Time’s up as Jawbone UP3 fitness tracker falls short

We loved the UP in 2013 but fast forward two years and Jawbone really needs to deliver on the hardware.

When Jawbone marketed its first UP fitness tracker in 2011, it was a calamity. Dodgy capacitors triggered a recall as angry customers vented their rage. Jawbone refunded customers, no questions asked, and when a replacement UP came out in 2013, users were willing to forgive and forget.

We loved the UP in 2013. It didn’t display activity data on the band, but delivered up to 10 days battery life. At $149.99, the original UP sported a hefty price tag, but back then you could get away with that.

Fast forward two years and it looks like time may be up for UP. The wearable market may be exploding all around it but the latest model of the fitness tracker, UP3, looks stuck to the track. There is some new functionality but nothing exciting to write home about.

The UP3 has been a long time coming. Announced in November last year, the US release was delayed until this year, and it will be available in Australia sometime this winter. Neither UP2 nor UP3, which has a unique heart monitor, display data on your wrist. To view steps and other activity metrics, you pull out your phone and fire up the UP app. That may have been cool in 2013, but nowadays we’re used to real time wrist analytics.

I also have issues with the new design. You could whip the old UP around your wrist in a second. It came in three sizes but it didn’t matter if it was loose on your skin. UP2 and UP3 have thinner adjustable bands with sensors on the back that must firmly contact your skin. There’s a clasping mechanism to ensure it does, but it’s fiddly. You thread one end of the band through an eyelet and hook it on to an adjustable clasp while keeping the band tight. This still takes me a few seconds even after considerable practice.

On the original UP, you’d press a button to change from activity to sleep mode. UP3 requires two short taps followed by a long tap to make this happen. Not so sleek.

There’s a third mode on UP3 — stopwatch mode for tracking steps over a specific time. To activate it, you select stopwatch in the smartphone app and trigger it on the UP3 by tapping the screen. That means fiddling with two devices. An old-fashioned stopwatch is easier to use than that.

While activity watches such as Garmin’s Vivoactive are waterproof and even include swimming apps, Jawbone’s UP3 is rated water-resistant. In theory, you can wear it in the shower, but I’m not so sure I’d risk it after my experience with the supposedly shower-resistant UP24. I went through several UP24s that got wet and I wasn’t keen for a repeat with the UP3.

The big development with UP3 is its unique heart rate monitor. Most consumer devices use an optical sensor that detects blood flow and capillary size but the UP3 uses what Jawbone calls “bioimpedance”. It measures the resistance of body tissue to tiny electric current. It doesn’t offer you an exercise heart rate, just a single resting heart rate in the morning so you will know if you are affected by factors such as stress, diet and mood. Jawbone says future software upgrades will allow bioimpedance sensors to measure respiration rate and galvanic skin response.

UP3 doesn’t explicitly let you start exercise sessions, but it knows when you’re seriously exercising based on changes in your activity level. I went for a long walk to test this out. After returning home, it asked me whether I had been exercising and, if so, in what way. I responded with “walking” so a 74-minute walk was added to today’s activity stats.

UP3 lets you set a smart alarm, idle and activity alerts, and reminders which are delivered by a buzz on the wrist.

Jawbone’s presentation of activity and sleep data remains excellent and with UP3, sleep is further broken down into REM, light and deep sleep categories. The UP app’s smart coach does an admirable job of interpreting this data and spurring you along.

The company also collects data from wristbands anonymously to produce some mind-blowing broad-brush statistics. UP users on average spent 112 days a year in bed asleep and just eight days awake and active, and two days with a logged workout. Depressing statistics, but they do highlight the UP app’s ability to deliver comprehensive activity data analysis.

The app is established to the point that other manufacturers are integrating it into their smart devices. US firm Big Ass Fans even has a smart ceiling fan that will change speed based on the sleeping behaviour of an UP wearer beneath it.

Yet the fact the UP3 still doesn’t display your activity data in real time, isn’t waterproof and, for that matter, doesn’t have a GPS means you don’t get a lot for $249.99.

I liked the UP a lot in 2013 and software-wise the app remains excellent. It’s on the hardware front where Jawbone really needs to deliver or risk falling behind.

UP2 is available now. UP3 will be available some time in winter.

Price: $249.99 (UP3), $149 (UP2)
Rating: 6/10 (UP3)