If you’re game with gaming your data and opening up great swathes of everyday activity to chronicling, analysis and exploration, then you’ll be all in with the new breed of smart wearables and fitness trackers.
We’ve rounded up ten wearable tech devices that purport to dig a little deeper into the world of personal statistics and help you shape your best self, from smart glasses to biowearables.
Wearable tech to shape your best self
1. Fitness on your wrist: Honor Band 9
First up, a conventional piece of everyday tech. Honor has been furnishing runners and walkers with fitness bands for years, and its latest offering, the Band 9, demonstrates impressive evolution. The 1.57in AMOLED display is always on, but up to two-weeks of battery life is promised, and there are interchangeable straps in a choice of three colours. The Chinese company claims up to 96 different workout modes and can apparently run a body-age assessment based on users’ ‘maximal oxygen uptake’. Distance, sleep, stress, heart rate and menstrual cycles can all be tracked in detail.
Honor Band 9, £49.99, HiHonor.com, @UKHonor
2. Looking sharp: Brilliant Labs Frame
Brilliant Labs describes the Frame as ‘Multimodal AI glasses’. Still unreleased, the $349 round-rimmed glasses pack a pair of transparent OLED displays, a battery, microphone and speakers and connect to your mobile device and an app called Noa to provide an AI-powered visual overlay of the world around you.
The start-up behind Frame says the underlying software will be completely open-source, and there’s also the possibility of putting in prescription lenses. It’s not quite Apple Vision Pro, let alone Mission Impossible, nor is it the only pair of augmented reality specs on the market, but interested parties should take a look.
Frame by Brilliant Labs, $349, Brilliant.xyz, @BrilliantLabsAR
3. Discreet charm: the Oura Ring
If a smartwatch or fitness band is too bulky, then consider diving into the most recent wave of wearable devices, a smart ring. Ourais now up to Generation 3 of its pioneering models, cramming enough sensors to track sleep, heart health, stress, activities and even early illness detection, based on sudden shifts in skin temperature and heart rate.
The downside is you’ll need a monthly subscription to get access to Oura’s datasets, analysis and recommendations, but there’s also the ability to sync with everything from Apple Health, Google Fit, Peloton, Strava and more. Samsung is also nearing completion of its first Galaxy Ring, an ultra-light device that should have silver and gold colour options and be capable of syncing with your phone to deliver health data 24/7.
Oura Heritage Ring, £299, Horizon Ring, £349, OuraRing.com, @OuraRing
4. Cut through: Vasco E1 Translator
Sometimes, tech companies seem to make products because they can, not because they should, and deal with the consequences later. In the case of Vasco’s E1 translating earbuds, we can’t see any immediate downsides to the imminent end of confusion, crossed wires and general misunderstandings. This is the kind of tech that’ll probably be embedded everywhere within the decade, but you can get a march on the rest of us by signing up to try out the E1.
The pack of twin earpieces come in a charging case and you’ll need to hand one over to your conversation mate to get started (alternatively, they can talk into the app on their phone). Vasco reckons the device can do realtime conversational translation of up to 49 languages.
Vasco Translator E1, available soon, Vasco-Translator.com
5. Deep dives: Form Smart Swim Goggles
Form’s Smart Swim Goggles are a new way of tracking performance and stats whilst in the pool. The company, founded by Dan Eisenhardt in 2019, pitches its wares at professional swimmers and triathletes, with an integrated augmented reality display on the inside of the goggle lenses. This displays real-time performance information that might otherwise be hard to track in the middle of a training session. The goggles are capable of automatic stroke detection, enabling a detailed post-swim analysis in the app. Subscription services include training and coaching plans, and you can pair the goggles with other workout apps, as well as Apple and Garmin watches.
Form Smart Swim Goggles, $199, FormSwim.com, @FormSwim
6. Health Forecasts: Ultrahuman
Investors and consumers alike are a little wary of product suites that offer complete monitoring solutions – the ghost of Theranos lingers in the memory. Mindful of this wayward, path, new start-up Ultrahuman is putting its trust in a product suite, rather than a single device, for tracking all sorts of health metrics. The aim is to ‘create a grand unified view of the human body’. Products include the Ring AIR smart ring and the M1 Live glucose monitor, which adheres to the body and provides real-time monitoring to the Ultrahuman app. There’s also an upcoming Home device, an environmental monitoring system that combines a smoke detection system with stats on air quality, sound levels, temperature, light and humidity.
Ultrahuman Ring AIR, from $349, Ultrahuman.com, @UltrahumanHQ
7. Breathe out: FoodMarble
Your breath is one of the final frontiers of non-intrusive health-data-gathering. FoodMarble offers a pocketable sensor system, the AIRE, that can analyse the methane and hydrogen levels on your breath to track the efficiency of your digestive system (by indicating the levels of fermentation in your gut – see our guide to gut health).
Enter details of the food you’ve eaten into the FoodMarble app, and you’ll get a tailored set of stats that shows how you react to different foods. Think of it as a personalised electronic dietician, capable of detecting various intolerances (including lactose but not gluten), and therefore making everyday life more comfortable.
FoodMarble AIRE, £149, AIRE 2, £189, FoodMarble, @FoodMarble
8. Framing the conversation: Xeon 5 by Solos
You’re either all-in on this stuff or you treat it with trepidation. Advocates and enthusiasts of all things AI will love the new Xeon 5 smart glasses from Solos. Working in harmony with the AirGo mobile app, the frames not only track and monitor posture and fitness goals, but also incorporate push-button access to ChatGPT for AI-powered translation and summaries. Although there’s no display element, the Xeon 5s can even whisper sweet nothings (ie, your calendar appointments) directly into your ears.
Xeon 5 Smart Glasses by Solos, £160, Sologlasses.com
9. Travels in hyperreality: XREAL Air 2 Ultra
XREAL’s upcoming Air 2 Ultra smart glasses represent the middle ground between Apple Vision Pro and lightweight, screen-free devices like the Xeon 5s. Weighing in at 80g (versus around 600g for the Vision Pro), the Air 2 Ultras are billed as the lightest augmented reality solution out there. The downside is that the glasses have to work hand in hand with your phone (or laptop) in order to ‘project’ a massive display into your environment. Sensors track depth, surfaces, images and even your hands to immerse you into the experience, and XREAL is currently encouraging developers to come on board and work for the platform.
XREAL Air 2 Ultra, £699.00, UK.shop.XREAL.com, @XREAL_global
10. Biowear for beginners: Lingo
Finally, Lingo has launched its first consumer biowearable system, a circular puck-like glucose tracking system that you stick on to sift through a solid fortnight of data about how you process this essential sugar. The upsides will be better sleep and healthier habits, as Lingo’s app identifies spikes in glucose levels and suggests challenges to get your readings down to a steady state. A single sensor lasts for 14 days.
Lingo Discovery Pack, £89, HelloLingo.com, @HelloLingo
