display screens alta hr pricelist

For me, it"s all about design. I"ve been wearing the Alta HR for almost a month and plan to continue wearing it even after this review. It"s comfortable to wear and doesn"t sacrifice any features, but what sold me was the seven day battery life. Now if only it were swim-proof like the Flex 2, then it would have been a grand slam.

The Alta HR costs $150, £130 or AU$250, the same price as the Charge 2. For most people, the Charge 2"s extra few features probably aren"t worth it. If you do care about manually tracking workouts or having a stopwatch, get the Charge 2, otherwise the Alta HR is the fitness tracker we recommend.

The tracker"s narrow monochrome LED will also display notifications for incoming calls, text messages and calendar alerts, and will provide reminders to move throughout the day. As I said with the original Alta, though, these notifications can be difficult to read due to the small display.

The Fitbit app provides a graph of all-day heart rate and resting heart rate. It also displays a personalized Cardio Fitness score. This is the same score that debuted last fall on the Charge 2 and is slated to arrive on the Blaze. It"s an estimate of overall health that is based on your VO2 Max, a widely accepted metric that is used to determine how well our bodies can use oxygen during workouts.

While the straps are backward compatible, the clip-on proprietary charging cable isn"t. Luckily, you won"t have to charge it often. The Alta HR will last an entire week on a single charge, which is damn impressive given the small size.

The Alta HR is also the first to get Fitbit"s new Sleep Stages feature. Rather than simply tracking how long you slept, it will now measure when you"re in light, deep and REM sleep cycles, and provide insights on your sleep habits. But the Sleep Stages feature will also be coming to the Charge 2 and Blaze later this month.

The Alta HR and Charge 2 are priced the same. They both have heart-rate sensors, can both track all-day fitness, and can both display basic notifications. So what"s the difference?

The Alta HR also doesn"t include an altimeter and won"t measure how many flights of stairs you climb each day, nor does it have the guided breathing sessions from the Charge 2. But these aren"t huge trade-offs.

If you care strongly enough about these features, get the Charge 2. But for most people, the better battery life and smaller size of the Alta HR will be more useful.

The relatively long battery life, continuous heart rate tracking, and stylish design make the Alta HR an obvious choice for anyone in the market for a fitness tracker. All it"s missing is swim-proofing, which is still only found on Fitbit"s Flex 2. Even so, the Alta HR is the best pick for most people. It"s easy enough to use for beginners, and flexible enough to fit a lot of wrists.

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that getting enough quality sleep is important for your well-being. The growth in the number of devices offering sleep-tracking features in recent years shows that companies are catching on. But sleep is a difficult metric to measure and understand, and most trackers these days can tell only when you"ve been asleep and awake. Fitbit"s latest wearable goes one step further than the competition, incorporating your heart-rate data into its algorithms to estimate what sleep state you"re in. The $150 Alta HR improves on the original, with a new heart rate monitor that constantly keeps tabs on your pulse. A software update that arrives on the Fitbit app today provides deeper analysis of how you"re sleeping. The new feature sounds potentially helpful, but after a few days with the new Alta, I don"t know if I can trust that it"s accurate. I also wish it were more consistent and easier to understand.

Before we get into all the things the Alta HR can do, let"s take a moment to examine how little its design has evolved. Like the original, the new Alta has a narrower footprint than Fitbit"s flagship Charge tracker, making it look more like a bangle than a cuff. My colleague Devindra Hardawar liked the Alta"s design when he reviewed it last year, but I"m less impressed by its plain, blockish aesthetic. Still, the Alta HR looks inoffensive and feels comfortable, and Fitbit offers a diverse variety of swappable bands for you to personalize the device.

Speaking of straps, I like that Fitbit has replaced the peg-and-hole closure on the original Alta with a watch buckle, making it easier to fasten. In addition to that and the new heart rate monitor on the underside, the updated Alta looks nearly identical to last year"s model. Oh, and like every other Fitbit, the Alta HR is water-resistant enough to withstand rain, sweat and light splashes, but the company cautions against taking it in underwater or in the shower.

