Jawbone UP24 bracelet Review

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Jawbone recently released its new smart health connected bracelet, the UP24. We tested it for 10 days, here's what it is …

Just over a year ago, Jawbone entered the activity tracker market with their first bracelet, the UP. A few weeks ago, the American manufacturer released an updated version of it, capable of competing with the best smart health connected bracelets of the moment: the UP24. The objective? Allow users to quantify their physical activity: number of steps, calories, quality of sleep, etc.

If the newborn Jawbone keeps the same design as its old version (it still does not offer a built-in screen), it is mainly distinguished on one point, the Bluetooth 4.0. No need to connect your bracelet by jack, synchronization is automatic. The two bracelets continue to be sold: € 129.90 for the UP, and 149.90 € for the UP24. Top or flop ? Answer in our full Review!

Jawbone UP24, a smart health connected bracelet like no other

If the design does not change fundamentally between the UP and the UP24 (the grid on the flexible bracelet changes slightly), it must however be recognized that it is one of the few truly designer and discreet bracelets on the activity sensor market rather sport oriented. With the new spring colors (yellow, blue and coral pink) that have just come out, we can really adapt it to a summer outfit (well, I think black Onyx will work best for men). Always with the principle of the flexible bracelet without attachment, it will adapt as well to a man as to a woman. However, it is difficult to lend it since you have to choose between 3 sizes when buying: S, M, L.

As surprising as it may seem, the packaging in which the Jawbone UP24 arrives is extremely simple: It contains the Jawbone, a manual (for the installation of theiOS or Android mobile app) and a small cable to connect the Jawbone bracelet to a computer to charge it.

In terms of comfort, the Jawbone UP24 is at the top: it is very light (about 20 grams), and the texture of the bracelet makes it very easy to forget: whether in normal mode, in jogging mode (no gene with sweating) and in sleep mode, there is no adaptation problems. On the other hand, the shape of the bracelet makes it not easy to put it under a long-sleeved sweater / shirt. Between the UP and the UP24, Jawbone claims to have reinforced the strength of the bracelet (we didn't prefer to Review it …), but watch out for scratches on the end (the cap on which is marked "Jawbone). No worries, in case of scratch or loss, it will be possible to recommend a series of 3 caps directly on their site.

Bracelet ends: Jack plug and activation button

Under the cap with the inscription "Jawbone", the 3.5mm jack which allows you to connect the bracelet to a computer via USB to recharge it (on an iPhone, so we don't need this cable to connect the bracelet to phone). According to the manufacturer, the UP24 has a slightly shorter battery life than the UP: 7 days of autonomy for the new versus 10 days for the old. For my part, I had to recharge it after a good week (about 1h for full charge), so it seems fair enough to me. The difference is certainly due to the fact that the UP24 is now smart health connected via Bluetooth (4.0 anyway) for data synchronization whereas the UP had to be smart health connected by cable…

If you want to save even more battery, just turn off the Bluetooth of your phone / tablet. On the other hand, what could be improved is the level of information on the battery: it is only possible to see it from the mobile application, which can sometimes be surprising. It’s also this jack socket which is advertised as waterproof : it tolerates splashes, but it is not completely waterproof (avoid the bath with what …).

At the other end of the bracelet, there is a small button that allows you to switch from "awake" mode to a "nap" mode or a "sleep" mode. It also allows you to time an activity. Two small LEDs confirm that you are switching from one mode to another. For example, to switch from "waking up" mode to "sleeping" mode, you will need to press the button at the end for about a second (see image below): the moon will light up for a short time to confirm this change fashion. All these small features are explained directly on the mobile application via very clear diagrams.

Getting started with the UP mobile application

Whether for the UP or the UP24, the mobile application remains the same: on the new version (always free, and always for iOS and Android), some additional features are offered such as taking meals into account. We are going to see it.

What is the Jawbone UP24 used for? What does it analyze? First, connect your bracelet to the app. The process is super intuitive, just follow the steps step by step: first synchronize the bracelet to the application, then enter a certain amount of information about yourself, and voila!

