Mio FUSE Heart Rate, Sleep + Activity Tracker

I have been looking for a comparative review of these two products. Since I couldn’t find one, I decided to do it myself. I put each through a meticulous week of training and will display my findings as simply as possible. I have a lot of information that I am condensing so if you have any further questions, please ask.For my test, I did a range of different exercises including HIIT, SMIT, medium intensity steady state cardio, jogging, and weight training. Though neither device can truly give a comprehensive measurement for weight training, my lifting style fluctuates my heart rate enough to quantify a decent calorie burn, so I included it.Also, please note that I tried various adjustments including alternate arms, wrist spacing and tightness. I literally ran the gambit, and in some cases, it made a major difference. I have pretty large wrists/forearms, so regardless of position, both devices had little trouble finding a baseline pulse. I used the Samsung Galaxy S5 as my control since it was rated as top notch against EKG machines.So, let’s begin with the meat of these new devices: heart rate tracking.Fitbit Charge HR does not do well with spikes, on either arm. In fact, the display would often display “- -“ and not find a suitable rate for at least 30 seconds. When doing HIIT/SMIIT, 30 seconds can be an eternity in documenting measurements. When it did come through, it was still 10-15 beats slower than the Mio and the S5. I had little issue with the Mio Fuse. It wasn’t perfect, but I usually had a solid reading within 3-5 seconds, and I would say 90% of the time, it was in line with the S5.During anything steady state, the Charge HR and the Mio Fuse kept consistent readings with both the Precor 100i and the S5, but when the Charge HR was on the non-dominant hand, it was typically 5-10 beats behind. When I went jogging, both devices kept the pace, but just for kicks, I let my heart rate drop and pushed out a full on sprint. Mio caught up within 5 seconds, Charge HR was blank for at least 25 seconds. Reiterating that the Charge HR doesn’t like spikes.One other point to note is that during weight lifting, the Charge HR had 2,000 more documented steps than the Mio Fuse. The manual stated that may happen with activities involving rapid arm movement, but just noting I didn’t have that issue with the Mio Fuse.I can’t pinpoint why the Charge HR is inconsistent on my non-dominant hand. If it uses capillary enlargement, I can only guess it’s because they are more evident in my dominant hand. Either way, their inequality should be noted.The interface is where Fitbit excels. As a longtime fan of my Flex, I love the improvements they have added. The heart rate chart and the time zone measurements are great. But it is far less enjoyable when the information (heart rate) is inaccurate. The Mio Go app is truly bare bones. It has very basic tracking and gives you basic stats on your daily workout and overall activity. I also had a few sync fails when connecting to the app and lost my workouts, which was really frustrating. It still shows up in my daily caloric burn, but when you want specifics, this is very disappointing. There is also no PC counterpart, so it’s all mobile. Mio has stated the app will be growing based on feedback. I hope so, because the device deserves a better interface.I, personally, do not care for all the bells and whistles of each, so I didn’t spend much time here, but I can offer a few distinct differences. The Charge HR has 24 hour heart rate tracking, while the Mio Fuse has to be activated in workout mode. Since the Mio Fuse was much more accurate in my tests, I would rather have the accuracy during my workouts than be able to see my heart rate during my daily routines, so this is a wash. The Charge HR is sleeker, and the “action” button is harder to accidentally trigger. With the Mio Fuse, it is pressure based touch screen, so when using the TRX, I have to check after sets to make sure I don’t stop my timer on accident. The “lock” feature needs to be able to be turned on for workout mode. The Mio Fuse is waterproof for 30 feet, while the Charge HR is not recommended for showering or swimming. Both devices caused some irritation after long periods of usage, but it usually disappeared within a few minutes of removing the devices. I really wanted to focus on what these devices were boasting about…strapless HR tracking.So, upon these tests, I must bid adieu to my Fitbit family for now. I can see the Mio Go app getting better before the Charge HR becomes more accurate. I have read that the Surge has better accuracy, but I am not looking for anything more than a solid hr activity tracker and the extras of the Surge are not worth the premium in my opinion.For standard daily activity, both devices are great for comprehensive readouts and steady state tracking, but if you are a fitness enthusiast who constantly pushes your limits and capabilities, I recommend the Mio Fuse.

