It’s gorgeous. No rubber coating, no display panels, no buttons; just a minimalistic full-metal polished disc. I was intrigued by the Misfit Shine. And the YouTube video with the Misfit Shine unit placed on the screen for syncing? Too cool to be true. You can imagine my excitement when i finally laid my hands on one. Misfit Wearables was founded in 2011 by Sonny Vu with John Scully and Sridhar Iyengar. The Shine activity tracker is their first foray into wearable tech.

ACCURACY (Updated 20th June 2014)

I ran my Misfit Shine through my usual 3 activities on a treadmill and i threw in a swim as well. The tracker was worn on my non-dominant wrist and hip. The scores are pretty impressive. 

Since the Misfit Shine is waterproof with swimming tracking capability, I did two swim sessions with similar workout and about the same intensity. The difference is one session had the Misfit Shine on my wrist and the other had the Misfit Shine on my trunks. The results are very different. As recommended by Misfit, activities like swimming should be tracked with the Misfit Shine in a wrist band so choose where you Shine wisely…

The Misfit Wearables website did state that wearing the Misfit Shine on certain locations may give me more accurate results for certain activities and from my own unit, that seems about right; certain locations do give more accurate results in terms of step count only. You probably have to move the Shine around to find your own accurate spot.

HOW’S IT LOOK?

The Misfit Shine is crafted out of aircraft grade aluminium and is built to last a lifetime. If it’s good enough to fly, it’s good enough for me. The shine has tiny dots on one side of the disc which LED lights will shine from. These are actually 1560 tiny holes which are laser drilled on the aluminium disc which allow light through and water out. Yes it’s waterproof up to 5 atm.

The magnetic clasp doesn’t clip tightly on the shoes, especially those thick walled sneakers and I’ve lost a Misfit Shine this way…Ouch. 

ACCESSIBILITY OF DATA

Initially released for iOS only, the Android app was later released on Dec 2013. There’s no web interface so everything is on the app. Other than the colour scheme, the Android app and iOS app differ by quite a bit.

For example there’s food capturing on the iOS app whereas the Android app offers history comparison by month. Syncing is done wirelessly. Though putting the Misfit Shine on the screen to sync may seem cool, there’s actually no need to do that. All you have to do is bring your iOS or Android device close to your Misfit Shine and commence syncing from the app.

Here’s a screen capture of the iOS and Android app on a iPhone 4S and a Google Nexus 5.

A World Feed that lists achievements from people around the world who are also “shining”. Apparently the highest points achieved by a Shine user is 9000 thereabouts. 

Food log was added early 2014 and you can now take photos of the food you consume and it’ll appear in one of the boxes. Pretty nifty. Again this function is available on the iOS platform only. MyFitnessPal is also compatible with both iOS and Android Misfit app.

Tracked stats are not downloadable and the summary is restricted to weekly only for the iOS platform and up to monthly on the Android platform.

FUNCTIONS

Misfit Shine claims to track multiple activities tracking. You select the activity to be tracked every time you triple tap the Shine. Shine tracks in points. This is similar in concept to Nike Fuel where the activities through the day will accrue towards a total number of points. Running, Swimming etc will get you a certain number of points. If you forget to wear your shine, there’ll be no points.

You start the activity tracking function by triple tapping the Shine and you’ll see looping LED lights light up to inform you that tracking has started. There’s no “stop tracking” tap. The Shine knows when you’re done with a tracked activity when it senses the activity has stopped after 3-5 minutes. If you’re going to take a 10 minutes break from your swim, you should triple tap again to ensure the tracking is in good order.

Sleep tracking is now automatic. The Misfit Shine will track when you got to bed and when you wake but this function must be enabled.

You can also track your sleep manually. In order to do that you’ll have to make sure the Misfit Shine is set up to track sleep before triple tapping.  (If you’ve been swimming or cycling in the day, you’ll have to set it to sleep on your mobile devices) There’s no need to stop tracking. Misfit Shine supposedly knows when you wake up. 

Misfit Wearables collaborated with Beddit to release the Misfit Beddit sleep monitoring system which is to be purchased seperately. You can now track your sleep with more accuracy.

Misfit Shine is also a watch. You can choose whether to display the time or the activity first upon double tapping. It takes a few seconds for time to show. I learnt how to read the time quickly and it never fails to garner the oohs and aahs. There’s no vibration so you don’t get silent or idle alarms. It can be a pain to tell tell under the sun…

ANYTHING ELSE?

A CR2032 coin battery will power the Misfit Shine for an advertised four months of usage. So there’s no charging or cables to worry about compared to other tracking devices. Its’ waterproof up to 5 ATM. That’s 150 feet, way deeper than your standard swimming pool. It’s also laundry proof and life proof in case you accidentally chuck it into the laundry while it’s clipped on your clothes. Sounds like four months of indestructibility.

Addition of friends is a recent feature. You also get a world feed of people around the world who also track their activites with the Misfit Shine. The maximum points you can set is 9900 and the minimum is 100. Mine is set at 1600.

IN A NUTSHELL

Pros:

• Beautiful
• Waterproof
• Doubles as a watch
• Excellent battery life. No charging required, runs on coin battery
• Offers multiple activity tracking, including Yoga and dance.
• Allows tracking of food intake through photo taking in app. (iOS only)
• Auto sleep tracking capability
• World feed
• Comparison to the average male and female Misfit Shine user
• Compatible with select iOS, Android and Windows devices
• Apple Healthkit compatible

Cons:

• Data not downloadable.
• No vibration.

Misfit Shine started out as an elegant activity tracker, keeping things simple along the way. Aesthetically pleasing, Misfit Shine stands out in a sea of sporty looking fitness trackers. It looks great, it’s waterproof and there’s no weekly charging required. If you’ve tried Jawbone UP, Fitbit, Polar or even Nike activity trackers, you’ll find the presentation of tracked stats sparse. But if you’re not too bothered, then Shine on.

There’s been multiple updates from Misfit Wearables since its release with every subsequent update offering better features or better tracking accuracy. New leather straps, necklace, even socks and T-shirts for the Misfit Shine. This is clearly a company that is working to ensure their crown jewel shines brighter by the day. They are only one of few companies to offer support for the three major OS platforms; iOS, Android and Windows. (Only select models)

Listed price: $99.99 at Misfit.

Colours: Grey, Jet, Topaz, Champagne, Storm, Coral, Wine, Sea Glass, Coca Cola Red.

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