One of the primary watches to bring optical rate watching to the gliding joint, the Mio Alpha was pretty ground breaking once it arrived on the sports trailing scene. Now Mio is back with the $199 Alpha a pair of. It's up against way harder competition with immeasurable fitness trackers selecting to provide North American nation gait updates minus the chest strap.
So has Mio's latest fitness watch got what it takes to stay our hearts racing?
Mio Alpha 2: style and show
Looks-wise there is no doubt that the Mio Alpha a pair of could be a wearable engineered for sport. And a sexy one at that. With a pleasant engineering arciform screen that is integrated virtually seamlessly into a well-known soft siloxane strap, it's one in every of the higher wanting fitness watches we have seen.
There is a caveat. Despite the actual fact it comes in 3 totally different sizes, the strap and face square measure still pretty wide thus if you've tiny wrists then the Mio goes to come back up pretty massive.
The watch face options 2 buttons showing neatness integrated to the left and right of the old style LCD alphanumeric display. These square measure thus well integrated, in fact, it's really exhausting to seek out them the primary time. however you will forgive that for what the Alpha a pair of offers back in sleek appearance.
Once you have found the buttons, understanding what they are doing is additionally alittle of a struggle. of late we're thus wont to Apple-esque simplicity that the notion of going into the manual looks like a fail.
Sadly, the Alpha a pair of had North American nation flummoxed, forcing North American nation to flip pages to figure out the controls. There really are not that several because the Alpha a pair of is pretty restricted in terms of its feature set. however somehow they've still managed to create the restricted functions exhausting to fathom.
Following the paired-back theme, the Alpha 2's show itself offers you fairly restricted data with icons for battery life, current mode, rate indicator and rate gait throughout a effort.
There's additionally to a small degree colored semiconductor diode light-weight just under the screen that flashes a unique color to provide you a pleasant visual reminder of that rate zone you are operating in. Meanwhile, vibratory alerts offer you a mild jolt after you drop out of the zones that additionally makes it easier to confirm you are operating to urge the proper coaching impact.
Mio Alpha 2: options
During a effort, use the left button to scroll through a series of stats together with a straightforward timer, calorie count, pace, distance and in fact current rate.
There's really 2 styles of rate coaching modes to settle on from: one that tracks you and alerts you once you are moving outside of one zone and a second mode that keeps tabs on your gait across all 5 coaching zones.
Although the Mio Alpha will count your steps throughout a effort, for a few strange reason they've determined to not use that practicality to trace your everyday movement. It looks like a incomprehensible trick during a watch that urgently desires a lot of options.
Another evident omission is that the lack of inherent GPS with pace ANd distance stats calculated mistreatment an measuring instrument. whereas runners and cyclists can notice that to a small degree exhausting to swallow, swimmers are going to be happy to listen to the Alpha a pair of is a minimum of water-resistant up to thirty meters (3 ATM).
Mio Alpha 2: Compatibility
One of the Alpha 2's strengths is that the ability to crony up the watch with apps like MapMyRun, Strava, Wahoo and Endomondo.
If you are annoyed with the shortage of options, the Alpha a pair of can be paired along with your smartphone, adding rate watching to the practicality that these good apps already provide.
Mio Apha 2: rate trailing
The Alpha 2 was quick to notice rate, memorizing our gait at intervals 10 seconds on every occasion we have a tendency to used it in testing. Up against the Polar M400 with a chest strap the stats were nicely consistent. whereas not entirely a scientific take a look at there is a minimum of ANecdotally an equal level of accuracy within the Mio and its chest-worn challenger to stay North American nation glad.
One factor we'd like to have seen enclosed could be a feature that fires the optical rate mechanically each hour just about throughout the day to assist build a a lot of complete image of however rate, together with your resting rate, varies. With good clothes on the horizon that square measure doubtless to supply this, fitness trailing watches can got to contend and this may have are a welcome extra feature.
Mio Alpha 2: Mio GO app
While the Mio Alpha a pair of has enough on-board storage for up to twenty four hours of effort stats, your information may be mechanically synced with the partnering Mio GO smartphone app for iOS and humanoid mistreatment Bluetooth good.
We're sorry to mention that Mio GO lacks any quite tactfulness. the automated syncing solely worked intermittently and even once we had managed to urge our information across, what the app offers you is nothing to put in writing home concerning.
The basics square measure all there, like pace, speed, average and most rate along side calories, distance and therefore the rate zone you pay most time in throughout your session. however that is it. And as way as we have a tendency to might see, you've got to inform the app looking back what you were really doing, whether or not running, sport or swimming etc.
One major omission is that the app lacks any monthly totals summary. there is no manner of seeing however you have been progressing over time or any thanks to compare workouts. raise this the shortage of community, social sharing or rewards and it all feels alittle flat. If simple, fuss-free is your factor then this would possibly strike a chord with you however tired all we've come back to expect a lot of.
Mio Alpha 2: Battery life
Mio claims its lithium-polymer battery can run up to a few months in straightforward watch mode whereas we have a tendency to found you'd get somewhere around twenty hours of trailing in rate mode from one charge.
The Mio Alpha a pair of comes with its own distinctive charging dock and whereas it's actually faraway from the sole device that takes this approach instead of uncomplicated small USB charging, it's no less frustrating. significantly because the Mio's dock is connected to roughly 2cm of cable. Useless if your plugs square measure over 5cm from the ground.
Mio Alpha 2 Was Quick to Notice Rat