Travel blender LC Prime portable electric mixer

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USB Juicer Cup + Fruit Slicer Portable Electric Mixer for Fruits, Vegetables and Baby Foods, by LC Prime (Red) 

A lightweight blender easy to pack and carry around, LC Prime portable juicer can make fruit and veggies smoothies, protein shakes, milkshakes and whatever drink you need.

Made of food-grade material, you need to press the start button twice to switch it on to avoid accidental starting when it’s inside your bag. It takes about 30 seconds to one minute to fully blend and make one large serving.

This small travel mixer comes with a built-in 2600mAh/5V battery and can be recharged through USB with a power bank, a computer/laptop, a mobile or any other USB adaptor you have. It features a nice handle on top of the cup so it’s super easy to carry around and makes for a perfect smoothie travel cup.

They have a 60-day warranty policy.

TopEsct Personal Blender, a lightweight travel smoothie maker

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Personal Blender, Juicer Cup/Electric Fruit Mixer/USB Juice Blender, Rechargeable

"TopEsct is often listed among the top travel blenders, favourite among travellers especially thanks to its lightweight of 0.47 kg or 0.55 kg with all the package."

"It comes with a built-in lithium battery that lasts some 4-5 days even if you use it daily. It runs with a low DC 3.6V voltage and you can use it in different countries. However, you can’t pull it out of the motor, so to drink your juice you need a separate smoothie travel cup. This is the only thing that makes it difficult to carry it around in your purse or backpack on a daily bases, but if you only want it in your hotel room, then it works just fine."

"You can use it to make different drinks, dips or milkshakes, and also hot beverages, but not over 80°C and for sure it’s not to be used in the microwave."

"This is a basic portable blender battery operated, but not the best shake blender and for sure not the best blender for ice and frozen fruit as the motor is not strong enough."

Travel blender BluFied personal

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Portable USB Personal Blender with Travel Jar, Smoothie Maker and Juicer, Portable Single Serve for Shakes and Smoothies | High Speed, Powerful, 350ml, BPA-free, 4 Blades - Green | Upgrade Version 

"With some great reviews, this compact travel blender is easy to use, lightweight and USB-rechargeable through the cable included in the package. When fully charged, it can work some 15 times."

"With a 4-leaf blade, it can make smoothies, fruit juices, blend vegetables and purees, better if you cut the fruit and veggies into small pieces. The cup’s capacity is 350 ml and after use, you can dismantle the small blender into three pieces for easy cleaning."

Travel blender Petolar rechargeable portable blender with travel cup

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Portable Blender - Small Smoothie Blender for Shakes - USB Rechargeable Handheld Juicer Cup Personal Size for Travel - Mini Ice Fruits Mixer (Black) 

"Easy to use and carry around, Petolar is a small portable blender perfect for travelling, camping and all outdoors thanks to its compact size and lightweight."

"It’s USB-charged so you can use it anywhere and for a quick smoothie on-the-go works pretty well. Stuff the fridge of your hotel room with fresh fruit and veggies and this travel smoothie blender will do its job."

"With a capacity of 15 oz, with this small blender, you will have each time an abundant single serving or even two cups. It comes with a smoothie travel cup placed on top of the pitcher, which is very handy when on the road."

Travel blender Little Bees, mini travel blender for girls

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USB Electric Safety Juicer Cup, Fruit Juice Mixer, Travel Blend,Mini Portable Rechargeable/Juicing Mixing Crush Ice Blender Mixer,420-530ml Water Bottle (Pink) 

"Coming in a pastel pink colour, this small travel blender is stylish and easy to carry."

"It’s not ideal for blending ice or frozen fruit, so less handy than other stronger travel blenders if you like cold drinks and gelato-style smoothies. Also, not recommended for nuts or hard foods and you need to cut your fruit into small pieces for better and smoother blending."

"This small portable blender runs on two lithium batteries that are included in the package. It can’t be washed in the dishwasher."

