If you don’t know Withings, you should. It’s a French brand that makes very stylish, very intelligent tracking devices. We’re not just talking wearables: Withings designs scales, sleep trackers, blood pressure monitors, and more. The company also , the Activité, which went on sale last year for $450.
This week, Withings —for $150. It uses fewer premium materials than its predecessor, (there’s more plastic than metal and no leather band), and it’s not made in Switzerland. But it’s fun, comes in lots of colors, and still offers the same bevy of tracking capabilities and fitness features, including number of steps, sleep monitoring, and waterproofing (good enough for laps, not diving). Synch the Pop with Withings’ superb app to target activity levels, or pair with a standard chest strap to capture heart rate data. Withings also syncs to .
Two other key features: like the Activité, the Pop doesn’t need to be recharged. It runs on a standard battery that lasts up to eight months. And the device itself is very light and very thin. The two big knocks on wearables are comfort and the need for constant charging. Withings soared past those speed bumps last year, and now they’re doing it with a lighter, cheaper iteration.
The Activité Pop is slated to go on sale this March.