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| 13 Recommended Products | Recommendations | Heart rate | Altimeter | Waterproofing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Fitbit Charge HR· · · | 8 | 1 | Yes | Yes | Splash-resistant |
| #2 Fitbit Blaze· · · | 2 | 0 | Yes | Yes | – |
| #3 Fitbit Charge 2· · · | 2 | 0 | Yes | Yes | Water-resistant |
| #4 Samsung Gear Fit2· · · | 2 | 0 | Yes | Yes | – |
| #5 Jawbone UP4· · · | 4 | 1 | – | – | – |
| #6 Garmin Forerunner 235· · · | 1 | 0 | Yes | – | – |
Pro Continuously measures your heart rate and intensity level to give you 24 hour stats
Throughout the day (and night), the Charge HR fitness tracker continuously measures your heart rate. On the app, graphs show your heart rate throughout the day, providing stats such as time spent in the different zones (peak, cardio, and fat burn) as well as your average resting heart rate for th...
Pro The app and web platform do an excellent job of keeping you motivated
The Fitbit app lets you set goals and milestones which reward you with badges and trophies when reached. You can also challenge friends and family, see their activity feed, and compete against them for top spot on the leader board.
Pro Multifunction display
In addition to fitness metrics, a Fitbit Charge synced with a phone will display time and caller ID.
Con May break after only a few months of use due to durability issues
People have reported the band separating from the module and the clasp snapping off. There have also been issues with bubbles forming in the band, even when kept completely dry. The charging port commonly breaks as well. Though the company is usually good about sending a replacement, it can be a...
Con Won't turn on if you completely let the battery run out
If you do not keep up with charging your device, and you let the battery life completely drain to where it will no longer turn on, a hard reset of the device is needed in order to get it to turn back on again. The trouble being, that one, you will lose your data from before the hard reset, two you...
Con Known to cause rashes
The charge has been known to cause red itchy rashes, and occasionally burns.
Pro Long battery life for being so feature-rich
While it varies somewhat, many people have been reporting that the fitness tracker usually lasts 5 full days on a single charge. In general, the more features a tracker has, the faster it will drain the battery. 4 or 5 days is an impressive charge compared to other trackers with similar features...
Pro Tracks your activity in a large variety of ways
The Fitbit Blaze fitness tracker is feature-rich and tracks steps, calories burned, distance traveled, active minutes, floors climbed, heart-rate, and sleep time.
Con Inconvenient to charge
To charge the Blaze fitness tracker, you need to remove the main module and lock it into its charger.
Con Poor use of the large display
The fitness tracker's screen takes up a small amount of the front face. The glass bezels and casing take up most of the front.
Pro Gives you a lot of features for the price
It gives you a lot of stats on your activities thanks to the GPS, altimeter, and heart rate monitor. It can track your sleep, show you alerts directly on the display, and offers a variety of helpful features such as reminders to move and a breathing function that helps you relax.
Pro Reminds you to move throughout the day
The fitness tracker will give you hourly reminders to get up and move for a few minutes, so you're not spending your whole day hunched over a desk.
Con Lower quality screen that scratches easily
Rather than gorilla glass which is commonly used in the more expensive trackers, the Charge 2 fitness tracker uses a thick plastic display screen. It makes the device appear lower quality and scratches very easily.
Con Weak vibration causes alerts to easily go missed
The Charge 2 has a very weak vibration that is easy to miss, especially when you're active. As a result, it's easy to miss silent alarms or reminders to get up and move.
Pro Keeps you constantly aware of your progress without needing to look at your smartphone
The display isn't limited to your stats for the day as it is with many other trackers. At a glance you can check out your progress for the week, or look at the full activity history of each day individually.
Pro Works as a music player so it can be your sole device during exercise
The Gear Fit2 is one of the few trackers that allows you to store music directly on the device, which means one less electronic you need to carry with you on your workouts. Thanks to the built in GPS and notifications, the Gear Fit2 eliminates the need to bring your smartphone with you on runs....
Con Easy to lose the tracker because of a weak clasp
The band is not secure, and has been known to come undone frequently with movement.
Con Auto tracking can be inaccurate
Auto tracking will begin recording if it thinks you have begun an exercise. It has been known to randomly start tracking an exercise (like cycling) even when almost stationary, resulting in a very inaccurate exercise summary. There is no way to turn this feature off.
