Sony Unveils Its Latest Wearable Band

Sony SmartBand 2 is now official, arriving as a powerful new fitness tracker with neat features and functionality.

As expected from such a gadget, the new fitness tracker from Sony monitors the user’s heart rate and sleep, keeps track of the wearer’s workouts, and even provides notifications on incoming calls, messages or emails.

The Sony SmartBand 2 comes with a silicon band and a minimalistic design overall, sporting a clean and elegant look as well as a comfortable form factor. Serving as an “activity tracker with intelligent heart rate monitor,” as Sony calls it, the SmartBand 2 allows users to keep track of all their movements, not only their intensive workouts.

“Keep track of it all. Your heart rate, movements, sleep, even your moments of calm and excitement. Then Smartband 2 will measure your pulse and stress level, so you can decide if today is a day to take it easy or go for it,” Sony touts in is product description.

In addition to its built-in heart rate sensor, the Sony SmartBand 2 also boasts some functionality similar to that of a smartwatch. The fitness tracker allows wearers to get notifications straight on their wrist, as the band will vibrate and light up LEDs to notify the wearer of an incoming call, email or text message.

Sony launched a companion app for Android already, offering some additional functionality for SmartBand 2 users. For instance, users can pause their music or switch to the previous or the next track simply by tapping once or twice on the fitness tracker.

At the same time, the Sony SmartBand 2 also features a neat night mode that disables notifications to minimize distractions, and it even allows users to set up an alarm.

Another neat feature allows SmartBand 2 users to monitor their stress level, as well as their level of excitement. To achieve this, the gadget relies on information it collects from the accelerometer and the heart rate sensor, pulling the info together to monitor the wearer’s heart rate depending on activity.

The Lifelog app, meanwhile, allows SmartBand 2 users to check their data from the past week, month, year or older, as it logs everything.

On the downside, however, the Sony SmartBand 2 fitness tracker comes with a rather short battery life, lasting for only two days on a single charge. The gadget will make its commercial debut in September 2015, launching at a $130 price point. The SmartBand 2 is compatible with both iOS and Android.