Buyer beware on this one as Amazon is essentially selling something that stopped having any technical support some time ago. You will get a link to the companies current website, which doesn’t list any support for this device... if you do some sleuthing you’ll get to the online user manual which references a MIO Go app. When you download this you’ll find its in Vietnamese, so if you don’t understand that language, you’re out of luck. The PAI app that is referenced heavily in the product description - probably to stop you scrolling down to the reviews - is just a rudimentary fitness tracker - no controls or customization exist.The look of the tracker is quite appealing, but the controls are completely random and even with instructions it’s hard to switch the thing off.I have been able to sync it so I’m able to log bonus points with the excellent DDP Yoga program, but it’s hit or miss when it decides to connect.Splurge the extra 30 bucks and get a baseline Fitbit (or stick with other known brands)Highly disappointing and shame on Amazon for selling this in their online store - it’s like buying a pre-lightning cable accessory for your iPhone / it sure looks nice, but it’s practically unusable apart from its basic functions.

You need to know a few things about this wearable monitor before you buy it. First: it's very comfortable and made out of flexible silicone. It feels soft even when you wear it snug as suggested. Easy on, easy off. I wear it above my watch and have also worn it upside down with the clasp on top of my forearm, it's comfortable both ways. Once it's on it doesn't move and after it has acquired HR it doesn't lose it. I've had it on all night and didn't even know it was there.You better be a tinkerer with patience, it's not exactly a put-it-on-and-forget-it type gadget. (update: after the a day of two of messing with it it gets easier) After it's strapped on you must initialize it in order to get HR. Easy to do and it finds HR quickly. Then you must launch the app and although the app is customizable, it takes some doing. From within the app you can select the gadget's display to be on continuously or through touch only. The next item almost kills this thing for me, it's the Lock Screen option. Once you lock the screen you can't mess with it, right? Not so. While only using the basic functions without HR, you can lock the screen and next time you tap it only show the last used function. It takes a while for that to work after you set it in the app. It's EXTREMELY frustrating to get that to work properly. BUT.... even if you get it to work in Daily Mode, as soon as you initialize HR, the screen unlocks. Huge problem because the touch points are so sensitive that just drops of water can change the screen function. Worse, it's too easy to pause a workout without realizing it. And when you pause the workout you're not recording. Which brings me to the next issue. The Mio Go app only displays actual HR as a number while connected, nothing else until after the workout, when you have stopped the timer and let the monitor sync with the app. Only then do you get to see some details of your workout. A half-assed HR graph at best. You cannot zoom in and there isn't much other detail about the workout. Crappy app. Luckily, unlike the Fitbit Charge HR, the Mio Fuse will work with a whole bunch of other third party apps. Wahoo is very good but even better is Sportstracker. Fantastic app with a dashboard that shows everything such as current HR%, average HR for the workout and highest achieved on one screen, perfect for a stationary workout. It also has an nice detailed HR graph and voice notifications if you set it up. It tells you what you're doing.The MIO works via Bluetooth (BLE) or ANT+. Both apps above work better with ANT+, BLE has a tendency to interrupt more often. I only use the Mio app to set the screen options, nothing else. The third party apps are superior and do NOT require the workout function to be active, only HR needs be initialized. To better understand how this works, the third party apps record on your smartphone in real time whereas the Mio Fuse records the workout internally when the workout mode is entered and afterwards sends it to the Mio Go app. You must stop the workout before it can sync with the Mio app.Overall it's a nice monitor if you understand its limitations. No fancy OLED screen, just old fashioned but effective dot matrix readout. Great for actual workouts using third party apps. If you want to count steps etc you can wear it all day but it really shines during workout using other apps, especially Sportstracker.It doesn't have a sleep analysis function like Fitbit Charge HR but after you've seen how that works I don't think it's particularly useful anyway.The Lockscreen function is confusing and only works in Basic Daytime Mode. My biggest complaint is that Lock Screen unlocks as soon as HR is intialized.I personally don't care about steps/stairs/calories/distance so cannot review those functions.Battery life seems sufficient, you can mess with it all day and it doesn't run out of juice.PROS:ComfortableGood HR monitorGood battery lifeGreat free third party apps availableQuick to recharge with easy magnetic connectionWaterproofCONS:Learning curve with lots of frustrationsMio Go appNo lock screen in Workout modeThe pictures are of the dashboard layout using Sportstracker and its HR graph. And a pic of the Mio Go screen after the workout. Cannot change it to landscape mode or zoom in.When the Fuse for some reason disconnects from the Mio Go app during a workout, it will not automatically reconnect. At least not for me. And again the other apps are superior since they reconnect all by themselves. If I wanted to connect to the Mio again I would have to end the workout and reinitialize the HR so the Mio app can find the Fuse.Update: I've learned to not even use the Mio app other than to control the device settings once in a while. I exclusively use the Sportstracker app (Android only, sorry IOS) and it works great. For swimming laps in a 25 yard pool I strap on the Mio, let it find HR, launch Sportstracker dashboard and go swim. I can glance at the dashboard when I place the phone in a plastig on the wall in my lane. Don't have to touch anything, it's simple. It does't lose the connection and now I'm even more impressed.

