This time last year, it seemed as if everyone had some form of activity tracker strapped to their wrist, comparing each other’s steps, sleep quality and activity levels whilst stuffing down a McDonalds breakfast.

Slowly these little fitness companions have been retired to bedside cabinets and dining room draws, so when Fitbit brought out their latest range of activity trackers we were excited to see what new features they had to offer.

The first thing I noticed about the Alta was that the wrist band is difficult to fasten if you are doing it yourself; it is like the holes are just too small for the clasp, and you need to squeeze it very hard to get it to close. In the end I got my partner to fasten it. On the plus side, I like to think this adds to the security of the Alta and it won’t accidently fall off your wrist. Hopefully with use the strap will also soften up over time.

The Alta has all of the usual features we have come to expect from a Fitbit product: step counter, distance, calories burnt, sleep tracking, silent alarms and smart tracking. It also has several new features, such as a  date and time display that can be synced up to your smart phone to provide notifications for calls, texts and calendar events. It also has a cool feature that reminds you to move every hour for at least 250 steps - I found this helpful and was shocked at how little I would move for long periods of time, especially in the office.

With the Fitbit Flex2 retailing at £20 cheaper than the Alta, it is difficult to see why you would choose the Alta. As far as we could see, the only difference is the Alta displays calendar alerts and the clock, but the Flex2 is much lighter and swim proof.

We also found the Alta is a little generous with its readings - I knocked up 158 steps whilst sat at my computer. This maybe motivating for some, but I would rather have the truth. The screen also isn’t very responsive, and the app is hit and miss when it comes to syncing - this is all the same issues we found with the Fitbit Flex three and a half years ago.

If you have never owned a Fitbit before and you are looking for something you can customise with different straps, this might be suitable for you. However, if you are looking for upgrade for the Zip or Flex I would recommend saving your pennies and looking at the Fitbit Charge, Surge or Blaze. RRP £99.99

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3 out of 5

Pros

Customisable

Tracks sleep, steps and calories burnt

Silent alarms

Displays call, text and calendar notifications

5day battery life

Automatically recognised select activities

Rain, sweat and showerproof

Movement reminders

Cons

Touchscreen not very responsive

Difficult to fasten

Not swim proof only showerproof

Over-generous with step recordings

App still suffers syncing problems

Expensive for the features it offers