Wednesday, July 9, 2014

New Product Wednesday: The Withings Pulse

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers!

Summer 2014 is definitely a whirlwind of activity - work and social.  My calendar is packed with so many things, I can barely keep track!  But I also want to make sure I am getting enough exercise between the work and play!  

My favorite fitness tracker is the Body Media Fit Armband (formerly known as the Body Bugg).  I personally think it is the most accurate, but wearing a band around my upper arm 24-7 is not the thing for me.  Plus in Florida, those lacking brain cells think I am wearing some sort of alcohol monitoring bracelet or house arrest bracelet.  (People are stupid!)

My second favorite fitness tracker is the Fitbit.  I prefer the Fitbit One over the Fitbit Flex because a hard plastic watch-like bracelet is just not the fashion statement I want to be making.  (Although the new red Fitbit Flex is prettier than the previous colors.)  The Fitbit has a great dashboard and is easy to use.

But then I heard about the Withings Pulse - a fitness tracker that could also measure your heart rate.  I thought I would give it a try.



The Withings Pulse appears to be bigger (or at least wider) than the Fitbit One.  The new improved dashboard smartphone app is still lightyears behind the Fitbit dashboard (in my opinion).  

But what really got my goat is that the Withings Pulse was less accurate as compared to the Fitbit for me.  I wore both a Withings Pulse and a Fitbit One for a week (because I am a geek).  The pulse was consistently 300-600 steps less per day than the Fitbit.  I walked one mile and the Withings Pulse only registered 0.8 miles.  I was NOT a happy camper!  If I walk a mile, I want credit for a mile!

Also the Withings, with its heart rate sensor, is not as water-resistant as the Fitbit One.  I am a Sweaty Betty and several times, I thought I had fried my Withings Pulse with sweat.  With prayer, a stream of profanities and constant resetting, I would eventually re-jump start my device.

The Withings Pulse utilizes Bluetooth to sync to your smartphone app.  The Fitbit syncs periodically with no issues.  The Withings Pulse, I had to manually sync the device to my smartphone 90% of the time.  I read several reviews and found others to have the same experience.

After several weeks of using the Withings Pulse, I have gone back to using my Fitbit One as my exclusive fitness tracker.  Dashboard is easier and more robust.  Smartphone app is more detailed with a variety of partner apps that work with the tool.  It is more water resistant, smaller and for me, it has been much more accurate.

Sorry Withings!
    

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