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Study: Smartphones Just As Good As Fitness Trackers For Counting Steps

Posted by samzenpus on from the stepping-it-up dept.

jfruh writes While dedicated fitness trackers that you wear around your wrist have any number of functions, many people are focused on a single metric: counting steps, which serves as a proxy for determining how active you are. But a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania showed that if that's mainly what you want out of a fitness tracker, then you almost certainly have a device in your pocket that can do the same thing as well if not better: your smartphone.

5 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. But the price... by hooiberg · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But smartphones are a lot more expensive than fitness trackers. Moreover, they tend to be far more complicated devices. Moreover, they are quite big and inconvenient to carry along when practicing fitness. So, actually, they are not so good at all for this purpose.

    1. Re:But the price... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 4, Insightful
      TFS

      you almost certainly have a device in your pocket that can do the same thing as well if not better: your smartphone

      implies that you already have a smartphone. So, use it instead of purchasing another device...

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    2. Re:But the price... by itzly · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think they are mainly talking about people who carry a simple device to count their steps during a normal day. In that situation, it's perfectly normal to be carrying a smart phone, and not worry too much about it getting covered in sweat or getting exposed to shocks.

    3. Re:But the price... by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But don't the fitness trackers all pair with smartphones to actually convey the data they collect? It seems that this research is saying that any fitness tracker that relies on pairing with a phone is redundant (unless the tracker does something grand that the phone does not).

      Disclaimer: I have a smartphone, so I don't feel like I need a fitness tracker (and still wouldn't feel like I was in need of a fitness tracker if I didn't have a smartphone--I don't need something on my wrist to tell me that I sit in front of a computer in my mom's basement all day).

  2. Employer Benefits by braindrainbahrain · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In my case, my employer gives me Health Care Spending account money based on how many steps I log on my fitbit. So even if my phone can do the function, it won't get me my money.