Sony’s SmartBand 2 adds a heart-rate sensor to a minimalist fitness tracker
Sony today unveiled the next entry in their SmartBand lineup. This is the SmartBand 2, and it comes with a number of improvements over the original. The fitness watch now dons a heart rate sensor, which allows you to keep track of your resting and active heart rates over the course of the day.
The device supports basic notifications by equipping you with RGB LED lights which blink different colors depending on what sort of notification it is, whether that’s a call, email, or text message. It even has basic music control functionality — simply tap the smart band to play and pause tracks, or to skip to the next song.
Other SmartBand features include sleep tracking, a step counter and an alert that goes off when you move 10 meters away from your phone (that last one is only available for Xperia phone owners). It also fully charges in just one hour and lasts a full 2 days on a single charge. Water-dwellers can enjoy IP68 certification to use their devices when going for a swim (up to 10 meters for as long as 30 minutes, of course). Not bad.
All your fitness data can be viewed within Sony’s LifeLog app, where you can determine whether you need better sleep, more exercise or if you just want to share data between friends.
Sony says they’ll be bringing this thing to 60 countries this year, and it should be rather affordable at around $132 when it launches. You’ll be able to snag one in black, white, pink and indigo, and it’ll work with any phone running Android 4.4 or higher.
[via Sony]