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The great fitness tracker face-off

SINGAPORE — With a plethora of fitness trackers on the market, how do you choose? I tested the Fitbit Charge HR and the Jawbone UP3, the two rivals’ latest offerings that feature heart rate monitors, sleep assessments, and snazzy upgraded apps.

SINGAPORE — With a plethora of fitness trackers on the market, how do you choose? I tested the Fitbit Charge HR and the Jawbone UP3, the two rivals’ latest offerings that feature heart rate monitors, sleep assessments, and snazzy upgraded apps.

I put them on trial over two weeks, wearing them both on my non-dominant left wrist through my daily activities, workouts, and sleep. Here’s how they matched up.

DESIGN

Both the test sets I got were black, so they were discreet and did not interfere with my wardrobe choices.

But while the Jawbone is a sleek, thin band, the Fitbit’s clunkier, wider strap was slightly more uncomfortable to have on for the whole day, especially when sleeping.

That said, the Fitbit has the advantage of an LED display screen, which with a few taps not only told me the time but gave me real-time readings of the number of steps I took, distance travelled, calories burnt, floors climbed, and current heart rate.

On the other hand, the Jawbone does not have a display screen, only three light-up icons: A jogging man for awake mode, a moon icon for sleep mode, and a message icon for notifications from the Up app. I had to sync the Jawbone with the app to view my progress for the day.

Disappointingly, it cannot read your current heart rate. Instead, it tracks your resting heart rate and gives you only one reading a day.

The Fitbit’s rubber material felt more sturdy, and its watch strap design felt more secure. I was worried about the fiddly clasp of the Jawbone, but both bands stayed put whether I was waving my arms during Zumba or hiking at MacRitchie Reservoir.

TRACKING EXERCISE

Both had very little margin of difference when counting the steps taken. Of the two, the Fitbit offers more functionality, tracking several statistics throughout a workout.

“Live” heart-rate tracking is particularly useful, and upon activating exercise mode, the Fitbit can tell you the elapsed time of your workout with a built-in stopwatch.

You can log your workout on the device app on your smartphone.

You can also get real-time stats and analysis on the app, such as how long you have spent in the heart zones optimum for fat burning or cardio, your heart-rate progress over the course of the workout, and a graph on calories burnt per minute.

The Jawbone app prompts you with a notification on your smartphone to ask if you have noticed your heart rate was out of the ordinary. But other than that, you have to manually log in a workout post-exercise. The post-workout statistics are also rather scant.

All you get is the duration of your workout, the distance you covered, and the total calories burnt.

SLEEP TRACKING

Both bands tell you how many times you wake up each night, and how long it takes you to fall asleep. The Jawbone one-ups its competitor by telling you when you are in light sleep, deep sleep or REM sleep. However, I had to toggle to sleep mode with a series of taps on the band.

The Fitbit, however, could automatically register my sleep or midday nap, and add that to my sleep log upon my next sync — no prompting or taps needed.

APPS

I much preferred the interface and ease of use on the Jawbone app. It comes with an interactive Smart Coach function, which prompts you to reach your daily goals.

For instance, when I missed my 6,000-steps-a-day goal by a few thousands, the app offered useful tips, such as: “Going for a walk after lunch or dinner could make all the difference.”

You can adjust settings so that the wristband vibrates when you have been idle too long.

I found myself becoming very conscious about taking more steps, even if it meant walking around the office to get my step count up.

The Fitbit app did not give me feedback or encouraging words, but it gave me all the day’s most important information on a single page. With a tap, you can get more detailed metrics, but it still was not as attractive or interactive as the Up app.

BATTERY LIFE

Neither was particularly stellar in this category, with both lasting six days per charge on average.

With technology like the Xiaomi band giving you up to 30 days on a single charge, both products have some catching up to do.

THE VERDICT

While the Fitbit is the most well-rounded tracker, the Jawbone is arguably the best-looking fitness tracker on the market.

And with all its functions, the Fitbit costs S$199, compared with the Jawbone’s hefty price tag of S$309.

If you are an active person who is serious about your fitness, then the Fitbit is definitely a better option.

But based on comfort, style and interactivity, the Jawbone is the winner for me.

The Jawbone UP3 comes in black or silver, and is available at stores such as Challenger, Newstead, iStudio, and EpiCentre.

The Fitbit Charge HR comes in black or plum with more colour options expected later this year, and is available at stores such as Courts, Best, Harvey Norman, and EpiCentre.

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