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Misfit Speedo Shine 2 Review: In Depth

The Good

  • Skinny and light
  • Great battery life
  • Versatile
  • Good for swimmers

The Bad

  • Not too durable
  • Limited feedback
  • Feature-light
3.5

Misfit Speedo Shine 2 Review: This ultra-slim and light fitness tracker from Speedo is pleasingly versatile and also waterproof to measure the intensity of your swim sessions. Here’s our full Speedo Shine 2 review, to see if it’s the wearable for you.

Misfit Speedo Shine 2 Review: Design

The Shine 2 is actually a dinky silver or black aluminium disc that weighs no more than a few grams. Bundled in the box you get a rubber wrist strap which the Shine 2 can be slipped inside, as well as a clip for attaching it to your clothing instead. Handy if you already wear a watch and don’t want to burden both of your wrists.

Compared with a lot of fitness trackers like the Fitbit Charge 2, this Misfit model is pleasingly slim and light. You really can’t feel it when it’s strapped to your arm, with the rubber wrist band also proving comfortable against the skin, even when worn constantly. You can also slip the Shine 2 into a pocket if you don’t want to wear it at all.

The Shine is also completely waterproof, so you can submerge it up to 50m for extended periods – good news for swimmers. That said, when we gave the Shine a good soaking, it behaved erratically for an hour afterwards, until finally sorting itself out – not exactly a confidence booster.

Also, that matte surface does get scratched up rather easily. After less than a fortnight with the Shine 2, the face already had an ugly scar across the middle. And we didn’t exactly treat it roughly.

Misfit Speedo Shine 2 Review: Screen and interface

There’s no display on the Shine 2. Rather, your information is presented in the form of multicoloured flashing LEDs which stretch around the circumference of the face. These lights reveal how close you are to completing your daily goal, as well as the current time; a blue dot acts as the minute hand, while a green dot is the hour. A quick tap of the Shine 2’s face at any time will display this info.

The display can be customised within Misfit’s app, so you can change the order in which the goal progress and time are displayed. You can even remove the time functionality entirely.

Compared with wearables such as the Charge 2, which boast a screen, the info on offer is very light. If you’re hoping to regularly check the number of steps you’ve managed, for instance, you’re best off looking elsewhere.

Misfit Speedo Shine 2 review: The Misfit app and fitness tracking

Inside the Misfit app, you can quickly and easily pair with your Shine 2. Your phone and the tracker hook up using Bluetooth and pairing takes just a couple of minutes.

Once that’s done, you can set up your profile (used to share your efforts with others) and your daily goals. This includes an activity goal, a sleep goal and a weight goal.

The activity goal is measured in points, with general exercise such as walking and running adding to your overall points tally. All manner of sports and activities are supported, although the Shine 2 doesn’t have built-in GPS. There’s no heart rate monitor either, so you’ll have to jab two fingers into your neck if you want to measure your pulse.

The only activity that you can apparently tell the Shine 2 that you’re about to perform is swimming; triple-tap the face and it’ll monitor how many laps you complete of your chosen pool, up to 130 in total. There’s a timer feature too which can be customised, so the Shine vibrates when your session is over.

If you’re not a swimmer, all of your activities are simply automatically recorded by the Shine 2. And as with most trackers, the accuracy can be a little off. On days where I didn’t even leave the house, I still apparently managed to walk a couple of miles. Impressive work, non?

Open up the app and you can check your steps count for the day, plus calories burned and distance covered overall. You can skip back through previous days, to reminisce about that awesome workout session or just see which days were spent sat on the sofa, watching Don’t Tell The Bride marathons. And if you’re one of those annoying people who constantly brags about how active they are on Facebook, then good news. You can now be irritating directly through the Misfit app.

Misfit Speedo Shine 2 review: Other features

As well as tracking your everyday activity, the Shine 2 has the obligatory sleep tracking feature so you can see if you had a good night’s kip. When worn as a watch, the Shine can automatically detect when you’re having a snooze and determine whether you’re in a deep or light sleep based on your movements. It seems to work well enough, although lying awake is usually recorded as ‘light sleep’.

You also get an alarm feature to rouse you at an appropriate moment, although I couldn’t actually get this to work via the app.

And the Shine 2 can also buzz whenever you get a call or a text message, which is handy if you’re always missing your notifications as they land.

One of the best features of the Shine 2 is definitely its battery life. There’s no recharging involved here; the tracker uses a proper watch battery which lasts for around six months. When it finally bites the dust, you can prise it out and replace with a new one.

Misfit Speedo Shine 2 review: Verdict

The Shine 2 is definitely geared towards swimmers, as you’d expect from Speedo. That super-light waterproof design, lap tracking and excellent battery life makes it desirable for anyone who regularly hits their local pool, and the flexibility is a definite plus.

However, if you want a step tracker or something which can measure extra stats like your pulse, you’ll be better served by something like the Fitbit Charge 2. And the Shine 2 can be a little glitchy, as well as easily scratched.

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