REVIEW – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that American adults engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week.  This roughly translates into taking 10,000 steps a day.  The Mayo Clinic, however, estimates that the average American only walks 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, far short of what is healthy.  My wife agreed to test Letscom’s Fitness Tracker as part of her efforts to get to that 10,000-step level.  Is this the right gadget for the job?  Read on to find out.

What is it?

It is a fitness gadget worn on the wrist that tracks exercise and sleep patterns, monitors heart rate, and provides alerts and alarms.

What’s in the box?

• The tracker with associated wrist band
• A quick start guide
• A manual with 18 pages of English instruction (in a very, very small font)

Hardware specs

• IP67
• GPS connection for tracking exercise routes and locations
• Bluetooth 4.0 for connecting to mobile app
• OLED screen (not a touch screen)
• USB charging
• Lithium battery that should run 5 to 10 days on a charge
• Charging time is 1-2 hours

Design and features

My wife has been wearing this gadget for 3 weeks non-stop, except when she showers or when it needs charging.  She’s utilized the majority of its features and has a good appreciation of its capabilities.  Here’s what she found.

Installation and setup

The fitness tracker comes in three pieces:  The tracker itself and the 2 halves of the watch band.  The tracker is approximately 1.5 inches long and ¾ of an inch wide and has connectors for the wrist band on the top and the bottom.

When flipped over, you can see that one of the connectors is used for charging, and that there’s a monitor that will be against the skin.

The first step in the installation process is to charge the tracker for at least 2 hours, which my wife did by connecting it to our Anker USB charging station.  When you plug it in, you have to make sure that the little red light comes on, otherwise, it won’t actually charge.

The second step is to attach the watch band.  Make sure that “bottom” side, the one with the little button, connects to the band with the holes and the “top” side connects to the band with the buckle.

The third and final step is to download the mobile app.  There are a pair of QR codes in the manual, one for iOS and one for Android.  For iOS, this takes you to the VeryFitPro app, which is a free download.

Fitness Tracker Modes

The fitness tracker has 7 modes, each with its own unique screen.  You can cycle through the modes by pressing the button.  The screen is not a touch screen, so the only interaction is via the one button.

The main screen shows the time, like a watch.  It can be configured to show the date, battery status, Bluetooth status, or the steps taken today.

Step mode shows how many steps have been taken today, how many miles have been walked, how many minutes have been active (including walking), and how many calories have been consumed.

Heart rate mode measures the current beats per minute (BPM).

Alarm mode displays your next alarm and allows you to disable it.  New alarms can only be set via the mobile app.  (And yes, my wife’s next alarm is for 4:30am.  She gets up way too early to teach ESL to international students.)

Walk mode allows you to track the steps taken and time spent on a specific walk.  You use the button to tell the tracker when you stop and start your walk.  It will also monitor your heart rate while walking.  Although my wife didn’t test the run and bike modes, she assumes they offer similar capabilities to the walk mode.

The tracker’s interface is as simple as it gets.  This makes it easy to move between the modes and use them as necessary.  The more advanced functionality comes through the tracker’s interaction with the mobile app.

The only downside to the tracker is that the process of monitoring the heart rate involves the use of a rather bright green strobing light.  During the day, this is not noticeable; but if you’re a light sleeper, as I am, this can wake you up at night.

VeryFitPro mobile app

Letscom has created a mobile app that works with the fitness tracker by providing better visualization and long-term storage of the fitness data.  To use the mobile app, my wife first paired it with the tracker.  She made sure Bluetooth was enabled on her phone, then she opened the app, selected the Device button, chose Bind Device, and then selected “ID115Plus HR” from the list of devices.  Whenever she wants to sync the data in the tracker with the app, she simply has to “swipe down” on the main page when her phone is near the tracker.

The bottom of the mobile app has 5 buttons:  Mainpage, Details, Device, User, and a giant orange plus.  The Mainpage button shows the main page, which is a fairly detailed visualization of all activities that have been completed so far today.  For example, it lists the steps taken, calories burned, and time spent in an activity.

If you click on the Sleep tab, it shows how long you slept, and if you touch the number of hours, then it shows your sleep patterns for the previous night.

The Details button depicts overviews for today, this week, this month, and this year.  If you swipe to the right on any of these screens, you can see previous days, weeks, months, and years.

The Device button specifies how the mobile app interacts with the fitness tracker.  For example, it can set alerts when your phone gets a call or a text or when you’ve been stationary too long.  When your phone receives a call, it briefly displays the phone number or contact name on the trackers.  When it receives a text (or a private message from apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WeChat), it briefly displays the text on the tracker.

The User button sets a variety of information about you, the user of the tracker, such as the number of steps you hope to walk in a day, and your preferences, such as imperial vs metric units.  It’s worth noting that the Third Party Program features allows you to send information to the Apple Health app on your iPhone, if you have one.

