Product Review: My First Impression of the Nike+ SportBand

I went out for my first run with my Nike+ SportBand. My expectations were sky high – it is my hope that this device is going to keep me running on a regular basis year after year. Nothing short of a miracle, given my spotty history with the sport.

In this blog entry I will cover my initial thoughts on the system.

1. It Works        

Overall, the device worked. It captured the information as it should. The only drawback appears to be the calibration issue, as covered in my previous blog entry.

2. It Works Too Well  

When you are doing well with your running, this is all great. But when rebuilding from scratch like I am, its a tough pill to see how poorly you are doing. Without the device, I wasn’t keeping time and could only guess at the distance. Blissful ignorance, I suppose it was.

3. No Backlight  

Reading the reviews, I saw reference to the fact that there is no backlight on the device. When running in the dark, well, that leaves you in a spot doesn’t it. Tonight I was running at the high school track, which has no lights. It was a big bummer not to be able to see how I was doing. And I couldn’t even tell if I correctly terminated the run on the device.

4. Upload Problem 

When I got home and plugged the device into my computer, it didn’t upload correctly the first time. It got stuck somewhere in that process. In the end, unplugging the device from the computer and plugging it back in fixed it.

 

5. The Website is Amazing        

The website is the main draw here. It provides details about how you did out there. And it does an amazing job at that. Even if the results are, well, depressing. Look at that tail of mine. What am I, 80 years old?

6. There is no Linux Client 

My primary operating system is Ubuntu Linux, not Mac or Windows. This means I need to reboot into Windows, or spawn a Windows VM to upload my running data.

7. Your Calibration Runs must be Discarded 

For my first run with my Nike+ gear, I decided to make it a calibration run. I wanted to make sure the device is accurate. Given the results as reported in my previous blog entry, it was off by 10%, so I am glad I did this. However, you have to delete your calibration run from the website. Why? The calibration does not take affect as the run was already uploaded to the website. Therefore, the run results are inaccurate.