A lot of smartwatches these days are being marketed as fitness trackers as well. Aside from receiving smart notifications, these watches boast robust fitness tracking that makes them essential devices for the health-conscious. One such watch is the Fitbit Blaze. Billed as the company’s first smartwatch, it’s Fitbit’s answer to the jack-of-all-trades wearable competition.
You can get the large version of the Fitbit Blaze for $41 less on Walmart. Armed with an array of wellness features, get it for just $159 instead of its normal price of $200.
The Fitbit Blaze looks like a cross between an Apple Watch and the Fitbit Surge. It resembles a smartwatch more than a fitness tracker, unlike most of Fitbit’s offerings. It’s basically a black square screen surrounded by thick bezels, housed in a metal casing. Its 1.2-inch color LCD display has a 240 x 180-pixel resolution that is sufficiently bright and large enough to not make you squint to see what’s on it. The octagonal frame and attached strap are replaceable, and the digital clock face is fully customizable.
The Blaze is equipped with features galore. Aside from having the usual pedometer to count your steps, you can also accurately monitor your heart rate, calories burned, sleep quality, and steps climbed. You can also use it to track numerous sports, including running and biking. If you forgot to log your workout details, that’s fine. Through SmartTrack technology, this watch will automatically recognize and record your exercises so you can still get workout credit. Fitbit’s mobile app lets you set weekly workout goals and presents you with summaries on how well you’re doing so far. The interface is easy to navigate and allows you to perfectly tailor your daily exercises. The app can keep tabs on your water and calorie intake as well.
With this watch, you can receive smart notifications like text, call, and calendar appointments. You can also sync it with your smartphone to control music playback. Its battery life is pretty impressive: A maximum of five days under normal usage. Unfortunately, you can’t get email notifications on this watch, as well as social media messages from Facebook or Twitter. This watch also doesn’t have a built-in GPS, so serious runners and cyclists need to bring their phone with them. Lastly, it isn’t water-resistant, so don’t ever take it with you to the pool.
The Fitbit Blaze is wonderfully well-rounded and affordable, although it cannot compete with the much recent Fitbit Versa and Ionic. Still, it’s a good Fitbit to start your fitness journey with. Get it for 21% off on Walmart.
For more options visit these pages for more smartwatch and fitness tracker deals. And don’t forget to check out our guide to the best Labor Day sales of 2020.
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.