The Fitbit Surge - Ah yeah!

My new love affair - The Fitbit Surge is a powerful 'smart' watch that essentially tells the time and tracks your fitness. But it's HOW it tracks your fitness that I'm in love with.

First of all, during the course of the day it counts how many steps you've taken using it's built in pedometer, it also measures your heart rate, calories burnt and how many flights of stairs you've walked up. All of this adds up to a substantial amount that you can use together with a workout which can then be uploaded to the Discovery Health website where you can earn up to 150 points / day.

Secondly, when you do a workout e.g. a run, it will not only track your route (using it's built in GPRS) but it will also give you a summary of the run itself:

Once synced via Bluetooth to your smartphone and using the Fitbit App, it'll then show you the map of your route as well as the KM splits. 

Oh, and in case you run with your iPhone because you like listening to music, you can use your Surge as the control. It will also in turn show you who's calling or who's just sent you a text message. Nifty, hey? 

Also, just like the Charge HR, wearing the Surge at night will allow it to track your sleep so that when you wake up in the morning and download the data to your phone, you can see how well you slept. Am still unsure of what to make of this info though...

I can't actually think of one thing I don't like about the Surge. Even the price isn't that bad at around R4,000 and they come in a variety of colours.

There is, however, one small pain - charging. Look, you can do it overnight every week or so, so it's not bad. Stop Whining! 

It's been ages since I've worn a watch that I truly have enjoyed wearing. Am wondering what's next on the Fitbit agenda...

The fitbit Charge HR!

Let me start by saying that today, so far, I've completed 1,422 steps. Now this information wouldn't usually mean much to me but for some reason since I've got my Fitbit, I can't stop counting them! Dammit! It's becoming a vicious competition with my fitbit friends too. Nerdy, perhaps, addictive, absolutely!

The fitbit Charge HR comes soon after its predecessors the Flex, and the Charge and besides being able to tell the time, count your steps and see how far you've walked/run, it's introduced a brand new function that measures your heart rate, hence the HR.

I've never owned a wearable health type device before and sure I could be using my iPhone's Health App to track my steps but the fitbit Charge HR is not only a pedometer or a heart rate monitor but it's also a sleek looking watch that you can wear anywhere, even to bed, because well, it tracks how you slept the night before. I'm not too sure what I'm gonna be doing with this bit of information but it's still cool nonetheless.

Oh, let's not forget how easy it is to sync your daily info onto your smartphone app or even to your computer using its wireless & bluetooth technology! Too easy.

One of my favourite features, once synced with your phone, is that when you get a call on your phone, the caller ID, with a bit of a vibration, shows up on your Charge HR! Come on! That's cool!

So what's the damage? Well, it's RRP is R2,299 at all iStores. Not bad for what you're getting. It might not be a must have but definitely a must want!