When I say “fitness tracker” or “smartwatch”, I’m pretty sure Asus isn’t the first name that would pop in your mind. Instead, Asus is mostly known for its outrageous gaming laptops and gaming phones. Or more recently, the $3500 ZenBook 17 Fold OLED laptop with a foldable touchscreen. But the new Asus VivoWatch 5 Aero deserves your attention.

Asus VivoWatch 5 Aero Overview:

Unveiled at IFA 2022, this is the world’s first fitness tracker that can take ECG readings simply by placing the fingertip on the sensor.

What is ECG?

ECG or EKG (Electrocardiogram) basically tests your heart’s rhythm and electrical signal. And it can be an important identifier of your heart health, such as detecting arrhythmia (irregular heartbeats), coronary heart disease, and more. And we’ve already seen a bunch of smartwatches that can take ECG readings before the Asus VivoWatch 5 Aero. Like the Apple Watch Series 7, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 series, Fitbit Sense/Sense 2, and more.

Anyway, this fitness tracker has dual ECG and PPG sensors to measure your pulse transit time, heart rate levels, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), and more. And to take an ECG reading, you can simply place your fingerprint on the sensor right below the display for a while. Other than this, Asus has not clarified how the tech works or anything, so we can’t speak about its reliability to any degree yet.

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Other features of the Asus VivoWatch 5 Aero includes sleep tracking and snore detection. It also has a built-in G-Sensor (Gravity) and GPS so that it can track your workouts more effectively. Talking about workouts, it supports 9 of them in total—including running, jogging, swimming, cycling, treadmill, dancing, yoga, and more. And all your health data syncs up with the Asus HealthConnect app, which is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Besides this, the VivoWatch 5 Aero has most of your typical smartwatch features too. Like app notifications, weather info, remote camera shutter, etc. As you can see from the image, it has a pretty small display (presumably OLED)—even for a fitness tracker. But I guess that was a necessary sacrifice to accommodate the ECG sensor up front.

How much will the Asus VivoWatch 5 Aero cost?

Unfortunately, that’s all we know about the Asus VivoWatch 5 Aero for now. The company is keeping many details about this fitness tracker in the hush-hush. Like the display size, weight and dimensions, battery life, and more. As such, we don’t know about its price or availability either. But rumors suggest that Asus could be eyeing a December launch for this guy.

• Meanwhile, check out our pick for the best budget smartwatches of 2022