 

Travel blender Juicer2Go, portable travel blender

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JUICER2GO Portable Blender, USB Rechargeable Travel Juicer, Personal Smoothie Blender, Small Camping Blender, Protein Shake Mixer Cup, On the Go Blender with Juices, Cocktails and Baby Puree Recipes 

"Easy to carry and lightweight, this small travel blender is perfect if you are on the go and still want to keep your healthy eating habits."

"You can blend fruits, veggies, frozen fruits and ice cubes, so the types of drinks you can make are unlimited. The cup comes with a strainer and it’s 13.5 oz."

"As a pleasant addition, the package includes e-books with some 300 recipes for juices, smoothies, baby food and cocktails."

"It’s USB-rechargeable and can be used up to 15 times every charge. To recharge, it takes around three hours."

"After use, you can disassemble it entirely so it’s very easy to clean. Included also the cleaning sponge."

 

Travel blender Huatop small blender for travelling

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[Upgraded Version] USB Juicer Cup by Huatop, Portable Juice Blender, Household Fruit Mixer - Six Blades in 3D, 380ml Fruit Mixing Machine with USB Charger Cable for Superb Mixing 

"Made of food-grade non-toxic and eco-friendly BPA-free material, this small blender comes with 6 blades, allowing for a better blending."

"It has a built-in 2000mAh battery that you can recharge through USB with a power bank, a computer or whatever compatible with your USB cable."

"It’s perfect for making smoothies, baby food, juices, purees, dips, milkshakes and any healthy drink you want. You can also use it to blend ice and frozen fruit as long as they are not in big chunks and you add a bit of water otherwise the blades get stuck. Gently shaking the cup while it’s working makes it easier to blend the food. It doubles as its own 380ml cup so you can drink your smoothie straight away."

"As a safety measure, the blades won’t run when it’s charging or if the cup is not tightened to the base.
Lightweight, quiet and easy to clean, it’s a piece to consider in your quest for the best portable blender for travelling."

Travel blender Bbtops, top compact travel blender

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Portable Blender Mini Travel Juice Cup, Bbtops Fruit Mixer Personal Size USB Juicer Cup, USB Charging Sport Juice Maker, Shakes and Smoothies Blender 380ml, Pink 

 

"This sleek travel blender made of food grade material is small, lightweight, easy to carry and rechargeable, making it perfect for travelling, camping and other outdoor activities."

"This portable travel blender runs on two 4000mAh batteries and works for some 10 times with one charge. It turns off automatically when the blending is over."

"This portable blender is built with the necessary safety measures and is not going to work until the cup is fully tightened. It features six blades and can make smoothies, juices, protein shakes and blends veggies and baby food. It’s a good personal travel blender that makes one serving per time."

"The customer service is also a good aspect: 30-day money back policy and a 12-month warranty."

Travel blender TTLIFE S-POW, a favourite compact blender

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Portable Glass Smoothie Blender, TTLIFE Personal Blender USB Rechargeable, Small Blender Single Serve, Mixer Juicer Cup Travel Blender Cordless with 5200mAh Rechargeable Battery for Shakes and Smoothies, Baby Food, FDA, BPA Free-Blue 

"A fantastic small blender easy to carry with you when travelling, TTLIFE S-POW smoothie maker is made of food-grade PP and ABS material and is BPA-free."

"This stainless steel 4-blade travel smoothie blender can be used also to make protein shakes and fruit and veggies juices, to blend ice and frozen fruits, to make milkshakes, dips and other foods."

"It features six blades in different shapes that operate in three directions to ensure speed and efficiency, blending also raw vegetables. The portable blender can be dismantled in four parts to allow a proper washing after use and for an easy packing when travelling."

"It comes with built-in lithium batteries and it’s easy to recharge through a USB port, a power bank, with your computer or even in the car. When fully charged, the battery lasts for some 10 times.
Small and lightweight, it’s one of the best travel blenders to pack and lug around."

Travel blender Beckool, perfect mini portable blender

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USB Electric Safety Juicer Cup, Fruit Juice mixer, Mini Portable Rechargeable /Juicing Mixing Crush Ice Blender Mixer ,420-530ml Water Bottle (Black) 

"Easy to carry and handy to use, Beckool travel blender is perfect for fruit and veggie smoothies."

