taymur
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- Aug 22, 2012
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Band 2 Bugs + Defects
- Thread starter RumoredNow
- Start date
I have BT issues on both Windows and Android. In fact, the connectivity and sync were so unreliable on 572 build of WM10 I switched to Android. The sync has improved, but several times I had to restart my band/phone to get the Bluetooth work correctly. The Band would show it is connected but the phone and the app would refuse to see it.
For what it's worth, I'm returning mine... Here's my two cents:
1. GPS is broken. Badly. Never had any issues with the original Band. It would take it a minute or two to lock onto a GPS signal at a new location, but after that it would always acquire a signal in matter of seconds and stick to it. I'd say the device functioned on par with any of Garmin watches (I have both Vivoactive and Fenix 3) and was much-much better than Fitbit Charge or Adidas SmartRun. The accuracy of distance, pace, etc. was also spot on. When I first read reviews about the new Band saying GPS appeared slow I laughed. How can it be? Band 1 had it absolutely right, sure Band 2 would be an improvement? Unfortunately, no. Got the device on October 30 and went for a run the next morning. The reviews were right: it took it good 4-5 minutes to find the signal, but find it did, and the accuracy seemed comparable to Fenix 3, so I was content to let it be. Then over the next two weeks GPS functionality got progressively worse. It took it longer and longer to lock on the signal, it started dropping it until yesterday when GPS would no longer work at all. I tried everything: rebooting the phone and the Band, resetting the Band, using different phones and OS (went from Windows Mobile to Android). GPS is dead. After just two weeks and a handful of runs.
2. Heart rate is meh. The original Band blew my mind. I know it's personal, but I tried all sorts of optical heart rate sensors under the sun, and they all sucked for circuit training, free weights, and kettlebells. Basis B1 was laughable. Fitbit Charge was a bad joke. Wellograph I don't even want to remember. SmartRun was anything but smart, and Scosche Rhythm didn't quite dance. Even Apple Watch that does a very competent job with running, walking, and rowing couldn't handle it. Band shined for me. Yes, it would lose heart rate here and there, but it would recover real quick. Just stand still for a second or two, and it locks the rate again. Band 2 certainly didn't improve things at all. If anything, it now loses track of heartbeat quickly and then starts chaotically jumping around trying to "guess" it for the next 10-15 seconds. By the time it finally matches the strap monitor, your exercise is long over, and your heart rate is 15-20 beats lower than it was. It also tracks worse when running.
But it's rowing that really gets me! Basically, as soon as I start rowing the heart rate jumps to 150 (always 150 for some reason) and stays there no matter what for as long as I row. Doesn't matter the real heart rate. Doesn't matter the intensity. It's 150 baby, and it will stay that way for 2, 5, 10 or whatever minutes until you stop rowing, at which point it promptly jumps to your real heart rate. Start again -- and you will be back to 150 within half a minute.
3. Battery Life is Atrocious. One of the reasons I dropped the original Band for a while was its battery life. You had to charge the damn thing every one or two days which compared to 10-12 days with Garmin Vivoactive was pretty bad. Microsoft advertised Band 2 would have solid 2 days of battery life. Really, Microsoft? Doing what? Playing dead? Because for my usual day (10,000-12,000 steps), which would include 30-40 minute run with a GPS on and about 30 minutes circuit training, the battery is below 15% by the time it's evening. I have to take it off my arm and charge it every day, religiously. Or there will be no Band the next morning.
4. Sleep tracking is useless. I know I'm biased after Basis amazing sleep analysis, but I tried other trackers too: Up, Charge, Shine, Wellograph, Vivoactive, Vivosmart. Band 1 was hardly any good showing I was awake in the middle of the night when I clearly wasn't. Band 2 didn't improve situation at all. According to it, I spend hours at night wide awake (and have no recollection of it afterwards! Neither does my wife though). My "restful sleep" that was paltry 1.5 hours according to Band 1 went down to 20 minutes if at all. If we were to believe Band 2, I'm a stressed out insomniac with little or no restful sleep on a verge of a manic attack.
