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I've worn my Microsoft band for 6 months now and thought I'd give my opinion on it.

First appearance...its not bad. It's not a watch and looks very much what it is which is a health band. But it can be used as a watch and the watch has an 'always on' setting. The build quality is very good and mine has stood up to plenty of rough handling and abuse so far with no issues. It comes in three sizes and the large only just fits me and my wrists are not that big so you might want to be careful when buying. (Amazon means easy returns though ;P)

There are a choice of 18 tiles,  but you are only allowed a maximum of 16 at any one time. But it only takes seconds to change them so no big issue. There is the step counter,  you can set goals for number of steps easily from your phone and the band will display the running (walking) total with time, heart rate and number of calories burned.

I have not used all the apps. I'm too old to run and I hate golf so can’t tell you anything about them.  The golf app on the phone finds your courses and the band monitors your score. The App I've used the most is the cycling app. You can use the band's GPS to log your ride. The Band normally allows for upto 3 days between a charge, however, use the GPS on a run or ride and you'll get 4 to 5 hrs and thats it, which is disappointing. My perception was that GPS didnt use THAT much juice. The Cycling App is enjoyable to use and its habit of pointing out goals and breaking your ride down, speed averages and maximums and so on is really pleasantly done. The app also gives your recovery time and tells you how many calories you have burned as an ongoing stat. The running app I have not really played with but it also has GPS so I guess does a similar job as the cycling app.

Where the band comes into its own is the guided workouts.

There are a number of these on the app and you simply sync them to the band. They are also graded so you can build up your workout and I can see that they would be very useful in the gym. The guided workouts are running, indoor cycling, sit ups and gym equipment there are a lot of them and not just from Microsoft but other providers and during a fairly detailed look through which I had, they all appear to be free!

There is a UV app not sure how accurate it is but its ok as a guide I suppose. There is also a sleep app that monitors your sleep, telling you how long it took to drop off, how many times you woke and length of light and deep sleep. The band then tells you how well you slept and gives advice on how to improve sleep quality which in my case was do some physical work you lazy sod!

There are message apps for Facebook and twitter and also text messages. The band will also vibrate if you get a phone call.

I had the band synced to a Windows Lumia 930 and the iPhone 6 plus. Now, it definitely  works better on the Lumia but throughout the testing, I had no real issues on the iPhone. Where the Lumia scores higher is the number of ‘other’ apps that can use the band. The most useful being 'Pimp My Band'. There are apps in iOS but they don’t look as good.

The band charges via a magnetic usb cable and charges quickly but 80% to 100% can take 2 hours! The help files say this is normal for the battery type. The display is clear and you can change colours and text easily via health app and with third party  apps put photos as back ground, or use the band to activate your phone to take pictures or play music.

You can only have the band synced to one phone at a time but this does not stop you putting the data on another phone or pad. Im not sure but I think the app can use your Microsoft Account to update the Health App.

Overall this is a nice bit of kit for £150 but I've seen second hand ones a LOT cheaper.  I would recommend this as a Health Band to anyone, especially if you are in the 'Windows Phone' world. Its great for the money and 'does the job' nicely.

Six Months on...I'm still wearing it. I'm not fed up with it and my eye isn't wandering towards an Apple Watch...yet.

Steve Lowe

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Ewen Rankin

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