My Experience of using UP3 fitness tracker

up3fitness

I have been a fan of wearable fitness trackers for well over a year now. It is not an exaggeration to say that it has changed my life. I feel a lot fitter these days and this is mainly down to the fitness tracker gently encouraging me to be more active. Then praising me when I reach my daily target of number of steps. The tracker also encourages me to sleep better by suggesting regular bed times and length of sleep. I was never really an active person before as I spent too much time at the computer or watching television. But, these days, I often meet my daily goal of doing at least 10,000 steps and sleeping for at least seven hours. The first fitness tracker I owned was an UP24 by Jawbone. The review on this page is about the latest version, UP3, which I have been using for the past few months.

My original UP24 band lasted just over a year. I got a lot of use out of it, but towards the end, it started to fall apart. I was told that the weather in Asia wasn’t really suitable for the rubber wristband and it started to stretch. First the button fell off and then I was unable to plug in the charger. So, I had to stop using it. Unfortunately, weak that I am, I also stopped exercising each day. As a consequence, I started to put back on the weight that I had originally lost. Then, about three months later, I heard about the UP2 wristband which was more durable and a better design. As I desperately needed help in getting fit again, I decided to buy this new version. To cut a long story short (which you can read in my review of the UP2 here), I had some issues with the UP2 and returned it the following day to get my money back. I then bought a Fitbit Charge HR instead (see my review of that here).

So, why go and buy an UP3 if I already had a Fitbit Charge HR? I didn’t. After I wrote my negative review of the UP2, a regional PR officer for Jawbone contacted me to say that the UP3 was about to be released and would I be interested in testing out a review copy. He went on to say that firmware had been updated to make it a much better experience. For example, the battery length had been increased to 7 days and the band now automatically knows when you have fallen asleep. Naturally I said yes. I do love my Fitbit, but the app and smart coach for all of the UP wearable devices are a hundred times better. I really wanted to give it another go. So, for the last few months, I have been wearing two fitness trackers on my wrist. I was hoping to make a decision relatively quickly on which one I preferred. But the decision was far harder than I thought it would be.

One of the things that I like about all of the UP wristbands is the idle alert. This is perfect for me as I sit at the computer a lot. I set it to vibrate after 30 minutes of sitting around. This is a gentle reminder that I should get up and walk around for a few minutes. Staring at the screen for long periods of time is obviously not good for your eyes. Same goes with  sitting down all day. So, whenever it vibrates, I get up and walk a circuit of the house by climbing to the top floor and back again. As soon as I settle down back at the computer, the countdown clock automatically starts running again. You can change the idle time in steps of 15 minutes increments starting from only 15 minutes all the way to two hours. It also has a smart alarm to wake you up in the morning. For this I set a 20 minute window so it gently wakes me up when it senses I am in light sleep. So, no more loud alarm bells.

Another thing I like about the UP wearables is the sleep tracking. And with the UP3, you also get to see your resting heart rate each night. Yes, the Fitbit has this too, but the UP app is far more beautiful and goes into more detail. Last night, my resting heart rate was 58bpm which is above my usual average. The smart coach suggested I didn’t drink enough water the day before. Which was true. I usually find if I drink a glass of water before sleeping, my heart rate is lower. After a recent firmware update, the wearable now automatically tracks your sleep. However, if you press a button on the app when you are ready to go to sleep, you get to see how long it took for you to fall asleep. For me it usually takes only 5 minutes until I am snoozing.

The colour sleep chart also tells you how many times you woke up during the night (thankfully I didn’t last night), and how long you had deep and light sleep. Basically, the more deep sleep I have, the better I feel in the morning. This is something I am still working on to increase. Two hours of deep sleep and 5 hours of total sleep often feels much better than only 40 minutes of deep sleep but 8 hours of total sleep. The wearable will also track your REM during sleep. This seems to be quite accurate. If I have REM sleep just before I wake up, I can normally remember my dream. For the days I cannot remember my dreams, the chart shows me I didn’t have REM sleep just before waking. This awareness of my REM cycles is actually helping me remember my dreams.

I’ve mentioned the smart coach already, but it is this, together with the colourful app on the smartphone, that makes the UP wearables better than the Fitbit. The sensors on the wristband are also more superior as they track heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature and galvanic skin response. The smart coach then uses this information to give tips tailored just for you. In addition, you are told when you are falling behind on your daily averages, both with steps and length of sleep. Like this morning, the smart coach said that I wasn’t getting enough sleep lately. So, he has suggested I go to bed tonight at 10:15pm. I also got a message yesterday to say I was only 1,500 steps behind my weekly average and suggested I go for a 15 minute walk. The UP3 is like having your own personal trainer without the costs or inconvenience.

