We tested the Jawbone UP3, the quintessential health monitor

Monitoring is in fashion, wearing devices Wearables What are called is something that we see more and more common, being loaded with sensors by the body and that these are part of our daily clothing is the price that must be paid if we want to take better control of our day to day.

Jawbone is just one of the many companies that are dedicated to the manufacture and sale of these devices, among them we recognize brands such as Fitbit, Garmin, Xiaomi, Nike, Misfit and even Razer itself with its Nabu, but Jawbone with its UP3 has hit the mark in something above the others, I mean focus.

The Jawbone UP3 is a smart bracelet, but it is not a fitness tracker, it does not notify you if they call you, nor does it vibrate if they send you a message, nor does it have a screen that shows you information, it does not do any of that.

The Jawbone UP3 is a Healt Tracker, and it is precisely that (and that it is the most advanced on the market even today) that makes it special and allows it to stand out from the rest.

Rather than being a device geared towards people who are already active, this targets sedentary people, a bracelet that helps us understand our health and how our day to day affects our body and mind.

Mission: Improve our health

Counting steps, calories, distances traveled, sleep phases and all those things is nothing special, charging almost € 200 for a bracelet that only does that is a sin, for this we have the beautiful Xiaomi Mi Band 1S that for € 20 It even includes an optical heart rate sensor, but then what does this bracelet do that allows you to achieve that value?

The Jawbone UP3, unlike other wearables, is an invisible bracelet, a device with the latest technology capable of hiding in our sleeve with great subtlety as if it were another aesthetic accessory, a bracelet that presents quality finishes that can even pass as a merely aesthetic accessory, but after that fine and precious layer of class and exquisiteness hides a feat of engineering, loaded with sensors such as a three-axis accelerometer, a Bluetooth 4.0 LE module and a set of 'bioimpedance' sensors.

Bioimpedance sensors?

It is normal that you have doubts about the functionality or purpose of these sensors, and it is precisely here where it stands out above the others, these sensors are located inside the circle of the bracelet, arranged in the shape of 5 metallic squares with a golden appearance (whose existence one ignores when wearing it thanks to its fine profile and rounded tips) divided into two groups of two and one loose at the top.

Using these sensors, many things are measured, such as the electrical resistance of our skin, the beats per minute of our heart, our respiratory rate and even what is known as «Galvanic Skin Response» or (GSR), the latter is, to understand it simply, what we notice when we are scared, that chill or tension that runs through our body, both when we are sad, when we are scared, and when we are happy, you could say it's like an emotional response through the skin.

What are these sensors for?

Well, thanks to them the Jawbone UP3 can measure things like the beats per minute of our heart every little time during The 24 hours of the day (without spending hardly any energy on it), our breathing and body temperature.

This data allows the bracelet not only to follow our heart rate throughout the day and all night (to detect the impact of our lifestyle on our heart), but also to know when we are in the REM sleep phase, a unique feature that only UP3 is capable of, and this is more important than it seems, since conventional bracelets measure the sleep phases following 3 of them (Awake, Light Sleep and Deep Sleep), but the REM phase It is a phase as important as any other, it is the phase in which we are dreaming, during this phase (REM = REM = Rapid Eye Movement) our brain repairs its cells and establishes the necessary neural connections to consolidate short-term memory in memory in the long term, while the deep sleep phase what it does is repair the muscles and joints such as tendons.

Knowing how many hours of REM phase we have enjoyed in one night allows us to have a better idea if we have rested well or if our brain still needs a rest, since quantifying and analyzing sleep is more difficult than saying Light Sleep and Deep Sleep, something that only helps us to determine when we are more likely to wake up.

What benefits does the Jawbone UP3 provide?

Knowing more about our day to day and about how our body responds to our actions, we can make much smarter decisions to improve our quality of life, and for this Jawbone has made available to us a fantastic app that has a "personal trainer," but I'm not referring to the typical trainer who tells you to do push-ups and chin-ups, but a trainer who teaches you to live healthy.

Smart Coach It is the name that Jawbone have chosen, and this system will allow you to understand what is happening with your body, how your lifestyle affects your health and how you could improve it. Smart Coach talks about everything, tells you when you have slept well, when you have slept little, how you can sleep better, why you may have slept badly, when your heart is in abnormal values, if you are doing enough sport, what you could eat to improve your quality of life, it even shows you statistics comparing you with the rest of people of the same age, therefore it is like having a personal assistant on your phone in charge of taking care of your health.

Features

• Step counter
• Physical activity detection (and corresponding classification via app)
• Advanced detection of sleep phases (Awake, Light Sleep, Deep Sleep and REM Sleep)
• Automatic sleep mode
• Silent vibration alarm
• Smart alarm (up to 10, 20 or 30 minutes before the time, adjustable from the app)
• Passive (when not active) and resting (just before waking up) heart rate measurement
• Smart Coach: System of recommendations and explanations thanks to which you will understand what is happening, why, and how to change it.
• 3 control LEDs, invisible until a double tap is made on the metal cover of the bracelet, after which one of them lights up indicating which mode is active (blue for sleep or orange for activity).
• White notification LED that turns on when the UP application gives you a warning.
• Inactivity alert.
• Goal accomplished alert.
• 7 day battery life
• Water resistant (not submersible)

UP3 Specifications

• 3-axis accelerometer
• Bioimpedance Sensors
• Bluetooth 4.0 LE
• Vibration motor
• Size: 220mm x 12,2mm x 3mm to 9,3mm
• One size for 140mm - 190mm wrists (adjustable)
• Weight of 29 g
• 38 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery
• Hypoallergenic medical grade TPU rubber strap
• Anodized aluminum top cover (less than 0,5% nickel)
• Tin-coated stainless steel reading electrodes
• 6-pin magnetic induction charging port

Conclusion

Editor's Opinion