What is the Misfit Shine 2?
A lightweight, comfortable activity tracker which tracks steps, activity, calories and sleep quality. It tracks swim laps and distance in the pool which caught my interest immediately. It also can control many devices in your smart home.
The Look
It is a small, metallic disc that is fitted into a silicon band.
It is fairly unisex and I have the black model, which I love but you can get rose gold, which also looks pretty cool.
The Misfit App
Connecting the Shine 2 to my phone was as simple as installing the Misfit app and selecting the Shine 2 after the app launched. Once connected, the app (for iOS, Android and Windows 10 Mobile) starts syncing with the wearable whenever you launch it.
The app’s main page shows a ring that fills up with your progress that day, as well as a brief overview of the number of miles traveled, calories burned and steps taken.
You can tap over to the sleep panel to see how many minutes you spent awake, in light sleep and in restful sleep.
Scroll down on the home page, and you’ll see what Misfit calls “Today’s Story,” which is a timeline of your periods of activity that day. Today’s Story is organized by the intensity of your workout. Light activities show up first, and the app shows how much time you spent doing that activity, the distance you traveled, the calories you burned and the steps you took during that period.
Indicators on the device itself:
There are 12 LED indicators that light up around the ring depending on how far into your goal you are. The further in you get, the colour changes from red to orange. If you’ve passed 100% of your goal, the lights will blink around the ring once, then past the starting point to the current percentage you’ve achieved.
For example, if you reach 150% of your activity goal, the ring will light up from the starting point and than past it to the halfway point again. You can always tell when you’ve gone past your goal because the colours change from orange to yellow to green.
The LED lights will also tell you the time. Tap twice on the device’s face. A blue light indicates the position of the hour hand, while a green light shows where the minute hand would be like on a regular watch. Unfortunately, the lights are hard to see in bright sunlight. You need to look at it in the shade.
Top Features of MisFit Shine 2 which I love:
1. The “get up and move” nudge. I tend to do quite a lot of writing these days so can easily end up sitting for several hours without moving too much. The Shine 2 can be set to remind you to move around. You can set the alarm to vibrate at regular intervals from every 20 minutes to every two hours, with specified start and stop times.
You can set the start and end time for Misfit Move for a specific time of the day. So, if you sit at a desk from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., set your first nudge for 9:00 a.m. and end it at 4:00 p.m.
Many of you may have read my previous post on the dangers of sitting (even for very fit people). Regular activity is critical to keep all systems going and not shut down. Read the post here (it might save your life)!
This is truly an awesome feature of the Misfit Shine 2 and probably under estimated by many people. Use it- this is important and will help your work performance and your athletic performance over the long term.
2. Track all your activity throughout the day. This is fantastic. Being a triathlete, I have always tracked my data during a run or cycle but never really added it together with daily calories and daily steps taken. I am finding it fascinating. I can program in my activity goals and even if I have done my gym sessions or swim, I still may not have reached the steps level I set myself, so will make an effort to do some more walking during the day. For instance, I will park the car further away. I will walk the stairs instead of waiting for elevator. These small activities add up over a whole day. As Peter Drucker said “What gets measured, gets managed” The more you track, the better athlete you will become.
3. Call notifications. I LOVE the helpful vibration for notification when you receive a call or SMS. I often do not carry my phone in my pocket so sometimes miss a call. Since having this vibration feature, I have never missed a call. The Misfit Shine 2 does not feature who is calling but for the price I would not expect it to.
4. Accurate step and distance counter. I did a 5mile run and used my Misfit Shine 2 to compare it with my Garmin. The data was surprisingly accurate which is unbelievable for a simple, inexpensive device.
5. Track your laps and distance in the pool. This is one of the best features for me. Very few of other wearables offer this functionality. Yay- this is what I have been waiting for! The Misfit Shine 2 is still waterproof to 50 metres so you can use it swimming and in the shower. It is not suited for scuba diving.
6. Track your sleep quality. The Shine 2 can automatically detect when you’ve fallen asleep as well as how long and how well you’ve slept. Sleep detection is pretty accurate. Last night I got into bed at 11pm and it recorded me as having gone to sleep at about 11.49pm which seems accurate. The next morning, I saw through the Misfit app on my phone that during my 8 hours and 22 minutes of sleep, only 4 hours and 41 minutes was restful; I spent the remaining time in light slumber.
