A review of the Jawbone Up24 fitness tracker

There have been some mixed opinions about various fitness trackers here at the offices but Jawbone seems to have maintained a stable position on the top with their Jawbone Up24 wrist-worn tracker, which inspired the need of running a review.

Originally we were going to pit it against the Fitbit in a side-by-side comparison but we never managed to get our hands on one, nor did any of our cohorts pick one up for personal purposes. So the Jawbone Up24, at the moment, is bathing in the spotlight of attention. A spotlight doesn’t always mean a good thing though. Thankfully for Jawbone, positivity flows all through that light.

It may be a good thing for Fitbit that we didn’t run the comparison as although the Fitbit appears to be a formidable opponent, it did get recalled over skin irritation troubles in some consumers (Jawbone doesn’t have this problem).

The Jawbone Up24 is a write-worn fitness tracker that keeps an eye on all your vitals other data while you go about your day as well as your sleep patterns.  It supports wireless synchronization of data via Bluetooth with any iOS or Android device, allowing you to view all your stats whenever you like. Pretty common with today’s trackers.

We have never experienced any hiccups in the wireless sync and the data seems to maintain a pretty accurate analysis of your day.

The outer exterior features a rubber enclosure that fits and feels nicely around the wrist and doesn’t cause any comfort fatigue after long hours of wearing it. It is water (splash) resistant and although they say not to submerge it in water, it does survive a nice shower just fine. It slips nicely onto the wrist (just don’t “over-“bend it too much), and doesn’t give the feeling that it could fall off in your activities.

It also comes in 6 different colors to choose from when buying one (the rubber exteriors cannot be swapped out, so the color you get is the color you stick with).

It features two small LED lights to help share with you what mode it is in. There is a button at one of the ends to maneuver around these modes with. On the other end is a 3.5mm (1/8″) jack for charging the device with.

The app that it comes with (for both iOS and Android devices), allows you to not only view the information it collects, but you can also interact by including additional data such as meals you enjoyed during the day (for tracking calories). You can even scan the barcodes of the products you consume to add their data to the app.

It monitors your sleep patterns pretty well and can help you better understand your overnight adventures. You can view your stats and determine how long you slept, the various stages of sleep you visited, the number of times you awoke, and how long those moments lasted. It breaks it down into charts and can sometimes be a lot of fun to look at. Now if only it could communicate with your mind while you sleep to help guide you onto a better, more sound path of rest. It even features the ability to set silent alarms that use vibrations to calmly wake you.

Thankfully, the tracker does not feel uncomfortable while sleeping. This is a major plus since no one wants their sleep to be interrupted by the uncomfortable dealings of a sloppy band on their wrist that is supposed to help them better their sleeping patterns, to begin with.

There are plenty of other features within the app that allow you to explore around and getter a better feel for where you sit fitness-wise and help guide you towards improving yourself further.

One thing to point out is that there is no LCD display anywhere on the band. It is a band, simple as that. You don’t get to review your information until you connect it with your phone. For some, this may be a problem, and here at Poc Network, we have had mixed feelings about this. With smart gadgets getting, well, smarter…we tend to expect to see a screen on just about everything now. Then again, the price may jump up if this were to happen (like the new Microsoft Band, which we plan [with high expectations]to review soon as well).

Our Conclusion

The Jawbone Up24 is a solid fitness tracker with many features and stats that make sense. The app is user friendly and filled with additional features. The lack of a screen for instant notification of stats is a disadvantage but as long as you find one at a low enough price, it should make up for it nicely as the tracker is both durable and reliable. We decided to go with 7/10 stars. It would fetch a higher score with a better price, but overall it’s a solid purchase.

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Have a Jawbone Up24? Share your thoughts below in the comments section. We would be happy to hear from your experiences as well.

Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.