Side by Side Comparison of: Fitbit

I had a Fitbit Flex for ~18 months until it fell off my wrist one day when I was out walking, and was never seen again.The bracelet was definitely the weakest link in that design, since they wore out frequently and had a tendency to snap open and fall off. After existing for a few months without a Fitbit, I realized that I had lost my motivation to get out and walk and get my 10,000+ steps in, so I decided that the Fitbit Charge HR Wristband was a better solution for me. The watch-style strap ensures that it will never fall off. It's a bit clunky looking on my small wrist, but I don't really mind, since so many people wear them these days, and everyone knows what it is. I also no longer have to wear a separate watch.

I find the Heart Rate counter to be quite accurate after comparing it several times to a manual count. The step counter, however, is not quite as accurate. I count out 100 steps while walking and the Fitbit usually records about 95 steps. 5% accuracy rate isn't going to bother me that much, as I will just have to walk 5% more to get credit for the 10,000 steps ! I also like the stair counter, and it seems to be fairly accurate. It also keeps my honest because I really thought I was going up and down the stairs in my house more often during a day -- now sometimes I just charge up and down a few times just to get the counter to register a higher number.

The sleep tracker isn't particularly accurate for me, because I read my Kindle in bed for 15-30 minutes each night and sometimes in the morning too; it tends to regard this as sleep or restless time since so little motion is required to turn the pages on the Kindle.

I enjoy the social / challenge aspects of the Fitbit App and Dashboard. I like seeing how many steps my daughters are completing each day, as well as some of my friends.

Setup was fairly easy, though there seemed to be no way to do it on the PC, since I had to deactivate the old Fitbit and link to the new one. It was much easier to do it on the Android App, though the Fitbit arrived with no charge on the battery and I had to recharge before I could do anything.

I miss my Fitbit. It took me a while to realize that I had made a mistake by switching from my Fitbit Charge HR to a Moto 360 smartwatch. I have been apart of Fitbit for several years, ever since I received a Fitbit flex for my birthday two years ago I have loved Fitbit, and I've upgraded twice since. The wristband is comfortable to wear and the tracking information is the most accurate I have seen. What really won me over as a fan was the customer service and the Fitbit app. If I ever had a problem or question with my Fitbit I felt comfortable enough to send a message to customer services and received help back very quickly. They were helpful, respectful, and accommodating. The app is incredible and I have continued to use it even after I switched to the Moto 360 . The app is one of the best apps that I've seen in tracking calories, weight, water, and exercise. So, if I loved Fitbit so much, then why did I switch? I fear that I may have gotten caught up in the smartwatch whirl wind and looked for a watch that would be better with phone notifications. Phone notifications was my one complaint with the Fitbit Charge HR. It was said to notify you when a phone call was coming in, but often this feature was delayed so that I wouldn't be notified until after the call came in. I switched to the Moto 360 because I thought I would be able to get the best of both worlds (notifications and steps tracked). I never imagined that I would miss my Fitbit for the accuracy, sleep tracking, battery life, and excellent service. I will not make that mistake again. I may even look into getting an upgrade. Trust me, there is no better company out there than Fitbit.

Standard for all my reviews: When reviewing products, I always remain objective and honest about the product or service. I always review with information that I feel others would like to know about the product as I always assume what I'm writing will influence for or against the purchase. I always try to go above and beyond surface characteristics and input into quality, value and application. Most importantly, I will always end the review with an answer as to whether I'd purchase the product again which I believe is the most critical question pertaining to the item. To manufacturers: Want me to review your items, just let me know!

I love my Fitbits and so does my family. I won't bother with other knockoffs or brands. My daughter was the recipient for this one and she loves the color and functionality. Fitbit makes a great quality device and while some are calling these an exercise fad, I don't see it. I also used the Nike Fuel band and the tracking, challenges, etc. make for a more immersive experience that makes you want to move to get your goal in. We like to track our steps and the activities that we're doing when we get our goal. There's been multiple occasions where instead of plopping down into bed that I've been doing jumping jacks in front of it instead to get my goal before going to sleep. Movement is movement. Life is about movement and anything that can help motivate you to move is a good thing. Fitibit has a great product, is a great company and I look forward to more features and benefits as the products mature.

I love my fitbit. I had previously owned a polar heart rate monitor with a chest strap. I never just wore it around the house and It didn't tell me how many steps I had gone or really anything but time, calories burned and heart rate. I paid just as much for that as I did this. I wish this was out a few years ago when I made the purchase.
The heart rate monitor is pretty accurate. And more comfortable. I run 3-4 miles 4 days a week and the first time I used the fitbit I also used my chest monitor to see how similar they would read. The fitbit seems to take a bit longer to register but ultimately they seem about the same. So really no point in wearing the chest strap now. I use to hate wearing watches too. The fitbit I wear all the time. It's not too bulky it doesn't pinch and it motivates me to do more! I love doing the challenges with friends too!!

Full disclosure, I ordered the Fitbit Charge HR only after I gave up on Jawbone fulfilling my preorder for the Up3 and once I realized the Fitbit Surge was like having a VCR strapped to your wrist. Further complicating my decision was the reviews that were all over the place on Amazon. Either people loved it or they thought it was the biggest piece of crap ever. I am writing this review to try and offer a realistic perspective for those looking to buy the Fitbit Charge HR.
First, disregard the reviews from all the "personal trainers" and "hardcore" gym goers out there. It's amazing how everyone becomes a trainer or gym rat when reviewing a piece of workout equipment. Wrist based heart rate monitoring is still in its infancy and if, and I stress if, you are so hardcore that a possible 5-10 beat variation is so critical then you need to stay with chest based HR monitoring for awhile. The Charge HR isn't for that. Not to mention, I haven't seen that it is off like others have said. I was skeptical and I have a Garmin Running GPS watch with a chest HR strap and I see the two being pretty consistent.
Second, I cannot stress enough the quality of the Fitbit app and web based dashboard. They are motivational and intuitive and they give you goals to shoot for. I have yet to see any sync issues or any of the other nonsense I have seen in other reviews.
Finally, $150 is a lot of money but it less than other comparable products out there. To me this is the perfect entry level device. If you like the concept and are disciplined, then you can upgrade to another device. if you are trying to get a snapshot of what you are doing on a daily basis and how you can make some life and fitness improvements, this device is a perfect way in. If you are a "personal trainer" or just "crushing it" beyond what the Charge can handle, you should probably do another set of burpees, stick with chest strap HR monitors and save your "insightful" reviews for Flex magazine.
Bottom line; the Charge HR is well worth the money. No product is perfect but this one does perform as promised. Amazon has the best customer relations of any company out there so if you don't like it you can send it back anyway. I hope this review helps. I know when I was looking, these reviews can be ridiculous, contradict and misleading. Give it a shot! You won't be sorry!

I love how versatile this Fitbit One is. I have used a Humana pedometer in the past and this does so much more. The Humana pedometer clip broke in the past or the pedometer fell off and the clip weakened. I got it as a deal through the insurance company and it was what I paid for- cheap!! The Fitbit can take a little water when I wash my hands, stays on my arm in the strap, and tracks not just my steps, but flights of stairs, calories, and something very unique- my sleep patterns! I have heard others say they aren't sure about the accuracy, but from view-point, my steps are tracked way more accurately than with the Humana pedometer in which I always felt cheated on steps because I am short and take a lot of very short steps which I don't feel were recorded so I always had less and it took hours of walking to get the required 10,000 steps a day to earn points. Yes, this is awesome and it has a clock on it too- so no need to have a wristwatch.

I've had this little guy for over a year now - I wanted to get some mileage out of it before I reviewed it - and I'm still a big fan.

First - I opted with the Fitbit One because a.) it had high reviews and b.) I wanted something that did both sleep tracking (so Zip was out) and I didn't have to wear in an ugly bracelet on my wrist (so pretty much everything else was out). I usually keep this in my pocket or clipped to my bra - works great in both places.

ACCURACY: when I first got it (and a few times since then) I walked around counting my steps then checked with the fitbit -each time it's been within about 3 steps of how many steps I counted out of 50, regardless of if I wear it on my wrist, clipped to my bra, or in my pocket. just now I stuck it on my wrist and shook my hand back and forth vigorously 20 times and it added on 8 steps, so if you really want to cheat the system you can - though it probably will take more effort to shake on extra steps than actually just walk. I haven't had any problems with it adding on a lot of steps after car rides. I had a baby 6 months ago and have found that it counts bouncing up and down to calm a fussy baby as a step, but I'm cool with that - it's pretty much like jogging in place. the floors climbed feature seems fairly accurate - I haven't actually spent a day counting how many times I go up and down our stairs to compare it and it think it sometimes will count walking up a steep hill as a flight of stairs (once again, I'm cool with that), but on days i'm cleaning the house and thus going up and down stairs more often than usual my flight count is significantly higher. whether or not it gets your distance correct depends on how accurately you set your stride length - I think the easiest way to make sure it's set correctly is to go for a walk and set the GPS tracker on your phone if you have one, then once you get to 1 mile on the GPS check and see what your fitbit is telling you then adjust accordingly.