This is an interesting feature and whilst it does not help me to actually sleep, the tracking encourages me to see if I can get longer periods in restful sleep, rather than just the hours I was in bed. As a result, I have started meditating 10 minutes before bed to try and achieve a more restful slumber. It is too early to tell yet but it has to be good step forward.
7. Gentle vibration alarm clock. The Misfit Shine 2 can also wake you up from slumber by vibrating gently on your wrist, which is a less jarring alternative to sound-based alarms. I am enjoying this way to wake up and prefer it. Though I would not trust it if I had a flight to catch or had an early appointment. I would still set two alarms just in case the vibration was not enough to wake me. However for normal purposes it is great.
Other cool features of Misfit Shine 2
1. You can use the Misfit Shine 2 to control smart home devices. You’ll have to install the Misfit Link app to sync your home devices and then you can quickly activate your appliances with three quick taps on your wrist.
For instance, you can play music, take a selfie or click through presentation slides with three taps. If you install Misfit bolt lightbulbs, you can control your lights without leaving the couch.
I have not set this up and find this slightly odd when you are meant to be increasing your activity levels, not decreasing them but it is still a pretty cool feature and fun to show off to friends!
Plus, you can use the Misfit Shine 2 as a remote control for some of your other smart home devices.
2. Excellent battery life. The Misfit Shine 2 is powered by a replaceable coin-cell battery that can last up to six months. I must say it is fantastic to have a piece of kit that I do not need to charge every day!
3. Connect to Misfit’s community and Misfit Social to compete against and brag to your friends. You can also create goals and link third-party apps such as WeChat, Lose It!, RunKeeper, MyFitnessPal, MapMyFitness, Speedo Fit and IF by IFTTT. You can connect such things as the Withings Body Scale, Google Drive, or Twitter.
4. Attach it to your shoe, belt or bra strap. Great for those who do not like to wear it on their wrist. I have tried it on my shoe for cycling and it works well.
5. Decent clasp. I have noticed there are a lot of complaints online about the clasp being loose or the device actually popping out of the clasp. I can honestly say I have not found this. I have not taken the strap off once since I got it (2 weeks) and have worn it to bed, in the shower, getting dressed/undressed, to the gym and commuting. It has felt secure to me at all times. Maybe this model is a big improvement on previous editions.
What I do not like about it
There are certain factors I think it lacks:
1. Heart rate monitoring tracker. For serious training and staying in your heart rate zones, this device will not suffice. It does not measure heart rate so you would still need your heart rate monitor. This device is no substitute for a Garmin or similar device but then it is not pretending to be.
2. Diet and calories information. There is an option to take a picture of your meal and enter your weight but it will not capture the nutritional data or macronutrient levels. So if you are using it for weight loss you will need to track this separately. To input a meal, your only option is to snap a picture of it and let Misfit tag the picture to your time line. You can enter your weight in daily or weekly.
Would I give one as a gift?
Absolutely! I would be confident to give Misfit Shine 2 as a gift. It is not expensive. It works well as an activity tracker and it has a surprising amount of functionality for the price. I think it is excellent value.
You can see your progress in a weekly or monthly overview with details on how many points you’ve earned or hours you’ve slept within that time period. We need to be tracking data like sleep quality as part of our triathlon training journal so a device like this is perfect.
An activity trackers job is to encourage you to create healthier habits by easily and unobtrusively collecting data. The Misfit Shine 2 certainty does this.
I like it and will continue to play with the functionality. The Misfit Shine 2 does a great job of tracking your basic fitness metrics in a sleek, lightweight form. I love that it is waterproof and it tracks my swimming laps which was one of the main advantages to me. It could be better at tracking diet and calories consumed.
Even though I tracked much of my exercise data anyway, this certainly fills in the gaps of all my general activity that was previously being lost.
Thumbs Up and Happy Training
Sam
PS A big thank you to my friends at simplyswim.com for allowing me to test out their Misfit Shine 2
The swimming tracking is so very cool. It is what I have been waiting for!
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