"This close" to replacing my running watch

[gomezz]

The Band does have an official water resistance rating, I forget the IPX code but it's 1m for 30min I think.

In which case can you explain why Microsoft's published specs claim only minimal water / sweat resistance?

 

[Kronus24]

In which case can you explain why Microsoft's published specs claim only minimal water / sweat resistance?

Have you not seen my video of the Microsoft band fully submerge? I replied guess you didn't see it, Here it goes again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANcH-eLv9jw

 

[astondg]

In which case can you explain why Microsoft's published specs claim only minimal water / sweat resistance?

That's the Microsoft promo material and I'd say it's Microsoft covering themselves. The water resistance isn't enough to allow people to go swimming for example but I'm sure people would try if they heard the Band was water resistant.

The Microsoft published specs do specify the level of water resistance: https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...en-us%2Fsupport%2Fsafety-guide&token=_qhmHzH2

Towards the bottom

Microsoft Band meets these standards for dust- and water-resistance:
•IP6X: No ingress of dust. Complete protection against entry of dust.
•IPX7: Protection against temporary immersion in water (at depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes).
•IP67: Means it meets both the dust- and water-resistance standards above.

Microsoft Band has tested to the IPX7 standard. Though it meets this standard in testing, Microsoft Band is not intended to be immersed in water and immersion is not covered by the warranty.

 

[frankelweeze]

I don't know much about the Band but can you program it to do intervals and time training?
I still do 5 and 1 intervals to rehab my ankle (5 minute run, 1 minute walk). Does the Band do stopwatch, intervals etc??

 

[astondg]

I don't know much about the Band but can you program it to do intervals and time training?

You can't set these yourself but you can download preset, 'Guided Workouts' that are like what you're suggesting, using a stopwatch & haptic feedback to guide you through interval training. You might struggle to find one that exactly meets your needs though as they seem to be focused on improving cardio fitness rather than rehab.

Maybe in the future we'll be able to create our own custom guided workouts.

 

[Kronus24]

You can't set these yourself but you can download preset, 'Guided Workouts' that are like what you're suggesting, using a stopwatch & haptic feedback to guide you through interval training. You might struggle to find one that exactly meets your needs though as they seem to be focused on improving cardio fitness rather than rehab.

Maybe in the future we'll be able to create our own custom guided workouts.

Although the band is cable of doing these easy task with a update. Currently it can not. So many possible of the band but it needs time to mature. But one thing is for sure if you buy the Band is that its will get theses updates or Developers will make apps for it until it does. So if you cant wait look else where and then come back when the band matures more. Also, dont forget to weight you pros and cons of all the features the band can do currently too that other fitness bands can not, with the BIG upside of the potential of the band

 

[kevin shea]

I used the band in the DC Rock N Roll Half Marathon 2 weeks ago and can touch on two of the points here.
1. The race was run in a downpour. Streets full of puddles being splashed and heavy rain all morning. The Band worked fine the whole time. At the finish I did not take off my gloves and hit End so I can't say if the screen would have worked. If I took off my gloves and actually pressed End I think I would have been fine. But that leads to
2. No problem with battery life. Took it off the night before and let it charge all night so it was 100%. Left the hotel at 6:30 for a 7:30 race, ran a 1:41 Half marathon and like I said did not press End after finishing. It tracked me walking around the finish area looking for my family, walking to Metro, walking from metro to my hotel. In all I did a 14.53 mile half marathon and the GPS worked the whole way and the battery still said it was at 40%.

I am very happy with the band, wish there was a way to load my specific workouts and also would like to be able to set it to buzz me if I get out of a specific pace range, say it does nothing if I am between 7 and 7:30 pace but buzzes if I get too fast or too slow.

 

[kenjancef]

I am very happy with the band, wish there was a way to load my specific workouts and also would like to be able to set it to buzz me if I get out of a specific pace range, say it does nothing if I am between 7 and 7:30 pace but buzzes if I get too fast or too slow.

That would be nice. I tend to start my run way too fast, this setting would keep me in-line. Nice time for the half! My PR is 1:59, which won't be broken anytime soon! Glad to hear that it lasted that long too...

 

[littlebib]

There's only a couple of things that are holding me back:
1) Auto-pause. I hate having to manually stop the Band when I come up to a busy street where I have to wait to cross. A couple of times, I've accidentally stopped my run because I accidentally hit "end run" on the touchscreen.
2) Historical data - I have about 8 years of running history saved from my Garmins and I just don't want to give that up. I like looking through the years to see how I've improved (or not I suppose)
3) I don't often run in the rain, but I know the Garmin doesn't have any issues (including the touch screen working). I worry that the Band either wouldn't survive, or would at a minimum have some serious touch screen issues with wet hands.

