I've had the UP band for nearly a year now, with long periods of not using it and then falling in love with it again. I figured that since I wrote an initial review and a quick check up after using the band for a week, I should write a full on review of the band now to wrap it all up nicely.

For an overview of the band, do check my other review. The app itself has stayed pretty much exactly the same with the exception of 'trends' not being there anymore, so I felt like it was unnecessary to cover that bit again.

The band has worked flawlessly ever since I got it out of the packaging. Even though Jawbone says that it's waterproof and you can still wear it when you take a shower, I've always taken it off for it. I just don't trust something like this to actually hold water out for too long. :) I've read a lot of negative comments about the band not working after a short while, and I have a feeling that it's linked to water getting into the delicate system.


UP has definitely shed a lot of light on my daily activity levels. It's great to be able to tell exactly how many calories I burn, how many steps I take and how much I sleep. I actually look forward to syncing my band every night, just to see if I've hit my ten thousand steps every day. It helps me plan my calorie budget and if I have a more active day, I know how to adjust. It's the little things that really make this band worth having. Now that I've used it for a while again, I barely even notice it. It's just like any other wrist band or bracelet people wear, it's just about getting used to it. Sure, it's not the most elegant looking thing and might look quite odd with some fancy dress, but small sacrifices for fitness are normal in our lives. ;)

I actually feel quite bad for forgetting to put the band back on if I take it off for whatever reason. I feel like I'm missing out on important data of my life if I don't wear it! It's kinda turned into a part of me, in a way it has stopped being this device that just collects data as I live my daily life. In a way it's like a companion, something that helps you and lets you know if you're doing something wrong.


Using the band has also confirmed how much sleep I need every night in order to feel refreshed when I wake up in the morning. It's a very fine line somewhere between seven and eight hours, if my sleep falls shorter than that I just feel really drowsy and awful in the morning. UP has really helped me figure out my sleeping pattern, and it's one of the most important features of the band for me. I've gone from going to bed at 2am to actually wanting to sleep by 11.30pm. The only downside to the band is that it can be a bit uncomfortable when settling down in bed for the night, as I use a memory foam pillow and it doesn't quite give way for the band like a normal pillow would.

In short, this band has really changed the way I think about my own daily life. I have started making better decisions sleep wise and keeping track of my steps with something as delicate as UP makes it effortless and I really don't have to think about it at all. I highly recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to mess about with clunky pedometers. I'm actually really surprised how I haven't actually seen any UP bands or similar (FitBit for example) around at all in the year I've owned this thing. Are they really not that popular over here?

I'm actually quite tempted to buy the new version of this band, but with the price tag being rather high in comparison to this one, I think it'll have to wait for a little while unfortunately. :)