Timex Helix Gusto HRM Review
The Timex Helix Gusto HRM is a brand new entrant in the aggressive wearables space. This fitness band, with its features and charge, competes at once with the Mi Band four and the Honor Band 5. It has all the features predicted of health bands today – step counting, distance monitoring, sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and several sports modes for better calorie burn calculations. The price of this wearable is Rs. 2,295 in India, and there are vibrant alternatives for the band coloration – Blue, Grey, Purple, and Turquoise Blue. There's additionally a variation that lacks heart charge monitoring, priced at Rs. 1,495.
With so many alternatives to be had at around the identical charge point, does the Timex Helix Gusto HRM stick out as a winner? Is it better than the Mi Band four? We find out.
Timex Helix Gusto HRM layout and interface
The Timex Helix Gusto HRM fitness band that we had for overview had a Turquoise Blue band. The silicone band wraps across the wrist and is instead broad. It has a metal buckle as opposed to the rubber peg mechanisms seen on many health bands these days. The strap is quite strong and holds the tracker module firmly.
This tool has a 0.96-inch color OLED show which is quite large, and allows for massive textual content that can be read effortlessly even if it is vivid outdoors. There's simply one capacitive contact button under the show for navigation. The tracker module itself has a boxy square shape, but overall, the Timex Helix Gusto HRM looks pretty appealing.
It is mild and quite snug to wear at the wrist, and the strap feels premium. It additionally proved to be durable, withstanding pretty a few unintended falls at some point of our review. There became no major put on and tear at the strap or on the edges of the tracker module even after weeks of usage at some stage in which we popped the module out of the band numerous times.
Coming to the UI, the capacitive button lets you navigate through one of a kind sections of the UI. There are 3 watch faces that you can pick from – one which indicates comprehensive facts approximately your heart charge, steps, battery existence, date, and time; one which displays the gap covered but not the date; and the closing one that shows only the date, time, and battery level.
Tapping the capacitive button lets you see your doorstep count, distance covered, energy burnt, heart charge, sleep pattern, sports activities mode selection, and message notifications. Long-tapping while on the heart fee phase will spark off the heart fee reveal, and the tracker will then display it at the screen. The Helix Gusto HRM supports real-time monitoring and measures your heart fee even as in any sports mode as nicely.
The band lets you pick out from numerous activities consisting of walking, jogging, cycling, badminton, basketball, table tennis, climbing, and football. While doing any of those activities, you can switch on the sports activities mode to tune your calories burnt, heart fee, and other facts. The sleep tracking segment offers you information about the hours you have slept, and the messages section shows you all your notifications in a single place. There's also a Settings phase that has options such as ‘Find Phone', which makes your paired smartphone ring so you can find it.
Timex Helix Gusto HRM battery lifestyles
The biggest talking factor about the Timex Helix Gusto HRM is its battery existence and charging speed. The Timex Helix Gusto expenses using a flat USB plug that juts out of one cease of the tracker module. This tab-like plug stays hidden while the tracker is in the band. Timex hasn't covered a charging adapter inside the box, so users must depend on any USB charger they already have, or a computer's USB port. While this sounds easy enough, we found that the wearable did not always price with some adapters. Plugging it in and then playing with it a chunk made it begin charging sometimes, but we did also need to give up with a few adapters.
The battery took approximately two hours to fee fully, and lasted for up to 5 days of average use. During this period, we had notifications became off, and used the device most effective to track sleep and steps. We also examined the Helix Gusto HRM with heavy utilization of the sports activities, badminton, and walking modes, and it then lasted for only 3 days. In any case, our real-world enjoy didn't even remotely come near the company's claims of up to fifteen days of battery lifestyles. This is rather disappointing, given that competitors along with the Mi Band 4 (Review) provide about weeks of use on a unmarried rate.
Timex Helix Gusto HRM overall performance and tracking
To take a look at the performance and monitoring accuracy of the Time Helix Gusto HRM, we positioned it through a sequence of tests. First, we went for a 1km run to check its distance monitoring accuracy. The wearable does now not have in-constructed GPS, so it is predicated for your paired cellphone's GPS to measure the space covered. The wearable logged 1.18km on a 1km stretch that we had measured previously the usage of the odometer of a bike. This is somewhat suitable; and is extra to do with the accuracy of the telephone's GPS than the accuracy of the health band.
In our steps check, we walked for precisely 1,000 steps, counting them manually, and on the end of that the Timex health band had recorded 908 steps. This is way off, if we compare it with the Mi Band 4, which became almost perfectly correct in its steps check. Also, we observed that it persisted to document steps even when we had been on a bike or riding in a car.
The Helix Gusto HRM is touted to be waterproof, and at the same time as we could not take it for a swim, it managed to survive showers nicely enough. Sleep monitoring seemed accurate, however, the information suggests only the variety of hours you've got slept, and isn't always as certain as what you get from different devices, which commonly consists of deep and light sleep duration indicators, plus accounting for time spend awake in the center of the sleep cycle. The heart charge reveal offered applicable results.
Timex Helix Gusto HRM accomplice app
The Timex Helix Gusto HRM pairs with the Helix Timex app found on the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. Users want to log in and fill in their weight, height, and different profile details on the beginning. Pairing the watch with our Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro changed into a easy affair, and there were no hiccups in setting up the app either. The homepage indicates your weight, steps taken, energy burnt, and the number of steps left in your daily goal. Scrolling down, you could see your BMI, your ultimate heart fee measurement, and your sleep and exercise information as nicely.
There is an occasions tab that lets you add occasions for which you want a reminder. However, it doesn't assist you to add a particular time at which you need to be alerted. Only vague alternatives consisting of “2 hours before” or “1 day before” are offered. The Device tab has lots of alternatives that you can set for the band. The Notification Alert section lets you decide what kind of notifications you want displayed on the Helix Gusto HRM. You can toggle them for calls, SMS messages, WhatsApp, and Facebook. A DND alternative lets you mute notifications all day or for a specific time duration. There's also a Camera alternative that lets you use your fitness band as a far off shutter button to take photos. The Device tab also shows you whether the band is connected via Bluetooth or now not.
Last of all, the Profile tab indicates you your average steps and total distance covered, and lets you set one-of-a-kind goals which includes losing fat, getting stronger, building muscle, enhancing endurance, or enhancing athletic skills.
While the app gives distinct step monitoring with weekly and monthly stats, sleep and heart price tracking isn't always as distinctive as we would like it to be. There's no weekly or monthly statistics to be had for both, unlike in different apps that provide comprehensive facts. By default, the notifications at the band vibrate a bit too loudly and for longer than we would like, and there is no way to melt or shorten that.
Also, we might've preferred broader alternatives to customize notifications as well. While you are alerted that a message has been received, there may be no way to read the overall text at the band itself or send a reply from the band itself. These notifications are best kept turned off, as they may be greater worrying than beneficial.
Verdict
The Timex Helix Gusto HRM, at its rate, offers a colour AMOLED show, a strong and durable layout, consolation at the wrist, and beneficial heart charge monitoring statistics. It looks pretty accurate too, but there are a few boundaries that we cannot ignore. Battery existence is pretty poor, specially if you are an extreme user. Charging this device can be a mission sometimes, given its fussy adapter preferences. Also, notification vibrations are too loud for our liking. You have to either cope with it or flip vibration off completely. We additionally cannot ignore the inaccurate steps monitoring. There are a lot of alternatives within the market, and you have to definitely don't forget the Mi Band four (Review), that's priced nearly the identical at Rs. 2,299.
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