Pivotal Living Life Tracker review

SnuggleSmacks

I just got my Pivotal Living tracker to tide me over while waiting for my Up3, and will be posting a review. This is the tracker that costs $12 per year for a membership fee, and the item comes free. It seems too good to be true, but at that price, it's difficult not to at least give it a chance.

Out of the box, it was easy to set up. There's just the band and a USB charger with a short cord which hooks on to the back of the band. It came half charged, and a charge is supposed to last 5-7 days. After spending a few minutes setting it up, I'm charging it to full before I take it to work.

The app seems pretty simple. There's no desktop access at all, but the app shows all of the things it tracks right on the first page. It did seem to take a really long time to sync with the band, but that may be because it was the first time.

The app shows the level of charge in the battery, which is a really good thing. With my Bodymedia, it was difficult to tell when it was low.

The app tracks weight, steps, active minutes, ounces of water, sleep and calories burned.

The band screen lets you scroll through time, steps, active minutes, calories burned and percent of your goal (not sure if that's step goal or activity goal).

Aesthetically, it doesn't look bad, and the band is easy to put on and latch with one hand. It's sleek and black and minimal. But the computer part is a little bit long for my wrist...it's actually a little longer than my wrist is wide, and not flexible, so that leaves a weird gap on each end between the band and my skin. Wearing it tightly is uncomfortable, but with no HRM tech in the band, it doesn't matter if it's a bit loose.

At the moment, I will only have the Up app on my phone to compare steps and see if it seem remotely accurate, but when the Up3 band comes I'll be able to get a better idea.

So those are the first impressions, and I'll update tomorrow with any new information. Anyone else trying one of these out?

airangel59

Got mine a few days ago, finally got the Android app and set it up yesterday. Had some grief getting it to sync today (it was looking for PIN# at first). All seems ok so far, just cannot get hydration going (despite watching the videos).

I find the band to be too big lengthwise and like the OP, despite being hooked the tightest, it still is too long and since not flexible has an odd gap on the thumb side of my non dominant wrist. I also worry about the potential for scratches on the display face. The text is quite small and hard to see outside in the sun.

Step comparison wise...right now it shows the least # of steps of the 3 trackers I'm currently wearing, and yes, all on the same wrist. (I started with the Flex, then got the Force which I loved till it died on me, went back to the Flex but wanted to see more at a glance so got the Vivofit w/HRM)

Garmin Vivofit shows 10,755, Fitbit Flex shows 10,630 and the Pivotal 10,245

Curious how this will work out down the road, too soon to tell, but willing to give it a chance for the price ($12) and yearly replacement capacity as well as if one loses it. I am using an O ring to make sure the clasp holds as I don't trust the locking mechanism since the band wears weirdly on my apparently small wrist, lol

I have not set up the silent alarms or nudges to move etc...just trying to get it up & running before I tinker more with it. For the price I don't think one can go wrong at this point. I like seeing the battery life on the device and eager to see how long it will go w/o a charge compared to the Flex.

Curious to see what the future updates & incarnations of this will have as the company seems to be eager to hear opinions from what I've seen on Amazon reviews etc.

Reviews online are mixed mostly due to the slow release of the Android app and the lack of info in the package on getting it set up and running. Company appears to be trying to get a grip on things, so a lot of the reviews are from impatient folks who apparently don't have the holiday spirit, lol

Eager to know if other MFP'ers are giving this one a whirl and their thoughts on it as well. Thanks for posting a thread.

SnuggleSmacks

You know, I'm actually having a hard time seeing how to add the water I drank. I see where to set the goal for water, but not the water already consumed.

The reminder to move was also difficult to find in the app.

Also...the app really seems to suck. It took about 10 minutes and shutting down the app before it would sync the second time, and then took a couple of minutes to come back up.

airangel59

i know they are working/updating things and of course everyone is hooking up to all the trackers today (had issues sync'ing Garmin all morning, and Fitbit's doing site maintenance as well). I found the reminder to move as well as the alarm setting but have not done anything with it...still. It seems buggy to disconnect after you sync..I had to shut down the phone for it to show the new info.

Are you using the ios or android? Am hoping they'll get things up and running a lot smoother as folks start to use it more. I see on their FB site, Amazon site and Pivotal's site that they do have Q&A areas but am sure with the holiday and being swamped they are way behind in responding.

Again, am figuring a free tracker and a buck a month monitoring, I'm gonna give them some rope to play with...of course it isn't my only tracker so I am not as uptight as I would be if this was my only device, lol.

SnuggleSmacks

I'm using Android.

I found the setting for the move reminder and set it up, but it doesn't seem to be working. I also found out how to add water, and it's very non-intuitive. I had to go to the website to find it.

airangel59

I will try the move thing to see if flies for me. I have it set for 5pm (25 min for me).

Ok, I now see stupid water thing...its awful...now trying to remove some, seems a lot easier to add it...gotta be a better way. LOL

airangel59

well, hour has passed and nothing has happened. I 'think' I did have it sync after I set the move alarm. Will retry it. Wish they'd let you set for something more specific, perhaps will be in another update. Have you gotten it to work for you yet?