"You can use this cordless portable blender also to smash ice cubes as long as they are not too big otherwise they might jam the blades, and for hot foods like soups or hot drinks as long as they are not too hot, better if less than 80°C or it can damage the motor."

"If you gently shake the blender while working, it blends better and easier. The capacity of the cup is 14 oz (some 380 ml)."

"Beckool compact blender has a built-in 4000mAh battery that blends some 20 times in full charge and that you can recharge through USB. It’s easy to travel with as you don’t need to constantly change batteries. Each blending lasts for 20 seconds and then it turns off by itself to save the battery life."

TOPQSC, best portable blender for protein shakes and smoothies

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Portable Blender, PopBabies Personal Blender, Smoothie Blender. Rechargeable USB Blender Corolina Blue 

TOPQSC juicer cup is often considered the best portable blender for travelling and any outdoor activities.

TOPQSC travel smoothie maker serves both as a juicer and as a blender, it blends soups, fruits, veggies cut into small chunks and ice. You can also blend hot foods, just don’t add too much food together. It’s a small blender so the motor is not as powerful as a professional kitchen blender.

The capacity of the smoothie travel cup attached is 500 ml and it doesn’t need electricity as it runs on built-in 4000mAh lithium-ion batteries you can recharge with a USB cable also from your computer or laptop. It can work up to 20 times with a full charge. A good feature is that it turns off by itself once everything inside is blended.

It’s very easy to clean but it’s better not to put it in the dishwasher. The food grade material is made of is non-toxic, PBA-free and FDA-approved.

It’s a great portable smoothie blender and comes with a pretty good warranty: 1 month money-back guarantee and 18 months guarantee on product failures.

Travel blender PopBabies, USB-rechargeable portable blender

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PopBabies Portable Blender, Mini Smoothie Maker with with USB Rechargeable, Larger Stronger and Faster, Blending While Charging with Ice Tray, Funnel, Recipe Princess Pink(FDA BPA Free) 

"PopBabies travel smoothie maker is one of the best small blenders for protein shakes and is receiving great reviews."

"Lightweight, easy to take off the bottle and drink directly from there or carry with you, PopBabies mini travel blender features built-in lithium batteries and can be recharged with USB. This is why it’s easy to use anywhere."

"Running at 22000 rpm, it’s fast and powerful enough to blend ice and frozen fruits as well as veggies, beans and nuts. The package includes also a small ice cube tray. Made with safe materials, this portable blender battery operated is BPA-free and FDA, CE and RoHS approved. The blades are seized up in a cup and you don’t risk to hurt your fingers."

"You can either put the blender in your backpack when you are going out on a sightseeing day and make your smoothie or juice any time of the day or you can make your juice while in your room and carry only the smoothie travel cup in your bag as the lid doesn’t leak. Obviously, you can make also sauces, dips, salad dressings, milkshakes and whatever you can think of."

"You can blend also hot food but not over 100°C and can’t be used in the microwave. It’s easy to clean as it can be put in the dishwasher or you can fill it with water and then press the start button. Using it often, the battery can last up to 4 or 5 days."

Fitbit Charge 3 Reviewed

Proof that fitness trackers are still worth your time - for now 

by  Becca Caddy

Smartwatches have become such hot news recently that you’d be forgiven for thinking fitness trackers are a thing of the past.

After all, smartwatches do offer most of the best bits of activity trackers, including more apps, features and good looks for sometimes only £50 more.

But there are still plenty of advantages to choosing a fitness tracker instead. Most smartwatches are bigger, run out of battery quicker and might be packed with more features and apps than you’d ever need. Plus, if fitness is your primary focus, it doesn’t always make sense to splash out on a smartwatch that does so much more.

That’s why we were excited to get our hands on (and wrist into) the new Fitbit Charge 3. It’s a fitness tracker that’s had a decent upgrade from the Charge 2 before it, with waterproofing, better and smarter notifications, an improved UI and more battery life. But is it enough of an upgrade to get people excited rather than shopping for a smartwatch instead?

