The patent was granted on September 8, 2026 and describes a wearable that uses several light sources and detectors to measure what is going on at different depths under the skin. The drawings show it being worn on places such as the thigh, which fits with the muscle oxygen patents we have already seen from the company. 

A different part of the muscle oxygen problem

This is now the third piece of WHOOP muscle oxygen intellectual property we have looked at this year, but the patents are not simply repeating each other. In the April filing the focus was a pressure-sensitive wearable designed to work on various locations of the body.

We covered the second patent in August. That one dealt more directly with how to get a proper fit. It described determining whether a sensor is pressing against the body with the right amount of pressure, something that is important when optical measurements depend heavily on consistent skin contact.

This latest patent goes into more detail on what happens once the light gets under the skin. WHOOP uses several emitters and detectors spaced at different distances, which lets the system pick up signals from different depths.

From there, the software tries to tease apart what is happening, including muscle oxygenation and different haemoglobin measurements. In simple terms, it is trying to work out which part of the signal is coming from the muscle and which part is coming from the tissue sitting above it.

And that is important because the sensor is not measuring muscle directly through an empty window. There is skin and, depending on the person and where the sensor sits, a varying amount of fat in the way.

The patent specifically tackles that problem. It even covers estimating superficial fat at the measurement site, which could help the system account for how much tissue the light has to travel through before it reaches the muscle. Now, this is not WHOOP measuring your overall body fat percentage. It is much more local than that, and really about getting a cleaner muscle oxygen reading.

This has a very familiar Humon connection

There is another reason this patent caught our attention. We have effectively used an earlier version of this type of technology before.

Back in 2019, we reviewed the Humon Hex, a small sensor that strapped around the thigh and used near-infrared spectroscopy to measure muscle oxygen in the quadriceps. It provided real-time SmO2 information during exercise, showing when the muscle was warming up, when effort was becoming difficult to sustain and how it was recovering afterwards.

The connection is not coincidental. This latest WHOOP patent continues an international application originally filed in April 2019 by Dynometrics, the company behind Humon, and that application claimed priority from May 2018.

There is an even more interesting bit of history here. When Humon shut down its service in 2020, we suggested there was a decent chance its technology had been sold to a larger company. Assignment records subsequently showed Dynometrics transferring related Humon muscle oxygen patents to WHOOP in 2020.

So some of the WHOOP muscle oxygen patent activity we are now seeing has much older roots. WHOOP did not suddenly start investigating the idea over the past few months, it acquired technology and intellectual property from a company that had already put muscle oxygen sensing into a commercial sports wearable.

The bigger WHOOP picture is getting clearer

That makes the recent run of patents more interesting when looked at together. WHOOP now has intellectual property around measuring muscle oxygen, distinguishing signals at different tissue depths, accounting for tissue above the muscle, monitoring sensor pressure and checking whether the wearable has suitable contact with the body.

Those pieces address several of the practical problems that made devices such as the Humon Hex more complicated than they need to be. When we tested Hex, for example, positioning and strap tightness mattered, and moving the sensor could affect the usefulness of the readings.

A muscle oxygen sensor could provide another layer to Whoop data. Positioned over the quadriceps or biceps, it could potentially show how quickly oxygen availability changes during repeated efforts and how rapidly the muscle recovers.

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The Active 3 Premium has already picked up a number of new features since launch. We covered the watch in our full review, and Zepp Health has continued adding training tools through subsequent firmware releases.

HYROX analysis arrives

The main addition is HYROX analysis when the Active 3 Premium is used with Helio Strap Pro. Users can start a HYROX race or simulation on the watch and record movement count, movement frequency and heart rate trends.

After the session, the Zepp app shows pace changes and training suggestions for each station. This makes use of the additional movement data collected by Helio Strap Pro, rather than simply recording HYROX as another workout profile.

We looked at the differences between Helio Strap and Helio Strap Pro here. The Pro model adds a second waist-mounted sensor designed to capture movement during HYROX training and racing.

Zepp Health has also simplified pairing. If Helio Strap Pro is already linked to the same account, the Active 3 Premium can now automatically pair with it.

FTMS support comes to indoor cycling

Indoor Cycling can now connect to compatible bike trainers and spin bikes using the Bluetooth FTMS standard. Once connected, the watch can display power, cadence, speed and distance from the equipment.

The distance calibration screen also gains a choice between metric and imperial units. It is a small change, but one that should have been there already.

Beyond that, a new Athlete Defaults setting automatically enables Workout Do Not Disturb and disables sports alerts when training starts. The idea is to remove unnecessary interruptions and keep workout settings consistent without changing them manually before each session.

