Is it time to get HIDRATED?
Hey Guys, how's it going?
Thanks to Hidrate for sending out the Hidrate Spark 2.0 for me to check out! Now, you may think, "Is it really another smart water bottle?", but, the Spark 2.0 has almost nothing in similar with The Hydra Smart Bottle which I previously featured. Let's see why.
The Spark 2.0 is a $55 gadget that tracks your hydration and gives you notifications, based on a precise mathematical equation, on when to drink water. And since everyone and their dog has a fitness tracker these days, Hidrate even added the ability for this bottle to sync with Fitbit, Withings, Google Fit, and more. A welcome addition.
"Founded by University of Minnesota alumni, Hidrate Spark was built out of passion and necessity"
This quote from their press release is a really cool revelation to me because, as some of you may know, I live and love Minnesota!
Now, as usual, let's start with the design. This bottle, looks amazing. It's extremely light, even lighter than some normal, un-smart, water bottles that I had it stacked up against. The body of the bottle has this awesome, matte-feel, that makes the bottle feel extremely unique and great in the hand. It also has a bunch of stretched out triangles that makes it feel really "faceted" and really great in the hand as I continue to say. It looks really good and is a great conversation starter. The bottle looks really nice and unique although it's really sleek and doesn't stand out as much as you may think it does, especially in the black variant you see above. Although, I really do love the design of The Spark 2.0, in a business-like environment, it stands out. I can definitely imagine a scenario where someone would be in a meeting room, have the Spark 2.0 with them, and it would draw eyes. Although the Spark 2.0 is made out of plastic, it feels great in the hand and is really durable.
Now let's talk about initial setup. This was one of the areas where I had one of my first gripes with The Spark 2.0. The setup feels really weird and finicky. Once you take off the lid and wash the bottle for your first use with the bottle and go to pair it with your phone, it starts getting weird. The app has really detailed and comprehensive instructions that help you get over the finicky nature of the setup, if those are not comprehensive enough for you, they have a YouTube channel where you can watch a bunch of videos on how to set up the bottle. Now for the finicky part of the setup. In order to power the bottle you have to remove the sensor stick from the bottle in a "snapping motion" which is really hard to do and literally feels like you are breaking the bottle. Then you have to unscrew the battery compartment, wait 10 seconds, then screw it back on and reattach the sensor stick to the bottle. This "resets" the bottle and powers it on for first use. From there, the setup is buttery smooth. Once the bottle is washed, cleaned and put completely back together, the app detects it immediately and starts recording data.
The app is equally awesome. It's design takes cues from many modern, successful fitness tracker apps such as Google Fit, Fitbit, and Withings. The design is super clean and visually, is pure eye candy. It's got a lake background along with a circular progress tracker that is measured in ounces, you also have your data displayed in how many more bottle to drink before meeting your goal, how many bottles you've drunk, and more. Syncing is one of my favorite parts of this bottle, due to it having a feature that if it had not had, would have been a deal-breaker for me due to my schedule. I spend more than half my day at school, and in a busy, every 45-min switching, school environment, the Spark 2.0 holds up really well. I am obviously not allowed to have phones during class and my parents have done me the favor of banning me from taking my phone to school so I can't sync my water bottle with my phone to track and see progress until I get home. So I needed this bottle to have at-least some built in memory in order to store the data until I get home to sync it. And good news, it has the memory, I did some tests for about a week of school in order to see how much memory the bottle actually has and it got me through an entire school day with 2 or more full refills and all my data was fine.
The package even includes a paracord and hard plastic finger loop that's easy to put on and feels good. Another cool feature of the Spark 2.0 is that it glows to remind you when to drink water, you have a lot of control over this feature from setting how much and how it glows to when it glows!
The lid of the bottle is a button press style opener and is a little loud(specifically in a classroom situation) but is good quality, feels good, and works well. The rubber/silicone seal works well and doesn't leak at all.
Final Verdict - 9/10
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The Hidrate Spark 2.0 is an awesome bottle that has a bunch of cool and useful features such as syncing with Fitbit and other popular fitness trackers. It's got an awesome, sleek design that is extremely light and looks amazing. And, to top it all off, it comes in a bunch of cool colors along with my personal favorite, teal!
Thanks for reading guys, I'll see you later!
