Non-Book Review: UP2 by Jawbone

You may have noticed I like to write to review things, lots of things. Not just books, though that's what you'll typically find here on my blog. But I don't just like to write reviews, I read them, too.

Reviews are more important to me sometimes than the product descriptions or even, amazingly enough, my own prior experience with a product.

This is the one I have.

Take the Jawbone UP2 I'm wearing.
 
You might be surprised to learn that it's the second one I've owned, but it's the first one I bought for myself, having received the original from my company as a reward for submitting a health success story.

When the first one's band broke, I spent almost a month perusing reviews and ratings for it and competitor brands. I had intended just to buy the same one again, then I saw the three star average ratings for it, and they just sucked me right in. Here I was about to buy something with a three star average. What did these folks know that I didn't?

Seriously considered this one.

Despite the cool fashion bands, the various straps, the ones with heart rate monitors, and so on and so on, folks seemed to have some issues with these things. So I stopped looking at the UPs alone and got distracted by the Fitbits and how neat those were, and by those reviewers who vouched for that neatness. On and on and on, almost adding to my cart and then dropping one or the other for a month.

So many choices! And the reviews for both sides, Fitbit vs. UP, were as widely varied as were the people who wrote them. I even found a few folks who took their reviews to the next level, buying one of each type and wearing them at the same time to see how they compared and reporting out their findings for the rest of us. I think it was one of those that ended up convincing me to just go with the one I knew and liked, despite it's flaws.

Selling points? Well, The UP2 is rather accurate. It's small and light. Not unattractive. I already had the app installed on my phone. Sure, the bands can break and sometimes the clasp just says, "I'm going to just unclasp now, good luck!" but the thing's only like 20-30 bucks. And yeah, I get more use out of my UP2 than I do out of my watch (also about 20-30 bucks). It managed to train me to sleep better. I've set it up to buzz when it's time to step away from my desk and go for a run or a walk. It tracks how often I work out and cheers me on. I even played around with the food tracker, but I think just logging a week is about all I can take of that, no matter the format.

I figure if I get something like 8 months to a year out of this one, it's worth the cost. The last one lasted about 8 months before the band broke off where it was fused to the sensor part. I'm about five months or so in. We'll see. A couple of other folks had their bands break in the same way.

So yeah, the reviews had me doubting my own experiences, but they also pointed out a few things I'd  disregarded and gave me a lot more information for making an educated decision, which tends to make me happier with my purchases.

I guess what I'm saying is reviews matter to me, even when I end up buying the exact thing I originally planned to buy.

And yes, when this one I have breaks or gives up, I'll probably do it all again. :-)