Jawbone UP3 to Begin Shipping on April 20 With Lower Water Resistance Capabilities

[MacRumors]

Jawbone announced the newest iteration in its line of wrist-worn UP fitness trackers back in November, but it's taken several months for the new devices to be ready to ship, likely because of all the new sensor additions.

The company began taking pre-orders several months ago and customers who purchased the devices have been waiting patiently for news on a ship date, which Jawbone delivered today. According to a blog post on the company's site, the UP3 will begin shipping out to customers in the United States on April 20.

Pre-orders will ship in the order that they were received, and based on the number of orders, Jawbone expects all pre-order customers to receive their UP3 bands no later than mid-May.

According to Jawbone, the UP3 includes several new sensors that give it more advanced health and fitness tracking capabilities. It has a new tri-axis accelerometer, skin and ambient temperature sensors, and "bioimpedance" sensors that let the UP3 analyze a wide range of biometric data, including resting heart rate. It can track detailed sleep stages, distinguishing between REM sleep, light sleep, and deep sleep, and it can distinguish between different workout activities.

Today's blog post also includes an apology to customers, explaining that orders were delayed due to quality control issues with water resistance. The company hoped to offer water resistance up to 10 meters, but is unable to do so, making it unsuitable for use while swimming or under water. Customers who want to cancel their pre-orders can do so.

Our intention was to ship an advanced multi-sensor product that defied industry standards with water resistance of up to 10 meters. Unfortunately, after extensive and exhaustive testing we have been unable to guarantee 10 meters of water resistance for all UP3 units.

UP3 will now ship with a water resistance comparable to, and in line with, most other multi-sensor trackers. This means that UP3 is resistant to everyday splashing, including while washing hands or in the shower, but it is unsuitable for swimming or submerged use. We would like to apologize to customers who may have pre-ordered UP3 on the basis that it would be suitable for swimming. Customers who wish to cancel their pre-order will, of course, be able to do so with no charge.

The UP3 is available for pre-order for $179.99 from the Jawbone website. Orders placed today will ship out after pre-orders have been sent, arriving towards the end of May.

Article Link: Jawbone UP3 to Begin Shipping on April 20 With Lower Water Resistance Capabilities

 

[rcarmich]

Mildly annoyed..

Wearing it while swimming was not a feature I had to have but it is pretty disappointing. Feels like they delayed it forever to try to get the waterproofing right and then ended up scrapping it.

I really want the feature that wakes me up with an alarm based on sleep / REM state though and I didn't see any other comparable activity trackers that do that. Also I like the fact that it is small/lightweight compared to the Fitbit Charge HR.

I'm not going to cancel my order but I have a feeling I'm going to regret this purchase at some point

 

[vasili4]

too late

after announcing Xiaomi Mi band for 15$, the price doesn't look so attractive now

 

[rti92391]

Where has the reporting of this been?? For mooonnnnths, all Jawbone said was it would be "Early 2015" and the customer service did not have the slightest clue on timing. Five months passed without reporting from MacRumors or other sites of repute. It makes me question journalistic integrity of the site and others like it. This was one of the biggest, if not the biggest tech blunder in some time.

 

[rekhyt]

Too... late?

 

[freediverx]

Not a good sign for those of us hoping for improved water resistance in a future Apple Watch revision... If it's this hard to accomplish on a simple band with no display or controls, it will be many times harder on a watch with a touch screen, two buttons, a speaker and a mic.

 

[Mactendo]

I'm curious if water resistance was technically impossible to achieve or was it just a question of a quality control.

 

[3282869]

Jawbone has been great with keeping me informed since my Nov 2014 purchase. They've called me a few times, even refunded some of the original price due to the delay. After receiving the email today I called to verify shipment, and I should be getting mine at the end of April.

They mentioned the water resistance issue as the reason for delay - mostly long exposure to pool chemicals while swimming was the culprit. It can still be used in the shower, washing your hands, etc. unlike the UP24. Looking forward to this guy (wish Apple released a fitness band before a full on watch, the tech isn't fleshed out for wireless connectivity and battery life, making it an addition to the iPhone which seems counterproductive).

 

[syntax]

I'm curious if water resistance was technically impossible to achieve or was it just a question of a quality control.

I'm wondering about that too. I read on TechCrunch that Jawbone was having trouble with quality control once they scaled up to mass production and some of Jawbone's own dialog with its customers via its Facebook page mentioned something about issues with the sealing on some of the devices coming off the assembly line. If they've had to downgrade the water resistance because they can't maintain quality control that's a huge red flag, especially for a company whose fitness trackers have historically been plagued by quality control issues. On paper the UP3 offers some great specs but it remains to be seen whether those specs hold up in real-world use. It's a bad sign the water resistance spec was amended so late into production.

 

[ohio.emt]

Hopefully this version won't break after a couple of months like the up24.

 

[dtrobson099]

Where has the reporting of this been?? For mooonnnnths, all Jawbone said was it would be "Early 2015" and the customer service did not have the slightest clue on timing. Five months passed without reporting from MacRumors or other sites of repute. It makes me question journalistic integrity of the site and others like it. This was one of the biggest, if not the biggest tech blunder in some time.

Seeing as how this is MacRumors and the Jawbone Up3 isn't made by Apple nor are Jawbone products even sold in Apple stores any longer... I think you're probably lucky you got this story here. Can't speak for other sites, though.

