Just like Omron Pedometer HJ 112, HJ 720ITC is another new model Omron Pedometer that comes with 2 inertial sensors for you to wear in your pocket instead of your belt. After hearing so many good reviews on this pedometer, I ordered one online from Amazon for $33 and started to test on it.

The best feature I love about this pedometer is it’s accuracy. After been using several models of pedometers myself, Omron HJ 720ITC has emerged as the most accurate pedometer I ever owned. The pedometer also comes with an advanced health management software to track your calories burned, distance covered, the number of steps you took and the number of aerobic steps you took.

It has a USB connector that allows you to upload your step data into your computer and the statistics are presented in the form of graphs to show your progress over time. With this, I am able to motivate myself further to reach my exercise goals. If you are interested to export out your data to use with formulas in Microsoft Excel, no issue with that since you can export into a CSV file.

Limitations :

The only drawback about this pedometer is the limitation of Omron software to run on Windows XP only. Which means if you are using Linux, Unix or Mac computers at home, you shall not be able to use the software. However, what is the issue since most computers and laptops are using Windows XP nowadays.

Another limitation of this pedometer is the limited memory capacity (number of days) that it can store. It comes with only 41-day memory which is definitely not enough for me.

However, for a great pedometer at an affordable price, I would personally give it a rating of 8/10 since there is still room for improvement.

An advanced Digital Pedometer can calculate and display other interesting statistics like calories burnt, distance, speed, steps per minute, elapsed time and come with other functions like stopwatch and alarm etc. A good quality Digital Pedometer usually do not over-count or under-count (accurate) and comes with false step sensor to filter non-step motion etc.

Below is a list of Top 10 Digital Pedometers in the market that have been rated very good by reviewers whom had used the products themselves before.

1. Omron HJ-112 Digital Premium Pedometer – Features advanced technology, which provides added durability and flexibility to count steps at all positions perpendicular to the ground. This feature allows the user to place the pedometer in a pocket, bag or clip it to a belt. Read review.

2. Yamax CW-701 DigiWalker Pedometer – Tracks steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned and features 2 memory settings. With a 6-digit display, pedometer counts your jogging or walking steps up to a million and tracks time covered.

3. Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer – The most advanced pocket pedometer, with USB connection and PC software that lets you track days, weeks, months, and years of exercise. Counts every step, remembers 42 days of information, has a clock, separately counts aerobic steps, measures distance and calories burned.

4. New-Lifestyles NL-2000 Pedometer – A great pedometer for those who want to count steps and estimate calories burned. The automatic seven day memory helps you track your walking. It ranked tops for accuracy both for tracking daily step counts and for walking on a treadmill.

5. Yamax SW-200 Digi-Walker Pedometer - Counts up to 10,000 steps taken while walking or jogging. Comes in a closeable case that clips onto belt or waistband.

6. Sportline Fitness Pro Pedometer 360 – The best double line display pedometer for walking, hiking and/or jogging.  Accurately measures your distance, steps (including steps per minute and miles per hour), calories, speed, and time actually spent exercising.

7. Sportline 330 Step Pedometer – Perfect for your 10,000-step-per-day program, the Sportline(r) 330 electronic step pedometer with APD (Advanced Pendulum Design) is easy to use. It is ideal for walkers, hikers and joggers. The large electronic display makes it extremely easy to read as you exercise.

8. Walk4Life LS 2525 Pedometer – An excellent multifunction pedometer to count steps and walking time, and calculate calories burned and distance. Was shown to be 99% accurate in counting steps on a treadmill, less so for wearing all day.

9. Freestyle Pacer Pro Pedometer – Accurately counts steps. Calculates distance in miles or kilometers. Calculates calories burned, average speed and steps per minute. Lap timer with interval time on each walk/run. Easy to read display. 5 step filter sensor. Durable belt clip with folding design.

10. Sportline Talking Safety Alarm Pedometer – Uses APD (Advanced Pendulum Design), a unique, patented, state-of-the-art pedometer counting engine, to ensure accurate step and/or distance measurement. A pleasant speaking voice automatically announces calories, steps, distance and time. A quick-pull panic alarm pin sets off a loud, pulsing signal if help is needed.

Have a great opinion about any of the pedometers featured above? Why not share it with us by dropping a message below?

A Digital Pedometer is available online or in any large retail store or sport goods store. Remember to look through the different types of pedometers available in this website, find one that suits you best and understand it well. Read more reviews about the product beforehand so that you will not regret later.

Apart from understanding what is a good quality Digital Pedometer, below are some pointers you should look out for when purchasing one.

1. Get A Digital Pedometer That Comes With A Safety Strap Or Leash

Some Digital Pedometers come with a safety strap or leash that loops around a belt or belt loop to avoid losing the pedometer if it pops out suddenly or the clip breaks out of nowhere.

