Nike Fuelband SE review

Nike FuelBand SE Hours and sessions

The FuelBand SE will measure how many hours you win throughout the day. To win an hour you need to be active for at least five solid minutes during that hour. You can even set the device to remind you to get active when the clock is rolling around to the end of an hour – you’ll get a message on the band itself and your phone.

The great thing about winning hours is that it encourages you to get up and get moving when you otherwise might not. Obviously if you’re in a meeting or sitting in your office working, you probably won’t be in a position to get up and wander around for five minutes; but if you happen to be just lazing about on the sofa, that message may give you the impetus to stop being a couch potato.

With Sessions you can tell the FuelBand SE that you’re about to undertake a specific activity. So, if you’re about to go for a run or a bike ride, you simply hold the button on the FuelBand SE down until the word “START” appears, then release and press the button again. You’ll see a three second countdown, after which your Session will start.

When you’ve finished your Session, you just repeat the process above, this time holding the button until “END” is displayed. You can label your Sessions in the app or via the Nike+ website, so you can keep track of your runs, bike rides, gym sessions etc.

If you start a Session when you get into bed, the FuelBand SE will track your sleep. You just need to remember to label that Session as sleep the next morning.

App support

Up until recently you needed to have an iOS device to sync a FuelBand with your phone, and since you need Bluetooth 4.0, that meant an iPhone 4S or newer. However, Nike has now released an Android version of the app, which will no doubt open the FuelBand SE to a much wider market. It will work with any Android 4.3 device or higher that has Bluetooth 4.0.

The app isn’t the best in class, but it’s well designed and easy to navigate. You can look at your Fuel points for the day, look back at your history, examine your totals, check out your Sessions, and see what your friends have achieved. The latter should keep you on your toes if you’ve been a bit lazy.

There are also lots of rewards and trophies to collect to spur you on – hitting your daily target, beating it by 50, 100, 150, 200 per cent and so on. There are badges for winning a certain number of hours, hitting tiers of Fuel points, and achieving landmark totals – it really does feel good when you hit 1,000,000 fuel points!

Conclusion

When Nike first launched the FuelBand SE it cost £129, but that price has now dropped to a far more competitive £89. It’s still a bit more expensive than the Fitbit Flex, but it’s a lot cheaper than the Jawbone UP24.

There are a couple of features missing from the FuelBand SE, though. It would have been nice to have an altimeter built in so you could see how high you’ve climbed each day. Likewise, it’s a shame that the band isn’t waterproof (just water resistent against rain) – if you swim 100 lengths, that won’t count towards your Fuel points.

Despite those niggles, the FuelBand SE is a great activity tracker with a solid ecosystem and community behind it. And if you’re the type that wants to constantly check on your progress throughout the day, that built-in display will be a real bonus. If you can stretch a little further, though, the Jawbone UP24 has a much better app, and is a better fitness tracker.