At its event today where it unveiled the new Lumia 950 and Lumia 950XL as well as the Surface Pro 4 tablet Microsoft also unveiled an updated version of its activity tracker. Like the last one the new activity tracker is also called Microsoft Band, however there’s a fundamental difference, the new Microsoft Band has received design updates and it honestly looks much better than its predecessor.
Microsoft has made several changes to the design and now the new Band looks much better than its predecessor, it features a curved touch-sensitive OLED display with Gorilla Glass 3. The Band even gets Cortana integration and comes with a barometer for measuring elevation when stair-climbing or hiking.
Previous features like sleep, heart rate and calorie tracking are all onboard alongside smart notifications, guided workouts and GPS. Like its predecessor it has cross-platform support so the Band can be used with an iOS, Android or a Windows Phone device.
The company says its activity tracker is meant for people who just want to keep an eye on their fitness as much as its meant for professional athletes who rely upon precise information for their training routines. That’s why it has diverse features like automatic shot detection for the golfers and VO2 max recording for serious athletes.
It even gets support for apps like Twitter, Uber, Starbucks, RunKeeper and others, so it’s definitely more powerful than your average activity tracker. The new Microsoft Band costs $249, that’s $50 more than the original one, and is available for pre-order starting today.
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