Gadgetory

hey everyone Jimmy with Jim's review room besides the release of Windows 10 their new Lumia smartphones in the surface book and surface pro 4 being released the Microsoft band makes a comeback and it does truly make me wonder though how much has improved over last year's model now the price has gone up slightly to two hundred and forty nine dollars retail as of this video but I'll place a link in the video description below click that and you can see what the current prices are today so without further adieu I'm here to help you make a purchase decision welcome everyone to jim's review first getting into comforts for your reference I'm wearing the medium-sized band one thing I must say though this is a huge improvement over the last model the OLED display up top and the sides now curved to fit the contour of your wrist unlike that very stiff and straight edge display last year even a strap to the band where one stiff is now for the most part very flexible but it's still not 100% although this hasn't greatly improved there's still the slight bulge down here at the clasp and this will get in your way if you do rest your palm on the table when typing in regards to working out like all wrist heartrate trackers the band is still worn snug then not necessarily tight it is recommended to be worn prior to the wrist bone for increased accuracy for the heart rate readings and to be honest with you this does feel much better once you do move it kind of back here now if you're used to wearing watches or other types of bands at or closer to the wrist bone there is discomfort or clenching when you do move your hand back and forth a perfect example is when you're doing dumbbell curls or let's say military presses when compared to most other activity bands and smartwatches on the market the Microsoft band still unfortunately isn't the most comfortable but compared again to the old Microsoft band this is a serious huge improvement before getting into the buttons and interface the locking mechanism works perfect at staying secure however one huge flaw yet it's only cosmetic this thing scratches up pretty bad even just within the first two days of using within a week you can see how badly this thing can get I just want to point that out to you guys the end of the band physically connects to the supplied USB charger that's magnetized for an easy connection and regarding battery life microsoft claims up to two days of use and for my testing without using gps i was able to average one day 14 hours and 38 minutes to be precise now on a day that I did use gps for a 30 minute run I noticed the battery would last about 24 hours I comparing these numbers to dedicated fitness trackers like jawbone Garmin or Fitbit it's not that great as these bands are averaging around five to seven days at the moment of battery life as for smartwatches this is actually not bad smartwatches usually average around one to two days of use so it really depends on how the consumer would value the Microsoft band to is it of a SmartWatch or is it more of an activity tracker but going back to the top you have the Display button to turn on the screen and to the right is the action or execute feature and I'm not sure why this isn't on default but you do have the option of going into your settings and turning on watch mode which enables the band to turn on the screen when you do turn your wrist facing up towards you it works for the most part and on par with other smartwatches but like most smartwatches if you're not at the right particular angle or right position it won't show not a negative but again this is something that's typical amongst these SmartWatch category here overall the display is very bright a very smooth interface and very responsive to now rotating to the back the optical heart rate sensor has moved here which I'll detail in the fitness section later in the review and the apps inside our galvanic skin response sensors which absolutely displays no information for you per Microsoft it's only there to read when you do wear the band and when you don't so the band can adjust its other sensors other features you can't see right off the bat there's a barometer to measure how many flights of stairs you've climbed which is new for the band too a UV sensor which honestly I don't see myself using and last is a skin temperature reader GPS and a microphone for use with your Windows Phone and it's voice recognition system Cortana and before I forget here this is one of the few bands on the market at the moment that does work for Apple Android and of course window phones this was once a huge selling point for window users but Fitbit Garmin and polar are some of the few companies now offering compatibility to all three Phone operating systems today but let's go through the display real quick starting this on you have your time and with the action button you can leave either the date displayed distance walked calories burned flights of stairs climbed heart rates and last is total steps holding display down and pulling right reviews that I have bluetooth on with the HR sensor working and on the bottom remaining battery life tapping on the main screen will offer the information I just mentioned here but just a little bit bigger for easier reading and then swiping left reveals tiles similar to the Windows operating system and they're similar products now my configuration could be a little bit different than yours since you can completely rearrange these and add or remove tiles at your choosing my first tile here is messaging basically any text messages would show up here next or all of my smart certifications that actually shows up on my phone such as Instagram hang up messages and really just all the other notifications again it will show up here last is basically emails now it's going to the next screen here are missed phone calls my calendar and the last tile is the start - what fitness activities the band - can record this includes running biking golfing and weightlifting again I'll go into detail on how these work pretty soon next up is sleeping in which like other sleep trackers on the market this does require you to manually tell the band when you do lay down it's not automatic you can set up a silent vibrating alarm which works pretty strong for waking me up in the morning without disturbing my significant other and the other feature is the smart alarm which wakes you up within a 30-minute window prior to your actual wakeup time you've set the band based on its sensors will attempt to wake you up at your lightest point of sleep in theory having you feel not as agitated as if you had woken up from a deep sleep but one thing I got emit that the American soft band and the band too does very well is the sleep tracking this differentiates my total hours actually slept versus the total time in bed there's also an efficiency rating and it's accurate wearing a second watch my basis peak to sleep at the same time of course for testing purposes both showed similar results on nights that achieved 90% sleep efficiency and higher I do feel more energetic when I do first wake up and that's prior to me checking the band so there's really no placebo effect or false positives backing onto the tiles once again the clock offers several features including a reminder