If you are after a very accurate heart rate monitor that talks to Apps such as Strava and logs your calories, sleep, etc. then this your product!I would agree with some of the other reviews that I have read, in the fact that this doesn't come with all the Gucci features and on screen displayed functions such as incoming calls, text messages and also doesn't have GPS but that is not what I bought this for.....the fact of the matter is this is very accurate at monitoring your heart rate and even works extremely accurately in the pool.I can only assume that where others have complained that it doesn't monitor heart rate that well, they clearly arent using it properly. Just a small understanding of how it works goes a long way - it doesn't use magic or some sixth sense to monitor and record your heart rate but does it through monitoring the blood flow under your skin by use of two green lights mounted underneath the band. For this to work properly you need to have the band quite tight so it doesn't move around and is in constant contact with your skin.....obvious really !!I have used this whilst swimming freestyle with rapid arm strokes and whilst boxing and it always returns a great reading.Battery life is good and recharges very quickly.With regards to customer service and delivery - this was great, arrived within just a few days and will now be ordering a second device from this seller for my wife.

Love this piece of kit. I looked round for a while before deciding on this one and i do not regret it one bit.Basically I wanted an all day tracker i could wear always, but that would also accurately tack my workouts especially HR while in the gym. Hr is very good and does not disappoint, the band itself is very comfortable and with the advantage of it being waterproof you can just walk in the shower and keep it always clean. The band itself is not tiny and is not intended as a fashion statement. I personally like it's sporty look and ruggedness and I would rather have an accurate tracker that works great and I don't need to worry about scratching and so on.Battery life is quite good - lasting around a full week with 4-5 1hr workouts a week, and it charges very fast - i think around a couple of hrs max.I read a lot of negative reviews about but to be fair they are either from people who don't really understand what this is for, or they are old reviews before the latest firmware was released.The only negative i can find, is perhaps the app could be improved upon. Although it has come a long way already...it could use some more user-friendliness. Having said that it is still very usable and helpful.

I'm a fairly keen cyclist/runner, and had been looking at optical HRM devices for sometime. I was also considering buying an activity tracker, as I travel a lot with work, and wanted to ensure that I keep my activity levels up. After extensive research, the Fuse was the #1 option on a limited list, and it's perfect for my needs.As a standalone activity tracker, it does everything you'd expect, covering steps and sleep. The Mio Go app is ok, took time to get it paired initially, but now it works fine, and is easily configured. It works well with apps like Apple Healthkit, however doesn't sync with Myfitnesspal directly. Not a dealbreaker in any case.The real value is in the HRM functionality. I've paired it with both an iPhone 5s for running, and a Garmin Edge 25 for cycling, and find it as accurate as a chest strap. It took a bit of playing around to find the right spot on my arm for a good reading, but now it's perfect. I was particularly pleased with pairing up with the iPhone - I've read there are limitations with BLE devices, and was worried in case I couldn't run with a set of Bluetooth headphones also paired, but have had no issues. I've only experienced dropout on 1 ride, and that was due to using the iPhone instead of the Garmin Edge 25, and the iPhone was in the back pocket of my jersey. No major issue.There is a workout feature on the Fuse, however, it's not amazing. I find it consistently gives a lower distance when compared to a GPS tracking device, so I would not recommend for someone who is looking for a standalone computer with optical HRM. However, as a bridging device, this is fantastic and highly recommended.

