Last month I was given an opportunity to test and review the Healbe GoBe2. It's an interesting take on a fitness/health/activity tracker and I've said this a few times before but I'm a huge fan of tech that helps in this area of one's life.
I've used every Fitbit tracker, a few Garmin devices, the Basis/Basis Peak, the entire Gear series by Samsung, and even a newcomer called Biostrap. You can also check out Total Shape's homepage if you're looking for information about about fitness or fitness equipment.
For the last two years, you'd be hard pressed to find me without a Gear S3 strapped to my left wrist. It's not a dedicated fitness watch but it hits most of the bases that matter to me, and its been my goto device for the last two years.
Recently I've been seeing more and more information about the GoBe2 online. I was intrigued and when the opportunity to review one came along, I was excited to check it out.
For those of you just wanting to get to the pros and cons of the device, I'll begin with those.
Pros:
- Comfortable and fastens securely
- Doesn't irritate my skin like every single Fitbit has
- User-friendly magnetic charger
- Eerily accurate automatic calorie count (I'll explain more in a bit)
- Completely charges in under an hour
- Hydration tracking feels accurate (I'll explain more in a bit)
- Magnetic charging adapter
- Very lightweight for its size, I forget I'm wearing it
- Seemingly accurate stress tracking
- Heart rate tracking during non-exercise activity is very accurate
- Waterproof
Cons:
- It's pretty big, especially for smaller wrists
- Battery life is disappointing but average
- Heart rate tracking during exercise is not accurate at all
- The display is pretty useless in sunlight
- Annoying Bluetooth connectivity issues
- The app only stores six days of data
Let's get into the GoBe2 and discuss what makes this latest fitness/health tracker different from the rest of the pack.
For starters, it's important to understand that GoBe2 goes well beyond step and heart rate tracking. In fact, the GoBe2 tracks energy balance, calorie intake, calorie burn, heart rate, stress level, sleep, and hydration. Not only does it do these things but it does them automatically, without user input.
Let's break them down and explain a bit about how these are tracked and what they actually mean.
Energy Balance, Calorie intake/burn
Healbe describes energy balance as *the relationship between your energy input and your energy output**. *The GoBe2 is capable of automatically tracking calorie intake and calorie burn.
This information is very beneficial when trying to lose weight. Being able to see where you are with your calorie goal for the day is a big help. This information can help you to make better decisions.
In my experience of almost thirty days of use, I found this to be eerily accurate.
The Healbe app is on the left and on the right is myfitnesspal. Pay attention to the numbers highlighted in yellow. MFP reflects the manual entry of calories for today and Healbe reflects the calories automatically tracked.
Please note that MFP wasn't reflecting calorie burn from exercise when I took the screenshot, I was having some sync issues.
It's not perfect but on average, it's pretty darn close. It's close enough that I've stopped manually tracking in MFP and rely on the GoBe2 for my calorie intake and burn.
Basically, the energy balance reflects the difference between the calorie intake and calorie burn. A negative energy balance means you burned more calories than you took in and a positive balance means you took in more than you burned.
When trying to lose weight, you want to aim for a negative energy balance and if you're looking to gain weight, you want a positive energy balance.
Heart rate
The GoBe2 doesn't track heart rate the way most other devices do.
The Healbe GoBe2 uses something called a piezo sensor. The piezo sensor detects changes in the blood pressure on the vessel walls. This is a very accurate way of measuring heart rate while at rest. Resting heart rate is a very important factor that can indicate your overall cardiovascular health.
Healbe seems to focus more on that and frankly, that seems to be the growing trend among fitness trackers. Most people are more focused on their RHR anyway.
This is, however, where one of my gripes come into play.
I found the GoBe2 heart rate measurements to be very inaccurate during periods of exercise.
