Reviewed: The UP MOVE, an Exercise Tracker for People Who Hate Exercise Trackers
(Courtesy of Jawbone).
How do I track my activities without having to wear an ugly rubber bracelet?
This is a question that plagued me during my brief stint with Jawbone’s wireless UP band, an effective but bulky fitness tracker. Now there’s a new option, the brand-new UP MOVE, a circular plastic sensor that can be transferred between a rubber wristband and a subtle black clip. In other words, you can hide it, much like the first quarter-sized fitness tracker, the Misfit Shine. And though the $49 MOVE ultimately trades function for mobility, it might be the best option for people who haven’t bought into the philosophy of wearing your tracker on your sleeve (or just under it).
Though the Move is lighter and more versatile than its Jawbone wristband cousins, it’s also less capable. It looks like a distant relative of a poker chip and has only one type of sensor: accelerometers that allow you to track your steps and your movement while you sleep. When you hold your finger on it and press, its LED screen lights up to highlight what mode you’re in.
The MOVE is so light and small, you’ll probably forget you’re wearing it. (Courtesy of Jawbone).
An orange running dude shows that it’s tracking your movement. A blue moon indicates that it’s tracking your sleep. You change modes by holding the disk down. Whenever you press it, a thin white light will also animate and blink twice at a certain spot on the face of the sensor. It’s meant to indicate your progress throughout the day — as in, if you’ve only reached 25 percent of your daily step goal, then the blinking white light will travel across a quarter of the circle (much like the Shine). I found it unintuitive. Since this thing is circular, it’s hard to see what the light translates to from different angles (especially when it’s nestled into its rubber clip and attached to the strap of my purse). Its many LED notches also get way too specific. I could never tell if it was landing at 30 percent or 40 before the lights dimmed.
The MOVE comes in five different colors. (Courtesy of Jawbone).
And that’s about it. It can’t wake you up during a light sleep cycle like the UP24 or measure your heart rate like the newly announced UP3. MOVE’s other capabilities are less a function of its hardware and more a function of the algorithms in Jawbone’s free UP app, which uses data points like your height, weight, age, gender, and general activity to calculate how many calories you’ve burned throughout the day.
All this information is sent via Bluetooth to the Jawbone smartphone app’s well-illustrated dashboard, which prominently features the hours you’ve slept, the number of steps you’ve taken, and — if you’re a diligent manual meal tracker — your caloric intake. Below that is a social feed of your UP “team members” whose progress you can see and comment on. The app even offers a feature that allows you to start direct competitions with friends.
But, if you could care less about all those extra features, you’ll be happy to know that one of the best parts about the UP MOVE is how little time you actually need to spend maintaining it. Unlike most other fitness trackers — Jawbone or otherwise — you don’t need to charge it every week or two. The lithium coin battery that it comes with will last up to six months, depending on your usage. After that, you can get a pack of five replacements on Amazon (or at your local hardware store) for under $5.
MOVE is suspiciously similar to its main competition, the Fitbit Zip. (Let’s just take a moment to collectively groan at these uncreative, monosyllabic names, shall we?). The Zip can track all the same things as the Move, relies on the same replaceable battery system, and can also subtly clip onto sports bras or bag straps. But design-wise, Move is superior. It bypasses the Fitbit’s superfluous (and frankly old-school) screen for a plastic circular LED-friendly face, and can be popped in and out of two different carriers, both of which are comfortable to wear and relatively inoffensive to the eye. Plus, it costs $10 less.
For anyone who’d rather not shackle herself with a fitness tracking bracelet that cares more about your movement than you do, I’d wholeheartedly recommend the UP MOVE. It’ll give you the basics of your movement and make you more aware of your hours of rest and activity. It’s a great starter gadget that won’t overwhelm you with stats. At the very least, buying one would be a small step in the right direction.
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