I'm 110% on the wearables bandwagon, so when Christmas rolled around last year I knew a fitness tracker was next on my list.
I wanted to go with the device that screamed I AM A FITNESS DEVICE LOOK AT ME the least. Let's face it, 99% of the time I'm in business attire, which is mostly black, and wearing a neon green pedometer-looking device wouldn't cut it for me.
After doing some research on the look and function of fitness devices on the market, I settled on the Shine, made by
Misfit Wearables. The shine is gorgeous, looks like a piece of jewelry, and can be worn in a variety of ways (necklace, clip, wristband).
However, after just a few months with the Shine I'm giving up on it and going for a
Fitbit Flex. Why? Below are the pros and cons for how the Shine works with my life, and the cons outweigh the pros.
Pros:
Price
At $120 it's competitive with the other devices on the market.
Design
This is why I went for the Shine. It's a device I could definitely wear to business meetings, and have, without anyone knowing it's a fitness tracker unless I tell them. Crafted out of aircraft-grade aluminum, it's sleek and the lights on the device are not prominent (a good thing). It also comes in a variety of colors, from silver to gold, from turquoise to black. I selected gold to match most of my jewelry.
Ability to wear in different ways
The shine comes with a clip with a strong magnet, so you can essentially clip shine on your shirt, pants, shoe, etc. I opted also for the sport band (rubber or leather) to wear it like a watch. There's also a necklace option. So if I didn't want to wear the Shine like a watch and hide it somewhat, I could easily clip it to my waistband.
Waterproof
From what I had read, the Shine is the only fully waterproof fitness device...which is handy so I don't have to take it off while showering, washing dishes, etc.
Charging
The Shine runs on lithium cell batteries, so no charging needed and you can go a couple months before replacing batteries.
Cons:
If you've made it this far you may see a trend for the pros, which is look and feel. What did I miss? What was the BIG THING that I missed? The data. Ugh. That is a big thing for me. Let me explain...
No web portal
The Shine has an app for iOS and Android. The app will show you your fitness information and sleep tracking. There are social aspects in the app as well (which are really only fun if your friends are on there too...and no-one was).
What the Shine doesn't offer, which surprises me due to the many many requests on user forums, is any sort of web portal with enhanced information or the ability for data download.
Not enough data
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| Image: Misfit Wearables |
What you see above is essentially what you get. A daily timeline with active times and activities highlighted, a weekly view, and the ability to set goals. What's missing from the screenshot above is the social aspect which is essentially a feed such as "User1234 hit their 600 point goal today - way to rock it!"
Inability to sync with major health tracking portals
This is what sealed the deal for me to move away from Shine and to Fitbit. The Fitbit can sync to health tracking portals such as
SparkPeople.com which the Shine cannot do although users are also requesting it.
All in all...
The Shine is a lovely device that for me is more style than substance. I'm the first to admit I'm not the standard user being a major data geek and life tracker. From what I've heard (again doing research!) the Fitbit will give me more of what I need with the data, even if I have to sacrifice some style.
