Fitness wristbands are very popular as a cheap alternative to smartwatches.
But Stiftung Warentest comes to the end: Many do not keep what they promise.
Fitness trackers are comparable in size to a wristwatch.
Like these, they are worn on the wrist and log the activity through various sensors and microprocessors.
Counting steps, measuring your pulse while jogging, analyzing your sleep: a fitness tracker should motivate you to adopt a sportier and healthier lifestyle.
But there are big differences in quality among the various models - most of them did not convince in the test.
The sobering result of the German consumer organization Stiftung Warentest:
The wearers could only rely on the measured values for two of the 25 fitness trackers tested
.
With the other watches, the tracked data such as pulse rate, calorie consumption * or distance covered were sometimes extremely inaccurate.
"Deviations in the double-digit percentage range are not uncommon, in some cases they are even over 50 percent," said Stiftung Warentest.
"... grab the two good, but expensive smartwatches"
In addition to the accuracy of the information on fitness data, the test also focused on handling and battery life.
A high-quality heart rate chest strap was used to compare
whether the data measured by fitness trackers were correct for several amateur athletes.
As part of the test, they had to walk 400 meters, jog 1.2 kilometers and cycle four kilometers.
The test determined how accurate the pulse measurement was, how accurate the information on calorie consumption was and whether the distance was measured correctly.
The disappointing résumé of Stiftung Warentest: "If you always want to get accurate readings, you should grab the two good, but expensive smartwatches.
They come from Apple and Garmin and cost around 500 and 330 euros, respectively
. However, there are also smartwatches that overall only perform sufficiently ".
The recommended fitness trackers with the quality rating "good" include
:
Watch Series 5 aluminum 44mm from Apple for around 505.00 euros
Forerunner 245 Music from Garmin for around 330 euros
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Very imprecise: These fitness trackers disappointed in the test
With the other tested products there were sometimes dramatic measurement errors.
For example, the Xiaomi fitness bracelet "Mi Smart Band 4" showed an average of all test subjects whose heart rate was 18 percent too low when running.
In the case of a test jogger, the bracelet even gave an incorrect pulse of 104 - although it was 181
.
Other brands could not convince either, for example the "Vivosmart 4" from Garmin suffered enormously in terms of calorie consumption: Here it was almost 75 percent off when walking.
The following fitness trackers performed poorly with a grade of 4 or 5
:
Galaxy Fit e from Samsung, around 39 euros
Joli XW Pro from Xlyne, around 84 euros
ZeTime from MyKronoz, around 103 euros
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.