Withings Activité Steel Fitness Tracker Review

Not many people have heard of this fitness and sleep tracker, however it is probably the most stylish fitness tracker on the market. We recently put this tracker to the test on how it tracks your sleep and can possibly help to improve your nighttime routine.

The first thing you notice about this tracker is that it looks nothing like a typical wrist worn fitness tracker – it looks like a watch. A beautiful watch at that. It’s very light and comfortable enough to wear all day and night. Our main concern was that wearing this watch to bed might be a bit awkward – but it was nothing of the sort. It’s probably one of the least noticeable fitness trackers we have tested.

With the Activité, sleep tracking starts automatically. You don’t need to press anything – just go to bed. However in our test we found that this means your data can’t totally be trusted. We wore the Jawbone UP24 at the same time as wearing the Withings Activité and here are the results:

You’ll notice the results are drastically different. The Jawbone UP24 lets you start and end your sleep time manually, therefore being a little more accurate when it comes to total sleep time registered. I’d like to think that both of them should track light sleep and deep sleep roughly the same, however each of them have their own unique algorithm and method of tracking your subtle movements throughout the night.

 

Pros:

Lightweight and Stylish
This fitness tracker is extremely lightweight due to it’s slim design and rubber wrist band. Two great features that make it easy to wear this watch all day long.

Waterproof
The only tracker that we have ever tested that could be worn while swimming! This is an incredible feature if you’re into swimming and want to track your entire day’s movements.

You Don’t Recharge It
In a world full of electronic devices that need to be charged all the time, it’s nice not to worry about your fitness tracker. It takes a watch battery that lasts about 9 months. This could be the killer selling point if you hate having to remember extra cords all the time.

Cons:

Sleep Tracking isn’t Completely Accurate
Since this tracker doesn’t have any buttons on it – you can’t put it into sleep mode yourself. You have to trust that it picks up sleep correctly on it’s own. We tested it against another sleep tracker the same night and got different results. So if you are ultimately after high quality sleep data, then this tracker might not be for you.

No Heart Rate Detection
There is no built in heart rate detection on this device. The app does come with a feature that enables your phone to take your heart rate however. The app has you place your finger in front of the camera on your phone while it detects the blood cells at the surface of your skin to give you a heart rate readout.

Overall, the Withings Activité is a terrific fitness tracker but when it comes to high quality sleep data, it falls down on the job. However if you want a truly unique device that doubles as a great watch then this is for you.