Motorola Moto Watch Fit fitness tracker review: The perfect yoga companion

Choosing from the best fitness trackers available can feel overwhelming at times — how can you differentiate them? How do you know if they have all the features you're looking for? This is why we spend weeks testing fitness trackers, to help gather the information you need to make an informed decision.

When it comes to the Motorola Moto Watch Fit, there was a lot to like and only a few things that turned us off. However, when you consider the price of this fitness tracker, there isn't much to grumble about. We loved the amount of yoga types you could select from, the personalized workout screen that took minutes, if not seconds, to sort, the Velcro-adjustable strap, the battery life, the sleep tracking and the durability of the Gorilla Glass screen.

While the accuracy of the stress monitor was questionable, and the tracker was unable to determine when all workouts were paused or finished, there was still a lot to like about this budget fitness watch. So much so that we wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to newbies to the fitness tracking world, keen yogis or those looking to make tracking their fitness as easy as possible.

It's in tough competition with the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 in our eyes. The Smart Band 10 shines with an extra week of battery life compared to the Motorola Moto Watch Fit, but otherwise, these fitness trackers are very similar. So how did the Motorola Moto Watch Fit perform during our testing period? Read on to find out.

Motorola Moto Watch Fit review

Motorola Moto Watch Fit : Design

• The Velcro strap is a nice touch
• Screen is a great size, durable and resistant
• Lots of personalization features

There is a lot to like about the Motorola Moto Watch Fit, especially as it seems to be a fitness watch with numerous personalization features, which make this watch more compatible with you than you first realize.

For example, there is the standard personalization of the watch faces, with a huge amount to select from. However, beyond this, the Velcro strap design, while initially appearing somewhat cheap-looking, is actually a blessing in disguise. It allows you to get this watch to fit your exact wrist size, reducing the number of times it may slip down your wrist during exercise. While the silicone straps on other fitness watches are good, they tend to leave you with only a few options for sizing. The whole of the band on the Motorola Moto Watch Fit is available to use as a Velcro band, meaning even those with smaller wrists can get this watch to fit snugly.

While we love the Velcro strap, we aren't too keen on the color. Currently, it appears this watch is only available with this color strap, a dark green with a yellow race stripe down the center, which is a little disappointing. Motorola does note you can swap this band out with any other compatible 0.86-inch (22 mm) band, although it appears these need to be sourced elsewhere than Motorola.

The personalization feature we feel it's important to note is the fact that you can add and remove workouts on the workout screen with a simple touch of the Add and Remove buttons. Even the most uninterested person in tech could easily adapt their workout screen within seconds. This means that hitting go on a workout involves the minimal amount of faff possible — a real godsend compared to wading through tons of workouts until you find the one you want (and then that one appearing again on your workout screen for future reference).

Furthermore, there is a wide range of workouts available to choose from, including differentiation of yoga types. This gives this watch massive appeal to yogis who can now distinguish between their Ashtanga practice and their restorative or Yin Yoga. It might not seem like a big deal to non-yogis, but different types of yoga require different levels of energy, with some being more dynamic and others more slow and steady, meaning stats per yoga session can vary widely. With the Motorola Moto Watch Fit, you can now capture your yoga sessions far more accurately.

Another great feature of this watch is the screen, with a 1.9-in OLED display that's a good size without being too bulky. The visibility is great in all light conditions, and we found it to be sufficiently durable and resistant to dust and other particles for a budget fitness tracker. After two weeks of continuous daily testing, there wasn't a mark or scratch to be found on the screen, which is possibly thanks to its Gorilla Glass.

The screen itself feels quite slender on your wrist, and there are minimal external buttons, meaning this watch isn't prone to getting stuck on clothing while working out (one of our bugbears!) There is one button on the side that can be used to turn the screen on (if you don't have always-on mode activated) and to pause workouts. Other than that, most operations are handled by swiping or touching the screen.

