Fitbit Force

Fitbit Force ($129.95) is an activity tracker that counts how many steps you take, distance traveled, stairs climbed, calories burned, and sleep.

Fitbit Force comes in two sizes, small and large, and the clasp has room to adjust the size further.

Fitbit offers a free Web account -- you don't even need a Fitbit device to sign up for one -- where you can see all the data the device collects and track other aspects of your health, such as blood pressure, glucose levels, calories and water consumed, and more.

In addition to the Web account, Fitbit has a mobile app for iPhone and Android, where you can access a lot of data related to your activity and device, too. From the mobile app, you can set the silent vibration alarm, log foods eaten, change a few device settings (such as whether you wear the Force on your dominant or non-dominant wrist), and more.

The display on the Fitbit Force, something that was lacking on its predecessor the Fitbit Flex, is the sharpest screen on any activity tracker you'll find. It is crystal clear. It shows the time, steps taken, miles walked/run, stairs climbed, calories burned, and how many minutes you've been active in the current hour -- or as few of those metrics as you choose to have displayed. It's totally customizable.

Into earning badges? Fitbit rewards you as you reach milestones and other achievements with badges, which you can find in your Web account.

In the Fitbit iPhone app, you can see details of your activity, plus activities you've logged that the Force doesn't necessarily count accurately otherwise; for example, in this screenshot you can see a bicycle ride was logged.

For losing, maintaining, or gaining weight, Fitbit can help you track calories consumed as well as those burned. The Web account and mobile apps have areas where you can log the foods you eat. I like that Fitbit shows how close or far you are from hitting your daily allotment of calories.

In the Fitbit mobile app, you can choose which details to view, although you can't overlay more than one metric on a graph.

Fitbit Force automatically tracks your sleep, although you to have to log in and note in your account roughly what time you got into bed and when you arose. From there, the Force will look for slight movements when you were moving at night. You can adjust the sensitivity level for movement, too.

Many screens in the Fitbit iPhone app work in landscape mode as well as portrait mode, and for some data, the landscape mode is much more fitting.

Just as with the app, the Web account lets you note activities that you've done that the Fitbit Force cannot on its own detect. For example, because the Force is not waterproof, you would remove it to swim and thus might want to log your swim time and distance manually.

One of my favorite features of the Fitbit Force and updated app is the ability to change the goal -- and not just number of the goal, but the goal itself. For example, by default, users have a goal of 10,000 steps per day; I changed my goal to 5 miles per day.

Another superb feature is the ability to customize how the Force displays the time.

From the mobile app and Web accounts, you can change what data the Force itself shows you when you cycle through your data by pressing the button on the side of the band.