It’s all about fitness and health for Microsoft’s rookie stab at the fledgling wearable niche, as the aptly named Band doesn’t intend to compete against fancy smartwatches.
We were warned to not expect much from
Redmond’s debut wearable piece in terms of smartwatch features, but boy, does the Band make up for it with sensors. And cross-platform support, and Microsoft Health, a complex cloud service deeply tied into and integrated with the activity tracker’s custom smartphone apps.
Yes, Health does harvest your data not just from Microsoft’s proprietary apps and services, but also RunKeeper or MyFitnessPal. It then stores it to the cloud, which sounds dangerous amid recent
“sensitive” leakfs.
However, everything you
choose to share is used to your advantage, spawning actionable insights and impressively detailed stats designed to help you keep fit. You can set workout goals, get info on which activities are better for you, the recovery time needed between various exercises and so on and so forth.
Clearly, the Microsoft Band isn’t revolutionary and “advanced” in the sense the Apple Watch or Motorola’s Moto 360 are. But in more ways than one, it’s practical, convenient and has real-life benefits.
For instance, it monitors your heart rate 24/7, tracks the length and quality of sleep, distance run, steps taken, calories burned, your skin temperature and can even measure the surrounding UV Index. A built-in GPS ensures a certain degree of smartphone independency, and the dual 100 mAh batteries supposedly last 48 hours in “normal use”.
Of course, that decreases as you use your GPS, although it should still hold a charge for at least a full day in any and all circumstances.
Compatible, as expected, with Windows Phones, as well as Androids running 4.3 and up, and iPhones with iOS 7.1 and later, the Microsoft Band sports a petite and fairly low-res 320 x 106 pixel 1.4-inch full color display.
http://ift.tt/1p4m3W5Not overly impressive, yet decent enough to show an array of notifications, alert you of incoming calls and text messages and let you preview e-mails. You can even do a bit of social networking, as well as get weather forecasts, calendar alerts and so on and so forth.
For Windows Phone users, there’s Cortana support, letting you set reminders and whatnot by voice. Splash and sweat-resistant, the basic yet complex wearable gizmo is already
available stateside for a reasonable $199.99.
You can choose between three band sizes, small, medium and large, the display staying the same in all three cases, but you should probably hurry, as Redmond offers “limited quantities” to start with. More are on the way, presumably, but why risk standing empty-handed?
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