Moov Now review: your best bet for a fun fitness Christmas

It’s no secret that I like the idea behind Moov, the US-based but China-connected fitness startup. After my review of the startup’s first-gen fitness tracker, I was so impressed that I bought one, and used it religiously. So earlier this year, when I learned that the company was launching a second-generation tracker, I was pretty excited. “More than any other startup I’ve written about – and that’s hundreds – Moov has changed my life,” I wrote. Does the next generation of Moov – the Moov Now – offer that same promise?

The concept

To understand whether the Moov Now is worth your money, you need to understand what it is. Moov Now, like the original Moov before it, is a bluetooth fitness tracker that you strap to your wrist or ankle. The physical tracker links with an app on your smartphone (Android or iOS) that will track your progress but also give you real-time feedback as you exercise via a computer-generated voice in your headphones.

For example, during a “speed endurance” run, the Moov will tell you when intervals start and stop. It’ll periodically fill you in on how fast you’re moving, and let you know if you’re slipping behind your target pace. It’ll also let you know if it catches you making a mistake, like letting your footfalls get too heavy (which can lead to injury). And just like a real coach, it will periodically nag you about things like maintaining the proper posture and swinging your arms correctly.

When you’re not actively working out, the Moov Now won’t coach you, but it can track your activity levels throughout the day as well as your sleep patterns at night to give you a broader picture of your health.

The hardware

The Moov Now, strapped on and ready for a cold-weather run.

Since Moov’s app is a constantly-evolving beast, the biggest changes that came with the Moov Now release were to the hardware tracker. The original tracker was good, but this one does have some improvements that make it worth the upgrade.

First and foremost: way longer battery life. Moov says that the battery in the Moov Now will last as long as six months, and while I can’t be sure whether it can really go that long, it has worked fine for me over about a month of testing. When the battery does run out, you’ll have to replace it – it’s no longer rechargeable – but the Moov Now takes CR2032 coin batteries that are cheap and easy to find. Not having to worry about recharging the battery once a week like I did with the first-gen Moov is a massive improvement.

The new Moov Now is also smaller and sexier. The actual tracker is a tiny metal cylinder about the width of a quarter that you slip into rubber wrist or ankle straps. The rubber strap holder features a hole-punch pattern that gives the device a futuristic look and highlights whatever color you’ve chosen (the strap is always black, but there are four color options for the tracker). The snap system on the rubber straps is still a pinching hazard for those among us with hairier legs, but the Moov Now felt more secure to me during a run, and unlike its predecessor it never popped off.

The Moov Now is also waterproof. That seems like a no-brainer for a tracker that can handle swimming, but I tested it several times just to be sure.

New tracking features

The other big change with Moov Now is its new feature: activity and sleep tracking. To be clear, Moov Now is not a step tracker; instead it just tracks your general activity level throughout the day and graphs it for you. Your Moov workouts will be highlighted (as you can see in the image below), but you’ll also get data on the rest of your day. If you’ve been sitting on your ass playing video games, you’ll get a pretty flat line. If you’ve been more active, you’ll get a more varied and satisfying-looking bar graph. If you keep the device on at night you’ll also get estimates of how much good sleep time you got.

The app and exercises

A note about connection quality

Should you buy a Moov Now?