Perfect for the intended purpose - review for new firmware and new app version

Perfect for the intended purpose - review for new firmware and new app version

Jawbone Bluetooth UP24 Activity / Sleep Tracker Bracelet (Size L) orange for Apple iOS and Android (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Customer Review

I carry the UP24 a week now and have played in the last 2 days to update the new firmware and the new app, here's my report.

*** Preliminary ***
First, you should ask yourself what you really expect from a gadget on your wrist.
I would have no device which permanently wants to talk to the smartphone and without this permanent connection is just a fashion accessory.
I would also like no device with display that indicates to me that just uploaded a new icebucket Challenge video one of my Facebook friends.
I would also have no touchscreen or tens of buttons, where I constantly adjust something, operate or confirmed need.
What I wanted is a (mostly) silent companion who will track my movement activities and monitors the quality of sleep. In addition, was an important feature for me is the "gentle awakening", ie a wake outside the deep sleep phase.
Exactly these things gets the UP24 towards perfect, which a single button, the vibration function and a (just after pressing a button) briefly shining day / night icon.

*** Size ***
You can buy (matter of taste) and 3 sizes the UP24 in 2 colors. The size option had asked me before the first problem, because using the method described (band around the wrist, length measure) yielded just 18 cm, which is the maximum size for M and the minimum size for L.
After reading some reviews and answered question from other buyers (Thank you!) I have to decide for L, which was perfectly true.
It is namely at the upper end of the range of size, the tape fits very tightly and the ends are starting at an angle from the wrist, which makes an inconspicuous wearing under his shirt almost impossible.
If in doubt prefer to take the larger band.

*** Setting up the band ***
The coupling of the tape is done via Bluetooth 4.0 LE (low energy), ie you need Android KitKat (or a corresponding iOS) on their device - otherwise nothing works.
After loading the app (UP24) and Bluetooth is activated, the coupling goes very quickly and you can provide some personal data (age, weight, picture) and its objectives (weight, sleep duration).
In addition, you can define any number of timer to which the tape is to awaken a vibration. Other bands like Sony SWR10 offer here solely to distinguish between working days / Sat + Sun.
Then you should still charge the tape. This is done via the removal of the cap with the silver shield, among which a plug located. On these you put the enclosed USB adapter and can charge his band at each USB charger or PC.
The current status of the band you get through a short push of the single button appears: "sun" day mode, "moon" means night mode.
When fully charged, the battery lasts supposedly 14 days. The battery level indicator in the app seems to confirm the bsiher.
Thus, the device is ready :-).

*** Sleep monitoring ***
The first important feature of the UP24 is to monitor the quality of sleep. The change from day to night mode takes place by means einens long pressure on the button until the tape vibrates briefly and the moon flashes.
Based on the movements the UP24 know whether to
- Is in a deep sleep phase
- Located in a shallow sleep phase
- Is in the waking state
This works surprisingly well and it is interesting to confirm and explain why you feel to get the morning not rested properly, although you've spent 8 hours in bed.
I will continue my example caffeine consumption back something because this is very slowly absorbed by the body and even the lunch Cola can still have effects on sleep.
The "Smart Wakeup", thus waking in a non-deep-sleep phase, works accordingly perfectly.

*** *** Movement Tracking
The UP24 detects very precisely by means of the movement and vibration of what you are doing. Walking and running can be reliably detected, however, is counted at a longer ride with some jerkiness not one step - very well.
The default setting of the tape bezgl. Stride length is quite good, but can still be perfected by calibration of the stride.
For this I went to a sports field with 400 meters of track and there went one round each and jogged a lap. For this one uses the "stopwatch" function of the tape by a short and a long press on the button.
The first round was shown walking with me with 417 meters, the second round of jogging with 423 meters. In the app you can calibrate this stopped activities - in this case, each 400 meters.
The subsequent two rounds of testing (again walking and running) were then shown each with exactly 400 meters.
One has to say very clearly, however, that the bracelet has no GPS tracking. An 8.5 km Forest run with some elevation changes was reported to me with a little more than 10 km, as the stride length has deviated from the stadium round.
But it is important to measure the movement and counting the steps. The objective in the App therefore also goes correctly to the number of steps, not the distance.
For completed activities then in addition to the number of steps, the distance and calories burned is displayed (from the weight calculated).
Very nice feature to have after x minutes of inactivity recall by a short vibration to it, to take a few steps to loosen. I have the set to one hour and be reminded more often when working on the PC.

