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Fitbit Announces 'Surge' Fitness 'Super Watch', Two New Activity Trackers

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Fitbit today announced three new wearable devices, including the Surge, described as a "fitness super watch," the Charge, an update to the Fitbit Force activity tracker, and the Charge HR, which tracks a user's heart rate.

Positioned as Fitbit's most advanced wearable yet, the Fitbit Surge offers GPS tracking, continuous heart rate monitoring, and the activity tracking that's been standard in Fitbit's early wearables, keeping track of steps, distance traveled, calories burned, floors climbed, sleep quality, and various other fitness-based activities like running and cardio workouts.

fitbitsurge-800x320.jpg
Available in Tangerine, Black, and Blue, the Surge has a black and white touchscreen display. Aside from tracking various activities, it also allows users to control their music and it includes customizable watch faces able to display incoming smartphone information like call and text notifications. It is not possible to answer phone calls or texts from the device, but its limited capabilities allow it to offer up to five days of battery life on a single charge.

Earlier this month, Apple removed Fitbit's line of activity tracking devices from its stores and ceased selling the device. While it is unclear why the company pulled the activity trackers from its stores, the move did follow Fitbit's announcement that it had no plans to integrate with Apple's HealthKit and it comes ahead of the launch of Apple's own wearable device, the Apple Watch.

Though it no longer offers the Fitbit line of activity trackers, Apple continues to sell other fitness tracking devices like the Jawbone UP and the Nike Fuelband. It is unclear if Apple will continue to allow these devices to remain in stores or if it will cease selling all competing activity trackers ahead of the early 2015 launch of the Apple Watch.

Fitbit's standard activity tracker, the Charge, is available for purchase for $129.95. The Charge HR, which includes continuous heart rate tracking, will be available in early 2015 for $149.95, and the Surge, Fitbit's sensor-laden fitness wearable, will also be available in early 2015 for $249.95.

Article Link: Fitbit Announces 'Surge' Fitness 'Super Watch', Two New Activity Trackers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/27/fitbit-announces-new-activity-trackers/
U

UKPoliticsGuy

macrumors regular
May 3, 2009
228
410
With no Apple Health integration, all this is kind of a fail for iOS users. What silly people they are.
 
Y

york2600

Cancelled
Jul 24, 2002
274
288
Portland, OR
This is pretty nice to see actually. I have the current fitbit and probably the best feature is the sleep tracking. It made me realize I'm actually a morning person and I've adjusted my sleep to fit where my body wants to actually wake up. I think one day Apple is going to Surge (hehe) past the fitbit products, but they have the edge on the health monitoring right now. The battery life is also pretty awesome.
 
gugy

gugy

macrumors 68040
Jan 31, 2005
3,891
5,309
La Jolla, CA
This smart watches are so ugly. I will keep my Omega Seamaster for years to come. I want a waterproof smart band, that can track all activities and use in conjunction with my normal watch, not really substitute for it.
Whoever comes up with a solid choice for this will be a winner IMO.
 
acearchie

acearchie

macrumors 68040
Jan 15, 2006
3,264
104
I think they are a lot more on the button than some of the other wearables that have come out.

They focus on the tried and tested fitness market rather than trying to make it into a watch that does a couple of other gimmicky features that try to make it an everyday, every function wearable.

It's a shame that they don't plan to integrate into Health Kit. Whilst I am not a fan of the app having the ability to have other apps submit data to it and then have my app of choice Argus show it to me in a friendly way is pretty useful.
 
justinthesommer

justinthesommer

macrumors regular
Feb 23, 2014
190
51
United States
Would consider it, if Apple didn't have their watch coming out in only a few months. Definitely a cool concept and could give Apple a little scare cause its only $250 and it lasts up to 5 days.
 
Suture

Suture

macrumors 65816
Feb 22, 2007
1,002
212
Looks like the Charge HR and the Surge won't be available for Christmas. Surprised but I guess they don't want to rush and miss anything after the whole rash fiasco on the Force.
 
Stella

Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,838
6,341
Canada
acearchie said:
I think they are a lot more on the button than some of the other wearables that have come out.

They focus on the tried and tested fitness market rather than trying to make it into a watch that does a couple of other gimmicky features that try to make it an everyday, every function wearable.

It's a shame that they don't plan to integrate into Health Kit. Whilst I am not a fan of the app having the ability to have other apps submit data to it and then have my app of choice Argus show it to me in a friendly way is pretty useful.
Click to expand...

Look at the Vivosmart or forthcoming Mio devices, Fuse and Velo ( include HR monitor - same tech. as Link ) - they are focused to health and connect to Ant+ devices for speed sensors etc.

The vivosmart will sync with Health.app - limited integration so far.
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,560
6,059
Oh boy, a Feature Watch. Because your old watch was too dumb but you don't really want a Smart Watch either.
 
M

misterc0w

macrumors member
Jul 7, 2008
35
15
Charge is a pre-order too

The base Charge model won't be available for 4-5 weeks. No where on the site does it say "pre-order" until you get to checkout. Shut up and take my money already.
 
sputnikv

sputnikv

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2009
507
3,187
Why would anyone with an iOS device want a fitness tracker when it's intentionally not to be integrated with healthkit?
 
tliede20

tliede20

macrumors regular
Nov 19, 2013
169
54
Los Angeles, CA
Fail at First Sight!

The new FITBIT's would / could've had a chance to succeed had they been released earlier this year. As they won't be released till 2015; and the possibility of the :apple: Watch coming out February 2015... they are going to face some stiff competition, now the things they have going for them is that they seem more prone design wise for activity where as :apple: Watch is designed more for fashion; not to mention Fitbit's battery. But I suppose since they are both un-released all of this is speculation on my part.
 
V

Ventilatedbrain

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2012
201
68
UKPoliticsGuy said:
With no Apple Health integration, all this is kind of a fail for iOS users. What silly people they are.
Click to expand...

While i am as excited about apple health as much as the next guy, your comment is somewhat not true

I've been an avid up user for sometime and whilst apple health hadn't existed then, it was great

I do like the apple watch, but it being a watch is whats turning off of it because I paid a lot for my watches ( currently 8) and I'm torn into suddenly not wearing them for another accessory which is why i love my up so much

This is very promising and appealing to me and not they're not silly. Your comment makes you seem that way
 
S

spectrumfox

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
751
1
slicecom said:
Useless without HealthKit integration.
Click to expand...

How is it useless? They still support iOS and include a very well-written app that has worked perfectly long before HealthKit existed..

----------
UKPoliticsGuy said:
With no Apple Health integration, all this is kind of a fail for iOS users. What silly people they are.
Click to expand...

How is it a fail? It still works perfectly in iOS. it just uses its own app that has worked perfectly long before HealthKit was even a thing.

Your comment is silly.
 
Last edited:
J

joeblough

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2006
584
403
question for those who use the wrist-mounted fitbit trackers:

how accurate are the step counts? i have a fitbit one, and i use it for sleep tracking. when i get up in the morning it says that i have walked ~100 steps or so. is this just a limitation of the fitbit one?

the misfit app on my pebble is much the same - recording arm movements as steps - and disagrees a lot with my iphone6 and fitbit, which both give me pretty similar step counts during the day.

so i wonder if the fitbits that go on your wrist are better at distinguishing walking from random arm movements.
 
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