eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Fitness band maker Jawbone has unveiled two new wearable devices, the UP3 full-time heart rate monitor and the UP Move fitness wearable that tracks calories burned, sleep patterns and more.
The devices were announced by the wearables vendor on Nov. 4.
The UP3 retails for $179.99 and is aimed at being a wearable that is easy and comfortable to wear 24/7 so that users can gain very detailed and accurate statistics about their heart health whether they are awake or sleeping, according to the company.
In designing the UP3, Jawbone said it looked at competing designs and listened to customer complaints about designs that were big and clunky, suffered from short battery life and had difficult manual processes to capture heart rate details. With those things in mind, Jawbone took different routes to create a device that works well for users, the company said.
Instead of using optical sensors, which are larger and use a lot of battery power, Jawbone uses a sensor platform that works with bioimpedance technology, which measures the resistance of body tissue to tiny electric currents that enable the capture of a wide range of physiological signals including heart rates, according to Jawbone. It’s the same monitoring that’s done by typical treadmills.
By using bioimpedance technology, the UP3 has much longer battery life compared with optical sensors and can capture a such signals as heart rate, respiration rate and galvanic skin response, which is also known as skin conductance. More features will be able to be added using free firmware updates in the coming months, the company said.
By being able to monitor their heart rates 24/7 at rest, during activity and during sleep, users can gain more insights and information about their true heart health, the company said. The UP3 can be purchased in black or silver colors and comes with a one-year warranty.
The UP Move, meanwhile, is a $49.99 device that can be used to track a user’s steps, exercise and calories burned throughout the day, while also tracking hours slept and quality of sleep.
The UP Move also includes a clip that can be used to hold the device against a user’s skin if they prefer not to wear it on their wrist. The UP Move can be purchased in black, blue, grape, ruby and slate colors and comes with a one-year warranty.
The UP Move also comes with access to Jawbone’s UP app and its accompanying Smart Coach, which gives users information so they can make healthier daily choices every day as they monitor their health.
The wearable device market is expected to top 19 million units this year, and jump to 111.9 million units in 2018, IDC analysts said in April. Canalys analysts in September said the wearable band market should grow 129 percent a year, hitting 43.2 million units in 2015. Of those, 28.2 million will be smartbands, with the other 15 million being basic bands (which, unlike smartbands, cannot run third-party applications), the analysts said.
In October, Microsoft launched its first Microsoft Band fitness wearable, which sells for $199, according to a recent eWEEK report, diving into a market that’s filled with competitors such as Sony, Samsung, Fitbit and Jawbone.
The Microsoft Band arrives on the heels of Fitbit’s latest fitness device, the Surge smartwatch, which was announced on Oct. 27. Fitbit’s Surge smartwatch is that company’s first venture into the dedicated smartwatch marketplace, bringing Fitbit into more direct competition against companies such as Apple, Samsung, Sony and LG. Fitbit devices in the past lacked integrated smartwatch features or capabilities, previously making them niche devices for exercise, athletic training and in-event sports performance. That all changed with the new Surge smartwatch, which for the first time includes features such as caller ID, text alerts and mobile music control for wearers.
The Surge, which will retail for $249.95 and be available to consumers sometime in early 2015, also includes typical fitness-tracking features, such as continuous 24/7 heart-rate monitoring and built-in GPS to provide information on exercise pace, distance, elevation, split times, route history and workout summaries. The smartwatch can also record monitoring for multi-sport activities, such as running, cross-training and strength workouts.
Also in October, Lenovo, the world’s largest PC vendor, unveiled its wrist-worn fitness device, the Smartband SW-B100. The device monitors such fitness information as steps and distance traveled, calories burned, heart rate and sleeping patterns.