Blaze design criticism

[NewBlazer]

Every complaint is the same, and nothing has changed, even from older products like the Charge and Flex. You've seen these complaints a thousand times, so why not add another post with my list...
- You made your tracker into a watch. DISPLAY THE FREAKING SCREEN! Your quick view feature works like 25% of the time, and you look like an idiot standing there flicking your wrists serveral times just to see the time or heart rate. Multiple that by the many times you need to view that info during a short workout and you realize you've spent half your workout trying to light up the **ahem** display. Has anyone NOT complained about this? Screw battery life, at least give us an option.

- Watch Faces: I know you don't offer a mini App Store like the Pebble or Garmin (what a shame), but you could at least offer more (and better) watch faces. You could easily allow users to create their own watch faces and uploaded them via the website and sync to their watches. Little development changes like that would go a long way.

Notifications: I feel like you almost need to stop advertising that you do notifications. First of all, when a notification comes in, the screen doesn't like up (see complaint number one), and so you really don't know you have a notification unless you hear your phone or can feel the very subtle vibration of the watch. Anyone that has had Apple Watch, Pebble, Garmin, know what real notifications are. And many times (like 50% of the time), the notifications don't appear on the device or are super delayed. I know your troubleshooting docs say the device could be syncing, blah, blah, blah. This thing does not "do notifications".
Along with notifications, it does not acknowledge notifications. If you swipe away a text message, the phone, doesn't know that you've already acknowledged it. Every other smart tracker that does notifications, including Microsofts Smart Band, does this.

The Fitbit platform isn't new anymore. You've had time to develop and mature. You need a new development team. You need to open up your devices and release some API support so others can develop since you guys clearly cannot. Obviously I knew this wasn't going to be the best tracker going into it (I test and analyze hardware and software), but this is just bat**ahem** crazy. A company's value tells a lot about its products, and the trend it's my looking great.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[bcalvanese]

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@bjanow wrote:
There only needed to be a little more testing and bug fixing. A decent tracker but awful software and documentation. Dev support non existent. This is not a complete app by any means. It is buggy. Maybe on the iPhone it works for text and phone calls. Android not so much. Only one messaging app, no email? No emoji? You call that complete? Think about what you are saying and to whom you are saying it. No battery percent, no clock customizations? No GPS on watch? Shall I go on?

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I call it complete for an activity tracker with a few smart features, and I'm sure it will only get better.

If people want a smart watch with a few fitness features, they should get a smart watch with a few fitness features.

Do people really need a GPS on the watch?

Why would someone NOT bring their phone on a walk or a run to listen to musinc, or even more important, in case of emergency?

I have GPS watches too (Garmin fenix3 & Polar V800), and now that I have the Blaze I think it's actually better to use the GPS on my phone as I would never run/walk/bike/kayak without having my phone with me for emergency.

When I say most complet, what I mean is... 24/7 heart rate, food tracking, a good selection of activities, and even a few coached workouts. The software is well laid out and the data is presented in a ver easy and usefull way compared to most others. In addition, fitbit has a good community where you do challenges and get help.

This device is the only device I have owned so far where you can do everything you need to do all in one app. I hate syncing to a bunch of different third party apps. It's a pain in the butt to me. Then you gotta log workouts in one app, food in another app, and so on. Then you gottas wait for them to sync with the main app. I just want know what my heart rate is, record my work outs, record my food, be able to track my results, and be able to see the results all in one place.

fitbit does this extreamely well IMO.

[KiloLima64]

I got the blaze because I was looking for an everyday tracker to record steps and hr. My Polar M400 recorded steps but no hr without a chest strap. Plus Fitbit has the great social aspect of steps and competition. For this the product accels. For serious workouts like running and biking and such I will still use my Polar which is what that product was intended for. The blaze hr is pretty accurate for me, I compared it to my polar and it was dead on. Which for everyday use is fine, for workouts like I said I will stick with my polar. It sounds like you all are expecting something equal to a Apple Watch. This product isn't that regardless of what employees were saying. By definition a smart watch is any watch that can do something other than just time and date. This product is a fitness watch or even smart fitness tracker. If you are looking for lots of bells and whistles get one of the other products you mentioned. Research into a product and being realistic as to your needs is what it take to purchase a product and be happy with it. Sounds like you didn't do any research before buying by what you complained about. BTW most of the issues you described I knew about before buying because I did my homework and to me they aren't real issues. The only real issue I have is the cradle you have to use to recharge the device. It would be better to get something like Apple uses to charge the watch in its band rather than taking it out to recharge it.

