After showing off its waterproof Smartband at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Sony promised a March release date that had yet to be fulfilled. Wednesday, Sony announced the Smartband WR10 is officially on sale in UK stores for 80 Euros, and the U.S. for 100 dollars on Sony’s official website. This gadget isn’t the typical smartwatch or fitness tracker you seem to always be hearing about, packed with every type of activity tracker you could think of. Rather, Sony calls the product a “life tracker” or a “life logging” gadget. Its purpose is to track your movements and online communication throughout your entire day, with the additional use of controlling apps located on your smart device.

For $100, users get Sony’s waterproof wearable in two adjustable sized black wristbands, small and large. Inside of the band is a small tracker that contains all the electronics. It runs on Bluetooth LE 4.0, contains 256 KB of internal memory, runs for five days on a 30-minute charge, and is compatible with devices running Android 4.4. Via the Lifelog Android app, you may use the Smartband as a fitness tracker, communication and photo (social) tracker, as well as a smartphone notification and media control device. From the fitness-tracking standpoint, it can follow anything from your sleep quality, the amount of calories you have burned, or the steps you have taken. Socially, it provides smartphone notifications, such as texts, tweets, and calls. Finally, it acts as a remote control for your smartphone. The function button, along with a number of extensions you can download, allow you to interact with your music media player.



The “logging” part comes in when the Smartband automatically syncs and transfers your data back to Sony’s Lifelog app on your smart device. The data will transfer once a day if within Bluetooth range. Meant to be a passive tracker of your daily activities, this is perfect for those who don’t want to put too much thought into obsessing over all their activities, but aims to keep a consistent log for comparing one day to another.



Sony’s Smartband doesn’t possess all the alluring features many of its rivals do, like the Pebble Smartwatch for example, which has apps for absolutely everything. Regardless, Sony’s version has just the right amount of both social and physical tracking functionality in a sleek activity tracker for your wrist. If a general consensus on what you did on what day is good for you, then this gadget is yours. However, if you desire a more thorough record of who you spoke with for 2 hours, or what sport you did to burn 350 calories, you might want to look elsewhere. Another issue to take in hand is the fact that Sony’s Smartband does not come with a companion app for other devices to connect to. The only data you are able to gather is on your smartphone; consolidating information from other devices is not possible.