Nike Fuelband SE Review | 171 Data compared

The Nike Fuelband SE is a second-generation activity tracker reviewed by Expert Reviews that focuses on measuring daily physical activity through a unique algorithm called Nike Fuel. A major pro highlighted in the review is its brilliant hardware design, which integrates a built-in USB charging plug directly into the wristband clasp so users do not need a proprietary cable. Additionally, it features a handy, interactive 100-LED display that allows users to quickly check steps, time, and calories without pulling out a phone, and it includes low-power Bluetooth 4.0 for automatic app syncing. The device also offers motivational features like "Sessions" for specific workouts, sleep tracking, and "hours won" reminders to reduce sedentary time. Finally, the updated app added long-awaited Android support alongside iOS. However, the review points out several significant cons, noting that the device completely lacks an altimeter to track floors or elevation climbed. Crucially, the band is only water-resistant against rain rather than being fully waterproof, meaning it cannot be worn while swimming and will fail to count laps or pool workouts toward your goals. The reviewer also...

The Tech Advisor review of the second-generation Nike+ FuelBand SE characterizes it as a reliable and highly motivational activity tracker, though it ultimately falls short due to several missing upgrades. On the positive side, the hardware stands out for its excellent seven to 10 days of battery life, water-resistant design, and the integration of Bluetooth 4.0, which allows for automatic background synchronization with iOS devices. Nike also introduced a useful "Sessions" feature, letting users time and tag specific workouts (like cycling or running) for more accurate NikeFuel estimation, alongside a new "Hours Won" metric to incentivize regular movement. The device also features a slightly faster LED display that can instantly show the time with a quick double-tap. However, the reviewer highlights significant drawbacks, concluding that the fitness band is too expensive and lacks the features expected from a modern tracker. Major cons include its exclusive compatibility with iOS, leaving Android users unsupported, and the lack of vital hardware components like an altimeter for tracking elevation, a heart-rate monitor, and a vibrating motor. Because it cannot vibrate, its movement reminders rely...

However, the Fuelband SE suffers from several key design and software limitations. It lacks built-in GPS and a heart rate monitor, which forces users to guess their workout intensity and leaves room for tracking inaccuracies. Physically, the band is water-resistant but not completely waterproof, making it unsuitable for swimming. It can also be bulky enough to interfere with typing on a desk or fitting comfortably underneath buttoned shirt cuffs. Most notably, its software ecosystem is highly restrictive; the dedicated companion application is entirely exclusive to iOS, leaving Android and Windows Phone users unable to check their performance on mobile devices.

The Nike+ FuelBand SE is a second-generation fitness tracker focused heavily on basic activity tracking, gamified rewards, and social competition through its proprietary "NikeFuel" scoring system. On the positive side, the hardware features subtle colorful accents, improved water resistance suitable for daily showers, and upgraded Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity that extends battery life to roughly four days. It also introduces a "Sessions" feature to track and label specific workouts, alongside motivational tools like "win the hour" reminders and virtual trophies to keep beginner athletes moving,. However, the device suffers from major limitations, most notably its total lack of Android support, as the companion app is strictly iOS-only. Its tracking accuracy is highly flawed because the built-in three-axis accelerometer relies solely on wrist movements; this creates a massive bias toward arm swinging while virtually ignoring lower-body exercises like cycling or gym rowing. Furthermore, the FuelBand platform is entirely closed to third-party apps like Strava, fails to track sleep or diet, and carries a steep retail price tag of $174.86 (£130), making it poorly optimized compared to cheaper, more versatile competitors,,.

The Nike Fuelband SE is a sleek, user-friendly fitness tracker that refines its predecessor's design with new internal upgrades and vibrant color accents, though its core look remains largely unchanged. Its primary strength lies in its motivational, straightforward approach, seamlessly building into the robust Nike ecosystem without overwhelming users with complex metric analyses. On the positive side, the device introduces Bluetooth LE for continuous, automatic data syncing with smartphones, improved water resistance, and a helpful "Win The Hour" feature to remind users to stay active. Additionally, the new "Sessions" software update allows users to start, stop, and tag specific workouts—like cycling or yoga—to receive more accurate NikeFuel point tallies based on activity intensity. However, the Fuelband SE falls short in several key areas when compared to its contemporary rivals. A major drawback is its limited sleep tracking, which merely records total hours slept as a tagged session rather than analyzing deep or light sleep cycles. The device also lacks a physical vibration alert or alarm, meaning inactivity reminders on the display can easily go unnoticed. Furthermore, its platform exclusivity remains...