[bjanow]

Seldom used? You might be one of the only people on earth that doesn't extensively use emoji.

[bjanow]

I think a lot of us got it on pre order. The hype that fitbit generated at ces hooked me. There is a 45 day return policy so we can easily send it back. You are missing the point of the complaints. There are some serious issues with this watch that should be addressed. They are not currently. As for carrying a phone on a 5 mile run for emergency, yeah if I was in Iraq. Not my home town. The fact is it is supposed to use GPS but doesn't. You are correct it is not a smart watch. Then don't tout it as one. A fitness tracker for 200 bucks with some major flaws and oversights needs to have better dev support on these forums. And wouldn't you think a fitness tracker should be shower proof? Maybe it's just over priced?

[kschannen]

You're all missing the point of the OP. 

Fitbit's stock is down 40% this year alone on the heels of the Blaze announcement, and 65% overall in the last 18 months.

The issue is that the wearables market is moving away from dedicated fitness trackers into full featured smart wearables with those capabilities. And the Blaze, which I've already said I like OK, is not the move that Fitbit needed to make. It's still largely a Surge without GPS, but with a nicer screen.

Not a huge move forward. And add to that the seeming head-scratching limitations (can't have the thing come on when you get a text, 4 clock faces none of which are the examples in their promos, very limited notification options, etc) and it's no wonder why industry watchers and money people have soured on Fitbit and sent it's stock tumbling.

Like I said earlier, as a device in a vacuum, it's OK. As a device poised to compete in the crowding wearables space, well it'd be buried if it wasn't a Fitbit with an already huge user base to pick it up. 

[Dominique]

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@judorama wrote:
The heart rate monitor is totally inaccurate for me! Is anyone else experiencing this???

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Generally speaking I believe people are having unrealistic expectations if they think a fitness tracker like the Surge or the Blaze (which are meant to be worn 24/7) should behave exactly like a Polar chest strap HRM (which is meant to be worn only when exercising, ie. typically 1-2 hours max. at a time).

In this post, I compared Fitbit trackers (Surge and Blaze) to  another wrist-based HRM (Mio Alpha) during a HIIT-style session. The Mio Alpha was better that Fitbits at detecting sharp changes in HR (from 120 to 160, and back) that are typical in HIIT. Incidentally, the Blaze performed a lot better than the Surge and wasn’t that far away from the Mio Alpha.

For me, the value of the Surge/Blaze (as far as HR monitoring is concerned) is in the 24/7 monitoring and I can live with the fact they’re not optimal for activities I’m only doing 2-3 times a week, for 20-30 minutes each. Especially since I have another HRM for these activities. That’s the difference between a fitness-oriented watch and a sport-oriented watch. If you are heavy into triathlons and other similar sports, by all means get a Suunto or a Polar and don’t expect the Blaze to be a replacement for these.

[bjanow]

The only way you can wear the Blaze 24/7 is if you never shower, swim or take a bath. Just being facious but it is an issue for some. A polar HR or any chest strap monitor is not only worn for 1 or 2 hours max. Tri athletes, marathoners, road bikers can wear it upwards of 4 or 5 hours at a time.

And I agree with you that this device is not meant for atheltes, but the casual user who sits around most of the day. That being said the absence of a notifier to get you moving is pretty big.

But to the point of the OP once again, they did not market this correctly. This is more of a $99 device than a $200 one. I think the Garmin Vivoactive HR at $249 will eat Fitbit's lunch since you can swim with it, has a real GPS on it and has multiple notifications including email and the ability to answer and decline phone calls along with customizable watch faces and easy to read displays. For $99 I never would send this back assuming that the devs will eventually fix some of the issues we are all having. I believe that android was an after thought on this device and that's a shame. There is a very large user base for android even though the iPhone is ubiquitous.

HR is pretty accurate during activities like spinning and stationary stuff like drinking beer. But on a run yesterday not so much but not horrible.

And to go OT for a sec, the moderators here are very nice and forthcoming but I believe their hands are tied. They are not the software engineers or the devs of the app and are thus beholden to feedback they get and forward on to the tech dept. If they get no response then they can do nothing here other than bite their tongues. That's a big problem for me when there are so many things that need fixing. Heck at this point I'd even be happy with a battery percent and a way to change the timeout of the screen going off. 15, 30, 1 min, 5 minutes would be welcome. And then mutiple text apps and email.. oh oh here I go again.

