GADGET GIZMO REVIEW............... Fitbit Surge

GADGET GIZMO  REVIEW

Fitbit Surge

Fitbit holds a large market share when it comes to fitness wearable devices. Now, the company has officially marked its entry into India and that too with their entire portfolio of fitness bands, trackers and a weighing scale. The Fitbit Surge is the company's flagship offering for India.

At first glance, the Surge closely resembles a smartwatch: a large, square display with a wide wrist band and buttons on the side. The silicon band has a textured finish on top while the part that stays in contact with skin is smooth. In our usage, the fitness band was comfortable to wear throughout the day and did not cause any irritation even after using it non-stop for five days.However, the large size of the band proved uncomfortable for sleeping.

It has a monochrome touchscreen LCD with backlight. While this may sound lacking compared to other smartwatches with high-resolution colour displays, we found the screen to be good enough for the functionality offered by Surge. The buttons on the side let you quickly navigate and select various functions in conjunction with the touchscreen.

Not only can you track you steps and sleep, the watch has pre-programmed modes for tracking other forms of exercise also. You have modes for running, cycling, cross training as well as cardio -using the 8 built-in sensors, it provides accurate readings of your workout. There is a built-in heart rate monitor that can be set to continuously track your heartbeat and that too without wearing any chest strap -great for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. The display also shows notification for incoming calls when connected to a phone but you cannot perform any action (like accept or reject calls) from the watch itself.Battery life was an impressive 6 days.

The watch syncs with the Fitbit app that shows you data in an easy-to-understand format (bars & charts). You can log in food, compete with friends and earn badges for your workouts. You also get a weekly email report of your progress.

The Fitbit Surge is one of the most impressive fitness trackers available today . However, it is more suited for professional athletes and fitness fanatics who want this kind of accurate functionality on a daily basis.

karan.bajaj

ET8JUL15