It is certainly the One!
I settled on the Fitbit One after reading extensive reviews of various fitness trackers. Unfortunately, the only tracker available directly in India is the Garmin Vivofit but I had to rule it out on account of not having an altimeter, besides being inexplicably expensive.
The closest alternative to this was the Jawbone Up24 and I would have settled on it but for the fact that it has been reported to break down too often. Return might be an easy option in the US, but definitely not when you are importing to India.
Coming to the One itself, the final price (post-offer) turned out to be less than 7.5k which is quite acceptable for something that costs about $100 in US. The service from Booyah Chicago was quite good, taking a total of 7 working days (11 calendar days) from the time of order to the arrival of the product at my doorstep.
One thing that I was focused on was accuracy and the Fitbit One is deemed to have the best accuracy among mainstream activity trackers. Going by my experience, it is largely true, but not entirely accurate as my bus commute seems to add up to my step count. However, all things considered, I have learnt to discount such variances and compare my activities across the days since I am competing with no one but myself.
I find the ability to discreetly track my activities quite satisfying and usually have the One clipped to my pocket and facing inwards to avoid losing it. The OLED display has good outdoor visibility and allows for quick tracking as opposed to having to refer to an app. Having said that, the syncing works great with my PC, iPad and Android phone, so there is never any worry about losing the data. Sleep tracking seems quite rudimentary and the additional hassle of wearing the band is certainly cumbersome.
On the whole, it is a great device to quantitatively track your activities and motivate yourself towards staying fit. Highly recommended.
Originally published on Amazon on 3rd October 2014.
