Alternative to tingling and numbness from a Fitbit Charge?

July 4, 2016 11:17 AM

I've been wearing a Fitbit Charge for a few weeks and loving the functionality and the motivation. What I don't love is that over time it's caused numbness and tingling in my hand. This seems to be a common occurrence for a minority of wearers. I contacted Fitbit who were great about organizing a return and refund. Now I want a fitness tracker that keeps me motivated but doesn't make my arm and hand go numb or tingly. Ideally, it shows the time, is waterproof, connects to an Android with a decent app. Anyone else had this issue and moved on to a tracker that works for them?
posted by merocet to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

I really liked the Fitbit One for clipping on to my clothes instead. Except that I kept losing them or sending them through the wash.
posted by wotsac at 12:01 PM on July 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have a Sony swr30 which I love! It's a watch but also a tracker and does a pretty decent job of counting my steps and tracking my sleep. I have a Sony xperia phone so the connection is very simple, I just touch it the back of my phone and it connects via NFC. I also had an swr10 beforehand which is just a tracker band, no watch, that worked well too but isn't quite as sensitive. The best thing is that the face is an e-ink screen so the battery doesn't drain as fast as a lot of smart watches (although obviously makes it hard to see in low light as it isn't backlit). It is also waterproof!
*Edit! I forgot to say that I can also use it as a hands free speaker to take calls and read texts, not sure how many phones are supported but I expect most android phones would be.
posted by Peetree at 1:03 PM on July 4, 2016

What features do you want out of a fitness tracker? Your options change depending on whether you want the sleep tracking and watch screen or if you just want a pedometer.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 10:13 AM on July 5, 2016

Response by poster: Yep, sleep tracking and watch screen are ideal and a decent Android app as noted above. If someone tells me that all of the watch form fitness trackers are likely to have the same numbing/tingling effect then I'll avoid them and go for a clip on.
posted by merocet at 4:16 PM on July 5, 2016