SLEEP TRACKER: it's cool, it shows when you're "asleep" (not moving), when your "restless", and when you're "awake" - there are two settings sensitive and normal, apparently normal is if you're wearing it on your wrist and sensitive is if you have it in a pocket or something (because some pajama's have pockets - you know, for when you need to hold stuff while you're sleeping . . .) I set it on normal because I wear it on my wrist. I tried it on sensitive for a while to see if it worked better - it just freaked me out and told me only 1/2 of my time in bed was spent sleeping - I started wondering if I really was tired and not well rested, even though I never felt like I had trouble sleeping before. . . - just read the instructions and don't freak yourself out. Often times it will show me "restless" times during the night when I am definitely awake nursing - I guess there's a certain movement threshold you have to pass to be considered "awake", so it's not 100% accurate in that regard. it also doesn't coach you in sleeping well - just gives you the raw data on what happened during your night. (which has been super helpful with nursing - it's nice to see the trends of how long the baby's sleeping, how often we're getting up, how long we really are up for, etc. without having to have the presence of mind to make note of it while I'm half asleep). you can set goals on the app for how much sleep you're aiming for each night and set goal go-to-bed and wake-up times. putting the fitbit into and out of sleep mode is super easy (you hold down the button till it buzzes) and if you forget to put it in sleep mode one night or accidentally let it run well into your morning it's easy to go in and fix the times on the app. I love the silent alarms - I was skeptical that a little thing buzzing on my wrist would wake me up - but it works great and my husband appreciates how quiet it is. there is no snooze - which is good for me because I'm one of those snooze five times type people - this forces me to set a realistic time to get up and do it (though to be honest, I set a second alarm 10 minutes after the first one just incase. . .) you can set as many alarms as you want and have them go of on any day you want, so if you want to set alarms to remind you to get up an move around every hour or have an alarm that only wakes you up on

* Note: I'm not a big fan of the little sleep wrist thing that comes with the fitbit. after a few months the velcro stated pulling it apart. For a while I cut off the top of one of my husband's socks and wore it folded in thirds on my wrist with the fitbit tucked inside- that worked OK but some nights the fitbit slipped out - now I have a cheap 3rd-party silicone wrist band thing made to fit the fitbit in it - it works great.

DURABILITY: I have accidentally washed my fitbit twice and dried it once. it survived. And it counted the spin cycle as active minutes. The charge still lasts for a week or more. I don't recommend forgetting the fitbit in your laundry, but it has held up well to the wet and the heat. I wear it while working out and sweat has never seemed to be a problem for it. It's been over a year and is still working exactly the way it did when I got it. Two weeks ago the little plastic piece on the back of the silicone clip broke - I super glued it back together and so far so good. the clip itself would still be somewhat functional without that little plastic piece - it would just have a metal part poking out that could be poky- but you also can buy third-party replacement clips for $5 or spring for the actual Fitbit replacement clip for 3X more if branding is important to you.

APP - i Like the app a lot. I've used it both on a Samsung tablet (android) and on an Iphone and both work great. you can set daily goals, see how much of your daily goal you've achieved, get weekly/monthly/quarterly historical graphs, track your weight, amount of water drank, calories, etc. I also like that you can get rid of things you don't want on it - for example I don't track my calories so i took that tile off my app and don't have it sitting there wasting space. in the settings there is a spot to mark if you are pregnant or breastfeeding - I don't know exactly what that does - my guess is it ups your daily calorie allotment - and maybe takes that into consideration when it tells you how many calories you've burned. I don't do the friends and competitions part of it - but there's a platform to connect with people you know and set little competitions or group goals - honestly the idea of me seeing what everyone else is doing and everyone seeing what I'm doing isn't very appealing, but it could be fun accountability if you set a goal with a friend/family

IMPACT ON YOUR LIFE: Know thyself. Having this won't inherently make you healthier. I got this because I like tracking things and this gave me a way to gamify my activity - I set goals and I can see exactly how close I am to hitting them each day - which is a strong motivation factor for me - at 8PM if I see that I'm still 4000 steps shy of my daily step goal I'm much more likely to suggest we take an after-dinner walk in the evening. I've been drinking more water because I'm keeping track of it. It helped me track my activity level through my pregnancy and is helping me see how getting back in shape afterwards is going, I'm also glad I'll have this archived so when I get pregnant again I can see how I track compared to this pregnancy. If you're like me it will be strong motivation for you. If your highly competitive getting one of these then competing with your friends on it might work, or having an accountability partner who can see your daily activity may help keep you motivated. If none of those things pique your interest this probably isn't a good investment, but it is a well made product.

After more than two years, I'm still using this and I think it is very helpful. I'm using it with the MyFitnessPal Android app and it works great. I like that it tracks stair climbing because that encourages me to use the stairs instead of taking the elevator, and I like that I can connect to friends who are also using FitBit or MyFitnessPal for encouragement and support.

I also used the FitBit Flex for a while, which was OK, but the bands on that fell apart very quickly, and that device didn't track stairs climbed. Overall I'm happier with the One than with the Flex. I did like having the Flex on my wrist, so for my One I 3d printed a band out of nylon that has lasted for over a year and is more comfortable than the band that came with the Flex.

I recently had my One just stop working when it wasn't plugged directly in to the charger, and I contacted their customer support who sent me a replacement immediately. Great support experience.

I admit I wasn't sure this would be a good purchase. I'm pretty sedentary and obese, and I wasn't sure it would help - but I was desperate. What a surprise! I was able to set reasonable goals for myself, but I find myself determined to beat them and increase my goals. I am walking so much more, just to be able to see it. I bought an exercise bike and I'm biking an hour a day - and I've lost 35 pounds so far in less than 3 months. This Fitbit has made me so much more conscious of my movement. I park at the farthest spot, I take the stairs, and I go for walks at lunch. I have never moved so much - and it's mostly because I want to beat my goals every day. I can absolutely say that the Fitbit has pushed me into becoming an active person!!

I upgraded from the Ultra. You can read my comprehensive review of the Fitbit Ultra at Fitbit Wireless Activity/Sleep Tracker, Black/Blue.First, I am sold on Fitbit because I've lost over 30 pounds since starting with the Ultra approximately a year ago. I don't work for the company and have received nothing from them for my enthusiasm -- I just find this is something that really works for me.IMPORTANT Before you read further or miss this: You have to have a phone that has Bluetooth capability for this new Fitbit to sync with your phone. If you're upgrading from the Ultra to this Fitbit One for the sync capability, you'll be disappointed if your phone can't sync. If you've got an iPhone, Bluetooth capability is currently only on the iPhone 5 and 4S. You can still upload your data to the computer with a different phone, but the Fitbit One will not sync with your phone.How the Fitbit Works: You have a few choices on where to wear the Fitbit (typically waist, pocket, chest pocket or bra), and you keep that Fitbit on you for 24 hours. Whereas the Ultra had a built-in clip, this one has to use the included silicone clip. The upside of this is that the silicone is unlikely to crack, which is something several owners of the Ultra complained about. The downside is that the Fitbit could possibly come out of the silicone case if the case were to get pulled on clothing or some other object. Whereas you used to be able to buy a lanyard to secure your Ultra, in the case of the One, you would only be securing the silicone case and your Fitbit would be lost. Time will only tell whether the silicone case idea is an actual improvement over the Ultra's design.On receiving your Fitbit, there's a booklet says to charge your Fitbit for 5 minutes. The charge is supposed to last for about a week. When the Fitbit battery is completely depleted, charging is to take approximately two hours. If you're like me, you'll find yourself just popping the Fitbit into its charger whenever you know you'll be sitting at the computer a while. Unlike the Ultra, which used one USB port on your computer, this Fitbit will use two: One is a small piece that communicates wirelessly with your Fitbit. The other is what I believe people are referring to as a "dongle" -- it's a USB with a short cord: You snap your Fitbit into the end, and that's how the Fitbit charges.I should also mention installing and pairing the device was virtually hassle-free. Since I was upgrading the Ultra, I just synced my Ultra by putting it in the cradle and then unplugging that USB. The instructions for the Fitbit One are clear. You download the software from their web site. Pairing the device with the software on my computer was easy. I was asked what kind of device I was pairing as well as whether I'd still be using the Ultra.What will the Fitbit One do? The Fitbit One is a very accurate step counter. It also shows calories burned and distance walked. There's a cute (not too girly, guys) flower that you make "grow" the more activity you do. And it tracks your sleep. The included wrist band attaches with a very fine Velcro-type material, making it a perfect size for men and women. This Fitbit One wrist band also has holes in it apparently to help ensure that the band doesn't feel hot on your wrist. Included in the band is a little pocket. At night, you slip the Fitbit into the pocket and press and hold the button, which puts the Fitbit in sleep mode. You have a choice between normal and sensitive setting, adjustable from the web site. When you awake, you just press and hold the button again to tell Fitbit that your sleep time is over.New to this Fitbit One is a silent alarm function. Basically, you can set vibrating alarms from either the Fitbit web site or from your Bluetooth-enabled phone. When I tried it out while awake, it was a soft little vibrating that I commented was as likely to wake me as "an ant wearing socks, tiptoeing across the floor." But I kept a (somewhat) open mind and still set an alarm for 7:30 a.m., which would give me enough time for an 8-hour sleep. Much to my happiness, I awoke to the soft little vibration on my wrist. My assessment on this is that I know that if I'm particularly tired, sick or know I'm going to get less than 8 hours of sleep, I cannot trust this as I've had to set an alarm across the room sometimes to wake up. If I have to be up early for something important, I will still need to set a traditional alarm. Depending on how deeply you sleep, your mileage may vary.Once you press the button to indicate you're trying to fall asleep, the Fitbit begins recording sleep data by noting how often your wrist moves. Wrist movement is interpreted as awake time. On the web site, this information is reflected as a sleep efficiency percentage. Now, it's not extremely accurate, because Fitbit doesn't know the difference between your lying there still and your being asleep. However, you'll probably realize soon that if you're lying there, reading a book, just move your hand every one in a while. Later, in the morning, you can adjust your sleep times through the web site to cut off any unnecessary activity at the beginning.What is Fitbit Not Good at? It's very step-oriented, so that means it's not going to accurately record your use of an elliptical machine, Pilates, weight lifting, rowing machine, swimming (don't get it wet!) or anything else that doesn't result in a typical stepping motion. However, you can manually record these activities on the web site, and it will overwrite the data for that period of time. I am finding that the web site food database is still inferior to other sites like MyNetDiary or Lose It, particularly since those allow scanning of barcodes for easy recording of food intake. However, a happy discovery is that Lose It can sync with Fitbit's web site, so I can record my food on Lose It rather than doing so through Fitbit's site. This is a good time to mention that there are also many other apps that Fitbit has partnered with that will sync your data.As with the Fitbit Ultra, the Fitbit One will:---Count stairs climbed (hills count) and translate those into floors. It's just one more way to challenge yourself. On the web site you can earn badges for how many stairs and floors you've climbed. The site also gives you interesting little messages about what that climbing equals, such as "you've just climbed the world's tallest snowman," and if you're the curious type, you can click the message to learn more.---You've got a clock! Just press a button at your waist and look down to see the time.---There's a stopwatch. Training for a race? Just trying to beat your previous times? You can use the stopwatch to record an activity.---Righty and lefty friendly. I'm right-handed, but I like to wear the Fitbit at the left side of my waist. The words were backwards, but I learned that through the web site I could change the direction of the words.---Give it a name. You have 8 characters to input a name or other info. That's not enough for a full phone number with area code. However, you if you search the Internet for "short email address," there are a number of email address services that would fit that 8-character allotment and allow you to forward any email to your regular email address. This might come in handy if you (heaven forbid) were to lose your Fitbit.---Friendly little chatter. So you're sitting on the sofa and you realize you should really get up and move your body. You stand up, and a blinked message catches your eye: GO GO GO or Hello! or I LIKE YOU. I found this annoying after a while, and I disabled it through the web site. Through the web site you can actually disable any of the features you don't want to see on your Fitbit.Is the Fitbit One Smaller Than the Ultra? Yes and no. As mentioned, the One fits inside a silicone clip. You really don't want its slippery little body moving around in a pocket, so you'll be using this clip. With the clip, the Fitbit One is actually larger than the Fitbit Ultra. Without that silicone clip, it is, indeed, smaller. Please check out my photos and you'll see a size comparison.As I stated on my Fitbit Ultra review, use of the Fitbit web site is 100% free. In fact, you can start using it before ever owning a Fitbit device. That's what I did before my previous Fitbit arrived. The site has an active Community of users trying to be healthier as well as device support. If you have questions about the Fitbit, I think the forum on the web site is probably going to get you a faster answer than emailing the company.So over a year later, after starting with Fitbit, owning and wearing a Fitbit has been one of the best decisions I've made. I went to a Quantified Self meetup, and one of the users asked why I'm still wearing the Fitbit if it's already established a habit of exercising. The answer is this: The Fitbit allows me to add gamification to something I don't enjoy (exercise!). It challenges me to reach my goals. If I have a period in which I've gotten few steps, I feel an internal nagging that I want to get that number back up where it belongs. It helps me analyze my sleep and see how that affects other factors in my life.After writing the update on my previous review for the Ultra, I actually DID re-invest in the Premium membership (49.99 on the web site) in order to get the Trainer feature back. I needed some help with goal-setting, and I wanted to be able to download my data in a CSV format. The fact that you cannot download your data without the Premium membership is a small annoyance to me, as I believe you put that data into the site and deserve to be able to download it without paying for a Premium membership. Another disappointment is that the custom trackers that I created through the Premium membership are not included in the CSV download. However, overall, I'm back to finding that Premium membership adds enough value that it's worth it to me. I'll have to reevaluate this when it comes time for renewal (be sure to disable auto-renewal if you don't want to be charged automatically). So again, no, you don't have to pay anything to use the Fitbit web site and get the basic features. The Premium membership just adds some extra perks that you may find helpful in taking your health to the next level.Has Fitbit been a fast way for me to lose weight? Nope. I lost the 30+ pounds over a period of a year. However, it's been a painless, sane and lasting way to lose weight. I attribute the weight loss to the awareness the Fitbit has brought me. Because I'm more aware of my activity (or inactivity), I just naturally make better decisions on a daily basis. If you're motivated to do so, you could lose weight quickly with the Fitbit by always tracking food intake and energy expenditure. I've found that making a gradual and permanent lifestyle change has been the best for me. I can't wait to see what new goals I'll be reaching for and achieving over the next year!UPDATE in MAY 2013: Please note that Fitbit now reportedly works with more than just the iPhone. I also wanted to let you know that I'm still happy with the Fitbit and wear it every single day. However, this one has nearly been lost on a few occasions due to the silicone case getting caught on clothing, causing the Fitbit to flip out. I am a very fastidious person who is careful about things (always puts my keys in the same place, etc.), so if this is an issue for me, it may be for others. I wish they hadn't changed the holder, but I understand the need to since the previous version was starting to crack at the stress points. IF this is a big concern for you, I would recommend preordering the FITBIT FLEX, which is one you wear on your wrist. The upside is that you'd have it on 24/7 and can wear it in the shower, etc., and the downside for me is that I don't want to see it on my wrist every day. Hope this helps anyone trying to make a decision. Again, I'm very happy with the Fitbit One, but I am having to be very careful with it to prevent losing it.UPDATE in DECEMBER 2013: My Fitbit had its first structural failure this month, and I wanted to update you with the problem. The silicone case has a place on it where two pieces are attached. This is the side that slides into your clothing, making it a weak point. One day I noticed the two pieces separating, and I pushed them back together. The other day I pulled my Fitbit out of my pocket and found the small piece was missing. Thankfully, later I found it and will try to glue the two pieces together. That section is a poor design because it's under stress when you remove the Fitbit from your clothing. I've added a picture above showing the two pieces. As far as whether I still love the Fitbit, yes, I do; however, I still think the silicone case is a poor design. There have been numerous occasions where I've almost lost the Fitbit due to it popping out of the silicone case. Hopefully, the company will improve on this design in their next release.

