Team Wareable picks out the fitness tracker winners of 2014
Activity bands are some of the hottest wearables in the world right now, and Wareable’s servers have been stretched to the limits with people searching for the best fitness tracker.
Essential reading: Best fitness tracker of 2015
There are a host of hot fitness trackers destined to land in early 2015, with the Fitbit Charge HR and Jawbone UP3 to name but two, but which have been the best of 2014?
The Wareable team have been fighting over which is their favourite of the year, and you can see the lucky bands below.
Paul Lamkin – Editor in chief
Both the Misfit Flash and the Jawbone UP Move attacked the lower end of the activity tracker market with aplomb, and the Fitbit Charge more than made up for the disapointment of the Fitbit Force – but it’s the Garmin Vivosmart that most impressed me as it nicely blended traditional lifestyle recording features with smartwatch functionality, with a gogeous design to boot.
James Stables – Senior editor
While it did arrive in November 2013 in the US, for me the key wearable of the year was the Jawbone UP24. Designed by Yves Behar and available in a super range of colours, the Jawbone UP24 is still my favourite looking activity tracker. Aside from design, Jawbone still has the leading fitness app and as 2014 drew to a close, the incredible deals available both in the UK and US on the UP24 means I’m still recommending it to people, even in the face of newer competition.
Sophie Charara – Contributing editor
The everyday fitness tracker is just as worthy as the hardcore, heart rate-tracking, sweat-measuring fitness tracker. And with the Activité, Withings has built something gorgeous that I’d genuinely wear all day everyday. Sure, it’s expensive but most of us would splash out £300 on a good-looking dumb watch. Small enough to be unisex with a battery life measured in months and a useful app, all the Activité needs now is Android compatibility.
Winner: Withings Activité
The beautiful Withings Activité may not feature the cutting edge tech of some activity trackers, but its solid performance and superb design is the product of a maturing industry. The first true “wearable”, the Activité wowed us with its seamless blend of Swiss watchmaking and connected technology, and is the first device we’ve been gutted to take off.
