Removable from the rubber wrist band, you can also attach this to a necklace as a fashion accessory

What You Need to Know

Tells the time
Calculate steps, distance travelled, calories burned and sleep monitor (light, deep)
Activity tracker (cycling, swimming, soccer, tennis)
Water resistant to 50 m
Syncs via Bluetooth to Shine app (iOS and Android) where you can set goals, view stats, trends and insights
Battery life 4 months (coin cell battery)
Colours Available: Black, Champagne, Topaz, Chrome, Coral, Red, Storm

Withings Pulse O2 (aka Pulse Ox)

What You Need to Know

Activity tracking: steps, elevation, distance, running, calories burned
Vitals scanner; instant heart rate and blood oxygen level (SpO2) scanner on the back of the device
Sleep monitor; cycle analysis, wake-ups and total sleep duration
Real-time coach in the free Health Mate app available for Android and iOS
Large OLED 128 x 32 pixels touch display, Bluetooth 4.0, lasts 2 weeks between charges, Micro-USB port
Adaptable, clip and wristband included
Colour Options Available: Black, Blue

As of September 2014, Withings have renamed Pulse O2 to Pulse Ox due to conflict with Telecommunications Group O2 as well as include some nifty improvements:

customise tracker screen
no need to exit tracker mode
automatic time zone recognition when travelling

Garmin Vivofit 2

The predecessor to the original Garmin vivofit, the vivofit 2 does not look very different from the previous generation with all the features you love from the first generation vivofit. The Garmin Vivofit sWireless Fitness Wrist Band and Activity Monitor is a stylist, lightweight, comfortable and waterproof (50m) health watchband with over 1 year battery life. There is a separate model that includes Heart Rate monitor.

What You Need to Know

Displays Time
Steps taken, Distance travelled, Calories burned and Activity Tracker
Goal countdown
Inactivity alert (learn your activity level) with red bars appearing if you sit still for too long
Monitors your sleep
Syncs wirelessly via Bluetooth with Online dashboard or Garmin Connect Mobile app
Water resistance up to 50 meters
Battery life over 1 Year, replaceable CR1632 coin cells

Assigns a personalised daily goal and monitor your progress, reminds you to move – the longer you are inactive, the more red bars appear). Wirelessly sync Vivofit with Garmin Connect, a free on-line fitness community portal. The online dashboard shows your progress and allows you to track your activity between training sessions. Garmin Connect mobile app is available for iOS and Android devices.

Also available Vivofit with Heart Rate Monitor, the Vivofit can be paired with a heart rate monitor (available to purchase separately) for use when you are taking part in fitness activities.

Garmin Vivosmart

Garmin Vivosmart is not only a health and fitness wristband, it also serves to notify its user when there is a call, text, meeting, calendar reminder and emails and includes a vibration alert. The wristband has an OLED touchscreen display that lets you scroll through the different screens.

What You Need to Know

Shows time and date
Tracks activities; steps taken, goal countdown, distance, calories burned and monitors sleep (total duration, restful sleep, periods of movement and wake up alert)
Smart notifications: monitor calls, texts, meetings, calendar reminders and emails. Set your alerts with the companion app e.g. to only notifies you when you receive an email from your VIP group.
Vibration alerts for calls, texts, emails, meetings or when you need to move
Discreet, lightweight, flexible and water resistant wristband with a swipe OLED touchscreen to scroll
Sync wirelessly via Bluetooth with Garmin Connect on your mobile or computer to save, plan and share fitness progress
Set goals, track your progress, earn virtual badges, join online challenges and connect, compete and compare with others
Up to 7 days battery life between charge
Colour Options: Berry, Purple, Blue, Slate, Black

Prestigio Smart Pedometer

Prestigio Smart Pedometer is a real time activity monitor. It monitors and store your activities so you can send this to the companion app to follows and analyse your daily result.

What You Need to Know

Tracks steps taken, calories burned, distance travelled
Displays time
Ultra long battery life up to 7 days
Bluetooth 4.0
Light weight 21 grams
Monitors your progress and motivates to achieve your goals
Free Family Health Compass app for iOS and Android

Fitbug Orb

One of the affordable fitness tracker, the Fitburg Orb syncs with KiK, your personal digital coach that lets you set weekly step targets, reminders and event sends you encouragements.

