Alcatel One Touch have revealed a brand new range at the Mobile World Congress today – the world’s first wearable smartphone.
The Pop Fit is a minuscule Android 4.2 smartphone designed to be worn on your wrist. The hook, Alcatel believe, is that is an entirely standalone wearable. Whilst other, similar devices require a connection to a larger device the Pop Fit is a complete phone, in and of itself.
The device is aimed at those with an active lifestyle, such as runners and athletes, and will come with a number of music and tracking applications and capabilities ready-loaded to it. For example the RunKeeper Android app, which uses a mix of 3G connectivity and GPS to track your workouts as well as share with others via social media.
The Pop Fit has a 2.8 inch screen and weighs a mere 78 grams (almost half the weight of an iPhone 5s). It provides the ability to stream music and radio via 3G, with space to store music and podcasts.
It comes in two variants, one with 16GB of storage and one with 32GB, priced at around £75 and £105 respectively.
What do you think? The price point is certainly attractive, and the specs aren’t terrible – particularly the surprisingly large storage capacity given the size of the device. The only problem is that Alcatel may well have tapped into a niche that doesn’t exist.
There are literally hundreds of different accessories designed to make your smartphone portable and comfortable whilst you’re out ‘leading your active lifestyle’, whatever that particular buzz-phrase means. Are you so incredibly active that making your primary smartphone the size of a particularly gaudy watch is a viable choice for you? Or maybe you’d consider buying it as a second smartphone, for when you’re out running or playing racquetball or BASE jumping.
Whilst the device is functional enough, it just doesn’t quite seem like there’s enough of a reason for a dedicated runner to consider it over a £9.99 wearable case for their top-end smartphone.
