Fitbit Alta HR

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Fitbit Alta HR Review Facts

Fitbit provides high-quality fitness trackers and the Alta HR is no exception. The Alta HR is not flashy or elaborate but it is sleek and a well-rounded fitness tracker. It is designed with an improved heart rate tracking abilities for individuals looking for more than just a step counter. Fitness trackers are worn by a lot of individuals and they are used by marathon runners to moms making sure they are on time picking for their kids up from school. No matter what activity you are looking to use it for, if it's for tracking your steps, miles ran, lunges completed to just checking the time, Fitbit provides superior products.

Editor's Pros & Cons
Pros
  • Comfortable and slim design
  • Accurate step counter
  • Accurate heart rate tracker
  • Battery life lasts up to seven days
  • Sleep tracker
  • Fitbit app
Cons
  • An unresponsive screen at times
  • Tracker is not the most dynamic compared to other products on the market
  • In bright light, the display is difficult to read
  • Not waterproof only water resistant
  • No GPS capabilities

Key Features

-Continuous heart rate during workouts and every other moment the tracker is being worn
-Measure calories burned
-Sleep tracker
-Reminders to move
-Reminders to move and alarms
-Receive notification on the display screen when connected to your cell phone

Features

The Fitbit Alta HR has basic and advanced features to help you reach your overall health and fitness goals. It tracks daily steps with the 3-axis accelerometer and will calculate total daily distance traveled. A nice feature is the daily step goal, you can use the predetermined steps or you have the ability to customize the goal. During the day, the tracker will vibrate if you have not taken 250 steps in a certain hour or it will vibrate when you met the hourly goal of 250 steps. So, if you have been sitting at your desk for 50 minutes the Alta HR will vibrate and tell you how many more steps you need to take in the next 10 minutes to meet the hourly goal of 250 steps. This is an awesome feature because it gives you an excuse to get up and away from the computer to take a short walk to hit your daily goal. Once you completed the day's total step goal the tracker will vibrate for a more extended period of time congratulating you on reaching the goal.

Another nice feature on the tracker is the alarm. The alarm on the tracker will vibrate at the set time reminding you to get to that morning meeting or you can set it for your morning alarm. Depending on how deep of a sleeper you are, you may want to set a backup alarm in case.

Connectivity

Fitbit provides superior software and technology in all of its products. The Alta HR connects easily to any smartphone or computer with Bluetooth technology. You can set your tracker to automatically sync to your smartphone or you can manually sync it to your device. If you are wanting to receive text messages, emails, and phone call notifications on your tracker it is best to have it sync to your cell phone continuously. Another great feature offered by Fitbit is that if multiple members of your family have trackers you can have them all connected to the same app and you can encourage fitness and you could always create a family step challenge.

App

The Fitbit app has applications for every part of your day and night. If you just had the tracker without the app, it would be useless. The app allows you to view your daily activity stats after syncing the tracker data to the app. The tracker syncs via Bluetooth capability and you are able to customize how often you want the tracker to sync the data.

There are four main sections of the Fitbit App with additional tools in each section. The first section is the Day and Night piece. This section focuses on all of the day’s activity, which provides a snapshot of your progress towards your daily goals in active minutes, calories burned, steps, and distant. Over a period of time, the app will not only show you current data but it will also show your average trends and calculate insights on how you may take few steps on a particular day of the week. If you want to know how well you slept, this tracker will tell you everything from the time you fell asleep, REM, light and deep sleep. It will also tell you how many times you woke up during the night. Another cool feature on the app is you can set a weekly sleep goal, create reminders for bedtime and wake targets. You can also use the app to review your sleep trend over a period of time.

The second main section of the app is the activity and workouts. The app provides you with insights on performance and provides motivation to keep on track. You can use your tracker to record your workouts and simple sync the tracker to the app to see you exercise stats. When viewing your stats on the app you will be able to see the total workout time, calories burned, average heart rate and enter notes. You can also view the monthly calendar and see how many days you got your workout in.

The third main area of the app that is key is the motivation and friends section. Staying connected with friends and family is a great feature because you can stay inspired on your journey by challenging friends and family to a step challenge. It also nice to be able to share your stats with friends and family to provide motivation.

The last section area of the app that is key pieces is weight and nutrition. The Fitbit app provides guidance and tools needed to stay on track to reach weight goals by tracking nutrition and logging weight. The app has a section where you can track your weight, log food, measure hydration, and set weight loss goals.

