Bellabeat Leaf Urban Review: Looking Back In 2024!

Body Of A Leaf? Beauty Of A Flower!

There is no doubt that from POV of an admirer Bellabeat Leaf Urban is as beautiful as it can get. With body which is shaped like a leaf, it won’t be wrong to say that it is not a fitness tracker but instead a smart jewelery item. You can wear it on your hand as a bracelet. You can have it around your neck as a necklace. Or you can clip it to any piece of clothing you can find, and the best thing is that all of these different possibilities are actually encouraged by the Bellabeat itself.

It isn’t like Apple or Fitbit where these options are alternative and not the default choices. Upon buying the tracker you will receive the needed tools to ensure you could have it on you as you want. Of course, given it’s strong focus towards it’s niche audience I couldn’t try out all of them. I was left mighty impressed by the efforts.

Speaking from technical perspective Bellabeat Leaf Urban only weighs half an ounce – which I don’t think I need to tell you is very light. Making it not only ideal to have it around during the day, but also at the night. Which you would want to have anyway because Leaf Urban is able to provide sleep tracking with insights catered to your taste (more about it later).

No Display Screen To Glare

Probably the one thing which could be said to be a taint in it’s record is Bellabeat Leaf Urban doesn’t have a screen. It doesn’t have any screen. So you must have your phone connected to your Bellabeat device at all times (just like other Bellabeat products be it Ivy or Spring). Or at least once a day. Leaf Urban does have the 14 days storage space meaning even if you won’t sync your mobile phone with tracker for 2 weeks your data won’t get lost.

Although, I wouldn’t ever suggest you try that, it is commendable that there is certain limit but we need to understand that this a tracker where our only interaction is through the phone. You take that out and you are playing with volatile bits of data stored on faceless bracelet.

“Crafted from Hypoallergenic stainless steel, Wood composite & Hypoallergenic rubber”

– Bellabeat

While there is nothing we could do about the display screen, there is just none of it. If we take a close look on the inspection of the material used, you’d find Bellabeat has gone above and beyond there. Even if you’d compare it with latest Ivy you’d see very little changes in craftmanship. The fine quality of material used to bring to the life the Leaf Urban perfectly excludes the royal aura that Bellabeat desperately wants to be known for.

Activity & Sleep Tracking With Intent

Bellabeat Leaf Urban is not the Apple Watch or Fitbit Tracker. If you’ve come here and expect it to be able to track SPO2 and VO2 Max then you are lost. Because this is not what it is made for. All it can do is track the activity stats (steps & distance) and give you basic insight regarding the sleep. However, what you’d be pleased to know is that although what it provides compare to industry giant is insignificant Bellabeat certainly ticks the boxes of accuracy.

I’d it with my at the same time as Fitbit Versa 4 and both of them clocked the steps with 95% precision. Another thing to note here is that from my own test Leaf seemed to be have no problem counting steps in different positions. While Fitbit on the other hand was constantly struggling in alternative positions.

Quite coincidently the same pattern followed in the sleep tracking. My Versa 4 didn’t track the sleep for almost 3 hours when I’d it clipped to my ankle (probably because I move them a lot). Whereas Bellabeat Leaf clipped to my shirt was able to track the hours properly. Although, you’d still have to confirm the hours before your Bellabeat can commit to those numbers.

Apart from these two activities Bellabeat also allows you to log many stats (calories burned during different activities like eating, walking, breastfeeding). Which are later used to create the goals according to your logged data.

Art Of Meditation To Learn

This is where Bellabeat begins to step up from the traditional fitness trackers. Using the guided meditation audios stored in the Bellabeat app you can follow the routine to relax your mind. This is quite similar to what you might see in Fitbit trackers (although there is no low alignment issue here).

At the end of exercises your data will be recorded in the application. Which you could access from the dashboard. There are also levels which you can choose according to your needs. For someone who is just starting out we’d suggest you stick with the default option.

What Makes Bellabeat Leaf Bellabeat…

Taking the leaf out of the theme mentioned above there are other aspects too which puts Leaf into separate category. For instance the primary reason for which anyone would want to go for any Bellabeat tracker is that these trackers are engineered for the women.

All Bellabeat trackers and that includes Leaf and Leaf Urban can give you ability to track menstrual cycle, make sure you are kept up to date about the pregnancy and ovulation period. While logging into your details and creating a unified experience which will only cater to your needs.

In comparison to the Ivy this is a step down for sure, we need to consider the time Bellabeat Leaf Urban was released. A time where there was little to no awareness for female centric trackers. A market which never thought to expand it’s horizon. Another thing to note here is that in spite the limited capacity of features and most of them too manual for wearable market Bellabeat Leaf was also the first to exceed the imagination barrier.

Leaf Vs Ivy: Too Old To Catch Up?

Just recently we did a paper on Bellabeat and Fitbit in which we noticed how Bellabeat Ivy was a progress over its predecessor and more of smartwatch than fitness tracker. Well, this is the predecessor which paved the path for Ivy in the market.

Despite its many shortcomings it was Leaf Urban success which made sure Bellabeat could invest in the Ivy. It is also vital to note here that Ivy is made to have all of those features (able to track heart rate and use propriety metrics like wellness score) because Leaf Urban left the room for it.

For sure, the gap between the two is huge. One is at the top of it’s game. While the other is too old now to play catch up. Even today Bellabeat Leaf Urban can hold its own. Even if its for a short while now.

Things Inside The Box

You will get the following things inside the Bellabeat Leaf Urban box:

• Leaf Urban
• Active Bracelet
• Infinity Necklace
• CR2032 Coin Cell Battery
• Battery Replacement Tool

The reason for replacement tool is Leaf Urban doesn’t work on rechargeable batteries.

For you only: Check our guide on best Bellabeat Accessories to have in 2024!

So you will have it to replace the coin battery – if and when it will run out – usually it takes 4-6 months before your tracker will need to have a replacement.

Bellabeat Leaf Urban: Verdict

Bellabeat Leaf Urban holds a very special place in the wearable industry. By no means it is or ever was the best fitness tracker. Given the specialty of idea it brought to life it is hard to imagine one day it will be forgotten. Although, that doesn’t mean we should excuse the lack of basic vital tracking, there are many flaws to its execution. Yet at the same time for what it stands is so unique and glaring that we are forced to wonder: “Why was it first of its kind?”