Although smartwatches and fitness bands have become very popular in the past two years, there is still a lack of competitive products on the market. Today's smartwatches can sync notifications on your phone, check the weather, and track health, but they seem to be not specialized enough.

PulseOne is a wearable device that focuses on heart rate tracking, and can also provide some fitness tracking and time viewing functions. It mainly benefits from a built-in accurate optical heart rate sensor, and at the same time, with a dedicated app, it can achieve a relatively accurate heart rate monitoring function in the entire wearable device field.

It must be pointed out that this product is still in the testing phase. The retail version that will be launched in the future will have a better screen, the metal surface will be polished, the strap material will be upgraded, and the overall quality and feel will be greatly improved. In addition, the battery life will be extended, the software will be more stable, and additional functions will be added. The screen will also display the exercise distance and speed data.

From the current point of view, there are still many areas that need to be improved on the whole. The screen is not clear in direct sunlight, the strap is made of cheap plastic, the device function is not smooth, the software is weird, and the promised functions are not complete. The power consumption is considerable, and it will run out of power quickly even when it is turned off.

In addition to the above areas that need improvement, there are two features on PulseOn that are very attractive. First, PulseOn has an optical heart rate monitoring sensor that is said to be "the most accurate on the market", and second, the accompanying app can interpret the collected heart rate and tell the user what the immediate heart rate represents.

The dial part of the product is actually very streamlined and small in size (the company claims that PulseOn is the smallest of its kind on the market), with a sleek shell covering the flat screen. The chain on the strap can securely fix the wristband on the wrist. There are only two buttons on the side, one for starting exercise recording and the other for recording time, heart rate and other information. The button targets are relatively small and not very convenient to press, and the symbols on them are also difficult for people who are new to it to understand. However, once you are familiar with the operation, it is still simple and easy to use.

PulseOn uses a large clip to charge, and there are corresponding contacts on the inside of the clip and the bottom of the dial. Although it saves another USB port, it is still slightly more difficult to charge. If it were a magnetic contact pad, or a wireless charging pad, it would probably be much better.

PulseOn's optical sensor is indeed the core of the whole product. PulseOn says that the sensor uses multiple bands to dynamically read the blood flow in different layers of blood vessels under the skin. The accuracy of heart rate readings no longer needs to be constrained by the constraints of a chest strap. We measured our pulse manually for 60 seconds while recording it with PulseOn. After repeated tests, it was confirmed that PulseOn is indeed stable and reliable.

PulseOn pairs with smartphones via Bluetooth, which does not prevent the phone from pairing with other devices at the same time. When you open the PulseOn mobile app, an icon in the upper right corner of the interface will confirm whether the phone has been successfully paired with the PulseOn device. PulseOn automatically syncs data to the app, so you don't have to worry about manually transferring data yourself.

After syncing at least one set of data, you can check how PulseOn interprets your heart rate on the app. The information provided by the app is very comprehensive. It will give an overall health score, recommended rest time, and the exercise duration, heart rate, intensity, and calories burned in the previous set of data. The company is determined to add exercise distance data. If you enter the landscape mode, the data will become a chart mode, and the exercise history can be presented in a single or weekly, monthly, and annual manner.

However, the "Interpretation of Heart Rate" function seems to be more gimmicky. How the score is calculated and what it represents specifically is still unclear. The score is often accompanied by explanatory text such as "Health level has improved" and "Health level remains the same", but there is actually no useful information. Whether the heart rate obtained is the average heart rate or the highest data is not clearly stated. Similarly, the calorie consumption data has no content other than numbers, making it unclear what the numbers represent and whether the next exercise should be maintained or surpassed.

The dedicated app has two versions, iOS and Android. The Android version was used in the test, but the interface design is not user-friendly enough. The navigation is unclear, and some interface transitions are a bit slow and unsmooth. The data is clear at a glance.

There is no doubt that as a heart rate tracking wristband, PulseOn can provide relatively accurate and useful data. Before it is officially launched, the company also promised to make improvements. The most needed improvement is to strengthen the level of interpretation of the meaning of the data. Another test is that the heart rate monitoring functions of other mobile devices or wearable devices are becoming more and more complete, and there are other functions besides heart rate measurement, while PulseOn only has one function of measuring heart rate. Will the price of US$199 (approximately RMB 1,235) reduce the cost performance? All this will have to wait until PulseOn is officially launched to reveal the answer.