Next up is the Microsoft Band 2. Let’s get right into it.
Daily Use:
In comparison to the original MS band, version 2 is much more ergonomic and form fitting to the wrist. You could wear this device all day with no issue. If you do wear it too tight, it will leave some pressure markings and possibly some skin irritation. That being said, don’t wear it super tight. The device tracks steps, floors climbed, 24/7 heart rate, UV exposure, and sleep. Cool thing about the sleep, if you put the device in sleep mode prior to sleeping, it will give you a better analysis of your sleep like a sleep quality score. The device also has alarm functionality with a smart alarm that helps to wake you up when at the optimal time based on when you set it. This helps to wake you up when you’re not in a deep sleep state but rather a light sleep cycle with a certain window of time.
The device display is nice. It’s a color screen with the ability to customize with your favorite color as the screen accent. The screen is a touch screen and doesn’t wash out in the sun much. When paired to your phone, the device receives smart notifications (call, text, email, facebook, twitter) with limited ability to interact with the notifications. You can also enable something called the notification center and virtually any notification that your phone receives will be pushed to the Band. I found this setting to be a bit annoying. I started received way too many notifications.
I do like the design of the device as I mentioned earlier. It’s probably one of the best designed bands on the market. It just feels good on your wrist. The device also has a small subset of apps and workouts that can be downloaded to the device. One workout that I used numerous times was the tabata cycling workout. It broke the workout into a warm up, the tabata sessions, a cool down and even some light stretching. I can’t think of any other device that does this type of guided workout. Maybe the apple watch.
The Microsoft Health app is decent. It gives you a solid view of your achievements for the day, workout stats and sleep information. It was somewhat challenging to view the heart rate information. But the website is pretty verbose. Anything you struggle to find in the app is fairly easy to find on the corresponding website.
Fitness Use:
The band is great for fitness tracking. I’ve used it to track weight training, running, (dog) walking, indoor and outdoor cycling, martial arts, crossfit, even yoga. The few gripes I have with the device is the battery life, optical HR runs high at times and not being water proof. The battery on this thing drains rather quickly. If you’ve got multiple exercise sessions in a day, it’s highly probably that the device will die during that second session unless you charge it at some point. If you’ve had GPS running in one of those sessions, forget about it. You HAVE to charge it after that session. To guarantee my band survives the day, I always charge my device almost immediately after I’ve used it (usually while I’m showering). Good news is, the battery does charge up pretty fast so 15 mins on the charger gives you a good amount of battery juice. To the second item, many of you already know the optical HR is still growing and being refined. That being said, virtually none of the devices with optical HR handle high intensity activities well. Be prepared to see higher than anticipated HR readings when performing these activities. That also means, higher than normal calories burned for those activities. Lastly, the device isn’t’ water proofed, so no swim tracking. I wouldn’t even advise wearing it in the shower. Nothing else to really say about that.
Conclusion:
Even though the MS band 2 has its flaws, I still thinks is arguably the best fitness tracker and smart watch combination on the market, otherside of a do it all fitness watch like the Garmin Vivoactive HR. It allows you to track a wide range of activities and looks awesome. The only other fitness device that has HR on board plus GPS and smart notifications in the Garmin Vivosmart HR+. I have this device (review coming soon) and it’s not nearly as attractive as the Band 2.
Pros:
Comfortable to wear
Display is vivid and touch screen works well
Tracks multiple activities
On-board GPS
Optical heart rate
Smart phone notifications
Limited number of apps available
Cons:
It’s not waterproof
Battery life isn’t great. Worse when GPS is used
Can take a while to find GPS location to track a run
Calculations of calories burned seems high at times
Heart rate readings seem high at times
The band of the MS band tears easily
Limited number of apps available
Is it worth buying? Definitely. In my opinion, it’s the best combination of fitness tracker and smart watch on the market. Just be ready to charge it daily and take it on and off when you shower, etc.
Thanks for reading!
#Microsoft #MSBand2 #fitness #Garmin #fitnesstechgeek
Fitness Tech Geek 