There are a lot of ways to track your daily activity, thanks to products like the Nike FuelBand, Jawbone UP, RunKeeper, and Fitbit.
I've tried three of them: the FuelBand, Runkeeper, and Fitbit. Runkeeper is best for tracking outdoor runs or biking by GPS, so the decision for indoor athletes and health enthusiasts often comes down to the Fitbit or FuelBand.
Fuelband has a powerful brand behind it, but Fitbit is earning quite a bit of market share. It has raised more than $25 million from investors, most recently raising $12 million at the end of January. Unlike the Fuelband, which can only be worn on a wrist, Fitbit offers multiple products that can either be worn as arm/wrist bands (launching this spring) or clips. It even offers a smart scale product that tracks weight and body fat percentage over time.
So, which company makes a better product? After trying both Fitbit and Fuelband for a few months, here's my honest assessment.
Full disclosure: BI was given both devices to try for free. We acquired the Nike Fuelband in August 2012 and the Fitbit in January 2013.
Price: All Fitbit products are significantly cheaper than the FuelBand.
Currently, Fitbit's clip products (the One and the Zip) are significantly cheaper than Nike's FuelBand.
The Fitbit One clip retails for $99.95; so does the Fitbit wristband that's expected to come out this spring. The Fitbit Zip retails for $59.95.
Nike's FuelBand retails for $149, and its higher-scale watch, Sportswatch GPS, retails for $169. Even Fitbit's smart scale, the Aria, is cheaper than the FuelBand at $129.
Nike does have a cheaper band, the Nike+ Sportband, that's in line with the Zip's price at $59.
This round goes to Fitbit.
Fitbit: 1, Fuelband: 0.
Products: Both offer multiple fitness tracking products, but the Fitbit can track more things than the FuelBand. It's also available on Android devices; Fuelband is not.
Nike and Fitbit both have the same number of wearable activity-tracking products. The most popular are the Fitbit One and the Nike FuelBand, which are the two products this review focuses on.
But here's what each suite of products offers:
Nike:
- FuelBand ($149). Worn on wrist, tracks daily activity including steps taken, calories burned and the most active time of your day. Also functions as a watch. It comes in black, black ice, and white ice (transparent).
- SportWatch GPS ($169). Instead of tracking daily activity, the SportWatch uses built-in GPS so you can see on a map where and how far you ran. It also tracks your heart rate, calories burned, and intervals. It comes in black, but the inside band can be either blue, white, or black.
- Nike Running App (free). Like RunKeeper, it tracks where you are on a map via GPS location. It also tracks calories burned, pace, and plays music while you work out.
- Nike SportBand ($59). To use the SportBand, you need a sensor to place in a Nike+ shoe. The sensor sends information from the shoe to the band about where you've run or walked, your heart rate, calories burned, and pace. It comes in white/black, red, yellow, and black/blue.
- iPod Nano ($149 from Apple, syncs with Nike+ data.)
- Nike+ Kinect Training ($39) from Xbox 360.
- Nike+ Basketball shoes ($250). Shoes that are Nike+ enabled to tell you how high you jump and how hard you work out on the court.
Fitbit:
- Fitbit Zip ($59.95).Tracks steps, distance, and calories burned. No sleep-monitoring or floors climbed. Also functions as a watch. Comes in blue, white, yellow, black, or pink.
- Fitbit One ($99.95). Tracks steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, and sleep cycles. Can also function as an alarm or watch. Calories and water intake can be input manually. Comes in red or black.
- Fitbit Aria scale ($129.95). Measures weight, body mass index, percent of body fat for up to eight people. Comes in white or black.
- Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity + Sleep Wristband ($99.95). Tracks steps, distance, calories burned, how long you're active, hours slept, and quality of sleep. Comes in black or blue and launches in Spring 2013.
If you're comparing the full suite of products, Nike has more variety than Fitbit, and its shoe technology is one-of-a-kind. But it doesn't have the Aria scale.
For the sake of this article, I'm just comparing the Fitbit One and the FuelBand; the two more popular devices by Nike and Fitbit.
Between those two and their sister products, Fitbit and FuelBand track almost exactly the same things. Fitbit One tracks floors climbed, water consumed, calories eaten, and sleep though, while FuelBand does not. Fitbit's app is available for free on both Android and iOS devices. Fuelband is only available for iOS. Since Fitbit One tracks more things and is available on more devices, we give the point to Fitbit.
Fitbit: 2, Fuelband: 0.
Packaging: The FuelBand comes in sleek black packaging. The Fitbit One arrives in regular old plastic.
Nike has its packaging down pat. Unwrapping a FuelBand feels like you're opening an Apple product. It's sleek and exciting.
Fitbit One arrives encased in plastic. It wouldn't be alluring on a shelf.
Fitbit: 2, FuelBand: 1.
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