Fitbit Blaze Smart Fitness Watch, Black, Silver, Large

Is Fitbit Blaze still useful when many watch makers and smart watches are being pushed to the market daily? Lets find out

I was a fitbit user before this, I owned the first gen Fitbit Charge HR. My wife and I both owned one. It was good, it does what it advertised till it broke down a few weeks back. I then start to look around for a replacement. What I needed were,

1. A 24/7 heart monitoring
2. A battery life of minimum 3 days
3. Sleep tracking
4. A screen
5. Steps tracking
6. Distance tracking
7. Stop watch
8. Not bulky
9. Minimum rain and splash proof

Additional feature that will affect my decision

1. Water resistant, so I can take it for a swim or shower
2. GPS module included so I do not need to carry my phone when I jog
3. Music Control

I started to look around, and ended with Garmin Vivo Smart series and Fitbit Charge HR 2, they both met what I wanted, and Garmin actually have the additional features that I would like to have. I almost go for Garmin, until I started to look into Fitbit Family of activity tracker. I found out fitbit surge will fit the criteria too, albeit with a mono display screen, which made it feels a bit of outdated.

Long story short, I then chose Fitbit Blaze in the end and after receiving it and using it for 3 months now, I am going to pen down my thoughts on it.

Fitbit Blaze is a squarish module tracker which is removable from the strap itself, allowing you to get creative with your watch strap. There are lots of alternative watch strap that you can purchase to suit different events that you will be attending.

Build Quality (9/10)
Default watch strap is made of silicon with diagonal texture strip. I like it because it does not get uncomfortable when I wear it for my basketball games and jogging session. It does not irritate my skin but for some, it might. The square module itself seems to be constructed nicely. It is a square and nothing more. Button are accessible and you will get the hang of it without reading the manual.

Screen (8/10)
No fancy technology on the screen used. From the specs it looks like a low quality screen, I will not disagree, the pixel that made up the digits can be easily seen when watch is put closer to the eyes. However on daily occasions, the distance from the glance we made to view the time, is far enough, and the screen do look bright and clear enough.

There are four modes to the screen adjustment – Dim, Normal, Max, Auto.
I used only Dim, in order to maximise the battery. It is hard to see under direct sunlight under the DIM mode. If needed you can always set it to AUTO. On daily usage indoor and most outdoor situation, I find the DIM mode sufficient.

Touch screen is responsive, and there is nothing for me to complain about.

Customer Service (10/10)
They are top notch, upon receiving my Fitbit Blaze, I only realised a small dent at the bottom of my watch and I contacted the Fitbit Support Team. After a couple of emails, they actually offered to send a replacement to me. It only takes 2 days for them to make the decision, and about 1 week for the replacement to reach me. I am happy, that they took attention to my enquiry and acted on it.

I wasn’t expecting them to make a decision so fast. They were above my expectations.

Battery Life (9.5/10)
Normal smart watches last about 24 hours. Even the latest fossil Q is no diff. Some tracker last 3 days while others which utilises changable battery last for months.

Newer tech with kinetic energy will have a infinite battery life. For Fitbit Blaze, it last me usually for 4 to 5 days. This is inline with what they advertised and what I have expected.

My bluetooth is on to PAIR mode 24/7, you can choose to off it if you want. And I am on DIM mode for brightness of my screen.

It got a score of 9.5 because in comparison with garmin and apple watch, it triumphs over them. I am satisfied with the battery life.

But of course, if they eventually adopts the kinetic energy tech, it will definitely be 10.

Features (8.5/10)
Fitbit Blaze is one that function like a smart watch and activity tracker. The features include

- Smartphone notifications. You can choose what kind of notifications to receive via the Fitbit App

- Music control via Bluetooth, however it does not work when your music playing device is connected to another device via Bluetooth. For example I connected my phone to my Bluetooth headphone to listen to my music. Fitbit Blaze will not be able to use the music control function, even though it is connected to my phone as well. However notification still comes in.

- VO2 matrix

- Breathing under the Relax Mode

- Linked with Fitstar for different exercises

- Exercise mode which can help you track different kind of exercises you are doing

- Sleep tracking which will separate sleep stages into – Awake, REM, Light and Deep Sleep. There are also benchmark and 30 days average for you to compare the quality of your sleep

- 3rd party app which can be connected to inject “Fun” into your watch. App like Wokamon, a virtual pet app, which will take the steps taken and convert it to experience for you to level up your own pet that you are raising in the app.

This section did not get a higher rating because of the loss of music control function when my music playing device has got another Bluetooth device connected to it. I also look forward to a GPS module included and a waterproof rating so I can safely take it to swim.

App (9/10)
Apart from the need of switching on my GPS on my phone, the rest is good. The interface is easy to use, and it is easy to change the settings around. You can arrange the positions of the stats that you want to see in the Fitbit App. You can connect with your friends and with all the badges, it can act as an extra motivation to keep you going.

Final words
What I would like to see is probably an integrated mic, so I can do voice note to my phone and reply voice messages, however I do understand that it will then move the tracker towards a smart watch. I do think fitbit can excel well in that field too!

Well, thankfully, I guess I made the right choice. Albeit some features I wanted like GPS module and water resistant aren’t there, it still make a good day to day tracker and a semi smart watch. I can change the strap anytime I want. For sports and for work. I am happy with their customer service even though some will disagree.

