Withings Go Review: An Activity Tracker for Everyone

The Withings Go is a new fitness tracker from the company that entered the activity tracker space initially with the gorgeous, but expensive Activite.  This is also the same company that really made the wireless scale into a hugely popular category in the fitness tracking space.  Read on to find out if this inexpensive tracker is truly useful.

One of the things that initially attracted me to the Go over several of its competitors was the fact that it can be used in multiple different formats.  Often with an activity tracker you are restricted to either wearing it on your risk or getting one that goes in your pocket or belt.  The Go is able to comfortably be used both ways.

When it’s placed into the clip it can go on your belt, in your pocket, or attached to your keys.  This is actually how I prefer to wear it.  You see I kinda have an unhealthy watch obsession and because of that have other watches I would much prefer to wear.  I think that having this feature helps make the tracker more useful in a wider variety of contexts.  Many  people may feel uncomfortable wearing a watch that is obviously an activity tracker in professional contexts.  The ability to effortlessly slide it into a pocket definitely makes it more appealing to these people.  I normally have the tracker slid into the clip and then there is a hole on the back of the clip I feed through my keys and I carry it around effortlessly.

You can also wear it on your wrist.  This does make it much easier to keep track of your steps throughout the day.  The band is some kind of synthetic material, that I had no irritation or problems with.  One thing to note when you are considering this product is that in order to use the sleep tracking it needs to be in the watch strap, and you need to make sure to remember to have the setting in the app to tell it that you are wearing it on your wrist.  How this visual indicator of your steps works is you set a goal in the app for how many steps you  would like to get and then throughout the day the dial fills up.  If you want to see the actual number of steps you took then you need to open up the app.

The watch can also be used as a watch, all you do is press down and it shows an analog clock face with the time.

Because this uses an e-ink screen (like a kindle) it offers several really nice advantages.

1. the screen is always on.

2. You do not need to charge it, it runs on a simple watch battery that needs to be replaced about every six months.

These two things are in my opinion two of the best reasons in favor of this device.  With other fitness trackers it is incredibly easy to forget to charge it.

The App

Withings did an excellent job creating an app that integrates all of their products into a well designed and eminently usable app.

The default view is a timeline that shows your most reason information that has been recorded.  It’s important to remember this integrates into Withings entire line of products.

The more useful view in my opinion is this dashboard screen.  This shows you the measures you have chosen to track and follow.  It also shows you data from your integrated apps like RunKeeper and MyFitnessPal.

The table that shows your most reason activity is attractive and makes it easy for you to see how you are doing recently.  It’s also very nice to see the extra calories that you are earning .

It also shows you this tabulation of your recent sleep.  However, I am not entirely convinced on the accuracy of accelerometer based sleep tracking.  To me it just seems as if it can not possibly be a very accurate measure of your sleep.  I use it primarily as a novelty.

The app also allows you to challenge friends and do activities such as that, but having never used them I can not offer an opinion.

Conclusion:

Too many activity trackers get distracted by trying to include features that very few people will end up using.  The Withings Go instead focuses on doing a few things really well.  It has incredible battery life, the most usable screen, and it can be worn in whatever way works for you.  I highly recommend the Withings Go for anyone interested in getting one of their own.  It is an excellent activity tracker.