 For the past few years, Fitbit has been dominating the fitness tracker market. And it's not hard to understand why. Their products are super simple. You just put them on your wrist, wear them all day, and they tell you if you're moving or if you're being lazy. But with the new Fitbit Blaze, Fitbit's trying something a bit more stylish, more sophisticated, maybe more smart. The question is, how does it work? Just like other Fitbits, the $200 Blaze will track your daily activity, count your steps, your heart rate, gauge how well you're sleeping, and put all that data into Fitbit's app on your phone, where you can compete with your friends. This one adds a few new tricks. There's a nice color screen, and the watch tells you how to do certain exercises. And it'll track your workouts automatically. But above all else, Fitbit is pushing in the style and fashion with the Blaze. It's because you can swap bands between silicone, leather, and a pricier steel option. The steel frame around the Blaze is kind of huge, even on my wrists. The Blaze's screen is the nicest one Fitbit's ever made. It's bright, even in sunlight, colorful, and very easy to read. You can pick between a few watch faces, although I'm not a big fan of any of them. They aren't terrible, and some change colors based on your heart rate. Swiping over one brings you to the Today screen, and that's where all your key stats are. Your steps, heart rate, distance walked, calories, and floors climbed. Swipe over again and you come to the exercise mode. Blaze supports tracking for all the basics. Running, walking, biking, and even weights. And it'll automatically log a workout if you've been more active than normal for at least 15 minutes. There's no GPS built in, so you've gotta carry your phone with you if you're gonna run outside and want to track your routes. That's pretty disappointing from a $200 fitness device. Another disappointment is that the Blaze, for right now at least, doesn't even remind you to get up and move around. Fitbit says that's coming in a future software update. Then there's Fitstar, a feature of the Blaze that shows you how to do certain workouts by showing you GIF-like animations on the screen. It's useful, but the Blaze doesn't really give you any feedback on whether you're doing things right, something the Microsoft band is really good at. Even so, as a daily fitness tracker, the Blaze works really well. It's really accurate at counting your steps and distance, though I'm less confident in the floor's climb numbers, which always seem kind of off. And heart rate is a mixed bag. It's decent for, oh, 70% of the day, but much less reliable when you're deep in a workout. Fitbit calls the Blaze a smart fitness watch, not a smart watch. But it's still not really as smart as I'd like. There are notifications for calls, texts, and calendar, but that's it. No Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, not even email. Now, I can understand why you'd want to tune those things out, but the option should at least be there. They are music controls for when you're playing music on your phone, but again, this is all pretty basic stuff. But that brings us to the Blaze's big strength, battery. Fitbit says it'll last five days in a charge, and I can actually vouch for that. It'll go a solid four days at least. And let's just say I'm thankful for that battery life, since this thing's charger is ridiculous. You've got to pop out the Blaze and put it in this little plastic housing. Fitbit's definitely pushing the style with the Blaze, and I'll let you decide how it's doing there. But as a fitness tracker, there's really just not enough here to recommend it over the Charge HR. You can look at the Blaze as a really nice Charge HR, and if that's worth 200 bucks to you, by all means. But I'm fine waiting to see what comes next.
 For the past few years, Fitbit has been dominating the fitness tracker market.
 And it's not hard to understand why.
 Their products are super simple.
 You just put them on your wrist, wear them all day, and they tell you if you're moving
 or if you're being lazy.
 But with the new Fitbit Blaze, Fitbit's trying something a bit more stylish, more sophisticated,
 maybe more smart.
 The question is, how does it work?
 Just like other Fitbits, the $200 Blaze will track your daily activity, count your steps,
 your heart rate, gauge how well you're sleeping, and put all that data into Fitbit's app on
 your phone, where you can compete with your friends.
 This one adds a few new tricks.
 There's a nice color screen, and the watch tells you how to do certain exercises.
 And it'll track your workouts automatically.
 But above all else, Fitbit is pushing in the style and fashion with the Blaze.
 It's because you can swap bands between silicone, leather, and a pricier steel option.
 The steel frame around the Blaze is kind of huge, even on my wrists.
 The Blaze's screen is the nicest one Fitbit's ever made.
 It's bright, even in sunlight, colorful, and very easy to read.
 You can pick between a few watch faces, although I'm not a big fan of any of them.
 They aren't terrible, and some change colors based on your heart rate.
 Swiping over one brings you to the Today screen, and that's where all your key stats are.
 Your steps, heart rate, distance walked, calories, and floors climbed.
 Swipe over again and you come to the exercise mode.
 Blaze supports tracking for all the basics.
 Running, walking, biking, and even weights.
 And it'll automatically log a workout if you've been more active than normal for at least
 15 minutes.
 There's no GPS built in, so you've gotta carry your phone with you if you're gonna run outside
 and want to track your routes.
 That's pretty disappointing from a $200 fitness device.
 Another disappointment is that the Blaze, for right now at least, doesn't even remind
 you to get up and move around.
 Fitbit says that's coming in a future software update.
 Then there's Fitstar, a feature of the Blaze that shows you how to do certain workouts
 by showing you GIF-like animations on the screen.
 It's useful, but the Blaze doesn't really give you any feedback on whether you're doing
 things right, something the Microsoft band is really good at.
 Even so, as a daily fitness tracker, the Blaze works really well.
 It's really accurate at counting your steps and distance, though I'm less confident in
 the floor's climb numbers, which always seem kind of off.
 And heart rate is a mixed bag.
 It's decent for, oh, 70% of the day, but much less reliable when you're deep in a workout.
 Fitbit calls the Blaze a smart fitness watch, not a smart watch.
 But it's still not really as smart as I'd like.
 There are notifications for calls, texts, and calendar, but that's it.
 No Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, not even email.
 Now, I can understand why you'd want to tune those things out, but the option should at
 least be there.
 They are music controls for when you're playing music on your phone, but again, this is all
 pretty basic stuff.
 But that brings us to the Blaze's big strength, battery.
 Fitbit says it'll last five days in a charge, and I can actually vouch for that.
 It'll go a solid four days at least.
 And let's just say I'm thankful for that battery life, since this thing's charger is ridiculous.
 You've got to pop out the Blaze and put it in this little plastic housing.
 Fitbit's definitely pushing the style with the Blaze, and I'll let you decide how it's
 doing there.
 But as a fitness tracker, there's really just not enough here to recommend it over the Charge
 HR.
 You can look at the Blaze as a really nice Charge HR, and if that's worth 200 bucks to
 you, by all means.
 But I'm fine waiting to see what comes next.