Is Activité’s new wearable top of the Pops?

5 Jan 2015

Making a particularly big splash at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas at the moment is Withings’ latest health-conscious wearable, Activité Pop.

The latest introduction to what is now a major area of tech – Samsung Gear Fit, Up3 and Fitbit Flex stood out last year, while the upcoming release of the Apple Watch is sure to get loyal fans excited – Withings’ follow up to the rather expensive Activité comes in at one-third of the price ($149, rather than $450).

Better still it looks more attractive and can do most of what its predecessor could do. The Pop still has two hand dials, one for the main clock and the other to keep the wearer aware of his/her targets, which are uploaded via an app.

The sleep monitoring service is included, with water resistance set at 30m, down 20m on its predecessor but still fairly deep. However it’s only out in a limited release in the US thus far, and just on iOS, a growing theme in new releases it seems.

But that’s not stopping those at CES from getting excited. “This looks like a strong contender for a device to finally make activity trackers a little more mass market,” says Darrell Etherington on Tech Crunch.

With an eight month battery life, the main alterations from the original Activité and this Activité Pop is build materials. Swiss Made is no longer behind some of the construction and the Pop is made with PVD coated metal.

The colours available might look black, blue and cream, but they’re actually shark grey, bright azure and wild sand – obviously. They’re also bringing out added strap colours to allow people their own colour choices, to a degree. There are six options in total.

Still, it’s some discount on the original.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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