Once the application is installed, it will then be necessary to set a goal of steps and hours of sleep to be achieved in a day. Then we will get to the health home screen, which is according to the majority of specialists in the sector the "must" currently. First, there is a global (and daily) vision of the wearer's physical activity: nocturnal objective (hours of sleep), diurnal objective (number of steps) and meals are immediately obvious. You can add your mood of the day and keep all this information in a news feed, as you can have on Facebook. And like on Facebook, you can choose to share this information with his "team", made up of friends who also own the bracelet (Facebook synchronization is performed for this).

Here is the health home interface: you can see its daily statistics directly there. By sliding down, we find the UP stream, which gives all the activity of the last days. By clicking on the menu at the top left, you can then select the "Life" tab which gives the day-by-day history of its performance. It is also in this menu that you can define your objectives ("Objectives" tab) which will then be taken as a parameter for the daily performance calculation.

It is then possible to consult in detail his sleep (by clicking on the purple arrow), his physical activity during the day (by clicking on the orange arrow), or his diet. By pressing the orange arrow, this is what we can see:

It is also possible toadd a sport session on his news feed. We enter the start time and the arrival time: the application then takes the information and calculates the distance traveled, the speed and the calories burned. It must be recognized that he is not the sports specialist (he only measures the steps), but it is already a good start. Conversely, the Misfit Shine manages to measure the effort during a swimming session or a football match.

Regularly, the Jawbone gives you information when an important threshold is reached: below, during the first 50,000 steps, but I also had a message for having managed to sleep 3 consecutive nights more than 100% of my goal.

Once you have really appropriated the smart health smart health connected object, you can deduce the first trends. In the menu at the top left of the health home page, you can select the "Trends" tab to access a performance summary by days, weeks and months. That’s really what’s interesting. As much, to try to beat the “10,000 steps recommended by the WHO” one day is a good thing, as much to manage to become constant around these levels is even better.

As can be seen in the image below, the sleep is an important component of the bracelet. Thanks to the button located at the end of the bracelet, you can easily indicate when you go to bed (too bad it does not detect it by itself) and the same for the alarm clock: you will have to press this button . I also tested the alarm function which is to be set on the application, and which will vibrate the Jawbone UP24 bracelet at the indicated time: a small pressure on the end and the vibrations will stop.

We can therefore simply consult each day's sleep rhythm: light (which corresponds to a phase when we are a little agitated) and heavy (few movements). Pretty interesting to see how long it takes to fall asleep. Well, in any case, we don’t need the bracelet in the morning to know if we slept really well / badly ?

The last feature available on the application, which sets it apart from other competitors: the food part. To be honest, unless you go on a diet, this part may be quickly left out, for laziness. Well, at least this is my case. Maybe with visual identification that will solve the problem.

The idea is to enter for each meal what has been eaten: we select the foods from a rather complete list, and then we can see how many calories we have spent. What really amazed me was being able to scan the barcode of a food which will then be recognized by the application (I tested with a tube of HP Sauce, a kind of BBQ sauce – and with a bottle of Evian – which obviously has 0 calories…).

I find that Jawbone has done an excellent job in developing this functionality: everything is very intuitive and fast. But the concern remains the quantification : if you eat 50 grams of pasta or 1 kg, how can you enter it in the application? If you make a homemade burger or a fat McDonald's burger, what difference? Good question… As a result, the measurement is not necessarily hyper-precise. Note that for each food, we can see its nutritional characteristics (again, we do not know how much of the food …)

Review: Our opinion on the Jawbone UP24

After a fortnight of use, I can not do without it. The object is playful, design, and really space-saving. We forget this very quickly, and since the synchronizations are now done automatically (once a day if we do not open the application, and if not each time the application is opened), we do not need to care about. On the other hand, the functionality on the application which allows you to enter the meals of the day is not super useful (already the variety of dishes offered is quite limited, but also it is quite long to enter all that one eat, especially since the way of cooking necessarily impacts the calories of the dish …).

My behavior really changed between the first day and today : at the beginning, we update the application every 10 minutes to see if the gauges have moved, like a game. What becomes more interesting is to see the trends over the long term, and deduce its quality of life. This is also why it is not necessarily essential to have a screen on the bracelet directly. Now, when I come health home at work and I have only done 30% of the recommended physical effort, I try to make an effort to go for a walk outside and get a little closer to 10,000 steps (even if I don't always always succeed). You really have to try to forget the bracelet and live normally to then see its natural rhythm. And then, well … you have to make good resolutions …

(Wp-review)

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