I am a longtime Fitbit enthusiast. It's been very helpful to me in monitoring my fitness and net calorie goals. Up until now, I thought the Charge HR was the perfect fitness tracker. In fact, when I was out of the country for six months and lost my Charge HR down a stream in Brazil, I immediately asked my friend who was coming down to visit to bring me a new one. The Apple watch has not interested me at all. I really never wanted a smartwatch. But I do love my fitbit tracker, and it would be nice to have something that looks a bit nicer and more like a watch for work. Thus, when I saw the Blaze, I immediately wanted it. I received one from my family for my birthday, and I am very pleased with it. I like the look of it very much, and the color display is nice. I also like two of the new features very much. The Blaze show texts and notices on the watch screen. I thought this might just be a novelty, but I have actually found the notifications to be one of my favorite things. It's really nice not to have to fish my phone out of my pocket, or grab it from across the room. And when I am running and I get a text, I can see if it's important just by glancing at my wrist, instead of having to take my phone out of my arm band. So I've really come to love this feature. Being able to control my music or audiobook from my wrist during a run has also been an excellent feature. I haven't tried the Fitstar, but from looking at it briefly, it looks more like a concept than something useful at this point. I also find the HR very comfortable to sleep in at night, thanks to its wide, flat band. I don't even notice that it's on my wrist, at least until I turn my wrist in the night and it suddenly lights up. :-) So far the battery life has been great. I also find the charger easy to use. In sum, Fitbit has built an even better tracker than the already excellent Charge HR. I am very happy to have it. The metal band that I bought to go with it is another story, but you can see my review of that for the details. Read more
I LOVE this Fitbit! I've been waiting for this one longer than it was talked about. I loved my Fitbit Flex because I could change the bands out depending on my attire, but was hopeful for a more robust Fitbit with interchangeable bands. IT'S HERE! This Fitbit includes everything that my previous Fitbit had plus so much more. Personally, my favorite part is the ability to have it look like a sport watch or a nice watch, whichever works for me that day. The heart rate monitor seems relatively correct. I've been checking it in all different scenarios to see how accurate. I haven't matched it up directly with my polar chest strap monitor, but intend to do that some time this weekend... I'll update after that. I did find it awkward to "pop in" and "pop out" the Blaze. It's just not a smooth motion for me yet, but hopefully will become easier the less timid I am. The on-board workouts are nice to have for quick reference. I also like that the "Exercise" area can be customized through the app. I removed running (outside) and cycling to add Yoga and Spinning. I'm far more likely to participate in those two than run outside. That being said, the GPS connect was not an issue for me as it might be for an outdoor runner. I read a previous review that mentioned the vibrating alarm wasn't very strong... It woke me up with no issues this morning! I even snoozed once (a dangerous option for me! - available on the watch face when the alarm goes off) and it woke me the second time. This synced perfectly with my iPhone and my text/call alerts have come through without issue. If I walk away from my phone and return and I've missed a call or text, the Blaze alerts me as soon as I'm back in range... That's a HUGE plus for me, since I don't always remember to look at my phone and miss calls and texts. The 4 options for the watch face isn't an issue for me. I look forward to having additional options as some point, but I was well aware I was buying a first generation device... it can only get better from here and I'm very much looking forward to that! Oh... and in case you were wondering... I wanted to keep my flex hooked up to my Fitbit account AND pair my Blaze. This worked without issue. I switched to my Flex to swim this afternoon, switched back to my Blaze after swimming and ALL data has synced between both devices and my App. That was a HUGE plus for me since the Blaze is only sweat proof. I intend to use my Flex when necessary (water immersion) and my Blaze for all other activities! I hope this helps! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this product and I'm so glad to finally have mine! (in the pictures, I have on the grey leather band) Read more
I was incredibly excited about this watch, I wanted it to be the one smartwatch I kept simply because of battery, HR monitor, sleep, silent notifications. It's got it's own little spot in the smart watch market that isn't really fulfilled by any other smart watch. For example, there is no other smartwatch out there that gives 2+ days battery, HR monitor, sleep monitoring, silent alarms, notifications, etc. The pebble would have been great but it lacks the HR monitor. That being said, this watch didn't make the cut. This is mainly due to the HR monitor being completely inaccurate while I'm exercising. It's off by more than 40% at times, I recall when I was lifting weights my heart was pounding and I briefly look at the blaze to see a reading, and it was at 90BPM, I was most definitely around 150-190. I thought perhaps it was because I abruptly did heavy weights that may have caused the misreading, and then I decided to hit the stair climbers for perhaps a better reading that didn't have a suddense change in HR. After about 4 minutes on the stair climbers, I was getting a reading of 160 on the machine itself, and then on my watch I saw a reading of 90 - 100 max bpm. I did some reason online and found that wrist based HR sensors are actually the worst (especially if you have dark skin) at detecting HR accurately due to the lack of arteries/vessels on the wrist (who came up with this idea). Apparently even a fingertip HR sensor outperforms wrist based sensors in this respect. An HR monitor is extremely important for me because I'm at the gym often, and constantly running/playing basketball during the week, and a watch that can't give an accurate HR is not a watch worth spending 200$ on. Read more
