Tried and Tested: Fitbit Inspire HR

Wearables are slowly but certainly into the mainstream and are now more than ever devices that most smartphone owners are looking at buying. However, the slow pace of adoption is worrying wearable manufacturers, and they are increasingly looking at ways to improve upon that. Fitbit isn’t one to hold back and they have come up with the new Inspire line of fitness trackers that are at a lower price point and are expected to boost fledgling sales numbers. The Inspire HR of the range has a heart rate monitor while the base Inspire doesn’t. I used the Inspire HR for the better part of a week and here are my thoughts.

First things first, the Inspire HR is tiny. So much so, that people remarked that maybe it was the wrong size for me. It wasn’t. The lower cost means that Fitbit has made some compromises. The screen is tiny and reading the miniscule font on the display could be tedious for some people. That said, the Inspire HR does pack in almost all the features of its bigger siblings in a much smaller size.

The touchscreen, for the most part, is easy to use and swipes up and down, bringing up a range of functions and everything from step count to heart rate can be seen. You just have to raise your hand with the Fitbit for the screen to wake up and display notifications much like most smartphones. The button on the side can be used to do things like turning off notifications in a jiffy. The HR requires Bluetooth to be able to display call and SMS notifications. However, there is very limited functionality of the same as you can’t respond to those SMS’ unlike the quick response feature available on the more expensive Fitbits.

The strap sits nicely on your wrist and is comfortable to wear for long periods of time and along with a solid four-day battery life (five-day claimed) you will find little reason to take it off your hand. The splash resistance, that the HR has, is a nice touch and ensures that you don’t have to worry when you get your Fitbit wet. Fitbit goes as far as to say that the Inspire HR is swim-proof. We however, couldn’t test that. When you do need to charge the HR, the magnetic clasp on the proprietary charger makes it very easy to do so and the charging process takes a little more than an hour.

The step counter is the high point in the Inspire HR and gives you an instantaneous count of the steps you have taken. In our tests however, it constantly over-reported by at least 10-15 per cent. That shouldn’t be too much of a bummer to the casual fitness enthusiast though. Interestingly, the HR can recognise upto 15 different types of physical activity and that is particularly useful when you are switching from one activity to another. The Fitbit Inspire HR vibrates to urge you to get up and walk once you have been seated for too long. You can also set daily fitness goals that the Inspire HR will urge you to work towards. The sleep tracker is very useful and the long battery life and comfortable fit mean that you’ll have no trouble sleeping with it on. And when you have to wake up, you can set a silent alarm on the Inspire HR that will vibrate and wake you up without troubling others around you. Pretty nifty, don’t you think?

Overall, the Fitbit Inspire HR is a great product for someone just starting out in the fitness world and its pricing and ease of use would endear it to even people using a wearable for the first time.