I originally purchased this to try to help me track my cycles and get pregnant sooner. I've read that your resting heart rate fluctuates during the month depending on whether you're ovulating, on your period, and can even tell you if you're pregnant since the heart rate will continue rising after conception. I've had it for about two weeks, and has already been much more useful than I expected! So far, the heart rate/cycle thing really seems to be accurate, which is super encouraging! But I'm also learning a LOT about my sleep patterns, which has always been a huge struggle for me. Turns out I wake up/am restless throughout the whole night, and it takes me much longer to fall asleep than I thought! I also love the vibrating alarm, since I used to turn off my phone alarms when I was half-awake. Somehow the vibrating alarm works better! And I absolutely love the vibrating call notification. I'm a freelance photographer, and can't risk missing a call from a possible client if my phone is in a bag or in the next room. I charge it every day while in the shower, and wear it constantly the rest of the time.

The heart rate seems very accurate, just compared to the good old fashioned finger-to-the-wrist-and-a-stopwatch method. The step counter seems like it's a little generous? Sometimes I'll have already "walked" a hundred or so steps when I first wake up in the morning! I guess it just counts from midnight, and maybe from tossing and turning in bed. I don't use it for the step counter at all, so that doesn't matter to me, but something to keep in mind!

I have the small "tangerine" model. It's definitely for people with tiny wrists (like me), maybe even children or teens. And it's definitely more red than orange, if that's important to you. I just didn't want to spend extra for the black or gray. (What a ripoff!)

I would recommend this for anyone using it for their heart rate, maybe not the step counter. I'll have to see if the device falls apart after a few months, like some have experienced, but I'm not especially active so maybe it will last longer.

It's a fun toy and a reasonably good motivational tool to get out and put in a little extra work. Finding out that my pulse dipped to strangely low numbers while I slept was interesting. But despite using it regularly, upping my activity to include a daily 1-hour walk in addition to 5-days-a-week gym time, and some dietary adjustments...

...several months after picking this up, I'm still virtually the same (over)weight that I started out.

That's not the device's fault, of course. But when I bought it I thought, "Hey, so this will help motivate me to add some extra exercise and quantify it, and that will help me get in shape." And it did (and does, I'm wearing it right now because I do like it) the first three of those things. But tracking your activity isn't magic; if you're not going to make significant lifestyle changes (apparently more significant than adding 2 hours a week of gym time to the existing 3, and a daily walk), this isn't going to make things all better.

Nitpicks:

It does seem to have issues with higher heart rates; wearing it a notch tighter than would seem natural and a little higher up on the wrist helps keep it from losing track above 130 BPM, but either I'm in bizarre shape for a heavyset middle-aged guy or it just refuses to track above 155 BPM except very infrequently.

It also counts brushing your teeth, washing dishes, etc., as steps sometimes. (And if you want a quick way to 30,000 steps a day, just mow the lawn with an old, vibratey lawnmower!) And if your arms aren't moving (e.g., holding the handrail on a treadmill or the static handbars on an elliptical), it's not counting steps. And (though the sleep tracker is awesome and very informative), sometimes when you sit still for an hour watching TV it thinks you're asleep.

I have no way to know if the calorie count estimates are right, but while the device's manual food tracking tool is neat, proper use of the out-via-tracker versus-in-via-manual-tracking should add up to weight loss for any reasonable human being (5000 calorie days should lose you about a pound when you eat 1500 calories that day). But it doesn't. Which means that either (again) I'm the weirdest human being ever and absolutely immune to exercise, or the calorie estimator is just a TOUCH optimistic.

What it does right:

* Very accurate step counting, when you're actually walking/running.
* Very accurate heartrate monitoring below 155 BPM
* Reasonably accurate sleep monitoring
* Detects running and elliptical activity; doesn't know what to do with stuff like basketball or yardwork, but that's expecting a lot.

Overall, having the data IS fun and I'd recommend purchasing this... just don't expect miracles.

Update December 2016. Sadly, my mother passed on at the end of September, so I'm no longer trying to manage 2 Fitbit HR's in the same house. After all the hubbub with her funeral and so forth and giving her Fitbit to a friend, I was no longer exhausting myself taking care of her, I decided it was time to take better care of myself, and got into walking every day, and this thing works great as a motivator and also helps me track my calories burned, which is VERY useful when you're modifying your diet and trying to figure out what works well, and what's not so much. It does act erratically on rare occasions, like the time it just decided one night to stop recording steps. I was at 6,990 steps, so I just walked up and down the hall to bounce it over 7,000, but it just wouldn't budge. Or the night it decided (even though I wasn't wearing it) that I was burning calories like crazy. I wrote tech support, and they were absolutely fabulous, responding back MUCH faster than I expected given it's a few days before Christmas, with a wonderful and gracious email with explanatory background on how the fitbit works, and links to try resetting it and so forth. After another exchange, they noted it was still under warranty (I hadn't even thought about that) and offered to replace my current model, or 30% off an upgrade to the Charge 2. I'd had my eye on the Charge 2 (you should definitely check it out), but I finally decided I would only actually use a few of the new features, so I stayed with the older model for free.

If there were separate ratings for customer service, they'd get 5 stars for that.