So, what is the downside to the UP3? I think the number one moan is the buckle. It was a bit fiddly to start with to put it back on after I had taken a shower, but I did eventually get used to it. My main concern, however, is that it easily comes undone. It is not as secure as the buckle on a watch strap like on the Fitbit. This happens when I am rummaging in my backpack or putting on a jacket. Luckily, I am so worried about this that I can usually sense that it has come undone and I can catch it before it falls off. But, I think one of these days I will lose it altogether. The only way I have been able to partially solve this problem is to wear the Fitbit to the left of my UP3 which helps to stop it coming undone. The older UP24 was more secure but it was thicker and so more uncomfortable. I really like the design of the UP3 but I just wish they would do something about the buckle.

Unlike other wearables, the UP3 doesn’t have a screen to show progress. That never really bothered me in the past as I could open the app to see what percentage of my goals I had achieved. However, I have now been spoiled by the small screen on the Fitbit Charge HR. On this, I raise my hand and the display automatically comes on. You can change what it shows first. I have the time. I tap the watch and it switches to steps taken so far today. If I then walk I can see the steps increase live. The UP3 doesn’t do that. In fact, sometimes when I open the app to see my progress, it might take a minute or so to connect and update which is frustrating as the Fitbit does it live. While we are on comparisons, the Fitbit also shows my present heartrate. This is good to see before and after you exercise. UP3 only records passive heart rate during the day. You cannot see it live.

For the past few months I have been trying to decide whether the UP3 is better than the Fitbit HR Charge. Of the two fitness trackers I have been wearing, which one would I choose? That decision actually turned out to be harder than expected. There are some things on the Fitbit HR Charge that I love which the UP3 doesn’t have. This is mainly the ability to count flights of stairs. So, on my Fitbit, I have two main goals during the day. I aim to walk at least 10,000 steps and climb 42 flights of stairs. I wish the UP could count floors. Since I bought my Fitbit, I have stopped using the lift to go up to my 6th floor office at school. As mentioned before, I would love to see all of this progress on the UP3 wristband without having to open the app. Another cool thing the Fitbit has, is phone call notification. Sometimes in a noisy environment I don’t hear my cell phone ringing. The Fitbit will vibrate and you will also see the caller ID on the screen. If the UP3 had these three things as well, then I would go for that instead of the Fitbit.

A final test to see which is the best fitness tracker for me to wear is to see which one I would choose to go with me on long trips. I didn’t want to take both as I would then have to take both of the chargers. Plus it would be two things to look after. For the last two trips I went on, I took the….. UP3. I think mainly because the battery lasts longer, I love the app and smart coach, and it isn’t so big on my wrist. I also chose not to take the Fitbit with me on the trips because I felt there was no need to be able to track flights of stairs. I wouldn’t have any opportunity to do this. I only needed to record steps and sleep patterns.

So, I guess that means I favour the UP3 over the Fitbit. But, that is not a fair comparison as I didn’t buy the UP3 as I was lent a review copy. Yes, I really like it, but would I have bought it with my own money? I bought the Fitbit Charge HR at the computer fair in Bangkok for a promotion price of 5,000 Baht (full price is 5,590 Baht). On the other hand, the Jawbone UP3 sells for 7,990 Baht. That is a big difference in price. Particularly as the cheaper Fitbit comes with a screen and counts both steps and flights of stairs. I think price wise, I would have chosen the Fitbit Charge HR. But, if they were both the same price and I had to choose, I would have gone for the UP3 as I find the idle alert, smart coach and the information on the app very useful.I would then just hope that in a future firmware update, they would add the ability to count flights of stairs.

If you use any of these wearables then please post your own comments below. The market is starting to be flooded with fitness trackers and it is now possible to buy wearables that are much cheaper than these two. But, are they as comprehensive? And if not, do you really care when you only want to track the number of steps you make? At the end of the day, you have to make your own decision on how much money you are prepared to invest in your health. But, I will say this one thing, fitness trackers are a good investment. It has certainly changed my life for the better.

