Magellan’s Echo Fit is a watch with all the fitness fixings, and a six-month battery

By Andy Boxall Updated January 5, 2015

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The Magellan Echo Fit may look like a smartwatch, but it’s primarily a fitness tracker, aimed at people who enjoy a variety of sports, but want a little more functionality than that of a basic fitness band. The Echo Fit is designed to be worn all the time, comes with sleep-tracking as standard, and has the option of a heart rate monitor.

Updated on 01-05-2015 by Andy Boxall: Added in further spec details on the Echo Fit

It connects to your smartphone using Bluetooth, and can stream data in real-time, ensuring you’re kept informed of your performance. Magellan says the Echo Fit is happy tracking running, hiking, cycling, golf, and other activities. It’s possible to customize the data received to your preferences.

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Outside of specialist tracking, the Echo Fit counts your steps, how many calories burned in a day, and how much distance you travel. A weekly summary complete with averages is generated, including data gathered on quality of sleep, and collated inside the Echo Utility app. Because the Echo Fit is a watch, and not basic a fitness band, it has revolutionary features such as showing the time and the date. (Amazing!)

Shortly after release, the Utility app will receive an update giving it notification alerts from your phone. It’ll show SMS, email, and call alerts, plus notifications from social networking apps. The Echo Fit is compatible with iOS and Android smartphones, along with a variety of fitness apps including RunKeeper, Golf Pad, Strava, and the MapMy family of apps.

Perhaps best of all is the Echo Fit’s battery. Rather than needing a charge every other day, it uses a coin-cell battery, which should be good for at least six months. There are two versions of the Echo Fit. The simple model costs $130, while the version with a heart rate monitor is slightly pricier at $180, and both will be available in blue, black, grey, or pink. We’ll take a look at the Echo Fit at CES, and will bring you more details in the near days ahead.

Article originally published on 01-05-2015

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Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

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