The Jawbone UP has been back for a little while now, after engineers took it back to the drawing board to correct mass failures in the original version. It came back better than ever, Jawbone said, and for the most part that seems to be true. Flaky syncing used to mar my original, even though I never experienced the same cataclysmic failure as others. This time around, I noticed a problem initially that others in the office have also seen, and a few other users are already reporting: a matte finish on the end cap that’s prone to peeling. It looks cheap.
Two of our staff units are exhibiting this already, both after just a few days’ use. And we’ve also found a report on Twitter, and someone else complaining of the same thing on Jawbone’s official forums. Two suggested fixes from that thread: don’t ever remove your Jawbone UP (lol), and buy the three-pack replacement caps that Jawbone offers in its official store. Both are obviously less than ideal. An ideal solution would be this not happening to begin with.
The cap complaints are echoed by a number of people in the Jawbone forums on other threads, and also include users complaining of caps that come loose during vigorous activity. This was an issue with the original version, and one reportedly made better with version two. Jawbone says your first replacement cap is free, but after that, you have to go through the store and purchase new ones. Presumably, that won’t make them any more resistant to this flaking issue, too.
These Jawbone UP’s may not be dying permanently at random, and sure, the issue is mostly cosmetic, but the Up is $130: at that price, you’re not expecting it to start showing wear from normal use 48 hours after you crack the packaging. We’ve reached out to Jawbone looking for an explanation, but in the meantime let us know if you’re seeing this issue, or any other problems with your UP wristband.
