Misfit Wearables

Author: Kaitlyn Short

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The Good

• Design awards
• Great features
• Easy to view progress

Misfit certainly deserves those design awards we mentioned above: the Shine earns a nod for being the coolest-looking device we reviewed. Outside an accessory casing, it's nothing more than a sleek, quarter-sized disc with a few LED lights that will show the time or feature fitness alerts. You can opt for basic black or gunmetal gray to highlight the Shine's minimalist theme, or punch up the drama with one of six other vivid colors. If you'd prefer to wear it rather than put it in your pocket, Misfit offers necklace and wristband accessories that the Shine can be slipped into. We'd recommend this option, as it's very easy to lose the Shine - but you will have to pay an extra $49.95-79.99 for an accessory on top of the $99.99 you'll already be paying for the base piece. The Shine isn't all looks, though: it will track your steps, distance, calories burned and sleep. You can tap the Shine throughout the day to monitor your progress and see how far you need to go to reach your fitness goals. The Shine is made from anodized aircraft-grade aluminum and is waterproof up to 50 meters. As for the app, it's fairly easy to read and lets you view your progress in charts or graphs. If you're aiming to lose weight, you can also take advantage of the daily food journal and track what you're eating. It also offers the option to connect with your friends to encourage each other and engage in some friendly competition.

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The Bad

• Does not auto-sync
• Sync to view tracking

While we like the Shine's design and functionality, it doesn't auto-sync like many other fitness tracker devices; you'll need to touch it to your smartphone to transfer data. This means that if you get curious about how many steps you've taken during the day, you'll need to sync the Shine to your phone, transfer the data and then either tap the shine or check the app to see your progress - what a hassle! Misfit could greatly increase their appeal - and their score here - by offering an auto-sync option. Support may also be a challenge with Misfit - while the website does feature an online help center, it wasn't working at the time of our review.

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The Bottom Line

Misfit has great potential to become a go-to fitness tracker company. It has managed to combine some solid functionality with a very impressive design, although the syncing process lacks efficiency. We'd like to see better syncing in the future, as well as more devices to choose from, but the Shine won't disappoint.