20 Latest Fitness Wearables You Can Buy
The concept of using wearables to help track and monitor your fitness better is not something new. In fact in 2014, fitness wearables are going mainstream. We can finally see a lot of these smart wearables available for commercial use. They help you track your workout, your calorie count, heart rate, sleep patterns, step count and other aspects of your health you want to keep watch on.
Here are 20 of the latest wearable gadgets you could probably buy in 2014. Note that most of these wearables were shown off during CES 2014 and has yet to get their confirmed released-by date or prices. But one thing is for sure, with such a wide range of selections to choose from, the competition is definitely heating up.
Recommended Reading: 10 Cool Fitness Gadgets For Health Junkies
Wellograph
Wellograph is a watch, a fitness tracker and heart rate monitor, rolled in one. Its larger screen allows you to view graphs of your daily and weekly activities, steps, fitness and heart rate. You can pair it with your smartphone over Bluetooth to view even more detailed stats. Its battery can last for 2 weeks if you use all its onboard sensors, or 3 months if you’re using it exclusively as a watch.
Polar V800
The Polar V800 is a cross between a smartwatch and a health tracker. You can track calories burnt and steps taken, monitor your heart rate, GPS and sports profiles. You can tell the smartwatch what sports you are doing so it can better "understand" your training and even give you tips on your recovery time. It’s also waterproof, so you can take it for a swim.
Garmin Vivofit
The Garmin Vivofit is for the city fitness junkie who want to track steps taken, calories burned, hours slept and overall fitness progress. It also tracks heart rates, is water-resistant and lets you sync the collected data to your smartphone. It comes with a 1-year battery life and tracks fitness levels 24 hours a day.
LG Lifeband Touch
The Lifeband Touch features a bright OLED screen that is visible even when you’re outdoors, and it’s touch sensitive for easier navigation. You’ll be able to see your fitness activities, calories burned, speed, and other measurements taken through its 3-axis accelerometer and altimeter sensors. You can also pair it with a heart rate monitor or smartphone to view notifications and control music.
Sony SmartBand
The Sony Smartband is a holder for Sony’s Core, a sensor that tracks your daily activity. However, the Core doesn’t have to be worn on the wrist; it can also be inserted into a shoe (in the future). You won’t be able to view any information through the core as it doesn’t have a screen, but you can access the data collected by pairing it to your smartphone via Bluetooth.
Razer Nabu
Razer Nabu is a wristband which gives you smartphone notifications and band-to-band communication. It lets you track fitness goals, sleep time and running distances (thanks to the built-in GPS feature). It recognizes gestures like finger snaps, a flick of the wrist, handshakes and high-fives which you can use to do things like dismiss notifications.
Mio LINK
The Mio LINK is more of an advanced heart rate tracker. Users wear the LINK while running, biking, swimming or any other vigorous sport and they’ll be able to track their heart rate through the LED indicators. Information of your heart rate and activity duration can be viewed when synced to a smartphone over Bluetooth.
iFit Active
iFit started out as a fitness tracking app but has now ventured into making their own fitness tracker called the iFit Active. The Active would come with a mode-switching feature, depending on where you are: at home sleeping, braving traffic to get to work or doing your morning gym routine. These modes change automatically to allow 24-hour tracking without any hiccup.
Jaybird Reign
The fully waterproof Reign can track your performance through activities like running, biking, swimming and walking. It has band sensor where you can place a finger, and it can tell you if your body is optimized for a workout or if it’s too tired. Instead of a screen it has 12 LED lights to show you the time or how far you are from your fitness goal. More info of your fitness levels can be viewed when it is paired with your smartphone.
LG HRM Earphone
LG is taking the basic Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) to the next level by combining it with earphones. The earphones will play music off your smartphone connected over Bluetooth. You can then clip the HRM device on your shirt to allow it to track distance, calories, and steps taken, with its 3-axis accelerometer. It’ll also work together with LG’s Lifeband Touch for more accurate readings. [$179]
Intel Smart Earbuds
Intel has created earbuds that have sensors inside the earpiece which can measure your heart rate. It works with an app, on which you can set a target heart rate. The device can then select the music track that suits the pace you’re working out at. The earbuds are powered by the smartphone earphone jack you plug it into. [TBA]
Archos Activity Tracker
Like other activity trackers, the Archos activity tracker has a small screen to let you view your steps and calories burnt and can be paired up with a smartphone. But you can also compete with friends to see who has the largest step count of the day. Archos also plans to introduce more connected gadgets like a blood-pressure monitor and smart weighing scale. [TBA]
Atlas
Atlas is a feature-filled fitness tracker that works with many kinds of activities, sports, workouts in the gym, including swimming. Once you start doing a specific movement or sport, it’ll try to detect to see if it recognizes what you’re doing. If it cannot recognize the movement, you can "teach" it so you can track the amount of repetitions you do for each workout while tracking your heart rate at the exact moment. [$285]
Movea G-Series
Movea, a company responsible for motion-tracking software and firmware of consumer electronic products is behind the G-Series. On top of tracking steps taken, calories, sleep, distance and speed with the addition of knowing what posture you’re currently at, it also tracks your cadence (revolutions per minute) while cycling or running. [TBA]
PUSH
PUSH is catered more to gym goers who want that extra edge and lots of information to better their performance. Not only does it track the repetitions and sets for each specific workout, it’ll tell you your force, power, balance, speed, explosive strength, load and tempo. Serious gym-goers will appreciate how this device can better sort out their performances and progress over time. [TBA]
Notch
Notch is a wearable that can be worn on different parts of the body (e.g. wrist or ankle), in multiples, to provide a better, more overall body tracking system. Everything is synced over Bluetooth and can be viewed from its smartphone app. It’s a great tool for sports enthusiasts who want to gain an advantage over the competition. [TBA]
Lumo Lift
Lumo Lift is a posture-correcting device that you can wear on your chest. It reminds you to sit straight by generating small vibrations. It can also track how often you are sitting in the proper posture in a day. It also tracks steps and calories burnt. To view the data collected, just pair it with a smartphone. [$59-$79]
