Last year, Fitbit released the Fitbit Alta, a fitness tracker with more features than the Fitbit Flex, but with a consideration for fashion and design that you don’t see with some of Fitbit’s other offerings.
Image: Fitbit
The Fitbit Alta was a great fitness tracker, but if you wanted more features — and wanted to track your heart rate — you had to move up to the bulkier Fitbit Charge 2 or the ugly Fitbit Blaze smartwatch. Fortunately Fitbit realised that was terrible and has announced the Fitbit Alta HR, which takes everything we liked about the Fitbit Alta from last year, and adds in a continuous heart rate sensor.
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2016/03/fitbit-alta-review-this-is-why-people-like-fitness-trackers/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/xcebdwzesjm8wxcwiz84.jpg” title=”Fitbit Alta Review: This Is Why People Like Fitness Trackers” excerpt=”Everyone knows Fitbit. The proud Fitbit data announcements of that dude from high school on Facebook, the friend who wears a Zip on their hip or your coworker with a Charge on their wrist. It’s the best known name in fitness trackers.”]
The design of the Fitbit Alta HR is identical to the Fitbit Alta and it works with the same leather, elastomer or metal bands as the original. This is nice, as fashion is definitely part of what made the Alta one of our favourite trackers.
Image: Fitbit
According to Fitbit, getting a heart rate monitor into the Alta HR was no easy feat. At a press briefing, Fitbit explained the process, which required developing a custom chip that miniaturised its PurePulse heart rate sensor for the smaller Alta chassis. A nice side effect of this miniaturisation process was that it allowed Fitbit to fit a larger battery inside the device, which means you could hopefully expect about seven days of usage from the Alta HR.
Like the original Fitbit Alta, the Alta HR has a display that can show off calorie counts, steps walked and now your heart rate. You can also get notifications for calls, texts and calendar events.
The Alta HR will start at $249.95 when it debuts early next month, and you can pre-order it on Fitbit’s website now.