Withings Pulse

Heart rate measurement ; Wireless sync via Bluetooth ; 14-day battery life

Not waterproof or water resistant ; Sleep tracking needs manual activation ; No word on AU release

The Withings Pulse is a small activity tracker with an OLED screen, and offers the ability to measure your heart rate.

Small and unobtrusive ; Excellent battery life

Heart rate tracking will be a gimmick for most ; Rubberized coating chips easily ; Companion app offers little in the way of motivation

As you may have gathered, we generally like the Pulse, but it has some problems that could ultimately hamper its success. First, unless you're deeply worried or you're under medical guidance, it's probably not healthy to constantly monitor your heart...

Compact design ; Easy to use ; Great battery life ; Useful heart rate monitor

No syncing via USB ; Screen brightness is poor

The desktop application offers the same information but offers more detailed data for sleep and activity tracking. Here you can see sleep and activity broken down precisely by the half hour. You can quickly establish how many calories you’ve burnt in...

Premium build ; Simple, stylish look ; Great battery life

Limited sports functionality ; Glitchy battery meter ; Connected GPS, not standalone

An excellent looking fitness tracker that costs a fair whack and lacks standalone GPS. Despite limited functionality, it offers accurate sleep tracking and sports a sleek, premium design. The fact its 20 day battery could require as few as 20 charges a...

Collects a ton of information ; Automatically tracks runs ; Helpful reminders ; App connects to third-party services

Touchscreen is sluggish ; Heart rate reader is finicky ; No low-battery warning ; Requires a lot of work

Excellent on-device display. Supremely accurate step counts. Pulse monitoring scans next level fitness indication. Excellent tool for weight loss when combined with Withings’ scale

Attachable, not wearable. I’d tell you how many steps I took today, but I left it in my other pair of pants. Less sensitive in the night than a late show comedy

Slick design. Useful display. Records steps, distance, feet climbed, heart rate, and more. Tracks sleep patterns. Can display last 14 days' worth of information.

Clunky clip. Finicky automatic syncing. No silent alarm.

(Next page: Activty Tracker Meets Heart Rate Monitor)

It weighs 8g, small size, plenty of information (when it works), smartphone Bluetooth sync and app support, online data analytics, keep an eye on your walking progress, full Withings ecosystem available

So small and light it's easy to misplace, pulse element ceased to work on occasion, won't accurately measure cycling as steps, battery life should be better, not waterproof, inaccurate measures, not a full-time heart rate monitor

For all its good Pulse hasn't totally connected with us. But then it might with you. It's all about where you're at.