Runtastic Moment Basic - Review

The wearable craze has taken root over the past few years, but no matter if you rock a Pebble, Apple Watch, Microsoft Band or another high end device, they all have the same problem, the battery does not last, you get at most a few days before you need to recharge it, which really does not help, so Runtastic aims to fix that with the Moment range.

The first thing you will notice about the Moment Basic, is that it looks more like a standard watch over anything else I mentioned above and that core concept is the key to understanding the best parts about the watch. If you compare it side by side with a watch you might have bought even 2 years ago, you would notice right away that it looks so watch like, that you could convince anybody else that it is just a watch, but what it packs within its compact size is what sets it apart, it can track the amount of steps you take, how restful your sleep is and more, plus like any good watch, it is waterproof and in this case it’s up to 100m, but the best news, it does not need to recharge.

While the watch itself only contains on its face, the standard watch hands and a smaller countdown hand, the Bluetooth connection to your smartphone of choice is where the magic really happens. Once you pair it to your phone, the watch will automatically set itself to the time that your phone has, the only button on the watch is to trigger modes and such, you need never worry about having to change the time for travel or such, the app is also where you can set your daily step goals, calories to be burnt and the other trackables, the app is laid out in a really simple way, you just need to pair up the watch via Bluetooth and that is pretty much it, you set your goals and just sync your watch each day.

I myself wear both a Microsoft Band 2 and a Nixon watch, so I am very used to having weight on both my wrists and this is important, because no matter how it looks, the Moment Basic is packing a lot of tech on the inside, which means it also has the weight of an advanced watch, so if you are going from a digital watch, or a very basic one, the increased weight will take some time to get used to. Also packed within is a small vibrational motor, which does allow for alert notifications as well as, such as when your alarm goes off in the morning. The level at which the watch vibrates is light enough that you might miss the first few times it happens if you are not looking for it, but if that is not enough there is a very tiny led on the watch face that will flash when your phone has a notification, the subtle touches really make the whole unit feel thought out.

Of course, the big thing is how does it function as a watch, which is the most critical, as any smart wearable can fail if it does not work in that way as well, thankfully wearing the Moment Basic is the same as any other watch, you simply wrap it around your wrist and tighten to the desired length and you are done. However, there is a problem with this, specifically the band itself, it has no grip, which proved a problem when putting it through its paces as, on one whole, it was a little loose and the next size up, it was too tight, this is not a problem exclusive to this watch band, it happens with most, even with my Nixon, but with my watch, the band has grip, so it does not slide around too much if its loose on my wrist, whereas the Moment Basic did it constantly. That proved to be too much for me, as I hated having to readjust the watch, anytime that I moved my hand around, which for a watch is not a good thing. If I did it up tighter, it did not move, but then I was left with a pinched wrist, which is not good either.

Runtastic have created a really wonderful device, it is not going to be for those that want to read emails on their wrists or such, but for those people who want to get into the fitness wearables market, but don’t want to spend a fortune, or give up the convenience that a watch provides, this is something to look into and while the band issue is a concern, there other models with different band types that might be better.