FitBit Flex Un-boxing: My New Activity/Sleep Monitor

Back in January I purchased a FitBit One which was then the top of the line item for the company. I had great success with it monitoring my daily steps/activity/sleep and when coupled with an app like My Fitness Pal where you can log food intake, additional activities and such it gave you a visual review of your day...how many steps you took (you got badges depending on the number of steps), caloric intake, caloric expenditure, how many calories you have left available, heck it even lets you track your water intake!

This was working all well and good until one day when I was changing to go swimming and I clipped the One on my swimsuit strap and forgot about it. These items were not water resistant so after nearly and hour, I realized that it was on my suit and I tried everything to get it operational again with no luck. I emailed FitBit customer support and they sent me a new one even though the damage was my fault. Unfortunately, the new One was defective and wouldn't charge so again I contacted customer support and they sent another one and told me (I had asked) that the Flex would be shipping out in about a month for those that pre-ordered. Well, that made me give the new One to my husband who doesn't like anything on his wrist so he wouldn't deal well with a Flex. So far he has had no problems with it. However it took a little over a month an a half for me to get my Flex.

My FB Flex finally came in yesterday. This is just going to be an un-boxing post but I'll provide some answers if possible in a follow up post after using the product a few weeks.

Fit Bit Flex in the box. Current price $99.95 on Fit Bit's website.

Contents: Small and Large wristband, Fit Bit tracker
(small rectangular item on left),wireless USB dongle,
booklet telling which website to go to for setting up
an online account and finally a USB charging cable.

So there's really not much to mess with or lose with this item. The dongle stays in a USB  port on your computer and when the Flex is within 20 feet of the dongle it'll automatically update the info in your account with your activity since the last update.

The Fit Bit tracker itself fits into the back of the wristband and
simply slides in with the arrow (can't see on pic) going toward
a plastic window on the band. The window is visible on the
picture above on the small band.

The tracker once it is seated completely in the wristband.

The closure for the band can be a PIA. The two connectors
(near top of pic) tend to be loose because they can be taken out
and used on a different band. This is one item that can
potentially be lost.

From the box there are currently limited phones that the Flex can sync with: iPhone 4S & 5, iPad 3rd generation, Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (my phone) and select other Android devices which can be found at http://www.fitbit.com/devices.

On a computer it is sync compatible with Windows SP, Windows 8 and Mac OS 10.5+.

One neat thig about this is that you can also not only track your activity, but also your sleep. That could also be done with the One but I don't know about the older models. There are LED lights that give you an indication of how your activity is going (there a 5 lights with each representing 20% of your goal). And the syncing automatically is a lifesaver for time, couple that with a range on online apps that this unit is compatible with and you should be able to track you daily progress. While you can't keep a food diary on the Flex itself, using one of the apps will forward the information to the Fit Bit Dashboard (your account) and it will use that information to update calories in, calories out and how many calories are left for the day. Also, on the Dashboard you'll be able to adjust your goals as needed. Lastly the unit is supposed to be water resistant not waterproof meaning that it can be worn in the shower or in the rain.

So, that's the unboxing of the Fit Bit Flex. I'll test it out for a couple of weeks and report back with a full product review.