Withings Pulse O2: Can it be your FuelBand alternative?
Withings Pulse O2: Can it be your FuelBand alternative?
2014-04-25
hi I'm Scott Stein and let's see I've
walked 4170 steps today I know that
because of the winnings pulse Oh two
which is a fitness tracker it's
currently on my wrist I'm wearing it
like a watch that weddings pulse came
out a year ago and when we reviewed it
then I noticed that it was pretty much
heads and shoulders above the fitness
tracker market because of the fact that
it had a heart rate monitor built in on
the back which no other fitness tracker
had it was also really small and cool
could attach to a clip or to a little
sleep tracking band that was flexible
but it was missing a wristband that well
this is what I was looking for and
finally a year later it's here and
there's also a firmware update that
allows the weddings a heart rate monitor
to also check blood oxygen levels that's
something that's not normally available
in other heartrate trackers out there
for $119 you actually get the pulse o2
you also get a clip and you get the
wristband all in the same package so you
least you have a choice of two different
ways to wear it which is lower than your
average fuel band or alternative that's
on the market how does it compare well I
liked at the time that it was a very
easy Bluetooth syncing fitness tracker
and now that you can wear it on the
wristband it's even easier to have it on
you but there are a couple of quirks
about this device first of all getting
it in and out of this wristband once you
get the knack it's okay but this is
metal this is a rubberized finish and it
feels weird sliding in and out maybe it
would chafe over time it holds it
tightly but as you can see it actually
needs to be pressed to turn on the LED
display and the matte finish here look
really cool but in bright daylight this
turns to basically unreadable and in
order to look at the time you're going
to keep pressing that button plus for
the heart rate monitor you've got to
take this out of the wristband and press
go actually go into the submenus here to
get your heart rate press a couple of
times here and it takes a while now I'm
pressing I'm swiping because it actually
has some touch swipe elements built into
the interface but not for everything and
then I've got to press a heart icon and
then it tells me to place my finger
on the heart rate monitor and then I've
got to be patient while takes my reading
it's not a continuous reading like
you'll see on the gear fit or Samsung's
other gear watches and you know this is
not for intense workouts this is for
afterwards to see how you're doing now
it was pointed out to me that people who
have asthma or others who might want to
check their pulse oxygen levels would
might like the fact that this actually
tells you your oxygen readings I haven't
tested this with other real medical
pulse oxygen trackers so I'm not sure
about its overall accuracy but it tells
me that I have ninety-eight percent o2
and really high heart rate but I just
had coffee so that's an interesting
feature the good news is that if you
have one of these from last year it's
actually a firmware update so you get
those features plus the ability to flip
your clock vertically to fit into this
band
unfortunately the clock is the only part
that's vertical everything else is
horizontal so you kind of have to twist
around and the pedometer reading that's
in vertical is really really small
you've got to take a little microscope
and read those numbers plus it has
microUSB for charging but that does mean
this is not water-resistant really in
any capacity between that and the heart
rate reader so you had to be careful if
you're washing your hands certainly
don't take this in the shower with you
and if you were an existing pulse owner
ten dollars gets you this new wristband
you can swap the bands out you could put
in any other type of band design you
want that's fun and flexible are you on
board with that and you like the
Withings app which also allows you to
work in a scale and a blood-pressure
cuff which is useful for me because I
check my blood pressure
that ecosystem is nice has a lot of apps
you can tap into that's what makes the
winnings pulse very interesting but just
keep in mind that it's no longer really
the star in terms of its design anymore
it feels a step behind
I'm Scott Stein and that's a look at the
winnings pulse Oh two now available
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