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While the Apple Watch might dominate coverage of smartwatches, it turns out that there's a world of watches that do a better job of combining elegance and smart functionality. Like the terrific Withings Activité Steel, a slim dress watch that includes an activity/motion monitor and subtle personal motion goal progress indicator right on the dial face. It's like a stealth smartwatch. And that's pretty smart.
Review by Dave Taylor of http://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/
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0:04
hey dave taylor here again and this time
0:07
i want to talk about watches yeah i know
0:09
not the most exciting sexy thing but of
0:12
course we have the Apple watch now
0:15
if you've been paying attention I've had
0:17
an Apple watch since the beginning and
0:19
been wearing it for a really long time
0:21
and I really like my Apple watch but
0:23
when whiffing sent me their new activity
0:26
steel I put it on my wrist and I said
0:28
you know what this is a dress watch no
0:31
one will know that it's a smart watch
0:33
let me give you a close-up so you can
0:34
see what I'm talking about
0:36
so you can see it just looks like a
0:38
dress watch but here's the secret that
0:41
inner dial actually shows you your
0:43
progress on your steps so it's actually
0:46
an activity meter - just like all the
0:49
fancy more expensive devices it actually
0:51
can help you keep track of how active
0:53
you are and I just set my little step
0:56
goal and every day it shows me on the
0:58
dial how far I've made it and when you
1:00
make it all the way little thing pops up
1:02
on this smart phone because it actually
1:05
has super low-power Bluetooth and it
1:07
pairs with Withings health mate app and
1:10
so here's an example screen from health
1:12
mate and just magically somehow the
1:15
watch and the phone keep talking and
1:17
here's what's really cool is you can
1:19
actually go away for a week or two weeks
1:21
and just have your watch on and leave
1:23
your phone at home right the whole
1:25
digital detox all that sort of stuff
1:27
when you come back your phone will see
1:30
your watch and they will actually
1:32
exchange data and you'll actually get
1:34
all the data from those two weeks now
1:36
you're thinking oh my god two weeks
1:38
without charging my phone no sorry two
1:41
weeks without charging my watch it'd be
1:43
hard in either case but a few of one of
1:45
these guys you know this is a daily
1:47
charge this is a device that you really
1:49
have to charge pretty much every 24
1:51
hours or less or it's just going to be a
1:54
big blank screen and it's not going to
1:56
accomplish anything so this just uses a
1:58
regular watch battery and hold on don't
2:01
freak out it lasts 8 to 10 months on a
2:04
single battery so when that time is up
2:08
then the app will notify you that your
2:09
charge is getting low and you just go to
2:11
the Joule
2:12
get a new one for like I don't know five
2:14
ten bucks they're really pretty cheap
2:15
these batteries and you're good for
2:17
another eight to ten months so this is
2:19
kind of a very different experience that
2:21
you can just put this on and never think
2:23
about it again and it just works and
2:25
when you need the time you've got the
2:27
time and there's other little things
2:29
going on which is really cool so it's
2:31
definitely not a Smart Watch in the
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spirit of the Apple watch it definitely
2:36
doesn't do what the Apple watch does but
2:38
if you're just looking for a dress watch
2:40
and it does come with the white face or
2:42
black face and there's nine different
2:45
types of bands and it's just a standard
2:47
watch band so you could actually just go
2:49
to your favorite jeweler or Target or
2:51
wherever else you can find a watch band
2:53
and you can pick up a little gray
2:55
leather one or whatever else you'd like
2:57
to have so really flexible the Withings
3:00
activities steel and now you're saying
3:03
okay that's all well and good how much
3:05
it turns out it's actually not that
3:07
crazy expensive I mean it's definitely
3:09
more than just a little dress watch so
3:12
it runs about a hundred and forty nine
3:13
dollars at Amazon but you can also learn
3:16
more at Withings comm but I'm not done
3:19
yet so hold on
3:20
so I just want to say actually before I
3:22
go any further go ahead and click the
3:24
subscribe button I know you want to and
3:27
I want you to be a subscriber so you can
3:29
see more of my reviews so cool thank you
3:31
for doing that
3:32
so the activity steel also manages and
3:36
tracks your sleep patterns which is
3:38
super cool and as you saw in that
3:39
earlier image I don't really exactly
3:42
sleep the full recommended amount yeah
3:44
so it goes the only thing that I've said
3:47
we'll have to say about this from having
3:50
dug around online is that there are some
3:53
people that question its accuracy is a
3:55
pedometer and that they say that maybe
3:57
it's not a hundred percent accurate but
3:59
honestly I don't think this is a hundred
4:02
percent accurate and I don't think
4:03
anything that's on your wrist is going
4:05
to be as accurate as something that say
4:07
you put on your leg or your foot or your
4:09
hip that could actually be right there
4:12
where that motion is happening a sort of
4:14
classic example is that you are going
4:16
for a walk but you're carrying something
4:18
so now your arms aren't moving back and
4:20
forth as you're walking and so the
4:22
motion is very different now whiffing
4:24
says they've got that
4:25
Aled and it can automatically figure out
4:27
if you're swimming and all sorts of
4:29
stuff for activity but if you're looking
4:31
for a really precise tracking system
4:34
because you're heading to the Olympics
4:36
or something then this might not be your
4:38
watch but if you're looking for a really
4:40
smart looking watch that has some secret
4:43
superpowers and can help you attain all
4:46
of your goals in terms of your athlete
4:48
Ternes of your activity and stuff then I
4:51
definitely check out the Withings
4:53
activity steel so this is Dave Taylor
4:56
and I think it's time they did their
4:59
it's time for me to say catch in my next
5:01
video