Written by Scott Buscemi
November 30, 2013
Back in August, I posted my review of the LifeTrak Move C300. In short, I couldn’t get enough of the Bluetooth-enabled fitness band with a long-lasting coin battery set to live for over a year.
“The Move C300 is the best fitness band I’ve used, through and through. For me, having the information always available on my wrist and on my phone is extremely powerful. Rather than having to guess at how many steps you’ve taken or syncing just to find out, just looking at your wrist to find out real-time then syncing later to see aggregate information just feels like the right solution.”
Now, Salutron (the company behind the LifeTrak brand) has released the Zone C410, which includes not only all of the great movement tracking and heart monitoring, but also automatic sleep tracking. I’ve had the pleasure of testing out this device for about a month now, and despite my best efforts to fool the “automatic” tracking, it is the best technology available in the industry.
The sleep tracking is “monitored based on motion and arm posture.” I’ve had the Jawbone Up and Fitbit Flex, but having to tell the band when I’m going to sleep has always been impossible for me. I tend to fall asleep on the couch or looking around on my phone while in bed. In addition, I’ve fallen asleep folded up in a regular chair. Yet, the Zone was right there tracking the sleep and even measuring the quality of the sleep.
While the band is water-proof, I tend to take it off when I shower so it doesn’t keep the moisture around my wrist. I have found that sometimes it will go into sleeping mode when I put it on the counter for a shower, but the added amount of “sleep” is negligible when comparing sleep data.
Just like the Move C300, the on-device screen can display charts of calorie, step, and distance data. In addition, you can see your sleep quality for the past 24 hours and the amount of sleep you’ve gotten per night (or total per day, for those who take naps throughout the day) for the whole week.
When it comes to size, the LifeTrak bands are definitely larger than their competitors. However, the on-screen display makes it easy to know how you’re doing without taking out your phone. In addition, the battery doesn’t require you to take off the band and charge every couple of days. The size of the band doesn’t affect my typing and, honestly, I feel naked whenever I take off the band. It’s extremely comfortable and doesn’t weigh you down.
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