On to what makes the Alta HR special, then. The device delves deeper into sleep analysis than other fitness trackers. While most other devices use just accelerometer data and an algorithm to figure out when you"re asleep, the Alta HR also taps your heart rate variability as a source of information. This lets Fitbit estimate what stage of sleep you enter (REM, deep or light) and track how long you stay in each phase.

As a refresher, humans don"t just fall asleep and wake up feeling energized. Research shows that the body and brain go through five or six sleep cycles a night, with each round including different types of slumber. During the REM stage, for example, you"re likely to be having vivid dreams as your brain recovers from the day and forms memories. In the deep sleep part of the cycle, your body is repairing itself.

The good news is the Alta HR"s sleep stage-tracking tool works, and I love waking up to a colorful, detailed sine-like wave graph of my time in bed. Below that is a bar chart that breaks down the exact duration in each zone, telling me I spent four hours in light sleep, an hour and a half in deep sleep and about the same in REM. Fitbit"s estimates of when I was awake mostly matches my fuzzy memory of being conscious while I tossed and turned or when I had to dismiss a phone alert, although that"s not a very scientific assessment.

The bad news is that the Alta HR"s sleep tracking can be inconsistent, at least if the pre-release unit I tested is any indication. I was disappointed one morning to find my sleep-tracking chart for the night didn"t include any sleep stage information. There was only movement-based data about how long I had been awake, restless and asleep. The company explained that there could be several reasons for the discrepancy. The Alta HR could stop tracking your sleep states if you slept for less than three hours or your battery level is critically low. Also, "your tracker needs to detect your heart rate to estimate your sleep cycles. If you slept in a position that prevented your tracker from getting a consistent heart-rate reading or wore it too loosely, you may see your sleep pattern... instead of sleep stages for the previous night." So that means I have to make sure my arm doesn"t shift into an Alta-hindering position all night. Someone should tell Fitbit that is basically impossible.

It"s easy enough to make sure you"ve put on the tracker securely around your wrist before going to bed, but you can"t guarantee that your arm doesn"t move and nudge the device out of position while you"re passed out. I found during my testing that fastening the Alta HR tighter than I normally would helped ensure it didn"t budge, but that"s slightly uncomfortable and I ultimately didn"t find the discomfort worth the information gleaned.

Based on each night"s performance, the app will offer encouragement and education on how to get better sleep. Over time, Fitbit"s system is supposed to learn your habits, sleep patterns and activities, and tailor its advice to what it knows you"re doing. Since I"ve only been using the Alta HR for a few days, the tips I"ve been getting have been generic. Each morning, I get a message within the app that either congratulates me on meeting my seven-hour sleep goal or encourages me to work toward that milestone.

My few complaints aside, I"m satisfied that the Alta HR"s new sleep tracking features work as promised, although its accuracy is hard to verify. The rest of the device"s functions are the same as they were on the original, except that with the added heart rate sensor you can now monitor your cardio performance while you exercise. As before, the Alta HR sports a "Tap Display," a pseudo-touchscreen that uses an accelerometer to tell when you"re jabbing at the panel. It"s much less sensitive than a typical touchscreen, and takes some time to get used to, but it"s easy enough to activate once you figure it out.

The screen is supposed to wake up from sleep and display your selected watchface when you raise your arm, but this feels sluggish in practice. I have to move my wrist very deliberately before the Alta HR"s display will light up. That"s more frustrating than having to jab harder at a screen to use the device.

Fitbit continues to promise seven-day battery life for the new Alta, and based on my testing, that"s actually a conservative estimate. In the two days since I last plugged in the Alta HR, its battery indicator still says it"s fully charged. That"s impressive, given that the device has been continuously monitoring my pulse while relaying a handful of alerts from my phone each day. I also check my heart rate at least a few times a day, particularly after climbing up five flights of stairs to my walk-up apartment.