Now, it may be that my Band 2 is simply defective. Dead GPS and quick discharge time are certainly signs of some hardware trouble. But as everyone else, I was burnt by a clearly rushed and still rough Surface Book that is still flaky after firmware and 10586 updates, and we all know the truly pathetic state Windows Mobile 10 is. Don't even get me started on OneDrive egg-on-face. So, if you are considering buying Band 2, the question you should ask yourself is this: do you want to give $270 or so to a company that is clearly no longer interested in making quality products? And if you can't believe the data coming out of your tracker, what's the point of having it in the first place?
1. GPS is broken. Badly. Never had any issues with the original Band. It would take it a minute or two to lock onto a GPS signal at a new location, but after that it would always acquire a signal in matter of seconds and stick to it. I'd say the device functioned on par with any of Garmin watches (I have both Vivoactive and Fenix 3) and was much-much better than Fitbit Charge or Adidas SmartRun. The accuracy of distance, pace, etc. was also spot on. When I first read reviews about the new Band saying GPS appeared slow I laughed. How can it be? Band 1 had it absolutely right, sure Band 2 would be an improvement? Unfortunately, no. Got the device on October 30 and went for a run the next morning. The reviews were right: it took it good 4-5 minutes to find the signal, but find it did, and the accuracy seemed comparable to Fenix 3, so I was content to let it be. Then over the next two weeks GPS functionality got progressively worse. It took it longer and longer to lock on the signal, it started dropping it until yesterday when GPS would no longer work at all. I tried everything: rebooting the phone and the Band, resetting the Band, using different phones and OS (went from Windows Mobile to Android). GPS is dead. After just two weeks and a handful of runs.
2. Heart rate is meh. The original Band blew my mind. I know it's personal, but I tried all sorts of optical heart rate sensors under the sun, and they all sucked for circuit training, free weights, and kettlebells. Basis B1 was laughable. Fitbit Charge was a bad joke. Wellograph I don't even want to remember. SmartRun was anything but smart, and Scosche Rhythm didn't quite dance. Even Apple Watch that does a very competent job with running, walking, and rowing couldn't handle it. Band shined for me. Yes, it would lose heart rate here and there, but it would recover real quick. Just stand still for a second or two, and it locks the rate again. Band 2 certainly didn't improve things at all. If anything, it now loses track of heartbeat quickly and then starts chaotically jumping around trying to "guess" it for the next 10-15 seconds. By the time it finally matches the strap monitor, your exercise is long over, and your heart rate is 15-20 beats lower than it was. It also tracks worse when running.
But it's rowing that really gets me! Basically, as soon as I start rowing the heart rate jumps to 150 (always 150 for some reason) and stays there no matter what for as long as I row. Doesn't matter the real heart rate. Doesn't matter the intensity. It's 150 baby, and it will stay that way for 2, 5, 10 or whatever minutes until you stop rowing, at which point it promptly jumps to your real heart rate. Start again -- and you will be back to 150 within half a minute.
3. Battery Life is Atrocious. One of the reasons I dropped the original Band for a while was its battery life. You had to charge the damn thing every one or two days which compared to 10-12 days with Garmin Vivoactive was pretty bad. Microsoft advertised Band 2 would have solid 2 days of battery life. Really, Microsoft? Doing what? Playing dead? Because for my usual day (10,000-12,000 steps), which would include 30-40 minute run with a GPS on and about 30 minutes circuit training, the battery is below 15% by the time it's evening. I have to take it off my arm and charge it every day, religiously. Or there will be no Band the next morning.
4. Sleep tracking is useless. I know I'm biased after Basis amazing sleep analysis, but I tried other trackers too: Up, Charge, Shine, Wellograph, Vivoactive, Vivosmart. Band 1 was hardly any good showing I was awake in the middle of the night when I clearly wasn't. Band 2 didn't improve situation at all. According to it, I spend hours at night wide awake (and have no recollection of it afterwards! Neither does my wife though). My "restful sleep" that was paltry 1.5 hours according to Band 1 went down to 20 minutes if at all. If we were to believe Band 2, I'm a stressed out insomniac with little or no restful sleep on a verge of a manic attack.
