Last week on 8th, Runtastic finally pushed out their first update for their new Me application. Initially released before Christmas on Windows Phone, Me is the official companion app for Runtastic's Orb fitness tracker. The problem was, the app was previously useless for many, myself included as it crashed soon after trying to sync wit an Orbit.
Now, version 1.0.1 on the Store fixes all of that as we have regularly been syncing with our Orbit.
Runtastic Orbit fitness tracker
Fetching for a modest $89, the Orbit is similar to the Fitbit's Charge activity tracker. Both are worn on the wrist, both have a mini display that reveals crucial information, and both count steps/sleep.
The Orbit comes with two color bands, blue and black, giving users a choice by just popping out the tracker and swapping. Other color-packs can be bought online.
The device itself features a unique ambient light sensor to adjust the OLED display and a single button to cycle through the various screens, including time, steps, activity, and active minutes. Battery life is around 3 to 5 days, maybe slightly longer, and you use proprietary magnetic charger when things run low. Personally, I find the ambient light sensor overkill for a mini OLED display, but whatever.
Overall, I like the design of the Orbit. The blue color looks great, the clasp is solid to lock it in and yes, it is waterproof up to 300 feet. There is no heart rate monitoring, of course, not for a modest $89.
Runtastic Me app for Windows Phone 8.1
The app is very well done, now that it works. Syncing between the Orbit and the app is faster than Misfit Shine and Fitbit, rivaling the Microsoft Band for speed and reliability. Seriously, the device syncs in about 5 seconds flat, so they have done their homework here.
There is even a wide Tile that reveals all the information on the Orbit, including steps, step goal and more.
Each sub-area like steps or sleep can reveal more information when tapped in graph form. You can also see the previous day's information.
There is no social sharing or ways to see your friends' information, which is a bit of a shame.
Overall, Runtastic Me and Orbit are a rather simple activity tracker, but it works very well. My only issue so far is Orbit seems to severely over-count steps when compared to my Band or Fitbit, sometimes being off by thousands of steps. In that sense, I find the information less reliable than the other two, who are often very close to each other after a long day. Still, perhaps this is due to wearing on my dominant hand, elevating the stats (Runtastic makes no distinction on which wrist you wear the Orbit, unlike Fitbit).
You can grab Runtastic Orbit fitness tracker for $89 on Amazon.com. In related news, you can grab Runtastic Pro for free, for a limited time, on the Store.