to vibrate you at your set time there's a timer to countdown and for the Fitness folks out there there's also a stopwatch feature built in going back I have a Twitter notification tile I added a weather app is next to show today's in the next several days weather predictions and very last are your settings here just briefly showing what the app has that I have included on my towel strip there's a finance tile Starbucks payment option facebook notifications and whatnot now one thing I wanted to mention which I failed to mention in the original Microsoft Banner review Microsoft does allow for third-party app developers to use the sensors and the band to offer more tiles to use then what comstock similar to Android wear Apple watches operating system now how robust or how abundant considering both after mentioned competitors are really huge Giants in the market right now the Microsoft App Store is quite lacking when compared but let's talk about Fitness since this is huge for some people going back to the running tile as an example one of the first prompts is if you want GPS on or not for any moderate to serious runner out there I highly recommend using GPS and any activity band or even your phones for much better accuracy in the data you'll be collecting a GPS per Microsoft has been improved and it definitely does show searching for a signal on a rainy or cloudy day here the Microsoft band to still found a signal in a reasonable amount of time running with my smartphone with GPS enabled and geo-mapping the distance pace and accuracy was on par with my phone's GPS when you're running biking or whatnot the screen stays on all the time showing your pace time elapsed and distance and then swiping right reveals your HRO readings calories burned and whatnot but regarding HR accuracy using my trusty chest strap that I've used time and time again and shown to be very accurate I find the Microsoft band to when stationary works fine but during runs this thing is very much off and before any criticism believe me I try to make this thing work and I do have experience from all the fitbit's mio basses and recently the jawbone products which all have some kind of heart rate tracking built into the band's itself now I am wearing this before my wrist bone which is advised by any risk-based HR activity tracker and after running random distances stopping to compare my readings the Microsoft band is usually short time in time in time again as improving in the video I then move the band further up my arm again a suggestion provided by some activity bands again offering risk based readings and although it was a little bit better it was still not accurate I went even further and the next day gives us another shot this time wearing the band with the sensor on the inside of my wrist and forearm and just looking at these charts you can see how off and how low they are again very very unfortunate from my testing and one last test I cross-referenced this with my basis peak and wearing much h7 chest strap you can see again the result on the screen but let's go over the Microsoft health app real quick and see what this has to offer and the main home page Microsoft really kept it simple and familiar with the Windows theme steps and calories are at the top and if you performed any runs cycling golfing or weightlifting this will show up here and last all the way at the bottom is the total hours of sleep from the ignite prior now going back up tapping steps shows you distance floors climbed how many minutes you were active and a bar for the total progress going back all the other tiles appears to look the same with similar ways on how other data is presented to you now looking through the menu options here on the left most are really self-explanatory like home history and profile but find a workout hour pre-loaded guided Fitness videos and/or coaching on the band for example if I start this here on the top left will show the workout to perform and a countdown and this will cycle through several exercises to perform including my rest times it's a feature that some may find beneficial while some may not be too engaged with that's really up to you guys now find a course are for golfers on the app this will find probably most of your golf courses around your area and new to the band too you can sync that course layout to your band for golfing features but being upfront I'm not versed with golfing in general but here's some of the information that is displayed on the band for any golfers that are out there now back to the main menu what's new is self-explanatory but in apps this can sync to the following applications now if you use RunKeeper for example the Microsoft band 2 data will sing to the RunKeeper app so if you don't carry your phone that distance will be recorded but it did notice though heart rate monitoring will be absent backing out you can personalize the band a bit with changing the background and the general color and if you go to the Microsoft App Store there are some other backgrounds that you can download there as well now managing tiles offers you to add up to 13 tiles max onto the band and you have the option down below to rearrange the tiles to your desired location and less than the main menu to be as mysterious really all self-explanatory from here on out so overall from my experience the Microsoft band 2 strongest suit is no question the physical redesign if you have a Windows Phone the band really makes it worthwhile to I with Cortana understanding voice recognition in your commands as for features there seems to be a lot and no question there is but looking at what is available on the market today for the same or similar price you get basically the same data like HR monitoring or built-in GPS and other different types of workout recordings these can be found on the garmin vivoactive and the fitbit search their name too but the thing is the fitness experience really seems to be more exciting and easier to analyze and digest with the other companies now granted there is the Microsoft health dashboard which you can access through your desktop or laptop and the information displayed on there seems much more valuable and easier to read but that's the thing it's not the same experience when you're on the phone but besides the fitness experience providing good numbers but not so great visuals and charts the Smart Watch side of things are limited to Microsoft is very much limited on the apps and the customization options in addition you can't store music on the band like smartwatches and for the most part you can't read an entire message or email like on a SmartWatch either the band only shows the first few words in any message or email in the end the Microsoft band 2 does some things really great though I do admit that but for the consumer experience I don't believe it's really there this will very much be a niche product and not for the average consumer not going mainstream that is so hope this review helped it in some way if you do like my work please help support the channel by liking sharing and commenting below every little bit does help don't forget to add me on to Facebook Twitter or Instagram and again I'm Jimmy wouldn't Jim's review room here help you make a purchase decision I'll see you guys on the next one take care bye