[KiloLima64]

The Blaze uses Connected GPS not internal GPS. It relies on your phones GPS for tracking your run/bike workouts. They never advertised or mentioned that the unit had built in GPS. I agree they (The company buzzword morons) should have never used the phrase smart watch, it clearly isn't one. As far as waterproof, there are only a few devices on the market that are truly waterproof. From Polar it's V800, M400, A360, A300, Loop, From Garmin the Vivofit and Vivoactive plus I think their Forerunner series are. These I know for sure. As far as "Smart Watches" and or Activity trackers including the Apple Watch none of them are more than splash proof. In my opinion this is a huge oversight by these companies. In this day and age of daily fitness and activity and such it only makes sense to waterproof your products but I think they are relying on people's ignorance and hoping they get it wet and ruin it so they have to buy a new one. This is right up there with the planned obsolesence of products. Are there things that could be better. Yes there is, however I myself see the downfalls as somewhat minor in what I intend to use this device for. The Blaze is one of the few activity trackers with built in HR monitoring that monitors heart rate every few seconds all day. Most of the products including my favorite company products from Polar only track heart rate during workouts. For my hard workouts I will still use my M400 with a chest strap to accurate HR measurement and GPS info (without my phone). I bought this device for everyday use and tracking. Please don't get angy but what I am reading for the complaints of this device it sounds like people are expecting Apple Watch, Samsung Gear, Moto360 functionality at a lower price. I did lots of reading about the features of this device before buying and knew that it didn't have 1/2 the functionality of a true smart watch, which is what I wanted. I wanted a device that primarily focused on daily activity with HR measurement. The notifications (call, text, calendar) are all bonus to me. So I'm not disappointed in the product. Could they do more in the way of features of course they can. Until then I am ok with it the way it is.

There have been a lot comments on this site and others all over the internet about the hype and such when the product was announced and launched of what it can do. One of which is the GPS function, I had to dig a little bit to see that it used connected GPS vice internal GPS. This fact didn't really hit the site until about a week after it was announced.  I didn't preorder mine until I read deeply into the specs and such. I for one never believe the advertised word as usually this is generated by people who have no idea about product specs and their sole job is to make a great ad to generate sales. Which is a shame becuase with as busy as people are they don't always have the time to research a product before purchase and as a result get very disappointed in a product. 

Like most of you I wish there was one great product that did all that we wanted and had the great web interface with social media incentives and such but clearly that will never be maybe someday. Until then I will continue to use 2 devices to track my fitness. My Blaze is for everyday working and activity tracking and my Polar M400 for accurate workout data. 

[KiloLima64]

I agree. Most of these product seem to really gear towards IOS and Android is really and afterthought. What boggle my mind is that Fitbit can get notifications working on Android 4.X but Polar needs 5.x for their notifications. Personally I'm not spending 400+ dollars for a new phone just to get notifications on my "watch". I think in my opinion people go strictly on what is advertised on a product rather than reading the specs and reviews and expect a device to stuff it wasn't designed to do. It's like buying a car because the speedometer has a max speed of 140 on it but the care will only do 100 and then call the car a piece of crap because it can't do the 140. 

 As far as a notifier to get you moving my Polar has this and 99% of the time I ignore it and find it annoying as when it goes off I'm driving or doing something else that prevents me from moving around anyway. Not a big deal for me if it's left out. 

If there was one thing about this product I would change it would be the method of charging. As I stated in a post somewhere to removed base device and put it into a charging "pod" is a pain the butt. If they could design a charging stand so all you would have to do it take the "watch" off to recharge that would be great.  Oh and another item to change  would be the two stupid cutouts at the top and bottom, they look some design engineer could figure out a way to close up those spaces. 

[Rich_Laue]

Their are very few devices that are truly "waterproof" considering since the middle of the 60's it has been illegal to market a watch as waterproof, and there are no international standards for the term  waterproof.  All standards refer to water resistant.

For a watch to be truly waterproof it would need to be able to withstand the deepest oceans and fastest currents that can be found on earth. Anything less would mean it is water resistant. 

As for shallow swimming, anything less than a stationary rating of 150 feet is not considered acceptable for swimming,  

[sandersjo65]

I've had a great experience so far. Not one thing wrong and it does as I expected. But really, what a first world problem. Relax and take some deep breaths. Consider yourself lucky you have the money and time to get a "fitness tracker" to begin with.  Just because you may have a defective unit doesn't mean the whole company is bad. People seem to be expecting perfection. You won't get that on almost any device. 

