Blaze - First Impressions

[SunsetRunner]

Very excited as I just received my Blaze yesterday.    Thought I would share my first impressions.  While its good overall, it's not great - and there are a number of quirks and "why did they do that" moments I've quickly discovered with the new tracker.

First - the negatives/quirks - 

• I'm not a fan of the cumbersome method of having to change the device. I'm not sure what the benefit is of having to remove the tracker itself from the band - just to charge it.  Why couldn't you use the same cable concept that was used for the Charge  and Charge HR?  Infact, why can't you standardize on a single cable to charge all of your latest trackers?  I feel that having to remove the tracker from the band just puts extra wear and tear on the components than really necessary.   Now I have to travel with yet another charge cable for my Fitbits.
• I'm somewhat dissapointed in terms of the over all size of the device - seems like there is alot of wasted space, that otherwise could have been used to reduce the size of the device.  It doesn't feel big, but it looks big.  The Applewatch does alot more, and is smaller than the Blaze.  
• I find it more difficult to quickly find the status of my goal - in this case steps.  I like the simplistic view of the Zone clock, (and it looks the most professional) but it only shows me my heart rate.    Why can't it be customizable to allow me to display my primary goal?? ie: steps?
• The other clock faces are equally as confusing.    Keep it simple, but informative. 
• Text Message Notifications - Real nice feature, and seems to be implemented well.  Altho - the inability for it to display emoji's is very dissapointing.
• Would be be great if I can customize the overall interface - choose what I want displayed and in what order.  Fitstar - while it's nice, I have zero interested in it.  Be great to just disable it.  Clean things up. Since I can't disable it, to me it's considered constant advertisement for the paid service.
• No quick way to view my other goal status.  Why can't one of the buttons be configurable to quickly display the "Today" screen data?  
• It would be great if the Blaze would be able to display things such as "Calories Left" for the day.
• Why did you not implement the  "Reminder to Move" feature in the Blaze that the Alta has?
• Would be great if I could hold down one of the buttons (left for example) to enable the activity stopwatch like I could do with my Charge HR.  

What I Like:

• The screen appears to be sharp and crisp.  Altho I haven't had a chance to try it out in direct sunlight.
• I do like the fact that I CAN remove the tracker from the band.  This makes it easier to keep it with you in if you are in situations where you can't wear a watch or you don't want to risk damaging it.    But again - this shouldn't be a requirement to charge it.
• Notifications - text messages and calendars is really why I decided to purchase the tracker.  I really wanted some of those "business"  features that my coworkers have with their AppleWatches.  
• Business/Professional look and feel to it.   It doesn't look like I'm wearing a black rubberband on my wrist.    Altho, my earlier comment on the overall size still remains. 
• Nice to see the sync speed is considerably faster than what the Charge HR can do.  

In summary - I'm glad that Fitbit has a 45 day return policy.  

The jury is still out if I'm going to keep the Blaze, or simply return it and go with the AppleWatch.  I'm going to give it a few more weeks of use and go from there.  My entire family and large circle of friends are all part of the Fitbit ecosystem.    If fitbit would just open up and support the Apple Health Kit environment - or I probably would by the Applewatch for my workweek tracker, and continue to use my Fitbit Charge HR for my workouts and weeekend tracker.  But we all know that won't happen.  😞

Hopefully others find this post informative, and Fitbit uses this to improve on their product.  

[racertempo]

Great review, looks like you are new here so I hope you provide an update in a few days after using it a little more.

[EmersonFitbit]

@SunsetRunner Thanks for the honest review!

A few notes: 

• The Zone clock face is ineractive; if you tap on the small HR symbol below the time, you can cycle through primary stats. 
• The Pop clock face will give you the sort of quick stats you're interested in seeing without having to move through to the "Today" tile. 
• Blaze will be given the Reminder to Move feature in a future firmware update (no timeframe available yet). 

Keep us posted!

[racertempo]

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@EmersonFitbit wrote:

@SunsetRunner Thanks for the honest review!

A few notes: 

• The Zone clock face is ineractive; if you tap on the small HR symbol below the time, you can cycle through primary stats. 
• The Pop clock face will give you the sort of quick stats you're interested in seeing without having to move through to the "Today" tile. 
• Blaze will be given the Reminder to Move feature in a future firmware update (no timeframe available yet). 

Keep us posted!

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Can you edit the stats that cycle, I only like steps, stairs, and HR.  I don't want all the other stuff like distance and calories, so can that be removed like on the ChargeHR?

[EmersonFitbit]

@racertempo That's not a customizable option, but that's a great idea! Shameless plug for Feature Requests

[racertempo]

Can I adjust the order they are shown, or are they all fixed?  I did add it to the future request section, thanks Emerson!

You mentioned Zone and Pop, how about Flare?  Is the purple circle an indicator like the standard clock face?  

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you for the response, and suggestions.  

When using the Zone Clock, I'm only able to cycle thru the Heart Rate and the Date.  I don't see any other stats being offered.  

The reason I like the Zone Clock as it's the most professional looking - and is something that I can quickly glance at to see the actual time.  

What would be ideal is a variation of the Zone clock face, that would allow you to choose what stats you'd like to have the blaze automatically cycle thru - in addition to a counter to show how many messages/notifications you have un-read.

Actually, while I'm providing suggestions/features - it would also be great if for calendar notifications, you would provide more than just the subject and who the calendar entry was from.  Maybe some additional details - like meeting location, notes, etc... The same details that pop up on my iphone.  

Thanks again!

[shooter50]

can someone please tell me how to change the warch face? Thanks!

