To Band, or not To Band....

[dkediger]

With the nearest Microsoft Store a 3 hour drive - one way - from me, I've followed the Band with more than a passing interest but not anything reaching an enthusiast level. The inventory situation also greatly helps temper any "money burning hole in pocket" urges.

However, due to other business, I will have an opportunity tomorrow (Sat, Jan 3) to be halfway to the MS Store. It wouldn't be too much more effort, save for the incoming weather system, to drive the remaining distance to the store and pick one up if there is truly stock available.

My interest in the Band would be:

• Run tracking
• Screen & Dismiss Notifications
• Cool MS tech
• Potential Enhancements like Music controls

Not so interested in sleep or calorie tracking.

I've also been keeping an eye on the FB Surge...knowing that its WP feature set is limited at the moment.

My inclination is to continue to wait for:

• Band Enhancements like Music Controls, or Band 2.0
• Surge compatiiblity enhancements to match the other OS'

But, WHAT SAY YOU?

 

[legend921]

I would say the band is a great piece and go for it if it is available. Having the band with the screen inside your wrist is very nice since any incoming texts and what not will be shown to you and not the world. Yes, not having music control sucks, but I can live without it. I like having the notifications come through the wrist saving time of having the phone not being pulled out of my pocket each time. I recommend it

 

[Nate Silver]

I have them both, and currently the Band is on my wrist, and the Surge is sitting on the desk. Neither one is perfect; I'd have to say that fitness trackers in general are a work in progress, and these two are on the bleeding edge. Only my opinion, but I think they were both rushed to market, pushed out of the nest to get a jump on the I-Watch. As such, the firmware and ecosystems are still evolving. Both the Band and the Surge have a ton of potential, and some pretty nice features right out of the gate, but (at the moment) I'm giving the nod to the Band. The Surge is more stylish, but for me, the Band is more comfortable (that's right, I know nobody's gonna believe that, but its true.....at least for me. The surge is quite wide, and seems to bother my arm after a while, possibly because there's no ventilation under that side swath of silicon. I found that the auto-sleep function on the Surge works well, and its nice not to have to remember to push the button, but that's not enough for me. My feeling is that the Band is more accurate in step counting, and not as prone to phantom steps as the Surge. Heart rate monitoring is a bit of a toss-up. Neither one is really what you'd call accurate, at least not compared to a strap, and both are slow to register quick changes such as with weight lifting. I think the Band may be marginally better here. Although the Surge benefits from Fitbit's more mature system (web dashboard, for example), it is sometimes amazingly clunky, and if you hang out on the Fitbit help forums for a while, you'll see that there is plenty of room for improvement. Sometimes the Surge and associated apps can be really quite buggy. Much more room for improvement than I'd expect to see for a company that's been at it that long, and not new to the fitness game like MS. The screen and notifications are much better on the Band.......well, there are no notifications yet for the Surge, at least not for windows phone. I don't care for the way the Surge forces you to continually poke at it to see the screen, and the backlight really isn't bright enough for me. Yes, the battery life is better, but I find that I get up in the morning, stick the Band on the charger, take a shower and have breakfast, and its charged. I can live with that as part of my daily routine. Neither one is really suitable for swimming, and neither is recommended for wear in the shower. Not a huge deal for me, I sink like a rock anyway. Neither one has a dedicated cycling function, which I would really, really like to see. Neither one supports Ant+ speed/cadence sensors or power meters, which I'd also really, really like to see. Both are closed systems and don't provide much (if any) ability to import or export data. And hey, MS....lets get the web app up and running, eh?

I'm going to hang on to the Surge until I see which platform ends up getting the best support and features, but for now the Band has pride of place on my wrist.

 

[dkediger]

Thanks guys - nice write ups! Unfortunately, with the weather moving into the central KS to Kansas City area, I'll probably forgo making the side trip. We'll see...

 

[onlysublime]

Band!

The Microsoft Band has so many sensors and so much potential that'll only get better once developers have access to the hardware. We're already seeing it with the wallpaper feature for the Band.

A lot of the sensors aren't even being used in software yet due to the nascent nature of the Band.

If you go with a fitness band that only has 1 or 2 sensors, everything that band can do is all it'll ever do. You can't add sensors in the future. You would have to buy a new band.

You can actually grow with the Microsoft Band. The reason I got the Microsoft Band is all the sensors and all the potential. I'm not interested in a smartwatch that just wants to copy a smartphone into a watch. I have a smartphone for that! I want something that supplements my phone. I want something that does things my smartphone can never do. A smartphone will never have a galvanic sensor (though it's not yet utilized in the Microsoft Band). A smartphone will never have many of the functions that the Microsoft Band has or will have. Microsoft has taken the "build it and they will come" mantra. All it takes is for Microsoft to open up the platform to the possibilities.