Monday 2 September 2013

TEST TIME for the Wearable Smart Devices

Hi all

I've been testing all these Wearable Smart Devices over the past few days with different types of activities. I actually wanted to post this last week, but the Misfit Shine sent out an update. Just as well as they were not looking good for the accuracy of their device :-0

So hear are the results:

Fitbit FlexJawbone UPMisfit Shine
Thursday 29th Aug
Swim 30mins (hard)379 cal332 cal563 points
Elliptical 30mins (hard)428 cal510 cal1037 points
Total steps for the day102471103310618 Steps / 2097 points
Friday 30th Aug
Elliptical 30mins (hard)429 cal440 cal929 points
Total steps for the day10016109939548 steps / 1466 points
Sunday 1st Sep
Run (just a short one)274 cal342 cal548 points
bike ride (25Km)739 cal639 cal571 points
Total steps for the day164981649111208 steps / 1625 points
Monday 2nd Sep
Swim 30mins (hard)382 cal332 cal772 points
Elliptical 30mins (hard)430 cal467 cal1014 points
Total steps for the day129191303512254 steps / 2368 points

So before we dive into what all this means, we need to run through how we got this data.

For the Jawbone UP you cannot use this in water to you have to manually enter in the activity, so 30 min swim is 332 cal.

Fitbit Flex you can wear in the pool so it does measure that there is activity, but you also need to enter the type and intensity of the session. This gives 382 cal so quite a bit higher.

Misfit, well where do I start. You can view days as "points", "steps" and "calories", but activities only as points. Sooooooooo you would think you could mathematically work out the relationship between them, well "fugetaboutit". All logical comprehension goes out the window and believe me I have tried :-(

Anyway Misfit is waterproof and if you (remember to) sync it for swimming then for 30 mins you are presented with 563 on Thursday and 772 for Monday..!!!!

Also since Fitbit Flex does not have a start / stop feature for ALL activities you need to go to the app and log the activity - which could be hit and miss if you don't really know what intensity you went at.

Jawbone UP is pretty good in this respect as you do have a start / stop function for activity... but you still have to go to the app to log the event and intensity.

Misfit Shine you have to have you iPhone / iPad with you to change the activity before you start it, which is pretty odd "User Interface".

The results

OK, so here is what I think happened :-)

Total steps for the day is really close no matter what device you check:

Fitbit FlexJawbone UPMisfit Shine
Thursday steps102471103310618
Friday steps10016109939548
Sunday steps164981649111208
Monday steps129191303512254

The ERROR here is with Misfit Shine on the (only) day I went for a bike ride. Just to reinforce that if you check Sunday out I got 548 cal for a 21 min run and then JUST 571 for a hard 25Km ride lasting 52 mins..!! @Misfitwearable you need to improve cycling. You have improved swimming and for that I thank you but now fix the cycling :-)

As far as the calorie consumption goes it really depends what you enter in to the Jawbone UP and Fitbit Flex apps.

Just as a litmus test I have a few calorie counts from apps that use a heart rate monitor (HRM).

When I use Adidas miCoach:

1. For the 30min elliptical training I get 398 cal, so both Jawbone and Fitbit are higher.

2. For the 25Km bike I get 811 cal, so both Jawbone and Fitbit are lower (but see below).

3. For the 21 min run I get 343 cal, Jawbone had 343 - Game On!

Just adding in the Sports Tracker, for the 25Km bike I get 698 cal, which is in the middle of Jawbone and Fitbit.

Conclusion to all this will be in the next post :-)

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