GOQii Fitness Tracker with Personal Coaching (No separate charger. Integrated USB charger present on device)

First and foremost, i have bought the band from Amazon and I am not looking at the text written in the box (coach, karma, eco system etc) to write this review. But I have been using GOQii for 2 weeks now and will give a fair opinion about this band.Delivery was not a great experience. Mine took 4+ days eventhough it was FedEx 'priority overnight'Even before the band was delivered, i was contacted by someone from GOQii and coach was assigned!!What is in the box* GOQii a core (which has all the sensors, display)* Two bands - black (or whatever color option you had chosen) and then a bright red silicone band (I guess it is more water resistent than the other), which I havent tried even once.* GOQii core Charger* Bluetooth Dongle to sync data (read it as your step count, sleep pattern, calories, etc) from the core to PC app* Subscription activation scratch card* Some paper workInitial Setup* GoQii core had around 60% battery out of the box. Charged for around 40 minutes before setup* Downloaded the GOQii app from Play Store (I have a Galaxy S3)* Created a GOQii account and filled personal details like height, weight (used in calculating the calories burnt) food habits, etc.* I was using a custom ROM on my S3 (Paranoid android), and the pairing failed constantly. So I had to use a stock ROM to pair successfully.* The app is very very very slow in my S3 during the sync process, but it works a lot better in my wife's MI3. May be something to do with the available RAM.* The core displays the date/time, steps taken, active hours, distance, calories, karma pointsMy experience* Nobody contacted me from GOQii on first full day, and i was able to achieve close to 7000 steps without any extra efforts.* On the second day, i got a message from my coach within the app to setup a call (along with the standard 'welcome to GOQii' blah blah).* It was a 15 minute call, where the coach asked about my day to day activities, and my intention to buy GOQii. Based on this information, she suggested a goal for the number of steps and amount of water to drink in a day. And also explained how i can achieve those.* From the third day, i started taking extra efforts to achieve those goals (like parking the car away from my office desk, taking the stairs instead of elevators, filling half the bottle with water, etc.* I was able to achieve 10,000+ steps, >2.5L of water every day for the last 10 days. I would not say it is because of the coach's motivation (based on your performance, you get as a message everyday in the app to motivate yourself) but mainly due to my resilience.* I use the PC app more than the phone app. And the app is good enough to see your performance over a period of time.About the Coach* My coach has post graduation in Food Nutrition and Dietetics with specialization in Sport Nutrition.* My wife's coach has a Master’s degree in Foods, Nutrition and Dietetics and has worked on the development of protein fortified chocolates in collaboration with Cadbury India Pvt Ltd.* The coaches are very well qualified. Do some reasearch and you will know what i mean.* I got suggestion from my coach as and when i logged in the meal that I am having.* Like mentioned in another review, I did not receive spamming messages - one message per day voluteerly by the coach based on your previous day performance, and replies for the query which I ask.Cons with GOQii* As per my experience, the GOQii core doesnt measure your steps taken with 100% accuracy. When the core says that you have taken 10,000 steps today you could have taken anywhere between 8500 and 11,000. You can not use it to measure the distance around your apartment complex.But you can use the steps taken as a reference for your next day. It is like a clock which is 10 min slow (doesnt show the correct time) and still you can calculate a 30 min interval with that clock.* Donating karma points is fun, but i am not sure if the NGO will get the requested funding for the following reason: For example, for one such NGO the requested fund will be credited only if 1 million karma points are donated by the users within 3 months which is highly unlikely due to the amount of donors (around 130) and points credited so far.* For your coach to understand your activities better and give proper suggestion, you have to make sure that you log water intake, food, etc in the app. I am finding it tough to do this because of the office routine.* The battery life as advertised in around 3-4 days, but i need to find the charger every 48 hrs.* Last, but certainly not the least, the android app is damn slow and tests my patience. I prefer using the desktop app.ConclusionIt is a very good fitness tracker for the given price (I got the 3-month subscription for 3999). The coach is the USP for this device. I will strongly recommend for anyone who has a sedentary lifestyle to go for it.All said, after using for 2 weeks I do not see a strong reason on why I should renew the subscription after 3 months23-Dec-2014------------Update after 2 full months of usage:I used (and still using) the band for two full months, each and every day. It has now become part and parcel of my routine.After 1 month, i stopped entering food/water/etc. data into the dashboard since i was either not finding time for it or was a little lazy :)My coach couldnt help me much becuase of that (though she gently reminds me to enter the details now and then), and only was able to give the feedback about the step count, sleep pattern, calories burnt.Then came the battery woes - My battery drains every 30 hrs, and because of charging time 3-4 hours of my activities was not recorded. So the step count read 6k instead of the usual 10k+So my coach sent me a new core which i never expected, and so far the battery life in that is good. I get around 4 days after full charge.Then comes the interesting part - the challenges which the coach threw at me.1. Sugar-free challenge for a week - I will not say that this changed my life upside down, but now i have started using jaggery or honey for my coffee/tea rather than the processed sugar.2. 