Fitbit - Blaze Smart Fitness Watch (Small) - Black

My wife purchased a FitBit Blaze from Best Buy, as a birthday present for me, and got one for herself. I had been looking at fitness watches and Fitbits for a while. I had almost purchased the Charge HR on a few occasions, but I really wanted something that could sync with Strava. My other requirements were long battery life (wishing for one week), heart rate, waterproof, and something I could wear as a watch replacement. Having full smart watch functionality was not needed, but would be nice. So after a month of usage, how does the Blaze stack up with my wants list? Sync with Strava - YES! From Strava on your PC, you can link your Fitbit and Strava accounts. When you finish tracking an activity with the FitBit, it uploads it to your Fitbit account, and syncs with Strava within a few minutes. I am seeing full sync - GPS tracks, pace, heart rate. I like this. :) Battery life - Blaze advertises 5 day battery life. That sounds about right. I have been charging it about every 4-5 days. When the battery indicator on the watch starts to flash red, I am still seeing about 12+ hours of life left, and after one month I have not had it surprise me by dying during the day. It does not meet up with original want of a full week, but I am happy with the 4-5 day battery life - it is living up to the advertised life. Heart rate - The Blaze uses a pair of green blinking LED's on the back to take heart rate continuously. I wear it snug but not tight, and have had no issue with the heart rate dropping out while jogging. Plus heart rate syncs with Strava - so long as you have Strava premium, so that gets a thumbs up from me too. As far as accuracy, I have not worn my polar since getting the Blaze, but the heart rates seem to be in line with my perceived exertion – no odd ball readings, so I am satisfied. Water proof - The Blaze is not advertised as being waterproof. I have worn it in the shower on several occasions, and have had no issues. Personally, I would not try to swim with it. I wish it was IP rated, but as it seems to be shower safe, I can live with it. Plus I purchased the Bust Buy protection plan, which covers water damage, so no worries. :) Watch Replacement – The blaze has a nice Smart-Watch look to it. Not flashy, but not the plastic bracelet look of the Charge. Replaceable bands is nice, but for now, I have the basic black rubber band. The watch screen stays off most of the time, till you either tap it, or flip your wrist forward to look at the face. The face graphics have 4 different themes, that each have a different look and display different info. The available themes are OK, but I wish there were a few more choices. I have not looked around on line yet to see if there are downloadable themes. Other thoughts – I have my Blaze synced up with my Note 4 android phone. My wife has hers synced to an iPhone 6s Plus. We have had no issues with the phone pairing. You can start and stop activities from the watch. You can have up to 7 short cuts to your favorite activities like walk, run, workout, stairs, and others. The Blaze does not have a built in GPS, but instead relies on the GPS in your phone. Same for music – it will not store or play music, but once you have started a music app on your phone, you have basic controls for it on the Blaze. Also notification – I am getting basic Android system notifications, like alarms, calendar, texts, but not app notification. And from the Blaze, I can usually read the texts, but if one person sends you several texts, the Blaze will often say “3 messages” rather than display them all. You cannot respond to texts from the watch. Last, when you get a call, the watch will vibrate, and show the caller ID, but you cannot answer or talk on the blaze – no mic or speaker. Overall, I like my Blaze! While it is not perfect as far as ticking all my boxes, it is close enough that I am happy with it. I am giving it 4 starts because it is easy to use, does what I need it to, and lives up to the advertisements. I dropped one star because of the lack of an IP rating for water resistance, and because of the way it handles getting several texts from one person.

