Fitbit had a tumultuous year, but they are looking to get 2015 started off right. Today Fitbit announced three new wearables that will compete in a segment that is getting more crowded everyday. Fitbit’s new wearables are called the Charge, Charge HR and the Surge.
The Fitbit Charge is available today. You can order your’s from Fitbit’s website for $129.95. The Charge is your basic activity tracker with some notification functionality thrown in. The Charge can be paired with your smartphone so you can use the screen as a caller id. Another handy update to the Fitbit line is automatic sleep tracking. In the past you needed to press a button to tell the tracker you were going to sleep, now the Charge will know all on it’s own. Fitbit claims the Charge should last seven to ten days on a single charge.
Next up is the Charge HR which will be released early next year and cost $150. The Charge HR offers everything in the Charge, plus a heart-rate monitor embedded in the watch-like band. The Charge HR will continuously monitor your heart-rate so you will get a more accurate picture of caloric intake and workout intensity. Because the heart-rate monitor is constantly working, battery life on the Charge HR dips to about five days on a single charge.
Fitbit’s new flagship will be the $250 Surge. Fitbit calls the Surge a “fitness super-watch” which seems to be something of a cross between a smartwatch and a fitness tracker. The Surge has all the other Fitbit features, plus there is the addition of GPS. For those at home counting, that gives the Surge a grand total of eight sensors. The Surge gives you call and text notifications, plus you can control your music on a paired smartphone. If you don’t want to lug your phone with you on a run, the included GPS makes sure you can keep track of your route. Fitbit claims the Surge will give you seven days of use on a single charge.
It’s surprising that Fitbit isn’t rushing to get all three of these wearables out for the holidays after the year they had. Maybe it’s just me, but is seems that they could lose some valuable customers to other brands during the holiday shopping season. In a segment that is getting crowded with quality devices, every customer counts. It will be interesting to see how Fitbit’s latest and greatest stack up against the best from other companies.
Source Fitbit via Wired