The original Microsoft Band was impressive when it debuted last year. It had a colorful touchscreen display, built-in GPS and heart rate monitors, and guided workouts—proving that a fitness device could be smarter than a simple step-counter or time-tracker. But it was far from perfect; you could barely use those features because of the Band's awful, uncomfortable design.

Yet here we are, in an era of elegant Surface Pro 4s and Surface Books, and now we also have an elegant Microsoft Band. The new $249 device boasts an improved design, making it a more "wearable" wearable, new sensors that detect floors climbed and UV exposure, and an online dashboard for Microsoft Health where you can create your own workouts. As a hybrid fitness device with many smartwatch-like features, it's hard to put the Microsoft Band into a (figurative) box. But Microsoft knew what it needed to fix the second time around—and what was best left untouched.

A much-needed design upgrade

The original Microsoft Band was hamstrung by its design. The Band was rigid, angular, and difficult to wear, but Microsoft has improved the situation with an all-curved design and a flexible, soft-touch band. The main module, housing the 320×128-pixel AMOLED display, now curves to better fit the natural shape of your wrist, while the silicone-like band hugs your arm comfortably. On the display's edge sit the device's only physical buttons: the power button, which can also turn off the display quickly, and the "Action" button that selects certain options on the screen.

The band's clasp retains the same pinch-and-slide mechanism as the original. I wasn't a fan of it in the first Band and I'm still not a fan of it now. It's difficult to secure with one hand, especially at the tightness you prefer. When closed, the clasp portion of the Microsoft Band measures nearly half an inch from top to bottom. Since I wore the Band with the display on the underside of my wrist, the clasp portion sat on the top of my wrist and just looked weird.

The design does have a practical purpose, though. On the pinch part of the clasp is the Band's UV sensor, which measures the amount of sunlight when you're outside so the Band can advise you to put on sunscreen. The underside of the slider part of the clasp holds the galvanic skin sensors, which measure the electrical resistance of the skin during exercise.

Speaking of sensors, the Microsoft Band has a lot of them. In addition to fitness tracker essentials—tri-axis accelerometer, gyrometer, and barometer—the Band also has ambient light, skin temperature, and capacitive sensors, a microphone, built-in GPS, and a continuous optical heart rate monitor. GPS will be crucial for those who frequently run or bike outdoors, while the optical heart rate monitor takes pulse readings throughout the day and during exercise to show you peak and average heart rates. Each time I measured my resting heart rate, readings hovered between 70 and 80 bpm, which is the measurement I'm used to seeing from other devices. While I wore the Band alone during workouts, the heart rate monitor typically hovered between 125 and 135 bpm during peak exercise and never jumped around too much.

Unfortunately, the sensors—especially GPS—can drain battery life like crazy when in heavy use. Microsoft claims the Band gets up to two days on a single charge, and I found that to be true with little GPS use. If you don't use the GPS at all, you should get an extra half day out of the Band (which only takes about an hour and a half to charge fully).

The Microsoft Band has one of the most extensive sets of sensors in the market, even when including the Apple Watch and fitness band competitors like the Fitbit Surge. However, rather than focusing on quantity, quality and use cases are most important when considering sensor-rich devices like this. Not only do the sensors have to work and work well, but you should be getting as much use out of them as possible. Someone who needs to be careful in extreme sunlight will appreciate the Band's UV monitor, but not everyone will feel the need to use the feature on a daily basis (or at all).

One of the biggest issues in the first Microsoft Band was its pairing and setup process. Many users experienced difficulties pairing the Band to iOS devices and then felt frustration when told the Band wasn't connected. It appears that Microsoft made things a little better the second time around. Although I mainly used the new Microsoft Band on a Windows Phone, I did pair it to my iPhone 6 first. Connecting via Bluetooth was fine and I completed the setup process until the very end when you're prompted to open Microsoft Health to continue. I opened the app and it didn't seem to recognize my Band was around.

I was able to fix this by disconnecting the Band from my Bluetooth and restarting the setup process. The second time it worked perfectly. When I went to pair the new Band with a Nokia Lumia 830, I made sure to unregister the Band from my Microsoft Health account, sign out of the account on my iPhone 6, and disconnect the Band from Bluetooth before starting the pairing process on the new phone.

