I consider myself a relatively normal person, despite what my wife says.
I sort of exercise regularly and I try to move around as much as possible. So, I suspect that I am not in the key demographic for Nike Fuel Band.
I think the product is aimed at young guys and girls who believe that they are fit, athletic, active and clearly above average in their physical activity and general fitness.
I have been using the Fuel Band for about one year off and on. I did an unwrap video (below) when I first got the device and have put some thought and effort into using it.
My review and assessment are purely from the standpoint of a day to day measurement device for general activity. There are lots of reviews of this device related to fitness and training.
APPEARANCE: The Fuel Band is “tech” looking and has visible integrated circuits underlying the soft polymer/rubberized casing. The new SE Fuel Band has more “punch” with accent colors consistent with the modern neon craze. The form factor is smooth and the clasp mechanism is solid. The profile is low on the wrist, but the rubberized texture does catch on clothing. A man wearing a large watch on one wrist and a Fuel band on the other will take some time to put his jacket or sweater on. This probably isn’t a problem in warmer climes, but for us up north, that’s a nuisance for all of these devices.
MEASUREMENT FUNCTION: The method of measurement is literally a no-brainer. There is no choice in terms of what is being measured. There are no user definable functions on the device itself, and you get readings on Calories/Steps/ and Fuel Units. The time is also displayed and I suspect that many people use this only for the Time function and they have new age “watch” that sometimes tells them about activity.
This device does a reasonable job of measuring step count, I don’t have any idea if calorie usage is accurate or not and more importantly, I don’t have any idea what the “Fuel Units” represent. On any given day I can reach my fuel unit target with step counts that are many thousands of steps different.
However, my perception of my physical function and activity on these days is not consistent with the differences demonstrated by the Fuel Band. We’ll be looking into Fuel Units a little more in the future.
INTERFACE: The iPhone app loads easily and seems to do a good job of Bluetooth linking with the Fuel Band. The graphics provide daily/weekly/monthly graphs. The graphs can display the step/calorie/fuel unit usage but does not take advantage of the complex accelerometer ability in the hardware. The online application is also generally easy to use and provides similar readouts. There is a focus on community and comparison with other users. I haven’t used this a lot since I don’t know anyone else with a Nike Fuel Band…maybe because I am not a young guy who is athletic, active and clearly above average in my physical activity and general fitness.
Overall, the Fuel Band is satisfactory but the same information could come from a $15 pedometer. I think there are many more things Fuel Band can offer.
Recently, Nike has begun distributing the API and requesting developers to be innovative… I’ve got some ideas!
