Post originally published on the Iguana Inc blog.

I have long been a fan of the Jawbone UP line of activity tracking bracelets (since December 2012, to be exact) and have gotten many friends, colleagues, and family members on the band wagon. (Pun not intended.)

When my original UP bracelet finally kicked the bucket, I decided to upgrade to the new model, the UP24. My initial opinion of it was poor and my experience was extremely frustrating. I would check my current step total, walk the dog and count my steps, and then check it again. If I walked 300+ steps it might show 20 or less. Seriously?! What else is not being accurately tracked?! Eventually I gave up on that aspect of the bracelet and have since come to the realization that it has a delayed sync, even though the app says it was just synced. (This is further supported by the fact that often while I am sitting down, I will get a push notification telling me I just walked X number of steps.)

One of the things that I liked about my original UP was the idle alert capability. If I didn’t take any steps for 1 hour, it would vibrate and remind me to get up and walk around. I was never able to get this to consistently and reliably work on the UP24, likely because of the delayed sync. (Note: Jawbone doesn’t say it is delayed. This is merely my opinion based on experience). It was so aggravating to be in the middle of walking the dog and have the idle alert go off!

My favorite thing about the UP24 (besides the fun colors!) is the push notifications. If I previously “agreed” to go to bed by a certain time, I will get a reminder on my phone 1 hour before that time. I also get push notifications every 1,000 steps and daily at 4:30pm. Granted, I haven’t consistently gotten the notifications since upgrading to iOS 8, but I’m crossing my fingers they will return soon!

People always ask me why to choose the Up over the FitBit or any of the other trackers out there. Here are my top reasons:

When I first got one, no other activity tracker could monitor sleep, and that is a key feature to me.
It is slimmer and less obtrusive than any other bracelets.
The app is user friendly and allows you to input food eaten to see a more complete picture of input versus output.
The battery lasts 14 days!
It is water resistant, so I don’t have to take it off when I shower.
9 times out of 10, Jawbone’s customer service is amazing and they will send you a new bracelet if yours stops working. (I think I went through 8 of the original Up bracelets, likely because I was wearing them into the ground, and they kept sending me new ones!)
Quirks and annoyances aside, I love my UP24!