I wouldn't say it's that big a tech blunder either. Jawbone is a small company who tried (and eventually succeeded) in releasing a very ambitious product given their size. Sure it's not fully waterproof, but at least it isn't Coin, or <insert another KickStarter project here>.

 

[leppermessiah]

Proof is in the puddle

Aren't there methods of waterproofing these devices, such as products like Liquipel?

 

[falcon362]

Rather angry about this

I had my heart set on this since it was announced last year.

I swim and really hate having to wear a chest strap in the pool. In fact, I hate having to use one at all. It seemed that the Up3 was the answer.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why they can't make it waterproof for swimming. I have been wearing a Polar FT80 for two years now and it works just fine in the pool. You can even press the FOUR buttons on the watch when wet and all is good.

I find it absolutely ridiculous that Jawbone, Fitbit, Apple, Garmin, Polar, and all the other companies out there can't make a waterproof activity tracker with a heart beat monitor without using a chest strap.

 

[syntax]

Also, they're being a bit disengenuous about the water resistance of competing trackers. The Basis Peak is capable of withstanding swimming and has a similar bioimpedance sensor package in addition to an optical heart rate sensor.

 

[flur]

I'm curious if water resistance was technically impossible to achieve or was it just a question of a quality control.

Not impossible. There's a company that waterproofs the UP and UP24 bands and I expect their process will work just fine on this new band. I'm betting the process Jawbone were using wasn't enough to get to the waterproof level (they basically said as much in their email to buyers), and they didn't want to invest even more time or money into a product that was already exceedingly late for launch.

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Hopefully this version won't break after a couple of months like the up24.

Hehe. I'm betting it does. I've had an UP (3 replacements) and an UP24 (1 replacement so far). I just accept they're not built to last, but at least they have excellent customer service.

My question is whether they can the app functioning and syncing with the bands. That seems to be my main problem now - the app crashes, loses data, etc.

 

[alvindarkness]

I had my heart set on this since it was announced last year.

I swim and really hate having to wear a chest strap in the pool. In fact, I hate having to use one at all. It seemed that the Up3 was the answer.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why they can't make it waterproof for swimming. I have been wearing a Polar FT80 for two years now and it works just fine in the pool. You can even press the FOUR buttons on the watch when wet and all is good.

I find it absolutely ridiculous that Jawbone, Fitbit, Apple, Garmin, Polar, and all the other companies out there can't make a waterproof activity tracker with a heart beat monitor without using a chest strap.

I believe the Withings Activate is water resistant up to 5 standard atmospheres (approx 50 meters). Could be an option? Its my first pick for an every day watch/sports-monitor at the moment, but yet to pull the trigger.

 

[SchneiderMan]

A little to late I'm afraid. I'm pretty sure many that were planning on getting one of these just pre-ordered an Apple Watch. Not only that but Apple will no longer stock Jawbone trackers, which will significantly impact Jawbone's sales.

 

[ZolakJHS]

Done with Jawbone...

I ordered one of these for my dad for Christmas in November... finally cancelled it last month and gave him the money to put towards his Apple Watch.

Jawbone was terrible about communicating the delay to me. I had to call every month to ask for an update. Never got an email or anything. They did eventually offer me $40 off to keep waiting, which I took in January expecting they would ship soon.

Also I'm on my third Up24 in less than a year, so I'm a little skeptical as to whether this thing will be any more durable.

Long story short... they've lost a customer and my Up24 is going for sale on Craigslist before it breaks again.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

These things are a mess. I went through 18 of them before Jawbone stopped replacing them because I finally had one that lasted more than 3 months after almost 3 years.

The UP24 had all kinds of issues and now that this new UP3 has already been pushed back months is a BAD sign that they will continue to have big problems with them.

I'd really avoid them. The UP has the best software out there but the total lack of reliability of the product means they're pretty unusable sadly.

 

[McTaste]

So, they remove the waterproof feature / claim but the price remains the same? Excellent.

 

[3282869]

A little to late I'm afraid. I'm pretty sure many that were planning on getting one of these just pre-ordered an Apple Watch. Not only that but Apple will no longer stock Jawbone trackers, which will significantly impact Jawbone's sales.

Two entirely different products. There are actually quite a few people I work with in corp. that are opting for the new UP3 over the Watch for many reasons. When the 3rd+ gen versions are released they may get one, but even in Cupertino most view it as more tech when ideally it should [eventually] stand on its own. I believe Apple missed the mark and should have released a band first, then a watch when the tech is ready [wireless/radio Broadcom chips and battery life]. Needing an iPhone to use the Watch's full features seems redundant; I can do all it does with my iPhone, I don't need a crippled watch (I have my Rolex's - better looking, won't depreciate the next year, etc)

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So, they remove the waterproof feature / claim but the price remains the same? Excellent.

It's still waterproof, spoke with them yesterday. You can shower with it, put it in a glass of water. The issue was swimming in pools - the chemicals/chlorine damaged the watch over time. You can even swim in the ocean.

 

[Attonine]

I find it absolutely ridiculous that Jawbone, Fitbit, Apple, Garmin, Polar, and all the other companies out there can't make a waterproof activity tracker with a heart beat monitor without using a chest strap.

I'd say this suggest there something inherently difficult about the process that they just haven't been able to crack yet.