THE UP3 EXISTS!! IT FINALLY ARRIVED!!

SnuggleSmacks

I've only been waiting since Nov. 30.

It arrived nicely packaged, but had zero charge - although it appears that it had a little charge during shipping, as it recorded steps on its journey.

The form factor is surprisingly small. It's narrower than even the Fitbit Flex, but not quite as flat. The main body is not as long as my wrist is wide, which is good...I had to return the Surge because it was longer than my wrist width and was actually painful to wear. The Up3 has a thickness of maybe half an inch at its thickest point.

The wrist band has a catch which appears very secure, and is adjustable. I have a small wrist, but it appears that I could wear the same band if I gained another 1.5-2 inches of girth in my wrist. It's quite comfortable to wear, even with it adjusted somewhat tight to ensure the sensors maintain contact. The band is very soft and flexible.

Connection was very easy once I got my band charged. You just tap and hold your finger down on the top of the band while your phone searches, and it pairs easily. I've heard complaints from others that it can be difficult to get the band to recognize a tap, but so far I haven't had that problem. You also tap to switch the band from sleep to active and vice versa. Apparently, per Jawbone, you need to put the band in sleep mode so that it can track how long it actually takes you to fall asleep once you've settled down to do so. This apparently is affected by things like when and what you ate, what kind of activity you engaged in before bed, etc., so that's why they say it doesn't detect sleep automatically.

The app is nicely laid out, very intuitive, with a good bit of information. I would love a desktop version with more indepth info, but alas, that's not available.

The band has options for inactivity alerts which you can set for various times, a vibrating alarm clock, and reminders. I haven't tested yet to see how strong the alarm vibration is.

There's heart rate sensors, but right now it only tracks resting heart rate. I won't see that until morning. Supposedly there will be a future update which will expand heart rate tracking capabilities. That matters less to me than it does to some people because I had the Bodymedia Fit, which was extremely accurate on calorie burns without ostensibly tracking heart rate...it had the same bioimpedence sensors and tracked all kinds of things which it used to calculate calorie burns, but it did not present the data for those sensors where you could see them. I expect the Up3 to function in a similar manner.

Tomorrow I'll be able to update with more information on accuracy/resting heart rate/etc.

Talan79

Awesome, cant wait. Thanks for sharing. I have had the UP24 since Xmas and I'm upgrading to the UP3.
Just an fyi, the more alerts you set, the quicker the battery drains.
I only have my morning alarm now. With other alerts, battery life was about 4 days less.

randomtai

Great review! I hope they have the app for both devices. I am kinda miffed there isn't a desktop version yet.

shinisize

Okay, I'm really excited to hear how well it tracks the true calorie burn (and anxiously hoping it will eventually track active heart rate).

satisfyingmyinnerfatkid

Thanks for the review :-) Yes another former Bodymedia user here.. I'm hoping it's everything that Bodymedia was.. can't wait to here if you think so.

SnuggleSmacks

Ok, so after half a day, I'm liking the Up3 so far. I had to work at my desk job, so I won't be able to really put it through its paces til tomorrow.

So far:

Like: You can set separate wake alarms, reminder alarms and inactivity alarms.
Do not like: The vibrations aren't very strong, so the wake alarm may not work for everyone.

Like: The app integrates well with MFP, and pulls not only calorie totals, but also info on macros, fiber, sugar, sodium, etc. and displays it by the meal, and total for the day. It has icons which fill with various colors (green for good, red for bad, etc.) and percentage of daily value for each entry. It also gives a food score on a scale of 1-10 for each meal, and for the day's total.
Do not like: The macros are set for the USDA recommendations, and you can't edit them. So if you, like me, pursue higher protein than the USDA says, then there's no way to alter the goal in the Up app.

Like: Also, in the app, you can record your mood, and how it changes throughout the day. You can see over time how things like the amount of sleep you get and what you eat affect your mood.

Like: The app also has practical advice like making the most of workouts by not cheating yourself out of movements like swinging arms when on the treadmill instead of gripping the rails. The advice it gives is supposed to become more tailored to your individual situation as it collects more data.

Talan79

@SnuggleSmacks you can edit the nutrition info. When you click on the green tab, go to the bottom where I think it says based on UDSA. Mine now says based on custom. It allows you to change by increments of 5.
Also, I've been using the smart alarm for a few months as an alarm, it always wakes me.

SnuggleSmacks

Yay! Thanks! That helps a lot!


Now, more info:

I forgot to put the band in sleep mode last night, and remembered when I woke up to pee. That means when I got up, it only recorded about 3 hours of sleep. So I added sleep time through the app...but I didn't realize that the app can record sleep twice in the same time period, so I added a sleep time for the total time I was alseep...including the 3 hours it already recorded. That made it think I slept way more than I had. In trying to fix it, I delected the band's original recording of my 3 hours of sleep, which also wiped out my resting heart rate for the night. *sigh* Live and learn.