Ultimately, the Alta HR is a successful follow-up to its predecessor, thanks to its new heart rate sensor. It"s also one of the more full-featured general-purpose fitness and sleep trackers on the market. Depending on your taste, you might appreciate its bland design too. Those who don"t mind a chunkier bracelet should consider the more-capable Charge 2, though. It offers more advanced and precise tracking with its exercise modes and cardio fitness level features, all for the same price as the Alta HR. The Charge 2 will be getting the same sleep stage-tracking feature in April with its next firmware update. But that means it will track the same unverifiable sleep data, which is unlikely to be helpful, regardless of the device it"s on.

When I first strapped on the Alta HR, I thought, “Finally, here’s a fitness tracker that’s packed with features but doesn"t feel like a brick strapped to my wrist.” At 0.61 inches wide, it looks like a slimmer version of the Fitbit Charge 2. I found it more comfortable to wear than most trackers, whose bulk can make it uncomfortable to bend my wrist during workouts.

Outwardly, the main difference between the Fitbit Alta HR and the wider Charge 2 is that there"s no button on the Alta HR"s side to let you view and scroll through your stats. You"ll have to tap the Alta HR’s display to cycle through your step count, heart rate, distance traveled and other stats.

The Charge 2’s button lets you start and stop workouts, dismiss silent alarms, and select the alarms that you want to enable and disable. With the Alta HR, you"ll have to rely more on the Fitbit app to set your silent alarms and record your workouts afterward if they weren"t automatically recognized.Finally, there"s a fitness tracker that doesn"t feel like a brick strapped to my wrist.

If you need to tap the device at all, you might need to use more force than you"d expect. I had to slap the display nearly a dozen times whenever I needed to dismiss a silent alarm.

And there’s a downside for swimmers: You won"t be able to track your pool time. The Alta HR isn"t swim-proof, and you should take it off before hopping into the shower. However, it can withstand a good splashing in the sink and in the rain.

Many Fitbit users are focused on taking 10,000 steps a day, thus making step-count accuracy especially important. I found the Alta HR"s step counts more accurate than those of many other devices, including older Fitbit models I"ve used. When I took 500 steps, the Alta HR recorded 508. Because your step count displays to the nearest hundred steps on the device (such as 2.4K), slight inaccuracies won"t show on your wrist. You"ll be able to see the exact step count only in the Fitbit app.

You can get text and call notifications on your Alta HR. In the app, you can choose to either see just the sender"s name, or the sender"s name and part of the text message as well. You can also receive calendar notifications on the Alta HR, which is a new and convenient feature for people who manage packed schedules.

Like every other Fitbit model, the Alta HR comes with a proprietary USB charger that clips on to the back of the device. I set five silent alarms; received a dozen or so text, call and calendar notifications each day; and had continuous heart rate monitoring that recorded my heart rate every minute, and the battery lasted a little more than six days. That"s a little less than the seven days that Fitbit estimates, but it"s better than other fitness trackers" three- to five-day battery lives.

To make sure that your device doesn"t run out of juice, the Fitbit app gives you the option to view your Alta HR’s battery level as you cycle through your stats.

The $149 Fitbit Alta HR is a sensible update to the original Alta, with heart rate monitoring and better sleep tracking, in an equally slim and stylish package. However, if you don’t mind a slightly thicker, but just as attractive, device, consider the Fitbit

This Fitbit Alta HR scored in the upper half of the group, but still failed to distinguish itself as one of our top picks. It scored decently well across our range of rating metrics, but we found the bulk of the Fitbit line to be much more preferable to the Alta HR. This model is an alright option if you want an exceptionally discreet fitness tracker or if you want a piece of wearable tech that is substantially more petite than the competitors.

Meriting the most weight out of all of our metrics, Fitness Impact accounts for 30% of the total score. We compared the accuracy of the step counter, the abilities of each model to track a cycling or cardio workout, what other activities each model could track, whether it not it kept track of stairs climbed, and how much of a community is available to compete and share your results. The Alta HR scored decently well, earning a 6 out of 10 for its above average showing.

