In 2015, the war between smartwatches and their mechanical Swiss brethren began. As it stands, predictions for 2016 seem in favour of the tech firms, while watch brands continue to adapt. As you tell yourself you’ll never join the “dark side”, we tried one of the more affordable (and stylish) smartwatches on the market. Oh, and it’s Swiss-made as well.
Developed by Withings, the Activite easily can be confused with your regular run-of-the-mill Swatch. The same aesthetic description can’t sadly be attested for other smartwatches in the market, say Fitbit or Apple Watch, who, let’s face it, don’t look the part even at a distance.
Seeing as we’re constantly glued to our cellular screens, the developers thought it clever to design an app rather than focus on cutting-edge watch hardware potentially going obsolete after eight months.
Since Activite is powered by app, you can simply download it via the Apple Store or Google Play, register and notice how the dial hands can be changed in the comfort of your smartphone. But app does more than offer just that.
We’re all aware smartphones attempt to be jack-of-all-trades but master of none. While it doesn’t pretend to perform outlandish processor-intensive tasks, the app does tracks your weight, sleeping patterns, daily steps, heart rate and blood pressure in an easy-to-comprehend manner.
However, there are drawbacks, especially with the scratch-proof glass surface as it doesn’t adapt well in areas where excessive exposure or absence of light factors in. Also, wearers may feel as though their steps are slightly under- or overestimated and having to manually input your blood pressure and weight is quite tedious.
While these downsides certainly sting, the app and watch superbly work in conjunction with one another to track your daily steps and decipher whether you’re walking, running or even submerged underwater. But there was one thing I couldn’t get my head around. How could it accurately tell I was awake in bed, in light sleep, deep sleep, simply being a lazy layabout or watching Tarantino’s latest flick in a dark cinema?
In fact, the app often incessantly encourages you to beat your own self-appointed healthy lifestyle goals similar to Dubai start-up Styck but sadly the only badges you can show off are badges and to other Activite proud owners. After a couple of weeks, you can start to analyse your routine behaviours to see whether you need to stretch your legs more or catch on more deserved Zs. You’ll find it surprising how you’ll be hopping onto the metro more often or walking the longer path on the way home. After all, it tells the time, tracks your lifestyle choices and looks stunning in a classic manner as well.
Details: visit withings.com