I’ve been wearing my Microsoft Band for about 2 months now. Band is Microsoft’s Smart watch and uses the tile interface the same as Windows Phone and Windows 8. I’ve seen other reviews that call the tile interface “clunky” but I find it works seamlessly.
As well as working with Windows Phone, it also works with iPhone and Android. Within 24 hours of me purchasing one and linking it to my Windows Phone – a Lumia 930, I had to buy one for my partner who is a die-hard Samsung/android fan. The Band paired with no problem to her Samsung Galaxy S5.

The band is primarily aimed at Health and Fitness. There’s a built in heart-rate monitor and step counter as well as apps to monitor workouts, fitness, runs and even a recently released golf app. The built in step counter is useful, it automatically sets a daily goal of 5,000 steps and vibrates when you reach your goal. Although I understand the step counter has been improved, I’ve still “met my goal” a few times whilst performing tasks such as ironing. Likewise, my partner and I have spent the day walking together and I’ve met my goal 1,000 steps before her.

My main use is as a productivity aid. I receive calendar reminders, text messages and emails on my band. It’s handy to be able to glance at your wrist to see who is calling and dismiss an incoming call, replying with a preset text when in a meeting. No, you can’t make calls on your band unfortunately. With emails, you only get to see the sender, subject and first line or so of the email but this is handy to see if the email is important enough to get your phone out and read it. You can filter emails so only messages from certain people show up – I thought I’d try everything and then filter it down but I don’t find it obtrusive so haven’t set a filter to date.

The band has a notifications Tile that syncs toast notifications from your phone. This means that although there isn’t a specific app/tile, I still get notifications from WhatsApp and Skype for Business on my wrist.

Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Siri is called by pressing the “action button” and talking into your wrist. Cortana will either reply via band’s screen or direct you to look at your phone for Bing search results but I rarely use Cortana on my band.

My favourite feature is the sleep tracker. You have to click a button just before going to sleep and again when you wake up to get full information but if you forget the band does automatically detect sleep. To start with, the numbers produced can be puzzling and even disturbing. After a while, you get used to the numbers and can try use the information to understand your sleep patterns and how to get better quality sleep; the band offers tips to help improve sleep). Information on sleep is synced to the Microsoft Health companion app via Bluetooth.

I religiously put my phone on charge every night but I need to wear my Band to monitor my sleep so I realised I needed a different routine for charging the Band. The figures I’m told are that it charges in 30 minutes and lasts for two days but I’ve never properly tested this. As the band isn’t waterproof, I take it off when getting ready for work on a morning, stick it to the magnetic charging lead and it’s usually fully charged by the time I’m ready.

Shape-wise, you quickly get used to wearing the Band. Unusually, it’s designed to be worn on the bottom of your wrist and it’s most comfortable worn that way. The idea here is you can use your hand to shield confidential text messages and emails. The screen is flat so it does feel a bit strange when you put your hand flat on a desk but you do get used to it. Also, having the screen face down, the screen is showing a few minor scratches after two month’s use.

My understanding is that Microsoft haven’t publicised it that much so they can get a few in the wild, get feedback and incorporate it into the Band 2 which was announced earlier today. My partner would like a thinner clasp which contains the heart rate monitor. For me, the main improvement would be to make it waterproof although one of ours accidentally had a trip into the shower which it survived. All in all, I’m happy with my band, I think it works well and it does everything I need.

Below is a video preview of the Band 2