[therealarmen]

The author mentions the Withings Activite as a viable, albeit less "smart" alternative to the iWatch, and I just had to chime in -- the Activite is one of the best devices I've ever owned. It's beautiful, useful, and inconspicuous. And no, I don't work for Withings.

Those of you in the market for a smartwatch (or any watch really) should check it out: http://withings.com/us/en/products/activite

[Animats]

8 months of battery life, and talks Bluetooth. Someone got low-power right.

[lawry]

That is exactly what struck me as well, I guess BLE 4 doesn't consume near that much energy as some people (me) think it does. So probably it's the display that consumes the most amount of energy. And since this device also has no notification feature it means most of the time there is no connection to your device.

This is good news to me though, means when I finally come around to making devices/projects I can use BLE and still have good battery life! Now just find a BLE 4 module that's cheaper than the ESP8266.

[LaurensBER]

Bluetooth 4.0 is amazing, even my 16 euro Xiaomi Mi Band usually lasts 3-4 months and it wouldn't surprise me if the biggest power drawn was the LED.

[dublinben]

The Activité seems like just the right amount of "smart" that anyone could need from a watch. I simply can't imagine using one like the iWatch.

[eclipxe]

Why is that? I actually enjoy the deep amount of functionality with the Apple Watch - there's a lot of "there" there, and that makes me more productive and happier.

[dublinben]

As far as I've seen (mostly from their own marketing materials) everything the iWatch does, it does worse than a smartphone. Essentially, anything I might consider using it for, I would rather just do it on my phone. It doesn't let me replace my phone, since it doesn't even work without it.

[pcl]

Good to hear -- I've been interested in the Activité, but haven't gotten my hands on one to try it out yet. I like my Fitbit for keeping me honest about walking around and whatnot, and my analog watch doesn't do that for me, so I find myself somewhat ridiculously wearing one on each wrist.

In your experience, what are the downsides of the Activité, vs. a regular old analog watch?

[noisy_boy]

I use an Android phone and have no intention of using an iPhone. I checked the Withings app ratings in Play Store and its 3.6 with quite a few reviews regarding bad integration due to the Android app done almost like an afterthought.

I would love to hear from others regarding the experience on Android because I think I like the watch so issues with the app would be the main issue for me.

[XorNot]

That is $450!

[therealarmen]

They have a lower-priced version (that's not Swiss made) with all of the same features: http://withings.com/us/en/products/activite-pop

[sxates]

There is a $150 version as well: http://www2.withings.com/us/en/products/activite-pop/

[pjbrunet]

The swim tracker sounds interesting, but not available yet.