Today is Sunday, March 1, 2015. On Friday afternoon I merged from normal geek over the edge to a fitness geek status! How? Well, it was quite easy reflecting back four weeks earlier during January of this year when a friend and old co-worker let me know about a company called, Lumoid, they rent gear to folks like me to test drive. If you decide to purchase, great, if not, no big deal, and the items are returned after the agreed rental period. This was a far too tempting idea. Why? Over the past two years after purchasing my first fitness tracker, the illustrious +Fitbit One, the interest in over competing companies drove my curiosity and nearly emptied my bank account. It was risky to purchase a fitness tracker with no intention to keep it; nevertheless, one after the next, they were bought and then returned. Beyond my comprehension, my family, co-workers, and friends, failed to mock me too much walking around the office with not only one tracker, but also two fitness trackers! So, on to the review!
Tracker One +Fitbit Charge - purchased and owned since 10/2014
Tracker Two (from +Lumoidit) a +Basis Peak smartwatch & fitness trackerTracker Three - Jawbone Up Move (only a fitness tracker)
Tracker Four +Garmin vivomsmart
Tracker Five +Withings Pulse 02Tracker Six +Samsung Mobile USA Gear
My favorite thus far are three, the Fitbit Charge, Garmin vivosmart, and Jawbone Up Move.
The time is currently, 22:38 and I have been moving around, taking short walks, cleaning around the house, took out the track four times, chased children, and attended church. How far?
Fitbit Charge 10,272 steps
Basis Peak 5,061 steps
Jawbone Up Move 5,931 steps
Garmin vivosmart 9,771 steps
How could two of the four trackers be so far off in numbers? Alright, the Jawbone Up Move, Black Burst, model was worm for the 16 hours non-stop on my waist as recommended by +Jawbone whereas the Basis, Fitbit, and Garmin were all worn on the wrist or in my pocket during church. The +Basis is the most expensive model coming in with a retail price of $200.00 and it has been the tracker I wanted most to test and experiment with given it's great features and technical specifications, yeah, extremely disappointed over the these initial 48 hours. It was never able to detect my sleep mode for two nights in row, and the synchronization woes with my iPhone 6 have been depressing. I contacted Basis support yesterday and they suggested I logout, close the app, restart my smartphone, and then log back in again - done! I went a step further and restarted the Peak device and signed in under a different account (used a test profile created two years ago when they Basic watch was first announced). In 10 hours we'll find out if my sleep is going to register or not?
The Basis Peak has been worn on my left wrist ALL day, I don't tippy toe around, and I don't walk on egg shells, although, we do have carpet in our house...? Nope, that is not the reason! I tried another tracker last year, the +iFit and that model too could not measure up to the Fitbit and Garmin starts either!
Jawbone Up Move
The design is fantastic! I learned how to use their portable fitness tracker through trail and error and actually clicking through their designed app - great job to their Design Team & Development Team!
Almost exactly one-year ago I tried the Garmin vivofit and it was returned because of annoying sync errors. One one frustrating day the device took six different attempts before a good synchronization succeeded. Many app upgrades since Garmin has done great work. Over 50 hours of usage and only one app mis-app with their new vivosmart model. Granted, this could have been caused my me and turning off Bluetooth?
just walked a good 100 steps and this movement was tracked by both Garmin and Fitbit; however, the Jawbone failed again. I am switching to "wrist" mode for the next 27 hours and shall observe the outcome.
A week later... March 17, 2015
Happy St. Patrick's Day! The seven days of using six trackers was... overwhelming! However, one of the trackers sent, Samsung Gear, would not even work with my iPhone nor my computer, so, it was never even turned, just charged for Lumoid.
The Results are in! Fitbit, Jawbone, and Garmin make the best fitness trackers and apps.
Garmin vivosmart
1. Learning curve - 8 of 10 - easy to use right out of box; although, this was my tenth or twelfth fitness tracker...
2. smartphone integration 8
3. social interaction 9
4. social media integration 8
5. motivation 10 - each day I
6. durability 9 - I easily see this device lasting a year or longer
7. battery life - using the notification of email, text messages, and alarms, I easily made it four days and could have reach five if I had wanted to risk losing steps.
8. functionality - the tracking of sleep, movement, steps, alarms, a lazy alarm reminding you to move if you sit or just lay down too long is cool. There is a leaderboard to share status and events with friends. Garmin also provides an easy-to-use workout mode
9. website versus app - both the iPhone app and their Garmin connect site functioned wonderfully (https://connect.garmin.com/en-US/)
10. customer service & device support - there were no problems with my borrowed vivofit during the seven-day test. However, years ago I went swimming with a water-proof Garmin Forerunner
11. design
12. display legibility and notifications
13. longevity
Withing Pulse O2
1. Learning curve - 8 - easy to figure out, difficult to use since you have to dismount the device to take oxygen and heart-rate measurements
2. smartphone integration - 9 - easily synchronized with my iPhone, no data was ever lost
3. social interaction - 5 - could not find any friends to share the leaderboard with...
4. social media integration - 9 - integrates nicely with the iPhone sharing toolbar, iMessage, Mail, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Evernote, Google+, and more
5. motivation - 8 - the app reads and displays the data with a nice design and the goals are measurable
6. durability - 8 - the portable tracker was dropped and didn't miss a beat, just don't get it near water
7. battery life - 9 - very close to the documentation of two weeks. From my testing I was able to reach 10 days even with synchronizing often and taking heart-rate measures each hour.
8. functionality - 7 - steps taken, elevation, calories, rate-rate, blood oxygen level, and sleep. If you forget to go into sleep mode, you cannot enter it manually or edit the times. Doesn't handle recording naps, and the heart-rate sensor often fails...
