Stealth Core Deluxe Trainer - Turn Fitness Into a Fun Game - Get Strong Sexy Abs and Lean Core Playing Games On Your Phone; Free iOS/Android App; 4 Free Mobile Games Included; Dynamic Abs & Core Training; Only 3 Minutes a Day

I am not an excercise enthusiast. I have always had a very weak core despite an athletic background through college. At 40, I'm trying to improve myself physically just a little, and I'm doing it with simple things I can do at home. To be clear, a lot of my effort started with losing weight nutritionally. So I'm at a fairly skinny but far from scrawny baseline at 5'9" 165ish. I bought this Stealth because I liked the idea - engaging your core by forcing yourself to be stable while planking. And I looked at cheaper versions and decided I should go with the quality brand with established, functional games to use. Stealth seems to have the best concept design for creating multi-directional instability that forces your core to keep you in place. If you're not picky about games, you don't have to pay a thing for the basic ones, and they're plenty engaging to keep you going for a couple minutes. I've started at 2 minutes a day - 2 minutes! I've even missed days here and there, yet in 3 weeks (I'm up to 3 minutes a day now) I can see some shape in my abdominal area that I have NEVER seen before. You can easily tell that it engages your abs from top to bottom. In my prior experience with traditional situps or crunches, my upper abs would do all the work, and I could never engage the lower ones. Not the case with this AT ALL. You can feel the fatigue from ribs to waist. Even when I used to be in good shape years ago and I could run forever, I never had any semblance of lines like I'm starting to see after 3 weeks of 2-3 minutes a day. Maybe this won't do as much for you if you're already a workout fiend, but if you want to start from scratch or limited core strength or stability, this is a great option if you're willing to spend $100 one time. The portability of this particular model plus a sale is why I bought it as opposed to the normal one that doesn't disassemble. It is perfectly stable so far with very clear instructions on how to assemble it appropriately.

I know it looks cheap but it works. The idea of adding the phone to make it a game is an excellent idea. My wife is usually very critical "gadgets" like this but she loves it. I now use it because the games are cool.

TL;DR version: Hardware great. Software needs some work. Super good ab workout.There are two components to this review and combined they give a 4 star rating.First: the hardware. It’s good. I have the pro model and it seems sturdy, well built and solid. The padding on it is thick and sturdy. The ball joint roles freely and this thing provides a HELL of a workout.My only real complaint: the emails you get when you order this. There’s a bunch of them and they’re all very cutesy about how the Stealth is “flying to an airport near you” and “your stealth has landed and will be placed on a box” etc. It’s overkill and I, personally, found it annoying.There’s even a link to a video about how to unbox it. You know, in case you’ve never opened a box before?Still, from a hardware point of view: solid 5 stars.The software is another story though. I’m running the app on a OnePlus 5 which is admittedly not a common android phone. But it’s running Oreo, has 8 Gigs of memory, 128 Gigs of storage and the Snapdragon 835. In other words it’s at least as fast as the Samsung S8… Yet the app is still slow to load.Once loaded the app is responsive and does provide a decent workout. Basically it puts little dots on your screen and you have to move a crosshair over the dots and hold it there for a few seconds. They tout it as being totally random. It’s not. It always starts in the same area and follows the same placement patterns. Exactly where the dot is placed is randomized but only the defined area it will be drawn. For example: the first dot is always on the right side of the screen, about in the middle and never very far above or below the middle of the screen. The next dot is always on the left bottom area of the screen. It does work but it’s not as great as marketed.The game has one mode. It provides a decent workout but it’s not very interesting or exciting. They hint at more modes soon but apparently that’s been a thing since it was announced.The only compelling reason to use their app instead of some other motion based game is your personal scoreboard and the global leaderboards. It is cool to see how you’re progressing from the first time to later on.The leaderboard only shows the top 200 people and there isn’t any clear or obvious way to see where you are at or if you’re even on it. Another concern is that there doesn’t seem to be any way to prevent people from just holding the phone in their hand and “gaming” the app. There are folks with fairly high scores in fairly short periods of time. That makes me wonder how accurate the boards even are.The last issue I have with the leaderboards is that there’s no way to see if you’re on them. You can filter them to include your gender and age range, yet even when you do that there’s no indication if you’re even on them or what your score actually is. It makes the only compelling reason to even use the app almost pointless. You need to be competitive to care about the boards, but then they made it hard to see if you’re on them?For the most part these gripes are minor issues. Small things like graphs to show your progress or a way to find your personal score… but those small things are missed opportunities and make the app feel like maybe it’s just a beta. The lack of modes or anything interesting doesn’t help.Software: 3 stars. It works, it’s just boring and feels unfinished.Overall: I like the Stealth. It’s provided a really solid couple weeks of ab workouts. The app is lacking but the good news is that apps can be updated. The hardware itself is rock solid and I have no complaints or concerns.