Up VS. Flex

BrightStar85

So I have been doing my homework trying to figure out which would be my better move. I have read tons of reviews on both. They both have so many reviews divided on which is better. A patient of mine had the UP and it seemed awesome. Seeing it face to face and not on a screen helped. The app seemed really cool. I have been intrigued ever since. Now my issues. I have the Samsung galaxy note. I am not due for an upgrade until February. So the phone is outdated although the software has been updated. So I am guess I am asking for opinions on what you have and what you think I should do.

MelSabourin

So glad you posted this. I am in the same boat in terms of recently researching both the UP and Flex. My aunt has an Up and loves it. I'm actually super intrigued by the sleep monitoring. Either way, I want to buy one of the 2 within the next week or so...

MsEndomorph

I've had the One and I currently have the Up...the One is around here somewhere...I lost it in less than a week of owning it.

I struggle a bit with which one I like best. I love Jawbone's app. Very informative and pleasing to the eyes. Fitbit's app misses the mark for me, but it does cover the basics.

The fitbit's ability to sync wirelessly is great. All you have to do is keep your phones Bluetooth on and it'll sync anytime you open the app. MFP's app will also sync with fitbits app in realtime. I have to take off my Up, uncap it, and and physically plug it into the phone to sync it. It's not a big deal but it feels inefficient after being able to be wireless.

With the fitbit you can basically do everything through MFP and fitbit will adjust your calories if you move more or less than expected. The Up works a little less well...food should be entered into MFP, and exercise will be logged by Up. But you can't enter your own calorie value into the Up's app...you just enter time, length, and intensity of the workout. I wear a HRM and I like using the calorie burn it tells me, but that won't work now. Although I can usually enter it close enough by altering the intensity level on the app.

The flex got rid of my main complaint about fitbit...it wasn't waterproof and had to be clipped to something so it was easy to lose, but that's a non-issue now. So I think if my main goal was to have something to work with MFP, I think I'd pick the flex. The Up is really cool, but I see it as more of a standalone thing - great to track activity but not as much as whole dieting device.

ETA: I don't use the sleep monitoring much, but I do like the silent alarm and the alarm that vibrates when I've been inactive for too long

HacheraTsarine

after researching and reading/watching a lot of reviews comparing the UP and the Flex, I chose to buy a UP.
actually, I don't remember much of what made me buy it over the Flex, but I love it!

both products are very similar : some reviews give an higher grade to UP, some to Flex.
Personnally, what I love about UP is :
- the app : it summarises everything. Sleep pattern, Sleep length, Burned calories, Activities, Ingested calories, etc. And it gives you really great graphs (I'm a graph enthusiast!!)
- it measures your sleep quality (pattern of light-deep sleep, duration, etc.). I needed that, as I have poor sleep hygiene.
- having it on my wrist is a reminder that I should be moving right now if there's any opportunity.
- the app gives you advices about your data. For example, it'd tell me "You took xxx xxx steps this week. Your daily goal was xx xxx. Maybe you should change goals", or give me tips on how getting better sleep, better sleep habits, on how to include more activities daily, etc.

Having this also allowed me to have a more accurate idea of my TDEE. I thought I was more of a sedentary person because I'm a student and have a full time desk job, but didn't realize that since I tried real hard to move more daily, my TDEE rose up quite significantly. Right now, my UP says that in average I burn 2346 calories daily.

Hope it helps.

Healthy_4_Life2

I have UP and I like everything about it. I also have a Galaxy Note and it works just fine with the UP.

shoushitai

I have an UP and I also love it! Any Myfitnesspal food updates get synced to UP right away and it's much more useful compared to when I had UP without Myfitnesspal. UP also fits perfectly on my wrist, I don't feel a thing

UP also gives you little suggestions on how you can increase your sleep quality or activity, which helped me a lot! After I've gotten UP, I'm definitely more willing to take more steps, and more concerned about ensuring I get 7-8 hours of sleep everyday.

One thing that I don't like about the UP band is that I have to press a button to switch from day mode to night mode before I sleep, which takes some adjusting to ( I suggest you press it as soon as you get in your bed, even if you plan to watch TV or do some reading) However, you don't need to worry about switching from night to day, it automatically switches for you once you've taken 250 steps, so the only thing I ever do with the UP band is to sync and switch to sleep mode.

GlutenFreeWench

Here's the best review of them:

http://allthingsd.com/20130715/fitbit-flex-vs-jawbone-up-and-more-a-wearables-comparison/

You'll be able to sync with the flex with the next interface update that rolls out (bluetooth 4.0 rolling out for all androids).

I have a flex after a lot of indecision because I love the insta gratification of syncing. I have to know NOW how I'm doing today and where my activity is. Editing my swimming activity and such is much easier on it too.

The up I had to take off (and it died twice so I had to go through amazon to replace it- eventually just asked for a refund).

