Why I hate them all and love them all, Mi Band anyone?
So this is more of a train of thought entry. I'll put a summary at the very end for those not interested in my mental ramblings. (Search for "*summary*")
Fitbit Charge HR:
After reading pages and pages of reviews, I decided to buy a Fitbit Charge HR (it is the top recommended all purpose fitness tracker out there!). I'm going to become more fit! Installed the app before I even opened the box, so I was ready to go to pair it with the app.
First impression, syncing is easy, app is slick. This is going to be a great device. It was easy to customize, and you can customize a ton of things, like which panel shows up in what order, what shows on double tap, clock shows on wrist twist. Granted the app is buggy and you can't actually move the panels (but the website version works fine, so do it once and never have to think about again). It reads my heartbeat pretty well, even when exercising (or so I thought?). I'm gonna love this! At least I thought I loved it until I went to sleep and the sleep tracker was absolute nonsense, apparently I slept only 4 hours, when i actually passed out at 11PM and woke up at 5:30AM.
Now the ugh.... so the sleep tracker is fail (this is actually not true in the end... read on), which means other than counting my steps, reading my heart rate, it really doesn't do that much more for me? Even then, I'm not a fitness buff so other than going "ooo, heart rate chart looks awesome" I really don't have much use for it (once again, so I thought...). So couldn't I have just gotten a pedometer for $20 and pretty much get the same benefits?
So...... I read more reviews (yes... a lot more) and tada Garmin Vivosmart! It's waterproof (SWIMMING!!!), it has idle notification, it can find my phone, no heart rate monitor, but I shouldn't mind, bad sleep tracking (this was when I thought fitbit's sleep tracker was fail, so I lose nothing). But on a total side note, I saw Microsoft Band, whose hardware is supposed to be superbly superior to Garmin and Fitbit, but critics are not a fan of the Band, though users seem more cheery, and Target fixed the easily scratched screen bug by giving you a free $10 screen protector.
Garmin Vivosmart:
Because I read the reviews, I know to sync using the app instead of bluetooth directly. Sync wasn't too bad, not as smooth as fitbit, but not bad. Then I saw the app. Um, yeah... this app is meh compared to fitbit's, BUT I don't mind I'm smart enough to figure everything out (at least I didn't mind the dashboard), despite some parts are counter intuitive--like to get activity tracking data, you have to go into menu, Fitness then activity, etc, even if you did an activity tracker, going into Active Calories burn doesn't really tell you activity, etc. That's all fine and dandy, I will tolerate. Find my phone seemed awesome since I misplace my phone all the time (esp at first when I was ringing my phone for kicks). Except the shoddy bluetooth pairing means if I walked out of range of bluetooth of my phone, I have to walk within 1 meter of the phone before it'll re-pair. So.... unless I'm blind or my phone is underneath something, I could already spot my phone before the Find my Phone even rings my phone. So all it adds to my find phone experience is me swinging my arms around stupidly trying to get within bluetooth range. A pet peeve, the screen of the garmin I got cuts off a bit on the edge (so sorta have to guess the final item on the menu is a Sun for brightness and there's an "OK" circle but it's all tappable.
Now for the I love it part: the idle reminder is awesome. It fills up as you remain mildly idle, and depending on the number of bars that fill up, the longer you have to walk/do active stuff before it resets. So when it vibrates me the first hour, I only have to walk 20 steps but if I ignore until the next 15minute bar fills, I have to walk 50 steps instead. I think I only made my daily step goal because of this reminder feature.
But the sleep tracking and aerobics tracking is pure junk. Since I don't actually run/walk, but do aerobics indoors instead, Garmin without heart rate monitor is terrible since it thinks I only took 15 steps in 30minutes. Now I see the importance of heart rate monitor, it estimates my calories burned better! Sleep tracking counts "sleep time" as soon as you start the sleep mode, so if you started it at 9PM, but don't sleep until 2AM and wake up at 5AM, it'll count that as a full 8 hours on the dashboard (this should be easily fixable garmin... it's just software!).
So in the end, $129.99 for an awesome idle notifier and waterproof-ness... as much as I LOVE this feature, I can't justify $129.99. So opening package 3, Microsoft Band.
Microsoft Band
Now this.... I'm not a Microsoft fanboy, but I do have some nostalgic fondness for Microsoft. This device, well... first of all, snap it on (mildly loose), seemed kinda strange at first compared to the Garmin and Fitbit, can't really describe it, just plain weird. BUT ignored it completely by the time Syncing/Setup was over.
