I was walking home from the gym when I ran into my cool new LifeTrak fitness watch waiting for me. I was genuinely excited to start playing with it.
First impression out of the box is that this thing looks sharp. Sleek, clean, and well put together. The unboxing experience was smooth too, and before you laugh at me for mentioning that, never underestimate good packaging. We have all dealt with those molded plastic shells that require scissors and a level of patience most of us do not have. LifeTrak kept it simple and I appreciated that.
Getting it on my wrist took me a minute because I am a self admitted klutz, but once it snapped into place it felt surprisingly light and comfortable. Not bulky at all.
The included documentation covers the benefits of blue light exposure and explains how the device is designed to encourage you to get more of it throughout the day. There is also material showing off the color options and promoting the LifeTrak app, which I downloaded immediately.
The app itself is a small download, which is always a plus. Setup requires creating a new account or logging in through Facebook. One thing that stood out to me was that the password requirements only allow letters and numbers, no special characters. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but worth noting for anyone who likes stronger credentials on their accounts.
Powering the device on prompts it to sync automatically, so if the app is already set up you should be good to go right away. If not, holding the bottom button for a few seconds kicks off the sync manually. Either way the process was smooth and sending changes directly to the watch worked without any issues.
Day to day operation is straightforward. The instructions are clear and well organized. I wanted to find out how to check my heart rate and the table of contents sent me straight to page 14. No digging around, no confusion. Exactly what you want from a manual.
The web app is where things got a little bumpy. It threw a few errors when I tried to use certain features, and the login screen has a quirk where it does not visually confirm that you are actually logged in. I kept thinking my password was wrong and tried again multiple times before realizing I was already in. Just something to watch out for if you go that route. Though I don’t think this part is even relevant anymore, given the company’s present situation. But more on that in a bit.
Sleep tracking turned out to be one of the stronger features. I was curious how it would handle tracking without me having to manually tell it I was going to sleep. It figured it out on its own and logged me at just under ten hours, which was accurate. I had a long hard training session the night before and I was out cold. The fact that it caught that without any input from me was a good sign.
One important thing to know before you consider picking one up. LifeTrak as a company is no longer operating. The brand is defunct. However, these devices are still available through retailers like Walmart and other vendors as existing inventory. The watch functions as a standalone fitness tracker, but official support no longer exists. No customer service, no warranty backing, and no app updates. If you are okay with buying it as is and using it for what it does right now, it is still a capable little device. Just go in with eyes open.
Leave a Reply