Music and playlists can now be managed from the Zepp app as well. That should make organising locally stored music easier than handling it entirely from the watch.

Cycle Tracking has also received an update. Zepp Health says it has refreshed the interface and upgraded its period prediction algorithm, while a new Check In function allows users to log symptoms, moods and lifestyle information.

Navigation gets a few changes

Training Library now supports navigation, while Zepp Health has also changed the route elevation chart to improve readability. These are smaller additions, but both extend the navigation tools already available on the Active 3 Premium.

The Advance Up map view has also been adjusted. When enabled, the map can automatically rotate to match the user’s current heading while zooming.

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Suunto Run 2 is now live on the company’s website. It takes the original Run and fills in most of the gaps that kept it from feeling like a complete running watch. It is still ridiculously light at 35 grams, but now you get offline maps, a much brighter screen, a bigger battery, upgraded sensors and new tools such as EnergySense, Live Finish Prediction and Heat Strain Score.

The funny thing is that Suunto hasn’t really changed the basic idea. Run 2 is still small, light and clearly aimed at people who actually want to run with their watch rather than carry a miniature outdoor computer on their wrist. It just does a lot more now.

View on Suunto’s website.

The same lightweight design

The Run 2 measures 46 x 46 x 11.7 mm, compared with 46 x 46 x 11.5 mm for the original Run. So despite all the extra hardware, Suunto has only added 0.2 mm to the thickness.

More importantly, the weight stays at just 35 grams. That is particularly impressive when you consider the bigger battery, offline mapping and upgraded sensors squeezed inside.

Construction remains pretty straightforward, with a stainless steel bezel, Gorilla Glass, a fiber-reinforced composite case and 5 ATM water resistance. Visually, Suunto has not tried to reinvent the watch either, and there was not much reason to.

The original Run was already one of the lighter options in this part of the market. Run 2 keeps that advantage instead of turning into another bulky outdoor watch.

The display jumps from 600 to 2,000 nits

Both watches use a 1.32-inch AMOLED display, but the brightness difference is huge. Suunto Run tops out at 600 nits, while Run 2 reaches 2,000 nits.

That is more than three times the quoted peak brightness. For a watch designed mainly for running outdoors, this is one of those upgrades that makes immediate sense.

The Run 2 also uses an LTPS AMOLED panel. The bigger story, though, is simply that the display is far better suited to bright outdoor conditions than the one on the original model.

A 600-nit display never made the first Run unusable, but it did look pretty modest next to newer sports watches. Run 2 brings Suunto right back into the range we now expect from a modern AMOLED running watch.

Offline maps completely change the comparison

Offline maps are easily one of the biggest differences between the two generations. Suunto Run 2 has them, while the original Run does not.

Worldwide maps can be downloaded directly to the watch before heading out. They include topographic contours, outdoor heatmaps and route climb profiles, and remain available without cellular data.

That gives the Run 2 a much broader use case than its predecessor. The first Run was easy to understand as a lightweight road-running watch, while Run 2 now makes a lot more sense for trail running, unfamiliar routes and travel.

It also makes the 35 gram weight look even better. Lightweight running watches with proper offline mapping are still not exactly everywhere.

The original Run asked you to accept some fairly clear compromises in return for the low weight. Run 2 removes one of the biggest ones.

GPS and heart rate both get new hardware

Suunto Run already had dual-band GPS, so this is not the first time the series has supported L1 and L5 positioning. Run 2 instead moves to Suunto’s new-generation navigation hardware.

Support includes GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou and QZSS. Suunto says the upgraded system improves recorded distance, pace and track accuracy, with particular attention paid to filtering out multipath signal reflections from tall buildings.

That is a more interesting upgrade than simply adding dual-band GPS to a watch that previously lacked it. The original Run was already capable here, so Suunto is refining an area that was one of the stronger parts of the first watch.

The optical heart-rate sensor changes more noticeably. Run 2 uses a new 12-channel optical sensor positioned behind curved 2.5D sensor glass.

Suunto specifically points to improved tracking during hard intervals, sudden changes in intensity, long efforts and running in heat. Those are all situations where optical sensors can have a harder time keeping up, so this is a sensible area to target.

A bigger battery without a bigger watch

Battery capacity increases from 295 mAh on the original Run to 380 mAh on Run 2. That works out to roughly 29 percent more capacity.

Daily use increases from eight days to 10 days, while high-performance dual-band GPS rises from 20 hours to 24 hours. Those are useful gains, particularly because the display is also considerably brighter.

Suunto has not turned Run 2 into an ultra-endurance watch, and it does not need to. The attraction here is getting decent battery life without carrying something much larger on your wrist.

