Fitbit Flex 2 Smart Fitness Activity Tracker Review
Fitbit has updated its original activity tracker wristband, the Fitbit Flex, with the Fitbit Flex 2 – keeping the minimalist blueprint and five-LED display, but adding a broad-range of fashionable accessories and holders, and even making it the company's first waterproof fitness tracker. It's besides the first to count your swimming laps and is sure to be a hit with Fitbit users who desire to add swimming to their practice stats.
Meet as well: Best activity trackers
To see the full range of Fitbit activity trackers encounter Which Fitbit is best?
Fitbit Flex 2: New features
At a glance:
- Swim-proof, counts laps
- Interchangeable bands
- New accessories including pendant
- Reminders to move
- Automatically tracks certain exercises
- Call and text notifications
Fitbit Flex 2 review: price
The Fitbit Flex 2 costs £79.99 (US$99.95; €99.95). That's the price for the wristband and tracker. If you call back this is expensive, compare it to the price of gym membership or a decent pair of running shoes. I actually saved the cost of my original Flex tracker over a couple of months of walking rather than communicable the bus or tube dwelling house.
The same will be truthful of the more than advanced but similarly priced Flex 2. Too look out for the best online prices listed at the end of this review.
View it on Amazon here.
You don't take to wear the Flex ii every bit a wristband. There are bangle and pendant accessories to to hold the removable tracker. If you desire the bangle or pendant holder for the Flex 2, you'll take to purchase them separately. The Silver Bangle or Pendant is slightly cheaper at £69.99, compared to the Golden Bangles (Gold or Rose Gold) or Pendant's £79.99 toll tag. Sadly it'due south not possible to buy just the bangle or pendant with the tracker; the wristband must exist purchased to become your hands on the tracker.
The Fitbit Alta, with its larger, more informative screen costs more at £129.99 (US$149.95; €149.95), and the heart-rate monitoring Fitbit Accuse 2 costs £129.99 (U.s.$149.95; €159.95). So the Flex 2 is Fitbit'due south most affordable wristband tracker.
Fitbit Flex 2: features
Keeping fit and using computers didn't used to go together. Sitting in front of a screen for hours doesn't fire calories or do annihilation for your posture. That was before we could carry our computers around with us, and even exercise with them. At that place are plenty of running and practice apps for the iPhone and Android smartphones that will piece of work out how you're doing while yous work out. The evolution of wear calculating and activity trackers puts tech at the eye of the modern keep fit fanatic. Stats, alerts, prompts and more stats brand even boring exercise fun.
Today'southward action trackers are an even improve way to push yourself to practice more without having to pretend to yourself that you lot need a gym membership – and they're a corking deal cheaper, too. Calorie-free exercise such every bit walking tin chop-chop improve your fitness and wellness. It doesn't take to exist leotards, dumbbells and marathons. Trackers like the Fitbit Flex 2 go on you on tiptop of how much y'all increment your practise and even allow you to claiming yourself against friends and family.
Using its MEMS 3-axis accelerometer the Fitbit Flex 2 tracks Steps, Altitude, Calories Burned, Agile Minutes and Hourly Activity, Pond, plus Slumber Elapsing and Quality. It lacks the altimeter nowadays in the Fitbit Charge two, Blaze and Surge, so doesn't measure Floors Climbed.
It also misses out on the more serious multi-sport functions boasted past the Charge ii, Blaze and Surge. This is the reason it doesn't characteristic the heart-rate monitor found in those other Fitbit trackers. It beats them all at swimming, however.
When you get calls and texts Flex ii vibrates and the LED display flashes its colour-coded lights discreetly. Without a proper screen, the Flex 2 doesn't show Caller ID when the user's telephone rings as the Fitbits with larger displays do. Then the Flex 2 offers the major activity tracking functions just non all the sports stuff and smartphone bells and whistles.
The Flex ii will alert you lot when you're inactive for besides long during the day via its Reminders To Motion alerts, which are activated if yous miss the 250-stride an hour minimums. This tin can be switched off, simply is a great way to get you out of your chair to walk around and stretch your legs and get moving.
Fitbit Flex 2 review: the first waterproof Fitbit
It is, notwithstanding, only 1 of two Fitbit trackers that are fully waterproof and boast the power to rail swimming as an practise.You lot take to enter the length of your pool in order to accurately count laps, and this is done via the Fitbit app. We're told that it works with front crawl (freestyle), backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. The other waterproof Fitbit is the high-end smartwatch; read our Fitbit Ionic review.
You lot can vesture information technology in the shower or bathroom, unlike the other just h2o-resistant trackers from Fitbit. Also, see our round-upward of the best waterproof swim trackers. We think that the Flex 2 might fifty-fifty exist used by some Fitbit enthusiasts as a second tracker specifically for the puddle.
