Now the lockdowns are a thing of the past. Many of us are now hitting the gym or are out running to try and get rid of this lockdown weight we may have added. So having a fitness tracker can help towards your fitness goals.
Oppo is a brand you might recognise for their budget-friendly mobile phones have now entered the fitness tracker market with the Oppo band costing £29.99 and available from Amazon.
The Oppo band provides all the health and fitness data you might expect. On first impression it won’t win any design awards; it’s very simple looking. It has a black band and small OLED display which for its size is actually quite responsive and offers you the stats you want for your workout. However, due to the size of the display reading notifications can prove to be problematic.
In terms of fitness, the Oppo band can track the most popular exercises such as running, yoga, indoor & outdoor cycling and many more. In terms of health tracking, it records heart rate and offers breathing exercises, stand up alerts. It also tracks your sleep and has a SPo2 sensor something I don’t currently have on my Apple Watch SE.
The Oppo band comes with 12 days of battery life according to the manufacturer but after testing this out for the last couple of weeks I had managed to only get 9 days of use which still provided me with all the battery I wanted. Yes, 12 days would be better but it’s not a dealbreaker.
Design
As mentioned this fitness tracker is not going to win any design awards but it is in the budget-friendly end of the market. The body of the device measures 40.4mm x 17.6mm x 11.95mm which you then pop into the strap. The front of the body has a 1.1inch OLED display which is nice and bright and on the rear of the device is the heart rate, monitor. You will notice a small green LED on the rear where the heart monitor is which might keep you awake at night.
The strap is made of thermoplastic polyurethane which is basically plastic and comes with a slightly matte finish. The watch sits flush against your wrist meaning it won’t get caught when you pop your coat on. The band is also water-resistant up to 5ATM meaning it is fine for a swim in fact you can track your swimming but just don’t go diving.
Just like my Apple watch you can change the watch face. You get 5 preloaded on the watch but you can download many more. You will notice on the watch it does not have any buttons as the controls are 100% via the touchscreen and this is very responsive. The main issue with this watch is with others on the market you can swipe left or right and the key actions are that take you to the essential menus. With the Oppo watch, it just changes the watch face which might annoy some users. The oppo watch provides the user features such as message notifications, stopwatch, alarms and music playback all very standard in a fitness band like this.
When using this every day I found it to be comfortable with a flexible feel and that fastening style keeps the watch securely on your wrist.
Lastly when it’s time to charge the band simply pop the tracker out of the strap and then connect into the small charging cradle which connects via the gold pins on the underside of the body of the watch. Finally as mentioned battery life will give you about 12 days battery life but after testing it’s more like 9 butI did use lots of the functions so that’s why.
Fitness
The Oppo band can provide tracking for up to 12 different exercise workouts from running to walking as well as cycling & cricket. It also provided tracking for badminton and even yoga. The tracking when tested was accurate even when I was doing a very sweaty workout. I found you got quite the comprehensive data from the band but you can also customise the data to give you the following:
- Time of workout
- Calories
- Distance
- Average stride frequency when working.
The only negative I have with these features is when having to pause a workout compared to AppleWatch SE it’s very time-consuming. To pause you need to swipe then make a long press and then hit stop just feels slightly annoying.
Moving to use this for outdoor exercise like cycling and the GPS worked really well you do need to sync with the app that takes about 20 secs to do so and was very accurate when reviewing my results at the end of a ride.
Moving to use the watch at night it comes with an optical SPO2 sensor that measures the oxygen of your blood which can provide a clue into any unusual sleeping behaviours such as sleep apnea. The SPO2 tracking was consistent but its that flashing green light that might keep you awake at night so it’s something to consider. The results show you how many hours of deep and light sleep you got that night.
Oppo HeyTapHealth app
The Oppo band uses the HeyTap health app and connecting the watch to the app was simple to do. Once done, syncing the watch was very easy to do. The app is very simple to use and provides you with everything you require to get full fitness tracking. The app also indicates the amount of battery life, health settings, notification settings and you can also customize the watch face via this app.
Verdict
The Oppo band is a solid option if you want a budget-friendly option that tracks all your health and fitness needs. Granted if you want smarter features of a watch with more style then you will find alternatives on the market but expect to spend more. However, if you just want to monitor your health then for the cost you really can not go wrong.
The only real negatives are the display size as reading a text message is too small but it’s handy to see you have had a notification. The only other negative is that flashing green light at the base of the watch which is recording that SPO2 might put a few users off.
This fitness band is ideal for those who want to lose weight when you’re exercising but allows you to track your progress. However, if you are more serious about your training then you might want to consider something more high end.
Product Rating:
- Design: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
- Fitness tracking features: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
- Value for Money : 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Overall Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars – 4.6 Stars
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