Motorola Moto Watch Fit: Performance

• Outstanding battery life for a budget fitness tracker
• Sleep and heart rate monitoring are largely accurate
• The stress monitor appears to be inaccurate

For a budget fitness tracker, the Motorola Moto Watch Fit performed well. It logged most of our workouts accurately, including the length of time we were exercising for, the length of the walks we took and our heart rate. It also has exceptional battery life, offering two weeks on a single charge, and we can attest this was the case for our testing period. We never needed to charge it during our two-week testing period and still had 32% of battery life at the time of writing this review. However, we should note that we had the "always-on" feature turned off during this period, as a personal preference. Having this feature on would certainly drain the battery faster.

While walking outdoors, with the watch using its own built-in GPS, the watch automatically acknowledges when you have paused and when you start walking again. This is a great feature that allows you to stay present in your surroundings, rather than having to constantly stop and start your workout whenever you pause to look at something on your walk. You also have the option to pause workouts by tapping the screen or pressing the button on the side, which is perfect for indoor workouts when automatic acknowledgement of a pause in a workout doesn't work.

Although overall we were impressed with this watch's performance, we did notice a few nuances in its accuracy functions. The Motorola Moto Watch Fit can't recognize when you have finished a workout, so it's important to remember to finish your workout manually. To do so, it's a simple swipe to the right when on the workout screen and a press of the Finish button. Unlike other budget watches we've reviewed, such as the Xiaomi Smart Band 10, you only need to tap the Finish button rather than hold it down to end a workout. This made ending workouts quick, which we liked.

The reason we say to end your workouts promptly is that, when doing a yoga class, we forgot to end our workout and realized an hour later, after having sat down for lunch. The watch had continued monitoring our "workout" and couldn't distinguish between us doing yoga and eating lunch! This was slightly disappointing, but as this is a budget fitness watch, it was understandable.

Another feature that left us unsatisfied was the stress monitor. The stress monitor appears to use your heart rate as a monitor for your stress. Currently being six months pregnant means our heart rate is always higher than average, with a resting BPM of somewhere between 90-100bpm. This put us in the Medium category for stress; however, we did not experience any level of stress during our testing period, as we were on holiday. Consequently, we found this measurement unreliable and void, which was a shame.

However, being pregnant also meant that we could tell the heart rate monitoring on the Motorola Moto Watch Fit was largely accurate. Capturing our resting BPM often in the 90s, and our exercising BPM reaching a maximum of 142 when doing light exercise, we felt happy that this aligned with our current heart rate due to the pregnancy.

While we found the heart rate monitoring to be impressively accurate for a budget fitness tracker, we were also surprisingly happy with the sleep monitoring function. Again, being six months pregnant, we are often up in the night for toilet trips. The watch accurately captured our awake windows, including how long we were actually awake for. Not only this, but we found the sleep data to be interesting to look at the following day, with it capturing the length of our sleep, the time spent in deep sleep, light sleep and REM, our awake periods and sleep heart rate. The data also gives you an idea of the quality of your sleep.

Motorola Moto Watch Fit: Functionality

• Simple interface is ideal for beginners
• Lack of smart features
• Additional useful features

Overall, we felt the Motorola Moto Watch Fit did a great job, especially for a budget fitness tracker. The combination of the design, including many personalization options, and strong performance allows us to confidently give this fitness watch 4.5 stars out of 5. We would happily have given it five stars if some of the features provided more accurate stats.

However, we can't fault the interface of this fitness watch. There are only six actions required to get what you want from this watch. These are:
• pressing the button on the side to activate the screen
• tapping the screen to wake it up
• swiping right to access the main menu (including workout features)
• swiping left to access your daily activity goals
• swiping up for any notifications
• swiping down for the quick menu, including water lock, torch and sleep mode.

It really is as simple as that — once you've spent a few minutes familiarizing yourself with these actions, you can confidently move around the watch. We think it's a good option for beginners to fitness tracking.

