Fitness - Page 2 of 14

Angell electric bike review: A match made in heaven?

(Pocket-lint) – The e-bike space is a fascinating one at the moment, with big brands hopping on board to release their own electrified bikes, but a very healthy independent scene also pumping out unique options too.

The best electric bikes: Get around fast on these top ebikes

One such bike is the Angell, a French bike that doesn’t look like anything else on the market (although that’s a statement increasingly true of a bunch of e-bikes), so we’ve put it through its paces to see how it fares compared to the increasingly spicy competition.

Design

Available in silver or black finishes
Integrated touch display and lights
15.9kg (including removable battery)

Every bike has to share a few commonalities with others, and a frame is one of them – but Angell manages to find some unique design tweaks to ensure that it’s got a look all of its own. Riding the black version of the e-bike, you get a super slimline frame that’s angular and eye-catching.

Its core boast is how lightweight it looks, though, and it’s not just an appearance. The Angell has been designed smartly to carry the bulk of its weight in the removable battery pack behind the saddle. It’s just 13.9kg without that battery, making it easy to pick up, and with it onboard you’re looking at 15.9kg, which is on the lighter side for an e-bike.

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The two standout parts of the bike’s design are at the front and back of it. Staying with the battery pack, its u-shaped bulk can slide off the back of the Angell after being unlocked with a small key. It has a charging port to let you charge up without needing to lug the bike indoors (a key point of convenience in our experience with ebikes of all stripes), and two integrated rear lights. These lights can be turned on and off using a button on the handlebars, and also have indicator functions to flash amber if you want to feel even more futuristic.

That brings us to the front of the bike, which is rounded and snazzy, with a small integrated display between the handlebars and another integrated light to illuminate forwards. That display area makes for a chunky look between your arms, but is a useful way to both check what assist mode you’re using, or a variety of metrics including your current speed and how long you’ve been cycling, as well as the all-important battery meter.

Best fitness trackers: Top activity bands to buy today

We’re slightly torn on the design. Some people we checked with found it unobtrusive and elegant, while others rightly pointed out that it’s a bit of a eye-catching way to advertise the smartness (and value) of your bike. In that way, it’s very much a matter of taste.

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There are four buttons on the handlebars in total – two for indicating left and right, one for swapping assist modes, and another to turn your lights on and off – which all work well and are simple and intuitive. There are more involved touch controls on the display if you want to check out further settings and options.

Whether you actually want to use the indicators is another personal point. Although they feel like a futuristic approach to a bike’s place on the roads of our cities, we also found ourself entirely doubting whether drivers were fully aware of how we were using them, despite the brightness of the tail-lights and indicator lights on the end of each handle. Maybe in time smart bikes with indicators will become more commonplace, but for now we still fell back on good old fashioned arm-waving to make sure busses knew where we were headed.

All in all, between the sleek front-end and a battery pack that looks for all the world like the engines of a spaceship, Angell is among the most progressive and interesting-looking e-bikes we’ve tested.

Pedal assistance

Up to 90km / 56mi range
Three pedal assist modes
25kmph/15.5mph maximum speed (regional limits may apply)

Angell thankfully manages to match its new-fangled looks with a smooth and responsive ride. There are no gears for you to worry about here, just an automatic shifter and a few assist modes to choose from.

You can ride it without any help if you like and its lightness makes this bearable if the battery runs out. But the main options are FlyEco, FlyDry and FlyFast – each one ramping up the amount of boost you get, and consuming more battery as a result.

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In Eco the boost means a gentle bit of help from a standing start, while Fast gives you a palpable whoomph as you start to pedal. It’s the Dry middle option that most people will default to, we feel, as it gives a great balance of comfortable acceleration with ease and safety.

Best turbo trainers: Get bike training indoors

The overall ride is up there with Cowboy and VanMoof in terms of its smoothness, with only occasional hitches as the assist kicks in a second late. It’s perfect for urban riding, with disc brakes making for great stopping distances as well. You’ll find Angell gives you a welcome boost when you start pedalling, and it’s easy to manoeuvre and navigate around obstacles.

The integrated lights are a bit divisive in terms of design, but they’re super functional in use, lighting up nice and brightly so that you can forget about taking external lights with you everywhere you go.

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A maximum range of 90km on the lightest assistance setting is entirely respectable and pretty much par for the course. That said, having a percentage counter for the battery on the display did give us a surprising bit of range anxiety as it ticked down, for all that the information was welcome.

The display, meanwhile, is relatively easy to use – but at times seems a bit extraneous. Being able to see your speed or route on it is helpful, but we did sometimes think we’d prefer a cleaner frame that we could mount our phone to if we really wanted all this data.

Software and smart

Companion app
Automatic locking and alarm

The software experience using Angell is a slightly complicated one because of that display. It lets you control a bunch of functions on the bike without needing to resort to the capable companion app.

One key function is unlocking the bike with a pin-code, which is part of a security system that’ll sound a loud alarm if the bike detects it’s being moved jarringly. We found this theft alert a little too hair-trigger, and it wasn’t always the easiest thing to tell if it was activated.

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However, the display and app combine to make it fairly easy to set up navigation, or music controls on your bike, letting you keep your phone pocketed for safer riding. Whether it’s truly much safer than a mounted phone isn’t clear, but it’s certainly more sleek.

As a French bike, the app still has some slight translation issues to be worked out, but it’s nothing that’ll actually impede you as you use it. For the most part, it’s a solid software experience, but it can’t match up to the best we’ve tried from the likes of Cowboy.

Verdict

Riding the Angell was a great time in central London, and reiterated that it, and other e-bikes like it, are absolutely perfect for mid-length commutes and recreational rides. If your concern is getting from A to B without getting tired, this will do the job brilliantly.

It’s got a hefty serving of smart features, some of them unique, and an app that makes it pretty easy to explore them, plus a design that looks like nothing else we’ve tried. Being able to remove the battery to charge, meanwhile, is one of our top criteria in a modern e-bike, and it’s present and correct here.

That makes for an impressive package, and while it’s got a premium price tag to go with its charms, if you’re happy to spend some cash then the Angell will give you an all-new way to enjoy your travel.

Also consider

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Cowboy

With a removable battery and the best app we’ve yet used, Cowboy’s third-generation bike remains the most persuasive one we’ve tried, and it comes in cheaper than the Angell. It doesn’t have the same design chops, but it’s brilliant fun to ride and its pedal assist is just as impressive.

Read our full review

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VanMoof S3

While VanMoof’s bikes lack the removable battery as standard, in every other regard they’re the smoothest ride we’ve experienced from an e-bike, making for gorgeous cycling trips and ease of living. While still premium priced, they’re even more affordable than the Angell.

Read our full review

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Writing by Max Freeman-Mills. Editing by Mike Lowe.

Fitbit Inspire 2 vs Inspire HR vs Charge 4: What’s the difference?

(Pocket-lint) – There was a time when Fitbit had nine activity trackers in its portfolio, though the company retired the Flex, Alta and Zip lines when it launched the Inspire family in 2019.

The Charge 4 sits at the top of the trackers, with the Inspire 2 below, succeeding the older Inspire and Inspire HR. There’s also the Fitbit Luxe to consider too, which sits inbetween. You can read how the Fitbit Luxe, Charge 4 and Inspire 2 compare in our separate feature.

If you’re wondering whether the Fitbit Charge 4 or the Inspire 2 are right for you though, or whether to upgrade from Inspire or Inspire HR, here is how the trackers compare.