The fact that weight has stayed at 35 grams is probably the most impressive part of the battery upgrade. Suunto has added capacity without giving up one of the original Run’s main selling points.

Music now includes offline podcasts

Suunto Run 2 also expands what you can take with you when leaving the phone behind. Music and podcasts can be stored on the watch and played offline.

That fits particularly well with the addition of offline maps. You can head out with navigation and audio available directly from the watch, which makes the Run 2 considerably more self-contained than the original.

Suunto lists the Run 2 as a 4GB model, although its comparison information also references 4/64GB storage. The important practical point is that local audio playback is now part of the package, including podcasts rather than just music.

That makes more sense for a running watch in 2026. Plenty of runners want to leave the phone at home, and Run 2 now does a much better job of supporting that.

EnergySense goes further than ordinary pacing tools

It is not all about the hardware upgrades. Some more interesting additions are on the software side.

EnergySense calculates live physiological output and dynamically estimates your remaining stamina percentage and how far you could continue running at your current pace. That makes the comparison with Garmin Stamina fairly obvious, although Suunto may be approaching the same general problem differently.

Plus you get Live Finish Prediction. Which takes the current pace and shows where it leads, giving a real-time view of the finishing time. Both features are built to inform the call while there is still road left to act on it: hold the pace, ease off, or push.

This becomes particularly interesting because Suunto already has ZoneSense. That system uses DDFA, or Dynamical Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, to analyse RR interval dynamics and estimate physiological intensity during exercise.

ZoneSense is not simply another set of fixed heart-rate zones. It looks at how your body is responding in real time, while EnergySense attempts to answer the next question, which is how much you have left if you continue at the same effort.

There is also a new Heat Strain Score. Suunto says it combines external weather conditions such as temperature, humidity and wind with heart rate to calculate cumulative heat stress during training. The idea is to give runners a better indication of when heat is starting to affect pacing, hydration and recovery.

Recovery and readiness tracking also takes overnight HRV baselines, Training Stress Balance, sleep stages and subjective feeling scores into account. None of these features changes what the Run 2 fundamentally is, but together they make the software side of the upgrade look considerably broader than it first appeared.

The post Suunto Run 2 vs Run: A much bigger upgrade than the name suggests appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

Samsung wants more than the occasional blood pressure reading

Samsung already offers manual blood pressure checks on compatible Galaxy Watch models, while the newer Blood Pressure Trend feature looks at overnight data to estimate morning blood pressure.

The new hypertension study goes beyond simply giving users another blood pressure reading. Samsung is collecting Galaxy Watch and phone sensor data specifically to study hypertension, with the stated aim of using that research to help create future health features. That points to Samsung exploring whether the watch can do more than estimate blood pressure. 

Hypertension alerts would be the obvious next step

Our guess, and this is speculation, is that Samsung is looking beyond showing people blood pressure estimates. The bigger prize would be identifying longer-term patterns that suggest someone may have hypertension, then prompting them to check with a proper cuff or seek medical advice.

There is already plenty of movement in that direction elsewhere. Apple introduced hypertension notifications that look for cardiovascular patterns over time rather than trying to turn the Watch into a traditional blood pressure monitor.

Google followed a remarkably similar research path. It recruited Pixel Watch users for a hypertension study last year, collecting wearable data and comparing a subset of it with ambulatory blood pressure measurements. That work has since fed into Google’s wider Health Guardian push, including Blood Pressure Trends for Fitbit and Pixel Watch devices.

Samsung therefore has plenty of incentive to push further. Giving someone a morning blood pressure estimate is useful, but automatically noticing that their cardiovascular data has been drifting in the wrong direction for several weeks would be even more useful.

Who can join the study

Samsung is recruiting participants through the Samsung Health app, with the invitation appearing in the Promotions section for eligible users. The study uses data from both the Galaxy Watch and connected phone, so Samsung is clearly looking at a broader set of health signals rather than just individual blood pressure readings.

For Galaxy Watch owners, it is worth checking Samsung Health to see whether the invitation has appeared. The study itself may not change anything on your watch today, but it gives us a pretty good indication of where Samsung’s cardiovascular health work is heading next.

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If you already have a Smart Band 10, this is not an automatic upgrade. But if you are choosing between the two today, the newer model is pretty clearly the one to get unless the older band is substantially cheaper.

The design barely changes, but the Band 11 gets thinner

Put Smart Band 11 and Smart Band 10 next to each other and there is not much to separate them at first glance. Xiaomi has stuck with the same elongated 1.72-inch AMOLED format rather than making the screen larger again, which is probably the right decision after the jump from 1.62 inches on Band 9.

