counting steps in real time

[Ambranch]

I just bought this and setting it up. I was testing it by checking counting steps but its takes a while to update then it displays less than actual amount of steps.....because I counted myself.   in addition I turned off my phone ( long story short) but I continued walking around the house to check and did not add any steps on the watch band. So do I need to have my phone with me all time in order to have my steps counted? that would be inconvenient.  what can I do?

[t.parker · Accepted solution]

The watch doesn't really count steps but based on your wrist motion it figures out whether you may be walking or not. It's more correct to say that it counts walking-like arm swings rather than steps (this is still simplification yet more correct).

To figure out whether detected motion should count as steps or not the watch must buffer it and recognize pattern and then it will update step counter. When you start walking it may take a few seconds to catch up.

The display is another story. Usually, display updates happen at fixed intervals and the reason to that is battery consumption. Because the display doesn't update it doesn't mean the watch isn't counting.

You don't need your phone during activity. Phone is needed to sync the watch and use any watch-phone features (like controlling music on the phone via watch interface).