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The best fitness trackers keep in-depth tabs on your movement and motivate you to get into better shape, and they're tremendously useful as a result, but the thing about wearables is that you have to actually wear them. And on a base level, the chunky rubber and bright LEDs that make up many trackers aren't exactly good-looking. Wearing one outside of your workout is usually good for a few puzzled glances.
The Withings Activite Pop gives you a way around that dilemma. It's a useful fitness tracker in its own right, but it puts that functionality in the body of a stylish, comfortable watch. Its soft silicone band comes in a few colors, and its rounded dome is made of sturdy steel and glass. It's a reliable timepiece first and foremost, and while we wouldn't call it a head-turner, it manages to have a personality without looking overly ostentatious.
The Pop's value comes with everything it's doing underneath its watch face. It isn't as robust at tracking as a Fitbit Charge HR, but it counts basic steps, distance, and calories burned with solid accuracy. It's water-resistant enough to be wearable in the pool, too, and a recent update allowed it to track swimming. It also measures basic sleep metrics. It tracks and syncs all of this automatically, so all you have to do is go about your day and check Withings' corresponding app (for iOS or Android) to see your progress. Beyond that, its battery is rated at an excellent 8 months of juice, and it comes with a handy silent alarm for waking you up without disturbing those around you.
Now, because the Pop is a watch, it can't truly display your stats as you're working out. It has a little onscreen dial that shows how close you are to meeting a certain step goal, but you really have to rely on the app to see full results. That app is fine enough, but the Pop requires you to sync with it almost every day if you don't want to risk losing data. That can get annoying for some people.
But again, the Pop isn't so much a fitness tracker as it is a watch with fitness-tracking ability. Think of it like a Timex for the health-conscious. (Withings also sells a higher-end Activite that follows the same tenets, but at $450, it's a harder sell.) Look at it in that light and it becomes a practical choice for those who want to balance healthier living with a sense of style.
Withings Activite Pop (Azure), $99.99, available at Amazon.
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