Review: The Up3 Fitness Tracker Is Too Little, Too Late
The Jawbone Up3 comes in silver and black. (Photo: Daniel Bean)
In the future, we will be ruled by machines. But not in the scary Terminator-esque way Elon Musk predicts. It’ll be voluntary and come in the form of subtle nagging from little wearables like the Jawbone Up3.
This is the inevitable fate I have accepted after spending a week with the $180 device strapped to my wrist. But that doesn’t mean I’m about to take it off. The fitness tracking band is a peppy overseer of exercise, sleep, diet, and, in this latest model, resting heart rate. While I was busy living life, it became my physical conscience, connecting the dots of my behavioral patterns through its addictive smartphone app.
The Up3 and its new, slimmer sibling, the Up2, are by far the best-looking bracelets on the fitness wearables market (which isn’t saying much, unfortunately). But they tragically lack two basic functions: a touch surface that works, and a strap that will stay put.
Flawed by design
With the premiere of the Up3, the old Jawbone design — a bendy, colorful band that wrapped around your wrist like a bangle — has been completely revamped. The wearable’s sensors are now encased in a hard, anodized aluminum shell equipped with capacitive touch. In theory, you’re supposed to tap it to change from “awake” to “sleep” mode, or when you want to act on a notification. This is meant to be a convenient shortcut for switching between activities but instead proves to be the most infuriating part of its design. To get the band to respond, its surface requires a very specific double tap. Though I became more practiced at it over the week, I was never able to prompt the bracelet’s response on the first try. And I was dismayed at how dumb I looked trying in the first place.
The Jawbone Up2 and Jawbone Up3, side by side. (Photo: Alyssa Bereznak)
Then there’s the Up3’s one-size-fits-all design. The stainless steel clasp loosens as you adjust it up and down the band. This eventually causes it to fall off at inopportune moments in the day. On at least two occasions, helpful passersby warned me I dropped something (the gadget). Which, you know, is not ideal. Thankfully, I had less of a problem with the Up2, which is lighter and thus more secure. And hey, at least neither of them gave me a rash.
Heart in a box
Considering how thorough the Up system’s tracking features usually are, it’s surprising that the band’s new heart rate measurement feature is so limited. The main reason for the Up3’s $180 price tag (now that it’s no longer waterproof) is its ability to read your heart rate. But currently the system doesn’t allow you to measure this information on your own. Each morning, right after you incessantly tap on your band to say you’re awake, it’ll automatically clock your resting heart rate. Jawbone reasons this is when the data point is most accurate: You’ve just woken up, you haven’t consumed any coffee, and you’ve been still for a few hours. After that, however, you have no option to gauge this metric again on your own. That’s a huge bummer for serious athletes who want to aim for a certain range while exercising. I understand that perhaps I’ll learn more about my overall health by gauging this information in consistent circumstances over time, but if I’m going to pay $80 more just for that feature, I’d like personal control over it. If you do want a fitness band with on-demand heart rate measuring, I’d recommend the $150 Fitbit Charge HR.
Say you’re the kind of person who prefers to sit back and let robots call the shots. Wearing the Up3 could still be the most helpful option for you. The software that tracks your behavior, named Smart Coach, is intuitively designed and a legitimate motivating force. Just as in past models, it challenges you to complete small, incremental goals (i.e., eat more fiber, take more steps) based on your behavior during the week. It also crunches numbers on your activities, summarizing your progress over time and telling you where you stand compared to other Up users. I know, for instance, that my average resting heart rate is 65 bpm, which Smart Coach so warmly assures me is “normal for an adult female.”
The app’s sleep-tracking system works with the Up3’s respiration sensors to parse through your shuteye. The result is a morning report card that categorizes your rest into different phases: light, deep, and REM sleep. The last, in case you’re unfamiliar, is a certain stage of rest necessary for storing new information in your long-term memory. Receiving this information each morning made me feel both accomplished and inspired to beat my own record. And though the app couldn’t always explain why my rest was terrible or terrific the night before, that motivation alone was enough for me to follow its suggestions.
Promises, promises, promises
Jawbone has promised that, as its data scientists continue to make improvements to the Up app, more features will become available. Its many sensors will be able to work together to automatically recognize what kind of physical activity you’re doing. But with the current product, tens of thousands of steps later, it still can’t recognize when I’m walking, let alone taking a barre class. The company has also sworn to eventually put the skin and ambient temperature sensors in the band to use, but currently they play no role in your measurements.
The Jawbone Up2. (Photo: Daniel Bean)
Based on how the Up3 was so ambitiously pitched to us back in fall of last year, it feels incomplete. It may remain the same vibrant motivator as its predecessors, but its updates are lackluster and unexciting. It’s clear the lighter, more attractive Up2 can do almost everything the Up3 can, aside from a once-a-day heart rate measurement and the collection of more-detailed sleep stats. Save yourself the $80. The Up3 isn’t yet worth the extra money.
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