BEST FITNESS TRACKERS 2016 | Articles | Gadgets, gifts and accessories

A fit­ness track­er is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to lit­er­al­ly keep abreast of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, con­stant­ly mon­i­tor body read­ings, sleep fre­quen­cy and the num­ber of steps tak­en.

The fit­ness track­er mar­ket is filled with attrac­tive devices, most of which per­form well and meet the basic require­ments. But even among them, the best stand out, and it is them that we have cho­sen. In fair­ness, it’s worth not­ing that we’re not look­ing at the smartest watch, we’re choos­ing the track­er, which means that the options are arranged in the order that cor­re­sponds to their rel­e­vance for exer­cise and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty.

Fitbit Charge 2

One of the best

The size: three sizes; Dis­play: OLED The weight: N/A; Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Android, iOS; Bat­tery: 5 days; Con­nec­tion via: Blue­tooth 4.0.

The Fit­bit Charge 2 is arguably the best option avail­able today. It costs a lit­tle more than the rest of the Fit­bit mod­els, but remains the best choice for those look­ing for a track­er ide­al for jog­ging and oth­er sports activ­i­ties.

Fit­bit syncs with your smart­phone’s GPS for loca­tion track­ing. It fea­tures a large, easy-to-read dis­play that shows data, heart rate, and fit­ness fea­tures that were pre­vi­ous­ly only avail­able on the Fit­bit Blaze.

Fit­bit Charge 2 rec­og­nizes dif­fer­ent types of activ­i­ty — jog­ging, walk­ing, cycling, etc. There is no need to enter exer­cis­es or launch spe­cial appli­ca­tions to track them, every­thing hap­pens auto­mat­i­cal­ly. Anoth­er advan­tage of this track­er mod­el is the Pure­Pulse tech­nol­o­gy, which mea­sures the heart­beat with great accu­ra­cy.

A sep­a­rate plus of this track­er is a com­fort­able strap.

Fit­bit Charge is much more suit­able for phys­i­cal pur­pos­es than sleep track­ing. But the silent alarm is a great fea­ture that does not dis­turb oth­ers.

Unlike many track­ers, Fit­bit sup­ports syn­chro­niza­tion with both Android and iOS.

Xiaomi Mi Band 2

Pop­u­lar, Con­ve­nient, Afford­able

The weight: 7 g; Dis­play: OLED Bat­tery: 7 days; Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Android, iOS; Con­nec­tion via: Blue­tooth 4.0.

Xiao­mi is not far behind the top man­u­fac­tur­ers, because this year the Mi Band 2 was pre­sent­ed to the pub­lic. Its advan­tages are imme­di­ate­ly obvi­ous — a bat­tery that can with­stand 7 days with­out recharg­ing, water resis­tance that allows you to car­ry it any­time and any­where, a con­ve­nient min­i­mal­ist design and a con­ve­nient dis­play. How­ev­er, Mi Band 2 is more suit­able for mon­i­tor­ing your per­for­mance and com­pli­ance with the regimes. This track­er does not yet rec­og­nize dif­fer­ent work­outs or alti­tudes.

How­ev­er, the Mi Band includes a heart rate sen­sor, what­sapp noti­fi­ca­tions, calo­ries count, sleep analy­sis, and serves as a silent alarm clock. In gen­er­al, it has all the nec­es­sary func­tions.

Mi Band works with both Android and iOS through a spe­cial appli­ca­tion in which you can mon­i­tor per­for­mance and set up the track­er in a way that is con­ve­nient.

A sep­a­rate advan­tage of the Mi Band is its price, it is thanks to the ratio of it and the pro­posed func­tions that the track­er from Xiao­mi is one of the most pop­u­lar today.

Samsung Gear Fit 2

Easy to use, per­fect fit

The size: 11.2 x 24.5 mm; Dis­play: 1.5 inch­es AMOLED, 216 x 432; The weight: 28 g; Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: android; Bat­tery: 3–4 days; Con­nec­tion via: Blue­tooth 4.0, GPS.

For the Gear Fit 2, Sam­sung has made changes both inside and out. The result is a device that syncs with Android and offers a lot of use­ful fea­tures for its price.

512MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in mem­o­ry allow you to down­load music and appli­ca­tions spe­cial­ly devel­oped by Sam­sung. Like the pre­vi­ous mod­el, Gear Fit 2 sends noti­fi­ca­tions from a smart­phone, but apart from it, this track­er is capa­ble of much.

On the right side of the screen, the track­er has an inac­tiv­i­ty timer that reminds you how long you haven’t moved. In addi­tion, Sam­sung has equipped the GearFit 2 with a heart rate mon­i­tor, accelerom­e­ter, gyro­scope, and barom­e­ter. The track­er eas­i­ly deter­mines dif­fer­ent types of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty and exer­cis­es.

The GearFit also sur­vives sub­mer­sion very well and lasts 3–4 days with­out a charge.

Gor­geous design and large dis­play are the Gear Fit’s spe­cial strengths. Com­pared to many oth­er track­ers, the price of the nov­el­ty from Sam­sung is also attrac­tive. How­ev­er, Gear Fit is not com­pat­i­ble with iOS or Win­dows devices.

