Fitbit Blaze Smart Fitness Watch With Heart Rate Monitor Reviews

Verdict

Pros

• Color screen is a nice touch
• Skillful battery life
• Reliable exercise tracking
• Multiple strap options

Cons

• No inbuilt GPS volition be a pain for runners
• No third party notification support
• Not water resistant

Fundamental Specifications

• Review Cost: £159.99
• Multiple strap options
• PurePulse Heart Rate monitoring
• V day battery life
• ane.2-inch. 240x180-pixel colour screen
• iOS and Android support

What is the Fitbit Blaze?

The Fitbit Blaze is being marketed as the ultimate "smart fitness scout". What that means in layman's terms is that this is Fitbit's attempt to create an all-in-1 wearable that can offering robust fitness tracking, as well as basic smartwatch functionality. Information technology'due south a move that'south been embraced past many wear manufacturers.

At beginning glance, the Bonfire looks like a non-so-attractive cross between the Apple Spotter and Fitbit Surge. However, following a few weeks of having it wrapped around my wrist, I found plenty to like almost the Blaze, and I can encounter that it could be a solid – albeit pricey – pick for casual runners and those merely getting into exercising.

Since launching the Blaze, Fitbit has also unveiled the Fitbit Versa. This is smaller, more design=focussed scout that doesn't boast GPS.

Related: Fitbit Ionic review

Fitbit Blaze – Blueprint

The Blaze looks more than like a smartwatch than a fitness tracker. It has a 1.2-inch, detachable 240 x 180-pixel colour screen, metal frame and rubber textured strap. The strap in particular will be familiar to owners of previous Fitbit devices.

Related: Best Fitness Tracker

Similar the Apple Sentinel, the 1.2-inch size of the Bonfire means that it's small enough to sit unassumingly on its user's wrist, while being large enough to employ without having to squint at on-screen text.

Those who wish doll up the device tin do so past taking advantage of the Blaze'south numerous customisation options. For starters, you can choose from classic "Luxe leather" and "Luxe metallic" strap types. You can also choose from a diverseness of digital watch faces and metal cases for the fundamental tracker unit.

For convenience, and the fact that I'1000 as well lazy to switch straps, I spent the bulk of my time using the classic band. Nonetheless, on the rare occasion I switched this for the Luxe metallic strap, I had numerous folk stop and comment on the watch's looks. On i occasion, a non-tech-savvy friend fifty-fifty mistook it for an Apple Lookout man.

The colour screen, besides, is a feature that differentiates the Blaze from Fitbit's previous trackers. Past and current Fitbit wearables, such as the Surge and Charge two, take had basic monochrome displays that have at best proven functional.

The motion to colour makes a big difference. Although the Blaze doesn't characteristic the stellar AMOLED screen tech seen on competing fitness-focused smartwatches – the Microsoft Band 2, for example – colours are suitably rich and make it easier to read information on the watch.

This is helped further by the fact that Blaze's custom UI displays data in color-coded segments, differentiating key bits of data such as your footstep count and centre rate. The 240 x 180-pixel resolution also ensures that icons and text are more often than not sharp plenty to read comfortably.

Fitbit Blaze – Tracking and Software

My only serious criticism about the Blaze's blueprint is that it steps too far into smartwatch territory, and as a result makes a few too many compromises on the sports side.

The Fitbit Blaze feels far more like a hybrid device than a dedicated sports tracker. Testing information technology took me dorsum to my time with the Motorola Moto 360 Sport, which generally suffered the aforementioned bug.

For starters, the Blaze isn't waterproof. It can survive a run in the pelting, the odd accidental splash and sweat without issue, merely Fitbit recommends that you don't habiliment the Blaze in the shower, nor whilst swimming.

This is a pain considering its focus on beingness a device that y'all clothing 24/seven. After a few runs with the classic band attached, I constitute myself having to wipe downwardly the unit and requite it a sprucing with Febreze to avoid cartoon whatever unwanted attention whilst wearing it on my commute to work.

