The AXTRO Fit tracker is an all-day fitness tracker with continuous wrist-based heart rate tracking and simplified heart rate zones.

Compatible with National Steps Challenge 

And it is also one of the trackers that is compatible with the Health Promotion Board Singapore’s Healthy 365 App, which is the primary app used for the Singapore National Steps Challenge. 

Healthy 365 is a free download on both the Apple and Android App Store.

Originally launched in 2015 by the Health Promotion Board Singapore, the main aim of the National Steps Challenge is to get Singaporeans to walk and exercise their way to greater health and win attractive prizes along the way. Some of these rewards include shopping vouchers, EZ-Link points as well as Passion Card points.

Receiving the Tracker

I recently received a unit of the AXTRO Fit tracker and here is my review on the product.

The AXTRO Fit tracker is packaged in a small rectangular box that is about the size of my palm, and comes with the tracker itself, an instruction manual and a charging cable for the device.

Appearance

The appearance of the tracker is simple and unassuming. It is black in colour and has a slim and streamlined appearance. 

The material that the tracker is made from, seems rubbery and pretty soft yet durable at the same time. So this makes the AXTRO Fit rather comfortable to wear throughout the day.

And the AXTRO Fit also does not look out of place, regardless of whether I am wearing formal attire, activewear or casual streetwear.

The Pairing Process

Pairing the tracker with the Healthy 365 app was also quite easy and took me less than a minute. 

I have been participating in the National Steps Challenge for the past few seasons, and I already have an account with them as a result. So all I needed to do was to connect the Bluetooth of the AXTRO Fit to my iPhone and just sync it to my account.

But the process may be a little more time consuming for those who are joining the National Steps Challenge for the first time, as you will need to fill in your particulars and set up a new account. The process should not take more than five to ten minutes, though.

Using the Tracker

In terms of using the AXTRO Fit tracker, I thought that it is also quite easy to use. 

The tracker has just a single button that you tap and press, in order to see your health stats, the time and date, and notifications coming in from your phone. I thought that this is completely fuss-free and simple, with all of this information being easily available, at my fingertips.

Steps Counter

By default, the tracker counts your daily steps, calories burned, active time and distance traveled and all of this information is automatically uploaded onto the Healthy 365 App, the next time that you sync it with the app.

In terms of the accuracy in terms of the steps counting, the counter of the AXTRO Fit tracker differed from the steps tracker that I normally use, by about 2,000 steps.

For instance, my usual tracker, which has a GPS feature, clocks in at about 12,100 steps for a 10km run, but the AXTRO Fit showed me that I had done about 13,680 steps at the end of the same 10km run.

In this regard, the AXTRO Fit is better than trackers that I have tried in the past as my steps are not exaggerated wildly i.e. I have literally encountered trackers that had clocked a massive 62,000 steps for a 10km run before.

Heart Rate Monitoring 

The tracker also has heart rate monitoring.

And I like the fact that the AXTRO Fit tracker automatically detects my heart rate continuously through the day and furthermore, it will also pick up whenever I am exercising, without me physically having to set the tracker to the “exercise mode.”

But it is quite easy to set the tracker to “exercise mode”, simply by turning the tracker to the heart rate screen and long-pressing it for three seconds.

However, I have quite mixed views about the accuracy of the heart rate feature.

I have been training based on heart rate with a marathon & triathlon training programme called Coached, for more than two years now.

So this means that I am in tune to my heart rate through the day, as well as my perceived effort of exertion whenever I exercise.

To confirm the accuracy of the AXTRO Fit, I also compared my heart rate readings against those from a GPS-based tracker with a heart rate, which I find to be reliable enough to use as the ultimate gauge.

When I was walking or standing around without moving much, the heart rate tracking on the AXTRO Fit seemed to be okay and the readings depicted were pretty similar to my GPS tracker.

Unfortunately, I find that the heart rate readings did not always correspond to my perceived effort or my GPS tracker during my workouts, though this function had seemed to be touch-and-go, to me. 

This is because sometimes, I found that the AXTRO Fit had underestimated my heart rate, whereas on other occasions, my heart rate seemed as though it was being over-estimated.

For instance, on one occasion when I completed a 5km run, my heart rate was about 163 at the maximum at the end of the run, but the AXTRO Fit had showed a maximum reading of 147. 

I have to point out that in this case, my perceived running effort had also felt like I was working out at 163 beats per minute rather than 147, based on how much I was panting and my fatigue levels when I completed the run.

I must point out that it can be quite dangerous for any heart rate monitor to underestimate heart rate by this margin, because it could lead people to overdoing their exercise and pushing their bodies beyond their limits, which may in turn, lead to a multitude of serious issues such as fainting, cardiac arrest and in worst-case scenarios, death.

However, there were some moments when the heart rate had been in line with what I felt. For instance, one Tuesday evening, I ran on the slopes at the Botanic Gardens with my heart rate reaching 165 at the maximum. The AXTRO Fit tracker showed my maximum heart rate during my run as being 167.

As this is not always the case, I would say that during training sessions and workouts, take the AXTRO Fit heart rate readings with a pinch of salt.

So my conclusion is that if the AXTRO Fit is the only heart rate based tracker that is available to you, then I would recommend you to rely also on your perceived effort rather than the readings that you see on the screen during your workouts, so that you do not overdo or under-do your workouts.

Gets You to Move

The AXTRO Fit also has a Sedimentary Alert whereby it gives you a nudge to move, in order to get going, if you are stationary for too long. 

While I think this feature is definitely good to get people to walk around during the course of a busy day in the office, there were also periods when I had found it to be rather annoying. 

This is because as a marathon runner, I run regularly to prepare for races, and there were moments following a long or a hard training run when I simply felt like sitting around and doing nothing. 

So the last thing that I had wanted, was for the AXTRO Fit to tell me that I needed to move around more! So, during such times, I ended up simply taking the tracker off.

Sweat-Proof

I also like the fact that the AXTRO Fit tracker is sweat proof and that it can withstand accidental splashing.

In fact, I have taken it out to run in a drizzle on a couple of occasions and the tracker survived these sessions in one piece.

The Battery Life

For the battery life, the AXTRO Fit is advertised as being able to last seven days on a single charge according to the company.

Based on my usage of the tracker, however, it seems that the battery life is actually slightly longer than the estimated seven days – I have managed to stretch the usage of the tracker to 10 days on a single charge. So this is pretty good.

As well, it also charges pretty fast, with the battery going to from zero to 100 in approximately a couple of hours.

Where to get the tracker 

The AXTRO Fit tracker is available online, at https://www.axtrosports.com, and is now on offer at a special promotion price of S$17.90. 

The usual selling price of the tracker is S$34.90.