Physically, I'm feeling a lot better for getting more movement into my day, and I strongly recommend this gadget to any seniors who are "feeling their age". Just be prepared to spend some time figuring out the software. And like any new technology, there are a few bugs to work out.

Original post from June of 2016
I HATE HATE HATE the software for this thing. I used to write software, and believe me, software that didn't include an option to back out of a process or to correct a user error (such as forgetting to move your elderly mother's Fitbit to another room while you sync'd yours) or thought about options for tracking two Fitbits on the same device (because your mother's device is not compatible) just would not even have made it out the door. It's really quite disgraceful. The concept is a great idea, my sister and I initially bought one for my mother because we're having a lot of difficulty motivating her to move more than she does. I initially liked the concept so much I bought one for myself, but now I really regret having bought either one. I finally got mine talking to my computer after several botched attempts at both, and while trying to resync my Mom's, it unsync'd mine. I have yet to get them both communicating with their respective devices, and I resent the lengths I've had to go to get each one it's own device. I'm also irritated that it's so confusing to find the setting you want within the software. This is a truly disgraceful implementation of a rather clever concept.

My husband and I love our Fitbit Charge HRs. We originally purchased Garmin Vivosmarts. We loved the notification features on the Garmin and the fact that they were waterproof, but the Garmin app is not user friendly at all. I had previously had a Fitbit One and have also used a Jawbone UP24; the Fitbit app is by far my favorite app for fitness tracking. Competing with our friends within the Fitbit app has definitely pushed us to be more active and its helping us to better reach our goals.
When it came down to it, we thought, does the band really need to be worn in the shower and do we really need to have our emails and texts on our wrist? The answer for us was no, if we wanted these features, we would have been shopping for a smart watch not a fitness band or we would have pushed through our frustrations with the Garmin app. For us, the most important features were steps, altitude (flights of stairs), HR, activities, and sleep. The Fitbit Charge HR has all of the features we were looking for. The HR tracker on the Fitbit Charge HRs is a great feature to have to make sure you are exercising with enough intensity to reach your goals. The HR monitor does tend to dig in to our wrists some if the band is worn too tight or we end up lying on our arms, but this is not a big issue for us as it can be easily remedied by repositioning.

Like many reviewers, I eagerly anticipated the release of the Fitbit Charge HR. Having recently purchased a Fitbit Charge, I felt like the missing heart rate component was necessary to give me a full picture of my activity, for it captures a component of energy expenditure that direct body motion itself cannot. With all of the above being said, I received the Fitbit Charge HR yesterday and charged it to full capacity before its first use. Having now used it for almost a full day (22 hours), it definitely keeps an accurate resting heart rate for myself when tested against my Polar strap and the heart rate monitor app on my iPhone. In fact, each only differs by roughly a few beats per minute. The heart rate tracking for more intense exercise, however, does seem more erratic at first, but it appears to normalize after a few minutes....perhaps due to my heart finding a steady, comfortable pace during my exercise that the Charge HR can both recognize and average out?

I am thrilled with the prospect of all-day tracking, but I am disappointed that the battery life seems rather lackluster. Despite having charged the device fully yesterday and setting the heart rate tracking to "auto" (which supposedly saves power), my device is now at 1/2 a charge only 22 hours into use. I can surmise that I might be able to get another 22 hours out of this based upon my present state of use. Essentially, we are looking at 2 days of battery life when the expectation is 4-5 days. I suppose I could turn off the the HR tracking altogether, but that defeats the purpose of all-day HR tracking, without which I would have simply remained with the basic Fitbit Charge.

Another small quibble is that I actually prefer the aesthetics of the basic Fitbit Charge. The texture of the material and the diagonal groove did not attract lint or dirt, and, aesthetically, it seems slightly more sublime, which is what I want in any fitness tracker. The Charge HR has a small diamond pattern that accumulates lint more readily and, perhaps unlike most people, I preferred the clasp structure on the Charge versus the watch-type band on the Charge HR.

Bottom-line:
---It works for resting HR, but HR accuracy may be lacking initially for intense workouts.
---Battery life is sacrificed for HR monitoring (expect roughly 2 days on a full charge)
---Band material and pattern accumulates lint more readily

Fitbit makes some great products, and the Fitbit Charge HR is no exception. I would have ideally preferred the style and battery life of the basic Fitbit Charge with simply addition of the HR component.

At first I was skeptical of the step counter over or underestimating distance, so I verified the mileage accuracy with GPS and a 2 mile walk was right on the money. If already wear a watch this is a great option because it is so small. It takes up less pocket space than a car key and is easy to lose, but that is not a fault. You just have to be careful and not forget you left it in your pocket before washing your clothes.

I haven't use this for running long distances, but I noticed that if I jogged a portion of a route the step count would be lower. This makes sense since your running stride is a lot longer.

The Fitbit app for Android makes it easy to set up synch with the website for motivational tools and groups.

I had a Garmin fitness wrist band, but with arthritic wrists, I couldn't get it lose enough to be comfortable. I can clip this fitbit to my bra or carry it in a pocket, which is perfect.

I really like the device itself, which is small and unobtrusive. Unless I wear a white bra with a white shirt, no one can see it's there. I also love being able to challenge friends and cheer on their progress.

The one thing that disappoints me is that it doesn't reliably count my steps when I'm on the treadmill at very low speed. I have a trek desk and want to stroll as I work at the computer, but the fitbit might not count those steps. I discovered that during a weekend warrior challenge after a half hour of walking and none of those steps were counted. If I start walking at 2mph and lower it to 1mph, it does mostly count them, but it won't if I start at 1mph. I do find that wearing it in my pocket vs clipped to my bra seems more reliable. This is another advantage over the Garmin, which relies on GPS to track steps. The Garmin does not work on a treadmill at all.

I also love that it integrates with my diet app, myNetDiary for Android. Some measurements are ported into the diet app, such as step count and calories consumed, but others, such as water consumption, are not, so it needs a little more work there.

Overall, I'm glad I bought it.

I used to be a FitBit shamer. I could easily create my own graphs with Excel and a 12 dollar pedometer. After getting one though, the FitBit free dashboard actually is pretty nice, and the auto-synchronization of the data of the FB tracker is also very convenient. Fine, Fine, laziness has won. Sort of.

The ease of all the data that it syncs plus the ability to have your own network of friends as a leaderboard system has ultimately made me do more. It didn't make me active, but it made me more active, which is a good thing in the long run. I've been wanting to get down to my high school weight for a while and the constant feedback of data made it a lot easier [nearly there] to achieve in a much shorter time frame than i'd expected.

I got this thing February 8th and because of it started jogging / running again. over the month my run times have improved significantly as well as my tolerance for it. Starting at 147lbs and down to 136.5. Not that I was even in the overweight category to begin with, though this just helped push me along more than i'd expected it to. About the only negative thing about is the built in battery life is pretty short.

PROS:
+ Great dashboard: trending patterns, historical data, personal network of other FitBit friends you can leaderboard yourself against.
+ Great tool for the already motivated person
+ Possibly an encouragement tool even if your not motivated.
+ Automatic syncing of data takes the hassle out of a regular pedometer and Excel data entry.

CONS:
- Battery is terrible, terrible terrible. Maybe it's because of the Blue tooth syncing, but you certainly will not ever get a week out of this before needing to recharge, no way in hell (unless you know how, then please tell me). My 12 dollar pedometer has been going for a year on 1 battery so when I switched to a FitBit, I was shocked to have to recharge this every 2 to 3 days. If someone has a battery extending tip i'll be sure to modify my post and change my summary.

This is one of the best trackers from Fitbit. I've had the Flex, the HR, the HR Charge and the Surge. This is the one I kept and like the best. It tracks steps, floors, miles, sleep(if you turn that on when dropping off) and tells you the time. It seems very accurate. You can also track other activities and food with the app, Their app is top notch in the data it provides. I used to clip this to the pocket. But do to the varying degrees of thickness of pants and shorts I wear, that stretched out the clip and I had to get a second one. So now I just carry it in my pocket and that works just fine. Ladies also have the option clipping it to their bra. The clipping part is why this only gets 4 stars as when I my pocket, I can forget to take it out when changing. i haven't washed it yet but I'm sure thats coming. I also forget to grab it in the morning, sometimes and don't remember to later, wear as a wrist based wearable you would wear it at night or more easily notice you've nothing on your wrist! Overall, this is a good entry level fitness tracker that won't break the bank and the battery can go for almost a week. Fitbit now allows you to track 2 devices per account, so if you to get this and down the road you want a wrist one, you can still use this for when you want to wear jewelry or a regular watch when going out.

I got this as a gift for Christmas, and have been using it for a week or so now, so figured I'd leave some feedback on how it's working.

This is a longer review, so here's some pros and cons:

PROS:
--- Small; easy to clip to a pocket or hide inside of clothing.
--- Easy-to-use, simple app interface with reliable syncing.
--- Very accurate recording of steps taken and floors climbed
--- Does not appear to register car driving
--- Long battery life of at least 5 days
--- Goal setting helps to encourage you
--- Makes for fun competition between friends through the app

CONS:
--- Small; VERY EASY TO FORGET INSIDE OF CLOTHING
--- Is not very accurage on sleep tracking; not particularly useful in that regard
--- Records "calories burned" as a total combination of activity and estimated "resting state" calories burned
--- Somewhat pricey for a glorified pedometer with social connectivity

At it's heart, this is a pedometer, meaning it tracks walking and running. From what I've done so far, the One appears to record that pretty accurately. Now, I haven't done any consistent testing, but between a quick accuracy test (where I walked 20 steps, then checked it) and reviewing the recorded activity later in the day, it appears to work correctly. Does it record every step faithfully? I'm almost certain it doesn't. Out of hundreds or thousands of steps in your day, is it recording WELL? Yes, it appears so. I work in an office setting, where I spend most of the day seated, so this is easy for me to check; I can remember when I got up for a drink, bathroom, or for lunch, and on the activity graph of the app, this appears to be reflected correcly (in other words, there's a spike of activity each time I get up, and a large spike during my lunch break, but few if any steps recorded outside of this).