Review Overview The Nike FuelBand SE maintains the rugged, bracelet-like design of its predecessor but introduces critical internal upgrades, most notably a Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) radio that extends battery life to roughly a week on a single charge for standard use. Priced at $150, the wearable relies on Nike’s proprietary "Fuel" metric rather than traditional calorie tracking to measure daily activity. It introduces new features like "Hours," which nudges users to move for five minutes every hour, and "Sessions," which allows athletes to tag and isolate specific periods of intense exercise. The physical interface remains sleek, utilizing a bright, anti-reflective 100-dot LED display that now allows users to quickly check the time with a double-button press without scrolling through menus. Pros and Cons Pros: Extended Battery Life: Upgraded from needing a charge every 2–3 days to lasting a full week. Excellent Display: The matte LED screen remains easily readable in direct, bright sunlight. Robust Social Features: Offers superior Facebook integration and motivational group leaderboards to gamify fitness. Convenient Time Check: A simple double-press shortcut instantly shows the clock. Cons:...

The Nike+ FuelBand SE is a well-built, stylish fitness tracker that operates on a proprietary universal points system called NikeFuel to measure and game-ify physical activity. Boasting an ingenious design where the water-resistant rubberized band doubles as a USB charging stick, it features a futuristic LED matrix display alongside a color-coded progress bar that allows users to easily gauge their proximity to daily goals. Structurally, it is celebrated as one of the most comfortable, secure, and cozy wristbands on the market. Functionally, the device includes Bluetooth 4.0 for more energy-efficient background syncing, enhanced water resistance suitable for shower wear, and an "Activity Sessions" feature that acts as a timer to track your Fuel-per-minute (FPM) intensity during specific workouts. Despite its top-tier physical design, the tracker is heavily held back by its simplistic and restricted software ecosystem. On the positive side (pros), the device offers exceptional physical comfort, convenient built-in USB charging, hourly motivational reminders to "win the hour," and a highly engaging social community for friendly competition. On the negative side (cons), the FuelBand SE completely lacks Android support—working only...

The Nike+ FuelBand SE is a robust, water-resistant fitness tracker designed to track motion via an upgraded, highly precise accelerometer and convert it into Nike’s universal "Fuel" metric, allowing users of different sports to easily compete with one another. The device features a semi-rigid rubberised band with a hidden LED dot-matrix display, a single control button, and an integrated USB charging connector hidden within its metal buckle. Key advantages include its durable, reinforced circuitry, a straightforward user interface that can pull double-duty as a digital watch, and highly engaging social features via an intuitive iPhone app that allows up to 150 users to share progress and run group competitions. However, the tracker has several design and feature limitations that hold it back, resulting in a 3 out of 5-star rating. On the downside, the rigid and thick build makes it uncomfortable to wear for long periods while typing at a desk, and it is too chunky to fit easily under a standard shirt cuff. Furthermore, it lacks the ability to identify stair climbs, offers very poor and limited sleep tracking...

The Nike FuelBand SE is a durable fitness tracker made of soft silicone and plastic that tracks steps, distance, calories, and unique NikeFuel points directly on its highly visible screen. A major highlight of the device is its heavy-duty clasp, which is significantly sturdier than competing trackers. The companion FuelBand app for iPhone stands out for its exceptional design, offering clean visual graphs for historical logs and a "Sessions" feature to isolate workout metrics from daily background activity. Furthermore, the massive adoption of the NikeFuel ecosystem provides built-in social motivation, making it incredibly easy to find and compete against active friends. However, the hardware comes with notable physical limitations, as the bulky wristband can cause discomfort or accidentally unlatch if hit during high-contact sports like basketball. Functionally, it lacks true sleep tracking—forcing users to manually log estimated hours as a session instead of relying on real-time sensor data. It also falls behind competitors by omitting crucial vibration alerts for user inactivity. Finally, the battery life is underwhelming, maxing out at only 4 to 5 days on a single charge. Despite...

The Nike+ FuelBand SE (Special Edition) is a durable, water-resistant fitness tracker designed to gamify daily activity using Nike's universal metric, NikeFuel. It features an auto-adjusting LED display that shows progress toward daily goals, acts as a digital watch, and doubles as a built-in USB connector for convenient charging without extra cables. The device effectively motivates users through a robust ecosystem of trophies, animations, and competitive community leaderboards. It also supports tracking specific workout "sessions" and offers basic sleep tracking, though it primarily frames sleep quality in terms of NikeFuel rather than standard graphical data like sleep duration. However, the reviewer highlights several prominent drawbacks, particularly its lack of accuracy, noting that it only captures about 75% of actual walking steps compared to competitors like Fitbit and Jawbone. Its rigid, bangle-like design can also cause physical discomfort and get in the way while typing. Furthermore, the lack of a vibration motor causes physical activity reminders to easily go unnoticed. Other cons include a relatively short battery life of 3 to 4 days for active users, the absence of a food...