For starters I will say that I had a Misfit. It was something I won in a white elephant game at Christmas two years ago. I felt it was extremely inaccurate and was just a basic pedometer and sleep tracker. I work out 5-6 times a week and wanted to be able to see if I was hitting my maximum heart rate level while working out. I can't always trust the gym machines and for half of my workout I'm lifting weights. So I put it to the test today. For the first half of my workout session I did weights. I was able to choose that as a setting when starting my workout. I'm not really sure I will use this feature again. It seemed to tell me what my max heart rate was while weight training and how long I lifted. I can see my heart rate info in another screen just as easily so to me, this wasn't beneficial. I was also in a challenge this weekend with another fit bit wearer. One thing I've noticed is that I'm very light on my feet. I don't take steps that bear down a lot of weight. For me, unless I'm almost stomping, my steps do not register. I also climbed on the stair machine and it didn't record my step unless I let my hand kind of linger by my side. Anyone who knows me knows that I shouldn't be trusted to not fall on a machine like that. I'm just clumsy :) So I ended up stopping the stairs and shifting to the treadmill just to have my steps register for the challenge this weekend. Ya...I'm that competitive. It's also not an issue of it being too loose. I have the small size band and have it on the second to last tightest notch. Pros: * Pretty accurate heart rate with the ability to see if I'm in normal, cardio, fat burn or peak exercise mode * Accurate sleep monitoring * Able to control music using the watch saving me from having to pull my phone out * Able to see notifications come across and know whether it's important enough to stop my workout to answer/respond Cons * Doesn't always accurately register my steps. It could be that I'm just a light stepper but it's rather annoying especially while doing a fitbit challenge. * I find that sometimes the screen doesn't pop up with a flick of the wrist and I have to either try again or tap the watch face which can be irritating while in the middle of a workout. * It didn't include the 7 minutes I spent on the stair master as exercise but it did show up in the peak heart rate. Would I buy this again? I'm not sure. Maybe once I can do a true workout after the fit bit challenge I can gauge whether or not it's really necessary. Because I had to switch to the treadmill to register my steps it wasn't a completely accurate description of MY true workout. Today I learned that I mostly stayed in the fat burn zone and spend very few minutes in peak (only when I was on the stair master I usually use). So that was interesting to know.

I was in the market for a more all-around fitness tracker with HR, coming from a Misfit Shine. I mostly work out in the gym with circuit training, weights, etc and was looking at things like the Microsoft Band2, Garmin Vivoactive HR, and Garmin Forerunner 235. I decided on the Blaze because of the great Fitbit app, HR, and more stylish look (yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I've seen several reviews knocking the looks but I disagree). My 11 year old daughter is dying for an Apple Watch and said my Blaze looks like one! I have the small blue and with my very small wrist I think it looks great. I love the fact that the Blaze is a fitness tracker first, and a smart watch second--this is the right combo for me. I like getting text and call notifications, and love the fact that I can choose from multiple workout modes, including pilates and even bootcamp. The charger is strange but doesn't bother me, especially with the long battery life. I just charge it when I'm in the shower. I spent a long time "obsessing" over the right fitness watch, and I'm glad I chose the Blaze.

I wanted a new fitness tracker that did more (originally had a Fitbit Charge that I loved), but I was finding it hard to find a tracker that didn't look ridiculous on my narrow wrist. Was going for the Surge until I tried it on. Got redirected to the Apple Watch. Fit was great and it looked great. But when I went home to do my research, I found that the Apple Watch was a "smart watch with some fitness tracking abilities". Comparing to the Fitbit Blaze which was a "fitness watch with some smart watch abilities", I realized the Fitbit Blaze was much more of what I was looking for. It has all of the fitness tracking components (running, biking, weightlifting, treadmill, elliptical, and the new FitStar), while being easy to use, still using the Fitbit app that I love, NOT having all the extra that I didn't want or need and having just the right amount of "smart watch" features (phone call, text and calendar notifications!). And its' price point was a major bonus as compared to other similar trackers. I was afraid it was going to look too masculine on my wrist (I wanted to stick with black so that it didn't stick out by being bright), but I've actually gotten many compliments on it! I wear it a little loose to look more bracelet style and I tighten it for workouts. Have NO regrets about making this purchase--absolutely love it!

First and foremost the Fitbit Blaze is a great fitness tracker with some additional smart watch features. That said, if you're looking for a full on smart watch it's not going to fill the bill. In terms of fitness you get everything you would expect from Fitbit: step count, mileage tracking, calories, reminders to move, and very accurate heart rate tracking. In addition to this you also get some guided work outs on the watch. I found all of this to be very accurate and generally consistent, and I value the watch because if this. Moving to the smart watch side of the product, this is where it disappoints a little. You do get 9 different watch faces to choose from however these are not customizeable, so you're limited to what comes with it. The watch does sport smart phone notifications which I'm finding to be very convenient. It's great to be able to just lift my wrist and look at who is trying to contact me or what app has notified me. And with the recent update, the watch supports almost all notifications from your phone as opposed to just texts and calendar alerts. Not to mention you can choose which notifications you want to receive on your watch in the app. That said, you can't act on any of those notifications from your wrist. Any interaction has to be done from your phone. Something else which is slightly annoying about this is that there is not a continuity feature for notifications. If you clear the notifications on your phone they will still be in the watch until you go in and manually swipe on all of them, or scroll down till you hit the "Clear All" button. You can accept and decline calls from the watch, however there is no microphone or speaker imbedded in the watch itself. So if your watch rings you can accept the call, you'll just have to dig your actual phone out of your pocket very quickly thereafter. The watch also does music control, however noting outside of what the remote on your standard set of ear pods will do. You can play, pause, go forward or back. That's all. Bottom line, if you're looking for a fitness tracker first and a smart watch after this is the product for you. If you're wanting a full function smart watch you'll want to go with something else. For the Apple users out there, save up the extra $200 and buy an Apple Watch Sport.