A nice addition to being a pedometer is that the One records floors climbed. It does this by using an altimeter and measuring the impercible changes in air pressure resulting from a change in elevation, with a combination of measuring steps taken. In other words, no, it does not think you climbed a floor or two when you take an elevator. HOWEVER, I noticed that on one day, while driving to and walking around various one-story retail stores, the One had thought I had climbed about 3 or 4 floors that I definitely had not. For reference, it was well below freezing outside, and many stores have a small hurricane of warm air blasting into the entrance of their building ... so I imagine the resulting change in air pressure from outside to inside, combined with a clear indication that I was walking made it think I had climbed a set of stairs. Not a big issue, and that's a very specific circumstance.

Perhaps one of the bigger selling points is that the One also records your sleep acitivity if you wear it at night. The concept is kind of cool ... but seems mostly gimmicky. First, you put the One into a soft elastic felt wrist band. This alone is pretty clever; the One slips into a little pocket, and the band is linked together using a very fine toothed Velcro-like material. The whole thing is so comfortable that after a couple of minutes you can forget you're wearing it. However, contrary to what I had thought, the One DOES NOT have a heart-rate sensor, so it records sleep activity primarily by sensing how much the One is jiggled. In other words, as is the case that I've observed so far, it often thinks you're asleep shortly after it senses no more motion ... which is a pretty big assumption to make, and typically inaccurate. For myself, I typically disregard the first cluster of activity recorded, and chop off about 30 minutes or so from the total time asleep it indicates. After that, you should get an accurate picture of your sleep activity, which typically shows blocks of time asleep, with brief periods of "restlessness". All in all, it's neat to see, but without using an EKG or at least a heart rate monitor, the concept of the sleep tracker on the One is not very accurate, and mostly a gimmick.

And of course, the element that truly makes the One so appealing is that it you can easily sync it via Bluetooth with your Android or iOS phone to upload the data to a central website / app. I have seen some reviews about the Android app not working correctly, but at the time of this review I have had no issues at all. Initial account creation can be handled entirely from your phone, and if you choose to do a "manual sync" (where the One only syncs with your phone app when you OPEN the app), then it typically syncs and updates in less than 15 seconds. So far, I had ONE occurence where it couldn't sync, but this was fixed with a Bluetooth on/off cycle by my phone, per the suggestion from the FitBit app. Otherwise, it has not crashed at all, and you can review all your previous recordings easily and naturally from within the app.

SOME FINAL POINTS / COMPARISONS: I also have Runkeeper, which tends to be very accurate because it uses your GPS to measure not only EXACTLY where you've been, but also verify that you have traveled the indicated distance (rather than using a set of assumptions and algoriths, as is the case with a pedometer like the FitBit One. HOWEVER, it should be noted that something like Runkeeper is very intensive on your phone's battery life, and it generally will not work indoors or in any situation where it can't get a stable GPS signal. The One is appealing it that it's a clip-it-and-forget-it type measuring device; once you attach it to yourself, you can pretty much just go about your business as you normally would and not worry about it until you need to change your clothes, and it will faithfully record everything. The downside to that is ... of course ... that it CANNOT be turned off at all.

Driving: shortly after getting this, I saw some reviews about people concerned about it recording steps taken while driving. I experimented with this and initiated a manual recording period with the FitBit One while driving to work. Later, I checked the app to see if it had picked up anything during the 10 minute drive: it had not. It appears the programming is good enough to either not detect or disregard most movement during a typical city drive (now whether rougher, rural roads would result in something different, I do not know).

FINAL WORDS: I didn't expect a whole lot from something like a pedometer, but between some of the extra features, the Bluetooth connectivity with a smartphone, the easy to use, straightfoward app, and the simplicity of the whole thing, it's a prettty cool device. There are innaccuracies, and the sleep tracking isn't particularly useful, and the price is a bit steep, but so far I actually really like competing with my girlfriend's stats using our FitBit One's.

I messed around with several other fitness trackers before finally going to FitBit. It is by far the best in terms of accuracy and the app. No tracker is perfect, and the Charge HR is no exception. I've noticed minor things like steps being counted while I'm sitting folding laundry, or being unable to see my heart rate during a workout. Those are no big deal to me, really. My biggest complaint with this product is that it just seems to simply be a poor design. I first purchased this item at the end of Feb. 2016. Within a few months, I noticed the rubber was pulling away from the display on both edges. I contacted FitBit, and they responded promptly to help me get a replacement. Then a few months later, same issue occurred with my replacement. Contacted FitBit again, got a replacement again. Now, a little more than a year after my initial purchase, I am waiting on a FOURTH replacement to be delivered because the bottom plastic piece of the display (the part that goes against my wrist) broke off, taking with it the button on the side to press to start a workout, check time, or silence an alarm.

I have asked the past two times if FitBit would allow me to upgrade to the Blaze and just pay the difference in cost, but they have said no. Their customer service has otherwise been fast and overall very good, but it's extremely frustrating to have to request a replacement every few months. Since this is the only FitBit product I've owned, I do not know if this is just a problem with this unit in particular, or FitBit in general. Unfortunately for me, I'm now addicted to gathering the data that FitBit gives me, and I do still plan to get the Blaze. I'm hoping it's just the Charge HR, or even better, just extremely bad luck on my part.

Pros:
*The Fitbit HR works well for step-tracking and heart rate monitoring for day-to-day activities.
*Comfortable

Cons:
*The band has started to warp and peel off the main body of the unit. This started happening in less than 2 months and is now ready to fall apart after 4 months. Every single person I know with an HR has had this happen with some people on their third device in less than a year.
*Bluetooth connectivity is extremely poor and requires constant resetting of both device and phone.
*Charging cable is short and pops out of the socket easily, making it hard to fully seat and charge.

Further thoughts:
It is honestly shocking how bad the band and bluetooth are on this device. I like the HR when it works and isn't actively falling apart in my hands, but the fact that a major flagship product for Fitbit would have these kinds of widespread issues is a terrible sign for the overall quality of the company's products.

They clearly know too, since it is super easy to get a replacement unit. Note, that it is a replacement UNIT. They can't give you a new band, they have to replace the entire thing. Very clearly some critical design flaws that are inherent to the device itself.

Bottom line:
If you get it, expect to have to replace it every few months. I am not a heavy usage kind of guy - I wear it daily but am not particularly active and it still utterly fell apart for me. If you ever wondered why a fitbit costs as much as it does, it is because you're not paying for one device - you're paying for 3-6 devices over the lifetime of the warranty.

EDIT 12/30/16--I hope this is my last edit! To address the treadmill accuracy I wrote about below: I have managed to get this tracker attached to my ankle, and get very accurate results this way. I have no idea if the heart monitor works on my ankle, but I'm guessing it probably does to some degree? I think you can take your pulse on your ankle, but I'm not sure. It is a tight fit and is not always comfortable, but it is how I am making this tracker work in the parameters that I need it to. They need a medium size option for this issue, or an adapter that works on your ankle! A large would be ridiculous on my wrist.

EDIT 12/4/16: I became suspicious about the accuracy of the treadmill steps I was periodically taking over the course of a day to get to my 10,000 steps since the weather is disagreeable outside. At the rate I was walking, I should have gotten about 120 steps per minute. After a 10 minute walk, the FitBit only counted 500 steps and it should have been about 1200 give or take. I didn't quite believe it, so I started testing it with exact steps. When I was walking 200 steps, it varied from counting 130 to 150. I completed this experiment about 6 times. Then I went to Google to see what was going on and found out that I'm not the only one. I tried 3 different suggestions--1) restarting the tracker 2)putting the tracker on my inner wrist 3) attaching the tracker to my shoelaces. None of the 3 made it accurate, but attaching it to my shoe got it closer--170 steps were tracked out of the 200. Mind you, I paid extra for the heart rate monitor--which is not tracked attached to my shoe.

DO NOT BUY THIS TRACKER IF YOU WANT TO USE A TREADMILL. Some people on the FitBit forums say they don't have an issue with treadmills. For $150 (what I paid) it isn't worth the risk. I am not happy about this. At least I'm not crazy--I couldn't figure out how I was still so low on my steps after doing a 26 minute 5K trainer and then walking on the treadmill for an additional 30 minutes, 3 different times for 10 minutes a piece in addition to my normal walking around the house and cleaning.
*******end of 12/4/16 edit*******
This has been a motivating purchase, which is exactly what I had hoped when I purchased it. I chose the Charge HR over the FitBit without the heart rate monitor mainly because I liked how it fastened. I also had high hopes that the heart rate monitor could give me an accurate idea of how many calories I'm burning in a day, and possibly negate the need for my Polar heart rate monitor with a chest strap. I need to do a comparison while wearing both for a workout and see. If I remember, I'll post an update on here after.

Some observations, good and bad, now that I've had it for about 5 months:

The size small is still big on my wrist. I can fit my pinkie in the space that doesn't wrap around my wrist with no problem. The top of the device (the display part) is 2.5" of flat, inflexible material which goes into the flexible wrist band. The thickest part of the display sits up "proud" off the wrist 3/8". In other words, this thing is not inconspicuous. I have worked around this a little by leaving my sweater sleeves over it and then wearing a different bracelet lower on my wrist on days I don't want to have my FitBit the center of my accessories.

It does not do a good job of tracking your steps when you are pushing a grocery cart, which is a huge bummer. I walk a lot at those massive grocery stores, I don't like grocery shopping anyway, and now I have to either push one-handed or walk in front of the cart while pulling it. Because if I have to grocery shop, then my steps are going to count <bleep> it.

**UPDATE!! I paid closer attention to this the last few grocery trips and it appears to be counting the steps, so I was wrong about this initially.

It does count a lot of steps when you are folding laundry. I can't quite decide if this is good or not--I don't feel like folding laundry is the equivalent of taking steps. A friend pointed out that you are exerting yourself, but is it apples-to-apples? I'm thinking not. I do two loads a day every day, so it might be throwing off my steps in a significant way if it is overshooting my steps. Maybe I shouldn't worry about the grocery cart and call it good ...

