Description
-
Build Quality
-
Performance
-
Design
-
Accurancy
Summary
The Moov Now is seriously the cheapest fitness tracker you can get for such an extensive spectrum of activity tracking. It helps you improve by gradually increasing the workout intensity and mixes up the workouts so you don’t get bored of them. It is incredible value for the breadth of things that it offers, for the low price you can run, swim, cycle, box and do CrossFit with accuracy. It lacks things like GPS and heart rate monitoring to put it in the same league as other trackers, but it’s really unobtrusive and if you’re looking for a complete view of your fitness it’s presented in a really simple way with Moov.
User Review
( votes)Moov Now 3D Fitness Tracker & Real Time Audio Coach, Swimming Running Water Resistant Activity Calories Tracker with Sleep Monitor, Bluetooth Smart Wristband for Android and iOS
The MOOV NOW 3D Fitness Tracker, paired with the Moov Coach app, offers a simple but ingenious way to monitor your progress and motivate yourself without getting bogged down in daily step goals and non-stop push notifications about how lazy you are compared to your ultramarathon-running colleagues.
The Moov Now is a budget activity tracker comprising a stretchy rubber strap and a removable pod, which is powered by a CR2032 coin-cell battery that will keep it going for a ludicrous 6 months. Unlike more advanced fitness trackers which record your heart rate, your steps, your REM sleep cycles and your stress levels, the Moov Now uses its “Omni Motion” accelerometers to detect movement during exercise and sleep, and that’s all there is to it.
The true appeal of the Moov Now lies in its accompanying app, Moov Coach, which is available on both iOS and Android. This free app works with the Moov Now as well as Moov’s other fitness tracker, the Moov HR. You’ll need the latter if you want to make use of Moov Coach’s heart rate data tracking. Although the Moov Now can’t measure your pulse like the HR, it still provides detailed estimates on your sleeping patterns and deep-sleep cycles. Better yet it can be paired alongside a bunch of third-party heart rate monitors using Bluetooth.
As wearables go, the MOOV NOW 3D Fitness Tracker looks pretty odd. It has an unusual design in that there’s no screen, just the colourful pod inside a stretchy silicone rubber strap. Every now and then we noticed people in public staring at it, probably trying to work out what was. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it looks bad, though it is just different, a unique looking bracelet. The Moov Now gets top points for comfort. Whether you’ve got it on your wrist or your ankle, its rubber strap is barely noticeable. Combined, the strap and tracker weigh a feather-light 9g, which explains why you can barely feel it. The tracker is also water, sweat, and dirt proof, so there’s no need to take it off unless you’re scuba diving.
Another reason not to remove the Moov Now is how fiddly it can be to secure the strap in the first place. Two metal pegs must be slotted through perforations on the strap to suit your wrist width, but it’s so tricky to fit it securely you have to invert the strap and push through from the other side. I lost a few leg hairs the first time I tried fitting it above my ankle. Once it is on properly, though, it does at least stay put.
The Moov Now works in conjunction with the Moov Coach app, available for free on iOS and Android. Once you’ve paired the device with your phone, you use Moov Coach to select workouts, view progress and “achievements”, and compete with friends who also use the Moov Coach app. The app has several types of ready-to-go workouts, which are broken down into two categories, Motion or Heart Rate; you choose the category depending on whether you’re wearing the Now or the HR. The best part of the Moov Coach software is the audio encouragement it provides during each workout, telling you how you’re doing and pushing you to work just that little bit harder to meet your targets. If you’re out on the streets or in the gym this audio coaching is best listened to via headphones; that way you can make sure you hear everything while avoiding annoying those around you.
With Moov’s coaching tips, even a simple stroll to the railway station can turn into a hard-core power walking intervals workout. This makes the Moov accessible to people who aren’t looking to train for an Iron Man but want to build up a base level of everyday fitness. For walking, running, and cycling you must fix the Moov Now to your ankle so that activity records accurately and during cardio boxing workouts you’ll need two Moov Nows, one on each wrist, in order to track everything you’re doing.
Another neat feature of the accelerometer inside the Moov Now pod is its ability to record stride length and the force of impact when you’re running. If you’ve never had a professional consultation about your running gait, this feedback can be revelatory. There is one drawback to all this activity: syncing your workout data is a slow process. The Moov Now is a low-power device, so it doesn’t send data to your phone continuously like other rechargeable fitness trackers. The plus side of this is that the battery lasts a long time; the downside is that you have to press down on the movement tracker so it transfers activity and sleep-tracking data from the pod to the app.
It’s especially slow when you’ve finished a swim and that’s because during swim workouts the tracker doesn’t communicate continuously with the app – it uploads at the end and that process can take minutes to complete. The data bank is undeniably impressive, though; when you return to your locker after the swim, the Moov app provides a detailed breakdown of the number of laps swam, the types of stroke performed, the rate of your strokes and your lap times too. Not bad for a device in this price range that only uses accelerometers. It is worth noting that it is important to always end your workout in the Moov Coach app when you’ve finished, otherwise, it won’t save the information properly. This is easy to forget, especially when you’re wearing it on your ankle following a bike ride and your phone is in a bag or back pocket.
Another problem which pertains mostly to outdoor cycling is the need for headphones to receive Moov Coach’s active coaching feedback in your ears. Anything that distracts your senses from the hazards of the road has the potential to be very dangerous. If you choose to play it from your phone instead you’ll still get the feedback but unless you have it in a breast pocket it will be too muffled to hear anyway.
For such a low-cost device, the MOOV NOW 3D Fitness Tracker and Moov Coach app have an amazing potential to improve your overall fitness and motivate you towards your long-term goals. The data that Moov Now provides can actually be more useful, especially the feedback it gives about stride and landing impact. Not only that, but its motivational coaching feature is highly sophisticated and, importantly, actually works. You do feel encouraged and you do benefit as a result. The Moov Now may not be for everyone but if you don’t mind working out with your headphones in then this unconventional fitness tracker could give you the boost you’ve been looking for.
The Moov Now excels at one, very important thing: it’s a fitness tracker that actually tracks the things that make you fitter. You get guided workouts for major activities that are well thought-out, or just good, broad tracking for daily activities. Six-Month battery life is immense, and if your goal is to spend more time in bed each night and move more each day, this little wearable is an affordable and accurate way to do it. There’s more Moov can do now with it, and fingers are crossed more activities are added and training plans are created too. The accuracy of the sleep tracking and the fiddly design are the only elements that niggle, but otherwise, this is the kind of fitness tracker that all brands should aspire to create.
Wondering how the Fitbit Alta HR compare to other fitness trackers? Read about the most accurate fitness trackers and what other options are available out there.
