Gadgetory

every mile every calorie every rep when you're working hard it all counts and everything has to be accurate I'm happy that I would pocket now and this is PocketNow fitness by now Fitbit has reached so much popularity in the fitness tracking business that almost all your comments last week asked for a Fitbit to be next for episode 2 of PocketNow fitness there is nothing we love most and to address your requests and we were lucky that AT&T sent us a review unit of the Fitbit surge a few weeks ago even though Fitbit is famous for its fitness trackers the vivid surge is far more than just your average step counter to start this is probably one of the best unboxing experiences ever not just for the high quality presentation of the surge the high quality plastic and the materials in the packaging but because of the inspirational words you read when you unwrap the box it's right then that you understand that this product was designed for fitness nuts in mind it's unconventional design even though rugged is actually rather cool and the fit and finish of the materials clearly demonstrate much attention to detail the search is actually lighter than it seems once you put it on something essential for a product design for hardcore training just keep in mind that even though this device is sweat rain and splash proof it isn't swim proof so you can't really use it for everything you also can't replace any of the components of the watch which is definitely unfortunate but you'll be happy to know that users who have complained about the wear and tear issues have to receive the free replacement unit after contacting Fitbit customer service which is a good solution now to understand many of the design choices of this product you have to be clear who it's trying to compete with Fitbit calls this the ultimate fitness super watch and as such it's not trying to compete against Android wear or the Apple watch but instead against higher players like Garmin and polar as a result the bevy of sensors included and the user interface were all designed around the needs of a fitness nut this is one of the few if not the only Fitness watch that I've seen that actually tracks your heartrate 24/7 for example oh so their products do so every 10 minutes or when you tell it that you're training but the Fitbit surge is a true heart rate monitor that works all day and that can do so for up to a week with a single battery charge and also what makes it stand out from other fit bits is that it includes GPS tracking for cycling and running but it also shines is one of the few fitness watches that provides 10 hours of battery life while on GPS where your average Garmin will only give you around five hours or so and yes you also have the other regulars like an accelerometer gyro altimeter and even cooler you can always run without your phone and just sync your run information later probably my only complaint with the hardware is that the display isn't the brightest in the world then that the ambient light sensor is sometimes too aggressive at them in the display you also get some SmartWatch capabilities like receiving SMS and phone call alerts but don't call it a SmartWatch as it's extremely archaic and even though you have music controls for example please don't work with third-party applications and there's really no memory available for syncing music to the watch or the option for pairing a Bluetooth headset to leave the phone at home as well so now that we're clear that this is just the very powerful Fitness watch let's just say that you're gonna love it for what it can do my good friend shadi Adel Wahb is not only an award-winning professional body builder and personal trainer but has also chosen the Fitbit surge a surf fitness watch for a reason weight training in the surge is just pure delight you can set the Fitbit surge for weight training if you want but given its permanent heart rate tracking it'll still detect that you're active even if you didn't activate the mode ones using it it doesn't matter if you're doing intense pull-ups petros or just about any of the most demanding reps on your set you'll seriously forget that you're wearing the surge which is extremely important shadi has daily routines are intense and we both agree that the surge is far more comfortable than wearing your average chest strap for calorie calculations just keep in mind that the results from the optical sensor on the Fitbit surge won't be as accurate as your average chest strap but it does compensate for the fact that you're actually tracking your heartrate the whole day not just when you're training and using the chest strap just like with weight training you can also use the Fitbit surge for pretty much almost every other category of workout you could think of just by sending it through the watch's interphase or in the application one of my most delightful experiences was using the Fitbit surge while running if you're on the road with a surge it's incredibly quick and catching on GPS signal the pedometer calculation is also very accurate at giving your average pace which is very important I also found the search to be a convenient product for spinning or even outdoor cycling thanks to the built-in GPS again my only complaint with its accuracy has to do with the calories burned and especially when compared to the results of my Polar h7t chest strap where I did notice differences of up to 100 calories in each workout and that week-long battery life is not just something you'll read on paper we've been testing the search for weeks now and yes it will last for a full week and yes it will be as a power efficient when using the GPS but think of the fact that you can also use the Fitbit for sleeping and that's actually one of the things that the service pioneered years ago consolidating all the data provided by the watch is where things might get mixed for some of you Fitbit offers one of the most complete fitness applications in the business and it's one of the few that actually supports all major smartphone and computer platforms if you own more than one Fitbit tracker like I do you have the advantage of tracking your steps with a flex during the day for example and then using the surge when you workout which is rather convenient it's nearly the perfect application with the options to track your diet water consumption and even providing you with challenges that you can use to invite your friends - my biggest complaint with the software have mainly to do with how little you can do with the surge and adding more information all these challenges like sleep tracking options and by adoptions are cool but you can't really control any of that from the surge forcing you to use the application fairly often and then my most important complaint is that this is probably one of the biggest walled gardens in history but it really wants you invested in their products so much so that you can't really sync your data with Google fit or Apple's health services and fit that it's clear on not planning to support them either again it's not that these services are bad on the contrary they're really really good but just be warned that once you buy into this ecosystem you're here to stay overall oh shah d and i agree that even though this Fitness watch isn't perfect in things like heart rate readings it's definitely one of the most unique and complete products in its category at $250 the search matches an average price for most garments and polar's but you'll struggle to find any of these at this price that are able to match the benefits of both watch brands in just one product as the Fitbit search does the minute you unbox the surge and read the motivational phrase you'll understand that this product was designed as a very powerful tool for people who take fitness seriously and from our experience we do recommend it folks this is episode 2 of PocketNow fitness and we intend to bring many more of these so be sure to suggest more products in the comments down below and while you're at it make sure you also follow us on social media news from tire YouTube channel as well you can follow me on Twitter hi managers quarterly letter on instagram at hi meri behna you can also follow shah dia at as the underscore fitness at instagram please give this video a thumbs up if you like what you saw I am Haman Ravana thank you very much for watching we'll see you on the next one