Here’s another fitness wearable to choose from

It was only a matter of time before fitness wearables would flood our markets, and it’s well and truly happening. Customers are spoilt for choice when it comes to these devices, and there seems to be something for everyone, across budgets and types of use. One of the latest to enter the fray is Finnish company Health Care Success Limited, which launched the Tango Wellness Motivator.

The name looks to set it apart from what most other such devices are called — fitness bands. But it’s pretty much the same as the others.

The way it looks can divide opinion. But maybe that is because the test piece I received had a bubblegum pink band with ‘Tango’ scrawled very unimpressively on it — making it abundantly clear that this one can’t be worn all the time. The fitness or wellness unit in itself is quite functionally designed, with a screen on top to display steps taken, time, battery life, etc. The display is quite lucid and clear under sunlight too. There is a side button to toggle between displays and to sync the band and it required a laboured, awkward press till I got used to it. The back houses two contacts where the clip-on charger, a touch I found really good, connects.

The device is fairly accurate and matched the recorded metrics with the other wearables I tested it against most of the time. It is quite sensitive and I placed it in my bag and pocket and it was good with the measurements. It also has a ‘sleep’ mode, where it tracks your shut-eye and no exercise data is displayed. It is water resistant and I faced no niggles when showering or splashing around with it.

It connects via Bluetooth to your smartphone with the Act2Fit 2S app. While the app is not bad, the interface could have been simpler and more appealing. A useful feature of the app is how it displays your daily steps and calorie count for a period of a week in the form of bar graphs, which made it easy for me to set goals and see how I am doing with them ever day. However, there is no cloud-based backup to save your data and that can be a disadvantage if you’re looking for long term records. But data is saved on the device itself for 30 days, so you can sync it at your convenience.

Battery life is where this one is a clear winner. I used it for about 20 days and after the initial juice-up, I didn’t have to charge it again. The Tango Wellness Motivator is a decent budget substitute for some of the more expensive fitness wearables in the market.

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