The main problem with most fitness trackers these days is size. If you’re one of those people who like to wear a watch but also wants to have a fitness tracker, you’ve probably relegated yourself to the fact that you have to wear one on each wrist. Our Misfit Ray review takes a look at a minimalist looking fitness tracker that allows you to wear it comfortably in tandem with a watch or other device on the same wrist.
Specifications
The Misfit Ray has the following features and specifications:
- Automatically tracks steps, distance, calories, and light and restful sleep
- Vibration alerts for call and text notifications, movement reminders, and alarms
- Smart button enabled to control connected household devices
- Swim-proof, anodized aluminum cylinder with multicolor LED progress display
- Non‐charging, replaceable 393 button cell batteries last between 4-6 months
- Interchangeable bands
- 50m water resistance
- Dimensions
- Misfit Ray: 2 1/2″ x 7/16″
- With sport band: 10 x 3/8 x 1/16″
- Weight: 0.2 ounces
What’s in the box
- Misfit Ray
- Band
- Batteries
- Quick Start Guide
- Warranty Information
Design
The Misfit Ray is one of the sleeker and smaller fitness trackers around. At a glance, it looks more like a bracelet or a bangle than a fitness tracker. The actual device is made from anodized aluminum, is cylindrical in shape, and only 2 1/2″ in length and just under 1/2″ in diameter. Located on the top near one end is a small rectangular multicolour LED display which is used for reporting its different functions. On the back side is a small dot to indicate the bottom end of the Ray as well as a centered Misfit logo printed on the device. While a solid and durable material, if you are thinking about wearing it on the same wrist as a watch, there’s a chance that the Misfit Ray could potentially scuff the edge of your watch after prolonged use.
The band attaches just inside the cylinder by way of hidden 8mm spring bars which allow you to swap out the bands. The sport band is slightly narrow than the Ray itself and has a hole in one end and a loop on the other. The inside is ribbed which allows the metal fastener to slide up and down the strap with the loop on it for easy size adjustment. Fastening is easy, simply slide the strap with the hole through the loop on the other strap and snap the hole over the metal fastener. Once fastened, the Misfit Ray is secured on your wrist and you shouldn’t have to worry about it falling off.
Our review sample came in Ash with the Ash sport band. There are plenty of other colours available, as well as reflective sport band, leather band, or bangle band options. In addition, you can also get a lariat necklace or paracord band separately should you choose.
Ease of Use
To start, you’ll need to install the batteries in your Misfit Ray. Doing so is easy enough, simply twist the strap at the end with the small dot counter-clockwise and pull. This will remove the battery tray and you’ll then be able to insert the three batteries inside the tray. Once the batteries are inside the tray, insert it back into the Ray and twist clockwise to lock it in place. You’ll know you’ve closed it properly as the device should vibrate and the LED light will turn on.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to download the Misfit app for your Android or iOS device. The app will then guide you through the pairing and setup process.
App setup is pretty straightforward and you’ll be entering standard information like age, weight, height, and activity goals. The app works on points based on what you input and have light, medium, and high goal settings. You can also set up a daily alarm. Unfortunately, you can only set it up to don’t repeat or every day, but can’t select which days to set it. So if you want it to be a weekday alarm only, you’ll have to go into the app to disable the alarm on the weekends.
You can also set the Move More inactivity alert, as well as notifications for when you get a call or text or for select apps like your calendar, Gmail, Skype, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, and a few others.
Once you’re set up in the app, you can double tap the Misfit Ray and the LED will flash red, orange, or green based on your current progress towards your daily activity goal. Triple tapping will either toggle an activity mode like running, cycling, or swimming or use a button command if you have Misfit Link installed as well.
Software
The Misfit app is the primary app for setting up and configuring your Misfit Ray as well as for viewing your progress and activities. The app itself is fairly nicely designed and it’s easy to find and view the information or settings that you are after. The Home page gives you a daily, weekly, or monthly overview of your activity, sleep, or weight (if you’re tracking and updating it). The Social page is designed to help you track your progress against friends you can add through the app or from Facebook.
The Device page is where you sync your device, set your wearing position, toggle activity tracking, set your alerts and notifications and set your Misfit Link pairing for controlling music playback, your phone camera, or even smart home devices. The last page is for setting up your Profile which includes setting goals, adding friends, linking to other apps like WeChat, MyFitnessPal, IF by IFTTT, and others, as well as viewing highlights from your activity tracking.
Performance
Of course, performance is key when using a fitness tracker. As far as step counting, cycling, or running is concerned, the Misfit Ray is pretty accurate. You can also use it for swim lap counting but that is an upgrade that will set you back another $9.99USD/$12.99CAD. Sleep tracking, on the other hand, is hit and miss. While it does a decent job of tracking your light and restful sleep, it does sometimes start your sleep progress early, especially if you’re sitting on the couch watching TV. As a result, I was seeing on average two hours of extra sleep most nights. Fortunately, you can go in and edit your start and sleep end times in the app for more accurate results.
There are a couple minor performance issues as well. For starters, when your alarm goes off it sometimes takes multiple taps before it will shut off. Secondly, while the Move More inactivity alert is a standard feature, it sometimes went off while you were being active. When double tapping to view your daily progress, there was the odd time when you had to double tap it more than once before the LED would light up. In addition, you can only use the triple tapping feature to toggle an activity or a button activity like controlling your music or smarthome device, and not both.
With the Misfit Link app installed, the triple tap works well enough for playing or pausing your current music track or using the camera on your phone remotely.
The device also stores two weeks of data before overwriting, so even though you need to manually sync it, if you forget for a day or two you don’t have to worry about your data being overwritten.
Battery Life
Given the Misfit Ray uses replaceable 393 button cell batteries, you don’t have to worry about charging it every night or every few days. I’ve been using it for about three months now and the app still shows that the battery life is full, which I highly doubt. Assuming this is an issue with the app, Misfit does claim a four to six-month battery life before the batteries need to be replaced which is still decent. Considering I’ve hit the three-month mark and it’s still going strong, I’m sure it’ll last at least another month.
Price/Value
While fitness trackers can cost hundreds of dollars, the Misfit Ray is very reasonably priced at $79.99USD, even with its quirks. Even with just basic feature use, the Misfit Ray is definitely affordable, not to mention the extra value if you choose to use the extra features by installing the Misfit Link app as well.
Wrap-up
If you’re looking for a simple step counter that can also track your sleep and notify you when you have a call or text, the Misfit Ray is a decent, lightweight, minimal fitness tracker that will do the trick.
*We were sent a sample of the Misfit Ray for the purposes of this review.
Misfit Ray
$79.99+ USD
Nailed it
- Lightweight
- Minimal design
- Waterproof to 50m
- Can upgrade app for swim lap counter
- Optional leather/bangle/reflective bands
- Accurate for step counting
Needs work
- Sometimes have to tap multiple times for step counter display
- Smart button functionality requires second app
- Smart button doesn't always work
- Can scratch watch depending on finishes
- Inactivity alert sometimes goes off even while active
- Can't select specific days for alarm
- Needs a second app installed for optional functionality
- Swim lap counter functionality costs extra