The big change is peak brightness. It rises from 1,500 nits on Smart Band 10 to 2,000 nits on Smart Band 11.

The actual body has also become slimmer. Smart Band 11 is 9.99 mm thick and starts at 15.58 grams, compared with 10.95 mm and 15.95 grams for the standard Smart Band 10.

That weight difference is basically irrelevant, but losing almost a millimetre of thickness is more useful. These bands are already tiny, and having one sit a little flatter should help during sleep and generally make it disappear on the wrist.

Xiaomi has also expanded the choice of finishes. Alongside the regular version and Ceramic Edition, Smart Band 11 now gets an All-metal Edition with a unibody aluminium construction, giving the range a slightly more watch-like option.

I spent quite a bit of time with the previous generation in my Xiaomi Smart Band 10 review, and its size was never really a problem. So the design changes here are refinement rather than something you will immediately notice from across the room.

Main specs comparison

Sleep HRV is the upgrade most people will notice

There are some interesting changes on the health side. Smart Band 11 adds HRV tracking during sleep, filling one of the more obvious gaps in the previous model.

That omission stood out when I reviewed Band 10 because Xiaomi was already tracking heart rate, stress, SpO2 and a fairly detailed set of sleep metrics. HRV gives the software another useful signal for looking at recovery and how your readings change relative to your normal baseline.

Xiaomi is also pairing that with AI-based sleep interpretation and recommendations. That is more interesting than simply dropping an HRV number into Mi Fitness, although how useful it becomes will depend on what Xiaomi actually does with the data over several weeks.

The optical sensor itself has been upgraded too. Xiaomi says Smart Band 11 uses a higher-precision sensor for heart rate and blood oxygen readings, although there are still no ECG, skin-temperature or EDA sensors on the standard model.

Band 10 already performed surprisingly well for me during exercise. In my testing against a Garmin and chest strap, average and maximum heart-rate readings were consistently very close, so the new sensor has a decent starting point rather than fixing something that was obviously bad.

Fitness tracking is mostly familiar

You still get more than 150 sports modes, 5 ATM water resistance, heart-rate broadcasting and the usual mix of activity, stress, sleep and blood-oxygen tracking. Xiaomi has not suddenly turned the regular Smart Band into a miniature sports watch.

The biggest omission is still built-in GPS. Both Smart Band 11 and Smart Band 10 rely on connected GPS from your phone, so anyone who wants to leave the phone behind and record an outdoor route will need to move up to something like the Smart Band Pro line.

For most people buying this type of fitness band, that probably makes sense. Built-in GPS adds cost and power consumption, while plenty of users carry a phone anyway.

HyperOS 4 brings some less obvious changes

Smart Band 11 launches with Xiaomi HyperOS 4, and this is where some of the quieter differences appear. Xiaomi is pushing deeper integration with its wider ecosystem, including Xiaomi Home controls and better interaction with other Xiaomi devices.

There is also stronger support for Apple users. Xiaomi advertises dual-device notifications involving Android and iPhone, plus Apple Shortcuts integration, which makes the Band 11 a little less tied to Xiaomi’s own ecosystem than you might expect.

That is not necessarily a reason to upgrade on its own, but it does make the new model more flexible. Smart Band 10 already worked with Android and iOS, while Band 11 appears to be putting more effort into what happens once you actually pair it with an iPhone.

The NFC version also continues as a separate model, with payments, access cards and other features depending heavily on region. Xiaomi’s Chinese feature list is much broader than what normally makes it to international models, so I would not buy one based on Chinese NFC features unless Xiaomi confirms support in your market.

Battery life basically does not move

Xiaomi has kept the same 233 mAh battery capacity used by Smart Band 10. The headline battery claim also stays at up to 21 days, while charging takes around an hour.

That might look disappointing until you consider the brighter display and thinner body. Xiaomi has managed to increase peak brightness by a third and shave almost a millimetre from the casing without giving up the long battery life that remains one of the main reasons to buy a Smart Band.

With Band 10, I found battery drain modest even with frequent heart-rate sampling, sleep tracking and workouts enabled. Xiaomi’s maximum figures are obviously based on lighter usage, but this is still a very different charging experience from a smartwatch that needs attention every couple of days.

There is no obvious reason to upgrade for battery life alone. The two generations are effectively tied here.

The post Xiaomi Smart Band 11 vs Band 10: Is the upgrade worth it? appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

This is still the Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 rather than a new generation. We covered the original timepiece and its unusual 150-metre diving and sonar messaging features when it launched last year. The new release builds on that hardware with a much bigger focus on skiing, along with some health and AI additions.

