With many activity trackers slowly evolving into smart watches, it can be overwhelming with the amount of information and functions available. The Nuband Activ+ is a back-to-basics low budget activity tracker that focuses solely on steps and sleep, that’s it.

The rather large unit comes in a choice of seven attractive silicone wrist bands that easily attach around the wrist. The wrist strap is quite wide, so it does get quite warm under there if you are working out or in warm weather. The Activ+ uses step counting to estimate your calories burned and calculate the total distance covered, it will also record the quality and length of sleep. After unpacking, we charged up the Actic+ - it takes 3hours for a full charge and this will last you between 5 and 7 days of continual use. We downloaded the app and input some basic details: height, weight, age and gender, and then came the insanely frustrating bit…pairing.

After about 15 attempts with it repeatedly failing to connect, I gave up and went to bed. I can only assume elves got to work in the night, because in the morning it paired and synced straightaway and we didn’t have another problem from there. The app displays how close you are to achieving your goal in % (number of steps per day you want to hit), calories burnt, steps and distance, as well as your sleep hours. To activate sleep mode, you will need to press the button twice. You can still check the time when it’s in this mode, and simply press it twice when you wake to activate sport mode again. However, if you forget, it will automatically activate when it recognises you have been moving for 15-minutes. You can track all this in your history and tweak your goals and settings. You can set the silent vibrating alarm, and reminder to move alerts, you can also scroll through your stats on the display screen by pressing a button - it will display the battery life, time and date with one press.

It would be a great choice for someone looking for a very basic activity tracker, however the step counter isn’t sensitive enough and consistently counted between 1000-1500 steps short. On the plus side, this will encourage you to keep moving and as long as you are aware it is coming up short it is still functional. This is a cheap and cheerful, bare-bones activity tracker. It has its charms but won’t win over anyone looking for accuracy. RRP $29.99

3.4 out of 5

Current Cheapest Price

Pros

Clear display

Straight forward to use

Sports Reminder

Smart Alarm

Sleep tracker

5-7day battery life

Low cost

Cons

Step count off by 1000-1500

Limited functions

Large tracker

Issues with initial set up