For those of you who think the fitness tracking on your Apple Watch or Android Wear is accurate, guess again. That has truly been the huge difference between activity trackers & smartwatches. Fitbit is one of the companies who has been doing properly w/ the Charge, Flex, and recently the Surge. It was only a matter of time before they released one and now it’s here. Say hello to Fitbit’s 1st smartwatch: the Blaze.
Fitbit’s 1st smartwatch doesn’t look too bad.
The Blaze has a hexagonal face w/ an LCD color touchscreen display, stainless steel casing, a 5-day battery life, and optical heart rate sensors. This isn’t running Android Wear or anything bu utilizing Fitbit’s own proprietary OS to handle the navigation and such. So you won’t have access to 3rd-party apps – at least not at launch. You will have access to differentwatchfaces, notifications, phone calls, calendar alerts and music controls. Remember just because it’s a smartwatch, this is still aFitbit one so fitness will be the focus here. The Blaze is compatible w/ over 200 Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices that connect via Bluetooth.
It won’t have GPS built-in so it will rely on your smartphone’s access to one. The heart-rate monitor will record your rate every 5 seconds throughout the day and every second during a workout. You have a multi-sport mode built-in that records your performance stats from biking to yoga exercises. You still have the alarm and sleep tracking features still onboard. What’s new and interesting is their new FitStar app. It is a personal training app that offers step-by-step workout guides on your watch. Some of them being an 8-minute Warm It Up workout, a 7-minute workout, and 10-minute abs.
As for the price? Well, it starts at $199.95 and is available for pre-sale starting today at Fitbit’s online store. It’ll then be available in several major retailers, such as Amazon, Best Buy, Brookstone, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Macy’s, Sports Authority, Target and Verizon. Indeed, starting February 20th, you can visit select Best Buy locations to try it out yourself before it finally hits global retail shelves some time in March 2016. Lucky for us, the Fitbit Blaze will also be on the show floor here at CES, so stay tuned for our hands-on with it later this week.
