10 Things We Love About The Jawbone Up24 After One Week

We partnered with the folks over at Jawbone to take a closer look at the Up24 fitness band. Here's a few things we absolutely loved about it so far...

1.) It looks fantastic and even looks cool next to a watch. It doesn't feel rubbery, cheap, or make you feel like a CrossFit obsessive. It's just stylish and lightweight and fits with whatever you're wearing---whether it's a suit or gym clothes.

2.) The set-up process is the OPPOSITE of being a pain in the ass. Once you download the app, it takes about twelve seconds to pair your device and get it up and running. Everything just works.

3.) There's no flashing LED lights that make the Up24 look like a prop from Tron, it just connects via low-powered bluetooth to the corresponding app on your phone. It's easier (and more beautiful) to get all of your information that way. The app is slick, well designed, and cool.

4.) It automatically syncs via bluetooth to your phone whenever you open it. No complicated pairing or connection to a computer needed. If it was any more work, you probably wouldn't check your stats more than once a day, but because it's so easy, you'll be glancing through it constantly.

5.) The battery lasts up to 14 days, so you're not having to charge the thing every day or two. It's refreshing and makes the thing not feel like work or an inconvenience.

6.) It motivates the hell out of you to get up and get moving. If you're tied to a desk and computer all day for work, wearing this thing WILL make you want to get up and be active. It counts how many steps you take a day (~7,000 = average, ~10,000+ = great) and you'll start blowing off after-work drinks for the gym when your count is only at 3,500 come 5pm. But as bad as it can make you feel for being inactive, it makes you feel amazing and accomplished when you're not.

7.) One of the goals going into using this thing was finding a way to sleep better, and its built-in alarm system is a total game changer. You wear the thing to bed, it analyzes your sleep cycle while you snooze, and quietly wakes you with a gentle vibration at the most ideal time. That means if you set your alarm for 6:00am, it might wake you up at 5:50am when it senses you're not in deep sleep. The result? You feel SO much more energized when getting out of bed and you won't wake your significant other up with a loud and obnoxious iPhone alarm. The price tag on this thing is worth it for this alone.

8.) Another one of the goals going into this experience was to drink more water. Coffee and tea flow like nobody's business at the office, but being an "eight glasses of water a day" kind of person isn't always easy. Luckily, the app has a "Today I Will" feature where you can set daily goals, and making 8+ glasses of water is an simple one to accomplish when you have an app to remind you.

9.) Tracking what you eat and how many calories you're consuming per day is easy and simple too. Weight loss wasn't really a goal going into using the Up24, but a quick glance at your daily stats is a nice reminder to consume appropriately. You'll either be looking at the data, the calories consumed, and the calories burned, and saying "Alright, I gotta skip the bread at dinner tonight to not hate myself." or "Wow, I've been super active today. Probably not the end of the world if I get dessert." Basically, it allows you to hold back and feel great about yourself or splurge (every once in a while) and not hate yourself.

10.) The absolute coolest feature of this thing was one that was discovered a few days into using it. You can hook up your Up24 to a bunch of third party apps like RunKeeper and MyFitnessPal, but you can also attach it to IFTTT (If This Than That) which connects to anything from Twitter to Pinterest. One of the things IFTTT connects to, though? The Philips Hue WiFi Light Bulbs. That means, you can set your whole home to turn off its lights when you hit the "Sleep Mode" button on your Up24 before bed, and have them automatically come on when your device wakes you up with the silent vibration alarm. It's like living in the future and pretty much the most awesome thing ever. There are more combinations to explore, but we're just getting started playing with this thing. More soon...

This post is sponsored by Jawbone. Thank you for supporting this website and the brands that make it possible.