Pivotal Living fitness band and smart scale reviewed: $12 a year, well spent

There are few fitness trackers under $50, and you'll be hard-pressed to find many good ones in that price range. There are even fewer with subscription plans, but Pivotal Living is incorporating both of these strategies into its devices. The company's Tracker 1 is a basic band that monitors your activity and sleep, giving you full access to its app for the small price of $12 per year. The company has recently come out with its first companion device, the $40 Smart Scale, which is quite affordable compared to other weighty scales that can cost up to $150.

Pivotal Living's mission is to make activity devices accessible for those who need them most. So it makes sense for the company to have both trackers and scales working together and to offer affordable prices for each. According to the Food Research and Action Center, lower-income neighborhoods have fewer physical activity resources than higher-income neighborhoods, meaning they don't have as much access to parks, recreation centers, and other areas that encourage physical activity. While Pivotal Living's devices lack the advanced features that would appeal to serious athletes, they combine functionality and affordability well enough to motivate those in need of a new way to change their activity and dietary habits.

Design: No unnecessary bells and whistles

Pivotal Living kept things simple with the Tracker 1: it's a black band with a rectangular OLED display that sits on top of your wrist. On its right side is one physical button, which you press to scroll through time, steps, distance, calories, and goal percentage on the screen. It has a snap closure and isn't hard to put on, and otherwise it just kind of sits there—there's nothing extraordinary about the Tracker 1, but you get what you pay for.

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