Fitbit Alta HR review

Welcome to the Fitbit Alta HR review. I’m interested in keeping healthy. Everyone should be as it makes life easy and this is one of the tools I use to keep fit. This is not a sponsored review, I don’t do them for things like this. I bought the Alta HR 10 months ago as a standard alone wearable to primarily monitor steps, heart rate and sleep I don’t care too much about any other health metric.

This is not my first wearable tech device. I used the Apple Watch, Sony smartwatch, LG Watch and Samsung Gear S3. I no longer have the Apple Watch because it was rubbish. Sony Smartwatch and LG Watch didn’t have HR. However I still use the Gear S3 despite being 3 years old now. I will repost the older reviews I did on another website I was involved with here – at a later date, after all no cares about outdated tech. I don’t do the currently trendy Youtube review since it’s not my thing at the moment.

The Fitbit Alta HR is one model up from entry level Alta which is missing the heart rate sensor, in the Fitbit range. All Alta models are currently in run out and being replaced by the Inspire series. The price of the Alta HR when released was around $200 but drifted down to under $100 in the last 12 months.

Fitbit Alta HR – Positives
It works as a steps, distance and heart rate monitoring device.
Has a battery life of about 6 days when worn.
It’s lightweight and often forget you are wearing it.
It has some notification capability but only calls and Txt messages.
Works with iPhone and Android OS phones.
Interface is simple.
Lots of 3rd party bands to customise it.

Fitbit Alta HR – Negatives
It is not a sleek device.
Poor battery life considering it does not do much.
No wireless charging.
Information display options are limited.
It is not water resistant enough for swimming or showering.
Only notifies you for calls and TXT messages ONLY.
Online reviews are biased and do not clearly state the lack of the App notifications.
The interface is tap controlled but it’s not responsive, quick or consistent.
Fitbit App and Alta HR Sync is sluggish but not as bad the Fitbit Charge 3.
You cannot turn it off.
Requires Premium subscription $130 AUD per year or $15.99 AUD per month to display full data.

Conclusion is simple. The Fitbit Alta HR is an expensive pice of kit but it does work. It is accurate enough for heart rate monitoring and step counting.  However for me and many others, it does not have App notifications for the basics like calendar, Email, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and the social networks, it’s for those don’t care about those sort of things on their wrist. Of course it’s limited functionality is no surprise as the hardware is very basic. In 2019 I’m not sure who the market is for it but regardless the Alta HR is overpriced for the feature set even just under $100 for the run out pricing.

Read more my other Fitness tracker reviews and comparisons:

An alternative fitness tracker

Alta HR Vs Galaxy Fit