Microsoft Band

MJohnston

I stopped reading them a while back because their reviews and editorials were really annoying - they seem to plan a 'narrative' for every device, and then write their review to suit that. eg. last week Tom Warren sends out a Tweet asking people to reply with examples of apps that have recently been removed from the Windows store, but didn't do any follow up surveying of apps that have appeared recently. Lo and behold, next day there's a Verge article "Windows Phone has a new app problem", even though if you ask people who use it regularly, it appears that W10 has improved that situation.

g0g

Asked in an Argos today for a date estimate. Their system said earliest 22/11/2015 but might be later.

CatInABox

Ordered my Band 2 the other day, and it turns out that the trade in deal is in conjunction with CExchange. Every Band sent to Microsoft will be transferred to Cex, who will then check it and presumably try to sell it.

Kind of annoying that I'll have to send off my band to Microsoft, wait however many weeks until I get a refund, when I could just hand it in to Cex 20 minutes walk any. Ah well.

theothernt

The Band 2 started to go on sale in Seattle Microsoft Stores yesterday, so if you know anyone stateside... :pac:

ablelocks

theothernt wrote: »

The Band 2 started to go on sale in Seattle Microsoft Stores yesterday, so if you know anyone stateside... :pac:

also available on the online US microsoft store - (and the screen protector is extra...)

I got the refund on my band so will wait until Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals to order the Band 2

g0g

Band 1 now £ 69.99 from MS UK direct including the free screen protector.

themacdaddy

Anyone here actually got a chance to use the Band 2 yet? I am really interested in getting it, but would like to heat whats others say. There are so many reviews out there with different ratings and feedback. Hard to know what is accurate.

theothernt

themacdaddy wrote: »

Anyone here actually got a chance to use the Band 2 yet? I am really interested in getting it, but would like to heat whats others say. There are so many reviews out there with different ratings and feedback. Hard to know what is accurate.

What would you like to know about it?

MJohnston

themacdaddy wrote: »

Anyone here actually got a chance to use the Band 2 yet? I am really interested in getting it, but would like to heat whats others say. There are so many reviews out there with different ratings and feedback. Hard to know what is accurate.

Mine will hopefully be shipping tomorrow, so I'll let you know

themacdaddy

theothernt wrote: »

What would you like to know about it?

Basically what I said above, an actual users experience of it rather than a website who may have a biased review for one reason or another. Some many different reviews out there.

MJohnston wrote: »

Mine will hopefully be shipping tomorrow, so I'll let you know

Thanks mate.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Mine should be with me tomorrow. Hope to have a play with it over the weekend.

g0g

Some Argos Ireland stores have them in stock! I reserved one in Blanch and will be collecting hopefully shortly. I even called to be certain and they said they defo have them. € 254.99 plus hopefully get a € 10 voucher back too

MJohnston

Mine's delivered to my office, just waiting on the mail guy to come around and drop it off

g0g

MJohnston wrote: »

Mine's delivered to my office, just waiting on the mail guy to come around and drop it off

If it's a heap of cr.ap please PM me within the hour!:D

Also, interested to hear feedback on size. I reserved a medium and I measured approx 170mm around my wrist.

MJohnston

I've ordered a medium too, had a large Band v1 and I always had it on the tightest possible setting, and sometimes it was still too loose, so I'll let you know here. Tempted to go down and ask him directly for it.

Crocked

g0g wrote: »

Some Argos Ireland stores have them in stock! I reserved one in Blanch and will be collecting hopefully shortly. I even called to be certain and they said they defo have them. € 254.99 plus hopefully get a € 10 voucher back too

I'd been watching the Argos site as they are a lot cheaper then Amazon but had missed it updating this morning.

Just reserved one for collection tomorrow, working out about €40 cheaper and Amazon still hasn't shipped my pre-order.

Cheers for the heads up.

MJohnston

So I just got mine from the mail guy. Initial impressions:

+ Fit is much more comfortable, but weirdly I kind of miss the reassuring restrictiveness of the original Band - I'm sure I'll get over it!
+ Charging percentage indicator goes up in smaller increments than the last one (which would jump in 10% values)
+ Setup is really easy
+ Screen is a nice improvement on the original
+ Rotate Watch mode is great
+ Size is very different, as I said I got the medium and I'm actually nearly able to tighten the clasp completely on this one - I think that's because the sides of the band are much more flexible. For comfort I've taken it out a couple of notches though!

If you have questions about it, let me know.

MJohnston

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Is it worth the step up money wise from the first band?

Do you mean for upgrading or for buying new?