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Fitbit Inspire 2 vs Charge 4: Price

Inspire:£69.99 / $79.95 / €79.95
Inspire HR: £89.99 / $99.95 / €99.95
Inspire 2: £89.99 / $99.95 / €99.95
Charge 4: £129.99 / $139.95 / €139.95

The Fitbit Inspire 2 normally costs £89.99 in the UK and $99.95 in the US, which is the same as what the Fitbit Inspire HR cost when it first launched. The standard Inspire model without heart rate normally costs £69.99 in the UK and $79.95 in the US.

The Fitbit Charge 4 usually starts from £129.99 in the UK or $139.95 in the US, with the Special Edition models jumping up to £149.99 in the UK and $159.95 in the US. Accessories are available for all models.

Design

Inspire 2/Inspire HR/Inspire: Waterproof, slim, plastic body, touchscreen display
Charge 3/Charge 4: Waterproof, premium in design, large touchscreen display
All models have interchangeable straps

The Inspire 2, Inspire HR and Inspire all feature a similar design, which is smaller than the Charge 3 and Charge 4. They also all opt for a plastic body over stainless steel, making for light, small and discreet devices with the Inspire 2 a little softer and rounder than the Inspire and Inspire HR overall.

The Inspire 2, Inspire HR and Inspire have a smooth silicone strap as standard, which is interchangeable and fastened with a buckle.

An OLED touchscreen display is present on the top of all the Inspire devices and there is also a singular button on the left for returning to main menu and quick access to settings. This button is physical on the Inspire and Inspire HR and inductive on the Inspire 2.

A heart rate monitor and charging pins sit beneath the Inspire HR and Inspire 2, with only the charging pins on the Inspire, and all Inspire models are water resistant up to 50-metres.

The Fitbit Charge 3 and Charge 4 are a little larger than the Inspire devices, making them more obvious when worn, though the Charge 3 and 4 have a more premium finish thanks to their aluminium bodies. They also have a slimmer profile than all the Inspire models.

A textured elastomer band is present as standard for the Charge 3 and Charge 4 and they have larger OLED touchscreen displays than the Inspire models, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. They also have an inductive button to the left of their display like the Inspire 2, rather than a physical button like the Inspire and Inspire HR.

Interchangeable straps are present again and the PurePulse heart rate monitor sits in the same position on the underneath of the casing, but the Charge 3 and Charge 4 add an SpO2 monitor too. Like the Inspire models, they are also water resistant to 50-metres.

Features

Inspire: Steps, distance, calories, active minutes, basic sleep
Inspire HR: Steps, distance, calories, HR, active minutes, advanced sleep, VO2 Max, Connected GPS, swim tracking
Inspire 2: Steps, distance, calories, HR, active minutes, advanced sleep, VO2 Max, Connected GPS, swim tracking, Active Zone Minutes
Charge 3: Steps, distance, calories, HR, elevation, active minutes, advanced sleep, VO2 Max, Connected GPS, swim tracking, NFC
Charge 4: Steps, distance, calories, HR, elevation, active minutes, advanced sleep, VO2 Max, Built-in GPS, swim tracking, Active Zone Minutes, NFC

The Fitbit Inspire models and the Fitbit Charge 3 and Charge 4 all measure steps taken, distance travelled, calories burned, active minutes and continuous heart rate, though the latter is not present on the standard Inspire, only on Inspire HR and Inspire 2. Automatic sleep tracking, silent alarms, Reminders to Move and hourly activity are all also on board all models though, along with smartphone notifications.

All models, except the standard Inspire, also offer advanced sleep stages and Sleep Score, while the Charge 4 also offers Smart Wake, which uses machine learning to wake you up at an optimal time.

All models also have Fitbit’s SmartTrack, which is a feature that allows trackers to recognise certain activities and record them in the exercise section of the Fitbit app in order for users to categorise them and see a more detailed account of what they have done.

The standard Inspire’s features stop there, while the Inspire 2, Inspire HR, Charge 3 and Charge 4 add several more, marking the biggest differences between these trackers aside from their size and appearance.

The Inspire 2, Inspire HR, Charge 3 and Charge 4 also offer Guided Breathing, Cardio Fitness Level (VO2 Max measurement), Fitbit’s Multi-Sport Mode, Goal-Based Exercise and swim tracking. The standard Inspire is waterproof but doesn’t offer swim tracking.

Smartphone notifications are also more advanced on the Inspire 2, Charge 3 and Charge 4 compared to the Inspire and Inspire HR, with the newer devices offering Quick Replies for Android users and the ability to answer and reject calls.

The Charge 3 and Charge 4’s displays will also show all of the metrics found in the app on the display, including hydration and female health tracking, while the Inspire models offer some but not all.

Fitbit Charge 3 review

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The Charge 3 and Charge 4 also measure elevation. None of the Inspire models have an altimeter so they won’t measure floors climbed. In terms of GPS, the Inspire 2, Inspire HR and Charge 3 have Connected GPS, meaning they will use your phone to record a map of your running or walking route, while the Charge 4 has built-in GPS and Spotify control support, marking the biggest difference between it and the other Fitbit trackers being compared here.

The Charge 4 and Inspire 2 also have a feature called Active Zone Minutes which uses your personalised heart rate zones to track your effort for any energising activity, allowing you to earn credit towards the recommended 150-minute weekly goal for each minute of moderate activity in the fat burning zone and double the credit for vigorous activity in cardio and peak zones.

Last but not least on the feature front, the two Special Edition models of the Charge 3 don’t just offer different strap options, they also feature an NFC chip, meaning these models are both Fitbit Pay enabled, which the Charge 4 is as standard. None of the Inspire models have NFC.

The Inspire 2 claims to have a 10-day battery life. The Charge 3 and Charge 4 claim to have a 7-day battery life. The Inspire and Inspire HR models claim to offer a 5-day battery life.

Fitbit Inspire HR review

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Fitbit Inspire 2 vs Inspire HR vs Charge 4: Conclusion

The Inspire models aren’t as premium in their design as the Charge models, but they are quite a bit cheaper. The older standard Inspire model does the basics, but the extra money for the Inspire 2 is certainly worth it for all the extra features you get – heart rate, VO2 Max, connected GPS, swim tracking, double the battery life and a more refined design, to name but a few.

The Charge 4 is the most feature-rich device on this list and its built-in GPS will make it the clear winner for some. The Charge 3 only offers a few extras over the Inspire 2 with some extra function for smartphone notifications, more on-screen data, elevation data and NFC (standard in Charge 4, option in Charge 3), but it has a more premium design too.

The decision will likely come down to your budget and which features are really important to you. The Inspire 2 is the model we’d recommend over the standard Inspire and the Inspire HR, unless you can find the Inspire HR much cheaper. It’s double battery life also makes it a good contender for upgrading.

The Charge 4 is the model we’d recommend for those after a slightly larger device and a more premium look with all the features of the Inspire 2 (except the few extra days battery life), along with a couple of extras including built-in GPS and Fitbit Pay as standard. The Charge 3 is worth considering if you aren’t bothered about built-in GPS however and you can find it quite a bit cheaper than the Charge 4.

Which Fitbit is right for me?

Writing by Britta O’Boyle.

