Fitbit Flex 2 review: Waterproofed at last

Fitbit was one of the early pioneers in the fitness-tracker gold rush, but one thing it never managed to crack was waterproofing. That all changes with the Fitbit Flex 2, a fitness tracker that not only lets you wear it in the shower, but also in the pool.

This, for me, is an exciting development. The current state of my knees means I can’t run or cycle much, so I’m swimming quite a bit to keep my fitness up. But I still want a rounded fitness tracker so when I do get back to land-based fitness activities, I don’t have to swap to something new.

The Flex 2 delivers precisely the rounded set of capabilities I need. It’s not only waterproof, but it can also track the number of lengths you’ve swum, and that’s in addition to all the usual fitness-tracking metrics. It will track your steps and sleep, your walks, runs, bike rides, gym sessions and more.[gallery:0]

Plus, as with most fitness trackers, the Flex 2 will estimate calories burned based on your age, height and sex; it will provide an educated guess at the distance you’ve walked or run; and it will also help you track the food you eat and your water intake.

The great thing about the Flex 2, though, is that thanks to Fitbit’s SmartTrack tech, it keeps tabs on everything on this list (aside from your food intake) completely automatically. The only catch is that you have to have been indulging in that activity for at least 15 minutes before the Flex 2 will log it as such. It’s possible to change this to recognise shorter bursts of activity, but ten minutes is your minimum.

Fitbit Flex 2 review: Design and comfort

The design of the Flex 2 is similar to the previous version, but it’s more practical this time around. The tracker itself is a tiny plastic lozenge, adorned with five status LEDs used to indicate charge status and notifications. It has a vibrating motor inside to remind you to get up and move about, wake you up silently in the morning and notify you of incoming text messages and phone calls. You can even get it to buzz when a WhatsApp message arrives, although this is instead of rather than in addition to SMS alerts.

The basic Fitbit Flex 2 I was sent to review comes with a plastic wrist strap in a variety of different colours, and it’s comfortable to wear. It feels far more robust than the old Fitbit Flex, and the clasp engages firmly and securely. I can’t see this falling off by accident.[gallery:1]

The plastic strap, however, is just the beginning for the Flex 2. Fitbit is marketing the tracker at the fashion-conscious user with a range of shiny bangles and pendants available to accessorise it with.

The prices for these accessories, however, take the breath away. These bangles and pendants are available in silver, gold and rose gold finishes and cost £70 or £80 each. Both the gold and rose gold bangle/pendant are plated in real, 22K gold, so they’re not quite as overpriced as they might appear, but I’m not so convinced about the value-for-money aspect of the “silver” version as that’s actually plain stainless steel.

I’m also not convinced as to the practicality of such baubles. Fitbit didn’t send any to us to test, but a quick visit to the company’s website is all it takes to discover that they might not be the ideal thing to mount the Flex 2 in. Indeed, Fitbit warns that you shouldn’t expose the bracelet or pendant to water or they might discolour, and that they could affect tracking accuracy because they’re worn loose. Even more specifically, the company states that you’ll lose the automatic SmartTrack facility altogether if you wear the Fitbit 2 in a pendant.

Given the fuss Fitbit made about these new fashion-conscious accessories when it launched the Flex 2, these admissions are somewhat surprising, and I wonder why it didn’t simply concentrate on making the standard wristbands more attractive to look at. 

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Fitbit Flex 2: App and performance

Impractical jewellery aside, the Fitbit Flex 2’s apps are the usual picture of efficient accessibility. Available for both iOS and Android smartphones, the app is where everything happens; the dashboard where all the data the Flex 2 spits out is consumed and its settings changed.

The Fitbit Flex 2 syncs wirelessly with your phone, and once all the data is transferred it’s displayed in a vertically scrolling list. You tap an entry to view that statistic in more detail, and the app provides weekly, monthly and yearly totals in the form of bald numbers and graphs. You can even view your activity broken down by hour.[gallery:3]

Fitbit has updated the app in a couple of key areas. The Challenges section of the app now features an Adventures section. This is designed to incentivise you to hit your step targets by taking you on virtual hikes at beauty spots around the world, revealing photographs of your virtual walk along the way, plus interesting nuggets of information.

To begin with, the destinations available are a little on the limited side. You can walk various sections of the New York Marathon course and hike virtually around Yosemite National Park, and that’s about it. It’s an interesting – and surprisingly engaging – way of spicing up the humdrum business of hitting your daily step targets, but it needs more content before I’d consider this anything more than a side issue.

As you might expect, the other big new feature – swim tracking – is tracked in much the same way as running or walking or any other activity. Swims are listed on your dashboard as activities, and although the software can’t distinguish between different strokes or tell you your stroke rate as the Moov Now and (to a lesser extent) the TomTom Spark range can, it counts lengths accurately. In one of my test swims, it was even able to recognise a ten-minute break in the middle, picking up all the lengths I’d swum both before and after. That’s impressive

The only annoyance here is that you have to know you need to edit the length of the pool beforehand. I assumed that the app would ask after the swim, as with most other swim trackers I’ve used, but no — you need to do it before you get in the water, and the setting is buried away in the general device settings of all places. Now, for most swimmers, this won’t be a big problem, as they’ll swim in one pool of one size regularly and will rarely need to change this setting. However, on those rare occasions you do swim in a different-sized pool, it’s unlikely you’ll remember what to do. Despite appearances, the app won’t let you edit the pool length after the fact.

Battery life is good, though. I found a single charge was enough to get me through almost a week’s worth of tracking, keeping charging sessions to a minimum. I have a slightly less charitable opinion of Fitbit’s continuing love affair with the proprietary charger, however. The Flex 2’s is exclusively for use with this tracker, so if you lose it, you’ll have to buy a new one and they’re not cheap.

Fitbit Flex 2: Verdict

These small niggles aside, though, I like the Fitbit Flex 2. It works well, it’s waterproof, and it will track everything you need it too, including swimming, for a reasonable price. The only things missing are heart-rate monitoring and a barometric pressure sensor, which would allow it to count how many flights of steps you’ve climbed.[gallery:5]

Whether you should consider buying one depends on your attitude towards your fitness. If you’re serious about progressing and you have a specific goal in mind, the Flex 2 is probably not the tracker for you. At this sort of price, the Moov Now offers active coaching via its app, tracks swimming more accurately, and its coin-cell battery gives you months rather than days of stamina. And for those who don’t swim, there’s the Jawbone UP3, which adds heart-rate monitoring to the mix for significantly less.

However, for those starting out on the road to a healthier lifestyle, the Fitbit Flex 2 is ideal. The app is easy to use and presents a useful, digestible amount of data. It isn’t much more expensive than its rivals, and once you’ve set it up you don’t have to touch it again except to charge it. A worthy addition to the Fitbit range.