Check out our full Sony Smartband with Core review.
The headline news from Sony at MWC in Barcelona this morning concerned the super-slim Xperia Z2 Tablet and the Xperia Z2 and M2 smartphones, but that’s not all our favorite Japanese manufacturer had to show. We first saw the SmartBand and Lifelog app at CES last month. Sony’s first example of a wearable tracking system, powered by its Core fitness tracker, will go on sale worldwide in March.
The device pairs with your smartphone, but it’s more than just a fitness tracker. The Core is capable of tracking your physical activities and your sleep, but it also acts as a personal diary, so you can record the places you visit, games you play, books you read, music you listen to, and lots more. With the help of the Android Lifelog app, which will also land in March, you’ll be able to create a detailed record of your life on your smartphone.
This is part of what Sony calls the SmartWear Experience, and the SmartBand is just the first wearable that will be capable of housing the Core fitness tracker. We expect more devices that support Core to be released over time and Sony has already suggested connecting it to a camera module that could automatically capture shots of your day to create a visual diary.
The forthcoming SmartBand is a waterproof wristband that the Core slots into. There’s no display, instead the SmartBand will vibrate to alert you to incoming calls, messages, and alarms. It will also vibrate if you stray too far away from your phone, and it will use your sleeping pattern data to determine the best time to wake you up gently in the morning. Connectivity is achieved through NFC or Bluetooth. Sony also suggests there will be an open software ecosystem and open hardware, so it will presumably hope to attract developers of both to work with the Core module.
The SmartBand will go on sale in 60 countries come March, just in black initially, but expect more colors options to follow soon, including a special yellow and green version to honor Brazil in time for the soccer World Cup in June. There’s no word on the pricing just yet, but we’ll keep you posted.
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