Too much junk in this fitness tracker's buffet of features

Don’t insult the Fitbit by calling it a pedometer--it does so much more. Beyond step counting, it’s a sleep tracker, calorie-burn estimator, and healthy-living tool. Combined with features on the Fitbit website, you can log nutritional information about everything you eat, manually plot your weight, and record activities beyond walking and running. Unfortunately, all of these extras are poorly organized and get in the way as much as they’re helpful. We wish the Fitbit’s software components matched the hardware’s elegant, minimal design.

You’ll track data by clipping the Fitbit to your clothing, wearing it as you go about your day. It constantly counts steps and burned calories. A single button cycles through its few screens, showing just enough progress to keep you motivated--and moving. We especially like the abstract flower icon that grows taller as you move more. At night, Fitbit even tracks your restless movements to record time asleep.

Why can't the software design match the elegant hardware?

The device charges in its cradle and can manually sync. But even better, it’ll wirelessly sync to the cradle every 15 minutes, automatically uploading your data to the Fitbit website. Online, you can view graphs of your physical activity and progress toward goals. The Fitbit website also lets you tally all of the food and water you consume throughout the day, and you can manually enter a daily weight and track calorie goals. We like the idea of pushing the Fitbit beyond a simple counter, but these online components typically overreach. They’re too compartmentalized; the interface looks like a brimming grocery store aisle instead of a unified toolset. The first--and tenth--time we visited the site, we asked, “Now what?” With so much going on, we couldn’t find a clear way to navigate the site in a logical manner.

Dig deep enough, though, and you’ll find places to enter goals, such as a weekly walking goal. But those feel like hidden secrets, instead of parts of an integrated online experience. And Fitbit didn’t answer enough other questions, such as what to do with all of this data. At its core, the Fitbit is too much of an open-ended collection tool. For sure, it’s a data nerd’s dream, but we were hoping for more in the way of useful guidance.

Technical problems also tried our patience. Once it was up and running, the Fitbit synced without a hitch, but we had problems setting it up initially--and with making the physical connection to charge the device on its base.

The Fitbit is fun and useful as a calorie counter and pedometer, but its disjointed, overreaching online tools stress quantity over quality.

Fitbit
COMPANY: Fitbit, Inc.
CONTACT: www.fitbit.com
PRICE: $99
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.4.11 or later, USB port, web browser
Tracks steps, distance traveled, sleep patterns; estimates spent calories. Elegant device design and interface. Wireless sync. Battery lasts a week between charges.
Includes little coaching about how to achieve your goals. Online features feel scattered. Food tracker includes many redundant listings with conflicting nutritional information. Technical problems with charging and syncing.