Jawbone Goes After The Entry-Level With UP Move, A $50 Fitness Tracker With A 6 Month Battery Life

up move

Jawbone’s new UP3 might be the company’s priciest fitness tracker yet — but that doesn’t mean it’s not interested in the entry-level.

Quite the contrary, in fact. Jawbone has just announced a second new fitness tracker this evening — and this one comes in at just $50.

Why? Because there’s a massive group of people out there who’ve never purchased a fitness tracker before, for whatever reason — and if that reason is price, Jawbone co-founder Hosain Rohman tells me he wants to make it “a no brainer”.

Unlike the UP3 and the many UP bands that came before it, Jawbone’s new UP Move isn’t something you wrap around your wrist. At least, not on its own.

The UP Move is… more like a pod. A small (about a square inch or so), coin-cell powered pod, crammed with sensors and a Bluetooth radio.

You slip this pod into your accessory of choice — be it the clip-style attachment that comes in the box, or a $15 wrist strap that Jawbone will sell separately.

Pressing the face of the Up move once shows your step progress for the day; pressing it a second time shows the time, albeit in a somewhat easy-to-miss series of LED flashes.

It reminds me a bit of the Misfit Shine in that regard (Actually, it reminds me of the Shine in lots of ways — but at $50 vs $100, the Move doesn’t look quite as polished)

Like the UP bands that came before it, the UP Move will count your steps and track your sleep. Unlike those bands, though, there’s no vibrating motor — which means no using it as a silent alarm, and it can’t buzz you when you’ve been sitting idle for an unhealthy amount of time.

Once unpacked and powered up, Jawbone says the UP Move should last roughly 6 months on a single (user-replaceable) coin-cell battery.

The Up Move will ship in five colors (Black, Blue, “Grape”, “Ruby”, and “Slate”) later this month, though the company wouldn’t get more specific about dates than that. Pre-orders begin on November 5th.

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