My Week with the Microsoft Band.

The Band while marketed as a smart watch is no comparison to the Apple Watch or even Android wear but you know what? It's better. The Microsoft Band is the perfect fitness based device with enough features to make it useful enough to wear everyday. Additionally, while not the prettiest device on the market it's appearance as a band is what really attracted me to it. It doesn't have a large face and does not look at all like a watch. This means I can wear the band on my right wrist and still wear a normal watch on my left without looking like a complete tool box. 

Setup was easy and the Microsoft Band works on all platforms. My platform of choice is iOS so I simply downloaded the Microsoft Health App, synced the band via Bluetooth, and the setup process was done. The Band was tracking my steps, my heart rate and it was giving me basic notifications. That's all I really want - basic notifications. I want to look at my wrist and see if an email requires my immediate attention or if it can wait. I don't need to place calls from my wrist, or use it as a calculator. That's why I have a smartphone. 

Another big selling feature for me was the fact that this band has GPS. I can go for a run, or a bike and the band will track my route, and distance. I can then go back and compare speeds etc. to previous runs or rides.

The screen is a good quality, the build quality seems good, and for the most part battery life is good. Microsoft says two days battery life - that's ideal. If you used GPS it's closed to one day. That being said I charge my band 20 minutes a day while I'm in the shower and have had no problems. You just need to get into a charging routine and you can wear it all the time. For the price this was a fantastic purchase and I highly recommend it to everybody.   

Until next time I hope you found your time on this site to be time (and bandwidth) well wasted.