We used to have FitBit, Garmin, Withings, Nokia, Misfit, Moov, TomTom and Xiaomi. And those are just a few that topped my mind. There are a lot more fitness trackers out on the market, but do we really need them? We have a smart phone which can track almost everything a fitness tracker can do as well.

Personally I really like to have a fitness tracker with me. For me it really works motivating to see that I just set 2500 steps while my target is 8000 this motivates me to go for a walk after dinner to get closer to the target. But, you phone is tracking the same data as my other tracker. Why do I wear it then?

Why?

For me it is not about how high my heart rate is if I run for 15 minutes. No. I just want to know how many calories I burned during the day and how many steps I took. Also I like to see how many hours of deep and light sleep I got. This is all I need to know. And yes, a smart phone is able to give me all of this, so why a smart tracker?

Fashion or technology?

There are many many smart trackers available online. You can select them on size or color or brand or features or what ever you want. Some people see them as an fashion item, like the Apple Watch. Which I think is too expensive and there are way cheaper trackers available which will give you the same data and information you want. Ofcourse, the Apple Watch looks good, there are a lot of Apps which you can use on the Apple Watch, but is it for me? No. I've tried it and I really liked it. Being able to respond to messaged on your watch or place and have a phone call from your wrist without taking your smartphone out of your pocket. Simply great! But for 10% of the money I have a tracker which will show me from what app I receive a notifitation and give me the data that I want to collect and view. In that case I rather have a cheaper tracker then walk around and showing off my Apple Watch.

Instead of spending a lot of money on a tracker of one of the big companies, I like spending fewer euro's to a upcoming brand, like Xiaomi or No.1 . Ever hear of No.1? Thought so! It is a cheap brand where you will get all the data I want to see for a price which is lower dan 20 euro's! Isn't that amazing?!

You might think that a watch for that price will miss some basic features, but I (and the creator of this watch) shows the opposite. The watch is packed with features and stuff you want to know and expect from a fitness tracker. In this case you see that technology wins from fashion. With the Apple Watch you pay for the brand while the No.1 also has a rich feature set.

Xiaomi Mi Band 2

Now I use the Xiaomi Mi Band 2, which works great! It lasts around a month with a fully charged battery. This is the second time I use the #Xiaomi, but now they did a big update of the App which looks great! It has a way more premium feeling now. You get more insight in your habits (time to sleep, time before actually sleeping), steps taken and you weight. This, for me, is the best smart tracker now. The size is great, people ask questions about it when they see it. The price is even better, so cheap and packed with features.

Why not check your phone?

Personally I like to have some new tech and want to test new things. I can buy a smart phone and use the health features on the phone, but then I have to check my phone every time I want to know how many steps I took. Now that there is something around my wrist, I can easily see the steps taken, calories burned or hours slept.

And ofcourse having something new is always great! We can become much healthier if we all have a smart tracker and track only our steps taken. We would burn a lot more calories if people actually pay attention to this and set a realistic target for themself to loose some weight or at least won't gain more weight.

For me the reason is that I want new tech, as often as possible and that I don't have to check my phone now every time I want to check my health data.

Thanks for reading and hope you liked it!