Now, it may be that my Band 2 is simply defective. Dead GPS and quick discharge time are certainly signs of some hardware trouble. But as everyone else, I was burnt by a clearly rushed and still rough Surface Book that is still flaky after firmware and 10586 updates, and we all know the truly pathetic state Windows Mobile 10 is. Don't even get me started on OneDrive egg-on-face. So, if you are considering buying Band 2, the question you should ask yourself is this: do you want to give $270 or so to a company that is clearly no longer interested in making quality products? And if you can't believe the data coming out of your tracker, what's the point of having it in the first place?
Nate Silver
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- Dec 14, 2014
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I think its very likely that you have a defective Band. Other than some issues with the hr sensor, I haven't experienced any of the other problems you mentioned. A replacement might very well solve it. But it sounds like you've had multiple issues with MS, and truly, it sounds like another brand would be your best bet. Best of luck to you, personally I haven't found any tracker yet that does everything I want it to do, and do it perfectly. I also own a Fenix 3, and I like it very much, but it has its own set of issues, as I'm sure you're aware. I've owned multiple trackers, (Samsung Gear Fit, Garmin VivoFit, FitBit Surge, Mio Fuse, Basis Peak, Amiigo, Band 1, Band 2, Garmin Fenix 3). So far the Band (either 1 or 2) and the Fenix 3 are the only ones I've kept in consistent use. I still use the Mio Fuse, but only as a HR monitor (their software is truly awful). I'm hopeful that Band 2's hr issues will get sorted out with some firmware updates........speaking of which, how many have we had for the Fenix 3 now, I've lost count!
Couldn't agree more on trackers... Just finished diving into Garmin Vivosmart HR reviews from the field, which are quite disappointing when it comes to Garmin Connect, sync, and non-step based workouts heart rate. Who would have thought?
I'd say the most frustrating part about Band 2 is how close it is to what I need. Apart from all above not working :unhappysweat:, which may be due to a defective unit, firmware, or software issues, the only thing I'd ask for is connectivity to external heart rate monitor for high intensity circuit training like workouts and maybe an idle alert. As I said, the Band does admirably with the former, and apps exist that can take care of the latter. So, I guess all I'm asking for: can the damn thing just work as advertised?
GPS Fix: So, after my GPS went dead and wouldn't lock on a signal for 5-8 minutes in the middle of an absolutely clear, wide opened spot, I decided to do one last thing. I reset the device, took it off my wrist, and left it outside searching for GPS. When I came back about 12-15 minutes later it was reporting it locked on the signal. The second time it locked on it again almost instantaneously. After I put it on wrist (third time), it locked on the signal again, though this time it took it probably 15-20 sec, which I'd consider acceptable. I suppose I'll give this piece of garbage another change with a run or two... It's not like there's much alternatives out there, especially once Microsoft Health web dashboard enters the equation.
I'd say the most frustrating part about Band 2 is how close it is to what I need. Apart from all above not working :unhappysweat:, which may be due to a defective unit, firmware, or software issues, the only thing I'd ask for is connectivity to external heart rate monitor for high intensity circuit training like workouts and maybe an idle alert. As I said, the Band does admirably with the former, and apps exist that can take care of the latter. So, I guess all I'm asking for: can the damn thing just work as advertised?
GPS Fix: So, after my GPS went dead and wouldn't lock on a signal for 5-8 minutes in the middle of an absolutely clear, wide opened spot, I decided to do one last thing. I reset the device, took it off my wrist, and left it outside searching for GPS. When I came back about 12-15 minutes later it was reporting it locked on the signal. The second time it locked on it again almost instantaneously. After I put it on wrist (third time), it locked on the signal again, though this time it took it probably 15-20 sec, which I'd consider acceptable. I suppose I'll give this piece of garbage another change with a run or two... It's not like there's much alternatives out there, especially once Microsoft Health web dashboard enters the equation.
taymur
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- Aug 22, 2012
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to me everything works very good.
GPS is very quick and spot on. - but i live in Qatar which is very flat and has no towers in my area.
Sleep and smart alarm are very good, i am enjoying them.
I have to say, my band is registering stairs that i never climbed, i don't know why.
Update: health app is working fine again.
GPS is very quick and spot on. - but i live in Qatar which is very flat and has no towers in my area.
Sleep and smart alarm are very good, i am enjoying them.
I have to say, my band is registering stairs that i never climbed, i don't know why.
Update: health app is working fine again.