[bjanow]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:

Their are very few devices that are truly "waterproof" considering since the middle of the 60's it has been illegal to market a watch as waterproof, and there are no international standards for the term  waterproof.  All standards refer to water resistant.

For a watch to be truly waterproof it would need to be able to withstand the deepest oceans and fastest currents that can be found on earth. Anything less would mean it is water resistant. 

As for shallow swimming, anything less than a stationary rating of 150 feet is not considered acceptable for swimming,  

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IP67 is the spec we're looking for. Fitness trackers have that and all of them should at this point. We're not asking for it to be like a submarine simply that you can shower with it and track HR in the pool. Lot's of people swim for fitness.

[bjanow]

@KiloLima64

Nice write up thanks for taking the time. There are some serious issues on android GPS being one of the biggest at this point. You need to be able to shower with it on as well as track swimming HR. That is a serious design flaw imo. But it just doesn't work right on android. Yet. Let's see if they can/will fix it.

[KiloLima64]

If it was waterproof not sure if it would even track HR in the water. The HR sensors are light type and not contact type. So I don't know if it even would. I know a lot of people complain about Polar not tracking HR even with a chest strap. The problem is BT doesn't work under water. In order to read your HR underwater you need you HR sensor to be contact type and to talk something other than BT like Polar's gym link I think it is. Garmin has their own bottom line it has to be an analog signal to work underwater.

[TravelingTea]

I've spent the last 2 days getting use to the Blaze. The only issue I've had is the wrong amount of steps counted, but I think I have that solved now.

[BrianPLove]

I up vote this feature request. Desperately needed. Thanks fitbit for hearing our requests.

[racertempo]

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@bjanow wrote:
Seldom used? You might be one of the only people on earth that doesn't extensively use emoji.

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I guess I must be the second person on earth who does not use emojis regularly.

[racertempo]

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@bjanow wrote:

@KiloLima64

Nice write up thanks for taking the time. There are some serious issues on android GPS being one of the biggest at this point. You need to be able to shower with it on as well as track swimming HR. That is a serious design flaw imo. But it just doesn't work right on android. Yet. Let's see if they can/will fix it.

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Ugh, so many of your complaints are about things that you should have known about prior to ordering, like the fact that it is not waterproof, and will never be.  To call that a "design flaw" is not fair, because as mentioned, this kind of HR monitor is NOT waterproof.  Mine works fine on Android.

This is not a $99 watch, it is nicer than the $129 ChargeHR.  The only thing I believe is a little over priced are the $100 leather bands, but they do come with a case as well which is nice after having it for week now.

I also totally disagree that this is "not meant for athletes" as you said.  I play tennis for 2-3 hours with it, I play volleyball in leagues with it, and I run and do cardio with it....all the same stuff that I did with my ChargeHR with no problems.  The HR monitor is in the same % range as my old Tomtom Cardio, but the Fitbit has a longer battery life and is much better looking for every day use too.

I also don't need a watch to vibrate to tell me when to move.  I am an adult and I know when I need to move and when I would like to move more but can't because I am stuck in meetings or conference rooms.  A watch telling me to move more is a silly concept.

And I still don't understand why you think this had a GPS, it was never advertised as such.

[racertempo]

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@KiloLima64 wrote:

 As far as a notifier to get you moving my Polar has this and 99% of the time I ignore it and find it annoying as when it goes off I'm driving or doing something else that prevents me from moving around anyway. Not a big deal for me if it's left out. 

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So glad you said that, the last thing i need a days worth of meetings is a watch saying "go move" when I cannot.  I move when I can and when I can't....I don't.  I really can't imagine many people saying "oh, my watch just went off, I need to walk a 1/2 mile".  

[bigislandtroy]

Overall, I liked the Blaze a lot. If I didn't already have a Surge, I would have kept it. It had its quirks, but was a really likeable watch. I wasn't a fan of the sort of sketchy way that you pull the tracker in and out of the band and I worried that over time it will come in and out too easily.

The behavior that I couldn't just deal with and that ultimately led me to send the Blaze back was that it's all too easy to Pause the current activity by accidentally brushing the screen. 2 out of every 3 runs had me accidentally pausing. There is no way to disable the touch screen during a run and the hard buttons are there. It was disheartening and sometimes infuriating to use.

Aside from that, I really liked the Blaze and could tolerate the quirks. Loved the color screen.