Design and build: Slick, simple and built for fitness

When it comes to design, Fitbit may have found the sweet spot with the Fitbit Charge 3.

It sits somewhere between super slim trackers, like its Alta and Garmin’s recently released Vivosmart 4, and bigger devices with screens that take up most of your wrist, like the majority of smartwatches or the Fitbit Ionic.

At 19.9mm X 34.5mm it’s just enough screen for you to read stats and notifications with ease and swipe through menus, combining the need for a slim design with practical considerations.

The touchscreen OLED display is clear, bright and easy-to-read in all kinds of environments, including dim lighting, sunshine outdoors and in the pool.

It’s a big winner in the comfort stakes too. It’s light and its silicone wristband is soft but sturdy and thanks to its aluminium buckle will stay secure while you’re sleeping, swimming and doing anything and everything else.

The Charge 2 had a button on the side, but the Charge 3 does away with the physical button and instead replaces it with a small groove that acts as a haptic feedback button. This takes you back to the homescreen while you’re browsing through menus, providing you with a little vibration when it does.

Unlike the Charge 2, the latest version has waterproofing up to 50m so it’s happy to go to the pool or shower and in our testing worked just as well in water as it did out.

When it comes to colours and design, the Charge 3 comes with a black strap and a dark grey aluminium body or with a blue/grey strap and rose gold aluminium, but you can switch out the bands for different colours.

This regular version of the Charge 3 is £129.99, but there’s a special edition that’s packing Fitbit Pay for £40 more, which comes with a lavender woven strap and a rose gold aluminium body or a white sports band and dark grey aluminium body.

Software and features: Easy-to-use and smarter notifications

You can choose from a number of different clock faces that put different stats at the forefront of the Charge 3. There’s one with the digital time and just your heart rate, another that focuses on your steps and a few analogue clock hands options too.

Although some people might be disappointed by the lack of choice, it’s refreshing to have less than 10 options because it keeps the experience simple and focused on the stats rather than looks.

Swipe down from the main screen to view notifications, which for the most part you can click into and read fully. All the notifications, from emails to fertility apps, are easy-to-read and you can view them from all the apps on your phone. You’ll just need to decide in the Fitbit app which you want to be notified about.

Swipe up and you’ll see a Fitbit Today feature, which gets you on track with goals and allows you to see how you’re doing in terms of heart rate, activity stats, sleep and more.

Swiping left opens up the main menu where you can view the main apps offered by the Charge 3, including Exercise features, the Relax breathing exercises, Timers, Alarms, Weather forecast and Settings. We might expect more apps to be added to the Fitbit ecosystem in future, but for now that’s the range you’ll get.

Fitness tracking and smarts: Great for active people, but not fitness lovers

Although the Charge 3 can show you notifications and track your stress levels, it’s main focus is on fitness. It tracks the basics, including steps, calories and sleep. As well as a broad range of activities, including running, cycling, swimming, yoga and circuit training.

It’s really easy to start an activity manually and can be done in four swipes and taps, but there’s also automatic workout detection for running, swimming and elliptical training. We found in our testing that automatic swim and run tracking kicked in effectively, but elliptical exercises didn’t begin so we had to start them manually.

Those who like running outdoors, hiking and cycling will be disappointed that there’s no GPS on-board the Charge 3. But given there’s no on-board music that’s not a surprise. This isn’t a device you’d expect to take out while you’re working out without your phone.

There’s 24/7 heart rate tracking on-board the device thanks to an optical heart rate sensor. On the whole the heart rate readings seemed accurate. Although there was some lag in real-time when tracking heart rate during exercise, especially when hitting high intensities.

But the stats looked much better within the app afterwards, which means that for most people it’ll be a great tracker for reviewing heart rate zones after working out, but if you’re serious about hitting certain heart rate levels while running or doing interval training, it might not be the best option for you.

The heart rate sensor is also used for tracking your heart rate throughout the day and for guided breathing exercises, which are a nice addition during times of stress.

