A first look at Microsoft Band, a complete $199 fitness smartwatch (hands-on)
Smartwatches
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There's a magical spot between fitness band and smart watch and has Microsoft just nailed it?
I'm Scott Stein and right here on my hand is the Microsoft Band.
This thing came out of nowhere, like a bat in the night.
But here it is and it's $199.
Now what does this do that other fitness bands do?
When you hear Microsoft and fitness band you're not necessarily gonna go, I gotta have that.
But dammit if this thing didn't really cover all the bases.
This has a heart rate monitor that tracks your heart rate 24 hours a day.
It also tracks your steps of course.
It has built in GPS.
So, if you're a hardcore runner you could use this without your phone.
Go for a run or a walk and it'll track where you've been.
It has workouts that you can download.
With partners like Gold's Gym and Men's Fitness.
And you can download them right to this.
It tells you to do push ups or to take a break.
And it coaches you along the way.
It tracks sleep, but it also does it with your heart rate.
So you get a deeper analysis of what your resting heart rate is and also maybe a little more on the quality of sleep that you got.
Oh, did I mention, also, the UV sensor?
No fitness band has a UV sensor.
This'll tell you how much sun you're getting.
And then you get into the smart side of things.
This gets notifications.
It gets mail.
Phone calls.
It gets Twitter, Facebook, weather, stocks.
It also connects with your calendar.
And, if you're a Microsoft user, it also has a built in microphone so you can talk to it, to Cortana and use it to set reminders and interact with it as an extra little carrot on a stick.
So it's got all that, plus apparently a 48 hour battery life.
Stay tuned for CNET testing.
Five hours that we're gonna be using it on GPS for running.
That is a complete package.
You can use it as a full smart watch.
You can use it as a fitness band.
You could use it as a deep workout band.
Now how well does this all work?
Well, we're gonna have to see.
And Microsoft claims a certain amount of machine learning, so this stuff is stored in the cloud.
And if they're gonna give you insights along the way to coach you.
Sort of like what jaw bone does with it's jaw bone up 24, which makes us love that platform so much.
And they're claiming to work with other partners to integrate other services into it.
Is this the perfect band?
Well, too soon to tell but I don't think there's anything on the market that's this ambitious.
And at $199 it's only $50 more than some of those fitness bands that we've been seeing just in the past few months that only have basic fitness tracking capabilities.
And this works on all three platforms too.
I'm Scott Stein with the Microsoft Band, the most ambitious fitness band and smart device on the market.
You'd like it.
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