Last month,聽Fitbit released the Blaze, a beefed-up wearable meant to challenge the Apple Watch.聽But, keeping in mind聽that not everyone needs all that functionality聽and might not want to spend so聽much money ($200), the company smartly went back to it roots with the new (announced Wednesday). The stylish and more affordable device ($130)聽dials back the Blaze鈥檚 metrics, but provides more data聽and a better user interface聽than the company鈥檚 most basic offerings.
Most importantly, the Alta still automatically tracks exercise, but now recognizes a lot more than step counts. New categories it will track include walking, running, outdoor biking, elliptical use, aerobic workouts鈥攆rom dancing to kickboxing鈥攁nd ball sports,聽such as basketball, tennis, and soccer. (The Blaze offers this as well.)聽It also nudges you to move if you鈥檝e been sitting too long (like the Apple Watch), tracks sleep,聽and,聽unlike聽its more powerful聽competitors, promises an enormously long five days of聽battery life.
As for message forwarding from a phone, you鈥檒l get notifications on the black and white display, but you won't be able to聽reply. You can tab through your data as well, but if you really want to analyze your workouts聽or set goals聽you鈥檒l need to use聽the accompanying app. Because of the mid-range positioning, there鈥檚 no heart-rate tracking聽and no way to manually input exercises outside of the sports it recognizes (like your spin class).
Knowing that look is important, too, Fitbit will offer a rubberized band as well as silver and gold 鈥渂angles.鈥澛
We haven鈥檛 gotten our hands on an Alta yet, but will begin testing one soon and post聽a more in-depth review then.聽