FITNESSBANDS
82 MAY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE387
OFFITBIT’STHREEnewest wearables –the
Inspire,the Inspire HR and the more
smartwatch-like Versa Lite–the Inspire is
both the cheapest and the least interesting.
Still, that’s more down to its comparative
weaknesses rather than being apoortracker
in its own right.
The Inspire is astripped-down version of
the Inspire HR. That means it shares the same
form factor,the same screen and –for the
first time in living memory –the same
charger.
The element that’s been stripped out is
the heart-ratesensor,hence the lack of ‘HR’
in the title.That means it can’t tell you your
heartbeat, obviously,but that has aknock-on
effect on other things. It prevents the guided
breathing exercises, stops the app giving you
acardio fitness level and strips sleep tracking
of the ability to detect different stages.
Less explicably,Fitbithas also removed
the connected GPS functionality,meaning it
won’tgive you run data on your wrist even
by piggybacking off asmartphone.Giventhat
all the heavy lifting forthis is done on your
phone,there’s no technical reason it can’t
do this, so dropping it feels more bloody
minded than anything.
COMPAREAND CONTRAST
How much more would you payfor those
extra features? If it’s £20, happydays: go and
buy aFitbitInspire HR for£70 right now and
don’t wwworryaboutitscheapersibling.
Indddeed, the Fitbit Inspire goes for
£50. TTThat puts it in astrange
price bbbracketofitsownbut
onethhhat’smarkedlylower
thanitttsotherofferings.
TheFitbitCharge3sells
for£10 00 0and offers a
coupleeeof extra things
to the Inspire HR:
floors climbed and
quick replies to
messaaaaaggggeeeessss.TTTThhhhaaaatttt’ssssnnnnooootttt
an extttra £30 of value,
howevvver,soyou can
safely discount it.
Design-wise,
there’sssvery little to
differeeentiatethe Fitbit
Inspireeefrom its
heart-rate-tracking
siblinggg.The two points of
differeeence: the back
doesn’t have the green light
to meaaasure heart rate
via blooood flow,and it’s available in
FITBIT Inspire
★★★★★
£50•Fromwww.johnlewis.com
VERDICT
TheFitbitInspireisaperfectlydecentwearable,
but with the Inspire HR you get awhole lot more
different colours. That’s it.
That’s no bad thing: bot
varieties of Fitbit Inspire ar
excellent examples of sleek
minimalism. Asmall plastic
lozenge –the brain of the
Fitbit –clips neatly betwee
two rubber straps. These
straps can be swapped out
match your style,and the
company sells anumber of
options in rubber,leather
and steel, meaning you can
match both your outfit and
formality of any occasion.
There’s adrawback to c
the design from the Fitbit I
which is that it inherits its w
as well as its strengths. Tha
because it’s atouchscreen
quiteafiddly one at that. T
on the side,but that’s used forgoback
when navigating menus, and not much else.
That said, atouchscreen interface makes
marginally more sense here than it does on
the Inspire HR. Since this doesn’t have
connected GPS, there’s less need to consult
it when exercising, meaning sweat and rain
confusing your inputs shouldn’t be an issue.
SIMPLE MINDED
The core functions of the Fitbit Inspire are the
same as that of the Inspire HR. That means
you put it on your wrist and forget aboooutit,
while it dutifully counts your steeeps and
congratulates you when yooouhit
the target. Occasionally it will
tell you to move if you’ve
been sedentary fortoooolong,
and it will also buzz
through call and message
notifications from your
phone.
The trouble is that
there’s really notttmuch
more to sayabouuutit. It’s
comfortable enooough,
and the screen isssbright,
bbbbuuuutttttttthhhhiiiissssiiiissssaaaapppprrrreeeettttttttttybasic
device when alliiissaid
and done.Even ttthe
sleep tracking simmmply
tells you whether you’re
sleeping or not based on
movement, with nooone of
the clever sleep-stage
tracking the Fitbit Inspppire HR
offers.
Maybe you don’t feel likkkeyou
need that kind of data. We’reabit sceptical of
its utility unless you’re having serious trouble
sleeping, but it’s still another bit of value that
makes that £20 difference look pretty
significant.
Perhaps this more limited feature set is
enough foroccasional users; it worked well
enough forearly Fitbit models and it does
come with the genuinely fantastic Fitbit app,
which offers just the right amount of friendly
competition between friends and family.
But, forall this, it does feel abit cheap of
Fitbit not to include connected GPS. There’s
no technical reason the company couldn’t
have added it, and it would make the tracker a
lot more useful, even without tracking heart
rate(which felt pretty flakeyduringexercise
on the HR anyway.)Itfeels as though Fitbit
cut the feature here just to make the Inspire
HR seem like abetter option, when the truth
is that, even without it, it was already afar
more compelling product.
LOSING HEART
In short, forasaving of £20, you’d be afool to
pick this over the Inspire HR. Even if you don’t
care about running, the guided breathing
exercises and better sleep tracking are worth
the extra money. Unless £50 is all you can
afford, you’re better off spending abit more.
Even then, if money’s tight, we’d advise
going cheaper than this. The Honor Band 5
and Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4both offer the
same kind of features forafraction of the
Inspire’s price,and throw in aheart-rate
monitor.Ifyou’re going to compromise on
features, you mayaswell do it on the cheap.
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