Tech Tools review: LumaFit

Look around you. There’s a growing number of people sporting wearable tech, from silicon bands that measure your activity level, to full-blown smartwatches that will handle your emails and social networks, while also keeping an eye on your activity level. And at the end of the day, you get to feel good about yourself – or not – based on how close to your goal you managed to get.

But there’s a problem with most of the wrist-based bands. They only count activity when your arms are involved. So if your arms are static – say you’re busting out a few press-ups, for example, or cycling – then you won’t see much difference in your steps for the day.

That’s why LumaFit was created. The tracker is intended to be more accurate than your average monitor, fitting over your ear and packing in sensors to measure your motion while monitoring your heart rate through an ear clip. It pairs up with an app to monitor your pulse and track your activity, giving you insights such as your stride length while you’re running, your max and average heart rate throughout the session, and calories burned.

I’ll be honest: when I saw it first the LumaFit, I thought I’d never get over wearing it public. It’s not that it fits over your ear that makes it stand out; after all, there are plenty of over-ear headphones that it could pass for. It’s the clip to measure your heart rate. It immediately marks it out as something different, and I got a few strange looks when I first set it up sitting in the office. I was also a bit concerned that the clip would become uncomfortable, or that the device would dislodge itself from my ear a few minutes into a run.

The good news is that I was wrong on both counts. The aesthetics of it are less conspicuous that I thought, and after a while I forgot it was there. That goes double for actually wearing it. Not only did it stay put through several fitness assessments – the app offers to track your progress through regular assessments too – it stayed put for the entire 10km women’s mini marathon earlier this week. No one even batted an eyelid, though when you’re surrounded by serious runners using kinesiology tape on their legs and fun runners in costume, a tiny plastic clip is barely noticeable.

The accuracy of such devices, though, needs to be carefully looked at. Previous fitness trackers I’ve used, mainly bands, can be fooled by simply shaking them and mimicking movement from the comfort of your sofa, although some are smarter than others. The LumaFit, on the other hand, forced me to watch my form. Take the fitness assessment, for example. You get two minutes to do as many squats as possible. But they’re only counted if the LumaFit detects you have dipped low enough for it to count. The same goes for sit-ups; if you don’t pull all the way up, it won’t count. There was no cheating here, at least not on my side of things. I suspect the LumaFit definitely cheated me out of a few almost-perfect squats. I’m not bitter. Much.

There’s also the question of the heart rate monitor. If you’ve been following events in the US, you’ll know that Fitbit has come under fire for the accuracy of its devices. To test the LumaFit, I compared it with a chest strap heart rate monitor for the same workout, and It came out practically the same. One thing though was the clip occasionally jolted and the app asked me to check the fit. If you weren’t looking at your phone regularly, you wouldn’t see the prompt.

The LumaFit isn’t designed to be worn all the time though. If you want a generic indicator of how much you are moving during the day, you’ll still need a band or app on your phone. But if you want something more accurate for your exercise sessions, the LumaFit will step up.

The good

The LumaFit is lightweight and almost impossible to cheat. That may be a bad thing for some people though.

The not so good

The self-conscious factor may put some people off. Realistically though, no one is looking too closely.

The rest

The LumaFit measures practically every activity. But it’s not waterproof – so no swimming – and if your head is static, it will only have your heart rate to measure your increase in activity through. There are two separate versions for Android and iOS too, so be sure which one you’re buying.

Verdict

HHHH

If you want something to specifically measure exercise, the LumaFit will cover most sports.