However, it"s estimated distance was always spot on, measuring in our mile walk as exactly a mile. This model didn"t do a great job when it came to tracking workouts or cycling, failing to show too much additional data besides calories burned and duration. This model should automatically start tracking an activity after 15 minutes, but we always found it to be about 7-9 minutes off from the true duration. As expected with its name, the Alta HR does monitor your heart rate throughout the activity.

This fitness tracker didn"t have too many other trackable activities in its suite of abilities, being limited to elliptical and a generic "Sports" listing, in addition to walking, running, cycling, and a cardio workout. This model also does not track the flights of stairs climbed throughout the day.

Moving on to our next rating metric, we compared the abilities of each product to aid you in building healthier habits. This set of tests made up 25% of the total score for each tracker, consisting of comparing the heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking skills of each tracker, as well as its ability to help in dieting and getting a healthier lifestyle, as well as if there is an alarm clock. The Fitbit Alta HR again did quite well, earning a 7 out of 10 for its above average showing.

Building on its predecessor, the Alta HR now includes an optical heart rate sensor. Unfortunately, this new addition didn"t prove to be particularly accurate in our tests, doing a slightly sub standard job. We compared with a chest band heart rate monitor as a control, finding the Alta HR to be an astonishing average of about 33 bpm during activity. However, it was substantially more accurate at reading a resting heart rate, only varying from the chest strap by a few bpm.

Like other Fitbit models, you can enter food information in the app to help you maintain your diet, as well as calculating an estimate of the calories you"ve burned throughout the day.

Ranking next in importance, our Ease of Use rating metric comprises 20% of the total score. We assessed the battery life of each model, how difficult it was to use the companion app and navigating menus on the device, how long it took to sync with your mobile device, as well as the water resistance and ease of putting on each device. The Alta HR did do decently well in this metric, again earning a 7 out of 10 for its solid performance.

The Alta HR did have a longer battery life than its predecessor, claimed to last up to 7 days before requiring a recharge. This model utilizes a proprietary charger that clips to the back of the watch.

This model definitely wasn"t one of our favorites when it came to navigating the menus, with the touchscreen still being somewhat finicky and unresponsive, like the Fitbit Alta. Unfortunately, this model isn"t swimming or shower proof, though it is sweat and rain proof. It"s also quite easy to put on, with a watch style band that has some nice stiffness to it.

Next in terms of weight is our Ergonomics metric, meriting 15% of the total score. We compared how comfortable each product is, its profile, and its overall aesthetics. The Alta HR again scored reasonably well, earning a 7 out of 10.

Finally, the Display metric takes credit for the remaining 10% of the total score. We looked at how much information is displayed on the home screen, its visibility, and responsiveness, as well as what notifications are displayed. The Alta HR — unsurprisingly at this point — scored a 7 out of 10 for its good display, though it had a few quirks we weren"t the fondest of.

This tracker displays the day, date and time on the home screen, but does not show the month. This 0.87"x0.98" screen does a decent job at being readable in dim lighting conditions, but it very hard to read in bright outdoor conditions.

The touchscreen is acceptably responsive when you get the hang of it, but can be exceptionally aggravating to use before you become accustomed to it. The Alta HR can show text, call, and calendar events, as well as the steps, distance, calories, and active minutes in further displays.

The Alta HR is a great choice if you are searching for the most minimalistic and discreet fitness tracker possible AND need it to have a heart rate sensor. Other than that, there are plenty of other models that would probably serve you better.

The original Alta now costs £100 (although it can be found for even less online), so is it worth spending an extra £30 for an optical heart rate monitor? Yes it absolutely is.

The addition of heart rate monitoring means greater accuracy in tracking the calories you burn and results in a more detailed breakdown of sleep (more on that later). The Alta HR can now also give an estimate of your resting heart rate, an excellent indicator of general fitness.

A few months after launching, Fitbit upgraded the app to offer Alta HR users Cardio Fitness Score, a feature that had previously only been available on the Charge 2 and Blaze. It’s an estimate of VO₂ max, or how efficiently your body can use oxygen, based on your resting heart rate and other bits from profile including your weight. While this could have been just another number, Fitbit cleverly places you on a spectrum of people of the same sex and age range.

