Lenovo is quietly taking the wraps off of its new fitness tracker, called the Lenovo Smartband.
It's currently unclear if the device was supposed to be added to the Lenovo website or if it was mistakenly put up too early.
"The Lenovo Smartband is for young people who take care of their personal health and are interested in new tech trend products," says the Lenovo website. "It allows you to track daily exercise, sleep and heart rate, customize notifications to improve both work and life efficiency, and automatically log in on a PC without entering a password."
The device comes in blue or orange and can track metrics such as daily steps and heart rate, but it also has several smart watch-like features. The device can display notifications such as text and call alerts, and it can also auto-unlock a PC without the need for users to manually enter a password on the computer.
The design is very similar to other fitness bands, however it does show Lenovo is willing to put resources into the fitness-tracking trend.
While the unveiling was rather under-the-radar, Lenovo's foray into wearables doesn't come as a complete surprise. Documents about the device surfaced a few weeks ago in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, along with a user manual. It was largely expected Lenovo would unveil a fitness band in September at the IFA consumer electronics conference in Berlin, but the device never made an appearance at that event.
The device is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 7.1 or later, as well as Android devices running Android 4.3 or later. While the company has not yet announced when the Smartband will be available, it is likely it will begin shipping before the start of the holiday season.
Because of the multitude of fitness tracking devices appearing on the market, Lenovo will likely have to draw attention with the price of the device, but there's no word on the price yet, either. While the Smartband surely is a nice device, it is still one among many and doesn't have the specs to put it ahead of other fitness bands on the market.
Perhaps one draw to the device will be its remote unlocking capabilities, a feature not found on many other devices.
A number of ways to eliminate the need for entering passwords have been surfacing over the past few years, but none of them have really taken off.
