Just how many activity trackers can this emerging, but admittedly
niche market support? We have no idea, but Withings is hoping that
there's room for at least one more. The company will be releasing the Pulse tomorrow for $99, and taking on veterans of the scene like Fitbit and relative newcomers like Jawbone.
The tiny device counts steps, monitors your sleep patterns and can even
measure your heart rate. Unfortunately, it can't do the latter
constantly and in real time, though, that might be a slightly
unrealistic expectation of any tracker. Like some of Fitbit's products
it can also monitor your altitude, which is great for people who want to
know how many steps they've climbed. The Pulse itself is quite small,
about the size of standard issue pedometer and almost as light. The
casing is made of a nice soft touch plastic that feels down right lovely
in the hand, which is good since you'll be manhandling the Pulse more
than most other trackers. It's a far cry from the glossy piano black
finish it sported at CES.
On the top is a singe button that wakes the display and cycles
through the various screens of stats, including the number of steps
taken, calories burned and total distance traveled. The display is one
of the more helpful we've seen on such a device. It's hardly a high-res
LCD, but the monochrome panel is dense enough to spit out usable data
with a quick glance. It also happens to be touch sensitive. A firmware
update coming tomorrow will allow you to swipe through up to 14 days of
activity, but the prototype we handled only had a one day history. The
screen was relatively responsive to our input, though it struggled a bit
when we tried to swipe down to initiate the heart rate monitor from the
menu. Once you do get it to launch, you'll need to press your finger
firmly against the sensors on the back. We had mixed success getting the
Pulse to actually monitor our beating heart, however. It worked just
fine for one of our editors, while the other is apparently the waking
dead.
Withings is nice enough to include both a rubbery clip and a soft
cloth band in the package. While you could theoretically wear it in the
band all day, it's meant primarily to be worn while sleeping. Obviously
it's going to be hard to pass judgement on the Pulse after just a few
short minutes handling it, but it definitely shows promise. Check back
for our full review in the coming weeks.
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