Brookstone Leaks Fitbit Surge Smartwatch

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There have been previously been leaked tidbits on Fitbit’s upcoming Surge smartwatch, but none as blatant as the page that briefly appeared on the site of online retailer Brookstone this weekend. The pre-order page has since been removed but not before some sneaky fanciers of smartwatches had the chance to snap a screen shot of the Fitbit Surge.

That leak from Brookstone revealed just about everything you’d want to know about the wearable device, most notably that Fitbit Surge occupies that territory in between a fitness watch and a smartwatch. There are all the usual fitness-related features but several that you’d expect to find on an Android smartwatch, too.

There’s a nice big touchscreen that has ample room for call and text notifications via Bluetooth plus controlling your music player or swiping through your workout stats. The long list of fitness features on the Surge include a built-in GPS that acts independently from your phone so you can leave it at home when you go out running. There’s also the expetced heart-rate sensor and sleep tracker.

One of the better selling points of the Fitbit Surge is the battery life—up to a week. The watch is compatible with 120 mobile devices from Apple, Android or Windows. The Surge runs Fitbit’s own software rather than Android Wear, which could mean a much shorter list of available add-on apps. One detail missing from the Brookstone page was the price, which is rumored to be about $250.

If this sounds like a great gift for that marathon runner on your holiday list, don’t get excited yet. The Fitbit Surge won’t actually go on sale until sometime in 2015. While we’ll have to wait until next year for the Surge and the Apple Watch, Microsoft may have a smartwatch on the market in time for the 2014 holiday shopping season.

Numerous fairly reliable sources are reporting that Microsoft will be releasing a wearable device just in time to make those holiday wish lists. Estimates of the release date start as early as this week, but these are just rumors with nothing confirmed yet. This would certainly be a smart move for Microsoft since it would mark one of the few times that the lagging company could get the jump on archrival Apple.

Parmy Olson of Forbes dished this scoop on the Microsoft wearable: “The gadget is a smartwatch that will passively track a wearer’s heart rate and work across different mobile platforms. It will also boast a battery life of more than two days of regular use, sources close to the project say.

“The wearable will hit stores soon after launch in a bid to capture the lucrative holiday season, a timeline Apple was reportedly targeting before it delayed its own Watch to early 2015.”

If the Microsoft smartwatch does make its debut in time for this year’s annual shopping extravaganza, the price should be around $240.