Gadgetory

well here's what you need to know about the Withings activity first is that it's pronounced activity not activity or activate or anything else activity its French second you need to know that the activity is not a SmartWatch it's just a slightly smarter or watch for four hundred and fifty dollars the activity combines a really handsome stainless steel and sapphire wristwatch with a pretty basic fitness tracker it tracks your steps and your sleep using the accelerometer to figure out what you're doing even works as an alarm buzzing your wrist to wake you up in the morning it syncs by a Bluetooth to weddings health mate app which is powerful and useful if not terribly beautiful activity support is iPhone only for now by the way but Android support is coming soon I like the app and I like that it takes your data and yells at you to do better or go to bed earlier or drink more water but really none of that has to do with the watch itself the watch is just a watch that there's nothing else to say about it is exactly the point it's beautifully perfectly assembled made in Switzerland and stamped with that oh so important Swiss made label it is a really nice calf leather band that I like a lot though I don't understand why it comes in only one size and why it's not a universal band so it's easy to replace it's clearly designed to work for both men and women and so it's right in the middle of the size spectrum it worked fine for my average sized wrist but it'll be just physically too small for a lot of people the Sapphire front face of the activity has this cool rounded glass which bulbs out a little above the face it looks nice like it's expensive and difficult to make but it causes some awkward reflections and can make the watch hard to see in some light the whole watch has a little of this curved aesthetic which looks really nice but can be a little awkward and loves catching on my jacket sleeve when I try to take it off everything about its design is simple and understated twelve dashes and two hands show you the time and a second small dial shows your step count progress from zero to a hundred percent there's really no evidence that there's technology inside here it just looks like a watch everything you do all the settings even changing the time all happens inside the app the watch is just a watch and a basic data collection device there's one downside and two big upsides to that approach the downside is that there's just not that much data on the watch you have to do everything on your phone the upside is that you won't need to upgrade your activity for years the software and algorithms will get better without needing new hardware and you already have all the sensors and tools you the other is that since the watch isn't actually doing very much it doesn't need much power it runs on a watch battery and only needs to be replaced every eight months every supposedly smart watch should be that way everyone should be like the activity in a lot of ways actually it's clear that it doesn't take much to add fitness tracking tech to a simple wristwatch and that it doesn't affect things like battery or design in a detrimental way four hundred and fifty dollars here buys a watch you'll actually want to keep for years which I really can't say about anything else you'd call a Smart Watch it's expensive yeah but if you're willing to spend this much on a watch this is a totally solid option this isn't the future of smartwatches it's not even a Smart Watch don't buy it instead of a moto 360 or an Apple watch when it comes out buy it because it's a really nice watch and because it's just a little bit smarter