I gotta be honest here, I’m a Fitbit guy. So when the new Jawbone UP3 arrived in the office, a part of me did not want to do the review. With Riaz plugged into the Sony kit and Daanesh’s wrists tied up with the Huawei Watch, I had to roll up my sleeves, strap it on and spend two weeks with two fitness trackers and two phones together with the usual smartwatch and tablet. More tech on my person than in my grandparents first home back in the day — and possibly their entire neighbourhood.
At first glance, the Jawbone UP3 is smaller than you would imagine. When compared to my Fitbit Flex, it is sleeker and much more fashionable. To get the negative stuff out of the way — it’s clasp could become a bother if you spend loads of time at a keyboard and you will have to commit to one colour since changing straps is out of the question. Luckily, the pros outweigh the cons. Now for the good stuff — the UP3 is pegged as the world’s most advanced tracker and it very well could be.
Besides the usual activity and sleep tracking it offers continuous heart rate monitoring — even when you’re sleeping via sets of strategically placed sensors on your wrist. The tracker also measures your passive heart rate that helps you keep tabs on your hydration and stress levels, among other heart-related stuff.
The app
The smartphone app is a heavy 48MB on the Play store and set-up takes less than two minutes. If a firmware update is required, it would take much longer. The UP3 senses when you’re asleep, then automatically tracks and logs your naps — this saves you from the whole double-tapping, which is quite tedious.
The app also helps promote apps. Yes – app’ception. The App Gallery features sections on fitness, training, food, lifestyle and smart homes. The last section is interesting since it offers tracker integration apps from Nest, Withings and SmartThings. For example, you can control your home’s lighting directly through your UP band with SmartThings or track and sync your weight automatically with Withings’ scales.
The UP3 also includes activity alerts that notify you at a preset stage in your daily progress, together with a stopwatch and a reminder option. The app’s Smart Coach is amazing and offers personalised tips and advice, which, based on your feedback, helps its insights improve. The app is also linked with the Jawbone.com blog with tonnes of content on health and fitness.
Lastly, one of the best, yet simplest features of the Jawbone UP3 and its app is the option to log your mood. This feature uses a slider to alter an incredibly cute emoticon through eight moods ranging from Totally Done and Dragging to Meh and Amazing!