Wearables Wednesday: the Jawbone UP3 lifestyle tracker
It’s Wearables Wednesday, and it’s time to take a brief look at one of the latest and most popular wearables, the Jawbone UP3. Jawbone has had a successful line of products in its UP lineup for some time now, and thankfully the latest model is no exception. For anyone that doesn’t yet feel like they’re ready for a smartwatch (or just feels they’re too geeky), a wristband is a great alternative if you’re still keen to monitor your activity throughout the day.
Lifestyle tracking with the Jawbone UP3
The UP3 packs in lots of sensors into its rather nicely designed case, and also offers a companion smartphone app, allowing the wearer to dig deeper into the statistics as necessary. In terms of the UP3’s design, it’s hard to find any faults – it’s the latest in a long line of wearables aiming to deliver the perfect and unobtrusive wrist-worn product. The UP3 is decidedly slim, so much so that it’s comfortable to wear around the clock, even while sleeping.
The UP also has a basic yet effective display – there are just a couple of icons – a running man, a message icon, and a blue moon. Tapping on the screen twice wakes up the UP, whilst pressing for longer changes between each of the modes. But to really make use of the device, you have to use the app, which seems to work flawlessly over Bluetooth.
The UP3 though might be a little misunderstood – it’s not a sports activity tracker per se, but more of a lifestyle monitor – heart rate for example is only measured when you’re asleep or resting. It’s also not waterproof (though it is splash-proof) and it’s not possible to check your activity on the UP itself.
But the best part about the UP3 is that you can pretty much forget about it, and its five day battery life means that you can also wear it all week without taking it off to charge.
The UP app
The Jawbone UP3 depends largely on the UP app for displaying the data it collects. It also learns from your day-to-day activities, suggest step targets, and also provides various tips such as how much sleep you should aim for. Motivation is also given top priority – stats are presented at the top, with more details available if you drill down, as well as trends and coaching tips.
It’s suggestions do in fact seem to be quite useful, as the UP3 and the app work together to encourage you to hit them. For example, there are smart alarms that wake you during the most suitable sleep phase. The app also gives you a few useful bits of information on the benefits of sleep and movement.
There’s even a food logging feature that will suggest meals. If you’re into a complete, comprehensive and integrated approach to lifestyle and fitness monitoring, the UP is an extremely useful gadget and the whole user experience is well thought out…
As such, we can heartily recommend the UP3 as one of the essential wearable gadgets available at the moment. It’s also available for a snip at just £119.99 from Amazon.
