Even when you add genuine smart watches like the Samsung Gear S2 and the long awaited Apple Watch into the equation, most people would rather wear a fitbit.
Trouble is, how does fitbit improve on a device that basically works pretty well already?
The fitbit Blaze is obviously much better looking than anything fitbit has produced till now. My previous experiences with fitbit trackers had led me to believe nobody there really cared what these things looked like as long as they were comfortable to wear and most importantly, did what they said they would.
Because they DID do what they said they would, that was absolutely fine by me. I was more than happy to wear a thick black rubber band on my run or to the gym. But would I keep it on to go to the movies or a restaurant? Perhaps not.
Even once available in other colours, the fitbit Surge still looked like what it was; a great big sports tracker. Not a watch.
The Blaze fixes that.
Technically, there isn't a massive difference between last year's Surge and this year's Blaze. The functionality is almost identical with a couple of minor variations I'll get to shortly.
Physically, the Blaze and the Surge couldn't be more unalike.
While the square, angular appearance of the Blaze may not suit everyone's style, you can't deny this thing is very stylish. Not only is the standard sports band available in 3 colours, you have 3 choices of leather or even an all-stainless steel band with metal links.
The real beauty of all this choice is how easily interchangeable the bands are; the body of the Blaze just pops out of one metal frame into another, allowing you to mix and match your watch to any occasion, sporting or social. (Listen to me, talking about what to wear to social events like I'd have any idea)
The other big advance from any previous model is the colour display. How fitbit got this far in basic black and white is a bit of a mystery, or probably more a testament to how much people love how easy these devices are to use. I can't imagine anybody buying an Apple Watch with a grey scale watch face that only sort of resembles a watch face, yet that's basically what you got with the Surge.
The Blaze's screen is crystal clear colour, and has a light sensor adjusting it's brightness for any conditions inside or out. Frustratingly, there are still only 4 clock styles to choose from and I can't say I love any of them. Despite that, they're all a million billion times better than what we had before. Perhaps we'll get more options in a future firmware update.
As with previous fitbits, you don't so much pair the Blaze with your phone, you pair it to your fitbit account. These days you can have several devices synced to that account should you wish. Although you don't need a phone to run it, like the Surge, you can receive text, call and calendar notifications from your phone, although you still can't reply like you can on many smart watches.
The music controller looks great. You access this with a down-swipe on the main clock screen. However, it usually didn't work if the phone was connected to another bluetooth device, which is how I usually listen to music.
This makes me wonder if fitbit is overextending itself delving into the whole smart watch area to begin with. The thing I have always loved about fitbit devices is they just work. So why introduce features you can't count on?
Another niggle is the move away from an on-board GPS. This means if you want to track your run, you need to take your phone with you as the Blaze will use the handset's GPS instead. This seems a backward step from the Surge which did all its own tracking.
My final frustration is the introduction of automatic exercise detection - this isn't unique to the Blaze; it's a feature added to both the Surge and Charge HR last year. In theory, it's really convenient to have your tracker figure out you're doing exercise and record it without you thinking about it. What I don't understand is why it does it secretly and doesn't display your run or workout on screen once it's realised that's what you're doing. To do that you have to select your exercise and fire it off manually.
The good news is, the new colour display is even more clear and easier to read than the Surge, allowing you to scroll through time, distance, heart-rate etc with a tap of the screen. For runs you can set a secondary stat display (pace, distance, etc) although for some reason, when I chose distance, this smaller number displayed in miles instead of kilometres, a minor bug I'm sure will be remedied in future firmware updates.
Battery life, as usual, is outstanding. I can easily squeeze out 4-5 days with no trouble. And just when you thought fitbit's charging cables couldn't get any weirder, the Blaze comes with its own little clip-shut charging box you have to put the main watch case inside. It's not really a hassle, it's just really, really weird. Charges damn fast though.
I feel like I've made too many complaints about a device I actually like very much. All the usual fitbit stuff works brilliantly - accurate and reliable heart rate monitoring, step counting and sleep tracking all synced directly to your account. It's light, comfortable, looks good and I wear it everywhere, not just to the gym. There's even a series of FitStar workouts built in for a quick, D.I.Y. personal training session.
If they could just get those added extras to work more reliably, I could take the Blaze seriously as a smart watch and not just an experiment.
Click here for more information on the fiftbit Blaze smart fitness watch