Cowboy’s improved C4 electric bike launches alongside first step-through model

Cowboy, maker of some of our favorite pedal-assisted electric bikes, is back with two new models for 2021. The Cowboy 4 is a complete overhaul to last year’s Cowboy 3 while the Cowboy 4 ST features the company’s first step-through frame. Both bikes benefit from a new powertrain with 50 percent more torque than last year’s C3 as well as a new integrated “cockpit” with Quadlock mount that wirelessly charges your phone as you ride. But that’s just a start to the bevy of tweaks both big and small that Cowboy hopes will justify a price tag of €2,490 / £2,290 (about $3,000 USD) when the bikes ship in September.

I had a chance to ride near final pre-production versions of the Cowboy 4 and Cowboy 4 ST alongside Adrien Roose, co-founder and CEO of Brussels-based Cowboy. While the two bikes share the same specs, the rides couldn’t be anymore different.

“We’ve stayed true to our initial vision of providing a better alternative to the car — in form and function — and with the Cowboy 4 it’s a shift we will accelerate and lead,” said Roose in a press statement.

The fourth-generation C4 maintains the same sporty riding position and ultra-responsive steering as every Cowboy before it. But this year’s model has a redesigned 250W rear-hub motor that remains silent as it assists riders up to a max speed of 25km/h (15.5mph), even though it’s smaller and produces noticeably more torque. The bump from 30Nm to 45Nm of torque is apparent on the first downstroke, with the lightest of touches propelling the slightly heavier 18.9kg / 41.67-pound e-bike forward with enough gusto to help smooth out hills.

The C4 ST has a lower saddle and higher grips that put the rider into a more upright position. That coupled with a lower gear ratio (2.71 on the C4 ST vs. 2.85 on the C4) makes the ride feel more relaxed despite having the same motor and Gates Carbon belt drive as its brother. The C4 ST is the model you buy for long, lazy commutes with a laptop bag, or for anyone who won’t fit the C4’s taller frame.

The C4 e-bikes, like their predecessors, offer only a single power setting with no throttle and no extra gears. They rely on a torque sensor to adjust the power delivery as needed, which has traditionally resulted in one of the most intuitive pedal-assisted rides on the road.

Cowboy refers to the Quadlock mount with integrated wireless charging unit as the “cockpit.” It can charge your phone at up to 15W from the e-bike’s removable 360Wh battery, but requires a Quadlock-compatible case that must be purchased separately for about €29 / £29. Although the cockpit is bulky enough to fit another battery, the space is mostly empty I’m told, providing a wide base for the wireless coils and access to the frame to run brake cables through.

The Cowboy apps for iOS and Android have also been totally redesigned with an emphasis on health and fitness in addition to navigation, with many new features rooted in game design theory. “What we’re trying to achieve is some weird mix between Strava, Peloton, and Pokémon Go,” said Roose, “simply to encourage people to bike more.”

The fourth-generation Cowboy 4 also improves upon the Cowboy 3 in a number of other ways:

The C4 is redesigned down to the component level, making one of the best looking e-bikes look even more cohesive and sleek. Cowboy says the C4 now features “200 custom-made parts” assembled by Flex in Hungry, including the motor and tires. The Selle Royal saddle, SunRace hydraulic brakes, and Gates drive are the notable outliers.
The €89 Cowboy mudguards are finally standard, which partially explains the added weight and price of the new e-bikes.
The C4 and C4 ST still don’t come with kickstands, but at least Cowboy now makes its own as a €29 / £29 add-on. It’s also making an optional rear rack priced at €99 / £99.

Cowboy doesn’t currently sell e-bikes in the US, but that will change next year, according to Roose, who’s particularly bullish after hearing President Biden’s plans to cut CO2 emissions. “Our growth, and the growth of the US e-bike market, is making a move for us quite appealing and we want to jump,” said Roose. “We’re talking the next 12 months.”

For Europeans, the €2,490 / £2,290 purchase price for a Cowboy 4 / 4 ST includes theft and crash detection, and free on-demand mobile repairs available nationwide in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Luxembourg, the UK, and in select cities in Spain and Italy. Cowboy also touts its 94.4 percent customer satisfaction rate, noting that owners get replies to support requests within six minutes, on average. A little poke at e-bike rival VanMoof, perhaps, which struggled to support buyers of its S3 and X3 e-bikes as sales ramped up during the pandemic.

The C4 and C4 ST are available in three colors: black, khaki (greenish), and sand (off-whiteish). Test rides will begin in July before the bikes start shipping in September to Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. Preorders begin today after a €100 / £100 deposit.

The Cowboy 3 is also being reduced to €2,190 today and now comes standard with mudguards. That’s a price drop of €189 compared to the same e-bike purchased last year.

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

A bug in Peloton’s API may have exposed a whole lot of user data

An old version of Peloton’s API, the software that allows the company’s bikes and recalled treadmills to communicate with its servers, may have exposed private customer profiles, according to a report from TechCrunch. The bug was first spotted by Jan Masters, a security researcher at Pen Test Partners, and reported to Peloton on January 20th, but the company is only just now confirming that the bug has been fixed.

Using Peloton’s API, Masters was able to scrape all sorts of customer information that would typically be private, depending on the individual user’s settings. That includes customer profiles, which can potentially feature their age, location, birthday, and workout history. All Masters had to do was make an unauthenticated request to Peloton’s API and customer data was his. Masters has a more thorough explanation of how the exploit worked on Pen Test Partners’ blog and also summarized his findings in the video below:

After reporting the bug to Peloton, Masters set a 90-day deadline to address the issue. That deadline came and went without Peloton saying whether the API was fixed, which prompted Masters to turn to TechCrunch. Peloton finally responded and shared the following statement with the publication:

It’s a priority for Peloton to keep our platform secure and we’re always looking to improve our approach and process for working with the external security community. Through our Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure program, a security researcher informed us that he was able to access our API and see information that’s available on a Peloton profile. We took action, and addressed the issues based on his initial submissions, but we were slow to update the researcher about our remediation efforts. Going forward, we will do better to work collaboratively with the security research community and respond more promptly when vulnerabilities are reported. We want to thank Ken Munro for submitting his reports through our CVD program and for being open to working with us to resolve these issues.

The screens on Peloton’s bikes and treadmills are what make the company’s workout ways so compelling. It’s how subscribers attend classes, track their workouts, and even do other non-bike or treadmill exercises. It’s a feature that Peloton charges $39 per month for an all-access membership to. Yet, like all connected devices, particularly fitness ones, it can leave private customer information more vulnerable than a non-connected stationary bike would.

Masters writes that Peloton apologized and said it resolved a majority of the API issues within a week of his report. What’s not immediately clear is if anyone other than Masters gained access to customer data while the API was in a leaky state.

When The Verge followed up to check, Peloton said it had nothing new to share that it hadn’t already provided TechCrunch and Pen Test Partners. The company also reiterated it responded to the API issue immediately.

HTC may announce two new Vive VR headsets on May 11th

HTC is planning to unveil two Vive virtual reality headsets at its ViveCon 2021 conference that’s happening on May 11th and May 12th, according to Protocol. While the original Vive and Vive Pro headsets were associated more with gaming, the high-end Vive Pro 2 and Vive Focus 3 Business Edition will reportedly be aimed toward the enterprise sector.

No specs or images of either headset have surfaced, so it’s unclear if both will be tethered headsets that require a PC to use or if one will have a standalone, wire-free design to take on the likes of the Oculus Quest 2.

The report from Protocol states that both headsets were mentioned in HTC company documents and were also briefly listed on European e-commerce site Alzashop. Before those shop listings were taken down, the Vive Focus 3 Business Edition showed a €1,474 ($1,771) price, and the Vive Pro 2 was listed for €842 ($1,012), according to Protocol. Both headsets are reportedly launching sometime in May.