14 thoughts on “My Experience of using UP3 fitness tracker

  • January 29, 2016 at 12:03 am
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    Plus, fitbit offers a chance to choose hand it is on, since i do wear a watch on my non-dominant hand, i cant tell that to fitbit, but not jawbone. i think a lot can be fixed from within firmware, but will it be solved or need to get Jawbone UP5, or Charge HR2…?

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    • January 29, 2016 at 4:54 am
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      I think each one has patents on some things and so you won’t see the same things later.

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      • January 29, 2016 at 5:01 am
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        Now you have had them for longer since this was posted has your opinion changed? What about Garmin Vivosmart HR? I liked Jawbone initially. DIdn’t like lack of bluetooth and their customer service attitude about anti bluetooth was just the same as Fitbits anti healthkit now. So both give me sour taste. I think I can live without screen. If UP3 can do flights, and active heart rate, I would like it best. And more raw data on the app like how fitbit groups it. Choose hand its being worn on I don’t know how much it would actually interfere with results.

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  • January 29, 2016 at 12:00 am
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    I got both UP3 and Charge HR and I too can’t decide which I like better. I don’t like lack of HealthKit in Charge. To be honest, it may not be even needed but the lack of wanting to support it seems petty nonesense thus why apple stopped selling them in their stores. The strap of jawbone is awkward, but I do like the smaller size. It is more comfortable. Especially at sleep. I dont like the lack of active heart rate. I dont like not seeing the stats on the wrist like Fitbit does though so it is a tough tradeoff. I been meaning to wear both at the same time to see if I get consistent results.

    Fitbit at least offers flights as you said which i like. I like the coaching in up3 more. the data breakdown in the app on fitbit is better though. fibit seems to be more metric friendly than up is. plus battery is much better.

    if size wasnt such an issue i would consider the garmin as well.

    I really dont know what to do thogh. Both ic an still return if i like. I dont care about having friends on fitbit and not jawbone and fitbit is the “in thing” but their philosophy on things seems petty as i said.

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    • January 29, 2016 at 4:53 am
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      Thanks for your feedback. Since I wrote my initial review, the Fitbit has had some upgrades to the app which has made it better. Also, my UP3 now has an activity clip which stops the strap coming undone.

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  • November 13, 2015 at 3:06 pm
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    Excellent review – I’m on my third UP, the build quality is awful, so your Fitbit views interesting

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    • November 13, 2015 at 4:30 pm
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      I agree with you on the durability of the older versions of UP. Hopefully they have learned their lessons with UP3 and made it more resilient. So far so good.

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  • November 13, 2015 at 2:09 pm
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    very useful and interesting review from Richard , those fitness trackers are very helpful indeed . As for myself , I was about to buy the HR charge but in the end , I went for the Mio alpha 2 ( a bit more than thb 6 000 , I don’t recall exactly ) mainly because of 2 great assets , which did not exist with the models mentioned by Richard : first one is that one can also wear the Mio when swimming ( they say it goes down to 30 m. ) and the second point is the battery life , up to 1 week when the heart rate is ON and up to 3 months otherwise ; sofar and having used it for more than 6 months , I am quite happy with it .

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    • November 13, 2015 at 4:28 pm
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      Thanks for your comments. It would be useful if the Fitbit and UP devices were more than splashproof as I have to take it off every time I take a shower.

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    • November 13, 2015 at 4:31 pm
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      I forgot to mention earlier, battery on UP3 is 7 days and Fitbit Charge HR is 5 days.

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  • November 13, 2015 at 12:19 pm
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    I too wear both the UP3 and the Fitbit Charge HR (and before I had those, I wore the Fitbit Surge). I agree with pretty much everything you said. I can’t choose between the two though. I would take them both everywhere with me. Also I wish they would try harder to make fitness trackers look elegant like traditional watches without sacrificing all the cool functions. Waterproofing would be nice too for when one goes swimming.

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    • November 13, 2015 at 12:38 pm
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      Yes, it’s difficult to choose. I guess at the end of the day it depends on which features attracts you the most and how much you are prepared to spend.

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  • November 13, 2015 at 11:28 am
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    Thanks for the article Richard. Interesting as i need to get some weight off. I see from the listed retailers on Jawbone’s site that Central Online has it but its shown as Sold Out. Lazada has it for Bht 7,590. Odd, there is a space on Jawbone’s site for an UP4 – but no details.

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    • November 13, 2015 at 12:15 pm
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      There is an UP4 in America which you can use to pay for things. That technology is not here in Thailand and so no point in buying it.

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