The Misfit Shine is a small, attractive all-metal fitness tracker that is easy to live with and effortlessly does what it needs to do.
The first product from a company that counts John Sculley, former Apple CEO, as a co-founder, the Shine was successfully funded on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, before going on general sale in November in the UK.
The name, Misfit Wearables, was chosen because the company happened to be founded on the day of Steve Jobs' death, with “misfit” being a tribute to one of Apple’s signature adverts, “Here’s to the crazy ones”.
Designed like jewellery
The Misfit Shine is arguably the best looking fitness tracker out there. It looks more like a tiny UFO than a fitness tracker, and that’s a good thing for something you are going to wear day in and day out.
The outside of the Shine is made of aircraft-grade aluminium, with no buttons or visible display. The top of the device has a ring of embedded LEDs that light up when activated by a double or triple tap on the touch-sensitive metal casing.
The lights indicate your progress towards your daily activity challenge, but can also be used to tell the time, lighting up in the hour and minute positions.
The Shine is currently available in a dark grey, almost black colour or silver, but will also be available in "champagne" and a light blue topaz colour in the next few months.
Worn almost anywhere on the body
Using the Shine couldn’t be easier. It is one of the most robust fitness trackers out there despite weighing just 9.4g, waterproof to 50m and can be worn almost anywhere on the body.
Included in the box is a rubberised plastic bracelet so the Shine can be worn comfortably on the wrist. There's also a magnetic clasp so you can clip it to pretty much any piece of clothing.
If you're performing a specific activity, such as running, playing tennis or sleeping, for instance, a triple tap sets the Shine into activity mode for more accurate recording of your motions and exertions.
The Shine then syncs with an iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth – place the Shine directly onto the glass of the screen of your phone or tablet, on the spot indicated by the sync circle, and tap down to initiate a sync. The iOS app allows you to configure your bespoke activity, update the tracker and review your activity from the past days and weeks, as well as your sleep patterns if you use the Shine to track your sleep at night.
An Android app is currently in the works, and is due to be released before the year is out, but the Shine is currently iPhone-only.
During a normal day, the Shine charts different levels of activity, including low, medium and energetic motions like walking during your commute, as well as light and deep sleep, allowing you to see your varying activity throughout the day.
One of the best features of the Shine is its ultra low-power requirement. It has a battery life of between four and six months – which far outdoes the average 10-14 battery life of most other trackers – and uses traditional circular watch batteries. That does mean that you have to keep a few of them handy, but two are included in the box and they cost as little as 70p each – a small price to pay for never having to remember to charge your tracker.
Price
The Misfits Shine costs £100 in the UK. It comes in black or silver, with topaz and Champagne colour variants available in early 2014. For comparison, other fitness trackers like the Fitbit Flex and One cost £80 each, while the Withings Pulse costs £90 and the Jawbone Up £100. Nike’s new Fuelband SE is currently available for pre-order at £129.
Verdict: one of the easiest trackers to live with
The Misfit Shine is one of the easiest fitness trackers to live with. It is light, small and discrete, doesn’t require charging and is both waterproof and hardy. You can easily clip it onto almost any piece of clothing and forget about it, while the wristband is both comfortable and easily fits under a shirt cuff.
There's no vibrate function, or screen, but the built-in LED light display and simple double and triple tap interface is an attractive, intuitive compromise.
Short of tracking stair climbs, the Shine does what a fitness tracker needs to do with the minimum of fuss, although Android users need not apply; it can only sync with an iPhone or iPad for now. An Android app is in the works - and if it is as well-designed and easy to use as the iPhone app, Android users will be in for a treat.
Overall, the Shine isn’t the cheapest fitness tracker out there, nor the most feature-packed, but it is one of the best-designed, most attractive and discrete, which is pretty important for something meant to be worn every day.
Star rating: 5/5
Pros: Attractive, slim and compact design, solid all-metal build quality, waterproof, four to six month battery life, magnetic clasps
Cons: Disposable batteries, iPhone-only (for now), no altitude measurement, no vibrating alert
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