Mixed feelings, unfortunately. When it works, works great, but... Works erratically, sometimes stops responding to buttons, sometimes loses connection to the smartphone application... Still, when it works, it works very well indeed! I am recovering from a heart attack, and after reading much reviews of fitness bands/HR monitors, have decided to give Mio a try. Was testing it in the outpatient cardiac rehab ward, while wearing a proper, medical grade, five electrodes ECG monitor that they use, to monitor recovering patients exercises. During my routine, me and nurses were checking both the hospital monitor, and my Mio band ever do often. Both were almost always, within 1-2 BPMs from each other. And it is wrist-sensor, versus a proper, five-electrodes medical equipment! The cardiac rehab nurses were very impressed with its precision and reliability if the readings, they told me they are getting one for the ward, to use with patients.Accompanying smartphone application is OK, although again, stability and reliability leaves something to be desired. It allows you to customize your target HR zones, monitors your exercise, and even presents a graph of your HR over time. Nice, overall, but again, lacking attention to detail, I must say; sometimes it has hard time discovering/connecting w/ the monitor, shows you appropriate average heart rate during your exercise, but shows inappropriate prevailing/average training zone. Occasionally, drops connection during the exercise, and in some cases required phone restart, to reconnect again.All said, I would give it perhaps charitable 4 starts, since it is very accurate (and what's the point of having a HR monitor which isn't, really?), and when it works, it does it very well.I knock it down one start (and perhaps even more than one), for quite serious and annoying usability issues. If solved in the future (for the software quirks, certainly possible with the smartphone application update, and possibly - even with firmware update for the band itself), it would be damn near perfect, and very easy to recommend. As it stands, I would still recommend it, mostly for the precision and reliability of the reading, but with a LONG disclaimer

Ok this is going to be a mixed review, firstly there's the monitor itself...which is in my opinion a relatively fine piece of kit. It came all nicely boxed and although there were no instructions it did have a little card giving a website address where one could look at an online instruction manual.The instruction manual is quite frankly pretty basic, but you do need to note a couple of important facts. Firstly, you almost certainly WILL have to do a firmware update to get the sleep monitor function. Secondly, pay attention to the wrist and strap position pics...you'll need to remember this.Then there's the app MIO GO App which is needed to update firmware etc as well as get the monitor working etc. This app is a complete and utter load of rubbish and I recommend that you take a deep breath before going anywhere near it. For the sake of your sanity also have a large whisky near to hand as you'll definitely need one by the time you've finished working out how to successfully sync to product to your android or IOS device of choice.Here a quick recommendation, do not try to sync item to both a phone and or iPad at the same time. In fact do not have them anywhere near and switched on each other or the device will consistently fail to sync.However, once you've achieved the third level of hell, and managed to make your device talk to the MIO Fuse, you'll find that actually all is ok...relatively speaking. The app still sucks and always will. I don't plan on depending on the app for my heart rate monitor info as I sync the monitor to my garmin edge bike computer (simples and no probs there at all). So the good news is the Mio Fuse is a good ant+ and Bluetooth heart rate monitor, but as a general well-being fitness monitor it fails pretty miserably because of the appalling app it requires to function.Would I buy again, NO. I'd buy the Garmin Vivoactive or Vivosmart in (forgive the pun) a heart-beat. Garmin took a great many years to get their apps and connectivity right, and I think they've got a much better infrastructure than that being offered by these MIO folk.So three stars for what? A good initial product. A nice clear display. A waterproof wrist-based heart rate monitor that works on its own pretty much as expected. However, there's a major caveat...beware the app...it's the creation of Hell and is designed to pitch the unwary into the Slough of Despond! In fact, I thoroughly recommend reading Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress before downloading the Mio GO app...it may just save your soul!