Sports wearables threaten to become ubiquitous. As their price becomes more affordable, they start stealing market from smartwatches and other smart devices. Of all the brands, there is one that stands out above the rest. It’s Fitbit, whose Flex 2 sports smartband aims to be among the best fitness bracelets on the market.
This device is a clear commitment to good value for money. The Fitbit Flex 2, whose analysis we have elaborated in detail, has several features that until now only offered the most expensive wearables of the company. Its price drops from 100 euros and, despite this, there is no shortage of premium features in it.
The best smartbands and fitness wristbands offer very similar features, and that’s why there are details in which the firm wants to differentiate itself from the competition. One of them is the use of its user community to motivate everyone to continue using their wearables, devices whose abandonment rate is quite high.
A highly customizable design
One thing should be clear before you buy the Fitbit Flex 2 and start this analysis: this smartband has no screen. Although others are already starting to include OLED or LCD screens, in this case they have dispensed with it for their most affordable product. This is in the best interest of the battery, which in itself is a risky bet, as it leaves a space for the competition to establish key differences.
Moreover, the design of the Flex 2 deserves positive feedback. This is due to the ability to exchange basic black, lavender, magenta or navy straps for design straps. You can, for example, wear an elegant or casual strap or bracelet depending on the occasion, so that you don’t have to give up quantifying your physical activity by going dressed.
Two straps of different sizes as well as a charger are included in the device case. The core or heart is inserted inside and is what actually measures activity, so you can also use it as a pendant. It is glass, although it resists falls and shocks, as long as these are not too strong. The closure is quite iron, and it is appreciated that you do not have to walk with concerns about the safety of the fixation on your wrist.
Closure is secure. So far. The problem is the size of the belt circumference: if you squeeze it a lot, it bothers, but if you wear it loose, it dances until the core of the bracelet is put down as we have seen in this review of the Fitbit Flex 2.
The touch of this sporty smartband is embossed, slightly rough. This also differentiates most fitness wristbands, which prefer smooth materials. At first it gives an attractive touch, although over time it becomes a magnet for dirt.
To minimize this small glue you can always opt for some of Fitbit’s official accessories or resort to a replacement strap in the color you like the most than the many sold for example on Amazon.
Despite not having a screen the Flex 2 does have LED lights that notify you of messages, incoming calls or achievements that you get and that respond to the touch with a couple of quick taps. There are five of them, and they change color according to the notification.
In addition, the messaging app that communicates with the bracelet or the colors of the LEDs are easily configurable from the mobile app.
High precision with small nuances
To be able to enjoy all the features of the Fitbit Flex 2 it will first be necessary to link it with the mobile application, which we will talk about later and which depends to a large extent.
What can this sports bracelet do? First of all it is able to quantify physical activity quite precisely, although not of all sports. It is especially focused on aerobic activity, i.e. activities such as cycling, running or elliptical. It doesn’t detect calories burned by doing fitness or bodybuilding in the gym, which can be a setback for the public.
In your favor, it must be said that throughout the review, the Fitbit Flex 2 has accurately detected the steps and the hours asleep. This latest feature is one of the most attractive of this bracelet and all of those that have been released throughout 2016. It is highly recommended to use it if you usually wake up tired and have doubts about the quality of the hours you sleep. The Flex 2 not only quantifies total sleep hours but also detects the times you’ve woken up or been restless.
But going straight to the most interesting, quantifying the physical exercise, we have to make several nuances to our opinion. First of all, although it counts the steps exactly, not so the calories burned. This smartband fitness is probably too generous when it comes to measuring how many calories you’ve burned, leading to some confusion for less experienced users in the matter.
You may think that at the end of the day you have consumed 4,000 calories with very little physical activity. Something that will surely not be entirely accurate and is an aspect that the company should correct for its next devices, if not sooner by updating the software of them.
Another feature of the Fitbit Flex 2 that deserves conflicting opinions is the multisport mode. We have already said that the bodybuilding is not among the exercises it detects, as swimming is, although you will have to activate it through its mobile app. This sport is one of the most difficult to quantify, since it all depends on the length of the pool and the movement of the device on your wrist. In the water, everything is harder.
It doesn’t have a heart rate monitor, so you don’t have the usual problems when it comes to measuring your heart rate that other similar devices have. In the water it measures correctly the time you have been swimming, but among its performance is not – for example – to quantify the number of strokes made, something that seems reserved for swimmer-specific devices. However, with the Fitbit Flex 2 you won’t have to worry about getting into the beach or pool with it.
What else can this bracelet do? Alerts are very interesting. If you don’t meet your exercise or sleep goal, it sends you notifications to go to bed at the appointed time, or directly sends you to exercise. You can listen to him or not, but for the lazy, it’s an incentive.
A virtually perfect application
One of the points in favor is not a characteristic characteristic of this smartband, but of the brand that manufactures it. It has enough experience and resources to offer more than just a wearable: the companion app, available for iOS and Android is really good.
The errors in it are virtually null. It may take a while to synchronize the data when you do it manually, but nothing else. Its interface is intuitive and very colorful, with all the main options at your fingertips.
If you want, you can add challenges and data to monitor, setting up a priority list. For example, you don’t have to monitor your weight if you don’t want to, or the water you drink or the food you eat. Fitbit gives you the option, although it’s not mandatory to use it.
The social part of the application allows you to perform challenges against other users or against your friends. In addition, it includes some pre-configured tours that you can do, sharing everything on social networks if you choose.
Finally, three major drawbacks: the first is that when you install the app and configure the Flex 2, you have to give your consent for your data to be sent to the United States. The second is that by default Fitbit will send you many notifications to email, for example, to congratulate you on every achievement you achieve, something you can turn off if you’re not interested. Finally, you need the Internet for everything, even to synchronize data from smartband to mobile.
A battery that delivers on your promise
The wearables’ battery is one of the aspects to improve. In the case of fitness smartbands, especially those that do not have a screen, much progress has been made in recent times. It is currently rare that they do not offer at least three days of autonomy, and in cases such as that at hand, up to five, one of its star characteristics.