Microsoft Band 2

Great accom­plice for sports

The size: 12.8x32mm; Dis­play: 320 x 128 AMOLED; The weight: 55 g; Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Win­dows, Android, iOS; Bat­tery: 2 days; Con­nec­tion via: Blue­tooth 4.0.

The dis­play has become bet­ter, the track­er has become more con­ve­nient, and the design is even more styl­ish than the first mod­el of the Microsoft Band. The sec­ond Band includes 11 sen­sors, one of which is com­plete­ly new — an indi­ca­tor for mea­sur­ing height. There­fore, Microsoft Band is able to track move­ments on stairs and hills. The heart rate indi­ca­tor is also very accu­rate in this mod­el. In addi­tion, the Band includes an accelerom­e­ter, gyro­scope, GPS, body tem­per­a­ture sen­sor, UV sen­sor, capac­i­tive sen­sor, ambi­ent light sen­sor, micro­phone, and gal­van­ic skin sen­sor.

On Win­dows-based smart­phones, the Microsoft band is ful­ly syn­chro­nized with Cor­tana, on Android and iOS, you can use the cal­en­dar and mes­sage noti­fi­ca­tions.

The Microsoft Band 2 is great for the gym, run­ning, cycling, golf, and more. It per­fect­ly tracks the num­ber of steps and mea­sures the phas­es of sleep. The only draw­back is the bat­tery, which only lasts 2 days with­out recharg­ing. How­ev­er, it charges ful­ly in 90 min­utes.

Fitbit Flex 2

Fit­bit returns improved and updat­ed

The size: Two sizes; Dis­play: N/A; The weight: N/A; Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Android, iOS; Bat­tery: 5 days; Con­nec­tion via: Blue­tooth 4.0.

If you’re look­ing for a sim­ple and small fit­ness track­er to mea­sure your steps every day, then the Fit­bit Flex is the way to go. With­out a dis­play, with LED sen­sors, Fit­bit Flex seems to be very sim­ple. How­ev­er, it auto­mat­i­cal­ly rec­og­nizes var­i­ous types of exer­cis­es, counts steps, accepts noti­fi­ca­tions and works as an alarm clock.

More effi­cien­cy can be achieved from it using the appli­ca­tion, but in gen­er­al, its func­tions are lim­it­ed — this is a min­i­mal­is­tic track­er. The Fit­bit Flex does not have a heart rate sen­sor or a watch, but it does have a very smart algo­rithm that counts hand move­ments, counts calo­ries and dis­tance. Like oth­er track­ers, Fit­Bit Flex 2 is always hap­py to remind you that you haven’t moved in a long time and it’s time to warm up. The Flex 2 bat­tery lasts two days with­out recharg­ing, the device will noti­fy you of the bat­tery sta­tus using email or an appli­ca­tion.

Jawbone UP3

Impres­sive design, impres­sive fea­tures

The size: 220 x 12.2 x 3.0–9.3mm; Dis­play: N/A; Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Android, iOS; Bat­tery: 7 days; Con­nec­tion via: Blue­tooth 4.0LE.

When it comes to fit­ness track­ers, not many have achieved the same results as Jaw­bone. UP3 is equipped with a mass of sen­sors, while it lasts almost a week with­out charg­ing. Pleas­ant plus­es UP3 are light weight and the num­ber of func­tions. It syncs with iOS and Android via the app. UP3 tracks your heart rate at rest and on the move. All the same accu­ra­cy of the pedome­ter, which struck the fans of a healthy lifestyle in pre­vi­ous mod­els, is pre­served in UP3.

As a track­er that works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the UP3 per­forms bril­liant­ly — it gives a very com­plete indi­ca­tion of sleep phas­es and func­tions as a silent alarm clock. With the help of vibra­tion, it also reminds you that it’s time to warm up.

All in all, this is a great track­er at a nice price.

Fitbit Charge HR

A wor­thy alter­na­tive to the Charge 2

The size: two sizes, S, L(20.8 x 2x 1 cm); Dis­play: 0.7 inch OLED; The weight: 22 g; Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Android, iOS, Win­dows Phone; Bat­tery: 5 days; Con­nec­tion via: Blue­tooth 4.0.

Anoth­er track­er that has learned to rec­og­nize dif­fer­ent types of exer­cis­es. Although, for the sake of accu­ra­cy, it is always bet­ter to give him exact data. How­ev­er, the Charge HR is doing bet­ter than ever. This track­er mod­el has a dis­play, an altime­ter that will tell you how high you climbed, a heart rate sen­sor, a calo­rie counter and much more.

It is com­fort­able, and its design is neu­tral and very incon­spic­u­ous, which is more of a virtue for a track­er. To mon­i­tor your phys­i­cal activ­i­ty and some indi­ca­tors of the body, Charge HR is rec­om­mend­ed even after the release of Charge 2. Fit­bit, in prin­ci­ple, is famous among rivals for the most accu­rate read­ings from sen­sors. The Fit­bit Charge HR has a bat­tery life of up to 5 days on a sin­gle charge, so you can use it for sleep stats, alarm clocks, and every­thing you need from a fit­ness track­er.

If you’re a Fit­bit fan but aren’t ready to com­mit to the Charge 2, give the Charge HR a try.