The Flex two is Fitbit's get-go properly waterproof fettle tracker, and can track your swimming every bit an exercise activity. We oasis't fully tested the Flex ii on a rigorous swim, merely will update this review when we have. The Flex 2 measures your Swim Duration, and calculates calorie burn during your fourth dimension in the pool.
Fitbit doesn't recommend extended exposure to h2o, so don't leave it in a bucket of water overnight. Like you lot would!
In fact, we suspect most of the Fitbits aren't as water sensitive as Fitbit warns. The company took a large PR hit when one of its old wristbands (the wonderful but cursed Force) was blamed for giving some users a nasty wrist rash. Fitbit discontinued the Strength, and its replacement, the Charge 60 minutes, was a massive success. Chip since the Forcefulness the company has been wary of recommending its users continue the wristband on for extended periods of time and certainly not in water.
Yahoo tech columnist David Pogue spoke to a Fitbit product manager who (shhh) admitted that even the Fitbit Accuse 2 could be worn in the shower without damage, as long as the shower isn't super-powered. Pogue tried this out and had no problems with his Accuse 2. But only the Flex 2 is guaranteed waterproof past Fitbit, and is the merely Fitbit to actively track swimming.
Fitbit Flex 2 review: sleep monitor
Why wear the Flex 2 all day and night? Because it monitors not just your action during the day but how you sleep at night, too. Sleep duration and quality is an important health metric, and one worth as much consideration as concrete daytime exertion.
Fitbit Flex 2 review: accessories
The Flex 2 wristband is available in Blackness, Lavender, Magenta and Navy. You become both a Small and a Big wristband when you purchase the Flex 2.
The Fitbit Flex was one of Fitbit'due south longest-surviving trackers in its range, and for proficient reason – information technology was slim, and then lightweight you lot forgot you were wearing it. Its update, the Flex 2, is even slimmer and comes with a range of accessories that suggest Fitbit is aiming this tracker at women – or very confidently fashionable men...
You can wear the Fitbit Flex 2 on your wrist in the slim band, in a bangle, or hung from a pendant. This is possible because the actual pebble-similar tracker is removable, and be fitted into the 3 types of holder. You'll need it in the wristband to track your swimming. It can exist in the Bangle, Pendant or Wristband for the other dry-country activity tracking as y'all prefer.
The hand-polished Bangle (pictured in a higher place) can exist bought in Silverish, Golden and Rose Gold colours. The Silver version is £10/$10/€x cheaper than the Gold versions.
The Pendant (above) is available in either Silver or Golden, on a 17-inch chain. The Silver version is £10/$10/€10 cheaper than the Gold version. There's no Rose Gilt version of the Pendant bachelor yet.
Flex ii owners can also buy 2 3-packs of wristbands. The Sport pack has bands in Grey, Yellow and Navy. The Pink pack in Magenta, Lavender and Chroma Pinkish.
The new Flex 2 removable tracker is well-nigh a third smaller than the original Flex tracker, which has made it possible to slim downward the wristband and accessories.
There's merely "One Size" but Fitbit includes both a Pocket-size and a Large wristband in the box.
The Flex 2 uses a similar pop squeeze as the Fitbit Alta, which some have found initially catchy to close. You do get used to it fairly quickly, and adding a more secure scout buckle might spoil the expect.
That said, initially the feel can be annoying. Fitbit includes just the i metal clasp, fastened to the Small band. If you need the Large band y'all must first remove the clasp from the Small band (I predict a few broken nails here) and then add it to the Big band (over again fiddly and quite frustrating). Fitbit should include a clasp on each band and not save a few pennies at the expense of its customers' patience and nails.
Fitbit Flex 2 review: Fitbit display and alternatives
In many means the Flex 2 is similar to the Fitbit Alta, which is also worth considering as information technology has largely the same features and some new ones, plus a wider range of accessories.
Where the Alta differs from the Flex ii is its larger brandish, which shows you lot your stats right there on your wrist rather than having to get to the Fitbit app as Flex 2 users have to.
The Flex 2'southward display is a series of just five elementary lights, each representing 20 percentage of your daily Steps target. And so if your target is 10,000 steps yous get a light switched on for every 2,000 steps. A blinking low-cal shows the electric current segment of the goal you're working on. When you achieve your goal, your Flex will vibrate and wink the LED indicator lights to gloat. Information technology works really well, and many volition prefer this minimalist approach to the larger displays. If you want more info and then the Alta is the nearest alternative, but it'due south slightly larger and more expensive.
