Microsoft - Band 2 (Medium) - Black

When choosing high end fitness bands, my choices went back and forth between the Microsoft Band 2 and the Fitbit Surge. Fitbit has been in the business for fitness wearables for longer but I chose the Band 2 for what I felt was better value for my money. I purchased during a $50 off sale making it even more attractive and $50 less than the Surge. My main phone for this review is a Lumia 1520 with Windows 10 Mobile. I assume others will write reviews of the phone for other platforms and that is where this review starts. This fitness wearable is by far the most compatible. It supports iOS, Android, and Windows Phone/Mobile. Fitbit does as well but support for Windows Mobile is more limited. Comparing it to the Surge, it has more customizability, color screen, and a partially metal build. It feels more premium than the Surge. The metal does have 2 downsides. The first is that the finish used shows scratches extremely easily. See included picture. The second is that sweat and soap cause a foul smell very quickly requiring regular cleaning. The Band 2 can be worn in two positions. The first is with the screen facing outwards like a watch. I tried this but it felt uncomfortable and viewing the screen was awkward particularly considering the screen doesn’t have a vertical view. This leads me to my preferred position which is with the screen facing inwards. It is much more natural to view and operate. It also feels more comfortable and is in fact the recommended way to wear the device. If there was any concern it is that wearing it inward the screen is always contacting surfaces when you lay your arms down. It uses gorilla glass but it still concerns me that I might scratch the screen. Every fitness wearable wasn’t completely comfortable to wear for one reason or another but this one starts to feel about like a watch after an adjustment period. Before you get the size right you might put it a place that binds you wrist or hits a nerve. I also learned it can get the heart rate just fine without tightening it down so far you hit nerves. Just like a watch it will take some fiddling to find your perfect tightness. Fortunately, the latching mechanism feels strong and has more adjustments than a tradition watch as well giving you more flexibility. Just make sure you use the sizing guide on the size of the box to choose the correct size. It shows wrists sizes with the wrist sideways. Now the big question is how it works for tracking vitals. I haven’t worked with VO2 Max so I can’t comment on that but after getting the fit correct, the heart rate seems pretty close. Checking manual it was usually within about 10BPM or less from actual. Tracking steps seems a little different. It is difficult to verify but it seems to be a little high on the number of steps sometimes compared to my old hip worn pedometer. It just seems like I can reach 5,000 steps fairly easily. I am not a runner so I have not tested the GPS but I have read that some units have come from the factory with a bad GPS. What’s really nice is with all the vitals it gathers, more than just heart rate, it should be a fairly accurate color estimate. It has guided workouts you can add but I used the generic color tracking and added my own workout types to track. You can add things like HIT and weight training for your own purposes but it uses all the sensors to estimate the color burn instead of estimating based on the workout type. I feel this is more accurate but cannot verify. When you start workout mode, by default the screen stays on showing your workout time and heart rate. I suspect it is not as accurate as a chest band but it seems pretty good. After your workout is done you can see the entire workout on your phone or the website with your heart rate the entire time and your max marked. If there was any gripe it would be that you can’t have it vibrate when you hit your target or max heart rate. That would have been a great feature but, who knows. Maybe they will add it in the future. You can even use the website to compare your vitals to others in your height, weight, and age category. It’s all anonymous and very informative. When not working out it still tracks your heart rate all the time but the other useful time to check is when you are sleeping. It can detect your sleep but if it gets it wrong you can only delete the time, not edit. You are better off starting your sleep tracking yourself. While sleeping, it will monitor you and in when you wake up you can see what your resting heart rate was overnight to get an even better picture of your health. It also has a smart alarm you can activate. If you want to wake up at a set time, just set the alarm and it will vibrate to wake you up. What I really like is if you activate the smart alarm and set it for 7:30am it will wake you up somewhere between 7:00am and 8:00am when you are most awake. That means you don’t wake up to an alarm feeling like you haven’t rested. You can even set the strength of the vibration. Since this is a little bit of a smart watch you can add some apps. Since the phone doesn’t have any memory though, expect to only have them work when around your phone. It can control music on your phone and even use voice recognition with Cortana. I am running a prerelease build of the phone software so on occasion the connection dropped but it wasn’t hard to get back. I have found the notifications actually quite nice. I can leave the phone in one place in the house and still get notifications and respond to basic texts. I can also connect my phone to the stereo and change tracks and turn the volume up or down. It’s a standard feature for a smart watch but this is a fitness wearable and much cheaper than a smart watch. There are even some extra apps you can add and some third part utilizes to customize it further but if you want a smart watch more you might want to go that route. If you want a smart fitness tracker, this thing is hard to beat. Pros Solid (premium) build quality. It often gets looks and people asking what it is Tracks more vitals than any other fitness wearable Comfortable after figuring out your preferred fitment Bright, sharp screen with auto brightness Smart Alarm Customizable workouts Workout coaches Customizable with smart watch type features Solid latching mechanism Good battery life for its functionality (2 days with no GPS and auto on screen) Fast charge time (30 minutes to 80%) Gorilla glass screen Works on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Web. The web is the most feature rich Integrates with Health Vault Constant heart rate Portal to compare health Rich sleep stats including restful sleep, times awake, resting heartrate, and recovery Cons Cannot change band because electronics are built in Metal area is a trap for sweat and soap requiring regular cleaning to prevent odor Cannot change screen orientation Awkward wearing screen outward Metal finish is easy to scratch No build in memory to bring music and store GPS while leaving phone behind for a time Water resistant instead of waterproof Possible to scratch screen with it facing downward Sync is a bit slow

