I got a fitness tracker at ⅓ of the price of the leading brands and here are my thoughts.

Three months ago after binge watching Kraig Adams hiking videos where he hiked over 10 miles a day in so many gorgeous places. So I decided that I want to be able to walk at least 10 miles in one day. As I wondered how this was possible my watch broke. It had been through a lot in its life and had come to the end of it. So I went to the store to get a replacement for the same watch and when I was searching for it this one caught my eye. So I thought that I’d invest in this fitness tracker first before deciding whether or not I wanted to invest in a Fitbit. 

I was impressed with all the features it came with at ⅓ of the price of the leading brand in fitness trackers. The promises that drew me in were the steps tracker, distances tracker, and the fact that it tells time. Before buying the iTech I went to look up online reviews for it. Only a handful of people loved it and the rest were 3 stars and complaints. So I knew it wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t great. With my expectations set I took the $30.00 plunge and came home with my new fitness tracker watch. After three months with the iTech here is my final verdict:

Pros:

Tells the time

This was very important to me since the whole point I went to the store was to get a new watch. It comes with 3 different watch faces that you can change by holding down the button while viewing the time screen. I will say a slight con to this in the beginning was that it kept switching faces on it’s own and I’d have to keep switching it back but eventually I just stopped caring. Now I find it charming when the face changes.

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Rechargeable

I like this feature because I don’t have to worry about replacing the battery. I only have to keep it charged. The battery life says it lasts about 5 days but I like to keep the battery over 20% so in case I have to go out I don’t have to worry about it dying. It takes a little less than two hours to charge so I like to charge it when I’m sitting at my computer. I don’t charge it overnight because I want to slow down the battery aging by not over charging it.

The cheat to an easy charge is to pull out the side of the armband where the button is located and stick it directly into your wall charger, don’t even bother with the cord.

Syncs with phone

When you first charge your watch download the app and pair your phone with your watch using the click to connect button located at the top of the device page. After that just set up your profile; steps goal, weight goal, water intake goal, and sleep goal.

When you set up your steps goal the app will automatically set up your distance goal and calories goal based on the number of steps you want to take each day.

My phone comes with a health app where I can track all health related things, from the number of steps I’ve taken to my blood oxygen level. My phone will tell me things like, “You took 7,000 steps on average last week. This week you’ve only taken 2,000 steps on average.” I can feel the judgement and it motivates me to walk more.

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To see the rest of the set up download the iTech Sport Manual

Heart rate monitor

The iTech takes your heart rate every hour. This wasn’t really one of the reasons I got this watch but after reading the benefits of a heart tracker, ‘having a heart rate monitor can be useful for identifying irregular heartbeats and can shed light on underlying health issues.’ I was sold on this feature and I’m glad to have it now. Plus it makes the calorie feature more accurate. 

Find my phone

I’ve only discovered this feature recently while reaching for this review. There was a screen on my watch face that I didn’t understand so I held down the button while on that screen and my phone started to vibrate. (My phone is usually on silent and I recently changed it to vibrate on silent.) I turned that function on the watch off and turned my phone off silent and tried that feature again and sure enough my phone started ringing. That’s so awesome and extremely helpful.

Find my watch

Oh you best believe that it has the reverse ring of ‘find my phone.’ In the app under the device tab there is a button for ‘find my smartwatch.’ Unfortunately your watch will not make any noise, it will only vibrate.

Has a stopwatch

This feature has become very helpful for me to keep track of how much time has passed without having to remember it myself. So if I want to go on a 10 minute walk I can use my watch to track how long I’ve been walking.

Cons:

Died without warning

While on a hike I looked down at my watch to see how many steps I’ve taken and the screen was just black. I tried hitting the button several times and nothing. Luckily, I had a battery pack to charge it. But there was no reason why it should have died since I made sure it was fully charged before I left the house that morning.

Erased steps for a day

When it died while I was on the hike it also erased all the data from earlier in the day. So even though I was 5 miles into the hike it said that I’ve only taken 10 steps. Now I was prepared for the watch to erase data because the reviews I read before purchasing it told me as much. That’s why the fact that it syncs with my phone is a pro because even though all the data erased from the watch, it was stored on my phone. So I know for a fact that I took 31,170 steps that day.

Distances tracker is not accurate

Even though I know that the distances it calculated by the number of steps taken I know it’s not super accurate. After one hike I compared my stats with a friend and we both had different numbers. My number for distance was much shorter. It was shorter than the distance of the trail. 

If you are pushing a stroller it doesn’t register steps

I work with children and when I take a walk with them in the stroller my steps do not get tracked. Which is annoying when I am trying to hit my daily goal of 10,000 but 3,000 of my steps do not get registered.

Can’t see display in the sunlight

Usually one does fitness things outside so why can I not see my watch screen in direct sunlight? It’s like someone turned the brightness all the way down and I have to cup my hand over the screen to try and see but that hardly ever works. I have to go find some shade to be able to see anything, shade is not easy to find in the desert.

Closing Thoughts

While the iTech has its flaws I still think the positives outweigh the negatives. I love being able to track my steps, distances, and heart rate. I love that it syncs with my phone and most importantly it tells me the time. Plus it’s water resistant!

I’d love to know your thoughts. Do you prefer to invest in the more expensive products or do you like to sample a cheaper brand beforehand? Let me know down in the comments 🙂

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Read More: Health Tips | Hiking Essentials | Everyday Carry