It’s worth mentioning that there is a SpO2 sensor within the Charge 3, just like there is in the Ionic and the Versa. Although in a press release Fitbit explained it isn’t being put to use yet, instead it will open up more detailed health tracking potential in the future, such as “changes in blood oxygen levels and help track new health indicators, like sleep apnea.”

Fitbit has offered a really good sleep tracking experience for some time now, especially with the Versa and more recent models, and the Charge 3 is just as good. When you wake up, the app allows you to see Awake, REM, Light and Deep sleep stages throughout the night.

According to Fitbit, the sleep offering will be further bolstered by a ‘sleep score’ soon, which gives you a quick glance at how well you slept. But, like the SpO2 sensor data, that’s not been added just yet, so we’ll update you when it is.

Battery: Juiced up for the best part of a week

 

According to Fitbit, you can expect up to seven days of battery life from the Charge 3. During our testing it lasted six. That was with about five workouts, lots of swimming and using it at least every hour for either timers, notifications or breathing exercises.

We imagine if you don’t use it for tracking exercise you’re likely to get more out of it, but six days is still a good battery life for an activity tracker that offers plenty of features.

Although it’s worth mentioning that the Fitbit Versa offers four, which isn’t much less for a smartwatch that’s packed with way more apps and features.

Fitbit Charge 3: Verdict 

The Fitbit Charge 3 is an easy-to-use tracker that’s a perfect size, comfortable and good at tracking your fitness and sleep.

The main problem? It feels very similar to the Versa, which we were very fond of. It does mean that the Charge 3 sits in a funny position, as it’s got significantly less features than the Versa, but it’s only £50 less. So for many people opting for the slightly more expensive Versa over the Charge 3 would make more sense.

There are some features that are going to be coming soon, like upgraded sleep tracking that gives you a sleep score, but we’re still twiddling our thumbs waiting.

Fitbit has done a great job with the Charge 3 and as a standalone experience it’s one of the best activity trackers out there. But the brand better start creating products that occupy a more definite space in the range soon, as well as delivering on promised features, if it’s going to compete with the likes of Apple in the long-term.

Stuff says... 

Fitbit Charge 3 review

A capable fitness tracker that’s a good size, comfortable to wear and proves itself as a good companion for keeping tabs on most exercises

Good Stuff 

• Great touchscreen
• Good sleep tracking
• Easy-to-wear design
• Long battery life

Bad Stuff 

• A bit pricey
• Very similar to the Versa
• No GPS
• Fitbit Pay only in special edition

Withings Steel HR Sport Reviewed

Not just a pretty face

by  Natalya Paul

The Withings Steel HR Sport might look familiar, and that’s because it’s the successor of the equally good-looking Nokia Steel HR.

The only difference is a new silicon strap, a logo swap, and a couple of new features which we’ll come to later.

Garmin has taken the spotlight when it comes do-everything smartwatches, and that’s because of the unrivalled sports tracking and the bazillion features on offer.

But let’s be honest, elegant time-pieces they are not.

Withings Steel HR fits into the hybrid category of smartwatches, whilst it does some smarts and some fitness, it doesn’t fully commit enthusiastically to either. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And it might just be why this is the watch of choice for most people.

It sure looks like a pretty ordinary ticker, but with 25-day battery life, excellent heart rate monitoring, smart notifications, GPS (paired with smartphone), a plethora of activity tracking and an excellent health data app, it’s certainly worth your time and money.

DESIGN & BUILD: Athleisure treasure

It’s a case of déjà vu here as it looks incredible similar to the Nokia Steel HR.

Only this time there are numbers etched around the circumference, but they’re so subtle and barely noticeable.

Straight out the box it looks fresh and minimal. We’re testing the version with the white face but there is also the option for a black one too.

The silicon strap here makes the Steel HR look a touch sportier than its predecessors and the fact that there are notches along the entire band is much appreciated, especially for smaller-wristed humans like me.

You can change the strap for something smarter if you prefer too. The stainless-steel bezel is slim with the curved glass over the face, a staple of the series. This adds a certain glisten, elevating this watch to a sleek accessory, at home with suave office attire.

