Best in show: Best wearables from CES 2024
CES 2024 is winding down after a bumper year of health innovations, smart rings, and more spatial headsets and smart glasses than you can shake a stick at.
With so many announcements to keep track of, we’ve compiled our favorite new and upcoming releases that debuted on the show floor in Las Vegas.
Everything on this list has us mightily intrigued for the coming year – and these new releases show that it’s set to be another hectic one in the world of wearable tech.
Garmin Lily 2
Wareable
Garmin came back with the impossibly small Garmin Lily 2 smartwatch – a hybrid smartwatch aimed at women.
Available in standard and the more premium ‘Classic’ designs, the 34mm/35mm case is noticeably tiny when viewed in person. It still comes with the textured lens which gives an attractive effect even when the screen is dimmed.
New additions for Lily 2 are new dance sport profiles, and the inclusion of the new Body Battery, sleep score, Morning Report, and Garmin Pay functionality (for the Classic model).
Garmin HRM-Fit
Wareable
The launch of the Garmin HRM-Fit rounded out a female-focused CES for the fitness giant.
The heart rate monitor strap clips onto medium- and high-support sports bras – including those from Adidas, Athleta, NoBull, and Under Armour – and aims to solve the pain point with sports bras and traditional chest straps.
As you’d expect, the HRM-Fit can connect to a range of Garmin watches and Edge cycling computers, and also feed features the full gamut of Garmin’s Running Dynamics metrics.
Amazfit Helios
Wareable
A surprise smart ring from Zepp Health landed at CES – the Amazfit Helios. It’s designed to complement the company’s performande wearables, by focussing on recovery and physical/mental readiness.
The band itself is a slightly weight 4g, but offers 100ATM water resistance and comes in silver and gold options.
It also offers users the AI chatbot coaching options via a premoium tier level within the Zepp Health app.
Movano Evie
Wareable
The long-awaited Evie is about to launch – and doesn’t disappoint as a smart ring for women.
The unique design not only enables the band to slightly expand to fit perfectly even when the finger swells during the natural monthly cycle, but it also makes for an attractive smart ring that’s easy to like.
The metrics and analysis are still quite basic, but the AI-powered insights will grow the longer you wear it. There’s plenty to come from Movano, but users will need to be patient with this one.
Read our hands-on with the Movano Evie.
Abbott Lingo
Wareable
Following a public preview period over the last few months, health startup Abbott used CES 2024 to announce that its Lingo continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is now on sale in the UK.
The semi-invasive CGM comes as a single sensor for £89 (or as a four-pack for £300), with users able to place it on their arm and use the companion app to monitor spikes and dips in their blood glucose.
While it may appear to be a medical device targeted at diabetics, Abbott has instead talked up the Lingo as a wearable that everybody can use to form healthier habits relating to sleep, mood, focus, and energy.
We’re looking forward to testing this one out once we get back across the pond.
Withings BeamO
Wareable
Withings is getting pretty used to introducing its bleeding-edge tech at CES, and this year was no different. The brand used CES 2024 to debut the BeamO – a rectangular-shaped device that provides four types of medical-grade readings from home.
It’s able to take an electrocardiogram (ECG), read the user’s temperature, view blood oxygen saturation, and act as a stethoscope to track heart rate and listen out for respiratory sounds.
The BeamO hasn’t been cleared by medical regulators just yet, however, which is why no pricing or availability information has been released by Withings just yet.
It wins our award for the best-named product at CES this year, at least.
Luxottica/Nuance Audio
Wareable
These smart specs – manufactured by EssilorLuxoticca, the owner of Ray-Ban – use beamforming technology to identify the person you’re talkung to in a crowded room and amplify their voice.
It’s aimed at people with mild to moderate hearing loss, who struggle to follow conversations in crowded environments. It also means that users don’t have to wear conspicious earbuds, or get fitted by an audiologist for hearing aids, with the associated stigmas.
XREAL Air 2 Ultra AR Glasses
Wareable
The XREAL Air AR glasses impressed us in our demo at Pepcom on day one of CES 2024.
Following Apple’s lead for spatial computijng, the glasses showed off high quality and impressive immersion of virtual objects, and reacted to physical controllers on the table top to switch between modes.
We navigated virtual desktops, video calling demos and even movie watching.
Some elements were a little rudimentary and agricultural in their appliation – but by and large, an impressive demonstratioin of spatial computing in a relatively small pair of XR specs.
Invoxia Minitailz
Wareable
This pet tracker caught the eye, with an AI element that’s designed to track your pet’s health and watch out for changes in their behavior.
Designed for cats and dogs (but arguably a little big for felines), the Minitailz monitors heart rate, scans for heart conditions including Afib, and looks for subtle changes in your pet’s activity levels or behavior.
It’s also a GPS tracker too, with a $8.99 monthly subscription.