First of all, OMG.... it would not sync! Just refused and refused. Then I paired it using Bluetooth of my phone, it says basic jist is "i'm paired, now go into the app." The app meanwhile says "I don't see a device?" So I'm stuck going "WTH, curse words galore," unpair from Bluetooth, keep complaining because the Band is stuck on that I'm paired screen. Then it suddenly went back to sync mode and I use the app again and it miraculously paired like a charm. So I don't even know how I got it to sync in the end, it just did. Already not a great first impression, but you know what, that's okay, because this Band screen looks great. UNTIL.... the watch wearer in me who wears my band on the left hand on top of my wrist notice that unlike the garmin, I can't change the screen to portrait!!! In order to swipe across it, I have to do some elbow contortion that anyone less flexible would probably want to yell. So it turns out, you MUST wear the Microsoft Band on the bottom side of the wrist. Though I'm not pleased, I'll bear with it, because like I said Microsoft nostalgia! Just then I discovered what all the other reviewers were saying screen is not scratchproof! When I'm here typing on my laptop with my wrist down (Band touching computer), I have to take the Band off because the screen scratches up (Sure, I didn't put on the free screen protector, but the screen should really not be that that un-scratchproof, it's not like I'm working on a rock laptop, it's soft plastic yo, why is plastic able to scratch this!!!!)
Now, the I love it parts, everything else hardware wise is lovely. The heart sensor doesn't quite agree with Fit Bit's but it's usually within +/- 5 bpm of each other. UV sensor is technically useless for me, but it works and is fun and can brag to friends you know how bad the UV is today. Setting up the notification tabs took a few minutes, doesn't have the nice auto turn on screen when lifting or twisting arm like fitbit/garmin. But it's tolerable, since the Fit Bit and Garmin doesn't always work first try, so sometimes have to relift/flip arm.
*Summary* So I wore all 3 bands on my 2 arms (yes I did change all the arm settings on the Fit Bit/band/garmin, so no error there) (Yes, I also wore the devices with heart rate monitor about 1-3 thumb width above the wrist bone like manual said) Garmin & Band on left, Fit Bit on right.
Pedometer Readings:
Fit Bit: 7059
Garmin: 7341
Microsoft: 7212
Similar numbers, Fit Bit is off by a bit from the other two, maybe the right vs left arm does matter.
HR Monitor:
Resting HR: Fit Bit and Microsoft Band agrees resting most of the time within 5 beats.
During Exercise: Fit Bit's mobile chart doesn't show exact numbers like Microsoft does, so I like Microsoft more in that sense, but the heart rate graph shape looks similar.
Post Exercise: Fit Bit stays higher longer than Microsoft Band, but honestly not sure which one is right, since I have trouble finding my own heart rate, the one time I did find it, I find Microsoft was closer.
Calories Burned post aerobic exercise:
Fit Bit: 122
Garmin: 55
Microsoft: 201
Okay, Garmin is way off because it doesn't have a HR, it just thinks I walked in place really really slowly. As to why Fit Bit and Microsoft's numbers are way different, despite similar heart rate trend (i can't see numbers on the Fit Bit app unlike Microsoft's <good job Microsoft, this is something you did better than Fit Bit's app>).
Sleep tracking: (this one is hilarious)
Fit Bit: 5h 22 minutes, never awake until I was finally awake. Not true, I woke up twice in the middle of the night.
Garmin: 8 hours 30 minutes, like I said they start counting sleep time as soon as sleep mode is turned on (stupid), but at least it tells you light vs restless sleep vs awake, granted it was totally wrong. Said I was awake 30 minutes, restless for 6 hours, and sleeping the rest.
Microsoft: 4hours 52 minutes, awake 4 times not counting actual wake up. Like I said, not true, I woke up twice, not 4, but.... I trust this one a bit more since it is possible for me to "wake" up but pass out so fast I forgot I woke up, whereas Fit Bit saying I didn't wake up at all even though I remember distinctly time i woke up too.... you know....
App User Friendliness: (I hate this, software should be trivial to fix/update... no excuse for Garmin and Microsoft to be so behind)
Fit Bit: Friendly and pretty standalone, lets you scan/input foods and calories + water consumption.
Garmin: Mediocre, bloated, but not as easily to figure out as Fit Bit.
Microsoft: Simple, not enough features but user friendly.
Other unique features:
Fit Bit: Nothing
Garmin: Idle Notification (BEST FEATURE EVER), Find my phone (useless, but fun), Phone notifications
Microsoft: UV Checker (useless, but fun), nice large color screen (great since it makes it more versatile for viewing information like weather, email subject etc), phone notifications
Super annoying quirks:
Fit Bit: Double tapping screen doesn't work 70% of the time
Garmin: Screen kinda cuts off at the end, double tap to wake almost never works
Microsoft: No portrait mode, screen scratches easily
Final words:
There you have it. In the end, if I have to pick between the 3, I'd pick Fit Bit, it's middle of the road, doesn't have any super amazing features, but also no terrible super suck you just want to kill yourself over. However, I still don't feel like the $149.99 price tag is justifiable for me (yes yes, I'm a cheapo). I ended up hating all 3 fitness trackers that can't justify their price tag, all getting returned, so sorry Target!
I do know that if I was to pay $150ish, I'd nitpick certain features from each device. One with Microsoft Band's color screen (I find it just as responsive if not more than the other screens even after sweating), good hr monitor, sleep tracker, waterproof, have idle notification, find my phone, phone notification vibrations, and of course a decent easy to sync app. Can anyone make that wish come true??
Meanwhile, a $15 Mi Band with pedometer, sleep tracking sounds really really tempting.... if only they didn't charge $16 for shipping to the US (they're working on that).
