Review: Timex Ironman Move x20

Intro, screen and battery

I've been working my way through an armful of fitness trackers since Christmas, from the Withings Ox to the Garmin Vivsmart and a few others that shall remain nameless, and a theme has emerged. That theme involves dodgy step counting, dodgier calories-burned counting, terrifying heart beat fluctuations and sleep analysis that plays fast and loose with the word "analysis". I've also encountered companion apps that look ugly and do little, as well as apps that look lovely and do even less.

I've found all this a little annoying at times, as a runner used to more in-depth analysis; I'd probably have been properly narked if I'd had to part with £100 per go. However, after chatting with my editors we've tended to come to the conclusion that being ruthlessly detailed with the data isn't the what these bangles are all about. There are tools to monitor serious exercise plans, from the TomTom Cardio range to the Garmin Forerunners. These, by contrast, are more to encourage anyone, regardless of age, girth or fitness, to get moving a bit more. If the graph is going up, you're okay.

It was in this frame of mind that I approached the testing of this next tracker, the Timex Ironman Move x20, which promised to count my steps, track other exercise too, and also give me smartwatch-style alerts, all for under £100/$150 - and somewhat less than that if you shop around.

Due to the fact that a recent illness and operation had floored me, I now needed a kick up the arse/ass to start getting active again. I'd not only had to stop my marathon training, I'd had to stop moving altogether. After a couple of weeks laid up, daily steps at zero, and more than a few pounds gained, it was time to strap on a motivating bangle. Over to you, Ironman.

Design, screen and battery life

The first thing to note about the Timex Ironman Move x20 is that it looks quite like the Garmin VivoFit and the Huawei Talkband B1 and quite a few other fitness trackers. In fact if you Googled "generic fitness band", an image very much like this might appear.

As with most of these trackers it's relatively easy to work out what needs to be done as soon as you open the box, which contains just the band itself, a (very) short USB charging cable and a neat little instruction booklet.

The charger is rather odd - attaching it is a little like fastening another fitness band to your fitness band, and also quite fiddly. The battery indicator is then displayed on the screen… which is, of course, now half covered up by the strap of the charger. It's no great hardship, but it doesn't make you think, "Wow, these guys know about design." As seems to be the generic norm, it was already charged to 50 per cent in the box, which gave me, as it turned out, an hour to get a handle on the app before it reached full juice. But I'll come back to that later.

It was disappointing to put the Timex Ironman Move x20 on and find it really quite uncomfortable. Half the strap is rubbery, but the other half is a hard screen with a shiny, plastic finish, and it fits neatly around your wrist only if your wrist is the exact size and shape of the screen. Mine wasn't, so it didn't feel pleasant. Like the Huawei Talkband B1, it was "almost painful", being sat slightly on a bone at an awkward angle. The Garmin VivoSmart and Fitbit Charge HR are far better designed in this regard.

The up side to this is that the screen is clear and a decent size and easily visible indoors and out – it's notably more vibrant than the Garmin Vivosmart, although not as high-res and eye-searingly bright as the Fitbit Charge HR's screen (although that device's display is a lot smaller, so it needs both those attributes).

Please note that I was not able to test the Timex Ironman Move x20 in bright sunlight, due to being in Britain, where there is no bright sunlight.

Often with these bands, the screen extinguishes itself mere seconds after you cease pressing buttons (there's no touchscreen here, unlike the Garmin Vivosmart). However the Timex Ironman Move x20 stays illuminated for around five seconds, which seems like the perfect amount.

Despite that, and the necessity for Bluetooth to make use of this band's alert function, battery life is not bad at all – I got about six to seven days of use out of it per charge.

The band is billed as having resistance to splashing (the Withings Ox also has this level of water resistance). These things really need to be pool-proof by now, especially when the brand, Ironman, suggests extreme, triathlon-type activity, i.e. swimming.

Step counting, fitness tracking and app

Step counting

Apart from issues around comfort, I'd been reasonably impressed so far. Considering I hadn't been feeling too lively of late I was grateful for such a simple setup.

However, the issue with the Timex Ironman Move x20 is that it's really too simple for a device retailing at around £80-£90/$100-$120. There are displays for steps, distance, calories, time and that's it. No heart trackers, no touchscreen, just a home button and a play button, and you activate pretty much everything with the play button.

Cause for concern? It's a bit like in Masterchef when a chef cooks something using very few ingredients; if you're just bringing just eggs, butter and and cheese to the kitchen, you better end up making a damn good omelette.

The step counter seems accurate enough – it generally logged 100 steps as about 100 steps. It's not spot on but as observed in the Fitbit Charge HR review, these devices are more about being reasonably consistent rather than rigorously accurate. On the debit side, when I reached my goal (the industry standard 10,000 steps, which can be changed via the app) there was no celebratory flashing and fireworks as on the Garmin VivoSmart or Fitbit Charge HR, just three subtle buzzes. So much for encouragement, motivation and a sense of reward!

Also as with Fitbit's band, there's a mode for tracking exercise more intense than just walking. However as there's no heart rate monitor, all this really does is to let you log that you did some sort of exercise for the amount of time you had the "workout" mode activated. It's not able to make any kind of reasoned estimate of how many calories you've burned. So that's not much use, then.