It’s no small feat that it manages to still remain minimal whistle having analogue numbers around the edges of the face, as well as a little OLED screen for notifications, selecting activities and checking up on daily steps and heart rate.

Plus, there's a small analogue sub-dial which shows you a percentage of how close you are achieving you daily goals.

We’ve been swimming too! And the 5ATM rating means it’ll cope up to to 50 metres deep, I probably wouldn't though. I was worried it would steam up in the sauna but to my surprise, it didn’t.

SOFTWARE & FEATURES: Quiet but capable

 

Unassuming in looks, sure, but what kind of smarts are on offer?

Hit the crown and the small OLED display comes to live with white pixels. Hold it down for longer and the cycle through the home screens where you can see your steps, heart rate setting the alarm and checking battery level.

Through the app, you can switch on notifications for: messages, calls, WhatsApp and even Slack. But with that teeny tiny screen don’t expect to be able to read anything lengthy. Sentences slowly scroll horizontally across the screen like the display boards at a train station.

I usually don’t like to receive too many notifications from a watch, but I do like to know when someone is calling me, especially when I’m walking and my phones in my bag on silent. I’ve had this on in the 10 days testing it and have become quite reliant on it.

You’ll get a small vibration when you get a notification which is all you’d really want, nothing too obtuse like some other smartwatches which can make you feel like a lab rat undergoing psychosocial conditioning experiments... Move more!

What would be really nice though, is another phone-freeing feature like NFC payments, but that would come with some considerable bulk and we wouldn't change anything about the design.

FITNESS TRACKING and App: Top of the class

Although the Steel HR now has GPS, which is excellent, it still requires you to have your phone in close proximity. I don’t like to take anything with me when I run and the best thing about dedicated fitness trackers like the Garmin VIvoactiv is that you can totally leave your phone at home.

The Steel HR Sport will, however, automatically detect activity. There’s something amusing or embarrassing (undecided just yet) about seeing a notification saying ‘new activity detected’ the morning after a night on the tiles partaking in some aggressive shape shifting.

I’ve burnt more calories ‘dancing’ in the past 10 days than yoga and running combined.
The variety of fitness tracking is impressive. Running, swimming, cycling are a given – but there’s even yoga, pilates, weights, ice hockey, football and my favourite – dancing.

You can select your 5 most frequent activities to appear on the screen for quick access.

The digital display is usually off by default, but when in activity mode it will switch to always-on so you can see where you’re at. However, in direct sun light it is very difficult to read.

Another cool new feature is the ability to offer VO2 Max estimates, but this is impeded but the GPS occasionally dropping our mid-run.

Sleep tracking: No snoozing on the job

The sleep tracking on the Steel HR sport is brilliant.

Every morning I check the app as it synchs effortlessly and then gives me an overall sleep score based on recommended sleep data. It’ll throw out a graph displaying the hours I've spent sleeping, marking light sleep with a cyan blue and deep sleep with a darker shade. It’ll also mark out any interruptions.

The more sleep data the app collects, the more useful it will become to showing you an average weekday sleep score.

It kindly pointed out that there’s a little bit of discrepancy between sleep at the weekend and sleep during the week and warns of what Dr. Till Roenneberg calls ‘social jetlag’. Which describes how skimping on weekday sleep and then catching up on the weekends isn’t really very good for your health.

It offers useful advice that’s key to getting into a good sleeping routine. It’s really simple. Wake up and go to bed at the same time every night.

In conclusion, I’ve actually started thinking about my sleep and learnt that sleeping in ‘til 11am on a Sunday morning isn’t really going to feel so good in the long run.

Battery Life: Donkey's years

Like Paul McCartney's career, the Withings Steel HR Sport can keep on going and going...and going.

Withings promise 25 days on a single charge, this might be true if not using GPS or if you’re not working out every couple of days as I was. I’ve only charged it once over a 10 day period.

There’s a little neat charging dock where you place the back of the watch face on a circular block and plug the USB into a power source.

