I gave up on the MS Band

[Tim Stone]

For those in this thread who do have the Surge ( and I've looked at it a few times ), how comfortable are you with the charging connection. I bought my wife an HR, and the charging connection really bothers me. It's tight, but those are very thin little clips and I wonder how long they will last. I do like the magnetic connection on the Band ( and others ).

 

[Nate Silver]

For those in this thread who do have the Surge ( and I've looked at it a few times ), how comfortable are you with the charging connection. I bought my wife an HR, and the charging connection really bothers me. It's tight, but those are very thin little clips and I wonder how long they will last. I do like the magnetic connection on the Band ( and others ).

I think the charging ports are different between the Charge and Surge. The Surge charging port was a bit finicky. You had to make sure it was in there right, and a pretty slight jostle would break the connection. As long as I left it face down with the cable sticking up, it was fine. On its side it would sometimes get dislodged if bumped.

 

[locokip]

Funny that I had the first "issue" with my band today. The notifications for texts and phone calls started giving me just a blank screen on my Band. I made sure to sync my band with the Health app then turned off the Band and turned it back on again. Back to normal Just a weird glitch I guess.

 

[dbregman]

My main issue with the Surge versus the band was the notifications. I have come to rely on the band notifications and never have my phone ringer on. With the surge there was a long delay (vs the band that shows a call before my phone) if the notification came at all.

 

[maflynn]

Just curious about this. Did it start taking longer to lock in after the last firmware update?

This was before and after the firmware update.

I need to get off my duff and call MS again, since my last interaction has was not as helpful as I hoped.

 

[badMojo69]

Never had an issue with my FitbitOne and I'm just waiting for the MS Band 2. Never buy gen 1 anything Microsoft...ever
Actually these days it seems like you're better off waiting on gen 4 devices from them.

 

[jwpear]

@mayflynn You haven't found the Surge to be itchy? I got my wife a Charge HR. I work it for a day just to compare with my Band. I found that it was itchy throughout the day. The material of the Charge HR band feels similar to the Band, but I don't find the Band is itchy. Also, the glass/plastic coating of the heart rate sensor on the Charge HR feels like it sticks to my skin more than the Band's sensor. I haven't compared material of the Charge HR to the Surge. Maybe the Surge uses better material for the band and HR sensor. Anyway, I was disappointed because I thought a Charge HR or Surge might be my backup if the Band doesn't pan out.

I'm three months into using my Band and I'm pretty happy with it. The GPS is flaky, but I can tolerate it. My biggest issues have been corrosion of the skin sensor under the face and flaky HR monitoring. I think I have the HR monitoring figured out. That leaves the corrosion issue. I swapped with MS once just before Christmas. I'm thinking it won't make it a year before the thing will stop charging due to the corrosion.

Good luck with the Surge.

 

[B Hammer]

I will agree about the service from Microsoft being superior. My wife's Band had an issue and Microsoft provided an exchange easily.

My wife is a fitness instructor. Owning a Windows Phone, she wanted a health wearable that would play nicely with her phone. While Fitbits are nice, she felt the support for Windows Phone owners was second rate; also, Fitbit doesn't have the best customer service. After some discussion and a lengthy consideration, I bought her the MS Band.

During the last firmware update the screen froze and nothing I did (e.g. resetting the band) changed that. After speaking with a Microsoft representative she offered to exchange the Band for us. I live 1.5 hours from the nearest MS Store, so the representative offered to expedite the shipping of the Band, both in returning it and receiving the new one.

This is why I own Microsoft products. I am always treated well. This is based on my experience working with Microsoft's customer service for my Lumia phone, my Xbox One, a Dell PowerEdge, a couple of controllers, a tablet, and my wife's Band.

Unless Fitbit changes their customer service practices, my wife won't consider another Fitbit.

 

[eyecrispy]

I've owned the Band and now the Surge. The Surge is way better for my needs. Way more comfortable and better looking. I do miss having all notifications but can live with it. The Band has more potential but MS hasn't done a single thing with it since release and it's terribly uncomfortable and battery life sucks. I run a lot and use GPS. The Band regularly gave me low battery in the middle of a 3-5 mile run. Some folks told me to charge before a run but why should I have to get up earlier than I usually do to juice my device? The Surge does not need that. Neither are perfect but for me, the Surge is it for me right now.

 

[Matt Addy]

I gave up on the band when it was released cause it wasn't released in my country

 

[anon(4054009)]

I gave up on the band when it was released cause it wasn't released in my country

Too bad So sad.

 

[bremic9188]

Funny that I had the first "issue" with my band today. The notifications for texts and phone calls started giving me just a blank screen on my Band. I made sure to sync my band with the Health app then turned off the Band and turned it back on again. Back to normal Just a weird glitch I guess.

I was having this same issue. Went on for about a week or so, then my screen just completely died about 2 weeks after. The Band itself would power on, connect to my phone, and register steps. You could even see the backlight on the screen, just no image. Sent it out to be replaced this past week.

 

[cj-m]

As a matter of interest, does the MS Band have satellite caching? I think that would go a long way towards quicker GPS lock ons.

 

[DroidUser42]

As a matter of interest, does the MS Band have satellite caching? I think that would go a long way towards quicker GPS lock ons.

No idea. But note that some phones use AGPS - where they use the data connection to get information rather than wait to get it from the satellite. That allows them to jump-start the process.