On the Alta and other Fitbit tracker wristbands the brandish shows the actual statistics in numbers, plus a sentry face to tell you the time, and Caller ID linked to your smartphone. Flex 2 users won't be bothered about missing the immediacy of such data, preferring to keep their fitness ring as minimal as possible. If you desire your stats numbers visible on your wrist then the Flex 2 isn't for you. It tin can, of grade, be worn with a lookout.
And don't forget that the Alta is not waterproof, then can't be used to track your swimming exercise. As mentioned earlier, maybe the Flex 2 will exist used by some as a second swim-only tracker – Fitbit allows multiple trackers to be tied to one person'due south account.
You tin link more 1 Fitbit tracker to your account, so maybe some will use the Flex 2 purely for swimming.
We also like the Fitbit I, which is a little gadget that clips onto your chugalug or bra, or tin be carried in a pocket. A potential pain with non-wristband trackers is that they are quite like shooting fish in a barrel to lose, with the usual knocks and scrapes a trunk can get itself involved in during the average twenty-four hour period. I lost mine at a children's party – not an average twenty-four hour period (thanks goodness!), simply regular enough to pose a gamble of loss for the tiny gadget.
Fitness wristbands such as the Fitbit Flex 2 remove this risk past being more firmly attached to the body and easier to monitor that it'due south still in place. The Flex ii'south bangle and pendant options also make it stand up out among the many activeness trackers available today.
Wearing a fitness wristband is but similar wearing a scout. Later on a few minutes you lot forget you're wearing it at all. They're light, and most are stylish enough for hip go along fit fans to show off. The Flex 2 is smart but it'south not a lookout, every bit the brandish shows simply dots not figures.
Top 10 tips for hitting your Fitbit step goals
More: Fitbit 1 review Fitbit Cypher review Fitbit Alta review Fitbit Accuse 2 review Fitbit Charge Hr review Fitbit Blaze Review Fitbit Surge review
Fitbit Flex 2 review: seeing your stats and data
Every bit the Flex two lacks a large brandish you need to go to the mobile Fitbit app (iOS and Android) or the more expansive Fitbit desktop dashboard to see the bodily numbers, as well as some lovely graphs showing your fitness and health trends.
We think the Fitbit app is the all-time out at that place for showing y'all your stats and other helpful data.
Fitbit Flex 2 review: goals and badges
You lot fix goals for each of the measurements, and can earn badges for goals achieved. The Flex ii likewise gives you a gentle vibrating buzz on the wrist when you lot hit your Step goals.
The calculation of steps taken is never going to be 100 percent authentic just the distance isn't manner off in our tests. The matter to recall is that the measurements are relative. Y'all'll soon become an thought what yous get upward to in an average solar day, and you set out to shell that average and walk or run more, climb stairs rather than accept the lift, leave the machine in the driveway or walk past that bus finish.
You lot can input your weight every twenty-four hour period but this isn't compulsory so don't let that put you lot off. You lot might also be interested in Fitbit's Aria scales that sync with your business relationship, and measure weight, body fatty percentage and BMI; read our Fitbit Aria scales review. At that place are enough of other digital scales bachelor; check out our round up of the best digital smart bath scales.
Fitbit Flex 2 review: monitoring sleep
The Flex 2 automatically recognises when you are comatose and when y'all wake. It tracks both the number of hours slept and the quality of that slumber (eg. restlessness).
Helpfully, the Flex has a silent wake alarm that gently vibrates to wake y'all at your desired time, without disturbing anyone else. You fix alarms using your computer or mobile device. Silent Alarms can be configured to recur every twenty-four hours, or on particular days of the week.
Fitbit: compete with friends
While setting yourself goals is a adept push to go on upwards your motivation there'due south nothing like a little competition, and Fitbit allows you to track your exercise against other Fitbit-wearing friends. In that location'due south a leaderboard on the website and on the app. This is the fun part of amassing steps, and tin get quaite competitive. Of course you lot don not need to compete against others if you prefer your exercise to exist individual.
Fitbit sends out a weekly electronic mail of your stats then you can easily keep up on your progress. It will also compare your stats with the people you are competing with. If y'all want to keep whatever stats underground you can utilize the privacy settings on the website.
Fitbit Flex: battery life
The Flex 2 should last nigh five days before needing a accuse. Try to remember to proceed information technology charged as it's frustrating when you're merely near to walk or run and the battery fades out. The best time to requite it a accuse is while you're asleep (although you'll miss that night's Slumber monitoring) or saturday stuck in the office, or possibly relaxing in forepart of the TV or reading a book.
You demand to remove the Flex two tracker from the strap to accuse, merely this is easy - as long as you recollect to put it back the right style!
Specs
Fitbit Flex two: Specs
- Tracks steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes, hourly activeness and stationary time, plus sleep quality.
Source: https://www.techadvisor.com/review/fitbit-flex-2-review-3468264/
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