Long term review of the Hi-Tec Trek Plus

It’s a year since I was contacted by Hi-Tec to review their activity tracker or fitness band as they are often called. I must admit to be guilty of not writing this one up with the excuse that work & life got in the way.  However, this has given me a year to test the product and I’m glad I did as so far this has been the longest lasting fitness tracker that anyone in our family has had without breaking or going wrong and I include 3 different Fitbit models and two UP24’s. Although I treated myself to an Apple watch about 5 months which is truly excellent, but about four times the price of what you can get the Hi-Tec Trek Plus for, I still wear it everyday and it has never been a problem.

The basics

The Trek Plus is an activity tracker which is attached to a rubber type strap. The unit will come out of the strap, if pulled sharply. I only found this out after wearing it for months when  I banged  it very hard going the a door in a hotel and it popped out on one side, so I guess the strap can be replaced, which I couldn’t do with other fitness trackers, except the Apple watch.

It will track your daily steps and will notify you when your chosen steps are reached, mine is 10,000. Swiping the unit will also give you distance and calories burnt. The step counting seems to be accurate and as a test when I first got the product to try, I verified  this on a treadmill in the gym and it counted every stride.

It will tell the time, give you notification of emails, phone calls on your  iPhone, text and tweets. I don’t use all these features as the things would be going off all the time if you were to include all of these.

You can also measure your heart rate and it will periodically also record your heart rate at random times. There is a very simple sleep function which just records manually how long you have been asleep but I have never use that as I’m not bothered. Music from your phone can also be controlled from it as well.

The product syncs via bluetooth with your iPhone and iPad  and will work with IOS 7.1  and above and also Android 4.3 and newer.

With Apple products – iPhone 4S and newer, iPad 3rd generation and newer, iPod Touch 5 and newer.

With Android – HTC One M7 and newer, Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 3 and newer, Google Nexus 4 and newer and Motorola Moto X and newer.

In Use

Below is a quick video of the basic features of the Trek Plus and I have also include a screen shot from the app which you download from The App store or Google play to give you and indication of what it can record. In this case the Chart & Stats for steps taken.

 

Number of steps are recorded for each day and you can look back over the weeks and months since starting to use the product.

I found after a bit of experimenting and use, the Trek Plus was easy to use and work out the functions. Being able to know distance and steps walked while out and about was a distinct advantage from the Up 24 which has no screen and you had to sync with your phone or tablet to find out how far you had travelled.

Hi-Tec claims five days worth of battery life but I have never got more than 2 days.  To charge the Trek Plus you attach it to a little charging cradle with has a USB on one end and  plug it into the mains.

Charging cradle for the Trek Plus

Annoyingly, it will not charge with any of the battery chargers I have, just seems to shut off and not charge. I can however charge it with the 12V system I have in my campervan.

This lack of charging from 12V battery chargers means that anything longer than two days away wild camping is no good. My Apple watch seems to have no problem, so I now leave the Tek Plus at home when wild camping for longer  than an overnight.

For the price this is an excellent fitness tracker, that works well and priced at around £70 is well worth consideration if you are looking for one.