So, what I've learned is that if you forget to put it in sleep mode, it will still record your sleep stages, but it won't show them to you until you've designated that time as sleep. Also, if it has recorded part of the time, you should only add the time that is missing, so that it doesn't duplicate minutes that it's already recorded.

What I also discovered is that even though it wiped my recorded resting heart rate for the night, it still has a graph which shows heart rate at intervals throughout the night. Keep in mind, it recorded this even before I told it to go in sleep mode. This tells me that it's checking heart rate at intervals throughout the day and night, it's just not showing you the info except in this graph during sleep times. This also means that it should not be a huge leap to get on demand or continuous heart rate monitoring.



Now, regarding activity: I took my dog for a walk and a little bit of a jog. He's elderly, and wasn't up for much running, so we went just under a mile and a half. The band appears to have recorded the distance and steps accurately, as compared to iCardio, but I forgot to take my heart rate monitor band to compare calorie burns.

The Up app recorded the steps, but didn't designate them as any sort of workout. So I added a workout:walk, and it asks beginning and ending times, and the perceived effort. First I put moderate, then I changed it to easy...and the calorie burn changed. I find it a little disappointing that the app is calculating calorie burn based on perceived effort, which is notoriously inaccurate, rather than on the bioimpedence sensor info. I'm going to be providing that feedback to Jawbone as well. Perhaps that's something else that will be improved in future updates, but for now, I don't see that basing burns on "effort" distinguishes the Up3 from any other band. If I can't get a good explanation for that, I'll be sending mine back.

Meanwhile, I'm going to have some lunch, digest a bit, and then bike around the block with my heart rate monitor to compare calorie burns. Will report back later.

Talan79

I would recommend not logging step based activities. I had read that when I got the band to only log non step based activities since its counting steps and accounting for those calories. The step count is very accurate. I've counted my steps on the treadmill and its dead on. I run prior to lifting, but I don't log runs because it will overestimate my calorie burn. The treadmills at my gym are new, and when I run 20 min, it gives me a calorie burn of 175. I've used on line calculators where you input your weight, speed, and duration and it lines up with that. When I add a run to the app, it gives me an overestmation on calories burn. If I go shopping, it will ask were you exercising. I always click no. Even walking the dog, I don't count. Steps are steps.
I do lift. And I log that with an effort of in the zone. Not sure how accurate the burn is on that.

SnuggleSmacks

I'm going to bike around the block in a bit with my heart rate monitor on and compare, but it's good to know that about step activities.

satisfyingmyinnerfatkid

SnuggleSmacks wrote: »

I'm going to bike around the block in a bit with my heart rate monitor on and compare, but it's good to know that about step activities.

Great :-) Can't wait to hear :-)

SnuggleSmacks

Unfortunately I didn't have time to do the bike before work. I did go for a very short run with my HRM and the Up3, and the HRM registered about 10 fewer calories burned than the Up3 did. This is a cause for concern, but without something to verify against that I know is accurate, I can't say which is correct. My assumption would be the HRM, but that's not definite.

LepperMessiah1

Following along!

satisfyingmyinnerfatkid

SnuggleSmacks wrote: »

Unfortunately I didn't have time to do the bike before work. I did go for a very short run with my HRM and the Up3, and the HRM registered about 10 fewer calories burned than the Up3 did. This is a cause for concern, but without something to verify against that I know is accurate, I can't say which is correct. My assumption would be the HRM, but that's not definite.

From testing a bunch of other fitness trackers, my main concern is if its off for a workout then will the total daily calories burned be even more off for any reason over the course of a whole day? But so far only 10 calories off is VERY promising!

SnuggleSmacks

I would agree except the run was only about 6 minutes. That could made it off by 100 cals in an hour.

satisfyingmyinnerfatkid

SnuggleSmacks wrote: »

I would agree except the run was only about 6 minutes. That could made it off by 100 cals in an hour.

Ah yeah :-( Well if you have any other all day trackers to compare total daily calories burned then that might be something else to try. Otherwise.. it looks like you have 25 pounds to go and so let the experiment begin lol :-)

SnuggleSmacks

I just caught the Up app adding steps while I was driving as well. It was only about 15 steps in a 15 minute drive, but that's still disappointing.

Healthy_4_Life2

Wow!!! I have been waiting for that thing!! I finally went and bought a Fitfbit flex (reluctantly I might add). I never thought it would be available as I have waited sooooooo long!!

PikaKnight

SnuggleSmacks wrote: »

I just caught the Up app adding steps while I was driving as well. It was only about 15 steps in a 15 minute drive, but that's still disappointing.

Every pedometer tends to do that, though.

Talan79

That is disappointing to hear about adding steps while driving. The UP24 seems to be accurate with steps. I've walked and counted.

zdyb23456

Following... I've been holding out upgrading my Jawbone old model (the kind you have to manually sync!) in hopes of hearing good reviews on the UP3. I love my Jawbone, but I like wearing it on my ankle vs. my wrist. I'm not sure I'd be able to wear the UP3 on my ankle...