Gadgetory

in a world full of smartwatches and Fitness watches with screens like the Apple watch and pebble and others they're also a fitness band some of them don't have any screen at all and the jawbone bands are an anomaly in that regard the new jawbone up 3 which is a premium product at $180 has no screen it's meant to be worn casually than the last bands the jawbone up24 was like that too it had this easy stretchy design looked low key and a lot of people like that and these new ones are like that too except the band is a lot harder to put on the clasp really takes some effort to get it on just right once it's on you can wear it around everywhere you can even wear it in the shower just don't wear it swimming and the up-3 brings something new to the table which is heart rate tracking it doesn't do it with any blinking green light that a lot of these do is using bioimpedance there are metal studs inside the band and once it makes contact it's meant to measure electrical impedance to measure heart rate and potentially down the road look at stress levels hydration and skin temperature what it does right now is just resting heart rate so if you go to sleep at night you'll find out what your heart rate is but you can't use it for exercise you can't use it for readings throughout the day you can use it for slightly better sleep tracking a lot of bands up heart rate tracking basis Microsoft band Apple watch Fitbit charge HR so heart rate is not all that exciting and this one does less for $180 I would recommend going down to the hundred dollar upto which skips heart rate tracking but I love the jawbone up app it's awesome has great coaching has social elements and ties them with a ton of features I like that the up app coaches me but I want it to coach me more and you keep having to go back to your phone to see what this is buzzing you about it'll vibrate to tell you you go to sleep or to send alarms to you but other than an indicator to tell you whether your walk mode or in sleep mode that's pretty much it there's a little bit of a notifications flash but it feels archaic compared all the little displays that other bands like this have I mean you couldn't put a display on here to send basic information to this the up three gets a solid seven days of battery life and it's easy to charge with a little magnetic dongle that's included just don't lose that dongle thumbs up to the jawbone up app not so excited about the features on the up three right now I'd suggest waiting unless you're dying to explore the potentials of bioimpedance down the road I'm Scott Steiner CNET with the jawbone up 3