These headsets could be exciting in their own ways, but another device I’m holding out hope to see at ViveCon is the fitness-focused Vive Air. Pictures leaked a couple of weeks ago showing an attractive standalone VR headset with a breathable fabric design, and it prompted HTC to say that, unfortunately, it’s just a concept. But maybe that’s just what a company trying to downplay an exciting announcement would say, right?

We’ll know much more come May 11th at HTC’s VR conference, where the company says it will debut “game-changing VR headsets” during the keynote.

Updating an Apple Watch Series 3 is a nightmare in 2021

The Apple Watch Series 3 was first released in September 2017, bringing fitness improvements and a faster processor. Nearly four years later, in 2021, Apple is still selling the Series 3 as its entry-level Apple Watch model starting at $199, an $80 savings compared to the more recent Apple Watch SE. Only, as I’ve recently learned, “still selling” and “supporting in a reasonable manner” are two very different things, and updating an Apple Watch Series 3 in 2021 is a nightmare of infuriating technological hoops to jump through.

Normally, updating an Apple Watch is an annoyingly long but straightforward process: you charge your Watch up to 50 percent, plug it in, and wait for the slow process of the update transferring and installing to your smartwatch.

But the non-cellular Apple Watch Series 3 has a tiny 8GB of internal storage, a fair chunk of which is taken up by the operating system and other critical software. So installing a major update — like the recently released watchOS 7.4 — goes something like this:

Unpair and wipe your Apple Watch to factory settings
Set up the Apple Watch again and restore from backup
Realize you weren’t supposed to restore from your backup yet
Watch an episode or two of Brooklyn Nine-Nine while you wait for the backup to finish restoring
Start from step one again — but as a brand-new Apple Watch, without restoring from an existing backup
Update completely fresh Apple Watch, which now has enough free memory to update
Consider how much you actually want to use this face unlocking feature everyone keeps hyping up in the first place
Unpair and wipe the Apple Watch a third time
Restore from your backup and finally use normally

And the issue seems to apply whether you’ve installed a pile of apps or not. Apple’s support website doesn’t even recommend that Series 3 owners bother trying to clear up space — it just advocates that they go straight to the aforementioned reset cycle.

It’s clear that the current process is untenable.

I’m an editor at a technology news site and willing to put in the comical amount of time and energy to manage this, frustrating as it might be. But if you’re a more casual user — the same one who is likely to own an older, outdated Watch in the first place — why on earth would you bother with the worst update mechanism since GE’s instructions for resetting a smart bulb? And being able to update your hardware’s software is important: the just-released watchOS 7.4.1, for example, patches a critical security flaw. But with it being so difficult to install, there’s a good chance that plenty of Series 3 owners won’t bother.

I know that Apple loves to claim support for as many older hardware generations as it can with each new update. It’s one of the biggest appeals of Apple products, compared to the lackluster pace of updates on competing Android phones (like the just-deprecated Galaxy S8).

But the miserable update process for the Series 3 is a strong argument that Apple is being a little too generous with what it considers “current” hardware. Keeping the Series 3 around this long was always a money grab, a way for Apple to clear out old inventory and take advantage of mature manufacturing processes that have long since broken even in order to appeal to users who really can’t afford the extra $80 for the markedly better Apple Watch SE. It’s a similar trend to the inexplicably still-on-sale Apple TV HD, which is almost six years old and costs just $30 less than the brand-new 4K model. (Much like the Series 3, don’t buy a new Apple TV HD in 2021 either.)

But hopefully, with the announcement of watchOS 8 almost assuredly around the corner at WWDC this June, the company takes into account the basic functionality of its hardware when considering what it does and doesn’t offer support for. Because if Apple is going to insist on selling a product this old in the future, it’s going to need to be a lot more mindful of just how it actually handles its software support.

YouTube announces new originals starring Will Smith and Alicia Keys

YouTube announced a new slate of original series today that includes some huge stars at the top of the lineup. Will Smith will star in a six-part reality series about fitness and “returning his body into the best shape of his life,” and a four-part series will go behind the scenes with Alicia Keys as she records a new album.

The new lineup of originals also includes a third season of Liza Koshy’s Liza on Demand; a new special focused on Asian American chefs, celebrities, activists, and creators that counts LeBron James and Michelle Kwan as executive producers; and a new special called Barbershop Medicine that explores the intersection of race and socioeconomic status that came out of the #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund that was announced last year.

YouTube has regularly changed up its approach to original content since it started making originals about five years ago. They started out as subscriber-only shows centered around creators, pivoted to ad-supported shows featuring mainstream stars like Kevin Hart and Will Smith (making this his second YouTube original), and more recently have delivered more of a mix of the two, with most shows being largely available to anyone who visits YouTube.

Still, big names like Will Smith and Alicia Keys guarantee views, and they provide credibility to YouTube and comfort for advertisers who may be worried about some of the platform’s wilder content. These series were, not coincidentally, announced in the middle of a YouTube presentation for advertisers.

Will Smith’s new series will debut next year; Alicia Keys’ arrives this summer.

Amazfit T-Rex Pro review: The compelling and the compromise

(Pocket-lint) – The Amazfit T-Rex Pro is a sportswatch built for outdoor lovers. Its maker, Zepp Health, has sought to make it a better companion for trail runs, hikes and open water swims than the original 2020 T-Rex model – by making the Pro better suited to surviving in extreme conditions and adding new sensors to offer richer metrics too.

A core part of the T-Rex Pro is its affordable price point – it’s significantly cheaper than most outdoor watches, so could save you some money if you wanted something to take out on adventures. But while the price and feature set might read as appealing, does this T-Rex bring future goodness or is it a bit of a dinosaur at launch?

Design & Display

Measures: 47.7mm (diameter) x 13.5mm (thickness)
1.3-inch touchscreen display, 360 x 360 resolution
10ATM waterproofing (to 100m depth)
Weighs: 59.4g

The T-Rex Pro largely sticks to the same design formula as the T-Rex. There’s a similar-sized 47mm polycarbonate case, matched with a 22mm silicone rubber strap, all weighing in at 59.4g. To put that into perspective: the 47mm Garmin Fenix 6 weighs 80g, and the Polar Grit X weighs 66g. So the T-Rex Pro is a lighter watch thanks to that plastic case. We’d almost like a bit more weight to it, if anything.

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There’s also a chunky bezel with exposed machined screws to emphasise its rugged credentials – and it’s passed more military grade tests than the original T-Rex to make it better suited to the outdoors. The Pro attains 15 military grade tests – up from the original’s 12 – and is built to handle extreme humidity and freezing temperatures.

Along with those improved military grade toughness credentials, it’s also ramped up the water-resistance rating – offering protection up to 100 metres depth (10ATM). The ‘non-Pro’ T-Rex can be submerged in water up to 50 metres.

At the heart of that light, rugged, chunky exterior is a 1.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, which can be set to always-on. Tempered glass and an anti-fingerprint coating has been used to make it a more durable and smudge-free display – and we can confirm it’s a screen that doesn’t give you that unattractive smudgy look as its predecessor suffered.

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It’s a bright and colourful screen, with good viewing angles. In bright outdoor light, that vibrancy isn’t quite as punchy as in more favourable conditions, but it’s on the whole a good quality display to find on a watch at this price.

Around the back is where you’ll find the optical sensors and the charging pins for when you need to power things back up again. It uses the same slim charging setup as the T-Rex, which magnetically clips itself in place and securely stays put when it’s time to charge.