Ski mountaineering is the big new feature

So now you get a dedicated ski mountaineering mode. That is a slightly different proposition from the fairly basic skiing profiles you still find on many sports watches, because Huawei is trying to cover both the climb and the descent.

Routes can be loaded onto the watch before heading out, with support for GPX, KML and TCX files. During the activity, the watch can show the route along with information such as remaining distance and elevation. Huawei also showed a track-back option, which makes rather more sense on a ski mountaineering watch than another collection of pretty watch faces.

The watch records speed, gradient, altitude, heart rate and blood oxygen as you move through the mountains. Afterwards, the session can be broken down further with pace, altitude ranges, heart-rate zones and other performance data.

Skiing in general has received a sizeable upgrade as well. Huawei now talks about six different snow-sport modes covering indoor and outdoor skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing and ski mountaineering.

There are also maps for more than 3,000 ski resorts around the world. These can show trail names, difficulty levels and lift locations directly on the wrist, which could be genuinely useful at an unfamiliar resort.

Outdoor skiing gets more granular data too. The Watch Ultimate 2 can record turn counts and recognise different types of turns, while Huawei has added G-Force measurements to estimate the forces generated while carving. The company also showed support for connected smart sensor accessories capable of recording more than 20 skiing posture metrics, including balance, edge angle, pressure and rotation.

That is a fairly serious set of additions. The original Ultimate 2 was already unusually capable underwater. Huawei now seems to be trying to give the watch a similarly distinctive role on snow.

Health tracking gets more ambitious too

The other interesting part of the update is health tracking. Huawei is expanding the X-TAP system, the side-mounted fingertip sensor technology that first appeared on the Watch 5 and which we looked at when Huawei introduced X-TAP on the Watch 5.

Pressing a finger against the X-TAP area can provide real-time blood oxygen readings, while Huawei’s quick health check can now pull together as many as 20 health indicators.

More unusually, Huawei is adding research-based risk assessments for coronary heart disease and hyperglycemia. The wording matters here. The watch is not suddenly measuring blood glucose, and Huawei is not presenting the coronary heart disease feature as a diagnosis. These are risk-assessment tools that use data collected by the watch to identify patterns that may warrant closer attention.

Snow White is not the only new version

The new Snow White edition gets a light-colored case with a purple-white nanocrystalline ceramic bezel and a pale nylon woven loop strap. Huawei has also created several matching snow-themed watch faces, so the whole thing looks noticeably different from the existing darker Watch Ultimate 2 variants.

There is also a new Descente x Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 version. That model goes in the opposite direction visually, using a darker finish with orange detailing and a matching woven strap. The collaboration makes more sense now that Huawei is pushing the watch much harder towards skiing and winter sports.

HarmonyOS 7 brings another part of the update. Huawei’s Xiaoyi assistant can analyse health and exercise information, answer questions about recorded metrics and provide post-workout interpretations. Satellite messaging, eSIM connectivity, golf features, 150-metre diving and the existing underwater sonar communication system remain part of the broader Ultimate 2 package.

For now, Huawei has announced the new variants as part of its China launch event. There is no confirmation yet in the material released today on whether the Snow White or Descente versions will make their way to international markets.

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Before getting to the wearables, the robots need a mention. Humanoid robots were easily among the biggest crowd magnets at Messe Berlin, and the biggest gatherings I saw were around the little rings where people could watch robots fight each other. For some reason, putting two robots opposite each other and letting them throw punches seems to be exactly what trade show visitors want to see!

Mobility was everywhere too. Electric scooters, e-bikes, powered mobility devices and various machines designed to help people move around occupied a surprisingly large amount of floor space. In some ways, that ended up overlapping with fitness tech more than I expected.

Smart rings and watches

Let’s start off with smart rings as they had a pretty strong presence. RingConn, Ultrahuman and several smaller brands were there, but they were mainly showing products that had already launched rather than announcing another generation of hardware.

Circular was the exception. It used IFA to unveil the Circular Ring 3 Pro and Ring 3 Slim, and there are some genuinely interesting changes here. Both bring haptic vibrations back to the finger and add NFC payments, while Circular has also made the hardware slimmer and pushed battery life further.

The Ring 3 Pro gets the bigger health feature list, including ECG, blood pressure trends and glucose trend estimates alongside the usual heart rate, HRV, temperature, sleep and activity data. Whether all of those health features ultimately live up to their billing will need testing, but Circular is at least trying to make the smart ring do something beyond the usual.

There was considerably less happening with traditional smartwatches. Samsung and Xiaomi had plenty of wrist hardware on show, but most of it was already familiar.