SnuggleSmacks

I finally got the "move" reminder to work, but it appears that it's automatically set at 10 minutes, with no way to change that. I'm at work, at a desk job, and would love to be able to set it at 30 or 45 minutes.

I did figure out that on the page for setting alarms/reminders, you have to set the times, then hit the button on the band to wake it up, then hit the bluetooth symbol in the upper right corner of the app page. It will give a notification that it synced.

I set an alarm for a few minutes from now to see if it has some little weak barely-felt short vibration or if it might have some hope of waking someone up.


So much about this app is not intuitive.

SnuggleSmacks

Nope, the alarm definitely would not wake me up.

SnuggleSmacks

Of greater concern is that I have apparently burned only 47 calories...in the last 6 1/2 hours. Granted, I'm at work and not moving around much, but shouldn't I have burned more than that based on BMR??

SnuggleSmacks

Also, the move reminder has now gone of twice...WHILE I WAS WALKING.

airangel59

Ok, I did get the moving thing to go off, I think twice and had just started to move so no clue what deal was with that one. Have not tried the wake up alarm but if it's like Fitbit, it could get me up and you have to hit the Flex band to shut it off (no clue how Pivotal works though). Now just went off after I did move, so it does seem to need an adjustment.

I am BUMMED though as I noticed the band now only shows 435 steps (WHAT??), and it had over 13K (took a snap shot of the Dashboard). The only thing I did was re put my name on the profile as it somehow lost my name/location data....not sure if that reset things or what, but am not happy about it as well (I walked hard for those steps!!!)

Yes you should have burned more than 47 calories, just by breathing etc....hoping there will be a few updates/upgrades in the next few days as complaints etc come in.

airangel59

I see on their FB page, they are planning an update on/about the 29th...hopefully will address some of the bugs/snafu's being experienced.

SnuggleSmacks

The app will no longer load on my phone. I've taken the tracker off for the moment. I might try it again after the update, if the Up3 hasn't arrived by then.

Thus far, I would not recommend this device to anyone, not even for the measly $12 they're charging. That's seriously about what it seems to be worth. Hopefully these issues are temporary.

airangel59

Hmm wonder what the deal is? I have yet to sync today or yesterday after I noticed I lost my steps on the band. Actually did not even touch the app today after my park walk. I think I saw that the device will only hold data for 3 days.

Just checked their FB page, someone posted about them doing updates, and to have the app set to auto update (?)....guess I'll turn my cell on later and see what if anything happens.

Am thinking the issues are temp (hope to heck they are) but am not ready to pull the plug on it, but I for sure appreciate the Flex & Vivofit (and they have given me grief as well) a lot more since trying to deal with Pivotal. My poor wrist would love it if I gave up one of the 3 trackers, lol

Did you get tracking info on the Up3 as to it's arrival date?

SnuggleSmacks

airangel59 wrote: »

Did you get tracking info on the Up3 as to it's arrival date?

Just "early 2015." One guy I spoke to said they are hoping that means the first or second week in January, but he couldn't guarantee it.

airangel59

Hmm, good luck Early January would be nice.

Ok, after having grief with Pivotal (stuck on July 18th etc etc)...they did do "something" and things at least connect/disconnect better than before. Calories burned are way off compared to what I'm seeing on Flex & Vivofit. No clue what upgrades they did as they are still NOT sharing info apparently on FB or their website (which is why most of the reviews are so horrible). Would be nice if they got their act together before everyone tries to return/get $ back from the device, lol

Hope228

Hi, I just got my Pivotal living band too ( for Christmas) I am also having issues with adding the amount of water I drink. I don't consider myself technology challenged but my daughter tells me I am... lol I am using an Iphone, it syncs pretty good. I wish it had a desktop app as well but oh well.

SnuggleSmacks

So, apparently the Pivotal tracker only tracks "active" calories. You are expected to add that to your BMR or NEAT (not sure which) in order to turn it into useful information, like how much you should eat. This makes it fairly useless to me.

However, I will say that the app update did fix a lot of the issues with syncing and freezing. Obviously they're working on it. But the calorie burn thing is a huge disappointment.

airangel59

Hoping they are still working on the bugs, kinks & snafu's. I like easy and want it all to be obvious & clear to me (i.e that water tracker, kills me) , have yet to check sleep data. Also have not re checked that move gizmo or wake up alarm. No way am giving up Flex or Vivofit for Pivotal that's a given, lol.

Yes web version would be a plus. I think if enough people send in their complaints & suggestions they might take things into consideration, worth a shot at any rate.

Fingers crossed things start to improve and sooner than later would be a huge plus.

SnuggleSmacks

The move alarm did work for me, but it's preset at 10 minutes, and it's extremely annoying. There's no way to change the time. You can set the time of day that it checks for movement, like if you only want the move alarm to go off between 6 and 9 p.m., but there's no way to make it, for example, 20 minutes instead of 10.

The alarm clock isn't nearly powerful enough or long-lasting enough to wake me up. It would be nice, as my boyfriend is a light sleeper and any alarm I set will wake him up.