The first couple of days are uncomfortable until your arm gets used to the spot where this hits. I'm guessing it is the heart rate monitor part of the device, but it sticks out a little and dents your arm. I am not wearing it too tight. I attempted to move it to my dominate arm once, and decided it wasn't worth it since my other arm was already desensitized.

This will tell you that you are burning way more calories than you actually are. Period. Please do not attempt to use this in order to figure out how much food you can eat to lose weight. I highly recommend that you look up meal planning on muscleforlife.com instead (I am not affiliated with this site at all--just a fan) and use this device in order to motivate yourself to move more.

You will be shocked at how little you actually move in a day. It becomes easier to hit 10,000 after awhile. You will not longer get irritated when there are no close parking spots. You WILL be irritated when you forget to put your FitBit on in the morning and there are no close parking spots. Just remind yourself that your steps still count even if your FitBit isn't actually counting them.

Do not walk around at a fairground antique event holding something in the crook of your FitBit arm. After walking around for 6 hours you will be pretty peeved about the number of steps recorded. Ask my mom.

The FitBit app is awesome. I love to see the data and the trends. I haven't participated in a contest yet, but I recently friended someone and it is motivating to know someone can see your steps. You don't want to get beat by your mom, I mean friend, daily.

I had to turn off the option for the display to automatically turn on every time I brought my arm up. It eats up the battery in no time. I also do not have it synching all day long--I synch it at night when I take it off to get ready for bed. After the first few days I don't wear it to sleep either. I'm not sure that having that thing on 24 hours a day is a good thing. I do think it would be a good way to track how many hours of sleep you are getting and would be eye-opening how many nights are less than they should be (at least for me). I'm just ready to take it off once I get to bedtime.

**UPDATE--I may start wearing this to bed for a week or two in order to REALLY see how much sleep I'm getting. I'm tired, wondering if I've some unknown health issue that is causing it. Before I bring it up to my doctor, I want to see how much sleep I'm actually getting, because it's probably less than I think I am. So the sleep tracking is a nice thing to have right now!

The Charge HR beats the annoying chest straps hands down and is easy to use. It gives fairly accurate telemetry for heart rate, workout/footstep activity and sleep rest patterns.

I would love to make it my constant companion but I just can't wear it due to a fundamental human factor design failure. Human skin needs to breathe and evaporate moisture and the rubber strap prevents this very basic skin function. How can something so basic be ignored? Another irritation is that there is no give to the rubber so it constantly pulls at my arm hair. I have tried everything but it is just so very irritating. I do not have a latex or skin allergy of any kind.

I followed all the care tips provided by the Fitbit folks: cleaned it often with mild soap; didn't wear it after getting sweaty or wet; gave it a rest by taking it off for a while; loosening the strap helped but not nearly enough and the light leakage at night was annoying.

Now isn't it strange that all the above recommendations came in my very first email after I setup my account? So it's not like they don't know that this is a big problem. Yet they seem stubborn about providing a common sense easy fix -- leather or non-rubber straps which accommodate the skin's need to breathe. How stupid! Now I know that positioning is important for the light diode sensors, but that could easily fixed by tightening a conventional watch strap up a notch during workouts. Sheesh!

What has helped the most is using talcum and baby powder. The problem here is that the white powder clings and discolors the strap. It also discolors darker clothes.

I liked the gesture sensing function where the display comes on... But it kept coming on during my sleep when I changed positions. This very annoying feature could easily be fixed by disabling it during user defined sleep times. I had to completely disable the feature 24X7 which means that it now takes two hands to read my watch. More stupidity.

Similarly, the display does not stay on in exercise mode. This is the one time when it's really needed. Why should I have to stop working out to use two hands to read the display? Turning off the screen like this doesn't save that much power. More stupidity.

So this thing is just too high maintenance to wear like a watch. I'd love to give the Charge HR a 5 star thumbs up but an otherwise beautiful piece of engineering is marred by failing to accommodate a basic biological function of the skin.

One of Fitbit's proposed solutions to the skin chaffing issue is to not use their product so much. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take their advice.

Word to the wise... If I could do it over again I would not buy this product. Wait for Fitbit to get a clue. Wait for Fitbit to actually listen to their customers. Wait for Fitbit to fix this design flaw.

I'm not a techie so I'm not going to review all the specs. I wanted a wrist heart monitor and hit the bonus of a pedometer, a sleep tracker, a calorie burning tracker, and a motivational coach all in a little device that fits on my wrist. It syncs seamlessly with my iPhone and Mac. Love the heart monitor...no chest strap yay...who cares if it's a point or two off. As long as I'm within range that's all that matters. If you need it to be 100% accurate you are better off putting a rubber band on your wrist and pulling and snapping it when you feel that type A thing coming on. I love the water tracker and the sleep tracker. There are times when I feel like I am awake when I'm sleeping and sure enough the tracker picked it up with the awake figures. I don't use it for dietary/food purposes as I've learned to modify my diet for my elevated cholesterol. But others I know say it works fine with My Fitness Pal. I like that it motivates me by tracking my numbers and that in and of itself makes me want to do better the next day, I did have to drop a star though. I think there should be a medium size tracker. I know some one who has one and their wrist is larger than mine & they have a small so I thought I'd be ok with a small as the large looked way too big. It's a little on the snug side and a medium would have been perfect.
*update to my review...5/2016.... I wish it had a tone to let me know when the battery is low. It use to show it the first couple of months but now I don't know until I want to check it and the battery is dead. Also takes too long to sync with the app and if my phone goes in sleep mode the unit & the phone don't pair and I have to start again. Real bummer

I love this tracker. My reason for picking this one is because it has elevation "floors". I live on the side of a hill in San Francisco and it is fun to see how many floors I've earned walking up and down the hills.

NOTICE LATE SHIFT WORKERS: Fitbit software has a serious flaw. It resets your stats every day at midnight. This cannot be changed!

Thousands of night shift workers have been begging for an update for years and Fitbit does not even respond. As my active period extends to 2am most days, the default setting cuts my daily stats in half. I've gotten around this by setting my timezone to Hawaii, but that makes the sleep stats meaningless.

Please Fitbit fix this one flaw and I'll go to 5 stars.

I was an early adopter and have owned four fitbits (lost two and one broke after a year), but I won’t buy any more for four reasons. First, there are now lots of good competitive offerings for <$30. Fitbit prices are outrageous. Evidently, they believe they have brand cachet, which is hardly the case. Second, software features that were once standard are now “premium” features available only by subscription (e.g., comparing your performance to others of a similar age). For me, the monthly price is not worth the added functionality. Third, the measurements are only rough indicators of actual distances, steps taken, calories burned, etc. Even when you spend a lot of time calibrating the fitbit for your stride, the results are only roughly correlated with measured distances. I know, I tested fitbit against measured distances. (Do you maintain a constant stride when you walk versus run or you are going uphill/downhill vs. moving on flat surfaces? Probably not.) The outputs are useful in relative terms – “Did I do more or less than I did yesterday?” -- but don’t get mixed up and think that you are actually measuring these variables precisely. And fourth, the new dashboard is less useful than the original layout, probably because a lot of what was on the original layout has gone behind a subscription paywall. Net: fitbit had a great concept but now knock offs are just as good for far less money, and there are plenty of good tracking apps for runners/walkers that provide more accurate outputs (e.g., the free Sports Tracker app). Research your choices.

First time buyer of an activity/sleep tracker. So far, I'm not impressed and here's why:

I'm skeptical as to the accuracy of all the measurements (steps, calories in and out, sleep). I actually gained three to four pounds the first month or two I used it. Now I don't pay attention to calories remaining and burned, only to calories consumed.

During recent thunderstorms (change in atmosphereic/barometric pressure), it showed I had climbed anywhere between 2 to 76 flights of stairs that day. Quite an accomplishment for someone who lives in a single story home and works in a single story office building. With that said, on a nice day when I happened to actually climb stairs, the device was accurate.

Entering foods everyday becomes quite tedious. If you mostly cook your own meals to avoid processed foods, you'll be doing a lot of math and data entry.

Many newer smartphones have similar features to track calories and activity, so it comes down to preference.

The Velcro wristband is quite comfortable. But after nearly three months of use at night to track sleep, the Velcro is worn out so the wristband comes off and the Fitbit finds its way out of the mesh pocket and gets lost in the bedsheets.

The silent alarm feature is nice....so long as the wristband stays on throughout the night.

The battery for the device holds a charge for nearly one week and recharges quickly.

The clip for the Fitbit is very snug. I've put a lot of miles on it and it's stayed in place (usually clipped to my pocket) every time.

Not regretting the purchase, it just isn't that impressive. If you're number/stat driven, you'll probably enjoy it. If you're using it for weight loss or fitness, be cognizant of the limitations on accuracy and plan/adjust accordingly.

Love this for counting steps. I wear it clipped in pant pocket or on he waist of pants. I never feel it. I didn't get a watch because I am always pushing a stroller when walking or jogging and my wrists don't always move. Two stars off because the case broke in less than a year,same as other reviews the hard edge came off and left two metal prongs poking me in the side. A replacement is fifteen bucks, no way. I bought a generic brand that gave me four for the same price, way better deal and work great to hold the pod.

I use this daily and find it very useful. But I only give three stars due to its lack of durability. I bought mine in July 2014. It's still working... sort of. I now have to anticipate when to charge it, because if I wait for the notification that the battery is low, it's already dead. I then have to completely recharge it (about every 3 days now), and restart the tracker. I wear mine everyday inside my bra, so it's not getting a lot of abuse due to abrasion, etc., but the plastic end of the clip separated about 8 months into the tracker's life, and the remaining silicone is now malformed so I have to be pretty dexterous to make the clip work at all. The silicone is also losing its "tightness" so the tracker spurts out of the silicone case on its own. Finally, the tracker itself has split into two pieces (the back now comes off each time I take it out of the silicone holder). I realize I've gotten quite a bit of use out of it in the 1.5 years that I've had it, but it really seems that for the money you pay for it, it should last longer.

