Is there any brick-and-mortar shop selling Fitbit in Taipei?
mi.com/tw/miband/#s1 Can buy the Xiaomi version for a fraction of the price.
mi.com/tw/service/mifamily/ store here
Try one of the stores in between the Lenovo and Burger King on BaDe Rd near Guang Hua Digital Market. There’s a store that specializes in sport electronics (Gopro, wearables, sport headphones).
It’s odd it’s not more mainstream because there’s a Taiwan Time Zone/Food Database setting on my FitBit One.
A lot of Taiwanese buy the Xiaomi version.
I have no interest in Xiaomi.
Thanks, ranlee. I’ll check it out.
Why not Xiaomi, Chris?
P.S.: I’m not questioning your decision of buying or not an alternative product. I’m just wondering what are the differences in functionality.
Mainland China doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation when it comes to the quality of its electronics. I will stick with more reputable brands until China gets its act together like Japan and Korea did.
Mainland China doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation when it comes to the quality of its electronics. I will stick with more reputable brands until China gets its act together like Japan and Korea did.[/quote]
Got it. The Xiaomi brand have been receiving surprisingly good reviews recently, tho. Unfortunately, that isn’t true for most of Chinese products.
[quote=“Chris”]I have no interest in Xiaomi.
Thanks, ranlee. I’ll check it out.[/quote]
Chris, any chance you can confirm if the store has them?
I’m thinking about getting a FitBit One for my gf, she feels a little left out when I look at my step count every 10-15 minutes when we go out. Thanks!
I went yesterday and checked it out. Unfortunately, according to them, Fitbit is not sold anywhere in Taiwan. Maybe this isn’t true, but I wasn;t able to find it in the area.
Maybe I’ll just order it on Amazon.
WTFI Fitbit?
Looks like you can buy it from this website in Taiwan:
http://www.expansys-tw.com/s.aspx?search=Fitbit&gclid=COiol9f4j8sCFQukvQodNlYLdw
I didn’t buy anything from them, but is the top result when searching “Fitbit Taiwan”
Now that I’m in the US, I can buy one easily.
It looks like Fitbit will be available in Taiwan later this month (September 2016). From the China Post:
U.S.-based Fitbit, well known for its wristband sports trackers, is set to introduce two of its popular devices — the Fitbit Charge 2 and the Fitbit Flex 2 — to Taiwan in late September and in October, respectively.
…
Fitbit’s devices, to be distributed in Taiwan by Chicony Electronics Co., will be available on online sale platforms Yahoo, PChome and momo and also displayed in brick-and-mortar retailers such as Tsann Kuen 3C outlets and Fnac outlets islandwide.
I’m curious about the Flex 2, since swimming is my main sport, but at the moment I know next to nothing about what Fitbits actually do.
I’m surprised the Fitbit watches were not available sooner here. I see they are available via pchome/yahoo now.
It’s just an activity trainer and depending on which model you get, there are different functions such as sleep tracking, text notification, etc… I just ordered the Charge 2 from the states and I’m curious to see how the new upgrades are.
The accuracy of the step count/heart rate monitor has been questioned by many, but personally I think it does a decent job. Their phone app is pretty solid and much easier to use than say TomTom/Polar apps. If you get the Flex 2, hopefully you can share with us your opinions after using it.
The charge 2 looks very very nice and it would definitely be something I would look into upgrading. I have a Fitbit One, does a great job and I never really forget to hook it onto the pocket of my pants.
I’m wondering if a watch would be more accurate in steps than my One. I normally cycle and I’m curious if the accuracy may vary.
I read somewhere that Strava easily shares data with Fitbit. Is that something you’ve done?
One reason I’m a little unsure about Fitbit as a whole is that so much of my exercise is swimming, cycling, or stairs I manage to walk up between my 7th floor apartment and 7th floor office. So Fitbit doesn’t really seem to cover those. The heart rate monitor sounds nice, but that won’t work with swimming.
Yes, you can connect your Fitbit to your Strava account. I’ve seen articles about it, but I have never done with my One. I do take it out on rides with me and it’s somewhat accurate. I’ve noticed when I do short rides, but with lots of climbing I can rack up as many steps as a ride twice it’s distance, but flat. Probably due to spinning in a low gear for the climbing ride. However, I only registered 9k steps for my ride up to Wuling via Hualien. Maybe the altitude f-ed up the unit?
I think it comes down to what you want out of it. I think inaccuracy is bound to happen no matter what brand or model. Just a matter of, can you live with the inaccuracy. 
I hear the step counter for watches can be a little inaccurate. My friend has a Fitbit watch (forgot what model) and he made the running arm motion while seated and the unit registered a few steps. I did the same motion with my One and with my finger over the sensors, it also registered a few steps.
Correct me if I’m wrong, since I don’t really use the Fitbit app except to look at my steps/day, I think a Strava ride/run/swim profile provides more data for you to analyze. For example, for the bike, Fitbit can’t detect or estimate cadence or power output, Strava phone app can, but it’s all purely based off of other stats that you’ve recorded. Hence, estimate.
What are you using now? If anything?
I don’t have a fitness tracker at all right now, although I’ve got a basic bike computer (distance, time, speed; no cadence or heart rate), and I use Strava on my smartphone for rides. I also keep records on my computer of rides, and of swims - both distance and times.
I didn’t know there was a Strava swim profile. I’ll look into that.
Pro for Fitbit for me: I have an absurd fondness for keeping records. To what purpose, I’m not sure.
Con: a lingering sense that it’s kind of pointless. I can amble along for a 1,000 steps, or I go up seven floors of stairs as fast as possible, which is, what, 70 “steps”? Yet I suspect the latter is far more significant as exercise. Making sure I do X “steps” of exercise probably won’t make half as much difference as pushing myself HARD when I’m swimming or biking or going up stairs.
There’s actually profiles for multiple sports. When you are adding pictures and naming your activity (on mobile app), you can change the activity type by press the toggle button the right and a drop down menu will appear. There’s even one for kayaking or was it canoeing.
I think any form of fitness tracker would benefit your activities. I think Fitbit has style points so it won’t look ugly when you’re out on the town and the better user friendly app compared to Garmin’s connect. However, we all know the Fitbit units will be 50-100USD more in TW than the states.