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino



Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

Valentina Palladino

You've got a lot of fitness options

The new Microsoft Band is one of the strongest fitness devices on the market, and it should have broad appeal. It's not intended only to hardcore triathletes or to those just looking to get off the couch more—it has features for both groups and many in between.

The home screen of the device shows you the time and your step count; you can tap it to bring up swipeable pages that show distance traveled, calories burned, floors climbed, and your current heart rate. On the heart rate page, the device will show a tiny flashing heart and the word "Acquiring" when it's reading your pulse. It only took the Band about 15 seconds to read my resting heart rate; after this, the display says "Locked" when it has a consistent reading on your changing pulse. You can check your heart rate at any time of the day this way, and the Band automatically records your heart rate during exercise.

Using the Band's tile interface, you can choose from running, cycling, miscellaneous, and guided workouts to monitor. Tap on the tile for the exercise you want and press the Action button to begin. The Band will ask if you want the GPS on or off, so you can choose depending on if you're doing and indoor or outdoor session. The Band starts tracking time, heart rate, and distance automatically and displays those stats on its screen.

My first workout was a 30-minute elliptical session in my gym using the Band's run tracking, and I was surprised at how accurate the device was. It measured my total distance as only .2 miles off what the elliptical itself recorded, and I believe the discrepancy came when I frequently switched from gripping the moving handles of the machine to holding on to the steady handles in front of me. The Band didn't know I was moving when my arms were stationary. I didn't fare as well during my second elliptical workout the next day, when the Microsoft Band was nearly .5 miles off my actual distance.

I recommend using the general "workout" tile for tracking gym equipment workouts, since the "running" tile seems to work best on treadmills and outside. When I ran to my post office and back one day, the Band measured the correct distance of .8 miles. I used the GPS during that quick run, and it took about two minutes for the Band to find a signal. You can tell the Band to continue searching for a GPS signal while you start your run, but I had more luck when I stood still and waited for the device to find my location first.

Microsoft has also added a golf tracking feature with its own page in the Band's companion app, Microsoft Health. Under "Find a course," you can look up golf courses nearby and select the one you will be playing. While tracking your game, you don't need to have your smartphone out—the Band's GPS will follow you along, detect which hole you're at, providing distance estimates to the front, center, and back of the green. It also automatically tracks your shots. While the Band likely won't replace dedicated swing-tracking, on-club devices, casual golfers will like the convenience of using the Band while they're on the links.

"Find a course" comes just below "Find a workout" in Microsoft Health, which is where you can search for and download guided exercise routines for your Band. There's something for everyone here: if you're training for a race, there's the "Beginner 5K Training Plan," and if you're in a time crunch, there's "Couch to 5K in 14 Days." If you're averse to treadmills, you have "The Anti-Treadmill Cardio Workout," and if you just want to get outside to enjoy the weather, you can choose the "Sunny Day Workout."

While the Band's guided workouts don't give you pointers on how to get better at certain activities (as the new Moov Now does), variety is the advantage. Currently there are 133 workouts available on the Band—a world of options compared to Moov Now's handful of routines—and they come from brands including Gold's Gym and Shape Magazine, with categories including running, strength, golf, and bodyweight.

You can choose which plans you want to download to the Band, but be sure to look at their details before doing so. Some workouts are plans that have daily or weekly schedules to follow and others are shorter, one-time workouts. If you download a short workout, you'll have to complete it before resuming your current workout plan (or you can go into the app and re-download the next session of your plan). For example, I downloaded a four-minute "Indoor Bike Tabata Sprints" workout and it replaced the "Flat Stomach Formula" plan schedule I had on the Band already. Once I was finished with the bike sprints, I could download the next session of my flat-stomach routine.

If you prefer to go at your own pace using your favorite fitness app, the Band lets you connect many third-party apps, including Strava and Runkeeper, so all your stats recorded in those apps will be shared with the Band.

The one activity the Microsoft Band cannot track is swimming, since the Band isn't waterproof. You shouldn't shower with it on or submerge it in water, either, but it will resist hand-washing and any splashes that result.

The Band is a sleep tracker as well. Not too long ago the original Microsoft Band received a software update that made sleep tracking automatic, and that goes for the second Band as well. The first night I wore the Band, I expected it to track my Zs automatically—and then had no data the next morning. I asked Microsoft about this and a representative told me that it can take up to two hours after waking up for your previous night's sleep data to be fully available in the app. You can always manually enter sleep mode as well by pressing the Action button from within the sleep tile.