Jawbone UP3 review – Stay fit and fashionable

UP3™ is loaded with state-of-the-art sensors so you can take your health and fitness to the next level. This is the future of wearables.

Design and fit:

The design of the UP3 is one of style, it is fashionable but not too flashy which means you can easily wear this while in your corporate office wear or while in your fit bunny gym gear!

The flexible band makes it comfortable to wear and also makes it a one size fits “most” device (wrist sizes ranging 140mm–190mm)! Unlike the FitBit Surge I’ve previously worn, the UP3 doesn’t leave a rash on your arm, due to the textured rubber hypoallergenic TPU rubber strap. I have found however the strap picks up dirt and is difficult to clean properly. I haven’t had to wear the UP3 too tight, however I wear it more up my arm than on my wrist, I find it sits better this way.

The dimensions are 220 x 12.2 x 9.3mm and it weighs 29g – making it Jawbone’s smallest and lightest device.

Features:

There is a trio of lights on the top of the UP3, indicates the mode the UP3 is in: sleep (orange) or activity (blue) and a white LED for notifications from the UP app (I thought this was for if you got text messages similar to the Fitbit – whoops – sadly it is not.)

The UP3 boasts multiple sensors with the newly design Tri-axis accelerometer, it reads Heart rate, Respiration and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) – (hehe! Thought this meant gun shot residue…). Jawbone works on resting heart rate and passive heart rate monitoring rather than 24/7 heart rate monitoring.

The UP3 aims to keep you active by nudging you – using a vibration – when you’ve been idle for too long. You can set how long you want periods of inactivity to go unnoticed for in the app. Although some might find this a little annoying if you work at a desk job, good thing it is an optional extra..

The sleep function on the UP3 can be a little off, it rarely tracks time, when I needed to get up for a midnight wee, it would not record that I was up and moving around. Looking at the sleep section with the UP3 compared to the FitBit, I would have thought I would have more of a deep sleep since I sleep like a log.

The battery life of the UP3 is great! It’s lasts up to 7 days (as advertised!) and only takes about an hour to charge.

You can connect the UP3 via Bluetooth, it can take a while if you haven’t synced it up for a few days and if your phone goes to sleep while syncing, you have to resync it, which is a bit of a pain. 

The step tracker is fairly accurate – looks like I need to step up my game (pun intended) to reach my 10,000 steps per day goal.

The App:

The UP3 app is really easy to use, it shows your sleep tracker, step tracker and passive heart rate and you can also track your food intake for the day. 

The “Smart coach” on the app is good, while it doesn’t provide exercise tips based on your training, it does provide some good little tips.

It shows various modes of sleep, light, deep and REM however as I already said, im not sure how accurate this is.

The step counter is great it shows a graph of your steps so you can see when you were most active, it also provides you wil how many kms you have walked, how many calories you have burnt while active and resting and your longest active time and distance. It also shows a graph of your passive heartrate for that day and your RHR, normal range is between 60-100bmp.

Annoyances:

The only thing that annoys me is that it isnt a watch, after wearing the FitBit surge for so long, I’m always checking my wrist for the time! But I was aware of this when I got it J

The “clipping in” clasp can be a bit of a pain in the butt to put on alone, if you put it on slightly crooked it becomes jammed in and you have to start again. In the beginning it may take a few tries to get it right. I have found it to be fairly sturdy, it hasn’t fallen off (yet).

Times when I have clicked on the sleep section in the app to see what times I have slept, it has somehow added double the time? Which was a little annoying and the more I did it to try delete it, the more time it added!

The little charger can be a little fiddly to connect, its magnetic and if not put on the right way it doesn’t charge. The charger is also upside down so can be difficult to charge on a laptop.

The Jawbone UP3 was meant to be fully waterproof however due to come manufacturing issues it was been released as splash proof (however I’ve worn mine in the shower without issue – so far!)

What do you get in the box

·         UP3™ Band

·         Quick Start Guide

·         USB Charging Cable

Colour:

Black Twist

Ruby Cross

Silver Cross

Sand Twist

Teal Cross

Indigo Twist

Disclaimer: Jawbone provided me with a new UP3 for review. All opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced in any way.