Plenty of companies have tried to replicate the success of the Apple Watch, but so far most have fallen well short. But a new option from Amazfit looks to compete with Apple’s popular timepiece in two areas where it is most vulnerable: Price and battery life.
The Amazfit Bip includes all of the standard features you have come to expect from a modern smartwatch, including GPS tracking, an optical heart rate sensor, and notifications beamed over from your smartphone. It also has an always-on 1.28-inch color touchscreen, a built-in compass and barometer to measure changes in direction and elevation, and a three-axis accelerometer to precisely keep track of movement.
All of that technology is wrapped up in a surprisingly thin and lightweight package that tips the scales at 1.1 ounces. Despite its diminutive stature, however, the Bip carries an IP68 rating, which means it is dust and waterproof. A layer of 2.5D Corning gorilla glass protects the screen from damage as well.
Powered by its own proprietary operating system, the Amazfit Bip won’t compete with the likes of watchOS or Android Wear in terms of app compatibility or features. That said, however, it does include options for tracking your running and cycling workouts, including offering mapped routes and fairly detailed stats of your performance. The watch can receive notifications from apps like Twitter and Facebook and even has an array of customizable faces. It can even do basic sleep tracking, something the Apple Watch doesn’t offer.
Where the Bip truly has the potential to shine is with its battery life. Amazfit claims that its 190mAh battery can keep the watch running for up to 30 days with “regular use” and for as much as 45 days if users limit the number of notifications they receive. That is a far cry from Apple’s latest model, which needs to be recharged every day or two under the best of conditions.
The Bip is one of the more cost-friendly smartwatches available, carrying a price tag of just $99. That makes it an accessible product for someone who is looking for an entry-level wearable that offers nice features without investing a lot of cash.
The OnePlus Buds Clip are a new pair of open-ear earbuds built around a simple convenience. They join Sony’s LinkBuds Clip in the growing ear-cuff category, but either OnePlus bud can go on either ear.
Sensors recognize how the earbuds are being worn and route the audio channels accordingly. There’s no label to check before putting them on, and the feature also works when only one bud is used.
We buy fitness bands and activity trackers to keep tabs on our exercise, but it is easy to forget to start tracking or switch modes when moving between different activities. For Fitbit and Pixel Watch users, that could soon become a lot less annoying, as Google is rolling out a major upgrade to automatic activity tracking that can recognize more than 100 types of exercise, up from just 10 before.
Google first showed off the improved tracking earlier this month alongside the Fitbit Edge. It is now coming to Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5, and Google claims the added context behind the system makes workout detection nearly twice as accurate while cutting missed activities by more than half. Fitbit Edge will support it too.
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Samsung may be playing it safe with its next fitness band