Motorola provided one of the more interesting exceptions with the Moto Watch Ultra. This is Motorola going properly back into Wear OS, with Wear OS 6, LTE, dual-band GPS and Polar providing much of the fitness platform.

It is a very different proposition from the lighter Moto Watch announced earlier this year. The Ultra is a full smartwatch, complete with Google apps, payments and cellular connectivity, wrapped around a 46mm stainless steel case and a very bright OLED display.

Screenless trackers had a strong show

IFA also reinforced something that has become difficult to ignore in 2026. Screenless fitness trackers are suddenly everywhere.

Actxa had one of the stranger examples with its Spark Band. It looks like a fairly ordinary screen-free health band, but it can produce an estimated glucose value in around a minute using optical PPG data and an AI model.

That does not turn it into a CGM, and Actxa isn’t positioning it as a device for diagnosing or managing diabetes. Still, glucose estimates from a $149 wristband are going to get attention, particularly if independent testing eventually shows that the readings are consistent enough to be useful for general wellness trends.

Luna was also at IFA with the Luna Band, which has now moved from its earlier preview phase into worldwide shipping for $149. There is no display, and the idea is to collect heart rate, HRV, temperature, sleep, training and recovery data while Luna’s LifeOS software handles most of the interpretation. I am testing that one at the moment, so look for my review in the weeks to come.

The lack of a subscription is a big part of the pitch. The screenless category is getting crowded very quickly, so the interesting question now is less about whether a band can record HRV and sleep and more about which company can actually turn all of that information into something useful.

Speediance took a different route with its first wearable. This is another device I am currently testing. It uses greenteg technology to estimate core body temperature from the wrist, which made it one of the more unusual fitness trackers I came across at the show.

That has some obvious applications during longer or harder workouts, where rising internal temperature can become an important part of how the body responds to the session. Speediance is also building strength training into the platform, including exercise recognition, training volume, movement and velocity trends, which makes sense given the company’s background in connected gym equipment.

The same company also had its new Gym Monster 3 at IFA. It is obviously not a wearable, but a connected strength system with digital resistance, a large display, coaching and performance analysis belongs in this conversation just as much as another wrist tracker does.

Health and sleep tech went beyond another score

Withings didn’t launch another ScanWatch or smart scale at IFA. But it did make BeamO considerably more useful. Its new StethO Sense feature will analyse heart and lung sounds recorded by BeamO and return an interpretation within seconds.

That fills an obvious gaps in BeamO. The hardware already lets you record ECG, temperature and digital stethoscope readings, but recording a lung sound is only so useful if you then need somebody else to tell you what you just heard. StethO Sense starts moving BeamO from a collection device towards something that can help interpret the information as well.

DUVA ONE was another device that caught my attention, largely because it takes a different view of sleep tracking. Its earbuds monitor things such as heart rate, HRV, movement and sleep, while sensors in the bedside dock keep track of noise levels, light, temperature and humidity.

The clever bit is what happens next. Rather than simply telling you the following morning that something disturbed your sleep, DUVA ONE is designed to react during the night by changing noise cancellation or adjusting the audio being played.

That feels like a much more useful direction for sleep technology. We already have plenty of devices capable of telling us we slept badly. The next step is giving them some ability to do something while the problem is actually happening.

Soundcore had a similar idea with the new Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro, another device I think deserves a place on this list. The Pro earbuds put PPG sensors inside the ear to track heart rate, HRV and sleep, then combine that information with adaptive audio intended to help the wearer settle down and stay asleep.

The charging case is also unusually ambitious, with its own display for adjusting settings, setting alarms and checking sleep information without immediately reaching for a phone. Sleep earbuds are starting to look a lot more like proper wearables.

Tennis robots were one of the best parts of the show

Racket sports had a surprisingly strong presence at IFA, and this was probably my favourite part of the fitness side of the event.

Acemate was the standout. The company unveiled the S10 Pro, an upgraded version of its moving tennis robot that can track the ball, drive around the court and return your shots rather than sitting behind the baseline firing balls at you.

The Pro raises maximum ball speed to 75 mph and adds Serve, Battle, Drill and conventional Ball Machine modes alongside the existing Rally Mode. It also increases ball capacity, extends battery life and puts considerably more emphasis on analysis and structured training after the session.

Having recently spent a lot of time testing the regular S10, I already thought that machine was about as close as tennis robots currently get to having another person on the other side of the net.

The S10 Pro pushes the idea further again. On paper, I would put it among the most advanced consumer tennis robots currently heading to market, and at the top of that group. The combination of court movement, vision, ball tracking, serve analysis, rallying and match-style play puts it well beyond the traditional definition of a tennis ball machine.

