3Plus Elite Lite accuracy review

I've already covered how the 3Plus app is absolute garbage, making the bracelet less useful than it should be (and the app has become even less stable since that review). But how accurate is it for what the bracelet does read?

I put my 3Plus bracelet's step, mile and calorie counter up against mapmyrun.com's GPS and calorie estimations for a few days to see how it would turn out.

Step count: A+

Really accurate. Give or take 200 steps, which is to be expected since it's reading arm movements, not leg movements. I was actually pretty impressed with how accurate it was on the steps. Whether I was walking or jogging, it seemed to be registering very close to accurate.

Miles: D

Oh boy, this was completely wrong! By more than half each day. On day 1 I tested with a simple 1 mile walk. The watch only registered .48 of a mile. On another day I did a 4.28 mile jog and the 3Plus bracelet only gave me 2.21 miles.

I have no idea what math it is using to judge my stride (I assume it's trying to use my height to estimate this), but it needs adjusted badly. I don't think my stride is overly long, and definitely not long enough to justify that big of a difference.

Calories: F

Overestimating by a lot. Map My Run estimated 354 calories burned for a 1 hour long 4 mph walk, Spark People estimated 310 calories for the same. 3Plus estimated 740. That is a huge difference.

Had it been underestimating I'd have given it a higher grade, but overestimating calories is a huge failure that is going to lead to people who believe it without question putting on weight. We already have an obesity epidemic in many western countries. We don't need our fitness equipment giving us misinformation that makes us fatter as well.

Sleep: F

Since the app still won't sync to show how long you slept, this has to receive an F. Back when it did track this properly it seemed to do a decent job; helped me realize I wasn't sleeping nearly as much as I thought I was and explained why I was constantly exhausted all the time, but what it used to do doesn't matter if it's not still doing those things.

As if the app being crap, and steadily getting worse with each update they release, wasn't bad enough, the watch is only useful as a glorified $30 pedometer and watch. This was a hugely disappointing experiment. Even if the app was functioning perfectly I would have been upset with these findings.