Fitness trackers are all the rage at the moment and for good reason. They motivate you to get up and walk more.

The Move X20 is aimed at the serious user who wants to track their vitals: sleep, how far they’ve run or walked, and in what time, and whether they’re meeting their training goals. I wore it for two months and found it suitable for tramping, too.

When using the X20 I found myself walking much more than when I wasn’t wearing it. I set a goal of 10,000 steps each day, which I missed on occasion but for the most part surpassed, showing it really can motivate you to walk more. Notifications in the form of commands to walk more or to offer congratulations on reaching goals help here.

Once calibrated (using the free smartphone app), I found it quite accurate in recording distance travelled. On a three-day trip to Stewart Island, I compared the distance the X20 said I had walked with DOC’s official distances. From Mason Bay to Doughboy Bay, DOC says 18km while the X20 said 18.55km. From Doughboy Bay to Rakeahua Hut, DOC says 16.6km and, according to the X20, I walked 20.73km. The final day from Rakeahua to Freds Camp Hut is marked as 12km, but the Move X20 recorded 12.97km. So some discrepancy, but not too bad considering it doesn‘t use GPS and one reason the X20 recorded longer distances is because it counts all those steps taken on the diversions you make from the track or when you’re stomping around trying to keep warm during a break.

It has a USB-rechargeable battery with a seven-day charge, though I found it to last much longer than this.

I did encounter occasional syncing issues with the smartphone app and the sleep monitoring function is basic and doesn’t truly reflect hours slept, but overall I found the X20 to be a useful motivational tool with useful features for trampers, though it‘s better suited to runners...