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Review: iHealth Wireless Activity and Sleep Tracker

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What is it?

This activity and sleep tracker from iHealth measures your steps, counts your daily calories burnt, measures how well you sleep and adds to that a watch and a silent alarm to wake you up with a vibration rather than a noisy alarm.

Look and feel 

The tracker itself looks like a thick circular disk. On the front is a rectangular display lit up with an LED matrix to give you information, while the back holds a tab, removing which exposes a micro-USB port, letting you charge this. On the side is a button, that can be pressed to go through different modes.

The tracker comes with a couple of straps (blue and black), as well as clips so you can put it on your belt as well. They are made out of good quality plastic, which holds the device secure, whether on your wrist or buckled on a clip.

Ease of use

There are two ways to use this device. Through the display as well as through the app. Sadly the app does not work with anything other than Apple devices, which is a shame since this is a great device.

Manual use is great, as the display automatically shows the time when you face the wrist towards your way. Another flick and it shows your steps. Another flick, and it shows your distance walked. Another flick, and it shows your calories burnt. Simple, and effective.

Don’t like flicking your wrist? Simply tap it. It goes through modes as well.

If none of these work, just press the button on the side, and that lets you cycle through those as well.

Pairing the device with the app

One of the simplest setups I have ever seen. The best way to start is to install the app and create an account.

Once you have installed the app, just plug the charging cable in, and that wakes the device up. As you do that, the app will find the device, and it is all you need to do.

The device should be picked up by your iPhone/iPod/iPad next time you fire it up.

I don’t like making random accounts. Can this run without it?

No, but the advantage of the account is that once paired you will be able to access your activity and sleep data through their website as well. This brings it in line with some of the bigger players on the market.

App information

The app gives you more control over the device. You can use it to setup units (miles, kilometers, kg, lbs, etc). You can also use it to setup other properties, and our favourite feature, the silent alarm.

Silent alarm?

Yeah, apart from sleep tracking, the silent alarm is a great feature, which wakes you up by vibrating the device. Of course, for it to be effective, you probably need to wear it when you sleep, which may or may not be your thing. I found it very effective.

Sleep tracking

Sleep tracking is becoming an active part of most fitness trackers. They work on varied principles, but since this one doesn’t really have a heart monitor, it is based purely on your nightly movements. It measures how soon you went to sleep, and times between you waking up, regular sleep and deep sleep. The idea is that the better you know your sleep habits, the better you can regulate it.

Activity tracking

As simple as it gets, again. You can see how active you have been throughout the day, and what levels. The device gives you steps, but the app gives you more detail, such as fairly active or just active.

Reminders

The app also has a little tab called ‘Reminders’. Ideally I would have thought this can be used to let the device give me little reminders, such as ‘feed the cat’, ‘call Mom’, etc, but sadly those reminders do not appear on the device. They appear on your iPad/iPod/iPhone, which is a bit pointless, as you can use other apps to do that for you.

Is it waterproof?

No. It can deal with splashes and rain, but it is clearly stated in the manual that you shouldn’t wear this while taking a shower or swimming.

Does it measure my activity while cycling?

Theoretically, no. The only way to make that work is if you wear it around your ankle, so it can measure your legs movement.

All these new activity trackers are coming with a heart monitor. Does this have one?

No, which is why it can’t measure an activity such as cycling.

Battery Life

The manual promises 5-7 days. We were able to squeeze 5 days out of it 0n typical use over 3 weeks.

Buying information

This can be found under the Fitness Accessories category at MobileFun.co.uk:

http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/ihealth-wireless-activity-and-sleep-tracker-with-watch-and-belt-clips-p43252.htm

It retails for £49.99.

Verdict

Wait a minute. Does all that cost just £49.99? Yes. It does. Which makes this a brilliant buy and a great value for money. An all around product, which is how we like our gadgets. The only problem is that it isn’t waterproof, which makes it harder for us to accept this as a permanent watch.

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