It also doesn't have a dedicated GPS built into it, so if you want accurate location and altitude data, yous'll have to pair the Blaze to your smartphone and comport it with you when out running or cycling. This will be an annoyance for fitness fans – myself included – who prefer to go on what they're carrying to a minimum when exercising.

Related: Fitbit Charge 2 review

For more than casual joggers, or those just getting started on a fitness regime, the Blaze is 1 of the easiest-to-utilize trackers/smartwatches I've tested.

Except for the lack of GPS, the Blaze ticks many boxes and comes loaded with a three-axis accelerometer, optical centre-charge per unit monitor, altimeter and ambient calorie-free sensor. It's likewise cross-platform, working with both Android and iOS devices.

The setup procedure is a doddle: I merely had to charge the Blaze using the provided proprietary connector and download the Fitbit app onto the smartphone I was using. From in that location I had to turn on Bluetooth and follow a series of on-screen prompts to get the telephone and Blaze on speaking terms, after which I was skilful to go.

The process is one of the simplest and smoothest I've encountered, and is in stark contrast to my experience with the Jaybird Reign I reviewed before information technology.

The Blaze runs its own proprietary software, which is completely different to nearly smart – and sport – watches.  Apps are accessed by swiping left from the watch homescreen. Services on offer are limited to those provided by Fitbit; there'due south no tertiary-party shop ecosystem, as there is on most full-on smartwatches. This means you're limited to Exercise, Settings and Smart Alert and FitStar services.

The Exercise section includes tracking for all the usual exercises y'all'd await, including running, cycling and weights. Fitbit claims the Blaze tin can auto-detect changes in activeness and track multiple exercise workouts –  a session where you switch from cycling to running mid-exercise, for example. But I found I achieved the best results when I manually told the device to offset tracking specific activities.

With the Fitbit paired to my smartphone, tracking is fairly accurate. Running it head-to-head against the Microsoft Ring 2 and Basic Peak, the difference in my terminal step count twenty-four hour period to mean solar day was never more than than x-20 out.

The aforementioned remained true when I compared heart rate readings. Running whilst wearing all iii devices returned a eye-charge per unit reading that remained consistent between the 3.

I also didn't observe any odd anomalies, similar to those I've seen when using the Basis Peak for sleep tracking. On occasion, the Footing Peak showed that I'd suffered massive coronary episodes during the night, which, considering my continued presence in the globe, very clearly didn't happen.

Paired with my telephone, the Blaze likewise tracked distance reasonably well. Running around a track that I know is roughly 5km long, the Bonfire never threw upwards whatever serious inconsistencies and more often than not matched the numbers recorded by the Basis Peak and Ring 2.

Data is presented on the Bonfire's screen via the Today app. For a more than detailed look at you data, y'all'll have to use the Fitbit smartphone app.

Fitbit has brought Breathe exercises to the Fitbit Bonfire, similar the Charge 2. These are guided animate exercises designed more for well-being than fitness. It'southward a way to accept a scrap of fourth dimension out of your day to relax. Stress tin, subsequently all, have a major touch on your wellness.

The Fitbit app remains a key selling point for the Blaze. At a basic level, the app offers all the fundamental data most people need, such as the number of steps taken, calories burned, and time slept. It also offers the usual breakdowns of specific workouts, such as your average heart rate, distance travelled and speed per mile. What makes it peachy, nonetheless, are the Social and Claiming functions.

A new update to the app brings the aforementioned Cardio Fitness score bachelor on the Fitbit Charge 2. This is a way of measuring your overall fitness and is based around the VO_ii Max test. This looks at the maximum amount of oxygen your body uses during exercise and you become a measurement against similar people of your gender and historic period. It's a useful style to measure out progress.

The Fitbit app has a Friends session, which allows you to view how those in your contacts also using Fitbit are getting on. This may sound insignificant, only I found the characteristic a huge motivator that encouraged me to go running more regularly. Absolutely, this is mainly down to my pride, and a refusal to let a 50+ relative achieve a meliorate run fourth dimension than me, simply it's cool nonetheless.

The challenges adds a further element of competition for those who want to push themselves and their friends. The setting lets you send specific challenges to friends via the Fitbit app. Most of them aren't too taxing, and centre around simple activities such as meeting daily steps goals, but I can definitely come across this feature appealing to folk but starting out in getting fit.