After about 30 minutes, I was already up to about 90% from 10% which makes a mockery of all the other gadgets in my life that require charging.

Nokia Steel HR Sport verdict

The Withings Steel HR Sport is the only watch that might persuade me switch from my analogue ticker - so I can finally have a few tricks up my sleeve.

It looks like a regular watch, subtle and stylish, yet there’s so much going on inside and stuff that’s useful for everyday use and people like me, who like to keep fairly fit but aren’t beating themselves up about their Strava rankings.

The sleep tracking and daily goals are everything a hybrid watch should be; there to give you a bit of guidance on how to live a healthier lifestyle.

And for me that’s more dancing and more sleeping, yet I’m worried the two are mutually exclusive...

Where to buy Withings Steel HR Sport: 

Stuff says... 

Withings Steel HR Sport review

One of the most well-rounded stylish hybrids that won’t burn out even when you do

 

Good Stuff 

Stylish design

Great battery life

Loads of activities

Intuitive and useful app 

Bad Stuff 

No NFC payments

No standalone GPS

Fitbit Inspire HR Reviewed

A very fine fitness tracker with smartwatch aspirations £90

by  Andrew Williams

Fitbits are the Coca Cola of the fitness tracker world. Garmin-owning types who run marathons at the weekend for fun may look down on the things, but the public loves them.

The Fitbit Inspire HR is part of its brand new range. And it does just about everything 95% of us need.

It logs your sleep, snags notifications from your phone and thanks to Connected GPS is the perfect partner for a couch-to-5K programme. The Inspire HR is not just a step counter for recovering couch potatoes.

There’s only one glaring bad bit. Three to four days of battery life isn’t good for a tracker like the Fitbit Inspire HR.

Design and build: Ready to sweat

Most Fitbits are the kind of tracker you wear 24/7, and so is the Fitbit Inspire HR. It’s small, it’s light, and so comfortable you could forget you’re wearing the thing.

You get a silicone strap as standard, two of them in different sizes actually, but you can trade up too. Fitbit makes a leather strap, a steel strap and silicone ones with funky patterns. You just flick a lever on the back of each end of the underside to replace the strap.

Unlike the standard Inspire, the Inspire HR also has a “proper” watch-style strap.
Don’t fancy spending an extra wedge for a new look? The Fitbit Inspire HR comes in all-black and lilac as well as the two tone look you see here.

It is ready for just about anything too. Like the hardiest of bands, the Fitbit Inspire HR is 5ATM water resistant. You can wear it in the shower, or the swimming pool. And give it a rinse after a particularly gruelling, sweaty run.

This isn’t a hardcore tracker, mind. The screen covering is plastic rather than toughened glass, so be careful not to scrape it along any brick walls when flailing like Phoebe from Friends when going for a "PB” run time.

Screen and interface: Smooth sailing

The Fitbit Inspire HR has a dinky little monochrome screen. It’s not fancy next to the bolder, colourful Honor Band 4, but it is clear. And thanks to the OLED panel each pixel is a dot of bright light in a sea of perfect black. Lovely.

There are only a handful of clock faces and all but one is digital. But there’s only so much you can do with a low-res black and white screen anyway.

Where Fitbit claws some cred back from a colour rival is the interface. The Fitbit Inspire HR is, like just about every Fitbit ever, nice to use. That may sound a compliment so vague as to be meaningless, but it’s important. There are no weird laggy bits, no badly designed parts to the interface or features that seem too ambitious to work properly. Such things are common in price-gouging budget bands.

For the most part, you just flick up and down on the screen to get to the various features and info pages. Each bounces onto the screen with a charmingly animated transition. Not too plain, not too desperate to inject a thoroughly distinct personality.
It’s nice, see?

Features: Smarty rants 

 

Basic Fitbit bands like this have often been quite restrictive. You might be able to track steps, but not runs. Some only had very basic notifications support, if any at all.

The Fitbit Inspire HR is not a revelation in terms of its features. But it does have just about everything we want in a low-maintenance tracker.

