New Balance RunIQ Smartwatch Is Now Available

New Balance RunIQ smartwatch is now available on online retailers.

Despite the claims of analysts that the smartwatch market is in decline, established companies, as well as less-known firms, continue to unveil new devices each year. Among these is New Balance, which has announced that its new RunIQ smartwatch is now available.

The smartwatch was first announced at the Consumers Electronics Show 2017 which gained a moderate amount of attention from consumers despite the countless number of similar devices. This was mainly due to its tag, claiming that the smartwatch is made by runners for runners.

The RunIQ fitness smartwatch, for those who want more functionality than that of a fitness tracker, was developed by New Balance in collaboration with a number of other companies like Intel, Strava, and Google, which garnered the interest of many users, curious about what the device can bring to the table.

The RunIQ does not disappoint if you are mainly going to use the smartwatch for its fitness functions as it includes everything that a runner might need during a training or just a casual run. The device comes with a heart-rate sensor, built-in GPS, as well as an interval function. For those interested in more advanced functions, you should know that the smartwatch also includes several trackers for pace, distance, and course.

The RunIQ has a water-resistant body, in which you can find an Intel Atom Z34XX CPU, as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functionality similar to all other smartwatches. The design of the watch is also sports oriented, as it features a strap which allows your skin to breathe and sweat thanks to the gaps inside it. However, the watch can still be worn throughout the day casually, not only during exercises.

New Balance included three physical buttons on the side of the device. One button opens the RunIQ app, the second one is used as the home button, while the last one can be used for various functions like music control or lap change.

The watch will run at first on Android Wear 1.5, but it will very likely be upgraded to Android Wear 2.0 once the OS will be released. The watch costs $299 and it’s currently only available on the New Balance website.

What do you think about the new RunIQ smartwatch?

Image credit: New Balance

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When I was younger I used to spend almost all of my free time playing computer games. My mom and dad would go mental over this. “You’re never going to do anything with your life if you are going to play games all day” they used to say. What was even more unusual was the fact that I played more games than most of the guys in my friend group. Looking back, I have to admit that I probably played a bit too much, but I also learned a lot of great things. When I turned 20 I decided that it was high-time to make some money of my own, but the only jobs I could get were that of waitress or cashier. How exciting. After several excruciating months of serving tables I had a great idea: since I love gaming so much, why don’t I write about it? That’s when I started doing small writing projects on Elance. Eventually, I got an offer for a part-time job. During that time I learned all about content marketing strategies and how search engines work. I started writing about various topics such as technology, health and lifestyle and discovered that I was actually good at it. On November 24, 2014, I became part of the ArgyllFreePress team.