Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I can't say enough good things about this fitness watch. This is going to be an in depth review so I apologize in advance for the length. First... THIS IS NOT MEANT TO ACT LIKE THE APPLE WATCH! I feel like a lot of people think, "Well, for $50 more, I can get a refurb apple watch or an apple watch on sale at Best Buy." Having both watches, I can at least help with some differences between the two. If your goal is fitness tracking, this is for you. If your goal is organization with some fitness benefits, this watch is not for you. To simplify the product description, here is what it does. It continually tracks your heart rate, your steps, stairs climbed, calories burned, active minutes, miles, exercise, and sleep. It seamlessly works with the FitBit app, which can also help you keep track of your calories consumed (works with apps like MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, etc), water intake, and weight. You can also set a goal in the app that allows you to set how many hours of the day you want to take 250+ steps each hour, however it does NOT remind you to move to ensure your success with this (See10/19/16 update on cons section). You can also set notifications to come through from your phone to your watch, such as text messages, phone calls, calendar reminders, and control your iPod, iPhone, etc music from it. As of this review, photos and emoji's do not come through on the watch. As of this review, this watch has 4 different face options, the ability to set it to your dominant or non dominant wrist, silent alarms, all day sync with your phone, etc. It also has FitStar workouts built into it. Pros: -Continuous heart rate monitoring. -Easy to see in daylight (nice bright screen). Has the ability to turn "auto" light/dim based on sensing your lighting conditions. -Face turns on when it senses you've turned your wrist to view it. It is mostly accurate. -Charges quickly. -Charge lasts, realistically, more like 3-4 days, but if you don't have notifications on, I'm sure it could last for 5. -Sleek design looks like a nice watch. Many people have said, "So how do you like your Apple Watch?" and then I have to tell them it's not an Apple Watch. I do think that this watch is continually compared to the apple watch, however. Cons: -The band is somewhat uncomfortable, especially to sleep in. The buckle digs into my wrist on the side. I would like to see someone come up with a buckleless, soft silicone band like the apple watch. UPDATE: 11/26/16: I've had several companies reach out to me and send me bands to try. All of them have been the Milanese style bands and the ones that came from china caused major hives/break outs on my wrist, one of which required a prescription cream to resolve. I have no idea what they're using in their metals because I generally don't have problems with metals. One milanese band has worked consistently well for me without skin issues and no problems with the magnet slipping. It was one I purchased for around $30 on amazon. So be wary of that. Also, they finally started making silicone. Ands that do not have a buckle that are similar to the Apple Watch band. I ordered one and received it in the mail today. So far so good. It's much more comfortable than any other band I've tried. Please note this is NOT an affiliate link and none of the things in the post are sponsored. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01J0RAP3U/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1 -As of the date of this review, the watch does NOT have "reminder to move" functionality. I feel like this is a basic essential to most fitness bands. Doing some reading, it looks like FitBit plans to have a firmware update in the future to include this, but as of now, it does not. UPDATE: 10/19/2016: Fitbit recently released an update to the Blaze with "reminder to move" however, I find it lacking. Essentially, it reminds you to move 10 minutes before the hour if you haven't gotten 250 steps in in the hours you have set to move 250 steps or more. What I would like to see is a reminder to move during hours that you set based on the amount of steps you want to achieve in a day. So if you want 10k steps between the hours of 6am and 8pm, let it remind you at a time you set (10 minutes or 15 minutes before the hour) if you haven't done 714 steps each hour in order to make it to that goal. I would also like to see something that reminds you to move if you've been "sedentary" for more than xx minutes. I had a fitness tracker several years ago that would buzz if you had been sedentary for 10 minutes. I liked that because it kept me active. This functionality would be great for people with office jobs that sit all day. It's nice to see Fitbit working at the solution of having reminders to move, but I don't think it's there yet. -The charger is somewhat annoying. FitBit has a proprietary charger so you can't just use any standard cord to plug it in. You have to take the face of the watch out of the band and put it in a boxed-frame like charger to charge. Given that the Apple Watch has a magnetic charger, I would have hoped to see something similar. This watch DOES NOT have an app store, it does not store music, you cannot respond to text messages, do facetime, send photos, etc from it. You cannot control your phone's camera from it. This watch is made for fitness and has basic smart watch functionalities, however it is made to be a fitness watch, not a smart watch. I have worked out with this on one wrist and my polar heart rate monitor watch (with chest strap) on the other wrist and got pretty much identical results. ****YOU HAVE TO WEAR THIS WATCH JUST ABOVE YOUR WRIST BONE OR YOUR READINGS WILL NOT BE ACCURATE**** If you don't like wearing a watch on that area of your wrist, this may not be for you. I like loose fitting watches, so this was an adjustment for me. The face *could* scratch easily, I think. I haven't had a problem with it, but I did have a couple of glass screen protectors on it and they both broke within a day, but my watch face is still fine without scratches. I hope this review helps. I don't think I missed anything, but if I did, I will updated it in the future.