I will never know if the heart rate monitor is the most accurate, but I do know at this current moment, nothing can be 100% precise, so I use it to see abnormal heart rate activity in me which is useful. If you are a previous fitbit user, this will make a nice upgrade. The app is as good as before too. With the price tag, the value is hard to beat.

I do think that this is meant for people with moderate exercise activity and is not meant for hard core trainers. It is meant to monitor your well-being and encourage a more active lifestyle, it is versatile in its outlook and enough features to make it a semi smart watch. So why not?

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I can't say enough good things about this fitness watch. This is going to be an in depth review so I apologize in advance for the length.

First... THIS IS NOT MEANT TO ACT LIKE THE APPLE WATCH! I feel like a lot of people think, "Well, for $50 more, I can get a refurb apple watch or an apple watch on sale at Best Buy." Having both watches, I can at least help with some differences between the two. If your goal is fitness tracking, this is for you. If your goal is organization with some fitness benefits, this watch is not for you.

To simplify the product description, here is what it does. It continually tracks your heart rate, your steps, stairs climbed, calories burned, active minutes, miles, exercise, and sleep. It seamlessly works with the FitBit app, which can also help you keep track of your calories consumed (works with apps like MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, etc), water intake, and weight. You can also set a goal in the app that allows you to set how many hours of the day you want to take 250+ steps each hour, however it does NOT remind you to move to ensure your success with this (See10/19/16 update on cons section). You can also set notifications to come through from your phone to your watch, such as text messages, phone calls, calendar reminders, and control your iPod, iPhone, etc music from it. As of this review, photos and emoji's do not come through on the watch. As of this review, this watch has 4 different face options, the ability to set it to your dominant or non dominant wrist, silent alarms, all day sync with your phone, etc. It also has FitStar workouts built into it.

Pros:
-Continuous heart rate monitoring.
-Easy to see in daylight (nice bright screen). Has the ability to turn "auto" light/dim based on sensing your lighting conditions.
-Face turns on when it senses you've turned your wrist to view it. It is mostly accurate.
-Charges quickly.
-Charge lasts, realistically, more like 3-4 days, but if you don't have notifications on, I'm sure it could last for 5.
-Sleek design looks like a nice watch. Many people have said, "So how do you like your Apple Watch?" and then I have to tell them it's not an Apple Watch. I do think that this watch is continually compared to the apple watch, however.

Cons:
-The band is somewhat uncomfortable, especially to sleep in. The buckle digs into my wrist on the side. I would like to see someone come up with a buckleless, soft silicone band like the apple watch.

UPDATE: 11/26/16: I've had several companies reach out to me and send me bands to try. All of them have been the Milanese style bands and the ones that came from china caused major hives/break outs on my wrist, one of which required a prescription cream to resolve. I have no idea what they're using in their metals because I generally don't have problems with metals. One milanese band has worked consistently well for me without skin issues and no problems with the magnet slipping. It was one I purchased for around $30 on amazon. So be wary of that.

Also, they finally started making silicone. Ands that do not have a buckle that are similar to the Apple Watch band. I ordered one and received it in the mail today. So far so good. It's much more comfortable than any other band I've tried. Please note this is NOT an affiliate link and none of the things in the post are sponsored.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01J0RAP3U/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

-As of the date of this review, the watch does NOT have "reminder to move" functionality. I feel like this is a basic essential to most fitness bands. Doing some reading, it looks like FitBit plans to have a firmware update in the future to include this, but as of now, it does not.

UPDATE: 10/19/2016: Fitbit recently released an update to the Blaze with "reminder to move" however, I find it lacking. Essentially, it reminds you to move 10 minutes before the hour if you haven't gotten 250 steps in in the hours you have set to move 250 steps or more. What I would like to see is a reminder to move during hours that you set based on the amount of steps you want to achieve in a day. So if you want 10k steps between the hours of 6am and 8pm, let it remind you at a time you set (10 minutes or 15 minutes before the hour) if you haven't done 714 steps each hour in order to make it to that goal. I would also like to see something that reminds you to move if you've been "sedentary" for more than xx minutes. I had a fitness tracker several years ago that would buzz if you had been sedentary for 10 minutes. I liked that because it kept me active. This functionality would be great for people with office jobs that sit all day. It's nice to see Fitbit working at the solution of having reminders to move, but I don't think it's there yet.

-The charger is somewhat annoying. FitBit has a proprietary charger so you can't just use any standard cord to plug it in. You have to take the face of the watch out of the band and put it in a boxed-frame like charger to charge. Given that the Apple Watch has a magnetic charger, I would have hoped to see something similar.

This watch DOES NOT have an app store, it does not store music, you cannot respond to text messages, do facetime, send photos, etc from it. You cannot control your phone's camera from it. This watch is made for fitness and has basic smart watch functionalities, however it is made to be a fitness watch, not a smart watch.

I have worked out with this on one wrist and my polar heart rate monitor watch (with chest strap) on the other wrist and got pretty much identical results.

****YOU HAVE TO WEAR THIS WATCH JUST ABOVE YOUR WRIST BONE OR YOUR READINGS WILL NOT BE ACCURATE**** If you don't like wearing a watch on that area of your wrist, this may not be for you. I like loose fitting watches, so this was an adjustment for me.

The face *could* scratch easily, I think. I haven't had a problem with it, but I did have a couple of glass screen protectors on it and they both broke within a day, but my watch face is still fine without scratches.

I hope this review helps. I don't think I missed anything, but if I did, I will updated it in the future.