Misfit Ray Fitness and Sleep Monitor Makes a Great Gift

I have to admit that I didn’t know much about fitness trackers until I attended an event hosted by Fossil at their downtown Toronto showroom on November 15, 2016. My fellow bloggers and I were introduced to a variety of fitness trackers including the Misfit Ray Fitness and Sleep Monitor. (Disclosure: I received a complimentary Misfit Ray Fitness and Sleep Monitor in order to complete my review.)

One of the things I learned about the Misfit Ray is that it is a much sleeker looking fitness tracker than many of its competitors. This fitness tracker does not have a round face; instead, it is a tubular fitness tracker made from anodized aluminum that you can easily wear with your watch. And it has enough style and subtlety that you can even wear it with business attire.

The Misfit Ray includes the fitness and sleep monitor contained in an anodized aluminum tube, a battery tray that attaches to the monitor and three 393 button cell batteries. The batteries do not require charging and have a life of about 6 months.

The Misfit Ray comes in several colours: Carbon Black, Rose Gold, Navy, Forest, Stainless Steel and Stainless Steel Gold. You can get the Misfit Ray with a sport band or leather band. Another plus is you can buy different bands for an additional $20 to change up the look of your Misfit Ray.

But the big question is what does the Misfit Ray do?

Fitness Tracker

The Misfit Ray tracks the number of steps you take each day, the total distance you’ve travelled, as well as the calories you’ve burned. You can also program it to monitor your sports activity including running, swimming, basketball, and badminton. And yes, unlike many other fitness trackers, the Misfit Ray is water-resistant to 50 metres so you don’t have to worry about wearing it in the pool. The Misfit Ray app stores your data for 30 days.

Sleep Monitor

The Misfit Ray monitors the length and quality of your sleep. The Misfit app will display a bar graph of the amount of time you have been in a restful sleep, light sleep or awake. I found this aspect of the Misfit Ray very fascinating and useful. For example, I noticed that one night I slept for a total of 6 hours and 50 minutes with 4 hours and 46 minutes of restful sleep while the following night I slept only 5 hours and 5 minutes with only 2 hours and 47 minutes of restful sleep. No wonder I felt tired the following day! I also found the Misfit Ray to be fairly comfortable to sleep with on my wrist.

Movement Alerts

You can program your Misfit Ray to send you a reminder after you’ve been sitting for, say, an hour. The LED light on the Misfit Ray fitness monitor flashes to let you know it’s time to get up and move. I found this feature to be a helpful reminder since as a blogger and writer, I can find myself sitting for long periods of time.

Vibration Alerts

The LED light on your Misfit Ray fitness monitor will flash green when you are receiving a call and blue when you are receiving a text.

Additional Features

If you download the Misfit Link app, you can get your Misfit Ray to act as a presentation clicker, take selfies and act as a music remote. I haven’t downloaded the Misfit Link app yet and am not sure if I will since I don’t think I would use these additional features.

Fairly Easy to Assemble

First of all, do not rely on the hard copy instructions that come in the box since they do not contain written instructions, just diagrams, which are not so easy to understand. Go online where you will find clear instructions. Having said that, here’s how to assemble the Misfit Ray.

1. Unsnap the wristband.
2. Hold the Misfit Ray with the LED eye at the top of the aluminum tube, then gently squeeze the bottom half of the band (called the battery tray), underneath the aluminum tube to the left. Place the three 393 button cell batteries with the positive end facing down into the battery tray. Then insert the battery tray back into the tube and turn right.
3. Download the Misfit app from the App Store or Google Play Store to your smartphone. The Misfit Ray uses bluetooth to sync with your iOS or Android device so make sure that Bluetooth is turned on on your smartphone.
4. Add your data such as height, weight. regular sleep times and activity goals into the Misfit app.

I am really enjoying using my Misfit Ray. I think it’s helping me to be more active in my daily life and I really see the value of the sleep monitor in keeping me aware of my sleep patterns. Yes, it would be great if it also had a pulse monitor, but if you are looking for a basic fitness tracker and sleep monitor that looks great, Misfit Ray is for you.

The Misfit Ray retails for $129.99 CDN and can be found at Staples and Best Buy. These would make great holiday gifts for your loved ones.