This is something good to have as there have been stories heard of pedometers dropping off, breaking or in worse case, popping into the toilet bowl.

2. Get A Digital Pedometer That Comes With A Cover

The cover protects the display as well as the buttons of the pedometer. This will prevent yourself from accidentally hitting the “Reset” button in the middle of the day after you have worked so hard to accumulate that 5,000 steps (taking into consideration you work 10,000 steps per day), and resetting your step count back to zero. This can be quite frustrating and it could happen many times a week. Another purpose of the cover is to prevent scratches and damages to the LCD screen display.

Above are 2 important tips when purchasing a Digital Pedometer. Well, if you have to pay a bit more for them, why not?

Omron Pedometer HJ 112 is a well-designed Digital Pedometer for a non-technical person in mind. I have been using one for quite a while and I would say I like it’s sleek design and ease of operation. The most unique feature I love about this pedometer is that it works perfectly even if it is placed on my waist-band, in my pocket or clipped to my pocket book. All thanks to its dual sensor technology that gives me amazing accuracy keeping track of my steps, calories burned, distance and aerobic activity.

When I first purchased Omron Pedometer HJ 112, I only did it with the intention of counting my steps only. The reasons for me to consistently using this pedometer are due to it’s ease of use and user-friendliness. I began with small steps goal of 2,000 per day but only after a short few months, my goal has increased amazingly to 7,500 steps per day. Now I am already walking at an average of 8,000 steps per day and starting to jog slowly. Yes, this pedometer can be used for jogging too.

Omron HJ 112 and HJ 720ITC are both new models of Digital Pedometer that can be placed in our pockets but I went for HJ 112 instead and never go for HJ 720ITC because I have no need for the software that comes with the latter. Of course, I chose HJ 112 also due to its pricing, features as well as ease of use.

Lastly, it comes with a very clear and easy to read display with decent sized buttons that you can operate on the move. If you prefer to clip it to your belt instead, no problem, it comes with a detachable belt holder along with a rugged and strong security strap so you have no worries that you will drop your pedometer while walking or jogging too.

Omron Pedometer HJ 112 should be an ideal choice if you don’t need any of the bells and whistles such as management software, and one that is practical to last for a few months.

You may check out our Reviews section for reviews on other brands/models of Digital Pedometer.

A Pedometer Watch combines the functions of a sport watch and a Digital Pedometer. This type of pedometer is designed with sport-watch functions like chronograph, countdown (stop-watch) timer, alarms or calendar with advanced accelerometer-pedometer function that tracks the number of steps taken, calories burnt, distance traveled and your speed of traveling.

Unlike a normal Digital Pedometer which only record your total daily steps, a Pedometer Watch is designed to records steps only for a dedicated walking or jogging workout when activated. Hence it usually requires you to turn them on to begin recording of steps but they will turn themselves off after a period of inactivity. Some models allow you to delay the turn off after as much as 30 minutes of inactivity. Alternatively, you may set several time specific portions of the day to record your steps too (certain models only).

Pedometer Watch With Heart Rate Monitor

A Pedometer Watch with heart rate monitor allows you to read your heart rate on demand through a finger pad (does not read continuously). Be sure to check for its accuracy against a chest strap heart rate monitor.

A Pedometer Watch is also known as an Activity Watch or Acelerator Watch when combined with other features. Due to its multi-functions built into one, it might be rather huge in size like a large men’s watch.

Note :

More advanced Pedometer Watches come with more advanced features like altimeter function that show your elevation changes, barometer function that measures the atmospheric pressure, and even temperature reading.

When shopping for a Digital Pedometer, you may come across either a Piezoelectric Pedometer or a Spring Levered Pedometer. You may wonder what are the differences between the two, this article will explain to you in details.

1. Sensitivity

A Piezoelectric Pedometer tends to be more sensitive compared to a Spring Levered Pedometer at a slower speed. Hence if you are an individual who prefers to walk slowly, this type of pedometer will suit you better since the accuracy of your step counting results is better.

2. Position Dependency

A Spring Levered Pedometer is more position dependent compared to a Piezoelectric Pedometer. A tilt of the pedometer might affect the performance of a Spring Levered Pedometer. Hence if you are an over-weight individual with excess abdominal fat, wearing a Spring Levered pedometer around your waist may affect its accuracy as much as 20% at fast speed and 60% at slow speed, if the pedometer tilt forward into the horizontal plane.

On the other hand, a Piezoelectric Pedometer may not have this tilt error unless at its slowest speed of less than 2 mph with an accuracy error of below 10%.