Pro Advanced metrics tracking system
UP4 uses Bioimpedance sensors that track respiration, perspiration, hydration, skin temperature, heat flux, BMI, and can even sense which activity is being done. For instance, UP4 can identify sports like tennis and log the information automatically.
Pro Integrates with an impressive list of third-party apps
Jawbone app allows data from third-party apps to be imported as well as Jawbone's data to be used to supplement other apps. When activity is logged in a third-party app it will show up in Jawbone app's feed to give a complete overview of fitness and health situation. Some of the integratio...
Con No display
Instead, UP4 has LED indicators.
Con Can't track elevation
There is no elevation sensor in the device, so there will be no way to know the height walked or ran when wearing it.
Pro Ideal tracker for runners
It's quite lightweight at 1.6oz and has a large bright display for easy reading while on the move in all types of lighting conditions. It's water resistant up to 50 meters so you're safe to wear it running in all types of weather.
Pro Quickly picks up a GPS signal
It picks up the GPS signal much faster than most other GPS fitness trackers available, so there is little waiting around for it to connect before you start your run.
Con Has trouble tracking heart rate during intervals
During interval training when there is a frequent change of exertion, the Forerunner 235 has trouble continuously providing accurate readings. It's better suited for running with a sustained pace.
Con Needs to be recharged often
Garmin states the watch has a battery life of 11 hours training and 9 days of use as a watch, which is a fairly short charge compared to other fitness trackers. However many people have found the actual charge to be much less, often needing to be recharged every couple of days.
Pro Heart-rate monitor is accurate
UP3 uses micro-currents to sense the user's heart rate with extreme accuracy. Currently, heart-rate is only tracked twice a day, but it will be tracked continuously after UP3 has a firmware update.
Pro Can be set up to e-mail a weekly summary
Jawbone allows for users to set up a weekly email that will send a summary of their activities making fro an easy way to see what one has done in the last week.
Con Poorly made and known to malfunction after a short period of use
Along with the major clasp issue, the UP3 has an all-around durability issue. The band has been known to break, the clasp fall off, and the tracker to stop transmitting data.
Con Very limited heart rate utility - Can't take HR during exercise
The UP3 fitness tracker can only measure heart-rate when at rest (including while sleeping). This is because it uses a different technology than other smart bands - so unfortunately active heart rate can't be added in future software updates.
Pro Always-on heart-rate monitor
There is a built in heart rate monitor that is always monitoring and for the most part it is consistent in its tracking. This way people can get a full view of what their daily heart rate is at any given time.
Pro Allows downloading workouts
Users can download workouts to their devices from companies that have partnered with Microsft such as Gold's Gym or Men's Fitness. This allows for one to find workouts that fit their needs that are created by people familiar with what should work the best.
Con Slightly too big and heavy to be unnoticeable
Like many smart watches, the Microsoft band is big and heavy (due to their screens) and will be hard to forget one is wearing it due to the weight, size, and shape.
Pro Adapts to ones workouts
The watch can adapt to the routine one is using for their workouts in order to suggest other workouts the user may be able to handle. This basically works as a simple personal trainer, which can be encouraging to the user.
Pro Heart rate monitor is not necessary for every workout
Luckily the extra monitor is not necessary for every workout, which is nice as it can be a pain to hook up correctly and is a bit of a chore being an extra piece to worry about.
Con Setting up the heart-rate monitor can be a chore
Finding the correct placement for the heart rate pad to record correct reading can be difficult to do, which may be time consuming and a PITA.
Con Heart rate monitoring can be hit or miss
There may be times where the monitor fluctuates out of the norm, which leads to incorrect readings. Normally this is understood when using something like a smartwatch, but to see it happening with a device that has a separate band to record heart monitoring it is a shame to see.
Pro Cheap
For less than $20 you get a pretty decent fitness tracker.
Con Default app kinda sucks
Go out and download Notify and Fitness for Mi Band.
Pro Good display
The fitness tracker has a large backlit full-color touch-display that's sunlight-readable and responsive.
Pro Easy to use
The fitness tracker has two buttons, a back button that also locks the device and a start button that also enters settings, and an intuitive touch interface that is controlled with swipes and taps. The learning curve is close to nonexistant.
Con HR monitoring does not work during swimming
The fitness tracker's heart rate monitoring gets turned off during swimming.
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