So at that place are the Adventures. These are virtual guided walks, which will appeal for those who need the extra motivation but don't necessarily accept a competitive streak. Adventures include the New York City marathon and Yosemite Park, with more coming in the time to come. Past reaching certain pace goals, you lot'll selection up facts and 'treasures' along the way, likewise as photographs of the location you can view by tilting your phone.

FitStar is another selling point for those just getting into exercising. It's a custom characteristic that aims to help Blaze owners start and stick to work out regimes. Updates to the app now also bring recommended routines based on your activity level and an expanded library of bodyweight and cardio exercises, led past ii certified personal trainers.

The app comes with a number of preconfigured workouts that run you through a series of dissimilar exercises over a set menses of fourth dimension. Exercises on offer include everything from squats and pushups to more esoteric challenges, such as cat and cows – which are as weird and awkward to do in public as they sound.

The cool part is that the app provides instructions on how to do each exercise via a series of on-screen graphics, which makes it easy for anyone – not just fitness fanatics – to first building up their core strength and stamina.

Fitbit Blaze – Smartphone features

While the fitness tracking features are fine for coincidental exercisers, I was a little less impressed by the Bonfire's supposed "smart" features.

On paper, the Bonfire will push alerts for incoming calls and messages and upcoming events in your calendar when paired to a smartphone. You tin can also ready it to command your telephone's music player. Initially, I found that the alerts worked pretty well, but over fourth dimension I experienced a few abrasive bugs.

The notifications don't e'er announced at the correct fourth dimension, if at all. Calls came through successfully, but calendar alerts in particular were hitting and miss. Alerts from my calendar would regularly announced either after I'd already addressed them on my master phone, or several hours subsequently.

The fact that the Blaze looks and behaves and so much like a smartwatch also left me wishing that the notifications were a piffling more avant-garde. After a calendar week with the Blaze I constitute myself hankering later ways for it to push alerts from key third-party apps, such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter, as you tin can on any Android Habiliment smartwatch, or the Apple Picket.

Fitbit Blaze – Battery life

Battery life is i surface area in which the Bonfire excels. Other color screen smartwatches and fitness trackers I've tested, such equally the Moto 360 Sport and Microsoft Band ii, struggle to offer more than two days apply on a single charge.

The Fitbit Blaze is an absolute trooper by comparing. Fitbit quotes the Blaze every bit offering five days of bombardment life from a single charge. In my fortnight-plus of testing the Bonfire, it's has matched Fitbit's quoted life with moderate use. Moderate use entailed tracking my daily morning time run and checking the time and incoming alerts throughout the day – with screen brightness in its middle setting.

That puts it on a par, if not to a higher place, a number of screenless fitness trackers I've tested – the Jaybird Reign, for example. My just consequence with the Bonfire's battery is that it can only be charged using a proprietary dock.

Related: Best Smartwatch

Should I buy a Fitbit Bonfire?

If you lot're a casual runner, or someone just getting into exercising, the Fitbit Blaze is a reasonable choice. The FitStar service and social element of the Fitbit app are overnice touches that will assistance newbies outset and stick to an practise regime.

The Blaze's colour screen and wealth of customisation options likewise make it likewise one of a select few trackers that I'm happy to wear all mean solar day. The added notifications will too likely appeal to some coincidental buyers looking for basic smartwatch functionality.

Even so, the Blaze isn't for fitness fanatics. The lack of built-in GPS will annoy runners and the fact that it isn't waterproof volition be an event for those who swim regularly, and those who like to wear their tracker in the shower after a conditioning. Unfortunately this is a complaint levelled at all of Fitbit's trackers save for the new Fitbit Flex 2.

At £159.99, it's also seriously expensive. The Garmin Vivosmart Hr Plus is around the same price simply packs in far more than do-friendly features, such as built-in GPS. If yous're just afterwards a basic fettle tracker, consider the Moov Now or Footing Peak.

Verdict

The Fitbit Blaze is competent fettle tracker for casual users, with a few smartwatch functions bolted on.

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