*** Nutritional tracking ***
You might want to enter his meals in the app. Since the update works very comfortable:
First choose the food from my text entry or barcode scanning or photo (!). The latter is probably more of a gimmick and does not work with my breakfast (scrambled eggs with bacon) this morning.
Text entry and scanning work very well when entering text rich a few letters already for intelligent system proposals.
After recognized food you can then adjust the amount either by selecting common servings or choices of grams.
Very successful is the use in the app: Left / Right to wipe through each available units (Portion / unit / gram) to scroll and high / Runten determine the amount.
Only criticism: The up / down amount choice is very sensitive, so that you can have a quiet finger must have to live with or slightly different amounts (now I have eaten breakfast 3.1 eggs).
At the end of the diet will be assessed according to color quality and detail for calories and ingredients, which for example too much sugar or Colesterol explicitly warned. In the overview you can see immediately how many calories still missing or if you have eaten too much.

*** Other features ***
The app gives you every day more or less useful information for all sorts of things or has "Challenges" to. Yesterday's Challenge "drink 8 glasses of water" I passed loosely :-).
The tips can be rated no longer appears "useful" or "I'm not interested. I think after this Bwertung then you get advice from certain categories.
At the end of the day you can then check that all 3 objectives (sleep, steps, diet) were achieved.

*** Conclusion ***
There are cheaper bracelets as the UP24. There are also bracelets that go more towards SmartWatch and purely hermachen more from Nerd Level ago.
However, I have never seen a band that well so support the above objectives and such a comfort of the app offers like the Jawbone UP24.
A small drawback is the fact that the UP24 is not waterproof, so to take a shower or even swim must be pulled out. But that's whining at a high level and deserves no star deduction.
So from me 5 star and a strong buy recommendation.

*** Update 09/23/2014 ***
- I can confirm that the battery is 14 days with stops at a moderate use of the stop function and the LED status indicator - top!
- The tape has a little widened, but sitting still good and not slackens. Nevertheless me a system like the Sony bracelets would prefer, since thus even possible to achieve a waterproof design.
- What's a little annoying when the app forcibly online connection. As it stands, the tape is read, the loaded data to the cloud and then retrieved from the cloud onto the smartphone. Without an online connection, the current values ​​of the day are not displayed.
Here I hope clearly an improvement in the next update. The usual approach is to first present the data locally on the phone and synch with the next online opportunity with the cloud.
- After a few days you get displayed motivating instructions in the app. After a busy weekend sport I got eg pointing out that I am penetrated with my steps-performance in the top 20% of the "Up24 owner" - very nice.

*** Update 17/01/2015 ***
Recently, it has me actually happens sometimes that the battery of the band has gone completely blank. Well, who is already thinking about to invite every 14 days? It seems that then something is wrong after loading with the alarms: Sometimes is not alarmed, sometimes at the wrong weekdays. Even in the internet forums they are reported without but a good solution to call.
Here is what helped me:
fully recharge a) battery of the band again
Clear b) All alarms in the app synch tape
c) band decouple via the app using "Band Management -> Delete Data bracelet"
d) Turn off Bluetooth on the Android device and delete all app data for "UP", then start the new Android device
e) The tape "hard reset" with the following combination: press 9 once briefly, then 1x long to several symbols flash. Wait a few minutes, because the band restarts
f) Then turn Bluetooth on again, launch the app "UP", enter your login data again and pair the new band.
Since all data is stored in the cloud, you lose neither steps nor sleep logs :-)

Overall, it remains a strong buy recommendation

Handy 10 Rank: 4/5
February 6
very well in January 1326 Rank: 5/5
September 10
No live that we expected more Rank: 5/5
April 25
beautiful 1726 Rank: 5/5
March 6
Very disappointed 290 Rank: 1/5
July 27

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