Fitbit Blaze Smart Fitness Watch,Time Display, Plum, Small (5.5 - 6.7 inch) (US Version)

I can't say enough good things about this fitness watch. This is going to be an in depth review so I apologize in advance for the length.First... THIS IS NOT MEANT TO ACT LIKE THE APPLE WATCH! I feel like a lot of people think, "Well, for $50 more, I can get a refurb apple watch or an apple watch on sale at Best Buy." Having both watches, I can at least help with some differences between the two. If your goal is fitness tracking, this is for you. If your goal is organization with some fitness benefits, this watch is not for you.To simplify the product description, here is what it does. It continually tracks your heart rate, your steps, stairs climbed, calories burned, active minutes, miles, exercise, and sleep. It seamlessly works with the FitBit app, which can also help you keep track of your calories consumed (works with apps like MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, etc), water intake, and weight. You can also set a goal in the app that allows you to set how many hours of the day you want to take 250+ steps each hour, however it does NOT remind you to move to ensure your success with this (See10/19/16 update on cons section). You can also set notifications to come through from your phone to your watch, such as text messages, phone calls, calendar reminders, and control your iPod, iPhone, etc music from it. As of this review, photos and emoji's do not come through on the watch. As of this review, this watch has 4 different face options, the ability to set it to your dominant or non dominant wrist, silent alarms, all day sync with your phone, etc. It also has FitStar workouts built into it.Pros:-Continuous heart rate monitoring.-Easy to see in daylight (nice bright screen). Has the ability to turn "auto" light/dim based on sensing your lighting conditions.-Face turns on when it senses you've turned your wrist to view it. It is mostly accurate.-Charges quickly.-Charge lasts, realistically, more like 3-4 days, but if you don't have notifications on, I'm sure it could last for 5.-Sleek design looks like a nice watch. Many people have said, "So how do you like your Apple Watch?" and then I have to tell them it's not an Apple Watch. I do think that this watch is continually compared to the apple watch, however.Cons:-The band is somewhat uncomfortable, especially to sleep in. The buckle digs into my wrist on the side. I would like to see someone come up with a buckleless, soft silicone band like the apple watch.UPDATE: 11/26/16: I've had several companies reach out to me and send me bands to try. All of them have been the Milanese style bands and the ones that came from china caused major hives/break outs on my wrist, one of which required a prescription cream to resolve. I have no idea what they're using in their metals because I generally don't have problems with metals. One milanese band has worked consistently well for me without skin issues and no problems with the magnet slipping. It was one I purchased for around $30 on amazon. So be wary of that.Also, they finally started making silicone. Ands that do not have a buckle that are similar to the Apple Watch band. I ordered one and received it in the mail today. So far so good. It's much more comfortable than any other band I've tried. Please note this is NOT an affiliate link and none of the things in the post are sponsored.https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01J0RAP3U/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1-As of the date of this review, the watch does NOT have "reminder to move" functionality. I feel like this is a basic essential to most fitness bands. Doing some reading, it looks like FitBit plans to have a firmware update in the future to include this, but as of now, it does not.UPDATE: 10/19/2016: Fitbit recently released an update to the Blaze with "reminder to move" however, I find it lacking. Essentially, it reminds you to move 10 minutes before the hour if you haven't gotten 250 steps in in the hours you have set to move 250 steps or more. What I would like to see is a reminder to move during hours that you set based on the amount of steps you want to achieve in a day. So if you want 10k steps between the hours of 6am and 8pm, let it remind you at a time you set (10 minutes or 15 minutes before the hour) if you haven't done 714 steps each hour in order to make it to that goal. I would also like to see something that reminds you to move if you've been "sedentary" for more than xx minutes. I had a fitness tracker several years ago that would buzz if you had been sedentary for 10 minutes. I liked that because it kept me active. This functionality would be great for people with office jobs that sit all day. It's nice to see Fitbit working at the solution of having reminders to move, but I don't think it's there yet.-The charger is somewhat annoying. FitBit has a proprietary charger so you can't just use any standard cord to plug it in. You have to take the face of the watch out of the band and put it in a boxed-frame like charger to charge. Given that the Apple Watch has a magnetic charger, I would have hoped to see something similar.This watch DOES NOT have an app store, it does not store music, you cannot respond to text messages, do facetime, send photos, etc from it. You cannot control your phone's camera from it. This watch is made for fitness and has basic smart watch functionalities, however it is made to be a fitness watch, not a smart watch.I have worked out with this on one wrist and my polar heart rate monitor watch (with chest strap) on the other wrist and got pretty much identical results.****YOU HAVE TO WEAR THIS WATCH JUST ABOVE YOUR WRIST BONE OR YOUR READINGS WILL NOT BE ACCURATE**** If you don't like wearing a watch on that area of your wrist, this may not be for you. I like loose fitting watches, so this was an adjustment for me.The face *could* scratch easily, I think. I haven't had a problem with it, but I did have a couple of glass screen protectors on it and they both broke within a day, but my watch face is still fine without scratches.I hope this review helps. I don't think I missed anything, but if I did, I will updated it in the future.

