What do you all think of the Blaze?

Options
CooCooPuff
CooCooPuff Posts: 4,374 Member
Just curious. I'm fine with my ChargeHR but the Blaze did interest me.

Replies

  • bodam2005
    bodam2005 Posts: 13 Member
    Options
    I love it. Got it yesterday. The GPS/Mapping function has led me to retire MapMyFitness because now I can do it in Fitbit. I got the optional leather band because I am allergic to the rubber/plactic that the default band (and Charge HR) are made out of.

    Now if Fitbit can get a food database and recipe calculator on par with MFP I can do everything in the fitbit dashboard.
  • Raynne413
    Raynne413 Posts: 1,527 Member
    Options
    I LOVE mine. The Charge HR was horrible for my heart rate because I tend to do high intensity exercise a lot. The Blaze is so much better. I don't know if the larger face makes the difference (blocks out more external light) or if they improved some algorythms. Either way, I am a happy camper right now. The only thing I've noticed that I don't like is that you don't get ALL notifications from your phone (only texts, calls and calendars) but that is probably to save battery life, and the vibration is softer than the Charge HR.
  • khy13
    khy13 Posts: 1 Member
    Options
    Hi I just got mine last night and I'm excited to start using it today!
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    Options
    I bought my FB Blaze at Kohl's last night and so far it's the first wrist tracker that I've really taken to for more than a few hours. I did Insanity Max 30 last night and even though it seemed to stop picking up my HR at times, I think it actually still was because the calories burned were spot on with my Polar FT 7. I'm recovering still from a badly sprained ankle, so I wasn't going at the workout full force as I otherwise would have. :)

    Compared to my FB One, I noticed the Blaze doesn't seem to be as high in step count. I don't know if it's missing some steps or my FB One over counted my steps. The HR sensor on the Blaze as been really well so far. I've been testing it along side of a Pulse check App on my iPhone 6S.

    I don't use my FB with MFP as there were just too many times that it either didn't sync at all or ended up Syncing so late that I had already went to bed for the night. I'm using the Baze in conjunction with my Loseit Pemium membership which syncs as soon as my steps or activity go to the FB site.

    I love the fact that you can change the Bands out on the Blaze which is something that was lacking with both the Charge and Surge. For me, I think the Blaze is a definite hit, but time will tell as I get to use it more.
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    edited March 2016
    Options
    Eileen_S wrote: »
    I bought my FB Blaze at Kohl's last night and so far it's the first wrist tracker that I've really taken to for more than a few hours. I did Insanity Max 30 last night and even though it seemed to stop picking up my HR at times, I think it actually still was because the calories burned were spot on with my Polar FT 7. I'm recovering still from a badly sprained ankle, so I wasn't going at the workout full force as I otherwise would have. :)

    Compared to my FB One, I noticed the Blaze doesn't seem to be as high in step count. I don't know if it's missing some steps or my FB One over counted my steps. The HR sensor on the Blaze as been really well so far. I've been testing it along side of a Pulse check App on my iPhone 6S.

    I don't use my FB with MFP as there were just too many times that it either didn't sync at all or ended up Syncing so late that I had already went to bed for the night. I'm using the Baze in conjunction with my Loseit Pemium membership which syncs as soon as my steps or activity go to the FB site.

    I love the fact that you can change the Bands out on the Blaze which is something that was lacking with both the Charge and Surge. For me, I think the Blaze is a definite hit, but time will tell as I get to use it more.

    Well 2 days of testing the Blaze is enough to know that it's not a hit, but a miss for me. It continues to be almost a mile off even though I reset it and redid the step count in Fitbit settings. Today I did a treadmill workout using the Blazes built in excercise feature. I walked 2.2 miles in 30 minutes, which was confirmed with my iPhone 6S as well as the treadmill. The Blaze said I only walked 1.3 miles. I have also found the HR sensor on the Blaze to be unreliable for anything other than steady state cardio activities. I did another HITT workout using the Blaze side by side with my Polar FT 7 chest strap monitor and during the time that the Blaze did manage to pick up my HR, it was off by as many as 20 beats. I've read a few more recent reviews for the new Blaze and it seems like I'm not the only one that has had trouble with the Blaze picking up the HR during workouts in which the HR goes up and down.
    I really wanted to keep the Blaze since I like how it looks and feels. However, the inaccurate mileage count and lost beats during High intensity workouts is enough to warrant a return in my case. I'm going to try the Apple Watch at some point since it will work well with my iPhone and sync perfectly with Loseit. But for now I'll continue to use my reliable FB One for the time being.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Options
    Any HR technology NOT using electrical impulse reading of the heart cannot be as accurate or as fast with HR changes. Just a fact.
  • GBO323
    GBO323 Posts: 336 Member
    Options
    This may not be a popular view, but I haven't found the HR function in the Surge to be accurate AND it almost doubles my calories added for the day when it's on. So, I'd rather go conservative and let the movement count instead. HR is off.

    On the Surge, I emailed support and asked to swap out Surge for Blaze given it was my 2nd watch sent after rash and battery issues. They said no, but asked me to send it back and they sent me a refund check. Good enough.

    I got my Blaze today...after the Surge fiasco with wrist rashes and less than 1 day battery life...I'm happy with this solution.

    FINALLY...I can see steps on the watch face. For some reason, the Surge hasn't been given that basic needed function. I added the leather wristband as the default is the same band material as the Surge.

    Notifications are great. Like the color screen and touch abilities. GPS isn't natively on the watch, but with the phone, it works.

    We're going to get along fine...
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    Options
    heybales wrote: »
    Any HR technology NOT using electrical impulse reading of the heart cannot be as accurate or as fast with HR changes. Just a fact.

    This makes sense, Heybales. I had forgotten that when it comes to HIIT workouts it would be harder for Wrist HR trackers such as the Blaze to pick up and lock on to every beat.
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
    edited March 2016
    Options
    Blaze problem solved (fingers crossed).
    As it turns out I believe one of my problems with the Blaze was that I was using a large instead of the small as I should have been for my wrist size of 5.5". When I first went to Kohl's a few days ago I had to get a size large as they didn't have a small in stock. As it turns out, they had 2 small Blaze's in stock today, one of them being the Purple colored one that I had in a large. I decided to give the Blaze another try, only this time in the correct size for my wrist. The small fits much better and the HR hasn't stopped tracking once so far, even during my 3.2 mile walking using the new Connected GPS function.
    The miles on this new Blaze are just about right. One thing I did was to reset all my stats again, only this time I left the stride length set to the default zero value, which allows Fitbit to calculate my stride based on my height. From what I can see so far, the Blaze seems to be much more accurate at picking up my steps and correct miles walked having it set to default instead of the stride length that I had calculated in there before.
    Time will tell as I use the new small size Blaze more, but I think having the correct size really seems to make a difference as far as the HR sensor goes and I'm glad I decided to give the Blaze a second chance. :)