As far as we can make out, the Motorola Moto Watch Fit is primarily a fitness tracker, as it lacks smart features such as NFC payments. While we didn't personally miss these features, those looking for a fitness tracker-cum-smartwatch may want to look elsewhere. This is a "basic" fitness watch — as you'd expect at this price.

While the primary function of this fitness watch is to track your workouts, there are some additional features that are handy to have. These include breathing exercises, a torch and 5ATM water resistance. There is sadly only one breathing exercise, but you can increase how long you want to practice it for by increasing the number of minutes. For those looking for more of a rounded approach to their health and fitness, the inclusion of breathing exercises is a nice touch that can help people destress and unwind — especially as health isn't just about the workouts we do.

The 5ATM water resistance and water lock function mean you can wear this fitness tracker while swimming. It also has its own "Pool swimming" workout mode — great news for those who prefer working out in water rather than on land.

Previously, we haven't felt the need to use the additional features, such as a torch, when reviewing fitness trackers. However, due to our pregnancy and many trips to the loo each night, we can say that having a torch on your wrist is actually a worthwhile thing! It's bright enough to light up a room and safely walk in the dark — we only used it indoors, but this feature might also prove useful when rooting around in the car or trunk when returning home in the dark from the shops, for example. It unfortunately won't suffice for using outside while exercising, as it turns off after a few minutes.

Overall, we feel the Motorola Moto Watch Fit is a fantastic budget fitness tracker that feels more premium than it is. Some of its features are outstanding, and only a few could be a tad better.

Should you buy the Motorola Moto Watch Fit?

The Motorola Moto Watch Fit has some impressive features, such as its personalization abilities, multiple yoga workout options, 5ATM water resistance, built-in GPS, user-friendly interface, extensive battery life and useful additional features, to name a few. We found the benefits and ease of use of this watch far outweighed the few things we noted as disappointments. It's also worth remembering that this is a budget fitness tracker, and as such, it can't be directly compared to the likes of Garmin watches, which are renowned for their accuracy but cost considerably more.

Saying that, there are a few groups of people who would particularly like this tracker. Beginners to fitness trackers will find the interface accessible, while the accompanying app is also a breeze to look through and understand — there is nothing overly complex in the data that could overwhelm those new to the world of fitness tracking.

Keen yogis will also be delighted with the ability to choose more than just "Yoga" on their workouts. The variety of yoga types means yogis can accurately capture their workout and look back at their data knowing exactly the type of yoga they practised at the time. This is useful as not all yoga requires the same amount of energy and thus calories burned and heart rate measurements may look quite different depending on the style being practiced.

Finally, this watch will appeal to anyone looking to make fitness tracking easy. With the ability to personalize your workout menu and set the strap to your exact wrist size, all the faff is removed, and it literally takes a second to start and end your workout.

If this product isn't for you

While we think the Motorola Moto Watch Fit is a great budget fitness tracker, it may not suit your needs. If you're looking for a slender fitness watch, the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 is a good option, receiving 4.5 out of 5 stars in our review and featuring as the best budget fitness tracker in our best fitness trackers guide. We complimented its slender design, which allowed it to be unobtrusive, both during workouts and to wear at night, and it features over 150 workout modes. Plus, the battery life is around 21 days — a tad better than the Motorola Moto Watch Fit.

If you have more money to spend but are new to fitness tracking, consider the Garmin Vivoactive 6. With a similar battery life of 11 days, accurate fitness tracking and exercise animations, the Vivoactive 6 is a great introduction to Garmin's fitness tracking technology without feeling overwhelmed.

Depending on your needs and budget, you might want to try the Garmin Fenix 8 if you're looking for a reliable fitness watch to track your workouts — we rate it as the best fitness tracker for tracking workouts. However, this might be a bit too expensive for some, especially if you're new to the fitness tracking world.

If you're a keen runner, we rate the Garmin Forerunner 965 as the best running watch. But the TicWatch Atlas is a great competitor to some of the more expensive models available, and may suit anyone looking for a great Garmin alternative.