Yoo RX Fitness Band review

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I’m a self-proclaimed health and fitness guru and I try and hit the gym every other day and walk/run a few miles outside as well for no other reason than –  I love to feel good! However…working out and burning those calories can be tedious and down right boring at times. Throwing a fitness band  like the Yoo Rx into the mix can give you some added pep and get you excited about staying healthy – I highly recommend them and I’ve used quite a few.

I started using this Yoo Rx fitness/activity band about 1 month ago and I love all the new features as compared with the YooHD that I reviewed earlier this year.  I loved the HD version, but this one adds some really neat features while maintaining all the wonderfulness of the HD. During the beginning of this review, I was on vacation for about 10 days. It fell into the river, I stepped on it, dropped it, left it out in the heat and even wore it into the pool for an entire day.  All of these things I wouldn’t think of doing on purpose as I’m doing a review, but hey, I let it take was life was giving me and it did great!! Note: The manual does say not to immerse it in water or expose to extreme heat (Whoopsseeee!).  This baby was a trooper and I even took all the pics at the end of the review too, so you can see that cosmetically it stood up to the test as well.

What’s in the box

The band came with a USB charger and a handy dandy pencil-type stand that is magnetic so it’s super simple to charge. Normally it would come with a manual, but this product was hot off the press and they didn’t have one printed, so I had one emailed to me.  (Note: You may click to enlarge any small photos throughout this review.)

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Set up

Getting started was easy.  I just downloaded the app (available at the Apple App Store, or Google Play for the Android) and followed the instructions within in the app to pair it and to set up  my account, which is all free.  I charged mine right away because I knew I wouldn’t want to take it off once I started using it.  It only takes 2 hours to fully charge and is supposed to last a whopping 14 days.  Mine lasted about 9 days because I have quite a few alarms set and notifications turned on which I’ll explain more about later. Pic below shows the YooXD charging away in my pencil holder on my desk.

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Features

The Yoo Rx has a touchscreen (unlike the Yoo HD) that you tap lightly in a little finger-grooved area on it’s face to scroll through all the screens which is handy if you don’t feel like looking at your app to see your progress.

It tracks: steps, distance, calories, active minutes, and sleep.  The pics below apparently indicate that I am a slacker today.  I have only walked 591 steps, burned 22 calories, been active for 13 minutes, traveled .24 miles and I’ve only achieved 5% of my daily goal.  In my defense, I got up this morning and told myself to get this review done BEFORE I work out.  🙂

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You can set alarms which is great for adding some extra “fun” to your day.  I sit at my desk all day, so I set a timer for 6 different times throughout the day to motivate me to plank (a core strength exercise that has you in a push-up-like position which you hold for as long as you can) whenever it goes off (vibrates).  Doing sit-ups, or even just walking around for a bit when the alarm vibrates on your wrist can be very beneficial, or you could use it to wake up or as a reminder to take your daily vitamins if your prefer.  When you decide what works for you, you simply set it up in the app and the band will vibrate to notify you, and even display what the reminder is.

The App/Data

The app has some nice updates since I used it last.  In my review of the YOOHD, I noted that the app was a bit juvenile for my taste.  Lucky for me they have since changed it so that the cartoony-type screen with the old “yoo” which is competing with the new “yoo” is not the first thing you see.  You can still navigate to it, but only if you want to.  The pic below is the screen that used to come up first.  It’s cute, and displays how close you are to winning the challenge with the old yoo, and shows how many steps you have.  I have 715 step now, because I have made a few trips to the fridge!

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Unfortunately, my months worth of data ended up being deleted when I was setting up to do my final test, which was to wear both the YOOHD and the YOORX to test the data for accuracy.  I didn’t intend to sync the YOOHD to my phone, only power it up and use the on screen step counter, but…it remembered my phone when I turned it on and… to make an already long story shorter…all my data was gone!  So…the data I have is just from the last few days.

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This is the home screen you see now when you open the app (see above pic).  You can press the dates to see what you did in the days before.  The pic above shows yesterday’s data.  I was 2618 steps  away from my goal of 10,000, burned 98 calories and went 1.07 miles. On this screen you can also scroll down to view how many minutes you were active, and how many hours of sleep you got.  Unfortunately, it won’t all fit on one screenshot for me to share with you.  There are different challenges that you can pick from and try to complete to help keep you focused on a goal. You just touch the challenge icon to set up and view your progress.

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When you press the menu button on the app (upper left three horizontal lines) you see the menu and this is where you can see everything you need in the app. It’s very user friendly.  When you hit the “sleep” link shown above, you are directed to the below page.  As you can see, on this night, I got 5 hours and 36 minutes of sleep.  That was pretty accurate unfortunately.  The goal I set for myself using the app was 7 hours, so I have some work to do here.  If you click on that pic, you will see that only 3 hours and 30 minutes of those hours was “deep sleep” and the rest was considered “light sleep.” This is a great feature because seeing your sleep habits in this way can really make you focus on things you can do to improve not only the amount, but the quality.