3-Fruit a day challenge - It really made me consume atleast two fruits a day which I otherwise dont do.3. Donate karma points and take a selfie4. Say thanks to 3 people who has helped you some way or the other - this made me & those 3 feel happy. Again, i wouldnt have done it.These challanges means nothing if I didnt do them (well, i didnt capture a selfie after donating the karma points), but it surely got ~ 0.1% permanent change in me. Even a small step towards 'whatever' is good :)Now that I am able to constantly hit 10k steps, my coach has started recommending core strengthening excercises. Not sure how that is gonna go.And yes, I have renewed my plan for another 6 months.But one thing which didnt change is the Andoird app. I have Galaxy Note 4 now and still the app in sluggish (it consumes huge amount of RAM and hence the lag)Last but certianly not the least, I have had numerous conversations with people I know & I dont know because of the GOQii band which i wear and fitness in general. It helps in to improve your social skills as well LOL

I like to write product review so here goes another one. The only reason I bought this fitness tracker is this is an Indian start up and I believe in my people. I would love to buy from our start up industry and why not.Do remember # you may come across some problem during the use of tracker and will reach out to customer support and might hear something which will shock you.Yes – According to GOQI , they are not product company. They provide services like health/fitness coaching which comes with tracker. So you are essentially PAYING FOR SUBSCRIPTION on amazon and gets free tracker from them. So after 3 months if any problem in tracker then god knows.Customer Support # nice customer support staff who will engage with you but they have own boundaries of knowledge so you will not get your all questions addressed.Concept # I just love this concept of customer engagement post purchased. Personal coach will engage with you on regular basis not only to guide you on tracker but also how to keep your life healthy. But after 3 months of subscription you will have to pay again. About coaches they are very good and supportive. price is on higher side for renewal. I am sure GOQI dose subscription analysis total purchase Vs renwal.User experience #Tracker – I like tracker better than many other fitness band in market. Plus point is you don’t get another charger which will occupy your power plug . Display is good but in sunlight you will not see anything. Feature for idleness is useless. It has nothing to do with your tracker bcoz even you are in movement you still get alerts. Why do I need band to tell me this if this is not based on tracker.my mobile can do this. so essentially its waste of one features on band/tracker which I can be used for other imp feature. Karma point now , why do I need to really see this on my band/tracker. Total waste of showing this. GOQI could have better utilized it to show something which is linked to tracker realtime.Mobile App – very good efforts. But needs some improvement if dose not happen then you cant stop customer migration as you are service company Goals and Habits are once setup then you cant change them. Its locked for your 3 months subscriptions. However you can request your coach to modify for you. . So after subscription I don’t know how useful this feature for us.Size of widgets is too much. If you are doing 10 activity then have patience to see all while scrolling down. But why ? you have various icons while adding the activity but on home page all activities has same running icon. Sorry I am to micro as I can see many other design problem.Most important element of such Apps is the bars & graphs which is completely missing here. Graphs are limited to 3 activities which is again very basic. Whole world is talking about digital analytics so how can you be less focused on this.Very first bar talks about tracker status. Most of the time “ tracker not found”. Dose not sync well also. It may depend on various thing like your Bluetooth, GPS, internet connection but my concern is what you do in testing. Why do you need best hardware/configuration to run an App. So don’t do to customer support for this. they don’t have answer.Phone consultation – nice feature.Personal Coaching – I like the most but disappointed as this for 3 months and renewal is expensive.Steps count – my personal experience , it has some problem as some it dose not count while I am walking. Will notice further.Social – its nice to have and I don’t see any need for this. it just consuming extra place on AppHome page experience – I would like to see more analysis , progress , status etc in dashboard or chart format and go to next level for detailing. This is where experience is lagging.Price # this is what people want to know actually. I am good with the prices. Reason 1) its an indian start up, 2) better than any other band in market of same range, 3) I am paying for health subscription and getting free tracker .Hope my feedback helps to new buyer and GOQI to consider it also as competition is very high.