UPDATE: Malaysian pricing and availability announced.
If you want someone to wear something on their wrist the whole day, you better make sure that it looks good and has interchangeable bands to suit every occasion. And it doesn’t hurt if it can help track your day’s worth of fitness and activity.
Fitbit has finally realised that their fitness trackers aren’t the greatest looking wearables in the market, so at CES 2016 they released the chunky Blaze. And they’ve just added another device to their fashion-forward fitness trackers: the Fitbit Alta.
As we talked about the Blaze before, the market now prefers to have an all-in-one device. A device that can do all the amazing things a fitness tracker can but still look amazing dangling on your wrist.
The Fitbit Alta includes the brand’s all-day activity tracking system, auto-sleep tracking and also has a “move reminder” to get you off your bum from sitting too long. Alta will arrive with FitBit’s latest feature that allows SmartTack-ing: that will switch to exercise tracking when it has noticed your steps suddenly increasing rapidly for a certain period.
You’ll interact with the display by tapping on the OLED display, rather than swiping left and right. Alta doubles as a watch too, unlike the Fitbit Flex. If you’re into notifications on your wrist, you’ll have that too, thanks to the band’s smart notifications that’ll relay after pairing with your smartphone through Bluetooth 4.0.
Fitbit quotes 5-days of battery life on the Alta, that’s also water/sweat resistant (no IP rating mentioned). It would’ve been nice if they managed to cram an altimeter to track floors climbed and an optical heart sensor but you can’t have it all.
It plays nice with iOS, Android and Windows devices while syncing will be done through Fitbit’s amazing app and platform. The UI is intuitive, the way data is presented is easy on the eyes and it has a social aspect of it too.
In the States, you can now pre-order the device with the Classic elastomer band for US$ 129.95 (RM 539.40). It’ll come in four colours: Black, Blue, Plum and Teal. The add-on leather band goes for US$ 59.95 (RM 248.84) while the metal bracelet goes for US$99.95 (RM 414.87). Alta is slated to arrive in March.
When it arrives in Malaysia in March, the Fitbit Alta will cost RM 600. Slightly more expensive than USA pricing. The add-on bands will go for RM 130, elastomer; RM 250, leather and; RM 420, stainless steel.
When it goes on sale in March, you can purchase the Fitbit Alta at the retailers listed below:
A One Plus
All IT Hypermarket
Courts Malaysia
Harvey Norman
iStore
iTworld
RadioShack
Senheng
