FitBit Blaze Review: stylish fitness watch with a round concept

Design

All FitBit wearables have one thing in common: they look or looked – to put it mildly – pretty functional. You don’t want to carry a surge to dinner reception any more than you would a batch or flex. That changes with the current product generation. The 230 dollars flagship FitBit Blaze has not only become significantly slimmer than its predecessor, Surge, but also much more stylish.

The trick on the Blaze is that the tracker can be removed from the wristband – you don’t have to rely on the aluminum-silicone version included in the scope of delivery, but you can also find versions with a leather bracelet or metal link bracelet in the accessories. It is also practical that you can quickly change the wristband, for example to protect the leather version during sports.

However, the design of the Blaze also has disadvantages: the top and bottom edges of the tracker housing are quite exposed – and scratch quickly. For example, when I was bouldering I slipped along the wall with my watch and used it to do quite a few scratches.

What is also positive to emphasize: The Blaze is really very comfortable. The design is very ergonomic, the watch was extremely light at just 44 grams, and I had no problems with skin irritation during the two-week Review period. However, it should also be added that the Blaze is not waterproof – rain and sweat are the maximum that you should expect of the watch.

Even if the design is definitely a matter of taste: The bottom line is that the Blaze looks really chic, especially compared to its predecessors. Funnily enough, I was asked several times by people who were not very tech-savvy whether this was “this Apple watch”. Well.

Service

The Blaze is largely operated via the touch-sensitive display. The LCD panel is now colorful and really successful. It is bright, easy to read even in poor lighting conditions, and offers strong colors. However, the display is not “always on”, meaning: it switches off to save energy. With a “look at the clock” gesture you can activate the screen, which works quite reliably. But if you drag very heavy shopping bags, for example, it will be difficult.

There are also three buttons: On the left of the case there is a back button, with the two buttons on the right the user calls up the media player control for the smartphone and the notifications – but more on the smartwatch features later.

The FitBit Blaze’s surface is divided into a total of seven areas that can be wiped horizontally. From left to right, these are the time, today, exercise, FitStar, timer, alarms and settings.

– Under today Your current daily progress in the form of steps, current heart rate, resting heart rate, distance traveled, calories burned and floors climbed.– With the point exercise you start a new workout – by default there are the sports running, cycling, weights, treadmill, elliptical trainer and training. You can also add other disciplines in the app, such as yoga, Pilates, tennis, kickboxing and golf.– With FitStar FitBit Blaze brings its own training program. By default you will find three different units here: “Warm up”, “7-minute training” and “10 minutes of abdominal muscles”. More on the training sessions later.– timer brings you either a stopwatch or a countdown on your wrist. Practically.– Under Alarms you can activate or deactivate your alarm clock. You have to set this up via the app or the web interface.– The Settings Finally, there are a few simple options for how the watch behaves, such as display brightness or heart rate monitoring. There are more detailed setting options in the app.

GPS

It continues with the sensors that the Blaze brings – or not: In contrast to its predecessor Surge, the FitBit Blaze does without an integrated GPS module. So that the route is recorded while cycling or running, the watch connects to the smartphone and uses the integrated GPS receiver. In practice, this works without any problems. The only disadvantage: You have to take your smartphone with you.

Pulse sensor

The FitBit Blaze has an optical pulse sensor on the underside. As with the predecessors, the measurement works reliably as long as the respective sport does not place excessive strain on the arms. Means: jogging and cycling are not a problem at all, but with HIIT units with endless burpees or with yoga you will no longer get reliable results.

However, this is not a specific FitBit problem, but applies to all optical sensors on the wrist that I have tried so far. If it’s supposed to be accurate, there’s no way around a heart rate belt – or a pair of sports headphones with an integrated heart rate sensor. Incidentally, there is no way to connect Bluetooth chest straps to the Blaze.

Step sensor

And then of course there is the obligatory pedometer on board. Here you will certainly not get a covered daily route with GPS accuracy, but rather a rough indication of how much you have just moved on the respective day. The numbers are also not comparable to the results of other trackers – Withings, for example, counts more conservatively, which means that you have to work harder for 10,000 steps.

