Gadgetory

Fitbit is calling its latest watch a super watch it's part activity tracker part GPS running walk and part SmartWatch I am Dan Graziano and this is the Fitbit surge this does everything you expect from a fitbit product it can track the steps you take the distance you travel calories burned floors climbed and automatically track your sleep at night there's GPS onboard so you can see things like pace and distance when running and it can even display notifications from your smartphone so it's currently limited to calls and text messages perhaps the most interesting feature is the optical heart rate sensor on the back of the device this will measure your beats per minute all day every day which should theoretically help improve sleep tracking and estimates for your calories burned now this all sounds great but not everything is perfect I found a resting heart rate to be relatively accurate when compared to a polar chest strap but things didn't go as well when I began to work out the surges readings were usually off by around 30 beats per minute when lifting weights or running speaking of running the features are basic even among the most basic running watches out there there's no smart coaching no recovery mode auto pause or any other feature you would find in parable GPS watches battery life also isn't that good with a continuous GPS signal you can expect again around five hours which isn't enough time for most people to even finish a marathon Fitbit said that with a continuous heartrate and activity tracking battery life is around seven days but I found it close to five the last thing that really bothered me about the surge is that you can't wear it in the shower or all swimming it's only sweat and splash proof the Fitbit surge is available now for 250 bucks for more information you can check out my full review over at cnet.com I'm Dan graziano CNET and that was a first look at the Fitbit surge