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Microsoft Band
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Posting my own thoughts which might be of use to others looking at the band. I was and am a big Nokia then MS phone fan and was eagerly awaiting this as my first smart wearable. However I sold mine after owning it for just a month. Below are the reasons which are worth considering for others, although I'm sure some might be unique to me or are possibly fixable.
1) Battery Life - it's annoying having another gadget to remember to charge. I remember a review saying "just charge it while you're in the shower" - that guy must take 30-45+ minute showers! It means more cables around the bedside too. And if you wanna charge in another place you can't unless you bring the cable with you.
2) Sleep Tracker - I was excited about this for some reason, but all it basically tells me is that I'm not getting enough sleep which I knew already!
(we have two young kids). Seriously though, it's kinda annoying to have to wear it to bed. I also kept forgetting to "tell" it when I woke up!
3) I think (but might be wrong) it was draining my already-old phone battery even faster. To be expected I guess, but another annoyance. Fair enough this could be addressed with a new phone.
4) Never seemed to get notifications other than call / email / text. No Whatsapp or Facebook etc.
5) Even after you read an email on your phone you need to clear notifications on the band. I know there's an app to clear it, but there shouldn't need to be!
6) Really annoying feature is when you bring your phone in the car and car mode activates. Then when you get out of the car the phone stays in car mode as it still sees a Bluetooth device (i.e. the band!) connected and therefore it behaves differently. Switching BT off/on resolves, but another annoyance!
7) Coincidentally Garmin finally released a Windows Phone app to connect with their devices. I thought band getting text notifications would be useful on the bike, but now in theory I should be able to get them on my unit.
Sorry this isn't meant to be a rant, just points to consider. Other than the above I did enjoy having it.0 -
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Careful, you'll go blind ...Big thanks! I got mine delivered just there. Playing with it now
The Band 2 didn't strike me at launch as that big an upgrade from the 1 when it was announced, but after having it for the last few months, it's so much a better product ... and if you can get it for this lower price (and still sell on your Band 1), then it's really worth it!0 -
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So whats the story with power saving etc? What do I need the phone to do exactly? If I go for a run do I just wear the band? I know the band doesnt have GPS if you do this but it will gather all the other biometric data right?
It *will* have GPS without bringing your phone with you, it's one of the key features
When you're going for a run, swipe to the run tile, then swipe right to enable "Use GPS", then hit the 'Action Button' (it's the right, smaller of the two physical buttons on the Band) and the GPS will start trying to lock on, and buzz when it's ready. You can start running anyway and the GPS will begin tracking whenever it locks on, but I find that being in motion stops it from getting the initial lock, so you're better letting it lock on first. Also, I think it gets a better GPS signal outdoors, so try starting the lock on when you're already outside.
In the last update they also added a "GPS Power Saver" mode (you can find the option underneath the option to turn the GPS itself on in the Run/Bike/whatever tile), which does periodic GPS location tracking, rather than constant. If you're running more than 2 hours or so, you might need this, as I think that's about the limit of the battery life with GPS running constantly.
Other battery saving tips when running (or any active tracking like cycling, golfing) is to start the tracking, and then press the main button to turn the screen off (automatically it'll stay on constantly during an active tracking session).
As far as what you need a phone for - that's just for the initial setup, syncing data off of the Band, or any of the smart features (like notifications, emails, calendar etc.). For nearly all of the fitness stuff, it lives directly on the Band, although you will need to sync to phone to push the data to your Microsoft Health account and save it (beware: run out of battery on the Band and it'll lose all of the stored, unsynced tracking data. This was the case with V1 anyway, not sure if it's still true of the second one).
Once you've synced a few runs or other activities, goto https://dashboard.microsofthealth.com/#/ and login and you'll be able to see some really advanced statistics that don't show up on the Health phone apps.0 -
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