Fitbit on Monday morning confirmed the three new accessories that have leaked over the past few weeks: the Fitbit Charge, the Charge HR, and the Surge.
The Surge is probably the most interesting, given it’s Fitbit’s first foray into the smartwatch world (all of the company’s previous devices have been fitness trackers in band form or otherwise). As expected, the Fitbit Surge is being marketed as a “superwatch” and though it’s the first smartwatch we’ve seen from Fitbit, the company is still marketing as a fitness tool above all else.
The Surge features eight sensors including a GPS radio, ambient light sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, a gyroscope, compass, and heart rate sensor. That last one is continuously monitoring your heart rate, tracking intensity of the workout and helping to keep track of calories burned. The watch is also capable of tracking pace, distance, elevation, split times, and route history. All of this information is synced wirelessly to your phone. It also displays notifications and alerts from your smartphone, but it doesn’t run Android Wear so it won’t benefit from the same app ecosystem available to less sporty smartwatches on the market. However, Fitbit is claiming a seven day battery life, which just isn’t possible from Android Wear devices.
The Fitbit Charge and Fitbit Charge HR are more traditional in their appearance and functionality. The simple rubberized band is very similar to the Fitbit Flex in terms of design but Fitbit has added a small OLED display that shows stats as well as acting as a caller ID for incoming calls. The vanilla Charge tracks steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, floors climbed, and sleep. The Charge HR does all of the above and throws continuous heart rate monitoring into the mix. This means it’s better able to track calories burned and can provide feedback on resting heart rate as well as your heart rate during active periods of your day. The regular Fitbit Charge has a seven day battery while the Charge HR is a five day battery.
The Fitbit Charge is launching today and is priced at $129 USD. The Charge HR and the Surge are scheduled for launch in ‘early 2015′ and are priced at $149 and $249. No word on whether today’s launch of the Charge applies to Canadians as well as Americans, but the device has yet to show up on Fitbit’s U.S. or Canadian sites. We’ll keep you posted. In the mean time, check out the devices in action in these promo videos:
[source]Fitbit[/source]
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