If you’re read my reviews of the NordicTrack T14.2 treadmill and the ProForm Le Tour de France training bike you’ll know all about iFit already. If you haven’t, iFit is a comprehensive fitness ecosystem that’s built into a plethora of gym equipment. Essentially iFit doesn’t just log your gym activity online, it allows you to design your own workouts and send them to your treadmill, exercise bike or cross trainer.
Backing up that gym equipment integration is a web portal and mobile app, all of which help you track, log and analyse all the data from your workouts. And now iFit has added an activity tracker to its ecosystem in the shape of the iFit Active.
Although it has been hard to walk ten yards at CES without stumbling over a company launching an activity tracker, the iFit Active does have a few interesting features, and the fact that it integrates with the rest of the iFit universe will be compelling for anyone already invested in that universe.
The standout feature of the iFit Active is the fact that you can log calories consumed directly on the device. This means that the Active can log the calories you’ve burned along with the calories you’ve consumed and give you a net total throughout your day. Of course many activity trackers feature smartphone apps that allow you to log food and calories – the Fitbit Flex and Jawbone UP both have that feature – but this is the first device I’ve seen that will allow you to log calories consumed without needing to use your phone or computer.
You can also pair the iFit Active with a Bluetooth 4.0 heart rate sensor, which will make your calorie logging that bit more accurate, while also giving you even more data to analyse at the end of the day.
Like the Fitbit Flex, the Active isn’t a sealed wristband. The device itself is removable from the band, giving you the option to switch colours if you’re fashion conscious enough to want your fitness tracker to match your training outfit. And if you don’t want a tracker on your wrist, you can slip the Active into a belt clip instead.
The iFit Active has a built-in display to you can check your stats at a glance and it will sync with both iOS and Android apps. The Active should hit the streets in April and will cost $129.95 in the US. I’ll be requesting a sample as soon as I’m back in the UK, so check back soon for a full review.