LG’s Lifeband Touch and Heart Rate Earphones to Arrive on May 18th

Though the internet was trolled recently with Apple’s “biometric” earpods, LG’s fitness-oriented Heart Rate earphones and Lifeband Touch are no joke. In fact, they’re finally set to arrive next week in three sizes, after being outed by various rumor sites and, of course, LG itself during CES 2014. The LifeBand looks much like we saw it then and most closely resembles Nike’s Fuelband, though it has similar functionality to Samsung’s Gear Fit and the FitBit Force. Activated with a twist of the wrist, it has a full-touch OLED display, 90mAh battery and a triple-axis accelerometer and altimeter. Those will let you track your exploits via Android or iOS apps like MyFitnessPal or Runkeeper, along with LG’s own fitness app. You’ll also see (and feel) incoming calls and messages, and can control music using the touch display.

For listening to said music there are the Heart Rate earphones, which also function as an honest-to-god heart rate monitor by measuring blood flow in the ear. They can be used in tandem with the Lifeband Touch or a compatible smartphone using the included Bluetooth medallion. That’ll let you do hands-free calling and if paired with LG’s upcoming Fitness app, give audible, real time updates about your heart rate and VO2 max levels. As for the audio quality itself, LG says it’s “excellent,” but we’ll need to judge that for ourselves once we get our hands on it. The HeartRate earphones and Lifeband Touch will roll out in the US on May 18th (Asia and Europe will follow) with pricing to be announced later. Hopefully, they’ll have a new G watch and G3 handset joining them shortly thereafter.

Author: Steve Dent
Source: Engadget