Accuracy

Distance is calculated by the steps taken and when you compare this distance with a GPS the distance may be a little off due to the strides of one steps, but from experience, the distance is close enough. The tracker is set up to takes the user's pulse every 5 seconds which provides a fairly accurate reading but if you want the tracker to read your pulse every second you are able to adjust this under the tracker setting in the app. It is best to wear the wristband fitted to the wrist for an accurate reading if it is too loose and loses contact with the wrist it will have an inaccurate reading.

Power Source

Fitbit is proud of the achievements they made with the battery life of the Alta HR. Fitbit claims the Alta HR life on a single charge will last a week. The improved battery life is exceptional because the band of Alta HR is slimmer but offers more features and having this battery life is truly amazing. The Alta HR charges fairly quick with it only taking between 1 and 2 hours. Included with the Alta HR is a charging cord that connects to the tracker and the cord needs to be plugged into any USB port wall charger.

Design

The Alta HR does have a similar design as the original Fitbit Alta, but the HR is far more than just a step tracker. Fitbit has designed the internal chip to be smaller to provide more room for the heart rate sensor and to improve the battery to last a week on a single charge.

When wearing the Alta HR you will notice a difference in the wearable band, the HR has a buckle for a secure fit. The secure fit it provides a nice tight wrap which helps with the heart rate sensor to be accurate. The wearable band is also very comfortable during exercise, play and at work. The secure yet comfortable fit is also important with the sleep features.

The Alta HR is extremely lightweight which is surprising considering all the features crammed into it. The Alta HR measures at 15mm in width. The Alta HR will hold up to rain and sweat but it is not recommended to submerge it in water. The Alta HR is water resistant not waterproof.

Display Face

The Fitbit Alta HR display face is small. It is a black slim screen and when turned on it will display white LED lettering. The display faces is 0.61 inches wide and about 1 inch long. The display face can be customized to display the time in a horizontal or vertical orientation. To activate the screen all you need to do is turn your wrist or tap the display face. To view different screens on the display face all you need to do is simply tap the screen multiples until you get to the screen you wish to view.

Size

Like most Fitbit trackers, the Alta HR comes in three sizes. The small will fit a wrist size between 5.5 and 6.7 inches, the large is between 6.7 and 8.1 inches and the extra large is between 8.1 and 9.3 inches. You can find a sizing guide on the Fitbit website or on Amazon that can be printed out to ensure the correct size.

Ease of Use

The Fitbit Alta HR can be used by just about anyone because it has a very simple design. Anyone that wants to reach their fitness goals no matter what will benefit from the Alta HR. Simply strap on the tracker and start the day. The design of the tracker is so simple all you need to do is make sure that it is charged and you have it on your wrist. The track does all the work.

Price

Fitbit is a leader of trackers on the market which gives them the advantage to provide trackers at reasonable prices. Fitbit provides an array of trackers depending on the tracker you choose you may pay more or less. There are other trackers on the market that are fairly cheap but if you want quality and durability Fitbit is the way to go. When purchasing a Fitbit tracker you not only get a watch you are getting a complete tracker of your day’s activities and a top-notch app.

Use

The Fitbit Alta HR provides all the tools needed to track your daily activities from your bike ride around town to your evening run. It has built-in technology called SmartTrack that will automatically detect when you begin an activity. The Alta HR does not have the ability to manually start an activity like the Fitbit Blaze but you can view your fitness activity on the app and edit it if needed. If you are looking for a product that does offer the start and stop ability on the tracker along with customized activities, take a look at the Fitbit Blaze. The technology builds into the Alta HR will detect any fitness activity you do except swimming due to it not being waterproof. If you are looking a Fitbit tracker that is waterproof check out the Fitbit Flex.

Brand

Fitbit is dedicated to fitness and health and provides products and tools to help people transform their lives. Fitbit has many products on the market to help encourage fun through exercise and empowerment to the customers to reach their health goals. Fitbit offers a 45-day satisfaction guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with your Fitbit product for any reason in the 45 days you can request a full refund. Fitbit also has outstanding customer support to help with any issue you may experience with your tracker to the website.

Bottom Line

If you are looking for a tracker to keep track of your overall daily activity then the Fitbit Alta HR will provide all that and more. The Alta HR and the Fitbit app will provide you with accurate data on your activities and will provide with the resources to reach your fitness and health goals. Incorporating the Fitbit challenges will help make reaching your fitness goals fun.