Top 15 Fitness Gadgets for your Christmas List

Nike Fuelband (£100)
Simply tracking your activity can be a good way to motivate yourself to do more. The Nike Fuelband makes that simple: it's a wristband that contains motion sensors to track your movement through the day, translating your activity into 'Nike Fuel' points that aim to let you compare yourself to others, regardless of the sports you're doing. It also counts the steps you take - 10,000 per day is seen as a good indicator of a healthy lifestyle - and tells the time. It comes in three colours but the sleek black version is the coolest.


Jawbone Up (£39)
Another trendy wristband that monitors your movement is the Jawbone Up. First released in 2011, the Up was withdrawn because of technical problems. It will be back on sale in Britain shortly, after being completely re-engineered. It's slimmer than the Nike Fuelband and adds the ability to track the quality of your sleep. However, unlike the Fuelband, it doesn't have a screen.


Polar Rcx3 GPS (£189)
If you are a runner or cyclist and are more serious about tracking your activity then it's worth considering a GPS watch, rather than a wristband like the Fuelband or Up. The Polar Rcx3 will track your route, speed and distance, which you can upload to Polar's Personal Trainer website. The Personal Trainer gives you access to training programs, tracks your progress over time and offers feedback on each workout.


Strava Run and Strava Cycling (Free, iPhone and Android)
You don't necessarily need a watch to track your exercise. Smartphone apps can use GPS to plot your route and there are plenty of services which will keep track of your performance over time. The only downside is having to strap your phone to your arm or stick it in a pocket while you exercise. If you're happy to do that then there are plenty of options. Runkeeper (free) is an online service that syncs with many popular apps, while Zombies, Run (£2.49) turns running into an immersive game. There are apps for gym workouts, swimming and training for other sports too. If you run or cycle, Strava's apps are worth a look. They allow you to compare your performance with other users over parts of your route, which is a handy feature. Subscribers can also calculate their "suffer score" for maximum bragging rights.


Griffin Adidas MiCoach armband (£10.99)
If you are using your smartphone while you exercise, whether it's to track your activity or just to listen to music, it's worth getting an armband to keep it in. Having a phone strapped to your arm might feel a little awkward at first but it makes it easy to see the screen, change songs or check your exercise statistics without fumbling in your pocket. This one from Griffin works very nicely and is available for a range of devices.


Bose SIE2i headphones (£129.95)
There are three good reasons to get dedicated sport headphones. First, they usually have special tips that keep them secure in your ears while you move. Second, the best ones are weather and sweat resistant - handy if you are exercising outside in bad weather. And third, they tend to have shorter chords, which mean you won't get tangled up in them as you move. These ones, from Bose, have all the above and excellent sound quality.


Fitbug (£49.27 plus £2.99 per month subscription)
Another wearable fitness tracker but this one comes with a coaching plan that delivers daily progress reports and sets regular goals to help you get fitter. If you buy the Fitbug Go (£24.99) the monthly subscription for the fitness plan is £2.99. With the Fitbug Air (£49.99) then you get a year's coaching included. Fitbug also has a deal with Pru insurance, offering discounts for those who meet certain targets.


Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale review (£84.99)
No fitness gadget obsessive can make do with an ancient set of bathroom scales. What's needed are wireless smart scales, like these from Fitbit. They won't just tell you your weight, they'll track weight changes and monitor your BMI and body fat percentage for up to seven people. The data is uploaded via your WiFi network and available online or in a free iPhone app. Pair them with one of Fitbit's activity trackers, such as the Fitbit One (£79.99) and you can add even more data.


Garmin Edge 810 cycle computer (£222.21)
This touchscreen cycling computer has GPS navigation with built-in maps and is designed to withstand bad weather as well as bumps and knocks. As well as helping with navigation, the Edge 810 tracks data about your ride, including distance, speed and elevation. It's also compatible with many heart rate monitors, power meters and cadence sensors for those who want more detail.


Xbox 360 Kinect training bundle (£349.99)
Want to get fit but avoid going outside? A games console can help. Microsoft's Xbox Kinect motion tracker is compatible with a range of exercise games that offer surprisingly good workouts. Nike+ Kinect (£24) and Adidas miCoach Kinect (£22.99) both offer workouts, fitness plans and performance tracking.

Camera Demon Helmet Camera Mount (£15.04)

Camera Demon uses a sticky pad to stay put on top of a helmet, allowing cyclists, skiers and other sports enthusiasts to capture all their activity in video on their cameras.

Pioneer SE-D10E headphones (£39.99) 

The SE-D10Es use a unique ‘Skull Fit’ design to hook onto the ear, which ensure a comfortable fit, even during intense exercise. They are also sweat proof.

Withings Smart Body Analyser (£120)

This internet-connected set of scales is capable of measuring heart rate and air quality as well as traditional weight measurements and body composition.

Breffo Adventure Camera Kit (£16.90)

This eight-legged stand securely attaches to virtually any surface in any position, allowing far more versatility than a standard camera tripod, whether for windsurfing, cycling or skiing.

Oliver Sweeney Swipe Glove (£99)

... and for spectators... the outer leather layer of these gloves is touch-sensitive for smartphones, while the inner is fleecy to keep your hands warm from the sidelines.

