Up close with Withings’ super simple Go fitness tracker

Withings has made some pretty fancy activity (activi-tay?) trackers in the past, but the new Withings Go is not that. It’s a lightweight wrist-thingie that doubles as a clip on tracker. After seeing it up close, I’m convinced it’s basically the same thing as a Jawbone Up Move with a display.

It tracks your steps. You can wear it to bed, and it will auto-track your sleep. It’s relatively inexpensive, compared to other products from the same company. The battery life should last around eight months. It even looks like a Jawbone Up Move.

The E-ink display on the Withings Go is cool. Its value is two-fold: it’s great for battery life, and it’s an always on display. When you press on the center of the display, it clicks a little bit, and then it switches to a standard watch display. Click it again, and it goes back to a meter for your daily activity.

I’m not going to knock the thing for being basic. There are a lot of people who are just looking for a simple activity tracker. They don’t want or need a full-powered fitness device, they just need something that might motivate them to move around a little bit more. And if you happen to already have a couple of Withings products, or you just like the Withings app but you don’t want to spend a couple hundred dollars on a watch, then maybe the Go is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. And that’s great.

But at $69, the Withings Go is basic. And the Jawbone Up Move costs $50. And the Fitbit Zip costs $60. So there you have it.