Personal views on Blaze after the Charge HR and Fitbit One

[EdNap]

General Background:

I am 55 yeasr old male, a bit of a technology junkie. Like technology that makes life fun. Have been a smart watch wearer since they were first released and my wife descibes me as constant early adopter.

FitBit Background:

My Fitbit journey began several years ago with the FitBit One. Used the device and App to achieve my weight loss & fitness goals (-20kg) by logging calories and exercise. Also purchased the Aria weigh scale. Over the years I have become somewhat "locked in" to FitBit as I have accumulated lots of data I want to keep. Upgraded to the Charge HR a few months back when I found it on duty-free sale at an International airport. With my then current Pebble Time smart watch that meant a device on both wrists.

Decided to pre order the blaze knowing the smart watch aspects were not as advanced as the Pebble Time but willing to give it a try and free up one wrist for something else.

FitBit Blaze Specifics:

Basics Features

Pretty good, steps, distance, stairs, all as consistent with the earlier devices I had.

Heart Rate not clinicaly 100% accurate but neither was the Charge HR. Despite that it is consistent enough to be useful, particulay in monitoring personal performance in gym cardio sessions.

Sleep mode, better than the Charge HR as I don't have to enable it or diable it. Device "detects" sleep by itself. Only down side of that is the loss of the "Time to fall asleep" metric which was a feature in the Charge HR. As the Blaze doesn't receive a manual trigger to initiate a counter that measurement is not included. 

I do like the improvement in activity tracking. THe Blaze is better at picking up things like "Ellipitacl trainer" and going into that tracking mode without my having to do anything. Not so good at picking up some of my other activities (weight training etc.) but it still allows me to enter these in manual.

Screen

Is OK but not brilliant. Easy to see inside, not as good as other devices I have worn when it comes to visability in direct sunlight. Have to cup the device with my other hand to read the display. The size of the actual display compared to the siz of the overal device is small. About 3mm blank area left, top and right and 6mm on bottom. Add another 2mm laft and right and 6mm top and bottom once in the band/frame.

Makes the overall unit bigger than the functional area.

Band

(black plastic version) is OK, like the Charge HR I find my perfect wrist size seems to sit between two holes so I opt for the looser of the two.

Charging.

Not a big fan of having to pop the unit out to charge. I find it annoying and would prefer a means to snap a cable to the back of the device whilst in the band. Add a night stand to charge overnight for those prepared to loose sleep tracking for one night a week to enable a full recharge. In putting the device back in the band after charging I often activate music or other control on my iPhone as my fingers interact with the touch screen of the Blaze when popping it back into the frame. Don't like that at all.  

Battery life is pretty good. 6 to 7 days at a stretch. Consistently 5.

Notifications

These are almost reliable but basic. I receive all text messages, all calendar alerts, most calls. Sometimes the call notification vibrates the blaze but fails to display controls on the unit unles I tap the screen.

I certainly miss the other notification my Pebble Time was able to process. (eg, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, eBay bids etc. etc.) Hopefully FitBit will move towards full notification access in the future

WatchFaces

I have tried these and reverted to the Original. I like that the outer ring of the clock aligns to my step goal and wanting to complete the full circle each day adds encouragement. Ability to tap and cycle through the other metrics displayed at the bottom is good though lack of ability to increase font size is annoying.

Also miss the variety of choices (available via open source ) I was able to download and cycle through on the Pebble. 

Operating System

In my opinion it lacks a lot of customisation and user options I became used to from other devices. Colour settings, order of items on the menu, font sizes etc. In my opinion it relies on doing too much purely on the app rather than the unit itself.For example creating a new alarm. Why not? Some features which I think should be available on both are available on neither. Not even being able to easily obtain a percentage battery strength is a shortfall. I live in hope whomever drives the software side of FitBit will start comparing to other platforms and lift the game as there are lots of opportunities that do not require additional hardware development which could make this unit attractive to more users.

On the other hand the App development (IOS) is pretty good and combined with the wearable is a strong combination.

Wear and tear

I have a screen guard on order, The flat surface has not marked (yet) but I have learnt from other devices that no matter how hard or scratch proof they claim to be bumping a brick wall or similar usually ends with the wall winning.

I have not tested the water resitance other than via regular and decent sweat in the gym.

Summining Up 

I am happily wearing and using the device but admit a major factor in my current FitBit loyalty is wanting access to all the data I have captured over the years. That could end eventually when a smarter device becomes available. A true "SMART" fitness tracker.

Based on my experience with other devices the Blaze is not a smart watch and actually isn't even close to being one. But as a fitness tracker with basic notifications it is pretty good. Does the job and does is mostly well.

Cheers

Ed

[AngelaMa]

Hello @dianatron that's great! 🙂 Don't hesitate to tag me if you need help. 

Happy stepping! 🙂 

[dianatron]

Angela, it has just occurred to me that this thread would be more appropriate on the win 10 area, wadda u tink? Dianne

[AngelaMa]

Hello @dianatron hope you are having an amazing day! 🙂 It started with a comparison of trackers and ended up on Windows 10, life and posts are unpredictable.  I think it is OK on the Blaze board since it was intended to provide personal views on the Blaze and the Windows 10 issue is related specific to the Blaze. 

Hope to see you around more often! Tag me if you need me. 

[dianatron]

Would use like to explain wot tagging is? I've never been able to work that out!!(thick) Di

[AngelaMa]

Hi @dianatron When writing a post or private message, type the “@” symbol followed by a member's Community username. As you type, a dropdown menu will appear with matching names. You can either continue typing the name or click on the user you'd like to mention from the list. Once you've submitted your post, an email notification will be sent to the mentioned user.

Hope this helps! 🙂 

[Rich_Laue]

Here is a document to help troubleshoot. It is normal for the setup message to be displayed until the tracker is connected.
http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1872