14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has revealed the second generation of SmartBand wearable, the SmartBand 2.
Very similar to the first generation SmartBand from Sony, the new SmartBand 2 is a fitness wristband that incorporates a heart rate sensor together with an accelerometer that can track your movement during the day. Everything to know about workouts is automatically tracked and can be monitored in the Sony Lifelog application.
The new SmartBand 2 has a prolonged battery life of 48 hours and can also track health information during sleep, and can automatically set a vibration alarm to wake up users based on an approximation of a user's sleep cycle.
Besides fitness, health tracking and many other features regarding your body motion the SmartBand 2 can also provide essential info about calls, messages and other notifications when paired with your Android or iOS device. To do this, the SmartBand 2 features both a vibrating motor together with an RGB notification LED to ensure you won't miss anything arriving on your phone. To charge its battery, it will connect via and Micro USB connector
Choosing this over the Fitbit Charge is just a matter of taste
With the SmartBand 2 users could also control music playback on their phone, and interestingly enough, when paired with a Sony Xperia smartphone, the SmartBand 2 can warn you if you're further than 10m away from it thanks to its Low Energy Bluetooth 4.0 integrated feature.
The materials used for the SmartBand 2 are mainly silicone and will have two basic colors at launch, black and white, with many others like pink and indigo slated to follow soon. It has IP68 rating water resistance and dust and will still be compatible with previous straps made for first editions of SmartBands.
Seamless and highly similar with the popular Fitbit wristband, Sony's SmartBand caters to the same public who loves working out and have shared achievements to improve their health. Both Fitbit Charge HR and SmartBand 2 come with the same price of $119 and cost about the same thanks to their heart rate features. The new SmartBand will be available in 60 countries starting this September.