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I experienced such smoothing also with the Band 1.
BTW how, in your every day use, do the two compare?
Nate Silver
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- Dec 14, 2014
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I'd say if we can get the hr issue squared away, they are completely compatible as to performance. Fit and finish is much better on Band 2, and the screen is better. I've heard some noise about battery life, and yeah, it ain't great. But, I don't think its significantly worse than Band 1 (I did turn off the UV tile, its winter here, UV not an issue right now anyway! :wink: ) When I was cycling with gps for 2 hours or better, it was nip and tuck whether Band 1 would last through the day without a little bump-up. I'm on the trainer now, so no GPS, but with 2 hours on the trainer with screen on the whole time its still lasting through the day and night, with around 20% battery when I get up in the morning. I was initially concerned about the chunky clasp on top of my wrist, since I like to wear mine screen in, but I don't find it to be an issue.
Near as I can tell so far, it does everything Band 1 did, and some besides that may or may not be of much value (floors, for instance). It would appear that Band 2 is going to hold up much better than Band 1, but time will tell.
My band will only charge when it's completely dead. Very annoying. It just started a few days ago. I'll plug it into the charger and it will buzz, but no charging percentage/pic will show. Once its completely dead I'll use the exact same setup and it charges normally. What gives? I did a factory reset with no luck.
Mark Kaplan
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- Jan 31, 2013
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I have a Lumia 930 on 10586. I've found that I cannot get Cortana to open the Maps app when I ask for directions through the Band 2. I can see Cortana go to "looking for directions" and it hangs there. When I invoke Cortana via "Hey, Cortana", soft key + voice, and typing, Cortana has no issues bringing up directions. Anyone else have that issue?
I have to wonder something. I read day after day about all the problems with the bands. Sensors not working as they should be, batteries not charging, etc. It seems to be pretty common. There must be a lot of these things being taken back to the store. Are they all bad or are we only hearing from the handful of people having problems? Have they truly created a really bad piece of hardware that can never be fixed? Is this normal when a company rolls out a new product? Just seems like there are so many problems with them.
stuartbritt
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- Jun 9, 2012
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The step count on my band 2 is wildly out. If I'm out walking steadily, it counts ok. But if I'm just walking round he house, a few steps at a time between rooms, it walking round the kitchen, it just ignores most of the steps.
I have my original band and my band 2 on today. Original band currently on 2748, band 2 says 1352, and has hardly moved in the last 30 minutes while I've been on my feet.
I have my original band and my band 2 on today. Original band currently on 2748, band 2 says 1352, and has hardly moved in the last 30 minutes while I've been on my feet.
Nate Silver
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Yes, the Band 2 is extremely conservative with step counting, possibly intentionally, but perhaps too much so. I think MS can adjust this through firmware, if they get enough feedback about it.
Works perfectly for me when I ask for directions on my Band 2/1020 with WP8.1. I'm hoping that whatever issues are there with w10/Band 2 get worked out very soon as I have a 950xl on order.
Michael_JL
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- Sep 2, 2014
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The "Auto Brightness" setting does not work....stays on low when enabled. Returned it for a second band and same issue. I have been in contact with Microsoft Support regarding this...said they are elevating this...anyone else having this problem?
madusmacus
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- Dec 20, 2013
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My UV and ALS sensors do not work on mine so...
back it goes - oh the joy of it all :?(
Can anyone confirm that in direct sunlight the UV tile should show something
Clasp pointing at the sun etc?
If its firmware bug I might not UPS it back ... YET
Update 1: I Hacked up an APP to show the ALS readings and it appears my Band sensor is working fine (I guess the usage of the data is broken in latest firmware) - see image below
I am guessing the UV problem is actualy because I live in the UK but ill hack up another program :?) and report back
back it goes - oh the joy of it all :?(
Can anyone confirm that in direct sunlight the UV tile should show something
Clasp pointing at the sun etc?
If its firmware bug I might not UPS it back ... YET
Update 1: I Hacked up an APP to show the ALS readings and it appears my Band sensor is working fine (I guess the usage of the data is broken in latest firmware) - see image below
I am guessing the UV problem is actualy because I live in the UK but ill hack up another program :?) and report back
Last edited:
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