For $30, OUKITEL has produced a decent tracker with a well-rounded set of basic functions.
OUKITEL typically is a company we see manufacturing smartphones for the Chinese market, but smartphones aren’t the only devices that the company makes. It has made wearables before and one of the latest is called the S68 Pro, a budget fitness tracker that costs just $30 and is designed to compete with the likes of Xiaomi’s Mi Band line. The S68 Pro may come with a low-cost price tag, but it looks and feels like it should cost a little bit more, and even has some features you might not expect to find in a device that comes this cheap, such as a heart rate sensor, and a pretty slick magnetic band that makes it really easy to adjust the fit and latch/unlatch the device so you can take it off or put it on your wrist. We’ve been spending around a week or so with this device to see how it stacks up as a fitness tracker, so let’s take a closer look at what the OUKITEL S68 Pro offers.
Specs
This isn’t a smartphone so the specs list is going to be much shorter on the S68 Pro than it would be on a mobile device, but for those interested we’ll list the hardware that powers this device. For starters, the OUKITEL S68 Pro comes with a touch sensitive OLED display with a size of 0.96-inches. There are no external buttons, so everything is handled by interacting with the display. It has a heart rate sensor on the back, has 16KB of RAM and 256KB of internal memory, so you won’t be storing any apps or anything else on this device, it has just enough to run its list of functions.
The S68 Pro isn’t a large device and it doesn’t have a whole lot of functionality compared to smartphone or tablet, so it doesn’t need a very big battery. That said, even with just a 60mAh battery inside it’s still rated to last up to seven days. It’s also IP65 rated which means it’s dust and water resistant. The S68 Pro is compatible with both Android and iOS, and the band is made from a zinc alloy metal.
In The Box
There’s not much in the box here. You have the tracker, the microUSB charging cable, the magnetic pin charging dock that latches onto the tracker from the back where the charging pins are located, and a user manual, and that’s pretty much it.
Design & Build Quality
While this is a $30 tracker, the design and build quality of it is actually pretty decent. The band is made from metal so it’s durable and actually feels decent on the skin when worn even for longer periods of time, and part of the tracker seems to be made from metal too, though the part that sits against your wrist is made from a plastic material. The tracker itself is a bit thick, but it’s not too bad and I found that I mostly forgot about it after wearing it for long enough.
If you’re not fond of the band, the tracker band can be removed and might be able to be swapped out, though you might be hard-pressed to find a band that fits this specific tracker. That said, the band that does come with the tracker is pretty nice and especially the magnetic latch as this makes for an extremely easy time adjusting the fit. It also seems fairly durable, which is likely the most important part for some users. Even the screen feels decently made and interacting with it is easy enough. Overall, the build quality is ok and the design is ok too, and while it might not be the most stylish or most well-built tracker on the market, it’s much better than you might expect for the price.
Battery Life
The battery life is rated for up to seven days on a single charge, and it’s been about that time for us in regards to how long we’ve been using it, but the battery still hadn’t been drained all the way. It did get to about 20 percent though before tossing it back on the charge, so the timing seems about right. This is also about on par with other trackers on the market too, so if you’re used to a different type of tracker then you should expect about the same battery life.
Activity Tracking
This isn’t the most extensive tracker out there but it has a fair amount of features. It’s capable of your standard activity tracking like counting steps, monitoring your sleep, counting your calories burned, and thanks to the heart rate sensor, tracking your heart rate on command. It’s also got the ability to alert you to incoming notifications for just about anything, so long as you have the tracker connected to the app installed on your smartphone. Speaking of the app, this is something you’re going to need for a couple of reasons. One is the notifications that I just mentioned, and the other is that if you have the tracker in a different language, connecting it to the app can automatically switch the tracker to the default language of your device, so long as the tracker supports it.
With mine for example, the tracker was in Chinese and although you can can change this from the settings, or should be able to, I wasn’t able to find out where the settings menu was on this tracker so I was simply using it as is. Once I connected it to the app though, it switched to English immediately. In addition to the activity tracking and phone notifications, the S68 Pro can also be used as a remote for your phone camera, so if you have it set up on a tripod or just propped up somewhere, you can use the built-in camera remote to snap the photo, which might come in handy for anyone who takes a lot of pics of themselves and others when they’re not holding the phone. Last but not least, the tracker is also capable of letting you know when it’s time to get up and move around if it senses that you’ve been sitting too long.
Heart Rate Sensor
The functionality of the sensor is pretty straight forward. While you’re wearing the S68 Pro you can easily check your heart rate by interacting with the screen and navigating to the heart rate sensor feature, then pressing and holding on the display to get it to track your current heart rate. It’s simple and quick to initiate, though it’s not the easiest heart rate sensor we’ve ever used as some are continuous and will relay the information to you the moment you swipe to the right screen. Still, it’s nice to see that the heart rate sensor was here as many fitness trackers with a heart rate sensor cost upwards of $100.
App
Like many other fitness trackers, the app for the OUKITEL S68 Pro is going to be a focal point of the tracker for checking all of the relevant data that it captures. Once you open it you’ll first need to login or register an account, and from there the moment it connects it’ll show you any recent data that it’s captured in a summary right on the main screen. The home page has loads of information on it with the number of steps being at the center of the page. You can also see your energy (calories burned), distance, and duration of being active, and even the temperature and UV levels in the top right corner.
If you tap the Me page down in the bottom navigation bar, here you can set your goals (you can also see the percentage of your current goal that you’ve met for that day), check or set up a Bluetooth connection, and check for firmware updates. Also in the navigation bar there’s a “More” button, and this will lead you to a list of options like the remote camera button for snapping photos (this is where you enable it so you can use the feature on the tracker), and if you lose the tracker there’s an option here where you can locate it. This is also where you’ll find all the toggles for syncing notifications and things like the do not disturb mode and the water clock, which as the name suggests, will be an alert for reminding you to drink water at certain points throughout the day.
The Good
Decent build quality
Heart rate sensor
Very inexpensive
Connects to both Android and iOS
Magnetic latch on band
Removable band
OLED display
Long battery life
The Bad
Was a challenge to get the language set up in the correct language
No hardware buttons, like for powering the device on and off, were a bit strange to get used to
No interaction from the app with other fitness apps, meaning you can’t export data to them
Wrap Up
There are literally hundreds of fitness trackers out there on the market, and one to fit just about every single person’s needs or wants. That said, the OUKITEL S68 Pro has its ups and downs, though for the most part there’s not a lot to dislike about it. For $30, OUKITEL has produced a decent tracker with a well-rounded set of basic functions.
Should you buy the OUKITEL S68 Pro?
It all depends on what you want out of a fitness tracker. If you want to save money, this is a decent option to consider, and though it doesn’t have the most features, it has some of the most important ones, like the HR sensor and the ability to track your steps and calories, which are likely to get the most use regardless of the tracker type. It doesn’t hurt that it’s water and dust resistant either. The app experience leaves a little to be desired, so if you want the social features and aspects of something like what Fitbit or other trackers offer in their apps, then you may want to look elsewhere. But if that’s not important to you, then this really isn’t a bad choice, and if you don’t like it, you didn’t spend an arm and a leg on it.
Buy The OUKITEL S68 Pro