The device works by sending daily activity stats wirelessly to the Fitbug app. Available in Black, Pink and White.

What You Need to Know

Tracks your sleep and movement around the clock
Measures all activity accurately with on board pedometer
Track your calories and start eating better
Your Digital Coach, KiK provides weekly motivation to help achieve your goals
Set you personalised lifestyle programmes, challenges and incentives
Wear it with clip for belt, pocket, swimsuit or with band on the wrist
Uses 3V Fitbug Lithium battery, last 3 – 6 months (non-rechargeable)
Splash resistant
Cheapest tracker
Colour options: Black, Pink and White

Polar Loop 2

The Polar Loop lets you track your daily activities using motion analysis technology. You can set targets for yourself by choosing the different levels of activity from low to high intensities and work towards them.

What You Need to Know

Tells the time
Steps counter, distance traveled, calories burned, monitor quality of sleep (restful, restless and percentage restful)
Inactivity alert with vibration to get up after 55 minutes of sitting and add active break to daily routines
Activity goals offers practical guides for reaching daily goals, break up activities into five intensity levels; resting, sitting, low, medium and high
Track calories burned based on personal data; weight, height, age, gender and intensity of physical activity
Smart coaching offers activity guide to reach daily goals, activity benefit for feedback on daily, weekly and monthly activity, smart calories to show calories burned, training benefit for motivating feedback.
Automatically tracks sleep time and quality and gain insight to sleeping patterns in Polar Flow web service and app
Battery Life: up to 8 days
Syncs to Polar Flow mobile app via Bluetooth (iOS and Android)
Smart notifications for incoming calls, messages and calendar reminders
Can be paired with heart rate monitor Polar H7: for energy pointer in smart coach for help to get into shape and current heart rate.

Nike+ Fuelband SE

FuelBand lets you measure all sorts of activities from your morning workout to your big night out. It does this by measuring whole body movement and uses its own NikeFuel metric (NikeFuel Rate, NikeFuel earned per session) and it calculates not only how much you moved, but also how often and how intense. There is a move reminder and insights on the app to let you know how you are doing as well as connect and share your progress with friends, create and join groups, set a challenge or goal and work on this together to see how gets to the top on the leaderboard. Instead of badges, you collect Nike+ trophies and reach celebratory milestones.

What You Need to Know

Measures your daily activity (walking, running, dancing, basketball and other activities)
Step counter, monitor calories burned
Set your daily goal and track your progress through the day (red to green indicator)
LED lights up from red to green to indicate that you have achieved your daily goal
Wirelessly sync to Nike + FuelBand app for iOS devices via Bluetooth 4.o
Water resistant and ambient light sensor of automatic brightness

Last up to 4 days between charge, battery level indicator, charge via USB port

Includes USB charging cable, charging stand and sizing tool
Colours Available: Volt, PinkFoil, Total Crimson and Black

OTHERS

Fitbit Flex

This is a straight forward wristband with no screen but has a series of LED indicator. It records the steps taken, distance traveled and calories burned. It record the active minutes as well as the sleep hours including the quality of your sleep. You can also set a silent wake alarm to when you are ready to get up and start your day. The band is water resistant so you can take it outdoor. Use the online and mobile tool to set and track your goals as well as interact with others and see how you perform on a leader-board.

What You Need to Know

step counter, distance, calories burned and active minutes
monitor how long and how well you sleep
silent wake alarm
LED lights show your daily progress against your goals (also notifications and milestones)
Set goals, view progress and earn badges. Share and compete with your friends
Syncs automatically via Bluetooth with mobile devices and computer
Log food, weight, and more on Fitbit website (dashboard) or apps (iOS and Android)
NFC enabled, launches Fitbit app by tapping (Android only)
Last up to 5 days between charge
Colours available: black, slate, tangerine, lime, navy blue, pink, teal, red and violet.

Fitbit Flex also works with other fitness apps, Sparkpeople, LoseIt!, MyFitnessPal, MapMyFitness, Runkeeper and Endomondo. Supplied with the actual Flex tracker, one small and one large wristband, charging cable, wireless USB dongle and Fitbit account. You can buy three pack accessory bands in teal, tangerine and navy.