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Peloton Row is a smart rowing machine that costs $3,195
But can it beat the Hydrow and Concept2?
Peloton is today announcing its long-awaited entry into the smart ergometer market with Peloton Row. Much like the firm’s other products, Row is a smart rowing machine with a 24-inch HD display onto which you can watch live classes. The company is making its usual noises about a premium piece of hardware that promises better customization than its competition.
Row is belt driven, much like its ostensible rival in this space, the Hydrow, which has a similar silhouette. That offers a fine-grain, electronically-controlled resistance — at odds with the broader resistance you’ll find on air rowers, of which Concept2 provides the gold standard. Peloton also says that Row can offer individually-calibrated on-screen feedback on your form as you row.
(This is something I’m particularly interested in exploring myself, given that my usual form issues are related to rounding over my back, rather than how I’m pulling the chain. Unless there’s some Peloton Guide-esque computer vision stuff that the company hasn’t mentioned in the Row's press release that might identify real-world issues. Speaking of which, Guide is also getting an update this week to include rep tracking.)
You’ll also get personal pace targets to help you gauge what your instructors are bellowing at you to do through the screen. Not to mention a whole bunch of data that’ll be slapped onto you after each row, giving you performance metrics that should help you improve in future. (Rowers are, if nothing else, nerds for some good data.)
Of course, like most at-home fitness gear these days, Peloton is also making a big deal that you can stow this thing vertically. And that it’s brought on a raft of new instructors, with a series of pre-recorded classes available on-demand, while live classes will start in 2023. Plus, like other Peloton products, you can swivel the display to work out with free weights or any other class of your choice.
As for the price, Peloton is asking $3,195, plus the cost of the monthly $44 per month membership for all of the content. The company hasn’t yet mentioned if Row will join its rental program, although it’s likely that the initial wave of devices will be needed to service the demand of folks who’ve been waiting for Peloton to join the rowing world for some time now.