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You'll notice that there's a difference of almost 50 BPM between the Gear S3's optical sensor and the GoBe2's piezo sensor. (Pictured above)
My understanding is this is a limitation of the sensor technology. That being said, throughout the day, during normal activity, the GoBe2 was spot on when compared to my Gear S3. Again, for me, this isn't a deal breaker because I'm personally more focused on my resting heart and making changes in my life that help to lower it.
The GoBe2 uses a combination of continuous heart rate monitoring and FLOW technology to accurately measure calorie burn.
I can say that when my energy balance is in the negative for a few days, I end up showing weight loss. It seems to be a solid indicator that I'm heading in the right direction.
Hydration
This is perhaps my favorite part of using the GoBe2. One of the things that I always struggle with is drinking enough water. I can use those apps that remind me but they don't do anything more than remind me.
The GoBe2 uses FLOW (Here's a .pdf that explains in detail how FLOW works) and the built-in Impedance sensor to automatically measure your hydration level.
What I've found is that I can correlate the way my body feels with what the GoBe2 shows my hydration level to be at. When I keep my hydration in the *normal* range, I tend to have more energy, sleep better and see greater weight loss as well.
I really like the ability to monitor my hydration because it helps me to make sure I'm hydrated based on my actual levels and not an arbitrary number of ounces I'm told to drink each day.
Sleep
The GoBe2 can thoroughly analyze sleep by measuring your heart rate and motion throughout the night. Each morning, the GoBe2 provides a full data report of your sleep phases, as well as the duration of each. Within the app, you’ll see a chart with your REM and non-REM sleep cycles mapped out.
You are able to see sleep quality, duration, efficiency and number of times you wake.
In my experience, the sleep tracking was pretty accurate. I don't always remember when I wake up in the middle of the night but the times I do, I'm able to match it up to the yellow markers in the chart.
Stress The GoBe2 estimates your stress level once an hour by checking on your heart rate. It then uses a complex algorithm to analyze your sleep quality data and anthropometrical (the scientific study of the measurements and proportions of the human body) factors like body weight, height, sex, and age. It then estimates your stress level.
You can see that your stress levels are displayed inside the app on an hourly diagram or chart. Stress is rated on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 being *no stress *and 5 being *Hight Stress Level. *
This doesn't function like some kind of mood ring. It takes many factors into account and gives you an idea of how much stress your body is feeling. This doesn't necessarily translate to *feeling stress out. *
I feel like this a good, general guide, that can help you become more aware of your body and what's its experiencing. You can gain insight that can help you make better decisions about managing your stress.
Steps and Distance
The GoBe2 also tracks steps and estimates distance. In my experience, it's relatively accurate but I wear it on my non-dominate wrist because I'm one of those weird people who wear their watch on their dominant wrist.
Step trackers are supposed to be worn on the dominant wrist. I've never really understood that but some devices let to adjust which wrist you're wearing the device on within the app. Healbe doesn't go that far but this isn't a huge deal because I was choosing to wear it on the wrong wrist. When I wore it on my dominant wrist, it was much more accurate.
Build Quality
I'm always a stickler for build quality, especially on things that are easily replaced. The GoBe2 is waterproof and made of a lightweight plastic with a metal back. It's rather large and might be awkward for people with tiny wrists. The band itself is a silicone type band and is user replaceable but proprietary, meaning you have to buy them from Healbe directly. They have several colors to choose from and they're reasonably priced.
I don't happen to know what all the materials are that make up the band but I will say this. Every Fitbit I've ever owned has caused a rash on my wrist. I've tried everything to avoid it and the only solution I found was *not to wear it. *
I've been wearing the GoBe2 for about a month and only take it off to charge a little bit every night before bed.
My wrist hasn't reacted to the band at all I'm pleasantly surprised.
Overall, I'm happy with the build quality of the GoBe2. I haven't experienced any problems that would lead me to believe that this was anything but durable.
Design
As I said above, the GoBe2 is a larger wearable and may be off-putting to some but I very quickly became accustomed to it and forgot I was wearing it. It weighs next to nothing and I'm used to the heavier Gear S3, so that was a nice change.