Understanding the differences between the two is essential especially if you are beginner to Digital Pedometer and accuracy is important to you. When choosing a Digital Pedometer, I would always recommend a simple one as my experience tells me that it will be more reliable with lesser accuracy errors.

A Digital Talking Pedometer, as the name implies, is a Digital Pedometer that announces your exercise progress as you walk. Not only you can view your fitness stats displayed, you can also hear the number of steps taken, number of calories burnt, distance traveled as well as the elapsed time, at predefined intervals or manually by pressing the “Talk” button. You may turn OFF the talking feature for silent use.

Example : You may set the Digital Talking Pedometer to announce on a daily mode like “Today you have walked 9,999 steps, 32 miles and burned 3542 calories” to remind yourself how active you are for the day.

A Digital Talking Pedometer comes with many features (common and optional) depending on the model you pick.

Common Features Of A Digital Talking Pedometer :

1. Built-in digital clock (displaying 12-hour or 24-hour format) with or without alarm

2. Built-in back light for easy viewing in poor lighting condition

3. Low battery indicator to indicate low battery and it’s time to change a new one.

Additional Features Of A Digital Talking Pedometer (not applicable to all models) :

FM Radio – Allows you to work out to your favorite tunes and learn the number of calories you have burnt at the same time.

Pacer Function – Changes the tempo of a melody based on your walking or jogging speed.

Safety Alarm – Comes with a quick-pull panic alarm pin that triggers the device to give a loud and pulsing signal if help is needed.

There are many different types of Digital Pedometer out in the market. For more choices of the type of pedometer that suits you better, check out our “Type Of Digital Pedometer” category.

If you are a beginner to Digital Pedometer, and have no absolute idea which type is suitable for you, I would recommend that you go for one that is simple, reliable yet cost efficient. A simple Digital Pedometer is also known as a step counter, only does step counting exclusively. It is perfect for beginners like you who focus a lot on the number of steps (10,000 steps) per day.

A step counter will also be ideal as it’s primary function is only to count steps. Hence it will be more reliable in results and durable compared to other types of Digital Pedometer which come with many complex functions. The cost of a step counter will typically be cheaper too.

If you purchase a Digital Pedometer that has a lot of energy consuming accessories eg. FM radio, talking function, back light etc, you will expect a much shorter battery life. Hence, to avoid changing of battery frequently, as a beginner, you should opt of a simple step counter.

Before getting a Digital Pedometer, you should consider carefully why do you need one. Make sure you understand how can one help you before you invest your money.

Most people would typically ask, why do I need a Digital Pedometer? Since I am already exercising by walking or jogging everyday, I had achieved my daily activity needs. Well, the purpose of a Digital Pedometer is essentially to measure your activity level by specific measurement of steps and miles. By doing so, you can set specific goals for yourself and become more active as you continue to work towards your goal everyday.

A Digital Pedometer Is Your Motivation To Be More Active

If you are planning for a long-term fitness program (eg. weight losing, fitness or wellness program), a Digital Pedometer will be worth the small investment since you can motivate yourself to be more active on a daily basis.

A Digital Pedometer Is Worth The Small Investment

You can get a simple Step Counter Pedometer for a start which costs between $10 – $20 only.

Once you purchased a Digital Pedometer, you would probably need to start planning on your exercise goals. However before you begin, you should ask yourself what are your exercise objectives? Are you exercising for good health? Increase your fitness level? Or to lose weight? Different exercise objectives allow you to set your goals differently. Below are some simple steps you may follow to work towards your goal effectively.

Step 1 : Find Out Your Activity Level Baseline

Everybody has his own daily activity level and health. Before you set your exercise goal, you need to know what is your current baseline for your activity level. You should start wearing your Digital Pedometer like a “normal” day and find out what is your present number of steps taken per day. This will be your baseline. On average, a person takes 3000 to 4000 steps per day.

Step 2 : Increase Your Daily Goal Modestly And Gradually

The ideal goal for a normal person is 10,000 steps per day. 10,000 steps is almost equivalent to walking approximately 5 miles in distance. However, it is not recommended to set this as an initial goal within a short period since you are not sure if your health and body condition is able to cope. Once you find out your baseline, increase your daily goal modestly and gradually.

Example if your number of steps per day is 3,500, you may want to create a goal of 5,000 after several weeks, follows by 7,500, then 10,000 and beyond.

Step 3 : Use A Digital Pedometer To Measure Your Progress

Get a Digital Pedometer to help you measure your progress. If you are a beginner to Digital Pedometer, you should get one that suits you as one. If your exercise objective is to lose weight, make use of the calories calculator function to keep track of your calories burnt daily together with your diet plan.

Caution :

Before you begin any exercise program or increase your number of steps everyday, make sure your health condition is capable of handling it. Consult your health care provider if needed.