The Misfit Shine is the premium band in the Misfit fitness tracker family. Although it offers the same functionality as its less-expensive younger brother, the Misfit Flash, it brings with it a wider scope of device support and customization options for any look or style. Though it is easily one of the most customizable and stylish trackers on the market, its lack of standout features may be a turn off for those looking to get the most of intense workouts.

The Misfit Shine is easily the most attractive and versatile fitness band on the market, and this is its biggest strength as a tracker. The tracker itself is made of an attractive, corrosion-resistant aircraft-grade aluminum, weighs approximately 3.4 grams more than its younger brother, and comes in ten different color options. To directly contrast its younger brother, the color options are more mature and muted with selections ranging from steely gray and black; seashore-inspired colors such as “Topaz” blue, “Seaglass” green, and “Coral”; and colors that immediately evoke a sense of elegance, such as the light “Champagne”, deep blue “Storm,” and the cabernet-red “Wine.” And of course, you can’t forget the brought-to-you-by corporate colors, “Coca-Cola Red” and “Victoria’s Secret Shine in Pink.”

The tracker by default comes with a black clip attachment and a smooth plastic sports wristband. The tracker wedges in without feeling quite secure; at first, it feels almost as if it’s nestled in haphazardly and could fall out at any moment. Despite these first few moments of insecurity, the tracker never fell out of place. The clip attachment allows for accurate tracking of various activities, and it stays in place no matter where it’s securely attached to or the intensity of movement.

Beyond the default lies the brilliance of Shine: over 120 possible combinations of styles and looks. From multiple leather straps, colored plastic bands, and even varying styles of necklaces, the Shine is what you want, how you want it. It can be dressed down for a sportier look or dressed up for a classy or professional vibe. Whether this brushed metal look and ability to customize is worth doubling the price tag is up to the consumers; however, the Shine’s success thus far speaks volumes about the market’s desire for options.

The Misfit Shine has a basic 3-axis accelerometer that tracks steps and distance travelled, and the clip-on attachment lends itself to a variety of additional activities to be tracked such as running, swimming, basketball, and more. Misfit recommends the clip be placed in various areas based on the activity for the most accurate readings possible, so it is mildly important to carry the clip with you in case of emergency exercise where wristwear is not appropriate. Based on user-provided information such as height and weight, the Shine is also capable of estimating calories burned throughout the day.

With a higher water resistance rating than the Flash, the Misfit Shine is more capable of handling underwater exploits such as swimming and showering. Additionally, the battery life on the Shine is second to none. Instead of traditional charging, the Shine uses an energy-efficient, replaceable battery that offers users approximately six months of life. These batteries are inexpensive and offer a unique and convenient alternative to standard tracker fare.

The Misfit Shine is capable of automatic sleep tracking, which is far more convenient than having to remember to manually set the tracker in sleep mode each night. The sleep tracker records periods of inactivity, and, like the other metrics captured by the Shine, sends these metrics to the Misfit app using low energy Bluetooth technology. Its silent alarm is functional and effective, though it does not much deviate from the norm in the fitness band arena.

Although the Shine does not necessarily lack any particular feature found in comparable trackers, nothing in its feature set really stands out as anything new, innovative, or proprietary. This can be seen as either a weakness or a strength; it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but it also doesn’t alienate its users with half-developed tech or any confusing attempts to reinvent the wheel. It merely strives to be a solid, mid-tier tracker with solid, mid-tier features. And this is something it does well.

Whereas the Misfit Flash was only capable of functioning on Android and iOS devices, the Shine also brings functionality to Windows phones. Many trackers on the market today still lack comprehensive support to Windows devices, so it is refreshing to see Misfit picking up the slack. However, despite all the various features found in the Shine, its surprisingly unimpressive app-side, even after recent app updates. Like most trackers, Misfit proudly boasts integration with third party apps such as MyFitnessPal for a more in-depth user experience.

With the Misfit 2.0 rollout across devices, the app has sleek, modern graphs with an ambient, nature-themed background. The graphs detail movement throughout the day, including tags for activity periods and a separate chart that shows light and heavy sleep cycles. And unfortunately, as far as metrics go, that’s about it.

The home screen displays steps taken, estimated calories burned, and distance travelled in a circle that shows how much progress has been made towards the daily goal. Tapping on the circle shows Misfit’s proprietary points system that allows users to rack up points for extra activity, which is a nice touch if not slightly pointless -- no pun intended. While it’s convenient to have all this information front and center of the app, it is not necessarily commendable as much as it is standard fare for the market.

When you click on times when you participated in an activity, only a moderate amount of additional information is displayed about what exactly was done. Whereas other apps provide handy metrics such as laps ran or reps performed, the Shine app provides only a glance at how many points that activity earned you, distance travelled, and an estimate of calories burned. It’s a bit discouraging to still not be able to compare your progress across days and weeks to view your improvement, especially when other trackers such as the Fitbit Charge readily bring this to the table. The Misfit 2.0 app does allow users to compare progress over months now, and according to Misfit, the best has yet to come as they continue to improve and develop their tech.

For the price, the lack of in-depth metrics app-side is a huge drawback for the Shine, but the app does provide some interesting social features that are fun and motivating. Naturally, Misfit did not forget the standard leaderboard among fellow Misfit-using friends using its proprietary point-tracking system. Additionally, Misfit provides a “Mr. & Ms. Misfit” function that shows the average amount of steps taken and daily and weekly steps taken record by all the men or women using Misfit devices. It comes with an encouraging message: “If you’re beating me, you’re better than average!” This separate section creates a new goal to set sights on, and although we found it was sometimes too easy a goal to beat, the additional feelings of success were fun and motivating. Mr. & Ms. Misfit become a taunting sort of neighbor, the fitness tech Joneses to be kept up with.

The Misfit Shine may not be the most comprehensive in features compared to others in its class, and it may not provide the in-depth metrics others proudly boast; however, it is hands-down the most stylish and customizable of any tracker available today. Its solid foundation of backbone features are reliable and will prove more than enough for the average fitness band user who doesn’t need the overwhelming metrics of more comprehensive trackers. All in all, its stylish options and solid variety of cornerstone features push the Misfit Shine into a strong contender in its segment of the fitness tracking market.