Overall experience with the Blaze has exceeded my expectations. Fantastic product. For a much more comprehensive explanation, please take time to read all the way through my review for initial impressions and updates.***Update 4 - 4.6.16 - Owned the Blaze for 3 weeks now and absolutely LOVE it. With this review I'm upping my rating from 4 to 5 stars. Just wanted to share a few observations and one minor issue that arose since my last review. I ordered a small and I'm glad I didn't get one any bigger. The band has a tiny amount of stretch in it. When I first bought it, Both the 3rd and 4th tightest notches fit me. The 3rd from the tightest felt a little too tight initially, so I used the 4th until a few days ago. It seemed like the tracker was flopping around a little more on my wrist, so I tightened it. No big deal. I've also used this several times to track my runs - Much to my surprise, I've found that I prefer using the Blaze paired with my phone to track my runs. It offers more comprehensive feedback than my Garmin (an older model) and suits my needs very nicely. I'm training for a 13.1 right now, so I'm not sure how well it will perform once I start hitting double digit miles runs (only concern is battery life), but I've worn it for up to 3 mile training runs and it meets my needs exactly. The one hiccup I've had is that 3 days ago, out of the blue, I stopped receiving text notifications mid-day. Took me a while to figure out what the issue was, but I determined that there was a needed software update I needed to install. Installed the software, re-set up the notifications to my Blaze and I've been good to go. I truly couldn't be happier with this product and highly recommend it regardless of your needs - whether your only goal is to gain a more comprehensive picture of your overall activity and basic health or whether you are an athlete looking for a lightweight, but quality pedometer/HR monitor/Activity Tracker.******Update 3 - 3.23.16: I've had the Blaze for 8 days and really, truly love it - please read the full review for my initial impressions and a more comprehensive overview. A few observations I've made over the last week. 1: sleep tracking seems to work great so long as the HR monitor is set to "on". I had it set to "auto" one night in an attempt to keep battery usage down, and for that night, it didn't track. Possibly just a coincidence, but wanted to mention it. 2: I've worn it running several times, but have only used the "Run" workout setting once. In order to track a "Run" type workout, you have to turn on location services on your phone. I tested this out yesterday during my run and the Blaze performed beautifully - tracked HR, steps, elevation change. Tracking accuracy will depend on the phone's accuracy, but mine was very accurate up against my Garmin GPS watch. I don't plan to use this tracking system again through my Blaze solely because it eats up the battery and I have a Garmin that does all I need there. I'm really just using the Blaze for HR and step tracking. 3: The battery life is OK - I got a solid 3.5 days before it prompted me to charge it again. I'd have liked closer to 5 days (with my ONE, I got at least a week between charging, so this seems short, but it is all relative, and as I said below, the ONE isn't capable of nearly as much as the Blaze). As the Blaze takes about 2 hours to charge, I pulled out my ONE to wear this morning so I wouldn't "lose steps" during charging (I'm very competitive during weekly challenges) and I didn't have any difficulty syncing between the two. One thing I learned is that, so long as you keep some distance between your devices (10+ feet) and don't wear them simultaneously, it shouldn't be an issue to roll back and forth between Fitbit devices. This is GREAT for a variety of reasons - during charging, you won't lose steps and for me personally - I can slip the ONE inside a water balloon to protect it during swimming so I can continue to track steps/activity in the pool or at the beach, but then roll back to the Blaze easily when I'm done. So, if you have an old Fitbit device, don't get rid of it just because you got the Blaze - If you're serious about consistently activity tracking, you will likely find it convenient to have 2 devices to roll back and forth between.4: Some people have reported skin irritation from wearing the Blaze - this is most likely from tightening the band too much. I keep my band pretty slack with open space on either side of my wrist, and pretty much the only skin contact is the HR sensor and the buckle area. HR monitor tracks just fine like this.******Update 2 - 3.18.16 (see update 1 below): I've attached a photo to show size comparison against my wrist with a 50c euro and an American quarter (both very similar in size). Also, one thing I believe is crazy important when purchasing the Blaze is to remember this is an ACTIVITY TRACKER with some limited smart watch capabilities, but it is NOT a smart watch (nor is it intended to be). If you are looking for a smart watch, don't waste your time - you will most likely wind up returning this activity tracker and giving an awesome product an inaccurately low review solely because of unrealistic expectations.