New Activity tracker suggestion for replacing Bodymedia

Hello,

For the past 2 - 2.5 years, I have been tracking my steps, sleep, and calories using Body media. However, since Jawbone bought it, it’s service has been going down in terms of support. Not to mention, it not the most comfortable device to wear.

I was looking to replace it with another device which can track all the things plus your heart rate.

Can anyone make any suggestions what device should I buy next? I was considering basis carbon steel edition. Essentially, I am looking for something which will give me the most amount of data with higher accuracy. I’m willing to pay a little extra for that.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

What is most important to you? Steps, sleep, or calories? Each of these devices and vendors differ (sometimes widely) in these areas.

The Basis is a nice choice (bear in mind the B2 may be coming soon…) but you are paying a large premium for extra features, like heart rate monitoring for instance.

Of all the options listed, only the Basis tracks heart rate (the Samsung and Withings just do one-off measurements). However, many people complain about the heart rate not being accurate when moving, so that data might be less useful than BodyMedia’s calories burned. Also, while there are some hacks to get data out of the Basis, only Fitbit, Jawbone/BodyMedia and Withings currently have an open API.

I’d expect Fitbit and Jawbone to come out with new products in time for the holiday shopping season…

@himynamesdave

To me, I want as much data as possible with high est accuracy. Beign a data scientist myself, I’d like to know what can I learn from all the data mined. I’m willing to pay extra for the accuracy and wealth of info.

@ejain

So you suggest I should just wait till the year end for better devices?

I was considering the withings pulse because I really like the withings interface/eco system. I already have their scale and blood pressure monitor.

Don’t know if there will be better devices (or just more colors to chose from), but I’d wait.

I have a Withings Pulse, too, but don’t find the step counts as useful as BodyMedia’s calories burned estimate, and the sleep tracking is much more tedious (Fitbit has the same issues).

I have been using the Misfit Shine for almost a year now and it’s been great. However, the biggest problem is getting data off of it (as they don’t have an API). They have now integrated with services like MyFitnessPal and LoseIt! but I don’t use those so I haven’t found much value in them.

If you are looking for something with a little bit more versatility (meaning it doesn’t always have to be on your wrist) and you don’t mind manually entering data into a spreadsheet every so often, I’d recommend it.

Additionally, another sleek option you might want to look into is the Withings Activite. It’s very nice looking, and since it’s from withings I would assume you can also use their current API to get access.