Lets start with the jawbone.
In my opinion, the jawbone bracelet's appearance is pretty bland aside from the color choices. I think the design was geared to appeal more to women but is not by any means too feminine for a man. As far as function, it's pretty great! It provides information on how many steps you have taken in a day as well as how many active calories burned, idle calories burned, your longest period active, your longest period idle, the amount of calories burned that day and the distance covered while active. It also charts the exact time of when you were most active and idle. You can also set what is called an "Idle Alert" which when you have been idle for a long period of time will vibrate to tell you to get up and move. The best feature the Jawbone has is its sleep mode. Before you go to bed you switch the band into sleep mode and it records all of your nightly activity; how long it takes you to fall asleep, how long you are in a light sleep, deep sleep, how many times you get up, how long it takes you to fall back asleep, and the total hours slept. It also has some pretty cool features like power nap,which when activated will use the most previous sleep data to decide the optimal nap length ranging from 27-45 minutes. You can still set your own nap length as well and it will wake you up with a gentle vibration as opposed to a loud noise. It also has a built in stop watch so you can time certain activities, and the app allows you to log work outs. The major drawback to this device is that you can only see the information by syncing it to the app which requires you to detach a small cap on the end of the bracelet, which I have lost repeatedly, and stick the bracelet into the earphone jack. This can become annoying and frankly I sometimes forget to do it. It makes it hard to keep track of my goals and by the time I get around to syncing the device the day is gone. Also without a visible screen, you have to remember a combination of clicks to activate different modes.
The Nike Fuel band has far fewer functions. It counts steps, calories, active time, and distance traveled. The package however, is much more appealing because all the information is given to you on the bracelet in color and instead of having to plug the band into your app devices, you can sync it with Bluetooth which makes reaching your goals before the days end a lot easier. Aside from health information it's a nice looking watch. Because Nike is a bigger name than the Jawbone UP, more people have it therefore making it easier to find friends on Facebook that you can engage in healthy competition with. Nike created something called Nike Fuel which you attain by being active and is also what you use to measure against your competitors. Neither device is water proof which sucks because I swim a lot. The jawbone can withstand thousands of showers as the website says but they advise you to not go swimming with it. The Nike fuel band doesn't talk about its water resistance much but I just don't get it wet.
Overall, I think either one is a good purchase. Combined, they are the perfect fitness band, aside from the water issue. The jawbone cost $130 and the Nike fuel band is $150. I hope this helps with those of you who are deciding on purchasing one.