Fitness & Features

GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo satellite system support
Firstbeat training analysis
Heart rate monitor
SPO2 sensor

In true Amazfit fashion, the T-Rex Pro goes big on sports modes – and includes the kinds of sensors that should make it a good workout companion.

There’s 100 sports modes up from just the 14 included in the standard T-Rex. It still covers running, cycling and swimming (pool and open water), but it’s also added profiles for activities like surfing, dance, and indoor activities like Pilates.

The majority of these new modes will offer you the basics in terms of metrics, though modes like surfing and hiking will offer additional ones like speed and ascent/descent data in real-time. The addition of an altimeter here means you can capture richer elevation data, which is useful if you’re a fan of getting up high and hitting those mountains and hilly terrain.

For outdoor tracking, there’s support for four satellite systems with GPS, GLONASS, Beidou and Galileo all on board to improve mapping accuracy. You don’t have any type of navigation features to point you in the right direction, though, nor can you upload routes to follow on the watch.

For road and off-road runs, we found core metrics were reliable during our testing. GPS-based distance tracking came up a little short compared to a Garmin Enduro sportswatch, plus we had issues inside of the app generating maps of our routes as well.

Best Garmin watch 2021: Fenix, Forerunner and Vivo compared

By Chris Hall
·
30 April 2021

Swim tracking metrics were generally reliable and it was a similar story for indoor bike and rowing sessions. In the pool, it was a couple of lengths short of the Enduro’s swim tracking, though stroke counts for indoor rowing largely matched up to what we got from a Hydow rowing machine.

But when you dig a little deeper beyond core metrics, some of the T-Rex Pro’s data seems a little questionable. If you’re happy to stick to the basics, though, then the Pro does a good enough job.

Along with manual tracking, there’s support for automatic exercise recognition for eight of those sports modes. This is something we’ve seen crop up on Fitbit, Garmin and Samsung smartwatches with varying success. On the T-Rex Pro, you’ll need to select whether to automatically track activities like running, swimming and indoor rowing. As Zepp Health outlines: there can be instances where accidental recognition can happen with some activities when you jump on a bus or a car. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case for us.

Zepp Health’s newest BioTracker 2 optical sensor is included to power a host of heart-rate features outside of continuous monitoring and measuring effort levels during exercise. It’s also used for the PAI scores, which seeks to shift the attention away from counting steps to regularly raising heart rate through exercise. It’s also used for taking heart rate variability measurements to track stress levels and is used for training insights – like those found on Garmin watches – that will generate VO2 Max scores, training effect, training load, and recovery times.

As far as the reliability of that heart rate monitoring, the Amazfit is better suited to resting heart rate and continuous heart rate data as opposed to relying on exercise and those additional training and fitness insights. In our testing it generally posted higher maximum heart rate readings and lower average heart rate readings compared to a Garmin HRM Pro heart rate monitor chest strap. Those readings were enough to put us in different heart rate zones, which undermines the usefulness of those training insights and PAI scores.

That sensor also unlocks blood oxygen measurements with a dedicated SpO2 app on board to offer on-the-spot measurements. It can be used to offer alerts when you hit major altitude changes. We didn’t get up high enough to trigger those altitude alerts but did compare on-the-spot measurements against a pulse oximeter and they largely all matched up.

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You’ll get those staple activity tracking features here too, such as capturing daily step counts and monitoring sleep as well as naps, capturing sleep stages and breathing quality, which is tagged as a beta feature and makes use of the new onboard SpO2 sensor.

We found step counts were at times well within the counts of a Fitbit smartwatch – but also some days where we registered longer step totals there was a much bigger difference.

When you’re not tracking your fitness, the Pro does do its duty as a smartwatch too. It runs on Zepp Health’s own RTOS software – and while it might not be the most feature-rich smartwatch experience, it will give you a little more than the basics.

Google Android and Apple iPhone users can view notifications, control music playing on your phone, along with setting up alarms, reminders and changing watch faces. You don’t have payments, the ability to download apps, a music player or a smart assistant, which has appeared on some Amazfit watches.

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Notification support is of the basic kind, letting you view notifications from native and third-party apps, but not respond to them. They’re easy to read, but what you can read varies based on the type of notification. If you happen to have multiple notifications from the same app, it struggles to display them all and merely lets you know you have multiple messages. Music controls work well as they do on other Amazfit watches and features like weather forecasts and watch faces are well optimised to that touchscreen display.

Performance & Battery Life

Up to 18 days in typical usage
Up to 9 days in heavy usage
40 hours of GPS battery life

The T-Rex Pro features a 390mAh capacity battery – matching what’s packed into the T-Rex. That should give you 18 days in typical usage, 9 days in heavy usage, with an impressive 40 hours of GPS battery life.

Like other Amazfit watches, those battery numbers tend to be based on some very specific lab testing scenarios. In our experience, it’s always felt a little on the generous side. In our time with the T-Rex Pro, we got to around the 10 day mark on a single charge. That was with regular GPS tracking, continuous heart rate monitoring, stress monitoring, and the richer sleep tracking enabled. We had the screen on max brightness but not in always-on mode.

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The standard T-Rex felt like it was good for a solid week using it in similar conditions, orring 20 days in typical usage by comparison – but the Pro can get you longer than a week even with some of the more demanding features in use.

Things seem to have improved on the GPS battery front as well. An hour of using the GPS usually knocked the Pro’s battery just under 10 per cent, while the T-Rex usually lost 10 per cent from 30 minutes using the GPS. It might not be the 40 hours that was promised, but the Pro does seem to hold up a little better than the T-Rex when it comes to tracking.

Verdict

The T-Rex Pro is a solid outdoor watch offering that’s missing one key ingredient that would makes it a great one – there’s no maps to point you in the right direction when you think you’re lost.

Otherwise, if you want something that offers a durable design and can track your outdoor activities, then the T-Rex Pro’s chunky-but-light design will no doubt appeal to adventurers on a budget. Its fitness and sports tracking features by and large do a good enough job too.

So if you’re hoping that you’ll be able to get an experience that rivals what the Garmin Fenix, Instinct, and the likes of the Polar Grit X can offer, then this T-Rex isn’t quite the full package. But that’s reflected in the price – which is so much less that you should be willing to accept such compromise.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Garmin Instinct Solar

Garmin’s outdoor watch that sits underneath the pricier Fenix does still cost considerably more than the T-Rex Pro, but will give you those navigation features and great long battery life too.

Read our review

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Polar Grit X

The Grit X will give you navigation features, a light design, and help you fuel for long runs and hikes to make sure you’re not running on empty.

Read our review

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Writing by Michael Sawh. Editing by Mike Lowe.

iOS 14.5 is out now with new Face ID mask features and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency

Apple has begun rolling out iOS and iPadOS 14.5. The latest software update includes the new App Tracking Transparency feature, which lets users decide whether to allow apps to track their activity “across other companies’ apps and websites” for advertising purposes. A pop-up will now appear whenever apps are designed to share your activity in this way. Facebook has heavily criticized Apple over App Tracking Transparency, claiming that it presents “a false tradeoff between personalized ads and privacy.” The new option could have a detrimental impact on Facebook’s ad business.