There are two killer parts here. The Fitbit Inspire HR supports notifications from any app you like, not just the SMSs no-one sends anymore and the calendar we forget to keep up-to-date.

WhatsApp and Gmail are the real winners, for us at least. You can read a chunk of messages and email headlines, to tell whether you need to dig out the phone or not. The Fitbit Inspire HR vibrates when these come in, for a veneer of smartwatch-like functionality.

You can read ultra-long messages. You can’t reply to them. You can’t even dig into the notifications you’ve received earlier. It’s just the basics, but perhaps that’s good enough.

Connected GPS is the other biggie, and this is not present in the version of the Fitbit Inspire without a heart rate sensor. This means it’s radically better for runners and gym fans.

The normal Inspire uses activity detection to log runs, walks, swims and cycles automatically. You only get the most basic of stats from these.

Fitbit’s Inspire HR is in a completely different league. It does the same kind of auto exercise tracking, but you can also manually log exercise. Do this and the band hooks onto your phone’s GPS signal to fully map your runs and walks, just like a fancy Garmin runner’s watch.

As there’s a heart rate sensor on the back too, you really do get just about all the same data as such a fitness obsessed tracker. Of course, this only works if you run with your phone. If you don’t, the Fitbit Inspire HR isn’t anywhere near as useful. But most of us run with music or a podcast playing, right?

GPS tracking is accurate, and the heart rate readings are good too. You can make the Fitbit Inspire HR record your heart rate all day and all night, letting you keep an eye on your resting heart rate.

There’s more too. The Fitbit Inspire HR’s heart stats feed into sleep tracking. You see, with the non-HR model you see only the most basic of info: when you were asleep and when you wake up, whether that’s at 2am after a nightmare, or 6am after a nightmarish alarm. This one breaks down each night into the various sleep stages. Those are REM, deep and light sleep. You can really see the difference in sleep quality between a night when you go to bed at a sensible hour, and after a night at the pub. Booze is bad for you: who’d have thought it?

Software and Battery Life: Don't burn out

There are a few little extras too. The Fitbit Inspire HR’s vibrate motor is used for alarms and timers, handy if you want to keep your day extra-organised.

You can set these from the watch itself too.

All the other bits of data end up in the Fitbit app. And this part really needs an overhaul to keep up with these new devices.

The Fitbit app is more fun than most. There’s an adventures section that maps your daily steps onto real-world hikes. And, if you pay for it, you can unlock video workouts in the Coach section.

However, the home screen looks pretty dated at this point. The good news? Fitbit says overhauled software is “coming soon”, so let’s not dwell on the slightly fusty look too much.

Battery life is something a software spruce-up won’t fix, and the Fitbit Inspire HR’s is only passable. Fitbit says it should last up to five days. Switch on features life notifications and track a run or two and you’re looking at 3-4 days.

It’s much better than a Wear OS watch, of course, but just don’t look too closely at the Honor Band 4 or you’ll be put off altogether. Honor’s tracker lasts up to two weeks, with notifications, and it has a colour screen.

This feels like the kind of tracker that should last about a week. It really doesn’t. And it’s the one part of the Fitbit Inspire HR we don’t like much. To recharge you just plop the onto a little magnetised dock, so at least charging is simple.

Fitbit Inspire HR verdict

 

The Fitbit Inspire HR is a great little fitness tracker. As well as the Fitbit staple of step counting, it’s surprisingly good for proper run tracking if you do so with a phone in your pocket. Add notifications and, well, that’s just about everything we want in a low-key band.

Battery life is one part you’ll need to consider. 3-4 days of use with all the good stuff turned on is not a great result. But it’s almost the lone black mark on what is a truly likeable Fitbit that’s good for much more than just step counting.

If you’re weighing up whether to buy this or the basic Inspire, get the Inspire HR. It’s much better.

Stuff says... 

Fitbit Inspire HR review

More than just a step counter, the Fitbit Inspire HR has all the fitness tracking skills most people need

Good Stuff 

Connected GPS means real run tracking

Easy to use

Much more advanced than the standard Inspire

Bad Stuff 

Battery life isn’t great