The giant orange plus button functions like a pop-up menu that brings up three more menu choices.  The first choice is used to record runs, walks, hikes, and rides, if you don’t have your fitness tracker with you.  The second choice is used to record a variety of different activities, such as yoga, badminton, and mountain climbing.  The third choice is used to record your weight.

In general, my wife really likes the mobile app.  She finds that the main screen is helpful for getting a quick overview about how she’s progressing during the day.  She also finds the various charts and graphs to be informative.

She also discovered three problems.  One, the sedentary alert sometimes goes off right after she finishes walking.  Two, the sleep monitor doesn’t record afternoon naps as sleeping.  Three, messages from her phone are displayed too briefly, and there’s no way to go back and read them again.  In general, these are fairly minor problems that don’t detract much from the quality of the mobile app.  (Although it did leave her wondering if it’s worth paying more for a more powerful gadget, like an Apple Watch.)

Extra Features

To recharge the battery, my wife has to pull off the lower half of the band.  The first time she tried to pull it off, she couldn’t, as it was so tight.  She asked for me to help, and it still took me over 2 minutes to get it off.  Over time, however, this has become easier, as the band has loosened up.  I am concerned that if this process continues, it will eventually become so loose that it won’t stay on the tracker.  I wish that Letscom has designed an alternate mechanism for attaching and detaching the band or a completely different mechanism for charging.  Although the battery is rechargeable, the manual notes that it is not replaceable.

The tracker that my wife tested was black, but it also comes in blue, purple, red, green, and pink.

Warnings

While reading the manual, I came across several scary (and slightly humorous) statements:

• “The device, accessories, heart rate monitor, and related data are intended only to be used for recreational purposes and not for medical purposes.”
• “The heart rate readings are for reference only, and no responsibility is accepted for the consequences of any erroneous readings.”
• “While the optical write heart rate monitor technology typically provides the best estimate of a user’s heart rate, there are inherent limitations with the technology that may cause some of the heart rate reading to be inaccurate.”

When considering fitness trackers, including Letscom’s, keep in mind that these devices typically are not considered to be medical devices, as they are not approved by the FDA.  They can be helpful in estimating your health, but they are not guaranteed to be accurate.  If you have a medical or heart condition, you will probably want to look at a different category of gadgets.

What I like

• Price is right
• Easy to use
• Successfully keeps my wife more aware of her activities (or lack thereof)
• Mobile app is easy to use and does a great job of keeping and displaying data

What I’d change

• Better charging mechanism
• More options for viewing alerts/alarms

Final thoughts

While there may be fancier fitness trackers on the market, Letscom’s Fitness Tracker is perfect for health-conscious people who are either trying out their first tracker or who don’t want to pay premium prices.  It does everything that a fitness tracker needs to do (and more), and its mobile app provides lots of extra functionality.  If you are in the market for a tracker, my wife recommends that you take a look at this one (and so do I).

Price: $28.99
Where to buy:  Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Letscom.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Activity tracker, Health and fitness

Letscom Fitness Tracker (ID115PlusHR) review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 23, 2019 at 8:41 am.

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REVIEW – Fitness tracking devices used to only be available in form factors that strapped to your wrist or around your chest. Now we have fitness trackers that you can wear on your finger as a ring or in a patch that you stick to your chest like the Vital Scout continuous wellness monitor from VivaLNK that I’m going to talk to you about today. Let’s check it out.

What is it?

The VivaLNK Vital Scout is a wearable wellness monitor that uses medical-grade EGC sensors that track your heart rate, respiration, stress, recovery, and sleep quality 24/7.

What’s in the box?

• VivaLNK Vital Scout monitor
• Charging case
• micro USB cable
• 10 adhesives
• Instructions

Design and features

The Vital Scout stores in a small white plastic case when it’s not being used to track your heart rate, stress level, sleep quality, and breathing.

This case doubles as the charger for the wearable monitor. The monitor is made of soft flexible plastic. It has an oval shape with two round nodules that stick up from the surface and a large square protrusion in the center.

When you flip the Vital Scout over, you can see two small electrical contacts which are used to charge the patch and three larger contacts which make contact with your skin through a thin layer of adhesive to track your fitness data.

Before you can begin using the Vital Scout patch, you need to charge it first. This is easily done by placing it correctly in the case and using the included micro USB cable to plug into an AC adapter or a USB port on a computer. While the patch is charging, a large LED on the case glows red.

Once the patch is fully charged, the LED will glow green.

The next step is to attach the patch to your chest using one of the included Hydrogel adhesives. The Vital Scout comes with two packs which each contain 5 adhesives. Additional packs of adhesives can be purchased for $5.99/pack of 4 adhesives.

The adhesives have three sections which are numbered to make them easy to identify. You obviously remove tab #1 first.

Once the protective tab is removed, you can see the thin silicone film surface of the adhesive.

The Vital Scout patch sticks to this area and then you can peel off tab #2 and stick the patch to the upper area of your left chest. You can also stick it in the center of your chest.

