Misfit Ray: Sleek And Discrete
Oh how much I wanted to like the Misfit Ray - it's beautiful and small, and if you have basic self-tracking needs, it might be enough - but for me, it wasn't.
Drawn to its customizability, I ordered a gold Ray with matching hardware (a gold-tone bangle), as well as two extra bands (a sport band and a paracord) for different occasions. And having owned, tested, and written about Misfit devices before, I knew I would receive a sturdy, beautiful, almost jewelry-like device.
The key features of the Misfit Ray include automatic step, distance, and sleep tracking, as well as the ability to set vibration alerts for call and text notifications, movement reminders, and alarms. The device can also control connected household devices, although as you'll read below, I couldn't get mine to work. It is swim-proof, and best of all, battery operated (up to 4 months), which is a considerable effort saver. Essentially, if you carry your phone with you at all times, the Ray wouldn't add much to your data collection.
Here are my pros and cons - Pros:
Small and discrete, I also had friends comment on how "pretty" it looked
The vibrating alarm was nice - woke me up without disturbing the whole house
Set it to vibrate on calls which worked perfectly, and was great for me - when I'm on my laptop I often ignore my phone, and it's always on silent
Interchangeable bands (theoretically) - I never got to try this out
Cons:
Lack of API integrations with calorie-tracking apps (including popular ones like Lifesum and MyPlate)
Lack of customer support - it took over a week for a customer service rep to respond to my request for the band changing tool
Initially didn't send me the tool to change bands even though my order had two separate bands
Metal hardware band is pretty but at one size fits all, it was too loose
The close/open clasp on the metal hardware band gave me a slight rash on the inside of my arm where it touched my skin
The device was not sensitive to taps so that I couldn't get the selfie remote to work or other remote options
My recommendation is that it's a great device for someone who wants a pretty, lightweight tracker. For someone like me, who doesn't wear bracelets regularly, it's going to need more functionality and better app integrations to be on my wrist every day.