To close out my own thread here, I've decided to mothball my Garmin except for a big race.
1) I've gotten used to not having the auto-pause and I haven't prematurely ended a run in quite some time. What I do is when I need to pause, I also turn the screen off right away. This prevents me from accidentally hitting "end run" on the screen.
2) Historical data - Since I bought the Band right at the first of the year it was a good breaking point from the Garmin. I can still hit my old Garmin data, but I really like not only having my running data, but all the other stuff (sleep, steps, calories) in the same spot.
3) Rain - Enough replies from people have convinced me that this isn't to really worry about.

I've recently completely a marathon (just beat the 4 hour mark which was my goal!) with both Band and Garmin on. Distance was dead on throughout. My 1 mile lap alerts were always within a couple of seconds of each other. Heart rate (Garmin chest strap) was pretty much dead on until mile 21 or so at which point the Band pretty much stopped recording. I was really looking at it during the race so I didn't notice until later, but I suspect that was because at that point I was more than a little wet from sweat (and dumping some water on my head) so the Band was probably slipping a lot and couldn't get a good reading. I was definitely too tired to care, I just wanted to cross the finish line.

So, to sum up my experience: Band is lighter, locks gps faster, doesn't require a chest strap to get a heart rate, and is just as accurate as the Garmin on all of these except in extreme circumstances. I do wish the Band displayed lap pace though but I'll survive.

 

[gadgetrants]

1) I've gotten used to not having the auto-pause and I haven't prematurely ended a run in quite some time. What I do is when I need to pause, I also turn the screen off right away. This prevents me from accidentally hitting "end run" on the screen.

This is sheer genius. I need to nominate you for some kind of award -- brilliant.

However (says the neurotic in me)...I've noticed on one or two occasions that I put the Band on pause -- for example, while I tied my shoe -- and it "pushed" end by itself. I mean, the run just ended without my fingers being anywhere near the screen. Is it possible that sweating so much, the two metal sensor surfaces...maybe some kind of skin conductivity did it? Anyway, presumably turning off the screen should work in that case too. *fingers crossed*

EDIT: sorry I forgot to add, CONGRATS on the marathon. That's equally amazing. Any time you feel like running another 20, I'd be more than happy to finish those last 6 for you! :winktongue:

​-Matt

 

[littlebib]

This is sheer genius. I need to nominate you for some kind of award -- brilliant.

​-Matt

I can't decide if you're mocking me or not...it works, but I wouldn't call it (or me) brilliant.

 

[gadgetrants]

I can't decide if you're mocking me or not...it works, but I wouldn't call it (or me) brilliant.

Forgive me, I was being serious. It's a simple, elegant solution. I used the word "brilliant" because it's only obvious in hindsight. Been on this forum for months and it's the first time anyone mentioned it.

-Matt

 

[anon(8555314)]

As far as battery life goes, recently I thought I had my band charged up for a 60 min bike ride. However, about 3-4 min into the ride, I got the low battery warning which comes on at 20%, right? In any case, I decided to just continue as planned, and see what would happen. The Band battery died at the 45 min mark, so I got 45 min on 20%.

The other question I had was whether it would save the ride up to the point when it died, or whether it would be lost. It did indeed save the ride up to the point when it died.

 

[Stan794]

There is defiantly issue with the band not having a suitable pause function while running... if you pause it for more than a minute or so it will automatically end your run.. which is very frustrating you end up with two records for the same run.. that is if you remembered to restart it.

I have been testing three devices for accuracy (band, Garmin 210 and Fitbit Charge) the band defiantly seems to give the most consistent results for route distance and accuracy, been having issues with Heart Rate but i think this is due to the band being slightly to big.. i used the guide and it said i needed a large however it is pushed as tight as it will go and it is still a bit too slack, i have even fitted some foam patches to tighten it up on my wrist.

The band in general is not designed for a user who carries out manual labour, mine is taking a battering while I am working, replacing screen covers weekly and the band in general is getting very scratched and battered.. office worker then maybe your ok other than knocking the screen on the edge of the table.

So enjoying wearing it but don't think its going to survive, the battery life is an issue always trying to keep it charged so i can track my runs (run at least 10km every day).. just wish they would do something about the pause...

 

[BBMINI]

I recently lost my longtime Garmin when I was already considering getting a Band, so I figured I'd buy one to test/see if it would be a worthy replacement of the Garmin. So far it's doing OK overall, but my biggest gripes are:
- can be very frustrating to use any swiping features with wet/sweaty fingers and screen (which is pretty unavoidable in the North Carolina humidity) whereas the Garmin's buttons worked no matter what. So it can be really hard to swipe down even just to see current mileage.
- can't swipe through other screens/functions (e.g. to see what time it is) when in Run mode without pausing or ending the run. Seems like a bit of an oversight to assume that nobody would want/need to use any other Band features while running.

