Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First off, I would like to point out that I own both the Jawbone UP24 and the Fitbit Force and will compare a few features in this review, but if you want a full review on the Fitbit Force I will be posting one on the actual product here soon. Hardware: The UP24 features new curved design on the top, has a smaller headphone jack that is only used for charging, and now syncs via Bluetooth. It has two green LED lights indicating day/night mode, a vibrating motor and a physical button for changing modes. There is no clasp, you just twist it on and it fits fairly comfortably if you chose the right size. It is thin and bulky so it tends to get in the way and raise my wrist when I type or use a mouse and can get annoying, I prefer a wider, flatter design. The Fitbit Force has a beautiful OLED Screen that shows you all of your stats without having to pull out your phone. The design is very minimalist, and to me is much more comfortable to wear vs the UP. It also does not snag on my jackets or long sleeve shirts and is very thin at the bottom so it is comfortable to type with it on where as the up can be very uncomfortable to type or use a mouse with it on. Battery Life - Battery lasts me about 7-8 days and takes about an hour to charge. The manual says to charge it only on a USB port on your computer, but I have charged it using my iPhone wall charger and car charger just fine. Pedometer - The UP seems fairly accurate for tracks your steps. If I wave my arm around or if I'm driving, the UP does not count steps whereas the Fitbit Force seems to count steps for any slight movement I make. Software: The App is just plain beautiful and intuitive. It is indeed what makes this product what it is. This is where this product shines over the Fitbit Force in my opinion, and is the reason I chose the UP24 even though it lacks a screen. Also works on Android OS. Activity Logging - Made extreme simple. You double tap + hold the physical button and it will start logging your work out. Once you are done, do it again and it will add an "activity" to your timeline in which you go to the iOS app and choose what type of activity it was from a preset list [walk, weights, run, cross train, hike, cardio, bike, yoga, stationary bike, pilates, elliptical, basketball, video games, tennis, dance, soccer, ski, other). Once you choose your workout, you can choose what the intensity was and it will adjust the calorie burn accordingly. What I also like is that if you forget to log your activity, or remember half way through your workout, after your stop logging the workout you can edit what time you began the workout and it will analyze those prior movements and add them to your logged activity. You can also calibrate your UP to your stride, by logging a known walking/running distance (track preferred) and going into your settings and choosing that activity and it will calculate your future walks/runs more accurately. The Fitbit Force lacks in this department, it seems very finicky to me, especially after having used the UP. When I log an activity it only shows up on the web app but not on my iOS app (not sure why) and it only lets me name the workout but does not let me choose what type of exercise it was or the intensity level. The only way I have found to do this is to manually add your activity every time which is annoying and not as accurate. Sleep tracking - The UP does this very well, you hold the button before you go to sleep until you see the LED moon, and feel it vibrate and press it again when you wake up. If you forget to put it in sleep mode, hit manually add sleep and it will automatically fill in your sleep and estimate what times you slept and woke up based on your movements. I've tried purposely sleeping without logging it to test this feature out and it has been very accurate. It also has a power nap mode (double tap 3 times + hold) and you can record your naps throughout the day and it will automatically wake you up based off your sleep cycle. It will show you a pretty graph with your deep sleep/light sleep cycle, and how many times you woke up based off your movements throughout the night. The Fitbit Force does at pretty good job at tracking sleep also, but doesn't break down your stats as well as the UP. Alarms - One of my favorite features, you can set smart vibration alarms that wake you up slowly based off your sleep cycle, I much prefer this over a loud obnoxious cellphone alarm. There is also an idle alarm that will vibrate after you have been inactive for a preset amount of time to remind you to get off your butt (Something the Fitbit Force does not have). Social - I loove the social aspect of the UP (Something the Fitbit Force also lacks) you have the ability to add your friends or random people (which I did because none of my friends own an UP) and cheer each other on and comment on each other's workouts and statuses. You can set your mood for the day with a status to go with it, you can view people's UP profiles and view their logged activities and goal progress. It makes it feel like a game and really motivates you to get off your butt and compete. App Support - The UP has plenty of supporting Apps, although the only ones I use are runkeeper and withings. Every time you log a run on runkeeper it will automatically add it to your timeline with a picture of your route and your running stats. Every time you weigh yourself on a withings scale or manually add your weight to the withings app, it will add it to your time line with a picture of a bar graph showing your weight history. Food Logging - UP has vast database of foods, I was even able to find items off certain restaurant menus. You can also take a picture of your food and type in the nutrition facts manually or use bar code scanner built into the app (what I mostly use). I really like this feature but am lazy at times to log everything I eat so I don't use it as much as id like to. As for the Fitbit... I'd recommend linking it to MyFitnessPal and use their food database. In conclusion: I absolutely love everything about the UP except the hardware itself. Although I do really like the design, compared to the fitbit force, it is slightly bulky, lacks a screen, and has no clasp. But the UP software is so well made and fun to use that I am happily willing to overlook that. I don't carry my computer with me everywhere so it is awesome to be able have all my detailed stats available to me. Although I do hope they make a windows metro app for it next! Fitbit already has one! The Fitbit band itself I actually prefer to wear, love the design, fit, screen, and color, but can't bring myself to like it as much as I'd like to because the steps always seem over counted and the app is way too basic for me. Also the fact that you have to pay 50$ a year for more in depth stats. Should be free in my opinion. Also don't like having to log on to the web app to see more details of my activities. - UPDATE [5 JAN 2014]- After extensive testing wearing both the Jawbone UP24 and Fitbit Force on my non dominant hand (left) I have found the Fitbit force to be grossly inaccurate. More so than I had originally thought. On a 10 minute drive to work the Fitbit recorded 126 steps while the UP recorded none. On a road trip back from NY to MD, the Fitbit counted over 400 steps while the UP24 constantly gave me my hourly idle alerts so I knew that no activity was being recorded. By end of each day, the Fitbit force counted 1,000 - 3,000 steps more than then UP24! Now I have also compared this data to the Moves App and the Runtastic Pedometer app for the iPhone 5S that both utilize its M7 motion processor. I started recording an activity on all four apps/devices before I stepped out of my door, and went to the mall with my wife for a typical day of following her around while she shops. I stopped recording when we arrived home and I stepped back inside my house (I was out for about 4 hours). Here are the results of my comparison test: iPhone 5S: Moves App - 3,106 Steps iPhone 5S: Runtastic Pedometer App - 3,313 Steps Jawbone UP24 - 3,269 Steps Fitbit Force - 3,886 Steps As you can see, the UP24 fell right in between the iPhone Apps, while the Fitbit Force had counted 500+ steps more. This is due to the high sensitivity of the Fitbit Force as it counts steps for any slight movement (as I mentioned earlier). To test this further, I had my wife wear the Fitbit force while she did her hair and when she gave it back it had counted over 1,000 steps... Another thing I have discovered about the Jawbone UP24 is that it can indeed be used for cycling/elliptical, although there is a catch. You have to wear it on your ankle (which its coil design somewhat allows, depending on your band/ankle size). Mine is a little stretched when I have it on as the ends don't touch, but it still feels comfortable over the sock and works just the same. I tried it on a stationary bike and it counted two steps/revolution, it also counts steps walking around very accurately as well. So that's something you can experiment with if you do decide to get one and you frequently go on bike rides or if for whatever reason you can't wear it on your wrist. _______________________________ If there is anything else you guys would like me to add to this review that I may have missed, please let me know and I will update my review.