Yesterday Microsoft did their big fall hardware event in New York and everyone's already writing up the Surface Book (the laptop with the weird detachable screen and the hinge that looks like a fault line) and the Surface Pro 4. Fine, those are the flashy ones. I'm not going to pretend I have anything new to say about a $1,499 laptop I have zero intention of buying right now. What actually caught my eye, buried a few slides in, was the Band 2.
I own the original Microsoft Band. Bought it last Christmas on a whim because it was $50 off and I'd just started running again (badly, and not for very long, but I was running). And I have complicated feelings about that thing. The heart rate sensor is genuinely good, better than I expected from a company whose last consumer hardware push was the Zune. But the screen is flat and rectangular and sits on top of your wrist like a little brick, and mine cracked the screen protector within about six weeks just from bumping into doorframes and my desk. Twice. I've since put a second protector over the first one, which looks exactly as dumb as it sounds.
So Band 2 having a curved AMOLED display that actually follows the shape of your wrist is not a minor spec bump to me, it's the one thing I've been complaining about out loud to anyone who'll listen for the better part of a year. $249.99, which is not nothing, but they've also added a barometer (so it can tell you're climbing stairs instead of just guessing from steps) and a UV sensor, which is a strange one but I guess somebody at Microsoft really wanted a "hey you're gonna burn" notification built in.
I'll admit I'm skeptical in the way you get skeptical after a company's first attempt at something disappoints you a little. Not badly enough to return it, just enough that you notice the seams. The original Band's strap connector always felt like the weak point to me, the little clasp mechanism, and I haven't seen enough close-up shots yet to know if they fixed that or just moved the problem somewhere else. Hardware companies are good at fixing the complaint everyone wrote about and less good at fixing the complaint that only shows up after you've worn the thing every day for four months.
Compare this to a Fitbit, which is what half the people I know actually wear. The Fitbit doesn't try to do nearly as much (no full email/text notifications, way simpler screen, no GPS on most models) and that restraint is sort of the whole appeal. Microsoft's approach with Band has always been "throw ten sensors at it," which I respect, but it's also why the thing eats battery in about a day and a half of real use with GPS running. I checked mine a minute ago actually, mid-writing-this, and it's at 34%, on a charge from this morning. That's the actual daily experience of owning one of these, not the marketing slide.
None of this is really a complaint about yesterday's announcement, more just where my head went while everyone else on my feed was talking about whether the Surface Book's hinge mechanism (they're calling it a "dynamic fulcrum hinge," which, sure) is going to hold up over time. I don't have an opinion on a hinge I haven't touched. I have an opinion on a wristband I've been wearing every day since December.
Pre-orders for Band 2 open today if you want one before the actual store date at the end of the month. I'm probably going to order one anyway, which I recognize is not a great look right after spending three paragraphs listing complaints about the first one, but the curved screen alone is enough to get me to hand over the money again. Some purchases aren't rational, they're just about not wanting a screen protector stacked on a screen protector on your wrist anymore.