Acemate wasn’t alone. Pongbot brought its new Aura to IFA, taking a somewhat different approach by making the machine much lighter and supporting tennis, pickleball and padel from the same platform.

Aura weighs around 7kg and combines programmable feeds with voice control, AI coaching and optional visual analysis. It is quite different from the Pongbot Pace S Pro I previously reviewed, which puts more emphasis on high-performance tennis drills and player movement tracking.

TENNIIX was there as well with its own vision-based tennis robot. Its Pro model uses cameras to track player position and movement so feeds can respond to what the player is doing rather than simply following a fixed sequence.

There were a few other tennis and racket-sport machines scattered around the show too. It is still a niche category, but the jump from “ball launcher with an app” to machines that can watch, react, analyse and simulate parts of an actual rally is happening surprisingly quickly.

What I took away from IFA 2026

There wasn’t one giant wearable announcement that dominated IFA this year. In fact, many of the biggest names in sports watches and fitness trackers either weren’t there or had already launched their main 2026 hardware elsewhere. That has been a trend we’ve see in recent years.

But there was still a lot happening. Circular is trying to make smart rings more interactive, Speediance is bringing core temperature into a normal-looking fitness band, DUVA wants sleep tech to react during the night, and Acemate is trying to turn a tennis machine into something much closer to an actual opponent.

That may be the more interesting trend to come out of IFA 2026. Health and fitness technology is slowly moving beyond simply measuring what happened and giving you a score afterwards. More of these devices are starting to react, intervene or change the experience while it is happening.

And yes, none of them attracted quite as many people as two humanoid robots punching each other in a ring. Apparently some things are impossible to compete with. 

The post From smart rings to tennis robots – the best fitness tech at IFA 2026 appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

The Journal gets much more personal

Custom Journal Behaviors are due in September or October. You will be able to create whatever you want to track, then see how it affects your Recovery over time.

WHOOP gives examples such as a no-phone morning, a stressful commute or trying a new supplement. But the real appeal is that you could make these much more specific to your own routine. That might be eating late, training in the evening, changing your caffeine cut-off time or testing a different recovery routine.

It removes one of the obvious restrictions of the WHOOP Journal⁠. Until now, the feature has been useful for finding relationships between behaviours and Recovery, but only if the thing you wanted to track already existed in WHOOP’s list.

Logging should get easier as well. You will be able to speak or type naturally to the Journal and tell WHOOP what you did. The app will identify the relevant behaviours and log them rather than making you work through them manually.

WHOOP is also merging Journal, Daily Outlook, Check-ins and Day in Review into one daily experience. You will start with the Journal, get insights and check-ins during the day, then finish with an evening reflection.

Live workout tracking is getting a rethink

November brings a much bigger update to Track Activity. WHOOP will start recommending activity targets based on your goals and recent data, although you will still be able to change those targets yourself.

The live workout screen is also being rebuilt. It will show progress towards your target, time accumulated in heart rate zones and other live workout metrics, along with improved map controls.

WHOOP is even adding pause and resume. It is hardly an exotic feature, but it means the app will finally be able to distinguish between Moving Time and total elapsed time when you stop during a run, ride or other workout. Activity Details gets an upgrade afterwards, with splits, target performance, Moving Time and more detailed workout stats.

WHOOP will estimate your one-rep max

Strength Trainer is getting another substantial addition in November. WHOOP will automatically estimate your one-rep max for supported weighted exercises, without requiring you to actually attempt a maximum lift.

Once you log your weighted exercises, WHOOP will use that information to estimate your current strength and track how it changes over time. It will also show how intense each set was relative to your estimated strength.

That builds nicely on the recent Strength Trainer overhaul⁠, which added muscular load, exercise history and personal records. One-rep max gives you another way to see whether you are actually getting stronger rather than simply accumulating more Strain.

WHOOP has also been experimenting with AI-generated strength workouts⁠, so there is an obvious direction forming here. The app increasingly knows what you have lifted, how hard it was relative to your current strength and how well recovered you are before the next session.

The final part of the November update is Community. WHOOP users will be able to follow friends and family directly without setting up a team, then see whatever Sleep, Recovery, Strain and activity information that person chooses to share.

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I stopped by Luna’s stand at IFA in Berlin to see the Band in person. A full review will follow in the coming weeks, once I have had enough time to find out how well the tracking and LifeOS coaching hold up away from the show floor.

The waitlist phase is over

Luna first showed the Band at CES earlier this year, so this is not a brand-new product reveal. The news from IFA is that regular worldwide shipping has started, following a waitlist that Luna says attracted more than 100,000 people.