Perhaps more important to day-to-day iPhone usage, iOS 14.5 also includes a very helpful and timely new trick: if you own an Apple Watch, you can set your iPhone to automatically unlock without requiring a Face ID match or passcode as long as Apple’s smartwatch is on your wrist. This is designed to make getting into your phone that much quicker while we’re all still wearing face masks so frequently throughout the day. Installing watchOS 7.4 is necessary for this feature to work; that update is also available as of today.

iOS and iPadOS 14.5 include a ton of new emoji with a focus on inclusivity. The update adds the ability to watch Apple Fitness Plus workouts on a TV with AirPlay 2. Apple’s Podcasts app is getting a new design and optional subscriptions. The latest video game controllers for the PS5 and Xbox Series X / S are now supported on the iPhone and iPad as of this update. And all iPhone 12 models will allow for 5G connectivity in dual-SIM mode in more countries. Starting with the 14.5 update, Apple will no longer default to a female-sounding voice for its Siri assistant. Instead, you’ll be prompted to choose your preferred voice during device setup. Apple has a post up with all of the miscellaneous improvements and additions.

iOS and iPadOS 14.5 is rolling out to iPhone and iPad users now; you can check the “software update” section in settings to begin the update process right away.

Garmin’s new Venu 2 watches have better battery life and more features

Update April 22nd, 1:12PM ET: Updated the first paragraph to reflect that Garmin wouldn’t disclose how long its introductory price of $319.99 will last.

Garmin has upgraded its premium Venu smartwatch for 2021 (via DC Rainmaker and Ars Technica). It now comes in two sizes instead of a single 43mm-sized model. The 45mm Venu 2 houses a 1.3-inch 416 x 416 OLED screen. For smaller wrists (or those who just prefer a less wrist-dominating device), the 40mm Venu 2S has a 1.1-inch 360 x 360 OLED screen. Both watches have an optional always-on mode, and they are available now for an introductory cost of $319.99, which is $80 cheaper than the original Venu when it launched in late 2019. Garmin hasn’t shared how long this price will be in effect (the product pages mention a $399.99 asking price), and the company declined to disclose how long this lower price will last.

Other than the differences in case sizes, there isn’t much else distinguishing the Venu 2 lineup visually from the predecessor. They’re slick-looking touchscreen wearables with Gorilla Glass 3-covered touchscreens that feature two buttons. One of the biggest gen-to-gen improvements is its battery performance. The original Venu could last five days in smartwatch mode, but Garmin’s bigger 45mm Venu 2 watch doubles it (and then some) to a claim of 11 days of operation if you’re just using it for getting phone notifications with light usage otherwise. If you’re using its built-in GPS and streaming music from the watch to your headphones via Bluetooth, Garmin predicts up to eight hours of battery life, up from six in the previous model.

A close-up of the larger Venu 2.

Garmin

Surprisingly, the smaller 40mm Venu 2S also has better battery life than the original, with 10 days of use expected in smartwatch mode or up to seven hours in GPS mode with music. Garmin has a whole page that backs up how it makes predictions on battery life, telling you what to expect depending on the kind of activities you’re doing. Garmin is also touting faster recharging for both models, with 10 minutes of charging giving you up to one day of use in smartwatch mode or an hour of GPS usage with music. Both models can store up to 650 songs from Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer, up from 500 in the Venu and the 2020 Venu Sq.

The Venu 2 watches are packed with sensors, featuring a heart rate sensor, GPS (GLONASS and Galileo), a wrist-based pulse ox sensor to measure blood oxygen, a barometric altimeter for altitude, compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, thermometer, and an ambient light sensor. Each watch also features NFC for the Garmin Pay contactless payment feature. These watches work with iOS and Android, but only on Android can you respond to text messages.

In terms of new software features coming to the watches, Garmin’s Sleep Score will give you an aggregate score based on tracking your sleep stages, heart rate, stress, respiration, and your blood oxygen levels. The Venu 2 series can estimate your “Fitness Age” based on your level of activity and can guide you through high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and advanced strength training.

Garmin Venu 2 initial review: The AMOLED display is back

(Pocket-lint) – The original Garmin Venu was Garmin’s stab at something more like a smartwatch. It was designed to address the display above all things, sporting an AMOLED screen – and looking better than all the other devices in Garmin’s range.

That’s true of the Venu 2 too and we’ve had one on the wrist for a couple of days to bring you some first impressions.

Design and build

40 and 45mm sizes
45.4 x 45.4 x 12.2mm, 49g
Changeable straps
Stainless steel bezel

Glance at the Venu 2 and you might not know if you’re looking at a new watch or the old model. The overall design is pretty much that same – and it’s a safe design.

Pocket-lint

The watch case sticks to polymer, topped with a stainless steel bezel to give a premium look around the display. The big change is that there’s now two sizes – 40 or 45mm – so there’s a Venu 2 for every wrist.

That also sees a change in the straps you can attach to it, with 18mm and 22mm supported respectively, allowing you to chop and change to get the look you want.

As we said of the original Venu, the design is rather safe. It doesn’t quite reach to the premium looks that you get from the Apple Watch, but it’s conventional enough. We suspect much comes from the close relationship to the Vivoactive – with the Vivoactive 4 also coming in the same sizes.

There’s a difference, however. The case of the Venu 2 now appears to be one piece, whereas previous models had a separate backplate and body, not that that makes a huge difference. For those who like to examine sensors, there’s also a new arrangement to the Elevate heart rate sensor on the back, which we’ve not seen in other Garmin devices.

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There are two buttons on the right-hand side of the body and these are oblong rather than the round buttons usually found on the Forerunner models.

Display

AMOLED, 33mm
416 x 416 pixels
Touchscreen
Always-on option

We don’t have the exact figures on for the display at the time of writing, but on the 45mm model, it’s about 33mm in diameter for the visible area (the same as the Vivoactive 4).

There’s some bezel area under the glass that’s not active display, but Garmin has now added some markers on this area which help to disguise the fact that not the entire area is display. Fortunately, because this is AMOLED, the deep black of the display and that surrounding area merge together so you really don’t notice it – or we haven’t so far.

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There are plenty of watch faces on the device and many more available through Connect IQ, but we were quickly taken by the Matrix-style face.

There are three brightness levels and it doesn’t appear that there’s any sort of ambient light sensor to adjust the levels automatically. If you choose the top brightness you’ll get a warning that this will drain the battery faster – and it’s the display that’s likely to eat most of the battery life on your Garmin.

It’s a touchscreen display, allowing some interaction, while other functions will need the press of one of the two body buttons.

There’s a battery saving mode that will take you to a simple watch face to save power and also drop the brightness – again underlining the point that this display does have a hit on this watch’s endurance.

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Of course, that’s something we really need to examine in more depth over the coming weeks. Garmin says you’ll get 11 days in battery saver mode, while 10 minutes charging will give 1 day of life – but we’ll be fully testing the realistic battery life. So far it looks like it will be good for 5 days based on wearing it so far.

There is the option for the screen to be always-on, but you’d have to select that. The default is to have the display fade to black fairly quickly, but to waken when you twist it to look at it.

Sensors and hardware

HR, GPS, ABC
Pulse Ox

Despite pitching this watch as a smartwatch, the Venu 2 is loaded with all the sensors to feed Garmin’s data machine. That will keep track of your activities from your steps to your HIIT workouts, and give you loads of information about what happened.

The mainstay is the heart rate sensor, which can keep track of your heart rate through the day and night to give you a complete picture of what’s happening within your body. It will help you get in the zone when you’re working out, it will help spot when you’re stressed and it will also measure blood oxygen levels – although be warned that this demands a lot of battery life, so probably isn’t worth the sacrifice.

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GPS provides your location for accurate route tracing, so you know how far and how fast you went, for tracking all your outdoor activities. The accelerometer will detect motion, like steps or sleep movements, the barometer can detect altitude change while the compass can sense which direction you’re moving in.