In addition to the steps actually taken, other activities also play a role in the step result. After the measurement is done on the wrist, the blaze will also count a lot of steps, for example, if you stand behind the bar all evening and mix cocktails.

What I personally find very exciting is that the Blaze, like its various predecessors, counts the climbed floors. That motivated me personally at FitBit Surge about a year ago to skip the elevator in the office and walk to the third floor – and I have kept the habit until today. The floor counting works pretty well.

Incidentally, there is no ass kicking function that reminds you when you are inactive that you should move regularly. FitBit has however opposite TheVerge announced to deliver the feature, with the FitBit Alta it is already on board.

FitStar

The FitStar programs are a novelty at FitBit Blaze. These are training plans that the user receives directly on the wrist. There are only three programs ex works. One to warm you up, a seven-minute workout and a ten-minute abdominal program. The watch then shows you the exercises as far as possible on the small display and then prompts you to do them again. In the seven-minute workout, these are classics such as jumping jacks, wall seats, push-ups or squats.

The exercises are certainly not particularly complex or exotic, and the intensity program is also suitable for beginners who are bloody. Incidentally, the Blaze does not check whether the exercises are carried out correctly or even at all – and there is nevertheless a low risk of incorrect posture. If you are very unsportsmanlike, you should consult your family doctor before starting and have a person experienced in sports watch the first exercises.

However, these three workouts are only the light version: If you want more and also more demanding programs, you have to pay: For 40 euros, there is an annual membership with FitStarwhich, according to the manufacturer, then brings along “tailor-made training units”.

In addition, the FitBit Blaze also automatically detects when your sport is active. It works differently depending on the sport. Because of the constant movement profile and the permanently increased pulse, jogging is naturally easier for the watch than for a three-hour bouldering session, of which half an hour was registered as a “sport”.

Sleep sensor

Another size that FitBit Blaze measures is your sleep. You don’t have to do anything except sleep, of course. The watch automatically notices when you fall asleep and wake up. That works gratifyingly precisely. However, the Blaze does not determine different sleep phases – it only records restless sleep phases in which you roll around a lot. And it is logged when you get up at night, for example to go to the toilet.

Incidentally, the FitBit Blaze does not offer a sleep phase alarm clock such as the Jawbone tracker.

Smartwatch

Finally, the FitBit Blaze also has a few smartwatch functions on board, whereby “smartwatch” is actually an exaggeration. The watch shows notifications for incoming calls, SMS and calendar entries. Notifications about Facebook or Whatsapp messages or just emails? Nothing. And a shame. There is also no way to respond to incoming calls or SMS.

Finally, it is very practical to control the media player on your smartphone from the Blaze. However, you have to establish a connection via Bluetooth Classic, which increases energy consumption. If you only use the feature occasionally while jogging, this should hardly be significant.

battery pack

The FitBit Blaze’s battery life largely depends on how actively you use the watch – and how much sport you do. The manufacturer specifies a runtime of up to five days, which is certainly realistic for occasional use. If you use the Blaze intensively, you have to expect three to four days.

Charging is done via the awfully proprietary and somewhat cumbersome charging dock and takes about an hour or two.

App

The FitBit app is clearly designed. The centerpiece is a dashboard with the most important fitness data. Clicking on the respective parameter calls up further details, and you can then take a calm look at how, for example, your resting heart rate changes over time – or what has become of your intention to go to bed earlier. And if you want, you can also track your diet in the app.

You can also add friends here and compete with them in competitions. And finally there is also the option to configure your Blaze, for example with regard to fitness goals. Finally, there are four different watch faces to choose from. Unfortunately, there is no shop for third-party apps or watch faces like Garmin.

Web interface

The FitBit web interface offers functions similar to the smartphone app, but is logically more user-friendly due to the more generous design on the large display.

It’s really fun to click through your fitness data here and be happy about your successes – if they exist.

Conclusion

The FitBit Blaze has lost the GPS of its predecessor, but in practice this should only disturb a few potential interested parties – after all, the smartphone is usually included in the sport. On the plus side there is a great color display and a significantly improved design.

If you can overlook the limitations of the optical pulse sensor and the missing GPS sensor, the Blaze is an excellent fitness tracker that is really fun, especially in connection with the successful app.

AB SMART HEALTH REVIEW