Toshiba launches a colorful fitness band in Japan

By Malarie Gokey August 11, 2014

toshiba fitness wearable japan — Image used with permission by copyright holder

It seems that nearly every manufacturer is making wearables these days and now Toshiba has joined the fold. Toshiba has introduced a fitness band called the WERAM1100 for Japan. The wearable tracks the user’s health and fitness metrics, which can then be viewed in a companion smartphone app.

Like most fitness trackers, Toshiba’s counts your steps, tracks your workouts, monitors your sleep patterns, and estimates how many calories you’ve burned. It then sends all the data via Bluetooth to an app on your smartphone. The app displays your data in graph form, so you can more easily see your progress. It also features a log where users can upload photos, set alarms, input their schedule, note how many calories they’ve consumed, and so on.

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Toshiba says that the fitness band will vibrate when your alarm goes off, but it can also alert you when you’ve reached one of your fitness goals, including pace, distance traveled, and so on. The band is IPX5/IPX7 certified, so it should be able to withstand getting wet or covered in dust while you’re on a run through the woods.

Perhaps the best thing about Toshiba’s fitness band is that it can last up to two weeks on a single charge. The band doesn’t have a display, so it won’t suck energy and Toshiba says the band has an efficient processor onboard, to help maximize the battery life of the wearable. It charges via USB.

The WERAM1100 comes in several colors, including black, light gray, pink, and blue-green. It’s currently available for pre-order on Amazon and Yahoo Shopping in Japan for 13,500 Japanese yen, which amounts to about $132. Toshiba says the fitness band will ship on August 20. It’s unclear whether Toshiba will sell the device in other countries.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…

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Although smartwatches have made health insights more accessible than ever and motivated many to adopt fitter lifestyles, their rise has come at a cost. It has sparked a wave of anxiety among users who have become pathologically fixated and prone to over-diagnosing every alert from their wearables.
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Dr. Lindsey Rosman, a clinical health psychologist and an assistant professor of cardiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says her clinic has observed a growing number of patients with concerns about the information they receive from their smartwatches.

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