All the data collected feeds a number of systems, like Body Battery which pitches your sleep against your daily activity to advise you about how well rested you are, while also giving you full breakdowns of your activity in the Garmin Connect smartphone app, so you know what you did and what benefit that will have.

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New in this device are sleep scores and insights from Firstbeat Analytics as well as fitness age, which draws in a lot of information to estimate your age – or the impact that your lifestyle might have had on your body and make suggestions so you can do something about it.

They support a full selection of sports, but we’ve not had the chance to test them yet as we’ve only just strapped this watch on. There’s wider support for HIIT workouts and strength training – two areas that Garmin hasn’t been so great on in the past.

We’ll be testing all the functions in the coming weeks.

Smartwatch features

Custom graphics
Garmin Pay
Music support
Smartphone notifications

Garmin offers a range of features are less sporty and more smartwatchy. These aren’t new or unique to the Venu 2, indeed most have been refined across top Forerunner and Fenix models over the years.

But these do complete the picture and ensure that you’re not missing out on essentials. There’s support for downloaded music from Spotify, Deezer or Amazon Music, letting you sync up to 650 tracks, an increase over the previous Venu model.

That means you can arrange playlists and have them sync to your watch, so you can listen to music phone-free via Bluetooth headphones. You can also control music you might have on your phone.

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Garmin Pay allows for mobile payments, so you can pay for that coffee on your way home from a long run – although there’s not a wide range of support for banks outside the US – so it’s worth checking to see if you’ll be able to use your card.

We’ve mentioned Garmin Connect a couple of times already and once setup on your phone, you’ll be able to control notifications on your watch so you can stay informed – and those using an Android phone will be able to use Quick Replies to reply to messages too.

Best Garmin watch 2021: Fenix, Forerunner and Vivo compared

By Chris Hall
·
22 April 2021

Much of this will be familiar to Garmin users, but the Venu 2 does use some custom graphics and animations that are a little more exciting that you’ll find elsewhere. That makes better use of the display and while we’ve not had a chance to fully explore everything, we’ve already spotted some areas where the Venu 2 looks better than some other Garmin devices.

First Impressions

The Garmin Venu 2 is all about that display. For those who are turned off by the slightly muted displays you might find on the Vivoactive or Forerunner devices, the Venu is designed to deliver.

First impressions are great, with vibrancy and plenty of colour, giving the custom visuals a lift. That was true of the previous device too, so we’ll be looking at how this performs as a fitness device and a lifestyle device over the coming weeks.

Writing by Chris Hall.

Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite review: Fitness tracking on a budget

(Pocket-lint) – The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite joins the Mi Watch as a part of a duo that wants to put smarts on your wrist for significantly less money than an Apple Watch or a Samsung smartwatch.

If the Mi Watch is considered affordable, then the Mi Watch Lite is proper cheap, going toe-to-toe with a raft of Amazfit Bip watches available around this price – and other budget options you should probably steer clear of.

For that cut price, the Mi Watch Lite offers a mix of smartwatch and fitness tracking features and battery life that can make it through a week. You’ll inevitably have to live with some shortcomings, but it feels like ones that don’t detract from what is a decent budget smartwatch.

Design & Display

Measures: 41 x 35 x 11.9mm / Weighs: 35g
1.39-inch display, 320 x 320 resolution
Size options: 41mm
5ATM waterproof

Like the first Mi Watch – the one that never made it out of China – the Mi Watch Lite is a square affair, featuring a 41mm case made from plastic.

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It weighs in at 35g, so it’s by no means a heavy watch, and it’s paired up with a TPU strap that’s removable. It just takes a bit of time to get it off and get something else on there.

There’s your pick of black, ivory or navy blue case colours, or the choice of five ‘fashionable’ Morandi colours including olive, pink and ivory.

On the wrist, the Mi Watch Lite doesn’t look hugely different from other budget square smartwatches out there and the colour options are nice – but it would be stretch to say it gives them a more stylish look. It’s pleasant enough looking, but the larger Xiaomi Mi Watch is visually more appealing.

The Lite offers a single physical button on the side of the case that’ll wake the screen up and launch the app menu screen. That screen is the touchscreen kind of course. It’s a 1.4-inch TFT LCD type, so not the AMOLED kind you get on the more expensive Mi Watch.

It’s a good quality screen for the price and certainly doesn’t have that washed-out look you sometimes find on smartwatches this cheap. The backlight offers 350 nits of brightness, so it’s not one you’re going to struggle to see at night or during the day. It still offers good colours and it’s generally a nice screen to glance down at.

What’s more problematic is the controls: tapping is prioritised over swiping through screens. You can scroll through some screens, but it’s slow moving when you do it. It’s generally less of a problem if you’re checking a notification or looking at one of the widgets, but when the sweat comes during exercise, it’s more problematic and frustrating to handle.

Like the round Mi Watch, Xiaomi has made the Lite suitable for swimming and showering by slapping it with a 5ATM water resistance rating, which means it’s good at depths up to 50 metres.

Software & Performance

Works with Android and iOS
No third-party app support

Xiaomi uses its own in-house operating system for the on-watch software experience and it has Xiaomi Wear (Android) and Xiaomi Wear Lite (Apple) apps for that time spent away from the watch itself.

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Our screen control frustrations aside, it’s a very easy watch software to get to grips with. Swipe left and right to see widgets showing off data like heart rate and weather forecasts. The main menu screen is a mere button press away.

Like the Mi Watch, that main menu screen doesn’t include any text, so it’s up to you to quickly establish what launches what here. There’s some simple settings you can tinker with on the watch like screen brightness, watch faces, do not disturb mode, idle alerts, and setting up a password for security.

The companion Xiaomi Wear app is broken up into three sections letting you dig into your health and fitness stats, track workouts from and adjust settings. There’s no third-party app support here, so if you’re thinking of connecting it to the likes of Apple Health or Google Fit, you’re out of luck.

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The app itself – much like Zepp Health’s Amazfit and Mobvoi’s TicWatch – doesn’t feel the most polished or slick, but it does make it easy to adjust watch settings and delve deeper into your data if you want.

Sports & Fitness Tracking

GPS and GLONASS
Built-in heart rate monitor
24/7 fitness tracking and sleep monitoring

Like the Mi Watch, the Lite is one that’s built to track your fitness and health – and has the key sensors on board to deliver that.

Pocket-lint

There’s built-in GPS and GLONASS satellite support to map outdoor activities. There’s accelerometer and gyroscope motion sensors for indoor tracking. And there’s 11 sports modes in total, including running (indoors and outdoor), cycling, trekking, swimming (pool and open water) and freestyle modes for those activities it doesn’t cover.

What you’re missing out from the Mi Watch are the Firstbeat-powered training features, stress tracking, the ability to take blood oxygen measurements, automatic exercise recognitio, and wider satellite support.

As a stripped-back sports and health monitoring watch, the Lite performs pretty well. GPS accuracy during our testing was reliable in comparison to a Garmin running watch. For indoor workouts, heart rate data was usually closely in-line with a chest strap monitor for HIIT and indoor rowing sessions – although we didn’t have to raise the intensity too high outside to see some odd spikes in heart rate.

If you’re less concerned about smashing out burpees and nailing 5K PBs, the Lite’s core fitness tracker features work well without really offering ways to make improvements or motivate you to move more.

