Fourth Frontier Frontier X2 SMART HEART MONITOR
Fourth Frontier Frontier X2 SMART HEART MONITOR
Today I have with me the Fourth Frontier X2, a smart heart rate monitor, which can provide continuous ECG monitoring, monitor any variations in your heart rate, is your heart being strained, everything in this tiny little device. Let’s check it out in this video.
This is the Frontier X2 by Fourth Frontier, measure what matters,
Measure cardiac strain, record continuous ECG, and we are also provided vibration alerts for certain events such as strain or if your breathing rate goes too high.
The frontier X2 app is available on both iOS and Android.
We have these pull tabs here, to open the box. So let’s do just that.
Cool blue box, with the fourth frontier logo.
The front is magnetically held down, push forward and the box opens.
Exercise safely, monitor your heart and free your mind.
Some paperwork like the quick start guide, regulatory info etc.
The box is so big, but if you notice the sensor within is quite small. We have a QR code for the app.
Removing the top section, we have below two chest straps, one in blue and the second in black.
Here’s the charging cable, which attaches magnetically to the sensor.
Now back to the sensor, it’s quite light weighing only 25 grams, 55 if you include the strap.
Pretty simple design, with only a small screen on the top face,
a blue button on the bottom which looks to be the only button on the device.
The back has fourth frontier marked on it, the leads from the sensor, look like snap on buttons.
This is the charging port, it magnetically attaches to the charger.
The main sensors are all within this small device which is essentially the brains of the setup.
Snap on the sensor to the strap and we’re ready to use it.
Here’s the strap, I’m choosing the one in blue, both are effectively the same except for colour. The strap can expand as per the required width.
The blue button when installed onto the strap should be facing down. This allows the LED’s on top to be easily visible.
Hold down the blue button to turn it on.
If you have data from earlier it will show the last activity details on screen. Including the memory remaining and battery percentage.
I have the Fourth frontier app installed on my phone, create your account, enter your details and , we are greeted by a dashboard which shows your activity levels, how much of your goal have you achieved. Number of activities, active hours, training load etc.
It’s empty at present as I’m yet to pair a sensor to the app.
Pairing the sensor is easy, Tap on the blue button under the sensor, to activate it.
Once activated, it’s detected by the app, tap to pair and it’s ready to use.
We can see the current sensor battery level at 83 %.
Oh, we have a firmware update, let me finish that and get back.
One of the highlight features of the device is the live ECG streaming,
I have the sensor strapped across my chest and now, I activate it and we can see a live ECG being streamed to the phone.
This is so cool.
This info would be really helpful for fitness enthusiasts to get the most out of their training without hurting themselves.
Let’s start a workout, data we have are elapsed time, breathing rate, strain on your heart, heart rate, HRV or heart rate variability, training load, total calories burnt, body shock and step cadence, distance, pace etc. On top of this ECG data is being streamed across too.
Once you stop the activity , the data is synced and the device memory is cleared for the next activity.
Looking through the activity history, I have a few, now we can see all the data and also we have the ECG data which can be shared with your friends and even your doctor or coach. The ECG information does take a little time to be processed, so don’t fear that your data was not synchronized.
The ECG is a 20 second summary of your workout.
Battery life is expected to be about 24 hours of continuous use, and 12-15 days of standby time, if you use it maybe an hour a day. It takes 45 minutes to fully charge the sensor.
The charging cable is magnetic and it snaps on, once you bring it close, snap and it starts charging.
I’ve been using this device to track my morning walks, my VR workouts, and yoga sessions.
The sensor being waterproof up-to 1.5 meters can be used while swimming. As everything is stored on the device itself, you don’t have to worry that you could lose data when being transferred to your phone. Just exit the pool and sync the data and you’re done.
The data can be synced with your favourite apps such as Garmin, google fit, Strava, Zwift, peloton, apple watch and more. I have google fit and the data syncs without a hitch.
It’s easy to start and stop workouts via the device, tap on the blue button to activate the device and tap again to start an activity, we do receive vibration feedback when we start stop activities, and the LED’s on top also light up if it’s tracking your heart rate, is your workout being monitored etc.
The sensor having a 24 hour run time, you can also monitor your ECG while you sleep which can help monitor your sleep quality and can also help figure out if you have any problems which are sleep induced.
The data is also available via fourth frontiers web application, which has the same data, but is more easy to read as compared to your phone, unless you have a foldable phone. But the monitor being bigger, everything is much easier to read and look through.
So that’s was the fourth frontier smart heart rate monitor, it’s easy to use, has a whole host of data that it can track.
So who is this device for, basically professional athletes, people with a case of heart problems and would want to monitor for AFIB, or track other medical issues. The ECG graphs being easy to share with your doctor also helps to pinpoint what’s wrong and when what’s occurring if the user has a history of some sort of cardiac condition. The device can be set to vibrate when it reaches a certain heart rate, up or down which can be set via the app.
And of course the sensor is great for data junkies who like to track their everyday activity and make you compete with yourself or even your friends.
It does take a bit getting used to in the beginning, but once you have used it for some time it becomes second nature. Wearing a chest strap is a bit more troublesome as compared to something like a smartwatch or a smart ring. But the kind of metrics that the smart heartrate monitor can log is more accurate, and also you have much more information.
So what do you guy’s think, why would you use a device such as this one? Make sure to comment below.