The company also says its first limited drop sold out. US orders are now listed as shipping immediately for $149, including taxes and delivery, while Luna has announced a price of €149 in other supported markets.

That lands it right in the middle of the growing screenless tracker market. It costs more than the $99 Fitbit Air but less than the $199 Garmin CIRQA, and it does not come with the ongoing membership required by WHOOP.

We recently compared the main options in our screenless fitness tracker buying guide. Luna Band can now join that group with a fairly straightforward pitch: wear it all day, let it collect the data and leave the interpretation to the app.

Small tracker, plenty going on in the app

The Band weighs 24 grams and can be worn on the wrist or upper arm. There is no display, although a vibration motor handles alarms, prompts and other nudges without trying to turn the device into a tiny smartwatch.

It tracks all the usuals, including heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen, skin temperature, sleep and daily activity. Workout features include VO2 max, training load, heart-rate zones and more than 60 sports modes, with automatic detection for a few.

There is no GPS inside the Band, so it uses a connected phone when a route is needed. Luna claims up to ten days of battery life, a one-hour charging time and 5 ATM water resistance.

The hardware is only half of the idea. Luna’s LifeOS software takes the readings and uses them to build a daily plan.

Its Micro Apps cover things such as caffeine timing, hydration, jet lag, fitness age and circadian rhythm. Luna says adding a goal can change what the Band measures, how often it takes readings and the guidance shown in the daily calendar. That sounds useful, but it is also the part that needs the most testing.

We will put those claims to the test

This will not be my first time testing one of the company’s devices. I reviewed the Luna Ring 2 earlier this year and came away fairly impressed by its sleep tracking, battery life and clean app, although exercise heart rate was its obvious weak spot.

The Band gives me an interesting point of comparison because it moves Luna’s sensors from the finger to the wrist or upper arm. The upcoming review will look at whether that helps with workout heart rate while keeping the useful sleep, recovery and coaching features I found on the ring.

There is plenty to like on paper, particularly the ten-day battery claim and lack of a required subscription. For now, the important bit is that Luna Band has moved beyond the waitlist and can finally be ordered in most countries.

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Yes, another score. But this one is pretty easy to understand, and unlike some vague wearable patents, WHOOP has gone as far as showing what the feature could look like inside the app.

WHOOP Movement Score appears in a new patent

The patent application is simply called “Movement Score.” Published on September 3 as US 2026/0256381 A1, it lists WHOOP as the applicant and describes a system for calculating a daily score from periods of activity and inactivity.

The basic idea is pretty straightforward. WHOOP would look at how much time you spend moving, but also pay attention to your longest sedentary stretches. Sitting around for a long uninterrupted period could pull the score down, while spreading movement across the day could push it higher.

The filing even shows an example WHOOP app screen with a Movement Score of 72 and a “Good” rating. Underneath are figures for maximum sedentary time and total active time, followed by a timeline showing periods of activity and inactivity across the day. 

It could warn you before you sit for too long

Of course, WHOOP does not want Movement Score to be something you discover at 10pm when it is too late to change anything. The patent describes notifications during the day based on how the score is developing.

In one example, the system identifies a longest inactive stretch of around 1 hour and 50 minutes when the target is 60 minutes. It could then recommend getting up for a short walk. WHOOP also describes alerts delivered through the wearable itself, potentially including a vibration as the wearer approaches a recommended maximum inactive period.

The system could go further and estimate where your Movement Score is heading before the day has finished. If the projected result looks poor, WHOOP could suggest an activity or change in behaviour that would improve it.

This fits WHOOP pretty well

WHOOP already puts much more emphasis on interpreting data than simply collecting it. Recovery, Strain and Sleep boil a large amount of sensor information down into numbers people can understand quickly, and that remains one of the biggest differences between WHOOP and many of the devices in our screenless fitness tracker comparison.

Movement Score would push that approach into everyday activity. It is less about whether you smashed a workout and more about what you did during the other 15 or 16 waking hours of the day, which is an area fitness wearables have traditionally handled with fairly basic step goals and inactivity alerts.

WHOOP has also been widening its health platform beyond workouts and recovery. The company recently opened Advanced Labs to people without a WHOOP membership, while other filings show it exploring considerably more ambitious measurements.

One recent patent describes non-invasive glucose monitoring, using optical sensing to estimate glucose without puncturing the skin. Another part of WHOOP’s research points toward wearable muscle oxygen measurements and ways of improving sensor contact with the body.

Compared with those ideas, Movement Score looks considerably easier to bring to existing hardware. Nothing described here obviously requires a new sensor, and WHOOP already collects the movement, heart rate, sleep and recovery data needed to build much of the feature.

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