First impressions of the Microsoft Band

A few weeks ago Microsoft surprised us with the announcement of the of the Microsoft Band and Microsoft HeathVault services. The Microsoft Band isn’t really a Smart Watch in the style of the yet to be released Apple Watch or even in the style of Android Wear, it is more of a hybrid Fitness device and notifications device.

First I have to say I am more interested in the band for notifications than I am the work out plans, I would rather go for a long walk than a run or gym session but having said that who doesn’t want to be more healthy.

The device doesn’t look like a watch, it’s a band with a 2 inch display and the word I would use to describe it is “chunky”. The display and bezel around the screen are plastic and bezel seems to pick up scratches very easily (you do a get a screen protector included but I hate them). The band has a rubber coating with an adjustable clasp, it is very solid and has a nice subtle Windows logo on it. There are two buttons on the band, one for waking the device up and the other is an action button and it has a touch screen with tiles, more on that later. As I said it is chunky and does feel a little uncomfortable to wear initially but over the last couple of days I have got used to it wearing it, I like chunky watches so this device isn’t a problem for me.

The display is horizontal (320×106) so for me it actually works better with the display underneath my wrist rather than the normal way you wear a watch.

The Band isn’t a standalone device, it pairs with a smartphone and it’s a combination of the two devices that make the band work. There are companion apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone which all give you more or less the same features (iOS doesn’t have canned text message responses and Windows Phone has Cortana). I paired it up with my Windows Phone Lumia 1520.

Before you can start using it you need to charge it and it comes with a USB cable which has a magnetic clamp on the Band end, it is a little like the Surface connector. Once charged you pair it with your phone over Bluetooth and on then on the phone via the Microsoft Band app you enter person details (like height and weight) and link it with your Microsoft account. The app enables you to manage your Band, you can configure the apps and retrieve data from the device.

The band has a touch screen display that you can swipe to switch between apps on the tiled UI. The app available on the Band are:

• Messaging (text messages)
• Mail
• Cortana (if you are paired with a Windows Phone)
• Calls
• Calendar
• Run
• Exercise
• Sleep
• Alarm & Time
• Guided Workouts
• Weather
• UV
• Finance
• Starbucks
• Facebook
• Facebook Messenger
• Twitter
• Notification Center

   

You can have any 13 of them active at any one time and you can enable them and reorder them from the mobile app. In the settings section on the Band you can switch on Watch Mode, if you do that the date and time are constantly displayed, if it’s off the display turns off during inactivity. It would be nice if there was a 3^rd option of having the time display when you lift the watch up and that would prolong the battery life.

When you tap the on button the display lights up (with a customisable colour) and tapping the display shows you steps taken today and then swiping right you get the miles walked, calories burnt, and you current heart rate.

Now let’s look at some of the apps.

The Messaging app display text messages as they arrive (with a haptic buzz for all notifications). I found that not every text message appeared on the Band and I am not sure why yet. Mail has all your email notifications from the phone and you can swipe right to go back through the list of messages. It is possible to read the message by scrolling up and down. I have had issues with Gmail mails not notifying on the band and I am not 100% sure why, Outlook and Exchange messages work all the time so must be a Gmail issue. It is very handy for keeping track of your messages.

Cortana integration is nice (Windows Phone only), again its using your phone and you can hold down the action button, speak to the band and it will send that to Cortana on the phone. You get messages back on the band, so you can say “how long will it take to get home” and on the phone it will show the traffic and route home and on the band it will show how long it will take you to get home. You can also use it to trigger things on the phone, you can ask it to call someone or play music plus you can also use it to take notes. So the overall the integration works well.

When you receive a call on the phone it notifies you on the Band where you can send a canned text message back if you don’t want to answer the call and you can customise the message from the phone app.

The Calendar app simply displays your next event, Weather gives 5 days of weather and Finance gives you stock values (US).

The Run app obviously is designed to track running but I took it out for a walk. It has built in GPS so it will track your run/walk as well as heart rate and calories burnt. While out walking I noticed it gives you notification when you reaches mile markers. Once you get back you can view your route on your phone along with your heart rate, speed an elevation over the walk or run.

The other health apps are Guided Workouts and Exercise, at first I couldn’t actually figure out what the Guided Workouts app does. You need to go to the app on your phone and pick a workout plan and there are plenty to choose from, from easy plans right up to hard workouts. The exercise app is for track your activity like the run app but without the GPS tracking.

One of my favourite features is the sleep monitor. You active it from the Band and it turns the display off, it is then tracking your sleep pattern which you can view in the morning. It shows you how long it took to get to sleep, if you woke up in the night and if you had deep or light sleep. I found it fascinating and the data did reflect on how well I felt I slept. The down side of this is that you need the band on all night and that takes some getting used to.

You can also use it to set timers, stop watch, alarms and countdowns via the Alarms and Timer app. The UV app measures your exposure to UV rays, you press a button and it samples the light. I tried it but on a cold Manchester morning it didn’t see any UV.

The main reason I was interested in the device is for the notifications. You get Notification Center which has all the notifications from the phone, plus there are separate apps for Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Twitter. Unfortunately Twitter notifications have stopped working on my Windows Phone, I have tried turning them on and off but it seems like a problem with the app/my account but I am using Tweetium and its notifications get pushed to Notification Center. I really like getting notification on the Band, I get email, Twitter and Facebook notifications on the Band and it saves having to pick up the phone when you receive a notification. The haptic feedback level is adjustable and I found the medium level just right, it’s enough to get your attention but not enough for anybody else to notice.

Microsoft say the battery life is around two days and I found you could just about get that but in watch mode (which leaves the screen on) and using GPS it was getting just over one day mark, I normally change my devices overnight but I don’t want to do this with the Microsoft Band as I am using it to track my sleep. It would be nice to have a 2^nd charging cable so I could change it at my desk or at home without keeping the cable with me.

There is a lot of room for improvement on the software front as well as the hardware side. Hopefully Microsoft can add some extra intelligence to the device, so it could it give you advice based on your historical data. It would be good if you could get more app integration with the Band as well, maybe notifications for breaking news or use the display to control music playback. I don’t know if 3^rd party developers will be able to work with the device but it would be good to see.

So far the Band is US only, I imported mine into the UK. If you do get hold of one you will need to get the app from the US app stores, on my Windows Phone I had to switch it to US to find the app. Once installed you can switch it back and the app continues working.

Overall I love the idea of the Microsoft Band, it is very much a v1 product but the health data is fun and encourages you to be aware of your activity which can’t be a bad thing. What I really like are the notifications, you don’t have to pull out your phone as often and its cross platform so it will working with your chosen device. I love it that Microsoft have brought our a new type of device and making it cross platform.