Microsoft Band: 10 Sensors Into A Discreet Package

There are tons of smart watches and dedicated fitness bands. The Microsoft Band aspires to be the outstanding of both: a "smart fitness band". It includes everything from heart rate sensor, accelerometer, gyrometer, GPS, ambient light sensor, skin temperature sensor, UV sensor, capacitive sensor, galvanic skin response sensor, microphone, standalone GPS and smartphone notification.

The Microsoft Band is the first hardware iteration of Microsoft Health, an ambitious and cross-platform attempt to centralize and utilize the entire world’s fitness data to give users personalised fitness advice based on their Band's data. The best thing about Microsoft band is that it is compatible with every Windows, Android and IOS device. But as for now it’s only available in USA.

But even after having tons of fascinating features, does it succeed?

PROS

• Works on iOS, Android and Windows Phone
• Lots of data, thanks to a raft of sensors
• App has a clean design and shows promise
• built-in GPS for runs
• Connects to Cortana on Windows Phone
• Guided workouts are extremely helpful
• Good Battery life (compare to other fitness band)
• Lots of sensor

CONS

• Hardware is uncomfortable and poorly designed
• Microsoft Health is mostly promise
• Does too many things, few of them poorly
• Bluetooth syncing and pairing can be buggy

Design

The Microsoft Band is in odd shape — a sort of semi-rigid rectangle plastic body with curved sides. On the top is a flat and rigid 0.43 x 1.30-inch display with a power button and the action button on one side. To secure the band around user’s wrist, there is a clever adjustable clasp slide mechanism.

The display of Microsoft Band is totally adequate for viewing information even in sunlight, but its dull compared to the beautiful AMOLED screen on Samsung's Gear Fit. Also it is sweat, water, dust and splash-resistant, but it's not IP67-certified like the Gear Fit is, so it’s better to avoid accidentally dropping the Band into a puddle.

The UI of Microsoft Band is basically a swipeable stack of tiles (13 tiles at a time) that look like simpler versions of the ones you'll find on Windows Phone. In addition to dedicated tiles for email, texts, Facebook and Twitter notifications, there are also a series of activity-based tiles for workouts, running and sleep tracking.

Also user can manage tiles function’s and there order, to choose the tiles they want to show up on high priority bases like— Facebook, Twitter and Starbucks — and the order in which they appear. Even user can pick the colour of their Band's display and favourite wallpaper. These options may seem trivial, but even this small thing makes a big difference.

Microsoft Health App

The companion Microsoft Health standard fitness app with a clean, minimalist UI syncs with the Band to record all users’ fitness data. The app uses a card like interface showing steps, calories and exercise at the top of the home screen. Tapping on each of these options unfurls more details about your activity in bite-size numbers and in graphs.

The Health app isn't just an app, though. It's designed to be a cross-platform cloud service that user can use to track fitness metrics from both the Band and third-party apps like RunKeeper, MyFitnessPal, Gold's Gym, Shape Magazine and others. Microsoft is banking on Health to be the service everyone uses to track fitness — that way, the company can have access to a plethora of fitness data from many types of people.

Using this data, Microsoft wants to be able to give individual users advice on how to improve their fitness through the Band like a user can select specific exercise programs to download just in a second with a single tap to their Band for free, and do them at home or at the gym.

The Band guides users through the workout with its display. Once they begin the routine, the Band will count down each rep as they do it. In between sets are a few seconds of rest, during which time the display shows user what they'll be doing next.

Cortana: Voice Commands assistant

Windows Phone users have an extra perk: Cortana integration in the Microsoft Band. As long as the smartphone is on and nearby, you can speak to the Band as you would the Windows Phone assistant on the handset, telling it to set reminders, check the weather, take notes and more.

But unfortunately, user’s also can't answer any Band notifications via Cortana on the band itself; they still have to use their Windows Phone to do that. we appreciated the Cortana integration overall — it certainly makes checking the weather or asking Bing who won last night's cricket game easier, but it's still limited.

Battery Life

Speaking of only reasons not to wear the Microsoft Band it all the time: the Band’s battery needs to last longer, Where as Microsoft claims that the Band's "two 100-mAh" batteries can get two days on a single charge(But only when users doesn’t use GPS all the time).

However we get full 2 days backup including two full workouts at the gym and with the screen nearly always ON, on single charge.

Bottom Line

With a beautiful and simple touch interface, the Microsoft Band accurately tracks steps, heart rate and calories, and its guided workouts really leave no excuse for missing an exercise session. At approx $200 (in USA), this tracker uses all of its 10 sensors to the fullest, to constantly give users real-time fitness readings, during both rest and activity. we especially appreciated having GPS on board to better track users runs, as this feature is usually reserved for pricier fitness devices.

Last but not least, the Band's smartphone notifications let everyone's leave smartphone in their pocket or in there bag, without the fear of missing an important alert. While we do wish that voice integration weren't limited to only Windows' Cortana, but we understand that Microsoft has to keep some features exclusive to its own platform.