[MGomes78]

Depending on how you are syncing your device (computer or mobile app), you can change it through there.  For the mobile app, click on your device (Blaze), and then scroll down and choose "Clock Display".  You will see four options for watch face.  I believe it is similar via computer, but I have not gone this route with my Blaze yet.

[shooter50]

Thankyou for the quick reply!

[SunsetRunner]

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@shooter50 wrote:

can someone please tell me how to change the warch face? Thanks!

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There's a option to choose the watch face on the trackers settings page (fitbit.com) , after sync'ing the new watch face will be used.

[MGomes78]

I would like to "cast my vote" for this option as well!  The one thing about the watch faces that would be nice is to allow for some customizing.  It would be great to be able to choose the stats I want to see when "clicking through" the Original, Zone, or Pop watch face.  Otherwise, I do like the variety, just need the ability to customize in order to really satisfy the end user.

[EmersonFitbit]

@racertempo Flare is great! The area where the flares end indicates what the minutes are for that hour, but you'll also see a sort of HR graph on Flare as well. The more the arms of the flair extend from the center of the clock, the more active you were during that portion of the hour. I hope that makes sense. 

[bbarrera]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

The jury is still out if I'm going to keep the Blaze, or simply return it and go with the AppleWatch.  I'm going to give it a few more weeks of use and go from there.  My entire family and large circle of friends are all part of the Fitbit ecosystem.    If fitbit would just open up and support the Apple Health Kit environment - or I probably would by the Applewatch for my workweek tracker, and continue to use my Fitbit Charge HR for my workouts and weeekend tracker.  But we all know that won't happen.  😞 

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@SunsetRunner thanks for the feedback. Thought about getting Blaze, however based on reviews and info on this thread I'm going to stay with using my iPhone as Fitbit step tracker, and keep using the Apple Watch. Having notifications that I choose, on my wrist, has been a huge productivity boost for me. And apps too. Its really cut down on phone distractions, while still being able to quickly respond yes or no or an emoji thumbs up. And even I get Fitbit notifications on my wrist - how many steps left to hit daily goal, how many steps over goal, and updates on challenges.

I'm guessing the Blaze optical HRM will be on par with Apple Watch, as I suspect Blaze has much better fit on wrist versus Surge -- my biggest HR issue with Surge while cycling or spinning is that it moves around on my wrist, and Watch doesn't, so Watch HR accuracy is very good compared to chest strap. However its bigger than my Watch, neither Blaze or Watch integrate with my Garmin bike computer, and the Fitbit charging system(s) is(are) a turn off. And Watch has an app ecosystem, so it does a lot more than exercise tracking. Rental car w/o nav? Turn-by-turn directions on my wrist. Someone props a bike ride on Strava, it appears on my wrist. How many miles left to hit weekly cycling goal? On my wrist. Geocaching with kids? On my wrist. Can I fit a ride in before dark - what time is sunset? On my wrist. Shazam a song, stopwatch, timer, hourly and 10 day weather, etc, etc, .... 

[racertempo]

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@EmersonFitbit wrote:

@racertempo Flare is great! The area where the flares end indicates what the minutes are for that hour, but you'll also see a sort of HR graph on Flare as well. The more the arms of the flair extend from the center of the clock, the more active you were during that portion of the hour. I hope that makes sense. 

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So the further the tips reach towards the edges of the watch indicate activity, that is cool.  For the example in the picture though, it says 2:35, so the end of the "Flare" should be just past half way at the bottom, like it was at the 35 minute mark on the clock if I understand you correctly.  Is it just that the picture is incorrect?  Can you post of picture of it working correctly maybe?  Thanks!

[Merser]

When you refer to the zone watch face as the most professional looking, are you referring to it with the green/blue background or the black background?

When I read your comment, I tried out the zone watchface and agreed it looked the most professional, nice black/white contrast.  But I didn't realize that it only looked this way when it was in the charger!  As soon as I took it out and put it on my wrist it switched to the super-bright super-tacky green/blue backdrop that I don't like at all.

Please tell me you found a way to keep the black/white zone configuration permanently???

[Kmransom123]

@Merser - The zone clock face colors is relative to your heart rate. The black background is shown when it does not detect a HR. Once it does, it changes colors based on your heart rate.  There is not a way to keep it one color. 

[Merser]

So in order to get the clock face I want I have to disable the heart rate monitor? tsk tsk...

[MuzDownUnder]

I have just received my Blaze having had a Charge HR and still have a Surge

Good points

Looks nice. Lighter to wear, a little larger in size but thinner

Love the colour display except for one bad point and it a big one for me

Bad points

The display is not easy to read in direct sunlight. I sold the Charge HR because this was impossible to read and the Surge is great. The brighter the sun the easier the Surge is to read. The Blaze needs to be in shadow to see it well. The Auto brightness is too dim for me and I had to crank this up to max which is better. I play a fair amount of tennis and try to walk everyday so being able to see the data in sunlight is important.

The Blaze seems to be having a lot more trouble measuring random stepping than the Surge. If I am wandering around home the Blaze will sometimes measure no steps at all or pick some random number. The Surge does this with no problem. Hopefully a firmware update will improve this.

Improvements

I agree that having a quick way to get stats like you can on the Surge would be good. One of the unused side buttons when on the clock to briefly show stats is a great idea. Also customisable setup to remove Fitstar would be great as I too have no interest in this either.

Some more clock faces would be nice.

The ability to remove some of the stat types would also be great. I do not use calories and I prefer to look at distance on my phone app.

Cheers

[SunsetRunner]

I would have liked the screen to cover the entire watch face.