The Live Science review of the Nike+ FuelBand SE awards a 5/10 rating, defining it as a foundational tracker designed to connect users to the Nike+ community, with Pros including a highly legible screen, social motivation, and movement reminders. However, the device suffers from significant cons, specifically a lack of sleep tracking, a non-adjustable strap, and the inability to sync wirelessly with computers. Live Science

The Mixmag review highlights the Nike+ Fuelband SE as a refined, stylish wearable featuring Bluetooth LE for efficient syncing, enhanced tracking accuracy through the "Sessions" feature, and the motivational "Win The Hour" tool. The device is praised for its design and improved activity tracking tailored for specific workouts. Mixmag However, the review notes drawbacks, including limited sleep tracking capabilities compared to competitors and a lack of significant, revolutionary features. Additionally, the device remains restricted to iOS, excluding Android users from its full, connected ecosystem.

However, the reviewer experienced significant drawbacks, including a thick, heavy, and rigid design that does not conform comfortably to the wrist. The device struggles with accuracy; it was off by several thousand calories and hundreds of steps compared to competitors, and its data can be easily manipulated or "cheated" simply by shaking the wrist. Furthermore, the sleep-tracking metric only captures sleep duration rather than deep or light sleep cycles. The companion Nike+ FuelBand app proved highly problematic, frequently logging the user out, suffering from slow Bluetooth connectivity, and lacking integration with popular third-party software like MyFitnessPal or RunKeeper. Combined with a lackluster 5-to-6-day battery life that underperforms compared to older models and rival bands, the device is ultimately recommended only for its stylistic "cool factor" and social features.

The Nike+ FuelBand SE is a mature fitness tracker designed as a rigid, rubberized bracelet that monitors user movement and "gamifies" daily exercise by converting activity into arbitrary "Nike Fuel" points. It features a highly readable display consisting of 100 white LEDs and 20 multi-colored status LEDs equipped with an ambient light sensor that automatically handles sunlight visibility. Significant improvements over the original generation include an upgraded accelerometer for tracking accuracy, background syncing via a newly implemented Bluetooth LE module, a "win the hour" movement reminder system, and retroactively tagged "sessions" to log specific sports intensities. However, it lacks robust biological metrics, featuring a rudimentary sleep tracker that functions only as a basic timer and omitting an altimeter for altitude readings. The primary advantage of the FuelBand SE lies in its highly intuitive user interface, convenient background syncing via Bluetooth LE, and vibrant, easy-to-read LED display. On the downside, the physical design is practically identical to the original model, and its chunky, rigid form factor can prove uncomfortably restrictive during everyday tasks like typing. Furthermore, the lack of a vibration...

The Nike FuelBand SE is a sleek, stylish fitness tracker that monitors daily movement through Nike’s proprietary "fuel points" metric, though it struggles to offer deep, meaningful insights. Priced at $150, the bracelet features an upgraded Bluetooth 4.0 connection that extends battery life to roughly 10 days on a single charge and introduces improved water resistance alongside new neon and precious metal clasp colorways. Positives highlight its appealing aesthetic, comfortable design suitable for both gym and dinner wear, and seamless background data syncing with iOS devices and desktop clients. However, the tracker's functionality suffers from several notable shortcomings. Critically, it lacks an Android companion app, excluding a massive demographic of smartphone users entirely. The device also lacks vital hardware like a heart rate monitor and an altimeter, meaning it cannot differentiate the higher caloric burn of walking up a hill or gauge true physical exertion. Furthermore, the vague fuel point system is easily manipulated by simple wrist movements like fist bumps or drinking beer, making the data feel arbitrary compared to more accurate, feature-rich, and cheaper competitors like the Fitbit...

The Jawbone Up24 is highlighted for its comfortable coil design, long 7-to-10-day battery life, and superior, passive data tracking for sleep and movement. While it introduces convenient Bluetooth syncing, its primary drawbacks are the lack of a screen and sometimes slow, buggy Bluetooth pairing. Conversely, the Nike+ FuelBand SE excels in hardware with a durable, premium design and a vibrant LED screen that provides instant, engaging feedback. However, it offers less sophisticated tracking with only a 4-day battery life, and its stiff, thick material can cause physical discomfort when typing, say reviewers.

The Nike FuelBand SE refined the original wearable with Bluetooth 4.0 for improved syncing, a more durable, water-resistant design, and the "Sessions" feature for tracking specific workouts. It retains a comfortable, lightweight bracelet form factor with an ambient light sensor, focusing on step tracking, calorie counting, and Nike's proprietary Fuel points to drive user motivation. Key pros highlighted include the improved battery life, seamless social integration, and the addition of "Fuel Per Minute" intensity metrics. However, significant cons noted are the lack of a built-in heart rate monitor, making calorie calculations less precise, and the absence of native, deep sleep tracking.