***First off, I thought very seriously about NOT purchasing this new Fitbit model based off of some of the really negative reviews. Admittedly, many of the reasons behind the one-star reviews seemed silly, but there were a few legitimate issues - some people mentioned screen issues, others mentioned set up difficulties, etc. But, I needed to upgrade from my Fitbit ONE, which I have had for nearly 2 years - I loved the ONE as an activity tracker, but needed something with a HR monitor, so I debated back and forth between the Charge HR and the Blaze and ultimately decided to go with the Blaze, fully realizing I may be sending it back.Initial Impressions:Pros:Lightweight, but not featherweight - more solid than I had expected given some reviews. Because I upgraded from a ONE model I kept clipped to my bra strap pretty much 24/7, I'm not used to wearing anything on my wrist. I think the weight of the Blaze is perfect - light enough that you know it is there, but not so heavy that it irritates. Big improvement over a stainless steel watch or something similar in terms of comfort.Large watch, but not overwhelming - I'm a small-med frame 5ft, 3in female and this watch doesn't overwhelm my wristNice, vibrant color screenSeemingly accurate HR tracking (I checked this up against a medical grade BP cuff and it 1 beat per minute shy of identical)Super easy to pop out of the bezel - several reviewers indicated they were afraid of breaking the silver bezel around the fitbit device itself and my best guess is that they simply aren't trying the right removal trick. Mine slid out very, very easily with minimum pressure on the watch face (I pushed the fitbit through the back of the silver bezel rather than trying to pop it out of the top).Yes, there are "only" 4 watch face options, but seriously, people are complaining about this?! Each of the four watch faces serve a specific purpose depending on your preference - this is more than your standard watch can do. I personally consider the 4 options a great improvement over an average watch. ***Important note - to change the watch face display, you must go through the Fitbit app***Music control from the Blaze - again, it took a while and some google searching, but I discovered you can set this up through the Bluetooth settings on your phone (I have a Samsung Galaxy, not an iPhone).Seems to be very accurate step count up against the ONECons:There were next to zero instructions - many other reviewers indicated this, but I still found it very frustrating to set up.You have to go through the Fitbit app on your smartphone to change or set some of the settings - while this wasn't a big issue for me, it took me a few hours of toying with the Blaze off and on along with some google searches to figure this out. My ONE didn't take nearly as long to get up and running, but the ONE also wasn't capable of as much.The charging dock feels a little poorly made - it wouldn't surprise me if it did break over time. It isn't flimsy, but it isn't sturdy, either.In short, while Fitbit could have done a MUCH better job giving setup instructions, the device itself works fine. I was somewhat surprised how dependent set up was on my phone, but that isn't necessarily a big deal. I have not yet gone on a run or done any kind of workout using the Blaze (this is on my to-do list for tomorrow), but I will update if there are any notable performance issues or if any general use issues surface over time.***Update 1 - 3.16.18: The more I wear this activity tracker, the more I LOVE it. If it doesn't give any major issues over the course of the next month, I will likely update my rating from 4 to 5 stars. I wore the Blaze on a run today and was very pleased with its performance. It was very nice to be able to check my HR throughout the run. I made sure to move the band higher up my arm (3 finger widths from your wrist is recommended for cardio workouts) and while it felt a little weird and itched a little as I got sweaty, the watch performed well. When I came back inside, I took the watch off, wiped it off, wiped my arm off and placed it back lower on my wrist for normal daily wear. No problems so far.***

I bought the Blaze to upgrade from my Charge. A BIG mistake. After initiating the Add-device Set-up ( I already had a Charge on my account) I received a notice that there was an update. The update failed. I selected the "remind me later option", intending to worry about the update later. The app said that it had found my Blaze and wanted to know if I wanted to pair it with Bluetooth. I said yes and the Blaze was paired. I then got a notice that a problem had been encountered and the tracker could not be synched (Not a surprise) and to re-do the set up and add it to my account. Unfortunately there were no instructions on exactly how to do this. So I uninstalled the app, restarted my PC, and started the add device set-up again. Immediately hit the can't do the upgrade problem and bypassed it. Proceeded with the set-up until I received a notice that I already had a Blaze on my account and that I could only use one (DUH!) After following the virtually non-existent instructions which put me in a loop that I couldn't get out of I logged out of fitbit, un-installed the app and restarted my PC reinstalled the app, removed the Blaze from my account and again initiated the Add Device setup. Same dead-end result. I will spare the reader the gory details of everything else I tried included trying to get help from fitbit. After spending approximately two hours being treated like a complete idiot by three separate clueless morons at fitbit's UNHELP desk I gave up. Both the Blaze and the Charger are now on their way back to Amazon for a refund. D'ONT buy a Blaze unless you are a masochist who enjoys trying to setup an electronic device using poorly written (nonexistent) procedures, zero troubleshooting other than un-instralling and re-installing the app and a useless, non-customer oriented, help-desk.