Withings Pulse

The walking portion of my daily commute got a lot shorter when I started at The Verge. The subway used to drop me one avenue and three city blocks from my previous office, and the walk added about 4,000 steps to my daily average without any extra effort on my part. Now the subway lets off across the street from the building, drastically reducing both my commute time and my average daily step count. I noticed, too; I just felt worse.

So I turned to the Withings Pulse to help me get things back on track. The Pulse certainly has all the tracking features I might need — everything from steps to sleep to heart rate is collected by this thumb-sized device. It joins a family of health-tracking products from Withings, which already include a scale and blood pressure monitor. All three products are pulled together in the Withings Health Mate app, which aims to put the focus on overall health rather than just tracking the statistics logged by the devices. I knew that my step count had decreased since starting the new job, but there had to be other areas that needed improvement as well.

Of course, every fitness tracker promises to make you a fitter, healthier, happier, and better person. The $99.95 Withings Pulse certainly collects the most information, but how does it hold up next to established players like Nike, Samsung, Jawbone, and Fitbit? I clipped it to my belt and started walking — it was time to get back in gear.