The new Microsoft Band 2 is here and it actually looks pretty sick

Microsoft entered the wearables market pretty quickly last year, and it definitely showed. Although he Microsoft Band was a decent device, because of how rushed the development was, Microsoft made a lot of mistakes with it and wasn’t able to deliver on all of its promises. Fortunately, Microsoft seems to have learned from its mistakes, because the new Band 2 that it announced this morning actually looks enticing. The curved screen is definitely a visual improvement, but it’s the improved hardware and software that really has me interested, such as a plethora of new sensors and a heavy focus on integration with Cortana and Microsoft’s cloud-based Health platform. 

Last year, the Microsoft dove straight into the wearables market with an ambitious device that unfortunately didn’t live up to its promise. Here’s round 2, the new Microsoft Band. The new Band is a more premium product than before. It’s got a curved screen, capped by some Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The new Band inherits the tracking features from the previous band, including GPS, UV exposure, steps, heartrate. The Band adds a new barometer, which can track your elevation. As with Microsoft’s other Windows 10 devices, there’s a focus on Cortana integration. It’s supposedly improved this time around—that’s welcome because Microsoft’s assistant was a little too slow to be useful last time around. As with the last edition, the big promise of the Band is the integration with Microsoft’s cloud-based Health platform, which can crunch your data and give you meaningful insights. Microsoft is pushing the fitness smarts of the band really hard: not only was the presenter moonlighting as a half-Ironman triathlete, but the new Band can even estimate your VO2 Max. That’s a measure of your body’s maximum capacity to use oxygen, and is an incredibly important number to know if you’re participating in intensely aerobic sports.