The Nike+ FuelBand SE ($149) is a stylish, durable, and comfortable fitness tracker featuring a bright, auto-adjusting LED display and seamless Bluetooth 4.0 syncing for displaying time, steps, calories, and "Fuel" metrics. It improves on previous models with a "Sessions" feature for manual activity tracking and offers improved social features, such as group leaderboards, while maintaining app support for iOS and Android. However, the device is considered expensive for its limited functionality, lacking tracking for distance, stairs, heart rate, or sleep cycles. Key downsides include the inability to automatically detect exercises, requiring manual logging, and an occasionally buggy app, along with the "Fuel" metric's lack of clarity compared to more comprehensive biometric data. PCMag

Executive Summary However, the device has notable drawbacks, particularly its high price compared to market alternatives and its heavy reliance on the iOS ecosystem, making an iPhone mandatory to fully utilise its data and notifications. It lacks a physical vibration motor, meaning users must rely on screen flashes or phone alerts to stay updated on their hourly goals. Furthermore, the tracker feels cumbersome to wear while sleeping, fails to capture arm-static exercises like cycling accurately without manual app adjustments, and suffers from minor software frustrations, such as wiping valuable Fuel data if a session's start or end times are edited.

Overview and Key Features Pros and Cons Pros: Beautiful and comfortable design. Pros: Built-in USB plug eliminates the need for proprietary charging cables. Pros: Integrated display allows users to check stats and the time without a phone. Pros: Motivational ecosystem packed with trophies and community features. Pros: Improved 5-to-6-day battery life. Cons: Sits at the expensive end of the market at £129. Cons: Lacks an Android app and a physical vibration alert motor. Cons: No built-in food or calorie intake tracking. Cons: Software bugs can cause overnight sleep tracking sessions to fail. Cons: Incapable of monitoring stationary exercise bikes or providing deep athletic metrics like GPS routes and split times.

The Nike FuelBand SE serves as a "gamified" activity tracker that utilizes Nike's proprietary abstract "fuel points" system to motivate user movement rather than just tracking traditional metrics like calories or steps. In terms of pros, the second-generation wearable introduces significantly improved durability and water resistance, making it perfectly safe for daily tasks like showering or washing dishes. It features an upgraded three-axis accelerometer for more precise movement tracking, alongside an automated light-correcting LED screen that dynamically adjusts to atmospheric light, extending battery life beyond its advertised four days. Furthermore, a major software overhaul allows sport-specific calibration for activities like yoga, training, and cycling, a new "Win the Hour" metric to discourage sedentary behavior, and robust social integration features to build a supportive community among friendscontextual(citationKey="0.1.1", source="""Meanwhile, Nike understands the... among friends.""", node=117062)/>>. On the downside, the device features several notable cons regarding its overall functionality and physical updates. To the casual observer, there are very few visual changes from the first generation, aside from subtle inner-lining color pops and a separate high-end Metaluxe watch-style collection. While the enhanced water...

The Vancouverscape review highlights the Nike FuelBand SE as a sleek, water-resistant fitness wearable optimized to track power walks and daily activity levels through a proprietary metric called NikeFuel. Priced at US/CDN $99, the device features a bright 120-LED display with an automatic ambient light sensor, Bluetooth 4.0 for seamless smartphone syncing, and a built-in USB connector for convenient charging. It motivates users through a structured "Sessions" tracking mode, online goal/trophy achievements, and an hourly "own the hour" alert that prompts sedentary desk workers to stretch and move for five minutes every hour. Additionally, the review notes that while the rigid bracelet remains relatively comfortable for overnight wear to log deep and light sleep sessions, the manufacturer, Nike, will discontinue production while maintaining ongoing application support. The reviewer outlines distinct performance pros and cons derived from personal testing on Android and iOS platforms. The primary pros include real-time application updates via Bluetooth, comprehensive activity overview graphics across multiple timeframes, highly visible screens in sunny environments, and the ability to share achievements on Facebook or Twitter to engage in social challenges....

However, the device is held back by its relatively high $149 price tag and a distinct lack of advanced biometric tracking compared to competitors like the Fitbit One or Basis Carbon Steel. It does not monitor heart rate, sleep, skin temperature, distance traveled, or stairs climbed. Furthermore, step-counting accuracy was found to be notably low during track testing, the companion mobile app exhibited bugs with half-hour time settings, and its proprietary "fuel points" metric remains highly arbitrary and abstract for new users.