Nokia’s Launching A Wearable!

With their new smartwatch, and more, is Nokia back from the dead?

Nokia is ready to launch its new smartwatch.

Yes, you heard it right. Not only is Nokia not dead yet, it’s actually working really hard to enter some new playgrounds.

Ever since the sale of its mobile phones business to Microsoft for $7.7 billion, the company has been focusing on its telecommunications infrastructure business, and now we know — on quietly diversifying further.

Known as the Withings Steel HR, the smartwatch is the company’s first new smartwatch since it bought Withings in April 2016.

It is a continuation of Withings’ Steel series smartwatches, known for their ultra-minimalistic look.

This is also the first watch in the Steel series that comes with a heart rate monitor and a bunch of other features that are attributed exclusively to Nokia’s proprietary technology.

The Withings Steel HR looks quite like an everyday analog watch, with a stylish sleek design, stainless steel casing, chrome hands, and sport-friendly silicone straps. It even features a head dial like a regular watch, and a sub-dial that features a dynamic digital screen that is used to display health data and smartphone notifications.

This display can show you health-related data like like calories burned, daily steps, distance, sleep duration, and regular notifications like text messages, e-mails, calls, or events.

The headline feature of the watch is the heart rate tracking mechanism, which works through a technology called Photoplethysmography (PPG).
The PPG tech allows the watch to monitor your heart rate using green LED lights that detect variations in the levels of blood in your wrist. You have the option to start the monitoring manually, or the watch will automatically initiate the measurement when you start physical activity of any kind. In addition, the watch will also monitor your pulse when you are asleep, to help you track your sleep-health better.

While the standard watch batteries have been used to power previous Withings watches, they needed to be replaced after several months of use. This time around Nokia’s playing it very smart — you have rechargeable batteries, that Nokia claims have a 25-day battery life! Not only that, they’ve even included a power-saver mode that automatically shuts down under-utilised functionalities of the watch a few days before the battery is about to exhaust it’s charge. Smart!

So how does it figure on the fitness-tracker front? Connect the smartwatch with the Withings Health Mate app on your smartphone, and that there’s your solution to your tracking and monitoring woes.
The app will give you heart rate summaries, daily timelines, personalized advice, and advanced food logging, enabling you to live a healthier lifestyle. It also allows you to share data over social media in addition to over 150 other health and fitness applications.

‘Whether you’re an athlete or simply trying to lose a few pounds and get a better handle on your health, knowing your heart rate can help you better understand your overall health and reach your fitness goals. With the wealth of insights it provides and the extended battery life for a health watch of its type, Steel HR truly is the first of its kind’, said Cédric Hutchings, CEO at Withings (now, VP Digital Health at Nokia), at the product’s launch.

The watch shouldn’t come as a surprise since Nokia is a 151-year-old company and while it’s current masthead asset is it’s vast network of telecommunication infrastructures, but a history steeped in technology development and licensing, the smartwatch is an excellent road to start on, this early in it’s product lifecycle.

You really should check out our article about Nokia’s history so far. It makes for very interesting reading! You’ll be surprised many times over.

More than 90 mobile network providers across the globe are using Nokia’s mobile data networking technology. Recently Nokia announced that they are bringing 4.5G Pro, a mobile data network that would bring a speed ten times better than that of 4G. Bringing us a step closer to 5G, the company hasn’t yet announced a date for this roll out, but it can be expected in a few months. The company might also be returning to the mobile phone market in partnership with HMD Global, later this year, or early next year.

The launch of this smartwatch might function to make the Nokia name into a household entity again.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.