The up also caught on everything:/

So! yeah! my take

empad

I have used the Fitbit one and the Up, the step count and activity count between the two is comparable and the accelerometers seem to both be good. In my opinion the fitbit software is FAR superior, it has web access, can link multiple devices (fitbit aria scale?) and generally presents its data in a more helpful manner. I have also noticed that compared to other devices the up can sometimes under report calories. Dollar for Dollar I would say the fitbit would be a better bet, though I would likely go with a waste unit over an armband unit as they are more accurate most of the time.

helpfit101

I have the UP and I mostly liked the sleep part. It told me how much of my sleep was "deep" and what wasn't. It showed me even that I got up to pee even though I half forgot about that.

I gave it to my wife to use now. After a few weeks I didn't find it all that useful anymore. You usually know how you slept, if you stop to think about it.

Also, the "step" counter is not all that useful. It's not accurate at all. It does give you a bit of a general idea like I walked a lot today, or not much at all. Also for the UP app I think you need to get involved and find some friends that have them too maybe.

I don't know about Flex.

kevin_m_fischer

I own the flex. I love it! The only thing that I don't like about is that it's kind of a pain to put it into sleep mode (you have to tap it several times and sometimes that doesn't work). But other then that, I have had no issues. I link it to my Galaxy S III and the app works really well. I would recommend it.

LeslieN65

Have the Flex and love it:-) I wear it day and night and enjoy that I have to do nothing but tap it a couple of times for sleep mode and wake up mode....and charging is a breeze..pug it into computer for 3 hrs and your set:-)

UpEarly

I'm mostly happy with my Flex. The Flex definitely tracks my calories way too low. I lost about 5 pounds in the first month of using the Flex, which would be nice if I was trying to lose weight. However, I am trying to maintain my current weight and not lose any more. Since I started manually logging my activities on the FitBit Dashboard to get the higher (and more accurate) calorie burns, it seems to be working really well for me.

It's easy/comfortable to wear. I like that I can wear it in the shower or out hiking in the rain. I like that it syncs wirelessly. It's also easy to charge and use.

scrapjen

I'd told my son we could get him a pedometer, he wanted a wrist one. We had planned on the Flex (we are a Fitbit family) but they were backordered and he wanted it NOW ... so he got the Jawbone Up (even though it was $30 more!) He liked it ... as it was waterproof he wore it while waverunning and a crash ripped it from his arm and it sunk to the bottom of the lake. Very sad.

The entire time he had the UP, I kept saying "I wish it was the Flex!" ... this was more for ME than him. I would ask him where he was step wise, and he didn't know unless he took it off to sync it. With a Flex, it would have been syncing wirelessly to the computer when he was in the house, and easily if he simply opened up his app anywhere else. And as I have a Fitbit and could "friend" him ... I would have know his steps without ever having to ask.

I did go ahead and spring for a Flex to replace it ...he says it's very similar to the Up in most ways, about sixes with him. I'm much happier (now we are really a Fitbit family! My 14-year old and both parents have Fitbits ... there is a big competition going on to see who gets the most steps. Of course I always win, but Grandpa and the boys are always pretty close and love passing each other up).

One other SMALL thing ... I've been participating in several "reward" programs for Fitness (Everymove, Earndit, Achievemint, WalgreensBalanceRewards) and they ALL link with Fitbit ... I think only Everymove links with the Up. I like how MFP works so well with the Fitbit. To me, that is a bit of a reflection from outside services that the Fitbit is so well known and accepted. If you want to look into any of these reward sites, I did a post on my blog ... http://jenbsjourney.blogspot.com/2013/08/get-rewarded-for-getting-fit.html (a lot of the rewards are just discounts in disguise, but there are charity options and I have actually earned some $$).

laurae

I have a Fitbit One and the Jawbone Up. If I only had to chose one of them, it would be the Fitbit One for its accuracy for overall calorie burn. The Up is always about 300 - 400 under for TDEE than the Fitbit. I use a heart rate monitor for my workouts, and enter that data for logging into Fitbit and Up. With the Up you do not have the option of inputting your actual calorie burn. You only have levels of exertion to choose from. I try to pick the one closest to what my monitor showed.

I do love the sleep graph and information that the Up gives. Fitbit tracks sleep too, but the data given is slightly different. Up gives a percentage of your sleep goal in time, but Fitbit gives a percentage of your sleep quality.

The One is easy for me to wear since I usually wear jeans or jean shorts and can just slip it in my pocket and forget about it. Only a few times has it ended up in the hamper. The clip option also makes it easy to clip to the bottom of my shirt if I have no pocket for workouts. I sometimes do get tired of wearing the Up on my wrist. I do wear a watch every day, but barely use it for time, just habit. I could swap the Up for the watch, I guess.

The Fitbit One is also great for instant feedback since you can view on the device all the information being tracked.

I know you were asking for a comparison of the Flex with the Up. I assume that the formula used for calculating calories burned is similar to the one used with the One, so I do think the Flex would be more accurate than the Up. The Flex does not have a display to look at for instant feedback, but I think it does show lights for how close to your goal you are. Overall, I think the Fitbit devices and customer service are the best.