So, take your Fitbit Charge HR, and throw it out the window. The Microsoft Band 2 combines the Charge HR and the Apple Watch (at half the cost) into this perfect streamlined device. It works with my iPhone to notify me of texts, alarms, my calendar, email, calls and so much more. I can customize it however I want, and to me, it's just so futuristic. The heart rate monitor is spot on (I've tested it), and even though the step count is considerably less than my HR counted, I believe this band to be more accurate. I felt the HR "gifted" too many steps. I loved it so much ch, I view bought one for my fiancé!

I bought this as a fitness band and for that purpose you cannot beat the price for the amount of features. Do you care about v02 max? This has it, if that means nothing to you stick with a basic Fitbit. Not really a smart watch but it has basic text display and phone call alert. Silent alarm is nice. Some minor issues include random freezes (hey it's a Microsoft product after all!) but they are pretty infrequent.

Compared to the other bands out there, that are about the same price, this one wins hands down. It's easy to use, and has a great app to work with. Only downfalls are that you can't use its full potential with any phone other than a Microsoft phone, and the clasp is a little bulky. Overall it is a great product though.

After only two months of normal daily wear the strap ripped right where the solid area past the screen meets the flexible area of the band. I sent to Microsoft for warranty but they wouldn't replace or fix it because I didn't have an extended warranty. They said I should have been offered it at purchase. The only warranty I was offered was best buys geek squad warranty which would not have helped. Since it still worked I wrapped some electrical tape around the ripped band but now it will not charge! Only 4 months of use and it is just a paperweight now! I read more reviews in some online forums about this watch and many people are having the exact same problems. Save your money! Do not buy this watch!

I really, really enjoy my Microsoft band 2. It does so many useful things. My favorite features are the sleep tracking and the steps tracking. It's so accurate with my steps. I can see who is calling and respond to a text message without picking up my phone and so many other things without picking up my phone. Cortona works perfectly with my windows phone. It does have a few less features when using it with android or iPhone, but still works great with those platforms as well.

I purchased this product as an AVID Microsoft endorser. From a functionality standpoint, I loved it. Not needing to pull out my phone for text/emails and glancing at my wrist to see if those messages are urgent is an awesome feature. Previous reviewers indicated inaccuracies with the HR and pedometer. I haven't noticed anything significant. As an RN, I was curious about that, but found that I get a pretty close HR when the device is locked on. The HUGE disappointment is the durability. I've only had this for 3 months and the rubber/silicon wristband has cracked and is pulling away from the main screen. It wasn't even like I was rough with it, I simply attempted to disconnect it from the charging cradle. I've attached pictures to show where. No amount of taping could hold it together. I've read a ton of people having this exact same issue. It's a shame, because I liked it when it was functioning. Hopefully Microsoft hires a better engineer for their next iteration (if there is one) because this one failed.

I love it, it's give you a lot of information about your daily life, not just the excerssice.