9. website versus app - 7 - the app and website were pretty consistent; although, nothing spectacular
10. customer service - 8 - the reviews I read were positive, I didn't need to work with their customer support
11. design - 4 - it is an inconvenience to dismount the device when need to measure your heart-rate and almost useless when trying to measure your HR during a workout.
12. display legibility and notifications - 7 - the manual states the display is OLEN, however, the screen is covered by plastic thus making the numbers and letter fuzzy
13. longevity - 9 - could see this device lasting longer than 13 months, easy to charge
Basis Peak
1. Learning curve - 7 - had to read the manual to go online to figure out several of the features
2. smartphone integration - 2 - had nothing but trouble synchronizing the device to my iPhone
3. social interaction - 3 - the app was poorly written as were the social aspects
4. social media integration - 2 - it just okay
5. motivation - with all the frustrations caused by sync issues I didn't get to share any data and get motivation from the app
6. durability - 8 - the watch band was good, the charging cables sturdy, nice anti-scratch screen
7. battery life - 4 - did meet the estimated life
8. functionality - 4 - the vibration alarm went off for one reason or another and there is no way to reset the device without the charger. I lost 12 hours of data.
9. website versus app - 8 - most the data is the same
10. customer service - 3 - by the time they responded I already returned the watch
11. design - hardware was a 8 - but software was a 4 - if it is a smartwatch then where is the stopwatch and alarm features? No calendar integration either
12. display legibility and notifications - 7 - indoors it was great and easy to read outdoors, at night the back-light was lacking and inconsistent
13. longevity - 4 - due to hardware and software shortcomings I don't feel this device would endure a full year
Fitbit Charge
1. Learning curve - 9 - device and app were intuitive and easy to understand
2. smartphone integration - 10 -during one month of use only had one problem with the Bluetooth connection
3. social interaction - 6 - there is great interaction on the +Fitbit Leaderboard, and on the groups (online only), and with their new Challenges (app only)
4. social media integration - 2 - there is not an easy way to share stats within the app to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or Instagram
5. motivation - 9 - the leadboard (both app and online) combined with the app notifications and challenging keep me going for the 10K goal daily
6. durability - 9 - the rubberized bands are great and wear well even after months of heavy use
7. battery life - 8 whichever the device the estimated battery life is a close match within a day. I rated this an 8 since I feel with 2015 technology a small fitness tracker should be able to last two weeks
8. functionality - the OLED display is easy to read, the button flows the data from one screen to the next, and the steps, calories, floors climbed, and sleep are all tracked. Over two years with Fitbit now and I have never lost data from one of their trackers.
9. website versus app - 9 - beside the challenges and the groups everything on the app is also available online
10. customer service - 10 - I have returned, had fitness trackers replaced, had accessories replaced, and most everything was free of charge. I lost a Fitbit One, replaced for free within five business days!
11. design - 8 - lightweight, easy-read-display, and the new textured band looks great
12. display - 9 - reads well indoors, outdoors and at night, I would rate the Fitbit Charge with a 10 if they added the ability to adjust the OLED brightness at night, or if a sensor was added, and also the ability to adjust the screen-time lite for longer than four seconds.
13. longevity - the company has been around since 2007 with trackers selling in 2009 or 2010. Ergo, soon they'll be a decade old, a score of 10!
Jawbone Up Move
1. Learning curve - 5 - without a readable display one needs to memorize the icons and clicking steps to switch between modes
2. smartphone integration - 9 - the Bluetooth 4.0 worked great
3. social interaction - 8 - easy to share with team mates and cheer each other on
4. social media integration - 8 - easy to share to Facebook & Twitter
5. motivation - 10 - the app integration and notes that display are fun to read. The app interprets the data daily and gives you goals to reach for activity, diet, sleep, and... other aspects.
6. durability - 9 - the case for the UP Move was great, no visible signs of wear over one week
7. battery life - 10 - five to six months is awesome
8. functionality -7 - the step county was far below that data coming from Garmin, Fitbit, and Withings
9. website vs. app - 6 - all data is on the app and the reports are lacking within the Jawbone app when compared to other companies
10. customer service - 10 - after returning my UP move and trying a Jawbone UP 2nd generation the dust cap was lost. Jawbone customer service was extremely nice and their policy is to replace one dust cap for free!
11. design - 7 - I really feel a better display with numbers could be easily added to the UP move especially for reading the time of day. Several of my friends noted, "it looks like an air freshener!"
12. display legibility and notifications - 6 - the LED lights are bright and it is easy to tell if you in sleep mode, normal mode, or stopwatch mode; however, no vibration alerts, and no alarm
13. longevity - 9 - I easily anticipate this fitness tracker lasting for 12 months or longer
Samsung Gear
1. Learning curve - used one in the store it is was about a 7 of 10 on easy of use. There were almost too many features.
2. smartphone integration - unknown with an Android smartphone
3. social interaction - unknown with an Android smartphone
4. social media integration - unknown with an Android smartphone
5. motivation - unknown with an Android smartphone
6. durability - unknown with an Android smartphone
7. battery life - without even using the device for three days the batter life dropped from 100% down to 45%, so, a score of 5/10
8. functionality - unknown with an Android smartphone
9. website versus app - unknown with an Android smartphone
10. customer service - unknown with an Android smartphone
11. design - 6 - the look is clunky and the watch face was too thick, to large, and it did not fit nicely on the wrist
12. display - 7 - a nice color display legible indoors and outside
13. longevity - unknown with an Android smartphone
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