Bands On The Run

Accurate GPs, Heart-rate Monitors, Colour Touchscreens. Activity Trackers Really Are the Mutt’s Nuts Nowadays...

- Damian Hall

BACK IN THE MISTS OF SPORTS-TECH TIME, THERE WAS A SIMPLE DIVISION. TWO TRIBES. THEY DID THE SAME THING BUT IN A DIFFERENT WAY. AND WHAT THEY WORE ON THEIR WRISTS WAS THE GIVEAWAY SIGN.

There were the Brownlee wannabe sport Billies and Betties, who wore GPS sport swatches. And there were those who merely wanted to go down a waist size, who wore activity trackers. The former needed exhaustive data for distance, heart rate (HR), pace and so on. The less-ambitious latter cared more for calories burned and steps counted. The uber-sophisticated GPS sport swatches boasted (cheststrap) heart-rate monitors and GPS tracking. The trackers were little more than pedometers, really. But now all that’s changed…

Activity-tracker design, hardware and software have progressed quickly and impressively; premium-end trackers are now so sophisticated, they offer many of the things sport swatches do – GPS, pace and various data-carpeted sports modes. But on top of these features, you get performance enhancers that most of those watches don’t offer, such as wrist-based heart-rate monitoring, smart notifications and colour touchscreens.

We’re at the point where you have to ask yourself if you need to pay an extra £300 for a sport swatch, when activity trackers can do so much.

We’ve taken the best three premium trackers and given them a workout. These’ll suit anyone in the middle of the fitness spectrum – ie those who aren’t running to and from work every day, but who are interested in their health. And who like a bit of fancy top-tech…

DESIGN

Which tracker best balances sporty substance with cocktail-bar style?