Welcome to MTS first post on our Health & Wellness blog series.
MTS aims to reach out to the local community by being the champions of health and wellness education and to promote a healthier and happier lifestyle.
We will be covering a variety of health, medical and wellness topics that are relevant to your needs as well as the current trends and health-related issues so stay tuned each month.
Antimi SmartWatch Review
In our first post, MTS IT Director has reviewed a SmartWatch that one can wear as a wristband to monitor the number of steps they take and quality of sleep. As people become more health conscious, a variety of health-related products get launched in the marketplace and consumers have many choices. Hence, it’s important to know the advantages and disadvantages for each product and ascertain it’s suitability to their lifestyle before making the purchase.
Note that we are reviewing the product itself, not the brand. In reviewing its functionality, if it covers your requirements, you can check out other brands that offer the same set of functionality.
The Antimi SmartWatch comes with Sleep Monitor, Sport Pedometer and Bluetooth capability. It is a wristband designed to track your steps that works along with an app that you can download for your Apple/Android phone.
This brand is positioned to be a budget alternative to a number of high-end fitness bands that are currently available. The packaging is functional and the setup is fairly straightforward. Once charged, the next step is to pair the band with your phone using Bluetooth. Finally you can connect the band with the App that you will need to download from either the Google Play or the Apple Store.
The Experience
In the day-to-day general use, the band is not the most comfortable to wear but it stays on the wrist fairly well. However, it is possible to knock the watch off if you catch the strap putting on a coat. Over the course of the review I have walked, ran, jogged and played soccer with it. During all of these activities the watch stayed on my wrist and functioned as expected.
The band has survived some light water splashes but was not tested to destruction. However it is rated dustproof and waterproof to IP67, which means it should survive an accidental drop into water.
A single touch action on the band brings you through the visual functions of the device: Time / Steps / Distance / Calories / Activity Time. The display is decent enough but hard to see in bright or direct sunlight. The band needed charging about once a week when in constant use.
Now that we have looked at the physical features of the band, it is time to review the other functionality that comes in the form of the smartphone App.
The Mobile App
I have reviewed the Android version of the app “VeryFit for Android 2.0”. The first impression of using the app is that it looks professional enough and supports the basic functions of the band.
The main page shows the number of steps made that day against a settable target number along with calories mileage and activity duration. A single click will show your activity broken down in graphical form. A separate tab allows you to see your sleep activity for the previous day. The sleep information shows deep and shallow sleep. We should say that for the purpose of this review, we have no way to corroborate the data it produces but the information shown may be of interest to certain users who want an indication of their sleep cycles.
A secondary page shows your step and distance details over a week, month or yearly period in graph form. You can drag left and right to see the results for the previous or next week and overall the interface seems intuitive and is easy to use.
The final pages of the app allow you to set up a number of extra functions that the band supports. You can set your band to vibrate when you receive a phone call or SMS or have been sitting still too long. You can also change the display mode on your band from the default vertical to horizontal, which was found to make the display easier to read. The App will also synchronize your step data with your Google Fit account. Overall the App was easy to use with a bit of practice and had enough functionality to support the device.
The Final Score (3 / 5)
After a few weeks of use, the band I had did start to show some wear and it is fair to say that the strap, although replaceable, is not perfect. The Google Fit interaction was useful but I was not convinced that the measurements were totally accurate. It seemed to cause some double counting of activities at times.
This band is a perfectly respectable introduction for someone wanting to dip his or her toes into wearable technology. There are other trackers available that are more feature rich and have greater aesthetic appeal but they come with a higher price tag.
MTS Rating
Price 3/5
Quality 3/5
Features 3/5
Overall 3/5
The Empowering Expert
The SmartWatch as a Wellness Companion
MTS Program Director, Dr. Soo shared her views on the benefits of having a SmartWatch as part of a healthy lifestyle.
Smartwatch and health technology wearable has indeed become very popular in the recent years with wide variety of products springing up in the marketplace and also being the latest ‘must have’ fitness trend with some positioned at a premium price.
Benefits vs. Limitations
Potential benefits of Smartwatch and health technology wearable include the ability to motivate wearer towards a healthier lifestyle by being aware of one physical activity level, with some apps being able to reach out to a community of like-minded individuals seeking to improve their health. However, limitations include the fact that Smartwatch metrics are sometimes too simplistic and not necessarily the best measurement for true health status. The accuracy of measurements has also not yet been proven effective scientifically.
Health Technology Wearable Does NOT Equate To Health Goals Met
One misconception with some consumers in having a smartwatch and health technology wearable is the idea of a promised fitness intervention and that it is sufficient to maintain health benefits or even lose weight through walking their 10,000 steps per day and/or burning certain amount of calories. The Smartwatch and health technology wearable is just a gadget that measures certain health status and the target results alone does not equate to achieving benefits of individual intended health goals.
Such consumer enthusiasm and trend has also not match up with research studies measuring the effectiveness of smartwatch/fitness tracker. A clinical study by University of Pittsburgh* published in 2016 has shown that out of 470 obese adults being divided into two groups; with fitness tracker and no fitness tracker combined with diet advice, the group who wore the fitness tracker lost less weight, not more.
The research findings could partly be explained by the possibility that the fitness tracker devices may double up as both angel and devil, spurring the wearer to increase in activity level and awareness of own self-care while on the other hand, may lead to compensatory health behaviours justifying indulgence in one’s diet as a reward for the health targets achieved. Additionally, having a fitness tracker is not a substitute for seeking professional advice from a medical and/or health professional in fitness interventions such as weight loss especially if someone has pre-existing medical condition(s) and/or has always been sedentary.
You do not become healthy just by possessing a Smartwatch or any other health technology wearable. You learn the processes of being healthy by understanding and engaging yourself in healthy behaviours in a mindful and sustainable way across all aspect of your work, family, personal and social lives.
* https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2553448
