Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've had quite a love-hate relationship with activity trackers over the past 3 years. Over this 3 year period, I've used the Fitbit Ultra, the Fitbit One, the Fitbit Flex, the Jawbone UP, and the Jawbone UP24. And after all of that, I've stuck with the waist-worn Fitbit One. Why? Well, read on, and I'll share my experience with all of these devices over the past 3 years! The Fitbit Ultra (the first activity tracker I owned) was great. It was pretty basic, but it got the job done. I found it to be pretty accurate and easy enough to wear. But I soon became bored with it. All these new, fancy, wrist-worn, bluetooth enabled trackers were coming out and, to be honest, they just seemed to be a lot more fun and offered features (particularly in their accompanying mobile apps). So, after having the Ultra for a year, I decided to upgrade and try a Jawbone UP. I loved the Jawbone UP at first. Having it on my wrist (a huge selling point) meant I didn't have to think about it. It was always there; it was always recording my activity. When I woke up in the morning, I just hit the button to stop recording my sleep, went about my day, and then hit the button to start recording my sleep when I got in bed that night. It captured everything (or didn't... more on that in a bit). It even had awesome features like power nap and silent, smart alarms (which I really liked). But unlike my Fitbit Ultra, I never had to worry about moving it to a new pair of pants, or remembering to move it to the included wristband at night to record my sleep. The mobile app for it was (and still is) light years ahead of Fitbit's rather bland and uninspiring layout... the layout of the Jawbone is much more "encouraging" to use (if that makes sense). Plus, the helpful little bits of encouragement it offered me were really motivating. Simply put, the Jawbone seemed to be giving me a much more thorough experience. One day, however, I decided to wear both my Fitbit Ultra and Jawbone UP to see how they compared. And that's where the problems started. Periodically checking throughout the day, I noticed my Jawbone was vastly under counting steps in some instances, then vastly over counting steps in others, when compared to my Fitbit Ultra. This was very concerning to me. After continuing this dual tracking for a few days, I was eventually able to figure out what the issue was: the Jawbone UP (and any wrist-worn activity tracker) is a fancy 3-axis accelerometer (just like the waist-worn Fitbit Ultra/One). But worn on your wrist. On your *wrist*. It detects motion. Of your wrist. That means, if your arms aren't simply swinging at your sides when you move, it's going to be ridiculously inaccurate. On the days I worked (I work with my hands, usually standing in one spot for extended periods of time), the Jawbone UP would record hundreds of steps when I, in fact, had not moved at all. To make matters even worse, it would count very few (or no) steps if I was doing something like carrying boxes or pushing a cart or carrying shopping bags. Some days, it was a wash: the Fitbit Ultra and Jawbone would be fairly close in their total step counts for the day. Other days, the Jawbone UP was off by 20-30% (we're talking 2000-3000 steps) compared to my Fitbit Ultra... not an acceptable margin of error! And I noticed the problems even when I worked out. My Jawbone UP would consistently under report my steps/distance traveled compared to my Fitbit. I would, say, run a mile on the treadmill and the Fitbit Ultra would be mostly accurate (+/- a few hundredths of a mile), while the Jawbone UP would under report by as much as 2-3 tenths of a mile! Thus, my Jawbone UP was returned. It was just too inaccurate, despite the convenience of having it on my wrist, the better features, and the far superior mobile app. And yes, it was both over and under counting steps, even after multiple calibration attempts. Now, you may be asking... how do you know the Fitbit is accurate? Maybe it's the one that's wrong and the Jawbone is right! Well, I decided to fire up a GPS running app on my phone and put the Fitbit to the test. I ran a loop in my neighborhood, wearing the Fitbit Ultra and using my phone's GPS app to record the run. At the end of it, the GPS said I had run exactly one mile. My Fitbit was only off my 3 hundredths of a mile. A very acceptable margin of error, leading me to believe the Fitbit is quite accurate. Fast-forward a few months, and I decided to give the new Fitbit Flex a try. Again, I loved that it was on my wrist and always there, unlike the Fitbit (which I was still continually forgetting to wear quite frequently). But, as with the Jawbone UP, it would either over or under count steps, depending on the situation (though nowhere near as bad as the Jawbone UP... I think Fitbit's step-counting algorithms are much more refined). And this, my Fitbit Flex was returned. Fast-forward another few months and I decided to give the new, bluetooth-enabled Jawbone UP24 a try. Because I really love the Jawbone UP wrist-worn form factor. I really, truly do. I wanted to love it. I tried my hardest to. It's just so convenient having it on my wrist all the time. And the mobile app and features were just so much better. But, as with the original Jawbone UP and the Fitbit Flex, it was ultimately flawed. And returned. At this point, I snagged a Fitbit One (as I wanted the bluetooth compatibility). It (and the discontinued Fitbit Ultra) are the only activity trackers I've found to be even remotely accurate after repeated comparisons with the wrist-worn alternatives. So, basically, it boils down to this: the wrist-worn trackers track wrist movement. By definition, unless your arms are constantly swinging at your side when you move and you don't do anything else with your hands (i.e. hold a phone to your ear, carry a box, push a shopping cart) they can't be accurate. Even if you walk with your hands in your pockets, they aren't accurate. They just can't be by virtue of how they work and where they're worn. And it took me trying 3 different wrist-worn activity trackers to realize that. If either Jawbone or Fitbit could come out with a wrist-based tracker that was accurate when your arms aren't swinging (or they are swinging, but you're not actually moving), I would be all over that in a heartbeat. I much prefer the wrist-worn form factor. And Jawbone offers many more features and a mobile app that is orders of magnitude better than Fitbit's. But wrist-worn trackers are ultimately flawed, and until they can incorporate something like GPS or heart rate monitoring into them, I don't think the wrist-worn activity trackers will ever be accurate. So, at the end of the day, if you want accuracy nearly on par with that of a GPS: Fitbit One. If you want convenience and more features, but (very) questionable accuracy, go with the Jawbone UP or Fitbit Flex.