Lenovo Smartband SW-B100 officially launched as company’s first wearable

Lenovo has quietly revealed the SW-B100 fitness band, marking the company’s first entry into the growing wearable technology market.

Rather than make a big announcement, Lenovo instead posted a listing for the fitness tracker on its online store. First spotted by WindowsCentral, the listing doesn’t exactly go into detail, but does give us an indication of the SW-B100’s basic features. As well as tracking steps, distance, calories, heart rate, and sleep tracking, like other fitness gadgets from the likes of FitBit, Polar and Garmin, the SW-B100 will also notify you of call and text message alerts, appointments, and remind you to exercise regularly.

From the small website images, it looks as though the screen is too small to actually display message text, so will likely point you to your smartphone with a simple notification icon instead. So far, so standard, but the SW-B100 may stand out from other wearables by automatically unlocking a Windows PC when it is within proximity – saving you the need to type in a password.

Because Lenovo has opted for its own software, rather than Google’s Android Wear OS, the SW-B100 should be able to pair with iOS smartphones or tablets as well as Android ones. According to the listing, it is compatible with any Android device running 4.3 Jelly Bean or above, and any iOS device on iOS 7.1 or later.

The SW-B100 should be available in either blue and black or orange and black colours, possibly to match the eye-catching orange Yoga 3 Pro hybrid laptop. Unfortunately Lenovo’s website doesn’t mention price or availability, leaving us to guess at when customers will actually be able to buy one, or for how much. Based on the images, it appears the wearable will be about the same size as Samsung’s Gear Fit, albeit with a simpler, monochrome display – which should hopefully keep the price down.