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The design of the GoBe2 is very simple and straightforward. There is one button on the side of the device and that is used to bring the blue, LED, dot matrix type display on. There is no auto-on when you raise your wrist like you get with most other devices in this category.
You press the button to cycle through your current stats and long press to power on or off the device.
The display itself is mostly useless in even mild sunlight. I found myself using the app to check my stats much more often than I used the display. Honestly, the display seems like an afterthought and I guess I would prefer it not be there at all. There are other trackers that have taken this route and it works out just fine (the biostrap comes to mind).
This leads me to my biggest gripe and that's Bluetooth connectivity. This thing can be rather finicky when it comes to connecting to the phone and syncing with the app. There are times where it takes several tries to get the GoBe2 to either connect or maintain a stable enough connection to fully sync. Usually rebooting my phone or toggling the Bluetooth did the trick. This was more of an annoyance than anything else because it always ended up connecting.
That being said, Healbe is pushing out firmware and app updates on a regular basis. This means they are constantly working to improve overall function, quash bugs and even add new features. This is a big deal, especially when companies like Samsung have longstanding issues they've yet to sort out. Kudos to Healbe for committing to their product.
Charging and Battery Life
Battery life is always important. I hate having to charge a tracker on a daily basis and the GoBe2 fell into that category. I consistently got about 24 hours of use before needing to stick it on the charger. After 24 hours of use, I would typically hit about 10% battery life remaining and it would bug me to charge it.
That said, it doesn't take long to charge. In my experience, it took a little less than an hour to fully charge the GoBe2.
What I found worked out best is to take it off before bed and let it charge while I'm getting ready to go to sleep. This basically keeps me going and gives my wrist a chance to breathe a little bit.
The charger itself is a tiny proprietary dock that connects to the back of the GoBe2 and is held in place magnetically. It receives power via micro-USB cable and is among the more user-friendly designs I've used.
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Conclusions
Nothing is perfect and the GoBe2 is no exception. Having said that, I really like it. I find that the insights I gain using the GoBe2 help me to make better decisions in regards to my weight loss journey and overall health. I can take a look at the app and see where my energy balance is. If it's positive, I need to increase my activity level. Maybe go for a walk or skip an extra snack.
I really, really appreciate the hydration tracking. That's hands down my favorite feature that the GoBe2 offers. I love the auto-calorie tracking but I *could *track that manually. It's very difficult to always know how hydrated I am. I'm able to stay on top of that much easier now.
I wish the heart rate was more accurate during exercise activity but like I said, my main focus is on resting heart rate and this does a very good job of tracking my heart rate during normal activities.
At $200.00, it costs about the same as the Fitbit Versa, Gear Sport, Gear Fit Pro or the Biostrap. With the exception of the Biostrap, the other mentions are some form of smartwatch. This is not, nor will it replace a smartwatch. This is meant to help you gain valuable insights into your health. It's meant to provide you with information that can help you make healthier choices in your daily life. What the GoBe2 does, it does very well.
The few things I didn't like were far outweighed by the many things I did.
This is a great tracker for anyone looking to gain valuable insights into their body. I also think this is perfect for parents like myself, who are trying to make small, sustainable changes in their life, to improve their overall health.
I talk about self-care all the time on this blog because it's so important for Autism parents to take care of themselves. I would have no problems recommending the GoBe2 by Healbe, to my readers, especially those wanting to gain insights that will help them take better care of themselves.
I give the GoBe2 by Healbe, a 4/5.
You can find and purchase the Healbe GoBe2 online by clicking here.
You can also buy it on Amazon. You can save 10% by using the exclusive promo code theautismdad
You can grab the Healbe app on Google Play or the app store:
Find Healbe on Social Media:
facebook https://www.facebook.com/myHealbe twitter https://twitter.com/healbe instagram https://www.instagram.com/healbe/