Subsequent screens in the app then suggest how much you could improve the score with exercise, especially HIIT, or if you drop 5lb (2.3kg) of weight. If there’s one complaint we have with fitness trackers it’s that numbers are often provided without any context, so we give Fitbit a big hand for adding this feature and explaining it.

One question with all wrist-based heart rate monitors is accuracy and the ability to respond quickly to rapid changes in heart rate. We haven’t tested the Alta HR against a chest strap (which are inevitably more accurate), but we found it mostly passed the “that’s reasonable” test. Our resting heart rate moved around appropriately according to how healthily we were behaving and there were no outlandish readings when we looked at the screen during exercise.

Occasionally, however, we did find it didn’t display a heart rate during exercise even though we were wearing it according to Fitbit’s guidelines for exercise (tight and two finger-widths above the wrist bone). This was pretty rare, though.

We found ourselves hitting the 10,000-step goal a little earlier in the day than usual (we are very much creatures of habit) so the Alta HR may be a bit more sensitive to movement, but not outrageously so, and we have no way of knowing if our previous tracker was more or less accurate.

With all things tracker-related, it’s not really the absolute number that counts, it’s how it changes over time. Fitbit seems to know that and offers breakdowns of your steps over a day, a week, a month, three months or a year.

One feature that can be found in other models in this price bracket, but isn’t present on the Alta HR, is an altimeter to count stairs climbed. In the Fitbit range, that’s present in the Charge 2 and above, but Fitbit can be forgiven the omission on the Alta HR. They’ve already managed to fit a heart rate monitor into the Alta’s svelte frame.

The Alta HR automatically recognises and categorises 15 minutes or more of running as an exercise event (although you can reduce this time limit in the settings). Afterwards it provides you with the time spent running, a graph of your heart rate and the time spent in the three heart rate zones, calories burned and steps taken.

Where the Alta HR does fall down, however, is that it can’t see any of the GPS info (time, distance or pace data) on your wrist as you run. In fact, because SmartTrack isn’t shown on the screen at all you can’t even see a timer of how long you’ve been running for. You can keep tabs on your heart rate, which is useful if you’re following a training plan and like to use heart rate zones instead of terms like easy, steady and tempo, or if you’re looking to run intervals. But if you are that into your running that you’re planning on intervals, we’d recommend the Charge 2 – which has a feature dedicated to just that.

Although there’s no cycling option when starting GPS tracking in the app, it’ll still match itself up to a SmartTrack cycling event. Otherwise the Alta HR tracks exactly the same things for cycling as it does for running. It works if you’re a casual cyclist – perhaps a commuter like us – and want the activity to count towards your goals, but if you’re at all into cycling the Alta HR will feel feature-light pretty quickly.

The Alta HR isn’t waterproof so don’t take it into the pool or the shower. Fitbit only offers swim tracking on the cheaper Flex 2 – it seems to be one area that Fitbit’s happy to leave to the competition for now.

The Alta HR is the cheapest wearable in Fitbit’s line-up that offers Sleep Stages, which uses the heart rate monitor to add REM tracking to the breakdown of awake, light and deep sleep that’s common across brands.

With such a small screen the Alta HR can’t match the smartwatch pretensions of the Blaze, its older, bigger brother, but it makes full use of the real estate available by offering simple notifications.

It’s a useful addition and well executed, although we found it difficult to read the Alta HR’s screen during daylight, and we occasionally activated the screen by accident and couldn’t bring the message back again.

What the Alta HR can’t do is show notifications from third-party apps like WhatsApp, a feature that’s present on one of the Alta HR’s biggest competitors, the Garmin Vivoactive HR and Vivosmart 3. Whether that’s a problem depends on you – if we were buzzed every time someone posts in our fantasy football group our hand would be permanently numb.

Syncing with the app couldn’t be easier. The Alta HR pairs over Bluetooth in a matter of seconds every time you open the app or you can pull down the home screen to manually activate a sync.