I opted to put it in the upper area of my chest. Once stuck in place, you can peel off tab #3 and you’re ready for action. There is no worry that the patch will fall off. The adhesive is strong and water resistant. You can even shower with it.

I have to tell you that I immediately had flashbacks of 2011 when I had a port in my chest for chemo treatments. I had the port for over a year under the skin in the same area as shown here. You can even see one of my 6 tattoos in the photo above. It’s that little black dot to the left of the patch. The tattoos were for the radiation treatments that I had after the 2 rounds of chemo. Anyway, the reason why the Vital Scout patch reminded me of the port is that it sticks up and gets in the way with some activities like wearing a seat belt or a with the strap of a messenger style bag.

I was a little concerned when I agreed to review the Vital Scout because my skin sometimes has an allergic reaction to adhesives. Back when I was going through treatments for breast cancer, they would put an adhesive film called Tegaderm over the port with the needle attached to it to keep out germs during treatments. That type of adhesive would make my skin itchy and red and would leave an exact mark where it had been for days and even weeks later. I’m happy to report that I had almost no issues with the adhesive included with the Vital Scout. I had just a tiny area where it became itchy and red when I removed the patch after wearing it for a couple of days, but the irritation cleared up quickly.

Using the Vital Scout the app

As you can see, the patch does not have any type of display, status LEDs, speakers, etc. To see the data that it collects, you have to pair the patch with an app on your iOS or Android device.

The app is easy to use and has a main dashboard screen as you see above that gives you a quick way to see your stats for the current time period, including your current heart rate, respiration, 24hr stress level, recovery level, activity level, and sleep quality.

Stress – a normal physiological reaction to physical or mental load. Not all stress is bad and can be caused by a variety of positive and negative factors such as working, training, commuting, anxiety, excitement. The goal is to moderate the amount and intensity of stress over time and to ensure sufficient recovery to balance the stress. General guideline according to VivaLnk:

Recovery – The calming of the body, and helps to balance stress. The majority of recovery occurs during sleep, but day-time recovery is also beneficial and can occur in a variety of situations such as relaxation, meditation, and enjoyment. General guideline:

Activity – When the body is in a physically active state such as walking, running, exercising etc.

Sleep – The amount of time spent in sleep. General guideline:

Tapping any of the boxes under the main dashboard graph will let you drill down into each category such as Stress, Recovery, Activity, and Sleep to see more info.

The same goes for the heart rate and respiration info. Heart rate is determined by beats per minute and respiration is determined by breaths per minute.

You can also see graphs that bring Stress, heart rate, respiration, Activity, and Recovery all together in one graph to give you a better overall picture of what’s going on with your body during the day.

I found that the Vital Scout patch and app did a good job tracking my times of stress/activity and recovery. Vital Scout uses heart rate variability (HRV) which is the variation in the time interval between heartbeats and is used to determine stress levels. I could easily see the times when I was recovering was when I was vegging out on the couch in front of the TV and the times when I was “stressed” was when I was moving around and active.

The Vital Scout app will also allow you to export your data in CSV format so that you can archive it or share with a doctor.

Sample data:

Date Time HR RR Stress %% Recovery %% Activity %% Calories Burned Sleep?(Yes/No) Sleep Quality Notes
2018-12-12 00:00:00 65 15 0 51 0 1 No 0
2018-12-12 00:01:00 57 12 0 99 0 0 No 0
2018-12-12 00:02:00 62 13 0 90 0 1 No 0
2018-12-12 00:03:00 61 12 0 96 0 0 No 0

Battery life

A fully charged Vital Scout patch will collect data for around 72hrs or 3 days before needing to be recharged. Of course, recharging the patch involves removing it from your chest, which means you have to remove the adhesive and use a new one to apply it back to your chest after you’ve recharged.

What I like

• Stick it and forget it continuous monitoring
• 72 hour battery life
• Helps you see your stress levels throughout the day so you can better manage them

What needs to be improved

• Replacement adhesives are too expensive when they have to be replaced every 3 days
• Would be nice to include step tracking too
• Patch needs to be thinner

Final thoughts

I like how easy it is to use the VivaLNK Vital Scout. You basically charge it, and stick it to your chest and forget about it (sorta). No one will see that you’re wearing it unless you wear a tight-fitting thin shirt.

I also like that it is continuously recording your heart rate, activity, stress, respiration, and sleep info every minute and that you can go back and look at that data or export it into a spreadsheet that you can share with your doctor.

The only “bad” thing I can say about the Vital Scout is that you have to buy the proprietary adhesives and they are too expensive at $6 for 4 adhesives which will only last you for 12 days if you plan to wear the Vital Scout all the time. That said, I can see that this device would be fine for occasional use, but not 24/7, 365 days a year. The consumables are just too much money for continuous use.

Price: $149.00 MSRP
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by VivaLNK.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Activity tracker, Health and fitness

VivaLNK Vital Scout continuous wellness monitor review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 18, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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