Also still needing to confirm the GPS accuracy on trail runs. The GPS seems to do well on road runs without the interference from trees overhead, but I'm afraid it might not be as strong/accurate as the Garmin once I get into the woods and am winding through tight trails with heavy tree canopy. We'll see . . .

 

[gadgetrants]

- can be very frustrating to use any swiping features with wet/sweaty fingers and screen (which is pretty unavoidable in the North Carolina humidity) whereas the Garmin's buttons worked no matter what. So it can be really hard to swipe down even just to see current mileage.
- can't swipe through other screens/functions (e.g. to see what time it is) when in Run mode without pausing or ending the run. Seems like a bit of an oversight to assume that nobody would want/need to use any other Band features while running.

Also still needing to confirm the GPS accuracy on trail runs. The GPS seems to do well on road runs without the interference from trees overhead, but I'm afraid it might not be as strong/accurate as the Garmin once I get into the woods and am winding through tight trails with heavy tree canopy. We'll see . . .

Your first concern is a biggie...I hope Band 2 is better!

Second one...not an elegant solution, BUT: if you tap the action button during the run, on the Resume/End screen you'll see a teeny tiny circled-arrow icon in the upper left corner. That little guy will take you back out to the main menu while the run is paused. Maybe not what you want (and good luck doing it with sweaty fingers!) but it's there.

Third, I've been amazed by the quality of the GPS. I bet it will do fine in your neck of the woods!

-Matt

 

[Nate Silver]

I've noticed that about the "pause" feature as well; its pretty useless. I love the Band, and wear it every day, but it doesn't replace my Garmin watch. Primarily because of cycling stats (cadence/speed), and short battery life with GPS on (sometimes do all day hikes).........and yeah, I don't trust the optical HR enough for it to be my only source. You still can't beat a strap for granular data. GPS accuracy seems quite good, although I have had a couple of glitches; nothing serious though.

 

[BBMINI]

Second one...not an elegant solution, BUT: if you tap the action button during the run, on the Resume/End screen you'll see a teeny tiny circled-arrow icon in the upper left corner. That little guy will take you back out to the main menu while the run is paused. Maybe not what you want (and good luck doing it with sweaty fingers!) but it's there.
-Matt

Thanks for this tip. I've used the circle/arrow on all the other screens/functions but I guess I overlooked it during runs OR figured I HAD to stop the run in order for the circle/arrow to work. Will definitely use it on my next run since it'll be a big help.

Now for a different but related question for all you Band runners: Can the Band really track distance without the GPS on? I saw in this WP Central tip article that it says to turn off the GPS to save battery but it will still provide distance but just no map afterward. Is that correct? If so, how does it track distance without actually following you around via GPS tracking or knowing your average stride length?

Thanks again for all the info in this thread. I've learned a lot and am getting more optimistic that the Band can become my only replacement for my lost Garmin.

 

[gadgetrants]

Oh I wish you hadn't asked that question...I have trouble being concise normally, and that's an issue I have a lot to say about! LOL

OK, well let me try for once to give a short answer.

(1) You "calibrate" the Band by putting it in Run mode with GPS on, and then go for a few runs or walks outside.

(2) Later, you can repeat the runs or walks with GPS OFF -- it will use the motion of the Band (presumably, the accelerometer and gyrometer), coupled with what it "learned" when you calibrated, to estimate your distance moved.

An important caveat: I think the estimation method doesn't extrapolate well beyond the speed at which you do the initial calibration. E.g., if you calibrate while walking and then run with GPS off, I would expect it to grossly underestimate your speed (I saw this happen to me yesterday). On the bright side, since mine seems to be calibrated to a ~9-min mile, I can run on an indoor track at that pace with GPS off, and it will be within a few hundredths (yes, hundredths) of a mile from my true distance over a 3-4 mile run.

I think the old cliche' here applies, both literally and metaphorically...YMMV!

-Matt

 

[smatofu]

[can't swipe through other screens/functions (e.g. to see what time it is) ]
Microsoft, please fix those issues:
- there has to be a simple way to see the day time, for example, 12:15pm. 1st supposed solution, the Watch Mode is too dim for outdoors (also, Watch Mode+GPS=battery drain). 2nd supposed solution, pausing run and 10-20 clicks and swipes doesn't make much sense for such a basic feature. Have you ever run outside?
- ghost/shadow race: this is running against a previously recorded run. Every advance running watch (GPS+HRM) has this feature.

Everything else is pretty good! Just those 2 missing features...

S.