Motorola Motoactv review

Although Android is most popularly used as a mobile phone operating system, it has the scope to be used in a far wider range of devices. Motorola’s Motoactv is a great example of the operating system’s potential. It uses a highly customised version of Android 2.3 and is designed to meet every need of the keen endurance athlete, combining GPS tracking with an MP3 player, a three-dimensional accelerometer that lets it work as a pedometer and support for performance monitoring hardware including Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) straps, foot pods for runners and cadence sensors for cyclists. It supports sensors which use either ANT+ (most popularly found in Garmin products) or the up-and-coming BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) standard. Motorola is in the process of releasing a range of Motoactv branded sensors, too. You can’t use both BLE and ANT+ hardware at the same time, though.

All these features are packed into a 46x46mm device that looks at first glance similar to the current iPod Nano. It comes with a wrist strap that allows you to wear it like a watch, but extra holders are available to mount it on a strap around your upper arm or even on the handlebars of your bike. A 3.5mm headphone output lets you connect a set of a headphones – the supplied flanged ear-canal set sounds pretty decent, if a little bass heavy, and you can also use Bluetooth headphones. The downside of using wired headphones if you’re using the standard wrist strap is that you then have a cable trailing between your wrist and ears – we had to connect it to our upper arm using a sweat band to stop it from flapping about while we were running.

The MP3 player app is particularly interesting – as you use it, it monitors how you perform during each track and – once it’s stored a bit of relevant data – can automatically select music to spur you to extra effort if your performance starts to flag. The Motoactv can also give you audio cues to encourage you or let you know how much of your planned distance you’ve covered.

The device’s Workout screen lets you choose between several pre-set activities. These include cycling, running, walking, using an elliptical trainer and using a step machine. You can choose between indoor and outdoor versions where they’re available and the most appropriate form of performance tracking will be used. For example, if you’re running on treadmill in the gym, GPS will be disabled and the Motoactv will use its accelerometer to keep track of your pace.

Whatever you’re doing, you can monitor everything the device is tracking live on its display. We were disappointed to find that that you can’t set it up for use as a simple heart-rate monitor, even if you have an appropriate sensor connected to it. This means that you can’t monitor any aspect of your performance on anything apart from the listed exercises; we were particularly annoyed to find that we couldn’t use it to keep an eye on our heart rate during strength training sessions, for instance.

Another problem we ran into during long training sessions is the Motoactv’s battery life. When we used the Motoactv to monitor a training session with cycling and running components, we had GPS tracking enabled, an HRM sensor associated and were using the MP3 player for the running part of our training. With all these features enabled, the battery lasted just over three hours, which makes this a poor choice if you’re training for long-distance runs or triathlons, or even if you simply don’t want to have to be constantly charging your sports monitor. Admittedly, disabling features extends the battery life, up to a quoted maximum of 20 hours for the MP3 player alone.

The final problem we encountered was the 176×220 touchscreen. It’s made of reassuringly toughened glass and works well under normal conditions. There are physical buttons to activate and pause both music and workout tracking once you’ve set them up, but switching audio tracks requires you swipe your way through several touchscreen menus. This can be remarkably difficult if it’s raining or snowing, or if you’re wearing gloves.

There are loads of other features, including the Motoactv website, which allows you to create custom training plans, analyse the performance of uploaded training sessions – the device can upload them automatically when connected to Wi-Fi – and compare your performance with other users. It’s all very polished. Other helpful options include the ability to link to an Android phone via Bluetooth to both upload data and display incoming calls, track laps and tune in your favourite FM radio station.

The Motoactv is massively feature-packed and we loved being able to have our HRM, GPS and MP3 player all in one convenient device. The training cues are really helpful and we like the smart track selection, which accurately noticed that Viking metal is just what we need to get us through the last kilometre of a long run. However, the device is let down by poor battery life, a restrictive range of pre-set training options and a touchscreen interface that doesn’t get along particularly well with sweat, rain or most gloves.

The Motoactv has massive potential and we hope to see some of this unlocked with continuing firmware updates – future updates promise more efficient battery use, for example. Right now, it’s worth buying if you’re serious about precisely tracking short-to-mid distance endurance work and don’t want to be overloaded with gadgets, but £245 is a rather high price for the convenience. We prefer the flexibility of more traditional HRMs such as Polar’s FT80, which has much of the same functionality, a similar range of available tracking sensors and a battery life that can be measured in years rather than hours.