GOQii Vital 4.0 review: worth the price?

Among the slew of new fitness trackers that have been introduced in the market recently, GOQii’s new Vital 4.0 stands out. The wearable has been priced at Rs 4,999 and carries multiple health tracking features like a 24/7 health rate monitor, exercise modes, and SpO2. In fact, the GOQii Vital 4.0 is among the few fitness bands out there to come with features like temperature and blood pressure monitoring. I have been using the fitness band to track my vitals over the past few days, and here’s my review of the GOQii Vital 4.0 to see whether it’s worth the money and a suitable competitor to some of the other popular fitness bands in the segment.

GOQii Vital 4.0 key features

• 120 x 240 AMOLED display
• 17 exercise modes
• IP68 water resistance
• Tracks steps, sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen, SpO2, body temperature
• Range of watch faces
• Free three-month subscription to GOQii care plan
• Comes with two additional colour straps 

Design

Design-wise, the GOQii Vital 4.0 looks like any other fitness band. There is a black core in the middle that holds all the sensors, as well as the display, and silicone straps on the sides. The straps are removable and come in three colour options: red, purple, and black. Removing the strap from the top reveals the charging connector, which you can plug into any USB Type-A port including that of the computer or a standard phone adapter.

That said, I found the GOQii Vital 4.0 a bit uncomfortable to wear. I believe the straps could have been softer and weather-friendly. In a hot and humid environment like that in Delhi, the straps can accumulate sweat and lead to itching.

Performance

The GOQii Vital 4.0 ships with a touchscreen AMOLED display, which bears 120 x 240p resolution. The display is sharp, colourful, and bright, making its content easily visible even under direct sunlight. However, the display has wide bezels, which makes the overall screen real-estate of the wearable quite small to deal with. Also, the touch response isn’t very accurate.

As for the fitness band activity tracking, it keeps a score of your steps, along with calories burnt and distance covered, as you walk. You can set your daily steps target from the compatible GOQii app, but it’s worth mentioning that the GOQii Vital 4.0’s steps count isn’t spot on. On average, the Vital 4.0 would count extra 20-30 steps for every 100 steps walked. In comparison, the Amazfit T-Rex, which I’ve been using as my daily driver for the past few weeks, showed around 12-13 steps extra.

The GOQii Vital 4.0 can also measure the wearer’s heart rate and sleep, whose accuracy I found to be on par with the T-Rex. In addition to these, the fitness band is equipped with 17 different exercise modes, including walking, running, workout, cycling, tennis, soccer, climbing, aerobics, and jumping rope. It also comes with a built-in SpO2 sensor for measuring your blood oxygen saturation level, and can even track temperature and blood pressure. While the company doesn’t promote the GOQii Vital 4.0 as a replacement for a sphygmomanometer (an instrument for measuring blood pressure), the wearable can measure both systolic and diastolic blood pressure and send the report directly to the integrated GOQii App. I can’t vouch for its efficacy, but the device is rated to be a CDSCO registered medical tracker. The GOQii Vital 4.0 is certified under three grades by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as well.

Last but not the least, the GOQii Vital 4.0 is IP68 certified for water and dust resistance, which means it can survive underwater for up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. That said, the wearable doesn’t have a dedicated mode for tracking swims.

To initiate the blood pressure measurement on GOQii Vital 4.0, you will first have to calibrate the data using a cuff-based blood pressure monitor. At least three readings are required, and post that, one can connect the fitness band to the GOQii app and use it to measure their blood pressure. You’ll have to repeat the calibration process after every 15 days.

Battery life

The GOQii Vital 4.0 is rated to last up to seven days on a single charge under normal usage. This gets reduced to three-four days if you have all the functions enabled. I was getting around the same time with the wearable as claimed by the company during my usage, which included step counting, continuous heart-rate tracking, sleep monitoring, half-an-hour of workouts, and occasional SpO2 checking.

As for the charge time, the GOQii Vital 4.0 takes around an hour to juice up from 0 to 100 percent. The charge time is a bit slower on a computer compared to a power adaptor.

App and connectivity

The GOQii Vital 4.0 fitness band works with smartphones running Android 4.4 or above and iOS 10.0 or later. For this, you’ll have to download the GOQii app from the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store and keep your phone’s Bluetooth on. Now, create an account on the GOQii app, if you haven’t, and select the model from the list of wearables available to pair. After the pairing is done, the app will start keeping a log of all the activities performed while wearing the band. You can revisit the data as and when required.

Additionally, you can control GOQii Vital 4.0 using the app. The app lets you control the settings of the wearable, set alarms, update wallpapers, receive notifications for messages, calls, and chat apps directly from the smartphone, set reminders, and control music, among other things. While it sounds nice, the app isn’t easy to follow. That largely has to do with the ‘GOQii ecosystem’, which makes the app interface quite cluttered. The ecosystem is a suite of services such as in-depth analysis, personalised advice from a health coach and doctor, and insurance. You get three months of access to the premium ecosystem free with the GOQii Vital 4.0.

In addition to this, I also faced some issues with GOQii Vital 4.0 app connectivity. Despite giving all the access and permissions, I had to manually sync the watch to see the latest data from the wearable.

Verdict

In a nutshell, I would say the GOQii Vital 4.0 is a great fitness band. Sure it has some issues like slightly inaccurate step count and app connectivity, but you won’t get as many features as the GOQii Vital 4.0 on any other fitness band in the price segment. In addition to the regular health tracking features, you get an integrated pulse oximeter (SpO2) and blood temperature, which have become quite important features during the ongoing pandemic. It can also monitor blood pressure (BP) that could be extremely useful. However, we wish it had as impressive battery life as some of its competitors like Amazfit Bip U Pro, Mi Band 5 (review), and Honor Band 6 (review) and the ability to track menstrual cycles for women. That said, if you are looking for a reasonably-priced fitness band that monitors so many health metrics, the GOQii Vital 4.0 should be a worthy option.

Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5

Pros

• Lightweight
• 17 different workout modes
• Can measure SpO2, blood pressure, and temperature

Cons

• Touch response isn’t great
• App connectivity issues

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