MJohnston

I won't be able to say for sure until I've used this for a while, but the build quality seems so substantially improved on this one that I'd say it's worth the extra. My Band v1 (the third one I've had in a year) was literally just starting to fall apart on Monday, and the charging contacts have been buggered for a good 2-3 weeks now, whereas they've corrected all of those flaws on this one.

g0g

MJohnston wrote: »

So I just got mine from the mail guy. Initial impressions:

+ Fit is much more comfortable, but weirdly I kind of miss the reassuring restrictiveness of the original Band - I'm sure I'll get over it!
+ Charging percentage indicator goes up in smaller increments than the last one (which would jump in 10% values)
+ Setup is really easy
+ Screen is a nice improvement on the original
+ Rotate Watch mode is great
+ Size is very different, as I said I got the medium and I'm actually nearly able to tighten the clasp completely on this one - I think that's because the sides of the band are much more flexible. For comfort I've taken it out a couple of notches though!

If you have questions about it, let me know.

Face in or face out?

MJohnston

Face on the inside for me, if they added a rotated orientation to the UI I might try outside, but right now it's still an un-natural wrist movement for me compared to inside. One thing I will say, it bumps up against my keyboard *far* less than the Band v1 did on the inside.

CatInABox

I've got mine as well, which was unexpected as I went with the 3 to 5 day shipping.

So far, the refinements alone are worth the upgrade price. Feels so much better on the wrist for me, and I never had a problem wearing the first band. One thing I have noticed is that you can't make it tighter without using the clasps, on the Band 1, you could have it loose throughout the day, but when you wanted to exercise, I'd just make it tighter by squeezing the entire band. Now I'll need to squeeze the clasps and then move it.

Charging it is also much better, the last charger became very hit and miss over time, I can't see that happening here.

themacdaddy

Microsoft Band 1 £54.99 on amazon today...link here

MJohnston

themacdaddy wrote: »

Microsoft Band 1 £54.99 on amazon today...link here

Considering you can get £70 rebate from Microsoft for one when buying a v2, that's an interesting deal!

themacdaddy

MJohnston wrote: »

Considering you can get £70 rebate from Microsoft for one when buying a v2, that's an interesting deal!

Very true. Bit of hassle though no....i.e. buying it, then sending it back, then waiting on rebate on band 1.

How was your first night with the band?

CatInABox

themacdaddy wrote: »

Very true. Bit of hassle though no....i.e. buying it, then sending it back, then waiting on rebate on band 1.

How was your first night with the band?

Again, I never had a problem with sleeping with the first Band, but have to admit that the Band 2 is easier to sleep with. Because it's more comfortable generally, I have it fastened tighter, which means it doesn't move around as much in the night. The first band would move during the night, and then because it was "stiffer", it would hurt if I put my head/pillow on top of it.

As I said though, even with that, I never found it difficult to sleep with.

g0g

Finally got started with mine this morning and I like it a lot so far! I'm just using the standard app that you start off with. Any recommendations on the best one? I see Fan Band advertised a lot and isn't there one that lets you read all the sensors? Very comfortable on the wrist, and this is even after using a much lighter MiBand the past few months. The notification vibration is nice and gentle. I was worried the phone might protest when I asked it to pair with my car bluetooth at same time as band but it worked fine. Twisting and lifting wrist to read time is a great feature.

themacdaddy

g0g wrote: »

Finally got started with mine this morning and I like it a lot so far! I'm just using the standard app that you start off with. Any recommendations on the best one? I see Fan Band advertised a lot and isn't there one that lets you read all the sensors? Very comfortable on the wrist, and this is even after using a much lighter MiBand the past few months. The notification vibration is nice and gentle. I was worried the phone might protest when I asked it to pair with my car bluetooth at same time as band but it worked fine. Twisting and lifting wrist to read time is a great feature.

Tempted to buy one in Argos today.

CatInABox

g0g wrote: »

Finally got started with mine this morning and I like it a lot so far! I'm just using the standard app that you start off with. Any recommendations on the best one? I see Fan Band advertised a lot and isn't there one that lets you read all the sensors? Very comfortable on the wrist, and this is even after using a much lighter MiBand the past few months. The notification vibration is nice and gentle. I was worried the phone might protest when I asked it to pair with my car bluetooth at same time as band but it worked fine. Twisting and lifting wrist to read time is a great feature.

I was amazed that they didn't have this on the first band, to be honest.

Went out for my first run today, was weird having it fit better, but it's so much easier to clean afterwards, very easy to use a wetwipe to clear it compared to the last one.

It really seems like they took every criticism and wanted to tick it off the list.

MJohnston

I have to say, after a day using it, they've made a lot of little tweaks to the UI that I wasn't expecting from reading reviews. For example you can now set alarms and reminders to recur on Weekdays, Weekends, or every day, which is a fantastic, yet tiny, addition.