Under Armour HealthBox Review
HealthBox is a new trio of fitness trackers created in a partnership between Under Armour and HTC. Find out everything you need to know about HealthBox today in our review.
What is Under Armour HealthBox?
Under Armour is a fitness clothing company best-known for creating sweat-wicking shirts and hats. HTC is an electronics company best-known for its smartphones, tablets, and mobile devices.
The two recently partnered together to create HealthBox. Launched on January 22, 2016 at a price of $400, HealthBox consists of three of activity trackers that promise to help you make sense of all of your biometric data and exercises.
It includes an activity-tracking wristband, for example, a chest-based heart rate strap, and a wireless connected weight scale.
All of this data is collected by the Under Armour app, which then analyzes the information and makes intelligent conclusions and recommendations about your health.
You can buy the whole HealthBox for $400 or purchase the devices separately at an added premium.
What’s Included with HealthBox?
HealthBox includes a range of electronic trackers, including all of the following:
UA Band ($180 Sold Separately)
The UA Band is a wrist-based fitness tracker similar to other fitness trackers we’ve seen on the market. It looks remarkably similar to the Nike+ FuelBand. It has a smooth, curved black design and a snap-in railroad strap along with a single physical button. The underside of the device is lined with dimpled red plastic.
The top of the UA Band is sensitive to touch, which is what you use to swipe through the device to look at things like your daily activity levels, sleep cycles, heart rate, and other fitness metrics.
You can use the UA Band to track all different types of fitness activities, including running, cycling, weight lifting, and walking.
All fitness data is synced wirelessly to the UA Record app.
The device lasts for about 5 days on a single charge and charges to 100% in less than 30 minutes. It’s designed to measure your resting heart rate and not your active heart rate – so don’t expect to keep track of your heart rate in the middle of a workout.
One of the limitations with the UA Band is that it doesn’t have GPS data – it only uses an accelerometer to estimate the distance you’ve traveled. Some users have reported that this can lead to inconsistent data for distance traveled.
One reviewer at The Verge, for example, claims he has a regular 3 mile running route that was sometimes reported as 2.91 miles or 3.5 miles, for example.
Chest-Based Heart Rate Strap ($80 Sold Separately)
To keep track of your heart rate in the middle of a workout, Under Armour and HTC want you to use the chest-based heart rate strap. Just like with the UA Band, you can wirelessly pair the chest strap to your UA Record app, monitoring your heart rate during fitness sessions.
UA-HTC Scale ($180 Sold Separately)
The HealthBox comes with a wireless weight scale that connects wirelessly to your phone. It keeps track of your weight and body fat wirelessly and then sends that information to the UA Record app.
The scale is a neat bit of futuristic technology: it remembers you and will greet you using colorful LEDs when you step on the scale (like “Hey Andrew”). It also cheerfully lets you know how many more pounds you need to lose.
Unfortunately, the same reviewer from The Verge reported that the UA-HTC Scale’s numbers varied wildly from those of other scales – and even inconsistently reported numbers itself:
“…But I cross-referenced my weight with another scale, and the UA Scale was, in fact, higher. Minutes later, I would step back on the UA Scale, and it would show a lower weight, anywhere from three to six pounds less. Under Armour has since shipped me another scale, and thankfully, this one seems much more consistent.”
3 to 6 pounds is a significant difference.
These are the three items included in the Under Armour HealthBox. The devices also pair with “smart shoes” like the Under Armour Speedform Gemini 2 running shoes to give you further analytics data about your fitness training.
Clearly, Under Armour wants you to “buy into” its lineup of smart fitness products. However, they’re not at all required to enjoy the products in the Under Armour HealthBox.
The Under Armour HealthBox App
The Under Armour HealthBox app is called UA Record. It’s available for free from the Google Play Store and iTunes App Store.
The app calls itself the “world’s first 24/7 connected health and fitness system”. It lets you track all of the metrics we mentioned above using HealthBox hardware. It also lets you share your workouts with friends, set goals, and see your progress by day, week, month, or year.
Many people appreciate how UA Record connects with multiple types of apps, including MapMyFitness (MapMyRun) and MyFitnessPal.
When you open up the app, you’ll see a breakdown of today’s activity, including:
-Number of steps
-Number of calories consumed
-Number of active minutes
-Number of hours of sleep you got last night
-Number of calories burned
You’ll also be able to indicate how you feel on a scale of 1 to 10.
Under Armour HealthBox Pricing
Under Armour HealthBox is priced at $400 USD for the three items listed above (the fitness band, the weigh scale, and the heart rate sensor).
It comes in a one size fits all design and is adjustable to different body sizes. You can also order HealthBox from physical retailers that sell Under Armour products. Visit this link to find a retailer near you: UnderArmour.com
Should You Use the Under Armour Health Box to Track your Fitness?
The Under Armour Health Box is faced with two major complaints online: it’s more expensive than most fitness tracking systems available today and it displays inaccurate measurements.
Some users have also complained about connectivity problems, with others users complaining that the entire set feels like it was “rushed” onto the market.
Considering that you can get heart rate monitors for $100 to $150, and smart scales for about the same price or less, Under Armour Health Box seems like a costly premium to pay for the “prestige” of the Under Armour brand (somebody has to pay Jordan Spieth’s endorsement money, after all).
Ultimately, the consensus seems to be that Under Armour Health Box is a good health tracking system – it’s just not quite as good as you would expect when paying this high price.
