Nike Fuel Band (Read 89 times)

What do you think?  Are Nike Fuel Band usefull or frivolous? Do own one?  If so, do you like it or wish you had spent the money elsewhere?

Nike's is prettier, but Polar is about to launch theirs for less.  On the face of it, it seems be more functional too.  Fitbit has a competitive offering as well.  I think all three might be equally useful if your main goal is to be more generally active.  If you're working to raise your overall activity from 5000 steps a day to 10,000 (or the equivalent) I'm not sure it's necessary to obsessively track calories down to the accuracy of a single digit.  An 8000 step day probably feels noticeably different than a 5000 step day and it might be nice to know generally how many calories that is, or how intense those steps were.  I think it's probably more useful too, if you're engaged in activities that can't be measured some other way, like yoga or fitness classes, or team sports, or possibly if you have a physical job.  To that extent, probably all three are reasonable.  If Nike's pretty design makes you want to wear it more often and stay with it longer, then that's worth something too.

As you become more active, it seems like Fitbit and Polar may do a better job of accurately measuring progress and your improving performance.  Both have some ability to track pulse rate as an adjunct to movement, which would be a better measure of intensity.

For the purpose of running faster, farther, or better in whatever sense, they're marginally better than nothing.  If you have $150 burning a hole in your pocket, there are much better options.