The Misfit Ray is a breakaway from the signature flat disc design that we’ve come to associate with Misfit Wearables.

While it’s being marketed as a discreet everyday accessory with a heavy focus on customisation, activity tracking and pseudo smart notifications is still at the core of Misfit’s newest product.

Misfit was recently purchased by the Fossil Group and the Misfit Ray was their last product to be released as an independent company. I had the Misfit Ray for a week and here’s what I have to say.

IN SHORT

PROS

• All day activity tracker
• Tracks steps, distance, calories
• Automatically tracks and tags active durations
• Automatically tracks sleep
• Runs on 3 button cell batteries for 6 months, no recharging required
• Vibration enabled for smart notifications, alarms and move alerts
• Water resistant to 50m
• Changeable wrist bands
• Discreet looking
• Misfit Link compatible

CONS

• High price for limited features
• Limited functions on Misfit Link app
• Weak vibration
• Lack of screen

As usual, I’d recommend you browse through the entire review to check out the workings of the Misfit Ray fitness tracker thoroughly.

LOOK AND FEEL

The Misfit ray is a lightweight tubular fitness tracker crafted out of aluminium. It is discreet looking with a single slit of LED at one end. The Misfit logo is emblazoned at the back of the Ray tracker.

Personally I think it actually looks pretty good with the right accessory wrist band. Perhaps something metal, maybe even leather. But the sport band that came with the $99.99 Misfit Ray just looks cheap. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to cough up another $20 for a leather band. If Misfit had the foresight, it wouldn’t cost them much to throw in both bands honestly. Oh well.

The wrist band has a single clasp that determines the tightness of the Misfit Ray when worn.

The Ray runs on 3 button cell batteries that will supposedly power the fitness tracker for 6 months so no recharging is necessary. A single twist and pull on the correct side of the wrist band allows the user to replace the batteries on their own.

It’s simple and convenient.

The device is vibration enabled so you can set alarms and movement alerts. The LEDs will also flash different colors based on the progress towards activity goal for the day, or to indicate different types of notifications.

The only way to interact with the Misfit Ray is by tapping on the fitness tracker. Also the Misfit Ray is water resistant to 50m

FUNCTIONS AND DATA PRESENTATION

The Misfit Ray is an all day activity tracker that tracks steps, distance, calories. It also automatically tracks sleep and activities throughout the day.

From the week of usage, sleep tracking duration was pretty accurate. Also it detected the period during the day when I was active and tagged it. I have the option of indicating what activity it was that I was participating in.

The Misfit mobile app interface has remained the same for the last year or so. There’s also a web dashboard which I never use because all the information is already available on the mobile app.

A double tap on the Misfit Ray will cause the LED to light up and indicate the progress towards the activity goal for the day.

Red: 0-24%

Red and Orange: 25 -49%

Red, orange and yellow: 50-74%

Red, orange, yellow and white: 75-99%

Flashes all the colours of the rainbow: 100% and above

The vibration allows the Misfit Ray to be used as an alarm to wake up to, smart notifications or simply as a reminder to get up and move after prolonged inactivity.

I thought the strength of the vibration was too weak. I tend not to wear the fitness tracks snugly around my wrists and only do so when I’m handling optical heart rate sensors when a tight fit is required. So I adopted a looser fit with the Misfit Ray and noticed that there are times when I would miss notifications if I’m too engrossed in other things.

Unfortunately the strength of the vibration cannot be tweaked at present.

Misfit Move

This is Misfit’s version of reminding the user to move after being sedentary for an extended period of time; which is up to the user to set. The Misfit Ray tracker will vibrate and orange light will flash from the LED slit.

Smart notifications:

Incoming calls will cause the LED to flash green while text messages will bring up a blue light. Both notifications will be accompanied by vibrations. There are no notifications for mobile apps like Whatsapp or facebook. Also you can’t set what colour light should flash for calls or text messages; it is pre-set.

Misfit Link

This is the mobile app that allows the Misfit Ray fitness tracker to double up as a presentation clicker, selfie button, music player and so on. Unfortunately the only configuration left is a triple tap. So even for playing music, you’re resigned to allocating the triple tap to pause, play the next track or go back.

While taking selfies is still fine, I can’t for the life of me imagine scrolling to the next presentation slide by tapping 3 times on the Misfit Ray. Nevertheless, it is still an additional function that the Misfit Ray features.

ANYTHING ELSE?

The Misfit Ray is a no frills activity tracker that doesn’t look like one. If I could draw a comparison, it closely resembles the Jawbone UP2 series of fitness bands in terms of aesthetics but with more functions.

3rd party vendors like Skinomi  has already released carbon fibre coloured prints to accessorize the fitness tracker itself. Misfit Wearables have yet to release any official accessories or wrist bands for the Misfit Ray as of publish.

IN A NUTSHELL

While the Misfit Ray is a breakaway form Misfit Wearable’s signature form, being too simple has its setbacks if the price is set too high. I for one have difficult reconciling Misfit’s fitness platform, the Misfit Ray fitness tracker with the premium I have to pay for.

I’m not against paying a premium for a powerful fitness tracker but the Misfit Ray seem a tad too simple in appearance to warrant a price tag of $99.99. If I had to choose, I’m more leaned towards the new Fitbit Alta. The Fitbit Alta’s display is not always on so it can also double up as an accessory with changeable wrist straps.

If aesthetics is a huge consideration when it comes to purchasing and wearing a fitness tracker, then the Misfit Ray is worth considering. Otherwise, you’d be better off spending a bit more money on a dedicated fitness tracker, preferably something with GPS and heart rate monitoring capabilities.

The Misfit Ray is available at $99.99 at Misfit.com for the sports band version and $119.99 for the leather band bundle. You can also purchase the Misfit Ray from Amazon where there’s usually a small discount and free delivery depending on where you reside. Plus your purchase helps to fund the running of this site!

Thanks for reading. As usual, drop me a comment if you have further queries and I’ll try my best to answer.