I have a confession to make - I am kinda into the wearable technology.
And since I am in USA where everyone offers 30 and more days return policy, it was time to TEST some of those trackers out!
I bought the jawbone up and Nike FuelBand SE + at first, but it still did not seemed enough to test, so I thought I will give Fitbit a try. At one time, I was in possession of 3 of them and I have to say it felt a bit weird :)
After testing them thoroughly, I have decided to keep the Nike Fuel Band.
Why? For one simple reason: It's the most fun one
If I consider that no one of these trackers is REALLY accurate (they all track only the wrist movement, so every metric is basically an estimate) I picked the one which works as the best motivator for me. The Fuelband has as the only one useful and very nice display which is showing you the actual progress (works fine as a watch as well). And since I don't really like to sleep with anything on my hand, the lack of sleep tracking ability is not an issue for me. And what also sold me, is by far the best design and UX of their apps and website. And also I am very happy everyday I hit the goal like yesterday on my evening walk to the ferry :)
I am not saying the nikeFuel band is the best Activity tracker - it is definitely not. For people looking for a robust and long-battery lasting device which is even waterproof I would suggest buying the Garmin Vivofit which is a new thing - however, it is also kinda ugly and the design of the interfaces is not amongst the pretties. The thing I like the most about FuelBand is the Community.
For example this Saturday, I came by this NikeFuelBox, basically a vending machine for free Nike SwAG which can be bought for Fuel Points. (more about the box can be found in this article)
Its fun right? And I went running in the morning just because I read there might be the box in the city hidden somewhere the day before.
Below is a small comparison of each of the trackers judged by my POV.
Up
+ nice, stylish, easy to wear, tracks sleep patterns, has "go to bed" reminders and morning "smart" alarm (which usually does not wake me up anyway...)
- no display, no motivation, counts only steps, no nike fuel, no time, no bluetooth -> has to plug in manually, needs to have an adapter for charging which is kind of pain
FuelBand SE +
+ has display, time, nike fuel, motivation, easy to charge (can be plugged to usb), the size is adjustable, counts calories burn, much better and competitive community
- is more robust so you feel him more on the arm (but as I have read in the reviews on up, nike lasts much longer as the up is very defective and is not built to last long time), the design is maybe "too sporty" for certain occasions but the activity trackers were not built as an design accessory in the first place, does not have the sleep reminder or alarm, does not track sleep patterns
Fitbit
+ track sleep patterns, is very easy to wear, sleek design, big community, 4 LEDS which show you the progress, works the best as "health" tracker (you can log food and amount of water you drink every day), move reminders, vibrates, interchangeable rubber bands with different colors
- does not have time, you have to tap the device to show the progress which does not always works on the first try, is a bit boring, need to put the device out of the rubber band in order to charge it which is pain
PS: I have picked those three because they are the most common one and they are all priced at the same price of 99$
PPS: the field is getting bigger and bigger and there are new trackers on the way like moov or apple iwatch
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