Striiv Touch Smartwatch + Activity Band and Striiv Touch Sleep Tracker + Activity Band Review

Everybody’s got an activity tracker that they’d like you to buy these days, and prices are tumbling. That doesn’t mean that every activity tracker is made equal. The Striiv Touch Sleep Tracker + Activity Band and slightly higher end smartwatch seem to tick all the basic boxes, but accuracy and comfort issues make them easily to leave behind.
Striiv sent through two fitness bands for Fat Duck Tech to assess. The entry level model is the Striiv Touch Sleep Tracker + Activity Band, while the upper end model is the Striiv Touch Smartwatch + Activity Band. Like most activity trackers, they connect via Bluetooth to your Android or iOS smartphone to chart your step and sleep progress, but for the simpler Striiv Touch Sleep Tracker + Activity Band that’s where the functionality stops.

Similar to a number of early fitness trackers, the Striiv Touch Sleep Tracker + Activity Band’s display only shows a series of vertical lines to give you a rough visual indication of your current step or sleep progress, whereas the Striiv Touch Smartwatch + Activity Band has a wider range of detail thanks to a more detailed touchscreen display that shows steps, sleep, distance, calories and date/time information at a tap or swipe.

Part of the fun of wearing an activity tracker is in the numbers that it gives you over time as a trend, but Striiv takes this kind of gamification one step further, including a game that uses your steps as a virtual currency to encourage you to play more. If you’re the type that was obsessed with Farmville I could see this having a positive overall effect, although I can’t claim to be amongst your numbers.
Both bands use a simple clip style strap, similar to that on the Garmin Vivosmart, although not with quite the same strap slipping issues as that particular band. Then again, the Striiv bands are the only ones that I’ve ever hit that suggest the rather radical step of cutting the band to size with a pair of scissors. You do own them, I suppose, but it strikes me that this is going to limit any ability to resell or pass them on to others if you shifted models at some future date.
The actual strap build is on the cheaper side, and sharing them across a couple of users, everyone complained that they were tougher to put on, and tended to rub uncomfortably against the skin compared to other bands. That’s probably why Striiv went to the effort of filming how you’re meant to put them on.

The Striiv app is decent without being exceptional, and the use of gamification through the MyLand app is an interesting idea. It’s oddly implemented, however, as you can use your steps to help grow your world, or use IAP to implement the same things.
Right at the moment there are two currency types — gold and gems — with a shop interface to buy more that isn’t actually functional. But it’s there, and that raises the worrying and weird prospect of a game that’s meant to get you fit having the option to spend actual money instead of actual steps. That feels horribly counterproductive to me.
There’s a social aspect to Striiv’s app, but it takes the unusual step of automatically “friending” a few other users for you, rather than letting you build your own team. That’s perhaps a personal taste thing, but I’d prefer to have the control to opt into such a scheme, instead of having to opt out of it.
Accuracy in step counting is a matter that some people obsess over, because they figure that if they’re spending money on a tracker they want it absolutely precise, no matter what. I suspect that’s something of a pipe dream, given that there are so many variables in movement from individual to individual, and I’m generally more interested in step trends than individual data points, because that’s where you’ll track your relative fitness goals.
That being said, both the Striiv Touch Sleep Tracker + Activity Band and the Striiv Touch Smartwatch + Activity Band seriously under-reported steps taken during each day by a factor of up to fifty per cent compared to just about any other band.

I tested experimentally with the LG G Watch R and Jawbone UP 24, and both figured on around 8,000 steps on a given day, while the Striiv band resolutely decided that I’d only done around 4,000. Sleep tracking was likewise problematic, made slightly worse by the uncomfortable fit of each band.
Whichever model you opt to buy, you’re not on the hook for a whole lot of money. The Striiv Touch Smartwatch + Activity Band has an RRP of $149.95, while the simpler Striiv Touch Sleep Tracker + Activity Band costs $89.99.
There’s an exceptional quantity of choice when it comes to wearable fitness trackers and smartwatches at the moment. Striiv’s offerings tend towards the budget end of the market, but with shaky step and sleep tracking and a price that’s not that much cheaper than competing offerings, they’re not particularly worth your time or effort.