The wearable market in India is poised to almost double in coming years, dominated by the basic wearables that accounted for more than 90 per cent of sales of all categories of wearables last year. The consumers have shown their interest in buying the basic wearables, mainly because of the value they offer over more advanced and costlier smartwatches.
The fitness bands contribute to a major share in the wearable market in India where the entry-level segment is led by Goqii. Goqii topped the shipments chart last year, closely followed by Xiaomi while Fitbit trailed by a huge margin. Goqii is now catapulting its business in India by launching products that offer a direct competition to the rivals. The California-based company recently launched the Goqii Vital fitness band in India that is touted with features such as a blood-pressure monitor.
The Goqii Vital is a waterproof fitness band and packs an OLED display, loaded with a pedometer, a heart rate sensor, and a bundled package that assigns the user with a personal remote coach who would monitor the data, as logged by the device and entered by the user manually, to chalk out a diet or exercise regime. The fitness band comes with a price of Rs 3,499 in India, along with a free subscription to Goqii’s ‘Care Team’ that comprises an Expert, a Doctor, and a personal Coach. But are these services effective enough to make the purchase? Let’s find out in our review.
Goqii Vital Body and Design
At first sight, the Vital looks like any other fitness band, having a very similar design language, so there is no wow factor here. However, it is pretty slim, lightweight, and yet sturdy. Thanks to its OLED display, the Vital seems it has an-all black unibody. The top of the fitness band has the colour display while its rear side has all the sensors that, when in contact with your wrist, begin to monitor various parameters of your body.
The buckle on the fitness band fits perfectly into the jack plugs on either side of the ‘core’, as the company likes to calls the rectangular slab. However, detaching the buckle is quite a task and you may end up breaking the tongue of the ‘core’ if you don’t do it carefully. This is essentially a detachable fitness band with a charging integrated on the one side of the plug that can be inserted into any USB charging port, for example, the regular mobile charging adapter or USB port on a PC.
The Goqii Vital feels solid when clasped on the wrist. Sometimes, we forgot we were actually wearing the fitness band, thanks to its minimal bulk. But we found the plastic screen wearing off when accidentally scraped against a hard surface such as a wall. The band is waterproof and can withstand regular splashes and immersion, even while bathing. However, after you rinse off the water, the band begins to cause a little itch around the wrist because of the standard rubber buckle – there were a few times when we experienced some chafing with the buckle.
There is a touch-sensitive button on the bottom of the ‘core’ marked with a square. This button will take you to the home screen at any point of the operation. The band supports vibration but there is no sound output, which is not something you usually find on a fitness tracker but we have seen instances of sound alerts from a few ones.
Goqii Vital Features
First things first, Goqii Vital is a fitness band so your expectations from it vary from counting daily steps to measuring your heart rate at certain intervals. While the band does both the things, you get the blood pressure monitor onboard. But before we get to how fairly these sensors work, let us address the elephant in the room. How does a fitness tracker measure blood pressure?
Goqii uses the same sensor to measure the blood pressure as well as to measure the heart rate. However, the functionality changes so as to collect the pressure in your veins by measuring the blood thumping against the main artery on the wrist. Now, it is highly debatable whether the data collected by the device is accurate and nearly similar to the readings you get on sphygmomanometer. Goqii and other companies that offer the blood pressure measurement feature on their fitness bands often do that with a disclaimer of the accuracy of the data, which is why it isn’t a substitute for the medical equipment used for measuring the blood pressure.
Reading the heart rate sensor is quicker than measuring the blood pressure, which is understandably so because of the complexity involved in the process of gathering the data. The Goqii Vital offers both systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings, which should be enough if you have knowledge about how blood pressure is measured and want to get a general idea. The heart rate sensing is something that we have seen times aplenty. While it is not accurate, it gives you an idea to adjust your daily regime to maintain it at an optimal level.
The footstep tracking, calorie counting, and exercise detection work just fine with minor errors. The band tracks some footsteps when you are in a slow-going vehicle, which can add false numbers to your daily log. The companion app logs everything, given that it is connected to the band before and after the workout. The readings on the band don’t last for a longer time and you cannot scroll through a log of recent activities right on the band – something that ticked us off sometimes. The band can even track your sleep if you sleep wearing it.
The Goqii offers you a model of a health subscription plan that usually runs for three months, six months, and 12 months. If you want an instructor or a health expert, you may as well sign up for the programme. There will be a coach assigned to you who will keep following up your daily health goals and targets. The interactions can be held in a chat within the app or on a call. We found that although it is useful for the people working out with a goal in mind and having someone to talk to for the assessment, the app bars the continuity of the interaction as it does not send out notifications for any message that may have arrived in the chat. It’s when you open the app and find a chain of messages that are unattended.
The Goqii’s companion app is the place where everything happens. It keeps a log of all your health data, offers you to chat with the personal coach, doctor, and earn points on meeting the health goals. It’s called Goqii Cash that you can use to get discounts on health products within the app’s marketplace. The app also allows you to upload your previous and current medical records in a health locker so that they can be available to the coach and doctors working with you on your health goals. You can even challenge other Goqii members and contest for mutual health goals. Above all of this, there is a personal dashboard that highlights your achievements towards your health goal. All of these features are necessary but make the app look clumsily cluttered. We also found that the dashboard sometimes misses logging in your recent data, which only appears after a few pull down to refresh gestures.
Verdict
At a price of Rs 3,499, the Goqii Vital offers a 360-degree health ecosystem that you can customise to meet your goals. Although there are a few hits and misses, the Goqii Vital will become a part of your lifestyle sooner than later, largely because of its tendency to go with your daily outlook. On top of it, the Goqii subscription plan is the heart and soul of the device without which it will be adjacently pointless to have it unless, of course, you understand how to sum up the fitness metrics to figure out what’s best for your health.
