Striiv Play

The Striiv Play ($69.95 direct) is an activity tracker that, as its name suggests, is all about making fitness fun. It tracks typical fitness stats like steps taken, stairs climbed, and calories burned, but instead of simply presenting the information in quantifiable terms, it incentivizes the process. There are mini games, personal challenges, and social interaction elements, but the app and device design are missing some of the polish found with competitors like our Editors' Choice, the FitBit One. The Striiv Play will appeal to the younger set, with cartoon avatars and games galore, but those same kid-friendly features will likely turn off serious fitness fanatics.

Design and Setup
A small oblong device, the Striiv Play measures 1.95 by 1.07 by .033 inches (HWD), making it slightly larger than the FitBit One, but still very pocket friendly. Unlike the FitBit, the Striiv Play has a permanently built-in metal clip. That, coupled with the hard lines and edges, makes it less ergonomically friendly, especially if you plan on clipping the device somewhere discreet like a bra strap or waistband. The plastic construction also feels a bit chintzy, while the mirrored plastic face draws attention to the device. There's a button hidden behind one end of the face, which activates the blue OLED readout. Pressing the button scrolls through recorded metrics (steps taken, stairs climbed, miles walked, calories burned, and minutes active), while holding the button brings up the Settings menu. The OLED is bright and clear, making it easy to see exactly where you stand with your daily fitness goals.?

Setup is a bit different than your typical Bluetooth accessory. The Striiv Play uses low-energy Bluetooth 4.0, and the connection must be made through the free iOS app rather than your device's Bluetooth settings menu. The process is easy enough, though, and after following a few prompts, you'll be ready to go. Bluetooth 4.0 also means the Striiv Play is only compatible with the iPhone 4S or later, fifth-gen iPod touches, and the fourth-gen iPad or iPad mini. The Striiv Play automatically syncs with your device when it's in range (about 30 feet). There's no Android support or Web interface like you get with the FitBit.

There's a microUSB port along the side of the Play for charging (a cable is included), and Striiv claims up to 7 days of battery life, but only 3-4 days for active users, on a single charge. In my tests, the Play went from a full charge to half after 3 days of active use.?

Fitness Made Fun
Like many other activity trackers, the Striiv Play keeps track of stats important to overall fitness. These include steps taken, stairs climbed, miles walked, calories burned, and minutes active. Where the Play differs is how it presents this information and how it challenges you to reach your fitness goals. With the FitBit One, you get a very clean interface with all of your stats in one place. It shows your fitness goals and your current progress, as well as your history over time. This is a boon for proactive users who are already motivated to get active, but there are a few extra features that can help encourage you to do more.

The home page for the app is split into two parts. Swiping to the left or right along along the top half cycles through recorded metrics. Below the current count for each metric is your current challenge with a progress bar showing how close you are to finishing each challenge.

Striiv utilizes traditional goals and challenges, like reaching a certain number of steps in a day. The challenges also have real world context; for example, a 150-calorie challenge will read "Burn a Soda." Finishing each challenge nets you a virtual trophy, while a more difficult challenge automatically replaces the one you just finished.

Where it gets more interesting is the mini games and social challenges. Striiv encourages you to attain fitness goals with a mini game called MyLand. Imagine a rudimentary city-building game, where you create virtual towns, but instead of using experience or in-game activity, you use real life activity points. The more you move about, the more points you get to use towards improvements for your virtual world. You can also take on quests that net you more points for improvements. Social challenges like relay races let you pit your own activity stats against those of your friends. All of your friends will have to have a Striiv Play as well, though, but it could definitely be a great motivational tool if deployed in a classroom setting. Each player is represented by a virtual avatar (usually an animal), and the race is determined by how much each participant walks and how fast they walk in real life.

Great for Kids, Good for Adults
With the Striiv Play, it's all fun and games, which is great for motivating kids and those who enjoy games to get active. With the childhood obesity problem, I can see the Striiv Play fitting in nicely in a classroom environment, where the games and social challenges will really click with younger kids. But the cartoonish graphics and playful nature might turn off some more serious-minded fitness enthusiasts. And it can't quite match the FitBit One, which lets you do things like log activities and food, as well as track your sleep patterns and even set silent alarms to gently wake you. The Striiv Play is a good activity tracker, and might even be the best for kids, but in terms of overall fitness our Editors' Choice remains with the FitBit One. If your budget is a bit tighter, you should also check out the FitBit Zip, which offers many of the features of its more expensive sibling. And if you prefer the wristband form factor over the clip, be sure to check out the Jawbone UP?or Nike+ Fuelband.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/7O3Vequd7fg/0,2817,2416961,00.asp

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