Two of the things that smartwatches keep failing at are thickness and size; well, okay, battery life has been an issue, too. Withings, part of the Nokia family and makers of the great looking Activité health-tracking watch line, has just announced their new Steel HR; it’s a health tracker, and it’s a gorgeous, connected watch with 25-days of battery life.
The new Withings Steel HR will offer “fully-featured activity tracking, heart rate monitoring, and smartphone notifications. Steel HR marries classic French design with advanced heart rate monitoring and a 25-day battery life. Steel HR can automatically measure continuous heart rate during workouts, average heart rate during the day, and resting heart rate while sleeping, while also offering a dynamic digital screen that displays your overall health data and smartphone notifications.”
The stainless steel encased watch will have chrome hands and silicone straps; it will also be available in two sizes: a more petite 36mm available in black or white and a 40mm in black. I think the larger black one will look really good on my wrist. 😉
Like the other Activité watches Withings has made, the Steel HR will have hand dials that show the time “and a sub-dial that shows the percentage of personal daily activity goal achieved. The activity goal (e.g. 10,000 steps) is set within the free Withings Health Mate application (available on iOS and Android) and keeps users up to date on their progress. Steel HR also boasts a new dynamic digital screen at the top of the watch face, which displays health data and smartphone notifications. Users can choose the information they would like to be shown on this screen through a multifunctional button on the side of the watch. This button allows users to navigate through data options including calories burned, daily steps, distance, sleep duration and smart alarm, and to receive notifications for calls, new emails, texts and event reminders.”
Best of all, the Steel HR will have a rechargeable battery that lasts for up to 25 days; “after approximately 25 days of heart rate monitoring, Steel HR will transition to power save mode, giving users an additional 20 days of battery life. In power save mode, Steel HR will continue to track basic activity, including steps and swims.”
Steel HR, like all activity trackers from Withings, has highly-advanced automatic activity recognition capabilities that detect a wide variety of movements and speeds associated with various activities. For walking and running, the device analyzes number of steps, distance covered, and calories burned as well as the duration of the running session. Steel HR is also water-resistant (5 ATM) and automatically recognizes when the user starts swimming, providing the time of the session and the calories burned. At night, Steel HR analyzes light and deep sleep cycles, as well as wake ups, to give users a full understanding of their sleep patterns.
I already use and love many of the Withings products that are available, and they are all tied together inside the Withings app; the Steel HR will fit right in.
Both the 36mm and 40mm Withings Steel HR will be available exclusively from the Withings site. The 36mm will sell for $179.95, and the 40mm for $199.95. Expect to see both versions at the end of October.
