Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've had the Band 2 since it released last week and I've quickly fallen in love with it. As an athlete, I have some diverse interests that aren't covered by typical fitness trackers. I'm a cyclist during the summer, and the Band 2 released a little too late for me to test its GPS functionality, but I can use it on my stationary bike just fine. As a longsword-specializing fencer, it's actually providing some useful data I haven't seen in the literature on HEMA elsewhere. The Band is clearly meant for mainstream athletes--joggers, bikers, golfers--but the band's 11 sensors are versatile enough for non-conventional utilities as well. As a smart watch, I'm not sure it has the features most users would be looking for. It has no browser functionality, it has limited email/texting capacity, it can't make calls or play games or do any of the hundred things the Apple Watch can do. But at the same time, I find that refreshing. It's straightforward, focused approach is actually a feature for me. It doesn't try to be a laptop on my wrist. It's a fitness tracker with some communication capacity, too. That's what it is. Fitness, plus *basic* communication alerts. Don't expect any more. I'm a teacher, and just like my students, my phone is "Off and Away During the Day," but having the band on my wrist allows me to quick-glance at incoming texts/emails. For me, this means I often see school-centered email DURING THE DAY, when otherwise I'd miss them by hours. This helps me immensely, but the actual practicality will be limited for other users, primarily because you cannot respond via the band. It only lets you see the headline and a few lines after that; school communications are rarely any longer. You can respond to text messages, via the built-in, tiny, hilarious little keyboard, which manages to be significantly more accurate than my smart phone or tablet's adaptive keyboards. Honestly, I thought I'd never use it... but I prefer the band's keyboard. Whether or not that is the novelty of the thing remains to be seen, but I'm impressed nonetheless. The Band 2 includes a few other features that probably go unsung by most users. The stopwatch and timer are invaluable in the classroom. With a flick of my wrist I can check how much time remains on an activity; with a few taps I can check my schedule without pouring into my cellphone or digging up my email calendar; I can skim the weather to predict whether or not practice will be cancelled. They're silly little things, but in my profession, ever minute saved is a minute I can focus on a child. This thing ought to be marketed to teachers, not athletes. Though, I'll tell you what: I've discovered I don't walk nearly as much as I thought I do.... One of the other features Microsoft is pushing is the sleep tracking. This is passive on the Band 2: it picks up on your sleep by your heart rate and, I presume, the gyroscopic information. It can be triggered manually as well. After you wake up, the Band synchs with your phone/tablet to present you with a really nice, clean view of sleeping statistics. I've struggled with both insomnia and sleep apnea in the past, and it's interesting for me to look at how I"m doing, sleep wise. I've never tracked that before, but I've been paying close attention to it since I strapped the Band 2 on my wrist. I don't necessarily know how to improve the quality of my sleep, and its advice is pretty mediocre: "Try not to be so stressed before you go to sleep!" Yeah, try to take care of 100+ children entering Adolescent Development Hell, Band 2. Get real. The device is a touch on the bulky side, it can be slightly uncomfortable (I wear it above my wrist bones and it seems fine there), and the battery life leaves something to be desired. I turn the Band 2 on airplane mode and kill BluTooth when I'm in the school building to conserve power (doing so takes only a few seconds), but it still seems to drain to about 50-60% by the end of the day. It's not the prettiest of devices. But for what it is, I really like this thing. It's found an instant home in my classroom, and in my daily life as a text-messager and data junkie. But I can't present the illusion that the Band 2 is a smart watch. It's a smart tracker, a fitness watch, or something in between. For those looking for a more robust option, Android Wear and the Apple Watch exist. For athletes, teachers, and biometric fans, I can solidly recommend the Band 2.