Good replacement for Band 2?

<p>I’ve been trying out the Fitbit Blaze since late December.&nbsp; It’s not a bad replacement for the Band.&nbsp; Below are my thoughts.</p>
<p><strong>Excellent</strong></p>
<p>1. Cross platform.&nbsp; Fitbit is doing a great job of supporting all mobile and desktop platforms, including Windows Phone.&nbsp; This is much appreciated, at least by me.&nbsp; I know I can invest in their products and have the freedom to change platforms without leaving my fitness tracker behind.</p>
<p>2. SWAP BANDS and frame!&nbsp; You can swap bands to fit your needs or replace a broken band!&nbsp; I bought the XL Blaze and then bought L band on Amazon for dirt cheap.&nbsp; Combined small XL buckle strap&nbsp;with larger strap&nbsp;from L set to get the perfect fit for both casual activities and serious workouts when I need to slide Blaze up arm.&nbsp; I also picked up the black frame, which makes it look better.&nbsp; And get this, there are aftermarket accessory bands at reasonable prices!</p>
<p>3. Stopwatch/Timer.&nbsp; I like it better&nbsp;than Band for some reason.&nbsp; Maybe because you scroll vertically to set the time, which just seems easier.&nbsp; I mostly use this when grilling.</p>
<p>4. Exercises.&nbsp; Good selection of exercise tracking and many are automatically detected.&nbsp; But no golf, which might be a minus, if that’s your thing.</p>
<p>5. Battery life.&nbsp; 5 freaking days easily!&nbsp; I am just amazed at this.&nbsp; It is liberating.&nbsp; I know the Band has more sensors, but I often wondered just how many of those were truly worth having.&nbsp; I was getting about a day and 18 hours with my Band 2.&nbsp; Never 2 days.</p>
<p><strong>Pretty Well</strong></p>
<p>1. Step counting.&nbsp; A bit more generous than the Band, but overall not bad.&nbsp; I do like the Fitbit step challenges.&nbsp; They’re fun to do with friends and family.&nbsp; The Fitbit social challenges&nbsp;are so much better than Band due to much wider adoption of Fitbit devices.</p>
<p>2. Calories.&nbsp; Seems to be in line with Band.&nbsp; Not exact, but decent.&nbsp; Takes HR into account.</p>
<p>3. Notifications.&nbsp; You can get notifications from most apps, at least with iPhone.&nbsp; This is coming to W10M soon now that GATT support has been added.&nbsp; I don’t own an Android phone so cannot comment there.</p>
<p>4. Guided workouts.&nbsp; This is not something I was interested in on the Band as I prefer doing my own workout routine, but Fitbit does provide this directly on the Blaze with FitStar integration.</p>
<p><strong>Moderately Well</strong></p>
<p>1. HR monitoring.&nbsp; Fitbit’s algorithm doesn’t seem to be as good as the Band at tracking HR when the device is worn in the typical watch position.&nbsp; I have to move it above wrist bone, toward elbow, to get it to accurately track.&nbsp; I’ve compared with Polar strap to confirm.&nbsp; Moving is annoying when you’re just doing casual things like walking.&nbsp; If&nbsp;HR is important to you, getting a&nbsp;good strap fit above the wrist is a must.&nbsp;</p>
<p>2. Sleep tracking.&nbsp; Fitbit covers the basics–awake, sleep, restless–but doesn’t track&nbsp;deep sleep like the&nbsp;Band does.&nbsp; I think it is the lack of galvanic skin response sensor that makes this impossible for Fitbit.&nbsp; I’ve read the nearly defunct Jawbone UP3 tracks sleep cycles without HR and it does have GSR sensor.&nbsp; Sleep is a big one for me since I have sleep apnea and really try to work on improving my sleep.&nbsp; I’m still trying to decide if I need to augment for this.</p>
<p>3. Screen.&nbsp; Screen is bright and colorful, but it is small.&nbsp; Notification text is small and harder to read for my eyes.&nbsp; This is clearly an area where Band’s wide OLED&nbsp;display&nbsp;was just better.&nbsp;&nbsp;The non-OLED display on the Blaze&nbsp;is&nbsp;a little washed out due to light leakage&nbsp;when looking at it from angles.&nbsp; I notice this mostly at night.&nbsp; Most other times, it is fine.</p>
<p>4. GPS.&nbsp; I’ve found the connected GPS to work very well and it gets going much faster than Band did.&nbsp; It’s also nice that tracking doesn’t&nbsp;quickly&nbsp;drain the Blaze.&nbsp; The fact that it is connected GPS isn’t a big deal to me.&nbsp; I always have my phone with me when tracking.&nbsp; Lack of on-board GPS may be a big deal to others.</p>
<p><strong>Weak</strong></p>
<p>1. Haptic sensor.&nbsp; It’s just not very strong at all.&nbsp; I haven’t missed a notification yet, but I’m sure it will happen.&nbsp; Notifications&nbsp;on the&nbsp;wrist are&nbsp;a key reason to have a wearable&nbsp;for me.</p>
<p>2. Screen on during workouts.&nbsp; Blaze does not keep the display on continuously during workouts.&nbsp; You have to flip your wrist up for the display to come on.&nbsp; That introduces a slight pause while waiting for the display to come on.&nbsp; I find this annoying and would gladly give up some battery life to have the option to keep it on continuously.&nbsp; I want to see my HR, time, etc. instantly when working out.&nbsp; Apparently, the screen did stay on when Blaze first came out and Fitbit modified&nbsp;the behavior&nbsp;with a firmware update.&nbsp; They have not yet brought that back as an option.</p>
<p>3. Glanceable workout stats.&nbsp; Blaze, due to screen size, does not present as much information on the screen during workouts.&nbsp; I like seeing things like my HR, elapsed time, clock time, calories, distance,&nbsp;and pace&nbsp;at the same time, depending on workout.&nbsp; With Blaze, you have to scroll through this info with a tap.&nbsp; It also lacks customization on what you see at once on the main view.</p>
<p>4. VO2.&nbsp; Blaze doesn’t currently estimate VO2, but Fitbit recently announced it is coming in the next firmware update.&nbsp; This isn’t a killer feature to me, but it is interesting to track.</p>
<p>I loved my&nbsp;Band 2.&nbsp; I’d continue using if I had&nbsp;a choice.&nbsp; It had the right mix of features for me, was comfortable, and I could live with daily charging.&nbsp; My strap broke, for the second time,&nbsp;so I sent in for repair/replacement.&nbsp; It has been at the repair facility since Dec 1 and MS still refuses to give me a timeline on a repair or refund.&nbsp; When Fitbit had their holiday sale, I decided to go ahead and try out the Blaze.&nbsp; I’m about three weeks in.&nbsp; Blaze isn’t perfect, but it’s about the next best thing for me.&nbsp; Overall, I like it.</p>
<p>Good luck with whatever fitness wearable you choose!</p>