3 Low cost, Fitness Trackers reviewed

In the order I tried them, and as pictured above, these are the Misfit Shine, the Jawbone Move and the Fitbit Flex.  They are are all relatively simple and low priced fitness trackers.  Basically they use accelerometers to measure how active you are; you can think of them as high tech pedometers.  The thing that makes them much more useful than this is their related apps and websites that compile and track this data and combine this with other stuff to coach and motivate you. 

The Misfit Shine is the little brother of the more expensive Flash; functionally they are the same but the Shine is made of plastic and the Flash is metal.  They are both a removable disk that you can mount in either a bracelet or a clip-on carrier.  I didn’t have many issues with how this performed, either the tracker or the app, but I really was concerned about the security of the clip-on which detached from me at least three times.  When the strap snapped, that was it!  I sent it back, even though Misfit were great about replacing the strap.  I just felt that this device and I were doomed to be separated and even though it I’d only paid around £40 for it (now available for about £32 from Amazon,)  it wasn’t worth it.

I then moved to the Jawbone Move.  This was a much more robust clip.  The bracelet was also much tougher (and less attractive) but you had to buy this and it pushed the price up from £40 to £52.  The idea of all three of these is that you wear them at night  too as they notionally track your sleep.  In reality they do show when you wake, and to a lesser extent, how much you toss and turn.  Experts say that they don’t measure your sleep quality in any meaningful way,  but what all these devices do do is measure trends.  I have compared all of them with my GPS and they aren’t spot on but come within 5-10%, which is good enough for their main purpose.  Their virtue is they do push you to keep active and move.  I don’t know how much it is just the latest health vogue and how much it is serious but doctors are really hot on the negative impact of sitting too much.  I definitely do make more effort when I’m being tracked (see my earlier blog.)  The Move and I also parted company when I wore it with a thinner pair of trousers it came off.  I strongly suspect it would work just as well in your pocket and be much more secure.  The Move did survive a short spin in my washing machine, which it isn’t meant to.  However, this is another flaw in this kind of device it is very easy to forget to detach it and lose it or just break your measurement trend.  That is why I think the wrist worn device is a better solution.

That brings me to my final tracker the Fitbit Flex.  I rather like this.  It is easy to wear, you can wear it in the shower, and don’t have to move it when sleep.  None of these has a proper display.  They all have some leds.  I found the first two somewhat confusing to interpret and being on your waist, inconvenient to browse.  The Flex is simpler.  You just have 5 leds, an one lights up each time you achieve 20% of your target, simple and easy to see. 

You have to ‘tell’ these devices that you are transitioning from waking to sleeping modes by tapping them, or using the app.  Again, the Flex is perhaps the easiest to use. 

The real value of these trackers is in the accompanying apps and there is no doubt the Jawbone one is very good.  I think the other two are fine, with Misfit perhaps being slightly less useful than the Fitbit. They all pair with other apps such as My Fitness pal which you can use to track your calorie intake, and this interchange of information is very helpful.  You can, if you are so inclined, share your results with friends and colleagues and compete with them. 

I have no doubt that there is better, more clever devices coming down the pike.  This sector is developing fast, and the recent launch of the Apple watch will just speed this up.  However, unless you are in the market for a serious GPS running watch, I don’t think it is really worth paying more for the more expensive devices at this point.  The extra functionality is limited in its accuracy and probably not worth paying for.

I will keep you posted with further thoughts and progress.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2015 at 07:00 and is filed under Gadgets & Technology, Personal Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.