Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This will have to be a quick review of the Jawbone UP. I've been using this for the last three weeks and found a lot to like and not to like. In the every end, I'll be trading this in for a Fitbit trial. PROS: Love the 1-hour idle alert if you haven't been moving. I'm a desk jockey and often forget to get up and move about. Nice feature. UP App is easy to use, graphically beautiful, nice robust food tracking (although a bit confusing at first). Would like to see it return more useful data in the future. I like the steps and sleep data. If I were more diligent I'm sure the food data would be useful too. Would like to see online tracking too. Would make for manual logging efforts much easier. More on that later. Power Nap - would love to try this feature. Haven't found time to catnap anywhere yet. Steps - nice. Didn't realize how stagnant certain days can be. Nice to know how much I've moved each day. Trends Report - I found this feature to be really useful. The screen shows two reporting factors and you can choose from a selection of factors to compare. I liked comparing my Light Sleep chart to my Deep Sleep chart. This could be really useful, but in order for you to take advantage of this you need to enter data. It's all about data folks. CONS: Lack of Bluetooth -I initially thought perhaps manual syncing wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, I can tell you after weeks of using the UP wristband I wish it included BT. It's become a convenience issue; didn't mind at first until it became more and more of a nuisance. Workout logs - Entering your workout is too cumbersome using a four-step process to enter: Activity Type, Effort Level, Start Time, and Duration. If you have a multi-faceted workout, be prepared to enter all in the app. Realistically, it's just too time-consuming for all that I do. Sleep - One of the main reasons I wanted to use the UP for was sleep tracking. I have 3-month old baby and was curious to see how well I was sleeping overall. You have to press a cleverly integrated button to tell the band that you're going to sleep. Okay. If I get up for short durations, the band tells me I was "up 3 times". But when does the band sense you're awake fully and when you're just temporarily up? It doesn't. I've had the band tell me after a trip downstairs to prep a bottle that I only had 1.5 hours of sleep. Perhaps, but sleepy me assumed it was magically going to track my sleep again, when in fact it determined I was going to stay up. I've started to press the sleep button multiple times throughout the night after waking just to ensure I log my various sleep times after feeding, bathroom break, etc. I've forgotten on occasion to activate sleep and my graph shows a glaring gap in my log. Have to resort to several manual sleep entries in a night. Again, why am I doing this if there's I'm banded with a tracking device? Software could probably use a tweaking here and there in this area. Cap - The cap can twist where it's misaligned with the rest of the band. Bad part is the leading edges can be annoying sharp. Not cut sharp by any means. More like a the edge just rubs your wrist in an annoying manner. They should incorporate a non-twistable cap. Or, BT could solve this issue. Lastly, I learned I'm just not a wristband person. I'm tired of having it dangle around my wrist and found it more and more irritating. In the end when I look at the value of the data in the app and the act of wearing the band, I'm opting to return the thing because I simply don't find it useful over time. Others may find this device great for their lifestyle needs, just not me. I'd be interested to hear how others feel about the UP after some extended use because this version is still relatively new to market. Onto the Fitbit One. Avoiding the band-concept, I'm ready to move to the Fitbit. I already anticipate the act of tracking a little thing the size of a USB stick all day will be a chore and will have to come up with a process of keeping it with me all day and night somehow. I don't think having to put it in a neoprene wristband for sleep tracking will be fun with this thing. But, I'm hoping the data gathered will be more accurate and useful than the UP. I hope to update this review with my experience on that soon. UPDATED 12/22/12 So far loving the Fitbit better than than UP. Having a screen to view simple relevant data any time is really inspiring, rather having to wait to manually sync UP with iPhone to view periodic updates. More on my experience later. UPDATED 12/26/12 So far so good with the Fitbit! What a difference from the UP device and I mean that for the better. My concerns about the unit has been both realized and not. Keeping track of the Fitbit is a new mental task for sure. However, the routine of slipping the unit into a wristband for sleep isn't as bad as I first imagined. Simple features of the Fitbit really enhanced the user experience for me. Who would've thought that a simple display so small could be so important for this regime. I find clicking the button to see my steps taken, calories burned, steps climbed, and distance traveled very informative and useful. I don't always have to sync to my iPhone to see my data, unlike the UP. I just pick it up and cycle through the data and move on. If I need to, I'll pickup my iPhone and sync the data. Done. With the Jawbone UP I recall taking the band off and removing the cap to plug into the phone. Then sync. Then put the cap back on and place back onto wrist. Wash, lather, repeat. None of that with the Fitbit. Again, can't praise enough the simple features of the Fitbit that make such a big difference in my, and I would imagine also, any Fitbit user. Software is just as good. I do miss the charting features of the UP software though. Entering "activities" is vastly different from UP, good or bad depending on where you're coming from. Unlike the UP app where activities are broken down by specific categories, the Fitbit app is more casual in its definition. I just returned from a trip to an amusement park and was able to find an activity entry for "casual walking less than 2 mph" which best describes the activity. Then you enter a duration. I see this more practical. Whereas UP was more defined such as Activity > Cycle > Effort Level > Start > End. I think the Fitbit app needs an update so activities with a lengthy description can be fully understood, rather than being able to read only what fits on the iPhone screen width (need to be able to scroll to the right). Is sleep tracking better with the Fitbit? Yes and no. Sleep tracking is activated by pressing/holding the button for 2 seconds and then the screen displays a clock and timer that distinctly tells you "I'm counting now." When you wake, repeat the process to stop your sleep tracking. I like this much better than the UP. If you read my review above, you'll recall the UP the start by pressing a button but has no clear definition of when your sleep concludes. In my case, I had to activate UP's sleep tracking several times to ensure it tracked all my various wake/sleep cycles per night. With the Fitbit, the tracker counts and you have the ability to conclude your sleep cycle by stopping the counter. Since I wake to make my newborn periodic bottles, I now just keep my counter running until I designate to it that I'm fully awake. It offers a much easier way to track what is to me an approximation of my sleep time. I do find the "times awaken" deeply flawed. My unit tells me I was awakened 14x, 9x, etc. I find that excessive and inaccurate. But then again, how does the Fitbit calculate "awaken" activity? I don't know. Great product. Whole-heartedly recommend to anyone interested. Purchased one for my wife for Christmas and she's loving it too, effortlessly checking the display for a quick review or syncing to her phone. I can't stress enough how Fitbit's two differentiating features of a display and wireless syncing via Bluetooth makes all the difference between these two competing products!