Misfit announces Flash, an affordable $49 wearable fitness and sleep tracker

According to Misfit, Flash is a complete reimagining of its original Shine activity monitor, which launched in 2013 as the company's first product. The new fitness monitor offers the same fitness and tracking capabilities as Shine, but at half the price.

The most apparent design departure is the switch from an aluminum chassis to a structure made from polycarbonate and wrapped in "soft touch" thermoplastic polyurethane. While the circular shape remains unchanged, Flash is thicker to accommodate a new push button physical user interface. The device can be placed anywhere on the body using clasps and wrist straps, while the new chassis material brings new bright neon color options.

Unlike Shine, which uses an accelerometer to detect and translate taps into controls, the entire front face of Flash is a large input button. Accumulated motion and time is displayed by 12 red LEDs that shine through the polyurethane covering.

Internally, components are largely the same, with motion tracking sensors, a button cell battery and waterproof seals good down to 30 meters. Like the Shine, Flash also tracks sleep quality and connects to the Misfit iOS app via Bluetooth 4.0.

Today's announcement comes one week after Misfit debuted a developer toolkit in hopes of bringing connected fitness trackers and wellness apps together with a single unified platform.

Flash is scheduled to launch in October at Best Buy, Target, Amazon, Walmart and other partner retailers for $50, while preorders go live today through Misfit's website.