Gatorade's smart water bottle uses sweatiness to gauge when you need to hydrate
The $70 Smart Gx Bottle and Sweat Patch connect to a smartphone app.
Gatorade has designed a smart water bottle to help you determine and maintain your baseline hydration level and monitor your post-workout recovery. A ring of LEDs that runs around the Smart Gx Bottle's cap should allow you to monitor you daily hydration, and gently nudge you to drink more when necessary. You can recharge the bottle using a USB cable. A Gatorade spokesperson told Engadget the bottle is dishwasher safe, but the cap is not.
Naturally, your hydration levels can be tracked through Gatorade's iOS-only Gx App, which features nutrition and training programs as well as recovery recommendations. As for what happens when you drink water from another source and how the app will track that, Gatorade says that's "on the roadmap for launch."
Meanwhile, Gatorade's Sweat Patch, which the company debuted last year, is a single-use wearable that can help you create a "sweat profile" in the app and help track your perspiration. You'll need to use the Sweat Patch to get a hydration report for the Smart Gx Bottle. Alternatively, you can weigh yourself before and after your workout.
To that end, Gatorade sells pods that can be mixed with water to help replenish electrolytes and carbohydrates. They're compatible with the Smart Gx Bottle and regular Gx Bottle, each of which has a piercing mechanism for the pods. In addition, the company offering gummies that it claims can help with recovery and boosting your immune system.
Smart water bottles that can track hydration levels have been around for years, but Gatorade is stepping into the space as a well-known brand. Folks might be more inclined to try one out from a company whose products they've used for years than one that started life as a crowdfunding project.
Engadget Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low has been checking out the Smart Gx Bottle using pre-release software. We'll need to test it out a bit longer to determine how effective it is in tracking hydration levels. It's similar to Gatorade's other bottles in terms of squeezability. However, Cherlynn found that the cap leaks, which isn't a great look. Also, in case you're wondering, Cherlynn says the recovery gummies taste better than expected.
The Smart Gx Bottle is available from Gatorade's website starting today. It costs $70. Gatorade will toss in a Sweat Patch and a pack of four pods of your choice at no extra cost. In case you're interested in the gummies, those will run you $26 for one batch or $46.80 for a bundle.
