When you can’t wear something on your wrist
By Lawrence I. Charters
March 25, 2017
Activity trackers come from a great number of vendors, but the ones that attach to something other than your wrist are almost extinct. I can’t wear something around my wrist, and was attracted to the Withings Pulse because it comes with a clip that allows it to be carried on a belt or a pocket or another item of clothing.
In addition to measuring steps and distance, the Pulse Ox can measure your oxidation (hence the “Ox” in the name) through a bright light and receptor on the back, and can measure your sleep when attached to your arm during the night (or whenever you sleep).
Withings claims that, unlike previous Pulse trackers, the Pulse Ox can report readings in real time on your iOS device, but that isn’t the case; you must force a sync via a button located on the device. The Pulse Ox also has a slight tendency to underreport steps, at least in my case. On the other hand, it does do an excellent job of reporting not only on the length of your sleep, but the quality.
Update
Since my Pulse Ox was purchased, Withings (a French company) was purchased by Nokia (a Swedish company), which ignored it for a while before pushing out some software updates, and then announced it would rebrand all the products under the Nokia label. Then, in May 2018, Nokia announced that it was selling its entire health tech business back to Withings co-founder Eric Carreel.
In the meantime, Nokia dropped the sale of the Pulse Ox; all remaining activity monitors are attached to your wrist.