As I have posted before I am trying to get healthy and lose weight I recently purchased The Fitbit Flex 2 to help me monitor my activity during the day. I would have gone with the Microsoft Band 2 if it was not discontinued as I had an original Microsoft Band and I loved it but I won’t spend money on outdated unsupported hardware.

Many of my friends pushed me to go Apple Watch or Android Wear since I do have two phones an iPhone 8 and Pixel 2, so I could have gone either way, but the Fitbit Flex 2 was the right fit for me.

To start the Fitbit Flex 2 is waterproof which is really appealing to me as the Apple Watch is not and some Android Wear is not, and I like to go swimming and want to track my activity. The Fitbit Flex 2 itself is a very small device so it’s very customizable with all different bands and accessories if you don’t want people to know you’re wearing a fitness band which is not a big game changer for me, but it makes the device more appealing.

fitbit flex 2

The Fitbit Flex 2 tracks the main metrics steps, exercise, calories, miles, and sleep time. The device does vibrate every so often to remind you to move if your someone like me with a desk job. The Fitbit Flex 2 does vibrate to alert you of incoming text messages and phone calls. You cannot answer the calls on the device but it’s a nice feature if your phone in your pocket and you can’t hear it on vibrate or silent mode.

The Fitbit Flex 2 does cost between $50-$60 dollars depending on where and when you purchase the device which does make it affordable for most people on a tight budget that just wants a basic activity monitor. When I say basic there is no heart or blood pressure monitor which for some people is a big disadvantage but not for me.

The Fitbit Flex 2 does have a proprietary charger and lasts about 4 days on a full charge, so you will need to charge the device about twice a week if you wear your Fitbit 24/7.  I would recommend wearing it at night because it does monitor sleep patterns and calculates how much you are sleeping a night.

I did notice on Fitbit’s site that the majority of waterproof fitness bands start at about $200 dollars making the Flex 2 the cheapest waterproof band Fitbit offers to consumers.

I think this is a great device and is a great activity monitor, but it does lack in functionality when you compare the device to an Apple Watch or the $500-dollar Fitbit but for someone like me who just wants to track his activity and lose a little weight this is a perfect low-cost device. For someone who is a professional fitness person or personal trainer I think they would be better served to get a little more expensive device with more functionality.