Timex Gusto 2.0 Fitness Band & Tracker Review
Timex, a well-known watchmaker, house of Nautica, GUESS, Gc, Versace, Versus, and Salvatore Ferragamo brands has brought the Helix Gusto 2.0. The second-generation fitness band successor to the last year’s Helix Gusto HRM fitness band. The Helix Gusto 2.0 features a 2.4 cm colored screen, a 5day battery, and a heart rate monitor. Let find out how Gusto 2.0 performs in our review.
Timex Helix Gusto 2.0 Specifications
Design
Coming from a brand like Timex, The build quality and design speak for themselves, The Gusto 2.0 feels extremely rigid and well built. The buckle you get is something you would see in watches, Even the silicone/rubber strap feels good quality. As far as fitness bands go the Gusto is the traditional design, but the 2.4 cm curved screen and optional variants dual-color bands look quite appealing. We received the all-black variant for review. The screen has good visibility and the Gusto 2.0 feels well built and ready to handle abuse.
The front side is dominated by the 2.4 cm display, it’s a fitness band and there is only a single capacitive button. A touchscreen would have been nice, as using a single button to scroll through the multiple options gets tiring fast.
The curved design of the Gusto 2.0 feels nice and fits really on the hand. The box comes with no charging cables because the silicon straps can be removed and the Gusto 2.0 can be directly hooked onto the USB port for charging. This is a nice feature cutting the clutter of cables, if you are traveling and need to juice up the Gusto 2.0 all you need to find is a USB port.
Fitness Bands need to be sweat resistant at least, They are fitness bands after all. The Gusto 2.0 comes with an IP54 splash resistance rating, which means they are sweatproof and good for the gym and other physical activities. Swimming and bathing with the Gusto 2.0 are not advisable as they are not waterproof.
Features
The Gusto 2.0 comes with different activity tracking modes like heart rate, step counter, calorie meter, distance traveled, and sports. It can also alert you about your messages, and more. Because of the lack of a touchscreen all these modes can be controlled using the capacitive button only.
The user interface here is simple and to the point, the home screen shows you time, steps counter, calorie meter, and distance traveled by default, you can choose the watch faces by long-pressing the capacitive button.
Moving through the menu is easy and uncomplicated, tapping the button on the Gusto 2.0, will take you through the modes, and on long-pressing, it enters the particular mode. Under More, you have SOS, Music, About, Reset, and Power Off menu.
How do you set the time and your stats for tracking? You need to pair the Gusto 2.0 with Helix Timex App. Pairing is easy, all you need is to do is download the Helix Timex app on your smartphone and pair it via Bluetooth. The app shows you detailed statistics of your fitness activities. With the app, you can also set calendar entries, set an alarm and notification alerts, DND, SOS, and use the Camera.
Battery Life
The Timex Helix Gusto 2.0 comes with 5-day battery life, we saw a little less battery in our usage but that’s because of getting too many phone calls and messages apart from daily physical activities. The best part of the Gusto 2.0 Fitness band is the lack of charging cable apparatus needed to charge.
Verdict
Fitness bands are dime a dozen in the market, but most of them are not accurate with counting steps and vague with heart rate monitoring. Not the Timex Gusto 2.0 though, we found it to be quite accurate in reporting steps and heart rate. The Helix Gusto 2.0 is available on Amazon India and comes in three colors – Blue, Grey, and Black. The color display which slightly curved and fits well is a big plus. Cable-free direct charging is also a great thing to have if you want to travel with your fitness band.
All things aside, the 5day battery is not much and the lack of a touchscreen is a biggie. The Mi Smart Band 4 is in direct competition with the Gusto 2.0 meanwhile we can recommend the Gusto 2.0 for its accuracy of reporting steps and heart rates and of course the Timex brand name.
