Misfit Vapor risks being vaporware with launch delay

Misfit was perhaps tempting fate when it named what would be its first smartwatch "Vapor". While Fitbit has finally made true its promise to have an honest to goodness, though still debatable, smartwatch, Misfit has yet to deliver on its own word. Now those eagerly awaiting for the Misfit Vapor to actually take flesh will have to wait two months longer, as the company reveals it will be delaying the smartwatch to sometime in October.

If and when it does launch in Fall, it would be 10 months since Misfit first revealed the product. Announced at CES 2017 in January, the Misfit Vapor came at a time when activity tracker makers like Misfit and Fitbit were looking to expand to full smartwatches, despite how the smartwatch market was already dwindling at that time.

But if and when the Misfit Vapor does launch in October, it won't exactly be the same Vapor that was promised back then. Sure, it still has most of the key features, like a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, 4 GB of memory, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (no LTE), all beneath a 1.39-inch circular AMOLED screen.

It will, however, be missing the built-in GPS that would have made the Vapor an all-in-one smartwatch and serious activity tracker. Confirmed by Misfit just two weeks ago, the Vapor will, instead, make use of connected GPS, which means it will need to take geolocation data from a smartphone which, in turn, has to be within wireless distance. So forget about leaving your phone at home for a run.

Large, reduced, and, now, delayed, the Misfit Vapor is slowly turning into something that only ardent fans of the brand might continue to aim for. At $199, if that will still be its price, one can also get an Android Wear perhaps in a better style or maybe even more features, for a slightly higher price.

VIA: The Verge