Do you love the Jawbone UP ecosystem but hate that the UP bands don’t perform basic duties like tell the time or show how many steps you’ve taken without syncing? If so, then you need a Huawei TalkBand B2; this smartband packs a ton of features into a slim package, and as of today it now has Jawbone UP compatibility!
Did you catch what’s in the photo above? That’s a bluetooth headset that also goes on your wrist as a smartband. Pretty cool, right?
Designed for smart living, the hybrid device includes automatic activity tracking, sleep monitoring and crystal-clear hands-free calling.
So on top of being able to monitor all of your fitness information, well — except for heart rate, the TalkBand B2 can also be used as a hands-free Bluetooth headset. It has a “high- performance speaker and Dual Mic noise suppression that delivers excellent call quality.”
The Huawei TalkBand B2 is available in black or white sport versions, and there is also a much fancier gold-tone model that has a brown leather band.
The TalkBand B2 price will start at $179 on GetHuawei.com, Amazon, in-store and online at Fry’s Electronics beginning this week. You’ll also be able to buy them at Best Buy soon.
The Huawei TalkBand B2 works with Android 4.0 and above devices as well as iOS 7.0 and above. The Huawei Wear app synchronizes with Apple’s Health app, but best of all, as of today it will integrate with the Jawbone UP ecosystem.
That’s pretty cool! I use Jawbone with my Pebble, and their app is excellent (aside from the occasional pop-up suggesting I “upgrade” to one of their bands).
I think Jawbone is smart for diversifying across more than just their hardware-it helps grow their ecosystem exponentially!
I agree; when I used the UP band, I loved the software and the fact that all of my friends seemed to be using it (which made the whole experience much more social). I never liked that the bands were so basic, though. Jawbone is really smart to share their secret sauce with other brands like this. =)
They also are clever in selling some of their bands for so cheap. In theory you could pair a simple UP24 band with a smartwatch and get the best of all worlds-a band to track your sleep (the UP24) and a smartwatch for daytime activities.
If I cared more about my sleep patterns that would be an interesting experiment.