Activity Trackers

Over the past 18 months I have been using a Fitbit Flex and over the last 6 months I have also been used the Jawbone Up in an attempt to compare the two.
Both have their upsides but they definitely have their weaknesses as well but the major advantage having any type of activity tracker is that they do provide you with a type of motivation.
For around $120 the Fitbit Flex is a popular fixture in the activity tracker market and when I purchased mine there were not a lot of options available, whereas now there are a plethora of them on the market. I know when I purchased the Flex it was a choice between the Nike variation, the Jawbone Up or the Flex as the Nike was completely out of my price range and the Up did fail in the comparisons I was doing at the time. Six months ago I was able to get the Up due to Optus having a deal where I could get one with the purchase of a new phone, so I thought why not and I would be able to compare the two.
Let's get into the Fitbit Flex, the band and the clasp are an issue (band pic below) but I must commend the people at Fitbit as they did send me a replacement band at no cost when the first one split after 2 months. They say the items are waterproof etc (to a distance) however I have never worn mine (or the Jawbone) in the shower, pool, ocean etc as it might be just me but I just didn't feel safe in doing so as I am not in a position to have something worth that much break on me.

pic showing where the band splits

Unfortunately it is the band that does let the Flex down, not only the splitting of it and the breaking of the clasps (particularly on the replacement bands) but also the cost, at around $30 for a pack of 3 bands is a bit steep in my opinion, especially when you have paid over $100 for something that should last longer than a couple of months and being an activity tracker it should be able to stand up to a bit. Another issue I have encountered is the charging of the product, once removing the unit you place it into a charger that comes with the tracker and away it goes, well apparently, I have had countless issues with it not charging and have had to put a nail file in the end of the charging unit to push the tracker down so it can actually register. Even last night and today I could not get it to charge no matter what I tried until using another charger (my wife's) but not everyone has that option. Now down to the nitty gritty, yes it tracks your steps, your sleep, your activity levels etc and you can set yourself goals via the dashboard either on your phone, tablet or pc. It will tell you how many calories you have apparently burned throughout the day but unless you have a lot of time on your hands, entering what you have consumed can be strenuous as food lists on their database are not the handiest for Australian customers (unless things have changed recently). You can download and install another application to help with this but isn't the idea of activity trackers to get you off your backside instead of having to spend more time there to keep track of what you are eating. I do enjoy the sleep function as I am not a good sleeper and it is handy to be able to keep track of that which is easily done by a couple of taps on the tracker as you are on your way to bed. The downfalls is that the display is a bunch of 5 led dots (each representing 20% of your goal) and to change what your target is means going onto your phone etc again to adjust the settings. And like most trackers, it doesn't register a lot of things such as lifting weights but then again, you can go to the dashboard and add an activity and for how long you did it for. It does appear that Fitbit are trying to update things with a new range but when the price goes up to about $350 it is way out of my price range and most others.

The Jawbone Up is let down by a few things, the band (well mine anyway - pic below) and when the band stuffs up the whole tracker is worthless compared to the Flex where you can replace the band without replacing everything. The display is pretty basic, it has a moon and a sun to let you know whether you are in awake or sleep mode, there are other options that the band can do such as stopwatch etc which to me seem pretty pointless when there is no physical display of time etc. I have the large band version and it is pretty snug on my wrist and with it being a wired version (connect via the headphone socket on the phone) you are having to take it off quite often to check your results which I can only do via the phone as the dashboard on the computer has never worked for me.

you can see the splitting and the extension of the band which can't be repaired

One issue I have noticed with the UP is that according to the Flex I did around 11,000 steps yesterday which was about right but according to the UP I did about 5,000 and I have noticed this quite often when comparing figures where the UP is usually at about 60% step wise of what the Flex is. The UP also has an inactivity alarm that you can set if you are not moving for a certain amount of time and I have had this go off on me whilst mowing, exercising etc so I do have to query the authenticity of the results it comes up with. The upside to this one is the battery life of approximately 10 days and the quickness in which it charges (without issues either Mr & Mrs Fitbit).

I could ramble on for days but if it came down to these 2 I would probably go for the Fitbit Flex but to be honest, I would save up and get something that has a decent visual display where you can actually see what you have done without having to access a phone or computer, something that does your steps, exercises, calories, sleep, pulse and you can see it right there in front of you.

I am hoping to try out a Samsung Gear Fit in the near future, possibly a Garmin and would love to try the new top of the range Fitbit as the band issues look to be solved and it is more like a watch than an accessory.