The app

The Timex app is very user friendly and asked for all the usual personal details, such as weight, date of birth, your personal goals etc. It was great to not only be asked whether I'd like vibration alerts but also the hours between which, if any, I'd like all text notifications and buzzes to stop completely. So between 11pm and 7am I was in a vibration-free zone. Connecting to the band via smartphone took a couple of attempts, but no biggie, that seems to happen with most of these devices when fresh out the box. In fact one of the reasons the Fitbit Charge HR stands out in this field is that the syncing always works, and quickly at that.

However, while being simple and user friendly is great and all, as with the Huawei Talkband B1, this app's level of simplicity really does take the mick a bit: it hardly does anything. I said something similar about the Withings Pulse Ox, but this one takes it down another notch. Go to the Home screen (the one that shows a potted summary of your day's activity over all categories) and try swiping around the display: hardly anything reacts. It's like a dashboard painted onto a toy steering wheel. There's so little interaction, it wouldn't be much more basic if they just sent you your data in a fax. This is the plainest omelette you'll ever taste.

Once I was linked up, it did sync speedily, but then it should, given how little data is being harvested. There's also no third-party app integration or even an online web interface for desktop users. I know something with the Ironman label probably suits being no frills, but this is practically naked.

Notifications and more

Notifications? Now this is a nifty feature, and one notably missing from the otherwise exemplary Fitbit Charge HR.

If you get a call or a text the Timex Ironman Move x20 will lightly buzz, and show you who's calling or bring up the first line of your message in a large and easily legible font. It's all pretty simple and flawless, if not exciting, in the notification department. Given that notifications still seem to be the main feature people want in a smartwatch, this really adds a bit of value to the x20.

However, let's not get carried away here. You can only receive SMS and calls - no MMS, no email, no Whatsapp, etc. You can't see more than the first 32 characters of those texts, too, and obviously you can't reply.

There's one other potentially useful feature, too. If you've misplaced your phone, click the home button to jump through 'Workout' and 'Sleep' and you'll land at "Find", which sets off an alarm on your phone to guide you towards its whereabouts, which is quite snazzy.

Finally, there's a screen that tells you what the weather is like right now. Umm, now that's nice, but I have found that if I'm out walking, I am able to work out what the weather is like by looking at the sky. But hey, you may find a use for this.

Sleep tracking and verdict

Sleepy time

Onto sleep analysis. Now, anyone who's read some of the recent fitness tracker reviews we've posted will know what's coming, but if you haven't here's what's promised compared with what happens. What you're generally sold is the idea of analysing your sleep patterns in order to help you "sleep smarter" (Timex's words), so you can go on to "determine what diet and lifestyle choices have the most impact on the quality of your sleep". Great.

Now, what actually happens (and again, skip if you know what's coming): when you decide to go to bed, you lie down in your bed, and, in the Ironman's case, you click the home button three times to get to "SLEEP" mode, then hold down the play button and the band will say goodnight. Then in the morning, when you wake up you do the same again and the device says good morning.

Now you can go on your app and see the exact amount of time you've been lying down, with a graph of your sleep patterns. The first bit could be worked out simply by looking at your wall clock and noting it down with a pen, and the second bit might be handy if it bore any resemblance to your actual sleep and then helped explain what the pattern meant. But it doesn't. According to this device I tend to fall asleep within two seconds of lying down and then have solid sleep until I stand up again in the morning nearly 8 hours later - some of it light and some of it deep. Thanks.

Verdict

This is a band which is extremely simply to use and doesn't have many functions to get your head around. It counts steps, shows them on a bright, clear screen and then transports them without any hassle to a smartphone graph.

There's the usual calorie and sleep analysis data that should only be used as a very general guide to check whether your day is was more or less 'well' than the day before, and you can pick one up for under £100. Is it worth the investment?

We liked

Well, like I say, it's simple. The step counter was generally "accurate enough" for me. It's so hard recommending or warning off on the step counter performance though. If you walk differently to me, or wave your arms around a lot, you'll get different results. That's an issue that all fitness trackers have. All I can say is, I found this to be not too wrong, and it was consistent in the way it was wrong.

The battery life and the lack of buzzy pestering also stand the Timex Ironman Move x20 in good stead.

We disliked

The Timex Ironman Move x20 just wasn't all that comfortable or flexible to wear. They do come in a couple of sizes, so if you can try one of before you buy I'd recommend doing so. Lack of comfort is a fundamental problem with a band you're supposed to wear 24/7/365.

There's no touchscreen, but these aren't always the most responsive on these affordable bands, plus they don't really add much to the experience, so that's maybe no bad thing.

The app is a real problem. It's so simple as to seem unfinished, and there's little in the way of coaching or social interaction and, as far as I could work out, no third-party app integration. The whole product itself seems to be lacking in features, though the 'find your phone' mode and limited notifications are nice enough.

Verdict

For a device with the Ironman name, I expected more than a decent, basic pedometer. I wanted a device to get me moving and motivated after being ill, and it didn't really deliver. The generic looks and uncomfortable fit didn't make me feel inspired, and the very basic app almost drove me back to my bed. Where the sleep monitoring was all but useless.

Okay, at a push, for someone very non-techy, this might be a worthy purchase, but not at £100. You'd be much better off paying the extra £20 for the Fitbit Charge HR or getting the much cheaper Jawbone Up or Misfit Shine. Or, indeed, any of the fine fitness devices you will find HERE. I wouldn't buy this one.

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