With at-home workouts being a bigger deal than ever before, Peloton has gone from strength to strength in recent years, expanding beyond its core spin bike offering to incorporate running and strength training equipment into its subscription model.
The company has now released the Peloton Heart Rate Band - an arm-worn heart-rate sensor, complete with five LED lights to visually inform you of current heart-rate zone - which is set to replace the existing Peloton Heart Rate Monitor chest strap.
Wait, what, why replace the chest strap? Well, a lot of people don't like wearing chest bands due to comfort. However, the accuracy of chest straps, which use electrical impulses to measure, is far greater than optical-based sensors that are slow to adapt to changing rates and often inconsistent.
The new Peloton Heart Rate Band falls into this optical sensor bracket. It also lacks ANT+ technology, so beyond Bluetooth you won't be able to pair it with additional products - presumably to lock the sensor in as part of the Peleton package rather than incorporate use with wider systems.
That seems like a strange move to us, though, as current ANT+ sensors - such as the excellent Polar Verity Sense - can already pair with Peloton Bike+ and Peloton Tread. Presumably it's Peloton's way to promote its Strength platform - but given the Peloton Heart Rate Band's $90 overhead (it's not available outside the USA at the time of writing) that's a tall ask.
The heart-rate zone LED lighting feature is a nice idea, though, however accurate that may or may not be from an optical sensor.
No comments:
Post a Comment