Keep UP the Good Work

Jawbone's UP2 will make sure you fit your goals

Jawbone just keeps churning out fitness trackers that fit anyone and everyone. This week, we couldn't have a more "fitting" tracker from Jawbone - the UP2 - especially since you can adjust the band to your wrist size, which is unlike the ones we've rev-iewed here before. Basically, there's no need to size it up at the store, but you do need to latch it up pretty tight because it has the tendency to fall off your wrist.

The main interface is on top of this gizmo: a touch panel where three LEDs are neatly hidden within its design. The three lights indicate specific stuff: the orange light shaped like a man means you're in active mode (awake), the blue crescent moon ?is sleep mode and the white message bubble acts as a reminder of things such as when you need to cease being a couch potato (like an idle alarm) or when it's time to give up on that video game in the middle of the night.
And if you need fitness coaching, there's Smart Coach that can inspire you to get to your goals.
The trick here is that you need to double-tap the panel to activate it, and then hold it to switch modes. However, it may take a while for you to get the hang of it as it is a bit inconsistent; you have to time your tapping and holding, and sadly, there is no specific rule on how fast you should tap or how hard you should hold. My advice: as soon as the light flashes as you (most probably more-than-double) tap, hold it immediately.
Battery life is listed at up to seven days. That's a big discrepancy compared to the last Jawbone we reviewed, the UP24, which boasted 14 days of power (provided you updated the firmware). And the charger - before a 2.5mm headphone jack - has been replaced by a magnetic attach-ment that snaps onto the area under the LEDs. This means the UP2 will be left hanging when you charge it from your laptop or PC.
Of course, it won't be complete without the UP app. Nothing really new here; you still get to see how many steps you've made, how much sleep you've had, the nutrients you got from what you've eaten and a host of other custo-misable stuff, like challenges and goals to improve your activity. Again, you can also see how you're faring against other UP users on ?your team. And yes, you can challenge others to a duel, so keep moving!
AND SO.
The design is great, and provided you're fine with a bit of a struggle with the touch panel, the Jawbone UP2 is a cleanly designed band with one of the better tracking technologies out there. And hey, it really does no harm to have something to remind you not to be a slouch.
 
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alvin@khaleejtimes.com 

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