Brian Chapman
For a cool 70 bucks, you too can have inaccurate step counts, uncomfortable fit, issues with the watch thinking you're underwater, and finicky touch controls!!!The Inspire 2 is essentially the entry-level fitness watch that promises a set of features that do the bare minimum, which is what you should reasonably expect. And while the product is only running 69.99, that's still more than enough to expect it to do those simple features well enough, especially coming from the industry leader, Fitbit. Unfortunately, that's not the case.First issue: It's uncomfortable. The rubber band seems like it's going to be nice to wear at first, and it even comes with a spare out of the box. It's a nice matted finished band that feels soft to the touch. Unfortunately it's rubberized nature means it sticks to your skin and constantly tugs on your supple flesh, especially if you wear the band as tightly as Fitbit seems to want you to.Which brings us to the second issue: Fit. If you have a problem with the Inspire 2, Fitbit's default customer service recommendations typically include: Wear it lower or higher on your wrist, and tighten it more. Let me just say that the only reason I can think of that they would want me to wear this damn thing any tighter is that they are anti-hands and are operating some in some sort of dark underbelly who wants all humans to lose their hands. But, unfortunately, that seems to be the solution to a lot of very typical problems that this unit seems to have.And one of those issues is the Water Lock feature. A quick google search will show you a bunch of customers running into this problem and no real solutions offered from Fitbit CS. A simple ability to deactivate this feature would fix this, but as far as I can tell it has remained a consistent sticking point for a while now and without help from a firmware update I don't know if it's going to be fixed. Essentially, if the watch isn't worn perfectly, for some reason it defaults to thinking you are in or around water, getting wet and moist. Then it turns on a locking mechanism that requires you handle it's finicking touch screen to get out of the lock.Speaking of its touch screen and its user experience in general, it is subpar, but feasible. If the Inspire 2 didn't have all of these other problems, a slightly worse-than-average touch experience probably wouldn't be too big of a deal, but it kind of just stacks on top of the other issues. Sometimes it works perfectly, as intended. Then other times, it takes a lot of handling just to get the screen to recognize that you want it to turn on. Sometimes the tilt function that is supposed to quickly turn on and let you see the time and water stat you have actively selected (heartbeat, steps, etc) works perfectly and other times you might as well be a corpse because I'm pretty sure the Inspire 2 thinks you are deceased and has gone into retirement. Then the touch screen itself often works fine, just as often refuses to swipe through it's various readouts. It is probably the best part of the product, which says a lot about everything else, and for 70 it's probably what you should expect from a touch screen.Step count... While I appreciate the watch telling me that I've walked 3,000 steps today, I have been sitting at my desk for 12 straight hours straight. My legs are numb, my ass is decimated and my arteries are clogged with gelatinous blood. But seriously, when you are actually walking it does a fine job counting your steps. But it will periodically add phantom steps. I was on a road trip, driving 7 hours one way, then the other on the return, I only walked when we stopped to stretch our legs. I took no more than a few hundred steps in that time, but by the end of it, the Inspire 2 insisted I had walked well two thousand... This and the sleep tracking (which we will get to next) were the main reasons I wanted a fitness watch to begin with. If these counts were accurate I might ignore the litany of other annoyances on offer, but it's clear that I'm not going to be getting accurate counts of calories burned, steps taken, and that calls into question things like the sleep tracking as well.This brings us to said sleep tracking. It seems okay? But what do I know, I'm asleep... Actually, even that is a lie. Each of the nights I've sacrificed comfort to wear this wrist-demon to sleep, I've woken up to it telling me that it couldn't get a very accurate read, that I should tighten the band some more... my brother in christ, I can not tighten this threat any more than it already is. It does give you a decent readout of your sleep situation regardless of this message, but you do have to sleep for 14 days for the app to give you meaningful information about it. Unfortunately, again, the 14 days have to start at the first of the month. So if you are relying on paid monthly Fitbit access to get the most out of your watch, and it just so happens to fall on the latter half of a month, you may end up having to pay for an additional month just to get the information you want.I hope this unnecessarily in-depth review has helped. Pay extra, get a better watch, and maybe just get a Garmin or something. I'm not so sure about Fitbit as a brand anymore. If you do end up getting the Inspire 2 despite yourself, only wear it during exercise. Everyday driver, this one is not.