Fitbit Flex Wearable Project, Part II

By Ashima Agrawal

I have been wearing my Fitbit Flex for a few weeks now. In Part I of this post, I mentioned how excited I was to see how my patterns would change, but the reality is, I didn’t see that much change in my lifestyle as I was pretty active before.

For someone who isn’t as active, this device may effect change, but my activity levels—what I eat, how I sleep, etc.—have stayed pretty normal. What I was impressed with, was how long the device went without needing a charge.

Solid Battery Life

I am very impressed with the battery life of the Fitbit Flex. When you first set it up, it tells you that the battery life is five full days. Well, my Fitbit Flex has lasted much longer than that.

I wore it for a full week (seven days) until I got the notification that my battery was low. Although, maybe the reason my battery life was so good was because I wasn’t wearing the device every day.

Weekly Use: Not Every Day

I found that this past week, I would only wear my Fitbit if I knew I was going to do some sort of exercise it could track, such as when I ran or went on a hike this past weekend. And using it on my hike was cool. There was no service in the area I was hiking, so I could not check my Fitbit app every now and then. However, I knew how many steps and miles I had walked that day before the hike, so when we got to the bottom of the mountain—where there was service—I checked the app and could tell my friend how many miles and how many steps we walked. That was very neat and quite useful!

Wearing my Fitbit when I was out with friends did not happen too often, mainly because of the big black bulky band it is on. This past week, Tory Burch came out with a new band for the Fitbit, which is absolutely gorgeous. If I had that band, I would wear my Fitbit all the time because I could dress it up if I were going out to dinner, brunch, or somewhere nice. Right now, the only option I have is a very casual wristband. 

The Bottom Line

In all honesty, I do not think this product is worth the $99 you have to pay for it. There are many smartphone apps, such as Map My Run and My Fitness Pal, that almost do the same thing. Yes, they do rely on cellular service and they cannot tell you how many steps you are walking per day, but they record your activity, how far you’ve run, what you’re eating, your weight, etc.

If this product were cheaper than $99, I would say go ahead and get it, but there’s not much bang for the buck here.