The Nike Fuel Band is an activity tracking bracelet that keeps track of how many calories you burn in a day, how many steps you take and then converts the data into a normalized score called Nike Fuel.
Nike Fuel Points
The idea behind Nike Fuel is simple: by standardizing the metric used to measure your activity level, Nike has enabled users to compare their Fuel scores with friends and add an entire social component to what used to be plain old calorie counting.
Nike's Fuel Band page explains the concept fairly well:
Unlike calorie counts, which vary based on someone's gender and body type, NikeFuel is a normalized score that awards all participants equal scoring for the same activity, regardless of their physical makeup.
Nike Fuel Band App
The social component to the Nike Fuel Band is facilitated by its companion app, which is available for both iOS and Android. To start, simply navigate to the Friends tab within the app and you'll be able to import friends from Facebook as well as your contacts list. The Fuel Band app will allow you to compare your daily and weekly Fuel points with everyone you've imported.
Overall, the app is simple to use and smartly laid out. It gives you "awards" when you meet or exceed goals, which, depending on the user, might come off as superfluous or worse, intrusive, as the awards seem to auto-play an animation with sound.
Nike Fuel Band Design
We've only been using our Fuel Band for a couple weeks, so we can't really speak to its durability. Two weeks in, we can say that the band still looks more or less brand new and the only perceptible wear-and-tear is a black scuff mark or two where the band plugs into the charger.
Aesthetically, the design is pretty gorgeous, in our opinion. The white version somewhat resembles a prop from Tron, particularly the white paneling on the inside. Frankly, if you end up not being sold on the calorie-counting function of the Nike Fuel Band, you'll probably still retain it as a watch.