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Step counts during our testing were within acceptable range of the Fitbit Sense, and it’ll capture distance covered and calories burned. It offered similar accuracy to the bigger Mi Watch for sleep monitoring, though doesn’t capture REM sleep stages or offer any kind of insight or advice to improve sleep.

If you choose to continuously monitor your heart rate, then based on our experience, resting and average heart rate data seemed high compared to the data captured on a chest strap and a heart rate monitoring pulse oximeter. While there’s no stress monitoring here, you do still get guided breathing exercises, though there’s nothing groundbreaking on that front in terms of how it’s delivered.

Smartwatch Features

Over 120 watch faces
View notifications
Music controls

For this low price you’re obviously not going to get an Apple Watch equivalent here, so you won’t be able to make payments, put music on it, or even download apps.

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What you can do is view notifications from a paired Android or iPhone, control music playing on your phone from native and third-party apps, check weather forecasts and set alarms.

Notifications can only be displayed and not acted on and some messages can look a little messy at times in the manner they’re displayed. Music playback controls work well and dedicated screens to show-off weather data work without issue, so there’s definitely some nice elements here.

You do get a nice array of watch faces too, with the ability to store multiple faces on the watch itself and download more from the watch store, which you can find in the companion app. There’s a good mix of analogue and digital faces and additional ones if you want to pack it with data or keep things simple.

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That’s really your lot though. Aside from some timer and alarm features, Xiaomi keeps it basic, which some will be satisfied with and others possibly not so much.

Battery Life

Up to 9 days in typical use
10 hours GPS battery life

The Mi Watch Lite comes packing a 230mAh capacity battery, which Xiaomi says will get you up to 9 days in typical use. That typical use is based on lab tests where heart rate monitoring was set to be the biggest interval option, 100 notifications were received by the watch, and it tracked one 35-minute outdoor exercise session a week.

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The likelihood is that most people are probably going to be working out more than once a week or wanting to monitor heart rate with more detail. Our testing time didn’t reflect Xiaomi’s lab testing conditions. We had continuous heart rate monitoring on at 5 minute intervals, had notifications turned on and tracked five outdoor and indoor workouts a week. It ended up lasting about 5 days in our testing time, which is short by 4 days of that claimed 9 days life per charge.

Those GPS battery life numbers seem to add up as well, offering the kind of drop off in 30 minute and 1 hour outdoor runs that suggest it could reach to those 10 hours when you want that hit of mapping data.

Best fitness trackers 2021: Top activity bands to buy today

By Britta O’Boyle
·
2 March 2021

Our guide to the top fitness trackers available, helping you count steps, track calories, monitor your heart rate, sleep patterns and more.

When it comes to charging, there’s a large cradle that clips around the back of the watch and you’ll have no concerns it’s going to budge or fall out when it’s charging. It’s pretty well locked in place.

Verdict

The Xiaomi Watch Lite is a cheap smartwatch that is surprisingly nice to live with once you accept the compromises you have to make with it.

You’re not going to get that same high-quality display or some of the richer health and fitness features and insights you’ll get on the Mi Watch, but what remains offers a familiar and good experience.

It’s a solid albeit basic fitness tracker, competent smartwatch, and doesn’t do too badly as a budget sportswatch all considered. Compared to smartwatches in and around it at this price, the Mi Watch Lite stands out for the right reasons.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Amazfit GTS 2

If you can stretch to spend more, the GTS 2 will get you a more impressive hardware and richer fitness tracking and smartwatch features.

Read our review

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Writing by Michael Sawh. Editing by Mike Lowe.

HTC downplays leaked Vive Air headset, says it’s just a concept

HTC has downplayed leaked images that appeared to show a new fitness-focused VR headset built by the firm. Pictures and details of the HTC Vive Air leaked online earlier this week on a design award website but HTC now says the headset is “only a concept.”

“It’s exciting to see our concept piece, the VIVE Air VR headset, win an iF Design Award,” the company said in a statement given to UploadVR. “While this is only a concept, the design language has elements and inspirations you’ll see elsewhere in our products. We’re not ones to rest on our laurels, so although it’s great to win this award, we have business to attend to — hopefully we’ll see you on 11/12 May at ViveCon.”

The HTC Vive Air claimed to be made from breathable knitted fabrics.

This statement doesn’t completely rule out that some similar product is in the works from HTC, but the company is definitely keeping things carefully ambiguous. It has been teasing a new headset reveal at ViveCon next month, but the images and hints we’ve seen so far suggest an enterprise-focused model rather than a fitness device for general consumers.

That’s a shame, as VR fitness is having something of a moment, and the idea of a specially-designed, lightweight and washable headset is an appealing idea. With HTC’s consumer business in the doldrums, though, it’s perhaps not a sensible target for the company right now. We’ll just have to wait and see what the firm has in store at ViveCon in May.

Fitness-focused HTC Vive Air VR headset revealed in new leaks

Images of an upcoming fitness-focused virtual reality headset from HTC, dubbed the Vive Air, have leaked online. Details about the product were published by the World Design Guide (which we spotted via Engadget) as part of its annual awards. It seems likely the product will be unveiled officially at HTC’s upcoming ViveCon 2021 on May 11th and 12th.

The Vive Air is “specially designed for virtual fitness” and “optimized for high intensity with long use,” says the copy on the World Design Guide’s website. The headset is built from fast-drying knitted fabrics inspired by sports shoes, which are supposed to be lightweight and breathable. A quick-release design allows these “ergonomic soft components” to be removed for washing. The site says the Vive Air will launch sometime in 2021.

It certainly seems like a well-positioned product as VR is becoming increasingly popular for fitness activities during global lockdown. Just this month, The Verge interviewed the creator of popular VR workout app Supernatural who claimed that “fitness is the killer use case for VR” and that workout software “will be the first driving force of mass adoption [of virtual reality] through a normal consumer audience.” Creating a comfortable, lightweight headset that doesn’t stink of sweat after a week or two seems like a no-brainer.

Can a sports-focused VR headset prove a hit for HTC, though? The company’s original Vive headset helped create the most recent iteration of the VR market when it launched in 2016, but the firm’s hardware has since been overtaken by competitors like Oculus. Narrowing down on a specific (and growing) use case could be a smart way forward for the company.

Samsung’s latest foldable phone perk is free dessert

Samsung is giving owners of its foldable phones some free dessert. Specifically, an order of “Chef Daniel Boulud’s signature Madeleines and Canelé,” designed by the chef exclusively for Samsung’s Galaxy Z Premier program, which offers Galazy Z Fold and Flip owners free perks in exchange for having bought the luxury-styled phones.

The new perk is being offered in partnership with the Michelin Guide through Boulud’s restaurant, Daniel (which itself has two Michelin stars). Samsung’s announcement claims that the dessert in question is valued at $75, which seems like a lot for French pastries, but if you already own a Galaxy foldable, the price tag isn’t something you’ll need to worry about, given that it’s free.

The company has been offering additional perks for foldable owners through its Galaxy Z Premier program since it relaunched the service alongside last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 2. And Samsung has since been adding bonus offers for the owners of its most expensive phones.

In addition to the free snacks (which will take three to four weeks for delivery), Samsung is offering a free year of FoundersCard membership, letting owners join a “community of over 50,000 entrepreneurs and business executives who receive unprecedented benefits and networking opportunities.”

The Galaxy Z Premier program already includes a free six-month trial of LinkedIn’s Premium Career service, a free round of golf through ClubLife, and six months of Obé Fitness. Samsung is also promising that it’ll have “new partners and benefits” to announce in the coming weeks.