I got this watch as an incentive to start working out more and keep a good record of my work out details. Most of the workouts and fitness routines that I would do are more circuit training as well as weight training, and the two options on the workout module keep a good record of what I accomplished in the workout. One of the features that I really enjoy is seeing how many calories you burn during your workout and comparing it to other workouts that you have done in the week. It is really lightweight and durable so it does not bother me while I am working out and can withstand kickboxing workouts as well as TRX workouts. It is a great fitness watch for someone who is a very avid gym goer and works out 6 times a week but is also great for someone who is just starting his or her work out routine 2-3 times a week. The other aspect of this watch that I enjoy is the fact that you can receive notifications from your phone. It is really handy when you are working out and don’t want to have your phone attached to your side and constantly checking it to see if you have a message, instead the watch will do one short vibrate when you receive a notification. You also have the ability to choose what aps you receive notifications from and can delegate which app is your primary for texts and planning. The only down side of this watch is the range at which it can receive notifications. If you are a super busy person and always have someone messaging you, I would suggest keeping the notifications off or limited and keeping your phone with you since you cannot receive notifications when you are roughly 6 feet away from your phone. Overall, this is an amazing watch for anyone who wants a smart watch that has an android phone. It has a great fitness tracker that analyzes heart rate and duration to calculate calories burned as well as a great notification system within a certain range.

I like this watch much better than my previous Fitbit Charge HR. You do not need to charge it daily; however it does not remain charged for five days as advertised. I am only getting about 2 to 3 days on mine. This watch gives better results on heart rate, time exercised, and calories burned than the Charge HR. However, I did not know nor do I like the fact that you must REMOVE the face of the watch to charge it. The face pops out of the encasement and you need to enclose it in its own case to charge it. The watch does not have a direct plug-in connection to the computer as the Charge HR. I feel that in time, like the Charge HR, it will begin to fall apart as the other Fitbit watches I have owned. I am afraid the watch face will become lose in its encasement which will necessitate me to purchase another watch. Since I just purchased this watch, I am optimistic it is a better quality watch than the Charge HR. However, only time will tell. I like Fitbit watches for their functionality; however they are rather poorly constructed and one might think they build in obsolescence so that people will purchase more of them. I can understand that; however, after paying over $300 for this watch, I am expecting it to last at least a year. I have owned now three Fitbit watches - 2 Charge watches and 1 - Charge HR. All of them had problems such as knobs falling off, pieces falling off them after three to four months. So I will take a wait-see attitude to see how this much more expense watch fares. If you do purchase this watch, I would advise you take out the service contract. This way, if it fails within three to four months, you can either get another watch or get your money returned.

This works as a great activity tracker and a good "Smart" watch if you're not looking for a device that carries its own phone number (and added cell expense). Especially if you're pairing it with an android or iPhone device. I originally purchased this because at the time, I had a windows phone and it paired with it, however, it's slightly deceiving from that standpoint. it doesn't have the full functionality that it has on its android and iPhone counterpart. Although there's a windows app, it will sync and count steps, heart rate, and most of the basic functions, but you do NOT receive notifications from your windows phone, i.e emails, phone calls, or text messages. These functions work great on android and ios devices. Its nice to be able to receive a text message, and glance at my watch and decide if its something than needs to be responded to right away, or address later. Same thing for email and if my phone is ringing and I can't quite get to it. The battery life is PHENOMINAL. 5-6 days between charges. The connected GPS functionality is great because it doesn't drain the battery of the watch. Just remember to stick your phone in your pocket when you go on runs, as it uses your phone to map your walks/runs. This wasn't a big deal for me, since I strap my phone on my armband when I go for runs anyways. The watch also controls my Spotify, so when working out, advancing the song is as easy as hitting a button on my watch. Furthermore there are tons of options for bands online, so you can dress it up if you need to. Overall, I think it's a great activity tracker, that's much more reasonably priced than standalone smart watches, if you're not necessarily looking for that kind of connectivity.