The Fitbit app is one of the easiest to use, striking the right balance between a manageable layout at first glance and sufficient depth that you continue to stumble on new screens and details a fair while after first downloading it.

The Challenges tab offers a range of gamified competitions with friends (if you know any fellow Fitbit users) and solo challenges that allow you to virtually complete a route – like the New York Marathon – through your step count. Both are nice additions that may provide that little bit of impetus needed to change your routine and up your step count.

There’s the Garmin Vivosmart 3 (£130) which is packed full of features, but sacrifices the Alta HR’s ease of use and style and falls down on the cycling front by offering no info after rides.

Or there’s Fitbit’s own hugely popular Charge 2 (£140) which is very similar, but offers a few extra features and a larger, more interactive screen. But to make it as stylistically unobtrusive as the Alta HR you’d have to pony up £60 for the leather band.Fitbit Alta HR: Price Comparison

Fitbit’s products are so popular that the brand name has become synonymous with fitness trackers. Two of the firm’s bestsellers that have contributed to this reputation are the Alta and Alta HR. Along with low price tags, the two models offer a stripped-back, simplistic user experience that appeals to a wide range of users.

Until now, they’ve always been obvious choices if you want to buy a fitness tracker under £100. So what’s changed? In short, Fitbit has made things more complicated by introducing two new budget fitness trackers that deliver all that’s good about the Alta range at lower prices: the Inspire and Inspire HR.

That’s cheap compared to the Alta and Alta HR’s £100 and £130 starting prices. However, the latter models have come down in price since they were launched to around £60 and £80 respectively. Consequently, which device you choose should primarily come down to design and features, which I cover in more detail below.

Since Inspire and Inspire HR haven"t officially been released yet, it makes sense that they"re only available for preorder from Fitbit"s official website. We expect them to be available from Amazon and other major electronics retailers shortly, though.

Fitbit’s new budget trackers are quite obviously evolutions of the Alta and Alta HR in terms of design. They build on their predecessors primarily by featuring a larger touchscreen and a handy button on the tracker’s left side that you can use to back out of menus.

One notable difference between Inspire and Alta is that the former’s casing is composed from plastic rather than aluminium. Although this makes Inspire look cheaper, it’s slightly lighter and more comfortable on the wrist, which are among the most important attributes for any fitness tracker.

In terms of colour scheme, there are fewer options with the new Inspire range than the Alta. Rather than the choice of six you get with the latter, there’s just the two on Inspire (black and sangria) and three on Inspire IR (black, lilac and white). Apart from that, there’s not much to split the two models in terms of design. Both are neat, minimalist wearables that are functional rather than flashy.

The Alta does everything you could expect of a basic fitness tracker. On top of monitoring step count, distance covered and calories burned, it will give you smartphone notification alerts and automatically tracks both workouts and sleep.

The Alta HR delivers all this and more. To be more specific, for the extra £20 you also get more in-depth sleep analysis and an integrated heart-rate sensor.

With the Inspire family, Fitbit has built upon the solid feature sets of the Alta wearables. The main headline is that Inspire comes with 50m waterproofing as standard. There’s also ovulation tracking and new, improved phone notifications, although we’ve not had the chance to test this functionality just yet.

The Inspire HR, being the more expensive option, takes things further still. Along with continuous heart-rate tracking, it has connected GPS, meaning you can start logging workouts on your phone at the touch of a button on your wrist.

As with the Alta HR, the Inspire HR estimates your general fitness level, and also supports Sleep Stages, which gives you detailed insights into your sleep quality. Lastly, there’s a guided-breathing app that you can use to help reduce your stress levels.

Fitbit’s new Inspire and Inspire HR fitness trackers aren’t a huge overhaul of the existing Alta range. The connected GPS on the Inspire HR is a huge bonus, but aside from that and ovulation tracking, there’s really not that much to choose between the two ranges.

The main factor, therefore, when choosing which to buy should be the price. The Inspire and Inspire HR cost only £10 more than their Alta counterparts, which, for newer devices that are more lightweight and comfortable seems like an obvious investment to make.

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