Last April, I bought the other half a new Fitbit Charge HR for her birthday. She loved it, and I began to love the idea of a fitness tracker.
Not one to be tied down too soon, I installed several tracker apps on my phone. Because I couldn’t decide between the two main contenders (Fitbit and Up), I installed both, and gave them access to my motion tracker, etc. The goal, was to use them until I had decided, then I’d switch over – I could try before I buy and, because I was running both simultaneously, I wouldn’t lose my data.
Over a year on, I still haven’t committed to a tracker.
So what’s wrong? Why haven’t I picked a tracker yet? Simply put, I’ve yet to find a tracker I’m completely wowed by, and none of the current offerings have ticked enough of my boxes to make me take the plunge.
Below are my thoughts on the two main contenders: Jawbone and Fitbit
Looks
First off, if I have to wear this thing day in, day out, I need it to look decent. I don’t really want to stop wearing my regular watch (it was a gift from the other half), so it needs to sit on my off-hand and look at least a little stylish.
Most importantly, it can’t look like a watch.It would look pretty daft to be walking around with a watch on both arms all day. I don’t mind it having a screen though.
Fitbit: Fitbit have a range of devices to suit most situations. Of the current market, the Charge is a bit too rubbery for my tastes. The Alta is a potential winner here.
Jawbone: Jawbones latest offerings, the Up 2, 3 and 4 all look fairly stylish. They are low profile, and relatively nice to look at.
Heart Rate
HR is one of those things that interests me. I don’t really know why. I don’t really train with it in mind, but I like to look at the pretty graphs. In particular, viewing your heart rate through the day is nice. Of course, I’d like to also be able to plug in data from a chest strap for when I want really accurate data.
Fitbit: The Alta falls over here – it has no HR feature. The Charge HR can though.
Jawbone: The Up3 does HR monitoring, but they (currently) only offer “resting HR” – they will take your HR during periods of inactivity only.
App
A screen on-device is all well and good, but for detailed information, you are likely to want to head into an app on your mobile device. The Apps need to be easy to use and functional. If they are cool too, thats always a bonus.
Fitbit: Fitbits app is functional. It gets the job done, but its not particularly exciting. Challenges (a feature we’ve been using a fair bit recently) are pretty cool.
Jawbone: The Up app is presented more like a social media timeline, scrolling down you can see everything thats been recorded in reverse chronological order. It also has a “smart coach” that attempts to give you hints on what you can change. Its step detail grid is pretty appalling though – its not particularly easy to see a breakdown in 15 minute chunks. Given that this is really the only (official) way to see this data, its fairly disappointing.
Web Dashboard
For those times when you want to view stats in more detail, or simply on a bigger screen, the option of a web dashboard is welcome.
Fitbit: Fitbit is a clear winner here for me. I like the simplicity of the data thats presented to me. I can see my days steps in much more detail than I can on the app. Fitbit is a closed system though, there’s only a limited subset of things you can pull in from elsewhere. For instance, although it will sync with Strava, it won’t pull in HR data or gps data – just Start Time; Total Distance; and Total Calories.
Jawbone: The Jawbone has no native web dashboard. So if you want to see your information online, you need to start looking for an alternative source. tictrac will do this for you (among many other things), but I found that I’d stopped using the site after a few weeks. It just couldn’t beat the Fitbit dashboard for me.
Sleep Tracking
I’d like to be able to track my sleep patterns. Again for the pretty graphs. Of course, to do so it needs to be low profile, and not annoy me in my sleep. My other half also finds she cannot wear her Charge HR 24 hours a day, and she has a reaction to it. So she ends up having to take it off at night. Not good for tracking.
This is generally a bit of a tie between the two, since they both offer adequate tracking. Neither particularly stands out for me.
Waterproof
More of a “nice to have”, but I’d like the option to take the tracker into the pool. I don’t do a lot of swimming right now, but it would be handy.
Neither Fitbit not Jawbone offer any more than splash proofing. Other waterproof options do exist, but they tend to lack in other departments.
Flight Count
Counting flights of stairs is another “nice to have”.
Fitbit: The Charge HR has this. The Alta does not.
Jawbone: As far I’m aware, this is not available on the Up
A note on Ampstrip
Ampstrip was a wearable by Fitlinxx, who described it as an “invisible”. It was like a chest strap, but in a smaller form, and you could wear it continuously for around 7 days before the adhesive wore off.
I got genuinely excited about the Ampstrip. It seems to tick enough boxes for me, and I liked the constant tracking during fitness and leisure. The lack of screen was a shame, but one I could live with.
Unfortunately, Fitlinxx decided midway through its development cycle (launched off an Indiegogo campaign) to cancel development and redirect their efforts to work it as a medical device. Very disappointing!
Conclusion
As you can see, no one device really satisfies my checklist of features. The Alta looked promising at first glance, but now isn’t so appealing. Perhaps I should just give it a shot and see how it pans out.
Hopefully, the next iteration from Jawbone and Fitbit offer a better device to get my heart (figuratively and literally) pumping. For now, I’ll stick with the apps on my phone.
Kept in Tech 