The LifeTrak Zone R420 is advertised as being much more than a fitness tracker. According to the tracker’s Singapore distributors, Axtro Sports, it “unites all the tools that you need to enhance your well-being.”

This is because the LifeTrak Zone R420 has the ability to track not just your daily steps taken, but it can also monitor your sleep, workouts, calories burned, and heart rate. In addition too, it is also water-resistant for up to 30 metres deep, as well as comprises of interchangeable band straps so that you can customise your LifeTrak Zone R420 to suit your wardrobe.

Thanks to Axtro Sports, I was given a review unit of the LifeTrak Zone R420 which I wore for about a week. Here are my comments about my experiences with this fitness tracker.

Appearance 

When the LifeTrak Zone R420 had first arrived at my doorstep, my first impression of it was that it was pretty smart looking. The grey and red colour theme of my review unit, looked quite elegant and good for matching with most types of smart-casual style outfits, such as when you are going to the mall to meet friends for a weekend brunch or for heading out for a movie.

However to wear the tracker like a watch to the office, it may be a tad informal looking though – depending on the nature of your job.

Compared to many other fitness trackers out there in the market though, the LifeTrak Zone R420 has the appearance and feel of an actual digital watch rather than being simply a slim band that you wear around your wrist. And the look and design of the tracker, reminds me very much of one of those digital watches from the 1990s.

One of the pros of the simple watch-like design, is that the one-inch screen size makes it easy to read the screen displays, such as the time, steps clocked and calories burned, without the need to squint your eyes. So this makes it easy to check your progress for the day.

However at the same time, because I have a rather small wrist, I personally found the LifeTrak Zone R420 to be a little heavy and chunky. So I was able to constantly feel it on my wrist throughout the day. So I think it may be more suitable for those who have larger wrists.

Ease of Use

As the LifeTrak Zone R420 relies on a standard watch battery rather than a rechargeable battery, the good thing about it, is that you don’t need to keep plugging it into the charger ever so regularly. The battery life is advertised to last one year. So in fact, this means that you can simply strap it on and you are already good to go.

For a detailed analysis of your data, you can download the LifeTrak app, which is free on both the Apple iTunes and Android Google Play stores. But it initially took some time for the app to detect my LifeTrak Zone R420 via BlueTooth.

Steps, Distance and Calories Tracking

As the ability for daily steps tracking is still one of the most basic features of a fitness tracker, I will look at this feature first.

For the LifeTrak Zone R420, its steps tracker is quite accurate and it does not anyhow pick up random hand movements and count them as ‘steps’. However that said, there are still some minor issues – such as when I am moving my hands across the keyboard to type, I have noticed that the steps counter still somehow creeps up, inadvertently clocking a few hundred extra ‘steps.’

I have also noticed too, that there was a small issue of a slight lag time of a few seconds, in the steps tracker being able to register my steps taken. For instance, I could walk about 20 to 30 steps across my house without the steps tracker counting anything in real time. Then a couple of seconds later, I would notice that the steps figures would suddenly jump by about 20 to 30, at one go, as if to compensate.

But in terms of the distance and calories burned figures that the LifeTrak Zone R420 tracker churns up, I think that these are comparable to the number of steps taken – and are relatively realistic. I have had some other trackers which produce figures that look completely off the charts but the LifeTrak Zone R420 is certainly not one of these! So this feature definitely meets my expectations.

Heart Rate Tracking

The LifeTrak Zone R420 has the ability to measure heart rate continuously via two ways – a chest strap, or from the watch itself. As it is quite bulky to wear a heart-rate monitor 24 hours a day, I monitored my heart rate using the watch itself.

The heart-rate ECG measurements are pretty easy to detect and access – through a simple push of the centre button of the LifeTrak Zone R420 watch. When measured at random intervals throughout a normal day and when walking about, the heart rate ECG readings – when measured on the watch itself are decent enough – though they may not always seem to be completely on-the-ball, at least they are not erratic.

So they can probably still be used as a rough gauge as to determine when you are for example, feeling too stressed from work – which may cause the heart rate to inadvertently rise suddenly, as compared to the normal readings that the watch shows you.

However I am unfortunately unable to comment about the accuracy to the readings as measured using the compatible heart-rate chest strap, though.

Sleep Tracking

The LifeTrak Zone R420 also tracks your sleep. What is good about it too, is that it automatically detects your sleep – so this eliminates the need of having to remember to push a button before you zone out each night. At the same time, it automatically detects whenever you wake up too. For sleep to be tracked, the minimum amount of stationary time  required, needs to be 45 minutes.

However, that said, I personally feel that the sleep tracking mechanism for the LifeTrak Zone R420 is perhaps just a little on the sensitive side as it tends to clock more sleeping hours than you’ve actually had. For instance, it may count ‘sleeping’ hours when you are sitting still and watching a TV programme.

The LifeTrak app

To get a clearer picture of your statistics and compare and contrast these, you can sync the LifeTrak Zone R420 to the LifeTrak app. Syncing to the app may take some time though, as the process may take several tries before the app is able to detect the fitness tracker.

For myself, the details on the app is perhaps a little on the basic side. While it does give you a rough synopsis of your daily health and the option to compare it with the previous week or month – together with some basic charts on your daily or weekly progress, I feel that it could have more details. For example, take sleeping habits. It gives me an indication of my number of sleeping versus waking hours, but some information on the actual quality of my sleep may be helpful, such as say, whether I have been in a deep sleep or a light sleep throughout the night.

Price and where to purchase the tracker

As a whole, the LifeTrak Zone R420 is fairly accurate and it gives you a rough indication of your health as an individual. However, that said, I still feel that some minor fine-tuning may be good.

However at a recommended retail price of SGD159 though, the LifeTrak Zone R420 is still a bargain – for the sheer amount of features that it packs inside.

It can be purchased online from http://www.axtrosports.com/lifetrak-zone-r420.html.

And as a bonus – for readers of PrisChew.Com, you can receive a 5 per cent discount off the price of the LifeTrak Zone R420 if you key in the promo code TAG5 when you make your purchase.

Thank you AxtroSports for the opportunity to review the LifeTrak Zone R420 fitness tracker.