It wasn't bad while it lasted, but I'm sorry at the price I should have gotten more than 1 year and 4 months out of it! The bracket which holds the charger in place broke -- one of the flimsy little tabs on the side broke. This made it impossible to recharge the device as the charging cord wouldn't stay in place. Certain aspects of the HR were nice . . . heart rate (obviously), incoming call alert, etc. But I simply cannot get beyond the fact the entire thing was rendered useless in a short 16 months!

I have had my Fitbit Charge HR for a little over a year now. I loved it for the heartrate monitor and sleep tracker. It's a nifty little wrist-machine. The charging cable is 2-3 inches long, so it's a bit annoying when I plug it into the wall to charge. HOWEVER, it isn't very robust, and in fact the band began bubbling up only a few months after receiving it. Right around the year mark, the screen faded so badly I couldn't see it unless I was in my pitch-black room at night. Then the plastic prongs that help hold the thing together broke and now it's in pieces and unusable. Notice, I am not a rough person with my electronics, especially when it costs over 100 dollars. My iPhone 4 is still in awesome condition and it's six years old - not a scratch or a crack. I usually use my electronics until they decide to die without any intervention from me. Therefore, I wasn't slamming my arm against a brick wall while wearing my Fitbit, and I've never dropped it. I was always careful with it around water (i.e. dishes, laundry, etc). In the end, it was fun while it lasted but I am less than pleased.

My girlfriend and I bought these for each other for Valentines Day. I gave her the small Charge HR in plum and mine's the large Charge HR in black. I have to say that so far I'm disappointed.

Right from the beginning, it didn't want to pair and sync with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S5, which I love!). After 3 attempts it finally paired. No big deal, and could overlook this if the problems didn't persist.

It has since stopped syncing twice in about a week and a half. The first time was 2 days long -followed the instructions in the help forums to get synced again (cycle off/on Bluetooth on my phone, connect Fitbit to computer via USB, hold button on side of Fitbit down for approx 15 seconds to reset connection) and nothing. Then a day later just started randomly syncing again on its own. This 2nd time it won't sync is currently 3 days and counting.

My girlfriend is having an issue too (she has hers paired with an iPhone 6+) although her issues are far less... we had just pulled hers off the charger and the Fitbit said 100% charged, but after syncing the Fitbit with her iPhone, it said her battery was low. Not a significant issue, but given my problems, thought it worth noting.

Finally, and this is where I will probably differ from most other people... I have a job where I drive a lot, Department of Transportation highway worker to be specific. My fitbit is constantly racking up footsteps while I am driving from one job location to the next. On one recent trip that totalled about 90 miles, it logged me as walking almost 4000 steps during that time (it vibrated and notified me of my 10000th step about 70 mIles in, and I was about 2500 steps away when I started driving!). I also operate a boom truck and went up and down in the bucket several times that day, but never walked a single flight of stairs, yet my tracker said I did 90 flights that day. I realize most people have desk jobs and my occupation is a bit extreme relative to that, but again, thought it was worth mentioning.

Lastly, and maybe it's just because prior to getting my Fitbit, I hadn't worn a watch in years, but I find the rubber wristband somewhat uncomfortable. Whenever I take it off or put it on it's ripping hair out of my arm.

I will continue to use it for a while and post updates as necessary, but so far am giving the Fitbit Charge HR 2 stars out of 5.

- EDIT/UPDATE - 12/19/2016 -

- The syncing issue seems to have gotten better over time, but the notifications for calls are still hit and miss.
- The racking up of steps and floors for me has also not changed with my driving-heavy job.
- On my Fitbit, there is some kind of a bubble for about 2 months now where the rubber has separated from the electronics housing underneath right below the display.
- At one point this last summer, mine stopped taking a charge and eventually died. My girlfriend resurrected it somehow though with a reset or two.
- On her Fitbit, the button is now missing after the plastic piece that wraps around the underside came off when it disconnected from the charging cable.
- Also, if I had it to do over again, I would have put a screen protector on it right from the start. The display is plastic and scratches easily. Fitbit should include a screen protector with the initial purchase in the package!

Update: After 1.5 years, I've had the band come apart on me twice. The first the bad started to bubble and come apart after exactly a year. I called Fitbit and had it replaced without any problem. 6 months later, the band is coming apart again. I haven't called fitbit, but I'm guessing they won't replace the second one as the warranty has elapsed. I'll update once I've tried.

I am by no means an active person and could be more aplty described as a basement-dwelling couch potato, I know this even more now after fitbit's progress reports. This fitbit has endured probably less than 1/8th of the abuse a regular active person would put on it and still has fallen apart twice. There is no way that I can recommend this tracker and will be looking for a different brand if I again decide to buy a device to track my lack of activity. For now, I'm going back to the 2 watches I've had for 10+ years (each one cost the same or less than the fitbit)

I lowered my rating to two stars because the device is fantastic, but since the band is trash and there is no way for it to be replaced, it's the cheap band that ruined this device.

********Original Review*********
This activity tracker is not really waterproof and has a sub-par battery (2-3 days max). The screen is also a joke....who the heck puts a piece of scratch-able plastic as a watch face? As an adult, I've never scuffed a watch....the Charge HR got a scratch on the face inside of an hour of me wearing it. It's too small to put a decent screen protector on, So I guess this will be a feature I avoid in my next tracker...or anything that I put on my wrist.

The sleep tracking and silent alarms are awesome. HR tracking, steps, distance are all accrate. I clean it after charging/workouts with a toothbrush and some diluted dawn. No skin irritation or anything like that. I do wear this looser than I would a regular watch which took some getting used to, but no complaints there.

I wish it had an activity reminder that would tell me to move after my rear's been planted for x minutes. Other activity trackers do that....there is a vibrate function on this, so what gives Fitbit?

a bug that I've encountered is on long car rides. On a drive from CA to UT I apparently crushed all my records for stairs and steps even though I was sitting for a solid 9 hours straight. The software also hates to stay paired with my phone and there is an incredibly annoying push notification whose only purpose (other than to hog space on my notification bar) is to let me know that call notifications are enabled. Needless to say, I don't have notifications enabled on my fitbit due to this. Even before the update I never paid much attention to the notifications because by the time the fitbit registers a call is coming in and decides to vibrate, the caller is leaving me a voicemail.

 I really wanted to like this. While it's obvious that a wireless device that communicates with your phone will put out radio frequencies, there needs to be an option to halt the radio frequencies except when you want them. That way, you don't have to expose yourself to a lot of additional RF's which, by the way, are starting to concern a lot of scientists (see, e.g.: http://ehtrust.org/cell-phones-radiation-3/read-the-research/). The manufacturer states that when you turn off bluetooth on your phone then the fitbit won't sync, but what happens is that it keeps sending out bluetooth signals to see if bluetooth has been activated again on your phone or not. There needs to be an option for manual sync only from the watch itself so it is not always attempting to find a bluetooth signal. I'll attempt to upload a video here showing the RF output with "All-Day Sync" turned off and with it turned on (serious spike in RFs when it's on ... and thus the battery drain). If they fix this then I would probably give 4 or 5 stars and would purchase it again. As is I'm returning it. Keep in mind this is supposed to be worn 24/7 and you are exposing yourself to additional microwave radiation 24/7 with the source directly on your body. Hope the video comes through ok.

The tracker itself is excellent -- it records steps, flights of stairs, distance, etc. However, the tracker interfaces with the fitbit.com online "dashboard," which has been a consistent problem! The thing that makes fitbit different from a basic pedometer is the ability to interact with friends and activity groups online for mutual encouragement and motivating challenges - but when this does not work, the outlandish price of the tracker is hardly worth it! I've been interacting with Customer Service for several weeks, and the problem is not resolved. They are slow to respond (about 3 days for an email). On the phone, they are hard to understand and so dependent on the script from which they read that they do not recognize that the questions they are asking have already been answered several times. When the general Customer Service support realized they could not resolve the problem, they "escalated" the issue to their engineers in San Francisco. At this point, they have notified me that they are aware of the problem, but they admit that they have no time table for resolving it -- all of which leaves me wondering why I paid $100 for this little pedometer in the first place.

I've had the Fitbit One for 1 week, worked like a charm, then today it undercounted 4,000 steps. I had a little over 3,000 steps when I got on the treadmill and did 4 miles. I got off and it read "4,917". I know from experience that I will get around 6,000 steps on the treadmill alone in an hour. I tried synching it but it never caught up. I called the Fitbit help desk, nice guy talked to me, and he was reading 8,900 + steps, even thought my dashboard said 4,917 steps. He couldn't get the dashboard to read what he confirmed was my true step and mile count. This ruins my weekly average so I'm not happy. Will wear it a few more days, any problems I'll send it back to Amazon. The one thing this device should do is accurately count steps, and a 50% undercount is unacceptable.

***Addendum to original review: After two weeks I have had to order a replacement from Amazon. Watching the dashboard on my iPhone as I was on the treadmill today I now see why it undercounted last week. Every time I get up to around 4,400 steps, the count goes back to 3,800 and starts again. Also, my active minutes were wiped out. 60 minutes on the treadmill and it listed zero active minutes. I'll try the replacement, and it that doesn't work, I'll return it and go back to a pedometer. Bummer

This Fitbit One is a relatively good tracker. It provided basic information that I need for steps. It was nice to have challenges with family members to see who can have the most steps in a work week or weekend. I clipped it to my bra and it usually stayed put, but may fall out once in a while. I ended up buying a third party wrist band to keep it secure. However, the plastic tip covering the edge of the clip fell off after a few months. But more importantly, the battery started having problems after only 21 months. The tracker shows a full charge, but it will turn off after a few minutes. I have to plug it in to turn it back on, which then shows a full charge. Even after charging over night, the tracker will turn off after a few minutes. I contacted Customer Service and they were very responsive and provided troubleshooting in how to reset it, but it didn't work. Although they offered a 25% discount to replace it, I would think I should need to use it. A product like this should work for several years especially for the price of it. I should not have to replace it after less than two years of using it. There many other competitors out there that can have my business.

I will start by saying that I loved my Fitbit, and the app for tracking my stats. I enjoyed participating in challenges with my friends, and it definitely helped me challenge myself to walk more.

