Skip to main content

Withings new Pulse HR is a customizable, connected fitness tracker

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Fresh from its split from Nokia, Withings is on a roll releasing its second health and fitness device, the Pulse HR. Inspired by the company’s first fitness tracker, the Pulse, the new Withings Pulse HR takes the best features of its recently released Steel HR Sport hybrid watch and bundles them into a slim and stylish fitness tracker.

Withings is known for paying attention to design as well as features, and this characteristic is apparent in the Pulse HR. The watch has a sleek design with a black, scratch-resistant polycarbonate front, a black-and-white OLED display, and a stainless steel casing. The casing houses the heart rate monitor, which sits flush against your skin. The Pulse HR also features a soft silicone band that is removable so owners can customize their watch to match their style.

The Pulse HR looks like a fitness tracker on the outside, but it has the features of a smartwatch under the hood. The user can raise her wrists and use the button to scroll through a variety of data screens including heart rate information, activity goals, workout detail, and incoming smartphone notifications. Users can receive alerts from text messages, emails, social media, news apps, and more. When a smartphone notification is received, the tracker will vibrate an alert and will display the information on the tracker’s screen.

For those who are serious about their health and fitness, the Pulse HR has an integrated heart rate sensor that monitors your heart rate every 10 minutes throughout the day and continually during a workout. This lets you track your resting heart rate as well as heart rate zones while exercising. It also has connected GPS that connects to your phone to monitor distance and pace during outside activities. The tracker also tracks sleep and has a handy, smart wake up feature that will trigger an alarm at the best point in a user’s sleep cycle.

The Pulse HR is available now for pre-order on Amazon or direct from Withings for $130. Shipments will begin when the tracker officially launches on December 5. Additional color wristbands will be available beginning in January.

Editors' Recommendations

Kelly Hodgkins
Kelly's been writing online for ten years, working at Gizmodo, TUAW, and BGR among others. Living near the White Mountains of…
What is a pulse oximeter, and why should you care?
Withings ScanWatch feature image

Today's wearables are already stuffed to the gills with all kinds of health sensors, from electrocardiograms to sleep trackers. The most recent addition is the pulse oximeter, and it's starting to show up in the latest, most high-end smartwatches and fitness trackers. But what is it, and should your next device have one?

Pulse oximeters measure blood oxygen level -- how much oxygen is present in your blood and how well it is transported to the extremities (blood pressure monitors are different). Medical pulse oximeters are simple, non-invasive gauges that often clip on to an extremity, like a finger, toe, or earlobe, to take measurements based on a combination of LED red and infrared light. These measure the varying rates of light absorption to determine the level of oxygen in the blood.

Read more
The hidden psychological drawback of fitness trackers
Anxiety

Smartwatches are great, not just for providing notifications without making us have to pull out our smartphones to check them, but also for our health. The Apple Watch, for example, will prompt you to get up and walk around at regular intervals, as well as alerting wearers if they have an irregular heart rhythm they should get checked out by a doctor.

But not everything about fitness-tracking smartwatches is so good for our health, claims a new report from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. It suggests that smartwatches, while providing no shortage of useful data, also increase anxiety levels. In a study of 27 heart patients who use Fitbit trackers to measure their sleep, heart rates and physical activity, the researchers found that the more people learned about their biometric data, the more anxious they became about it.

Read more
Everything you need to know about the new Fitbit Charge 4
Fitbit Charge 4

Fitbit just debuted its latest fitness tracker called the Fitbit Charge 4, which is packed with new features like built-in GPS and a workout intensity map. 

There's a slew of new features in the Fitbit Charge 4 that people have been asking for, as well as the usual Fitbit fitness tracker features that you have come to know and love. 

Read more