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A great feature that is new to this model is the notifications. You can set it up through the app to vibrate and display who’s calling, texting, emailing, Facebook messaging and more right on the band!  This I found useful, but I was a little disappointed in that my phone had to pretty much be in my hand or right next to me in order for it to work.  It was great to have when shopping and my phone was in my purse, then I could see who texted/messaged without having to dig in my purse and put down all my treasures only to find out that JoAnn Fabrics is having a sale or that any other trivial text notification came through.  I was hoping that I would be able to leave my phone in a cubby at the gym and it would notify me of any calls or texts, but you can’t even go 10 feet away from it and have it work consistently. The pic below shows all the compatible apps that you can use notifications feature with.

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Final Thoughts

I was impressed by this fitness band. I love the premise behind the whole thing and that is -to compete with yourself and only yourself. I read a quote once that said something like this:  “Competing against others makes you bitter, but competing against yourself makes you better.”  I think in this day and age when we all compare ourselves with others on social media, this is a good thing to remember.  I think the notifications (texts, calls, messages) not being reliable was the most troublesome thing for me, yet it had nothing to do with the fitness part of it, and everything to do with staying connected. I will be wearing this band for awhile, so I will update on exactly how close you need to be, or what variables I notice with regard to when the notifications work, and when they don’t.  My family is really getting tired of me saying “text me…okay again, one more time…now Facebook message me…” as I move to different areas of the home!  The band was way more durable than I expected it to be which is great for those adventurous types who just never know what they will get into during the day.  I also thought that style-wise, it was pretty basic.  This particular style and color may be a bit masculine and rugged for some women to wear, but I personally like black because it’s easy to match and doesn’t call attention to itself. However, I’m way more of a fitness guru than a fashion guru!  All in all, I would recommend it for someone who wants to set goals for themselves to become more healthy and fit. You can use some of the features, or all of them…it’s completely up to YOO!

Source:  The sample for this review was provided by YOO. Please visit their site for more information.

 

Product Information

Price:$69.99
Manufacturer:YOO Fitness
Requirements:
  • 4.0 Bluetooth compatible smartphone or device
  • YOO Fitness + app
  • USB outlet for charging
Pros:
  • Touch screen that scrolls through your stats in real time without the need to sync
  • Comfortable to wear
  • Charges in two hours and lasts for 14 days
  • Encourages you to compete against yourself
  • Can notify you when you get a call, email, or text and identifies who it's from
  • User friendly app
Cons:
  • Notifications don't always work, can't be too far from the phone

10 thoughts on “Yoo RX Fitness Band review”




  1. Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
  2. The worst thing possible. This doesn’t track your steps or miles correctly. I have a $20.00 pedometer that I have been using for 2 years now and it does a lot better tracking steps and miles. I usually walk 3 or 4 miles each morning before work and I have driven this route to make sure I am getting the correct information on all of my devices and this does not come anywhere close to tracking correctly. This Yoo RX does NOT automatically figure your stride which it tells you it does in the advertisement on this website and it also tells you that it is supposed to be water resistant up to 5 meters and when you started reading the instructions that come with it they state that it is not recommended to get wet. I would not recommend purchasing this. Customer service is also bad because you can’t get anyone to talk to when you call and want to return the device. You have no other options but to leave a message when you call.

  3. The YOORX does feature an automatic stride-length but it’s done through the YOO+ app. If the stride-length isn’t matching exactly it can easily be adjusted up or down in the settings tab on the app. In terms of step-counting it’s important to understand that devices worn on the wrist will always vary from hip-worn pedometers because they require false-step filtering to ensure that non-step arm motion isn’t included in the data. Waist-clip pedometers are not exposed to that issue. Also, the YOORX is water-proof and testing it while swimming will prove that out.

  4. I had this device for 5 month and I love it,but now the device is not working, called customer service lady stated someone will call me back, it been a week and no return call, Please don’t buy this product.

  5. I purchased the YOORx Fall of 2016 and have had great success with it. I have used the sleep feature to adjust my sleep patterbs(going to bed early for more of a deep sleep through the night), challenged myself to increase the steps I take each day, set alarms to get me to take breaks from working/perform a quick exercise/take my afternoon vitamins,etc. I even purchased one for my mother to get her to challenge herself to walk more. I highly recommend this product.

  6. Last year or so Blue Cross Blue Shield had this promotion I purchased a Yoo something and sent it back because it said it had a magnet. My husband has a pacemaker. I had not read it had a magnet on the info before I purchased it. I returned it and never received my money returned.

  7. Just got YooRX. The Android app does not give Email notification or calendar events. It also loses connection with my YooRX regular and I don’t get SMS or phone call notification and the phone is 3 feet from the band. I have also been having to log into the account multiple times a day.
    The SMS notification only give you who it is from. You can’t read the text message on the band.

  8. Bianca Williams

    It was great when I actually had it. Had to keep checking my wrist to make sure it didnt fall off. Since the band wasn’t secure I had to keep checking to make sure it didnt fall off and then one day not even two months with the thing i look down and again it fell off only this time i was moving so much had no idea when it actually fell. Ugh talk about A WAIST OF MONEY thing didnt even stay on my wrist. And no ot wasn’t too big or too small. It first just right when it wasn’t spontaneously unlocking itself.

  9. The Yoo RX is terrible at tracking sleep and steps: sleep-wise, it’s awful: some nights, it doesn’t track any sleep, whatsoever; some other nights, it always tracks with gaps of zero sleep tracking, making sleep tracking useless; step tracking/counting is inaccurate also, claiming steps I never made and claiming extra steps I never made; no wonder I got this for free from my insurance company–it sucks.

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