That being said, the reason why I'm giving this a two star review 19 months after purchasing it is because my Fitbit will no longer charge, and is now completely dead. I ran through all the trouble shooting options (cleaning the charge heads, unsuccessfully resetting the fitbit--which I couldn't do because it needs to be attached to the charger to reset, and tried different chargers and USB ports to no avail). I contacted the company but unfortunately, the warranty is up on my Fitbit, so the best they could offer was a 25% discount on a future purchase.

I am very disappointed that I was not able to get at least two or three years out of a $100 device. I know there is a long history of the Fitbit products having trouble, and they are very good about replacing defective products if you are within a warranty period. But their devices to not last long beyond the warranty period.

I am uncertain if I will replace the device or if I will try another fitness tracker. $100 for a fitness tracker that needs to be replaced every year and a half is a bit more than I am willing to spend.

I am super disappointed. I received my Fitbit One Jun 3rd and fell in love with it. It got me up and active and the sleep tracker helped me to really be conscious about the factors that were affecting my sleep. I took it on vacation with me and forgot my charger. The charge ran completely down. When I returned home from vacation however it seemed to charge back up and work well for another week. I got a brief reminder the battery was low, placed in the charger, but it did not charge. I followed all the instructions on the Fitbit website: cleaned the contact points, held the reset button etc. No luck. I read online that this is not uncommon with some devices. I finally gave up today (7/6) and decided to try to replace it only to discover it only had a 30 day policy and today is the 33rd day. What a disappointment. Not sure if I will buy it again. As awesome as it was to track my fitness, I'm not sureI want to spend another $100 for something that doesn't last.

The is my fourth fitbit. The wristband breaks under normal use. This starts as bubbles in the band, then frayed glue, then disintegration. The only remedy at 366 days+ is to beg for a repair which I did just once, for my most recent fitbit. They sent me a refurb which I thought was great. But the refurb lasted only three months before it failed. All in all, I've purchased four and five failed.

Why NOT put the wristband on a hinge and take the stress of the glue and make the band replaceable? This century old design works great for watches. It's almost like they design these Fitbit things to fail in a year...

Five stars if they change their annuity model and make a durable product.

I love the fitbit line and really liked my Charge HR until about 6 months in when it started falling apart. First the band was just slightly giving away, now it's much worse and I can see right into the device. I do wear it daily/nightly, but I work in an office environment so it gets treated pretty well.
For the price, I would have expected it to last much longer.

I truly do not recommend this product.
Now, when I first purchased this product, it was terrific. The battery life lasted 5 days. This was running the heart rate monitor, everything, at full throttle. Evidently Fitbit feels the need to periodically update their products, understandable, you have to keep things new and fresh. I've owned my Fitbit, Charge HR for 4 months now. It hasn't been a great deal of time. As one might suspect, it gets worn all the time, as it tracks your sleep and what not.
The reason for the one star is that Fitbit pushed an update out on this particular product, and the battery life is now reduced to a day and a half to maybe two days if I'm lucky. My Charge HR is spending quality time with the wall outlet now, instead of on my wrist like it should be. I've looked at other products outside of Fitbit, and to be honest, the Microsoft Band is looking better and better.
I would not recommend getting this until Fitbit does some changes in their firmware to get their battery life back to 4 - 5 days without charging.

I originally got a Fitbit Charge HR in May of 2015 (via Amazon) and less than 3 months later (July), the band began to bubble up and then the band started lifting completely from the hardware. Mind you, I don’t wet it and followed the care instructions. So I reached out to Fitbit and what I will say is they have excellent customer services. All I had to do is email the issue and send two pictures; I had a new device within a week. Of course this isn’t the end of my story, my replacement devices band began to malfunction in the same way in September of 2015 (less than 3 months). Again the process was easy to get a replacement.

Now it’s December 2015 and the band of my 3rd Fitbit Charge HR is malfunctioning, at this point I don’t want a replacement I’d rather a refund. I was told I wasn’t eligible for one (hey I understand its business), but what got under my skin was they offer of 25% off their Fitbit Surge (a larger device/upgrade). So they want me to spend more money on their products? Wow, that’s just crazy, especially since I know that the Surge devices are also prone to band issues per a coworker’s watch and a friend. I wrote this blog to vent a little, but also to warn other consumers that just because a wearable is the most popular, or has the most commercials don’t mean it’s the best. Also just because you haven’t heard of problems with the device personally (through your immediate circles) doesn’t mean they are without issues.

NOT ACCURATE!!!! Update: Died after 4 months
Let me start this by saying I was a personal trainer for 12 years so I may be a little more critical then most.
The reason I am so disappointed in the Fitbit Charge Hr is that it isn't close to being accurate except for the heart rate. I gave it one star for that.
What it does that is wrong:
1. When i woke up the first morning (still in bed) it said I had done 131 steps went ,01 miles and burned 337 calories. The next day it said when I woke I had done 109 steps, walled 0.5 miles and burned 338 calories. That's all well and good if I felt like cheating but I don't.
2. It cannot differentiate between walking up a hill and stairs. It also gets confused. The first day it logged my set of stairs here as 2 floors. The next day it logged the same set of stairs as 3 floors. Today it was all over the map! If I walk up an incline it will register that as stairs. Not the same thing. As someone who does stairs for a workout and was hoping to stop counting sets, this has proven to be useless because it is not consistent for the same set. Irritating!
3. Today it says I walked 12,888 steps and yesterday 14,930. Problem being is I walked a lot more today then yesterday! Consequently the mileage is also inaccurate.
Hard to tell on the sleep cycle because I am not aware of the times I am "restless".
Calories burned I don't pay much attention to for a few reasons. One is that there are many variables on how calories are burned. The fitbit is not equipped to give an accurate assessment. Like a bike at the gym...its just a gauge..a very approximate one.
So far the only thing that has proven accurate is the heart rate monitor. My guess is I can find one of those for less then $155.00.
With all that said, if you are fairly new to exercise this could be a good gauge. Make improvements every day. My only concern is my example of getting more millage in today then yesterday and yet it shows I got the opposite.
I suppose if you want to be part of a community of lets start exercising, it can be a plus but personally I wanted something worth the price and something a bit more reliable then this. I wasn't expecting perfection but this is just too far off the mark.
Maybe I just got a lemon. Hard to tell because this is my first one.
UPDATE: IT DIED AFTER 4 MONTHS! The Fitbit will no longer charge. 150 dollars and it only lasted four months,

The wristband didn't last a month. I wore it ever night and it no longer sticks. And the clip, the plastic end part broke off so it doesn't stay secure to what I clip it on now. I have only had it a couple months and it is already not working. It won't turn on. I have tried 2 different chargers.

I really like the fitbit one, however it is just too unreliable. I have purchased six of these in the past three years or so, four of them through amazon. I purchased three of those for others because I liked mine so much. My first one just stopped charging and fitbit was great and replaced it. The second one the button stopped working. One of the ones I purchased for my mother stopped working and she had it replaced, before that one stopped working and she purchased another. My current fitbit turns off on it's own even when it's fully charged. I've gone to the forums and see that this is a common problem, I have reset/power cycled it many times and it still happens. In fact, it is happening with increasing frequency as time goes on. It also only holds a charge for a few days now. Between the short battery and having to constantly check to make sure it is on it has essentially lost it's functionality.

I have been through four of these now for myself. Two were replaced by customer service and two that I purchased. I like this product better than others when it works...but at $100 a pop I can't get myself to by another.

If I had one bad unit I would have given three stars, but with so many bad ones? Would be one star, except their customer service really is great. I just can't go to customer service every 9 months begging for a new one, and I can't keep charging/power cycling this thing every 24-48 hours. Essentially they make the best product, they need to send them in packs of 10 so you can grab a new one when yours inevitably fails.

***Update***
Since I first wrote this review my latest Fitbit quickly degraded into needing to be charged daily, then twice per day, then dies within minutes of being fully charged. Again, it's disappointing. Like the product I just can't afford to buy one every 10 months.

On my 3rd Fitbut One. Loved the 1st one, even survived accidental run thru washing machine 4 times! Finally died after about 18 months, figured it was my fault. 2nd one lasted 2 yrs with battery suddenly going from 1 1/2 - 2 weeks min on a charge to draining in hours, disappointing. (Tried all Fitbit recommended fix s, no change). Ordered 3rd one last month. First one wouldn't stay in charger, just fell out. Amazon, who has great customer service replaced it for free. Current one in <30 days is working & charging okay but has 1/2 the brightness of all the other ones. Going to try return again but seriously thinking about giving it up for another brand due to such poor quality, sad.

Update: new one now draining battery in 3 days vs the usual 7-10. GIVNG UP, NEVER BUYING YHIS BRAND AGAIN, ABYSMAL QUALITY!

Started using end of October 2015. The unit stopped syncing with my computer the end of December 2015. So got a couple of months use before it stopped working. Rather than go to the effort of troubleshooting, I just stuck it in a junk drawer. My iPhone tells me pretty much the same thing, so now I'm carrying just one thing instead of two things - a bit simpler life for me. The number of steps that I take each day doesn't really vary enough to continue to measure. Normal day I take between 9,000 and 10,000 steps. On work-out days I take around 14,000 steps. Unless I change my habits significantly, I am OK with those estimates. Did not use the sleep thing, did not enter additional exercise beyond normal walking measurements, did not use the what I ate / calorie functions.

Well, this review is based on my DAILY use of this product for 3 years. It is a great concept, and while it works it is fine.

BUT IT BREAKS--in multiple ways.

First the little clip has a hard plastic end piece. That piece comes off. I have already purchased 2 replacement clips in 3 years and all 3 have failed. You end up with an exposed metal prong that pokes and makes the clip practically useless. (Note that I said I PURCHASED the replacement clips...because they won't replace them as defective.

Second, the button--its ONLY button--WILL FALL OUT. And when it does, you will not know until you're miles away. They will tell you how sorry they are, and then they will point out that the warranty has expired, so tough luck...their defective product is your problem now.

I regret buying this product, I regret ever recommending this product to my friends.

Buy it if you wish, but just know that it will fail SOONER THAN YOU EXPECT.

(And this issue appears to be endemic to the company: it has affected multiple products in multiple ways. Do some research first.)