Review: Jawbone Up

Like love, sensors are all around us. The astronomic growth in smartphone uptake means that most of the people you know now carry around a device that is constantly monitoring movement, light, sound and location. To date, the data captured by these sensors has found limited application, but this will soon change.

At its core, the Jawbone Up is a pedometer, but with pretensions of being much more. Within its "medical grade" rubber casing, the Up houses a number of motion sensors and shares the information it collects with a smartphone app for iPhone and Android.

• Buy Jawbone UP Wristband - at Amazon for £64.99

Beyond counting your steps, Jawbone believes the Up is capable of monitoring your sleep as well. Using proprietary algorythms, the wristband and its software tell you how well you slept based on how you moved, sensing a difference between light and deep sleep and acknowledging when you wake up.

The accuracy of these readings is hard to guage though, and acting on the information it feeds back is entirely up to the user to figure out.

Smartly designed

There is one thing for certain: the Jawbone UP is fantastically designed. Both the wristband and the app are sleek, easy to grasp and a pleasure to use.

The band itself is completely devoid of clasps or clips. It is a flexible loop that you slip around your wrist, and it sits comfortably below your hand. There are three sizes to choose from, with a size guide on the Jawbone site.

Best of all, the wristband looks good to wear. Our review unit is black, and it goes with every outfit in our wardrobe, from unwashed weekend wear to cocktail party dress.

At one end of the band is a small, square tip, that looks like mere decoration. In fact, this is the single button on the Up that users interact with. A long press on the button changes between day and night modes (you switch it before bed), and a double-press and hold command starts special modes, like a power nap, or the recording of an exercise session.

The app

 Monitoring the data collected by the Up is quite good fun, thanks to Jawbone's colourful and well-designed smartphone app. Large arrows point towards your daily goals and animate when you reach them; congratualting you on your small achievements.


You begin the Up journey by telling it a little about yourself: gender, weight, daily walking goal, etc. It keeps track of everything thereafter, showing you how you are doing each day, as well as collecting data over time into larger, more complex graphs.


Once or twice a day you plug the Up wristband into your phone via the headphone socket. Doing this syncs your data with the app.


You can enter food into the mix, but this isn't really designed as a calorie counter. The pre-set food options are extremely limited, and manually entering these details is a pain.


If you gain motivation from groups, you can select friends to add to your "team" and watch each others daily progress.

What does it all mean? 

Not to delve too deeply into the existential, but what does it all mean? Data collection and graphing is one thing, but what are you to do with the information the Up feeds back?


Some of it is pretty simple. For example, after using the Up for a month it is clear that this reviewer needs to get up and walk more. If the average adult should walk 10,000 steps a day, I'm a few kilometres short. The solution here is pretty straight forward.


But what about sleep? Each night the wristband reports on the quality of sleep with coloured-strips that show how much deep sleep you had, how much light sleep you had and often you were awake.





My sleep looks bad -- I think. There seems to be far too much light sleep, only thin strips of deep sleep and several instances of waking up each night. It is interesting to gaze at the graphs each day, but without suggestions on how to act, the Up creates more questions than it answers.


On top of this, you have to take this information at face value, if you do at all. There are several times during the review period where the band has reported periods of being awake that we don't rememberm for example. Is it wrong? We have no evidence to the contrary.


On a similar note, the Jawbone could have a limited use for some people with sleeping disorders. This reviewer has sleep apnea and uses a CPAP machine to sleep comfortably. During the review period, data from the Up suggested poor sleep and prompted a check-up.


It is certainly a long way from being an effective monitoring tool for these sorts of disorders -- heart-rate monitoring would be necessary for starters -- but it is handy for (very) general guidance.

Vs FitBit

Comparing the Jawbone Up to its most obvious competitor, the FitBit One, it's easy to see just how much growth this category has in front of it.

When it comes to step counting, the Up feels significantly looser than the FitBit model. While we couldn't do a side-by-side comparison for absolute accuracy, we found that we hit our goal of 10,000 steps a lot more frequently with the Up, despite not changing our habits.

The One's screen is a welcome addition as well, giving immediate feedback of performance. To get a quick idea of how you are performing during the day, you need to manually sync the Up band, while the FitBit's OLED screen can give that information at the press of a button, as well as offering information about calories burnt.

The sleep function, on the other hand, is a much nicer implementation via the Up band. Because the Up is already on the wrist, it's as simple as pressing the button to switch to sleep mode.

The FitBit, on the other hand, requires the device to be slipped into a special pouch that wraps around your wrist and attaches with velcro. Because the tracker is in a pouch, it's much easier to forget to switch the device in or out of sleep mode.

The information you get from the Up, when displayed through the accompanying app, is also a lot more useful than the FitBit version, especially for sleep. The Up app's food counter is also more usable - although not necessarily more accurate.

Ultimately, the Up is a lifestyle product. It's designed to look good, while providing your information on your lifestyle so you can hopefully improve it.

The FitBit, on the other hand, is more of a tool, something that works to enable you to improve your lifestyle. They may do similar things, but if you're serious about accountability for your physical actions, the FitBit is a much more accurate tool.

Verdict

It looks good and it certainly seems to work as intended, but if you were hoping that the Up was something more than a pedometer in fancy dress, then you'll be disappointed. Especially considering that At £65 it is twice the price of most step-counters. It certainly looks much better, and its smartphone app is well designed, but at the end of the day the functionality it collects the same data as a pedometer and leaves the same questions unanswered.