Let's talk about smart watches!

[WuddaWaste]

My vibration motor is starting to go out and I just realized that most Android smart watches have vibration as a feature. Rather than performing open-phone surgery, this sounds like an awesome and geeky alternative.

Does anyone have a smart watch? Is anyone else in the market? What have you learned? Help me, dudes!


[Edit]
My attention span sucks. I just bought an M26 watch because it was on sale at GearBest. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

[Trenzalore]

Haha. Open-phone surgery.

I came back to this thread to mention the Otium watches. They sounded quite nice.
Anyway, looking forward to your comments on the M26.
That actually looks way cooler than the typical boxy ones.

[fantastico]

I have ever met one named Snopow W1. Handsome exterior and waterproof. And i really would like to read your text review about the M26. Just think that smart watch comes pretty conveniently

[WuddaWaste]

It's only been two weeks or so, but I'm regretting not paying for faster shipping. I'm getting antsy.

Unrelated story, last week I was at a friend's party. She and her husband are both extraordinarily kind and wonderful people. I'm talking to the husband about how cool-looking his watch is. Not more than 5 seconds into the conversation, he pauses me, runs into the bedroom, and comes back with another one. Dude's trying to give me a Pebble that he'd bought for his wife. They're both insistent that I take it, but it really is too big of a gift. I cannot accept. Great guys, though. And I'm crazy lucky to have such awesome friends.

.....back on topic. I can't wait to get this watch. Hehe.

Also, link to other watch review thread: [Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register]

[WuddaWaste]

Alright, so I just got the M26 smart watch. Picked it up less than an hour ago. Immediate first impression: this thing is cool, but I doubt I'll use it.

Rather than installing the .apk from some unknown FTP, I got the most similar sounding one on Google Play. It's at least one layer of security, right?

The watch itself is reasonably good-looking. It's definitely on the larger side of watches, but not distractingly clunky. If I saw any other male wearing this or similar, I wouldn't think twice about it. The unfortunate downside is that I haven't worn a watch on my wrist in about 10 years. I forgot how much I dislike this feeling. Perhaps as the rest of the day goes on I'll get more used to it.

Syncing the watch to my phone was no issue at all. Downloaded the APK, paired over bluetooh, and we were ready to go.

I have the volume on the watch (and phone) turned off. My main reason for having this device was to get a tactile buzz when receiving a call or message. So far, so good. SMS and phone calls both buzz the M26, and I can read / answer / reject calls accordingly.

We will see.

[Trenzalore]

Hey you got it!

Ah haha. Well you might get used to it, is it very heavy to be distracting?
Cool, it can handle answering calls? Excellent. Sounds really good. I hope it puts up.
How's battery life so far?

I can only read about smartwatches and appreciate them from afar. I am just skin and bones -- even regular sized watches look mighty large on my arm. I have zero hope with chunky smartwatches. :|

[WuddaWaste]

Good questions, @Trenzalore . Thanks dudes for reading my musings.

The watch is not heavy at all. In fact, it's probably one of the lightest watches I've ever owned. It's probably the same weight as any other mens plastic watch.

I'm certain it can handle answering calls, but unfortunately 99% of of my communication is done via SMS / Messenger / Hangouts so I haven't had a chance yet. According to the specs, it can answer a call. And it has a mic, so I'm going to go with "yes". I'll update this thread with another addendum as soon as someone freaking calls me. Hehe. (I did take a call last night, but it was while I was driving home so it was routed through my car's Bluetooth.)

Battery life is awesome so far. 30 minutes of charging and it's lasted well over a day.

I should probably re-emphasize that I dislike the feel of it simply because it's a watch. It's one more thing to wear. It's one more thing to charge. It's one more thing to think about. The only thing I really wanted it for was to get the vibration alerts with incoming messages -- which it does -- but I question whether or not I'm willing to jump through the other hoops in order to have that single luxury.

You're lucky you have a small build, Trenzalore. If you rock a slim-fit tailored suit, you'll have to fight the ladies off with a freaking stick. No need for a watch. They'd just claw it off of you anyway. ;)

[Trenzalore]

Yeah, that did cross my mind. It would be a hassle to have to charge it every so often just to have a functional watch. In your case, it might slip your mind more easily because its not a constant thing for you (wearing a watch).

For regular wearers, it could be the thin line between a good and a bad day to forget to charge the watch or have it run out of battery.

Thanks for updating this thread. These Chinese smart watches really struck my curiosity. Its a fairly recent market...although similar build to smartphones, it is still a significantly different piece of tech, so very interesting to see how they fare. Its nice to hear feedback from a user, pretty detailed feedback, too. its not like those from the random store comment sections that sound more like planted comments than user feedback haha.

Great thread!

[WuddaWaste]

Alright. An update on battery life.

I charged the watch roughly 9 hours ago. After a full day of use, it still appears to have 90%+ charge on the watch. I wouldn't be surprised if it lasted several days.

My phone, on the other hand, is a different story. Keeping the bluetooth connected is basically preventing the phone from going into deep sleep. The battery difference has been significant.

I did a little Google-Fu and found that having a background synch between the device and the phone could be responsible for significant battery drain. I went to see if there was function like that in my app's settings. (Keep in mind, this is the app from the Google Play Store and not the app which the manufacturer said I should sideload.) The "Engrish" on the phone was kind of sketch, but I did see a somewhat similar setting.

SYNCHRONIZATION
Close the media audio
Closed the media audio for saving power. [x]

This box was originally checked. This setting is kind of ambiguous. Hopefully unchecking the box will alleviate the power drain issue.

[WuddaWaste]

Alright. I officially have a kind of love-hate thing with this watch.

The battery drain issue is fixed. My phone drains at a normal rate now. The tick box must have fixed it, because the MTK Bluetooth dropped completely out of my battery monitor as the leading cause of drain and everything is good.

I've had numerous compliments on the style of this watch. I even mentioned that I thought it was too big, but the people I was with insisted it went well with my "mojo".

I can definitely take calls through the watch. I've done it inadvertently twice now. The calls come through loud and clear. Loud enough for everyone within 25 feet of me to hear. Even though it'd be a sweet feature for the right person, I wish I could disable it altogether for me.

I can also play music through the watch. I have done this inadvertently as well. Loud and clear.

After 30 hours of use, the watch's battery is about 70%.

I guess my biggest beef is that the watch simply does too much. It does everything I want it to, but all the extras I find annoying. I wish I had some advanced settings to disable 90% of what this thing is trying to do. I also wish it had a smaller footprint. Bluetooth pairing seems kind of buggy right now. It works well 95% of the time. Every time it pairs it re-sets the setting to route my calls through the watch instead of through the phone (or through my car).

Even though the watch is pretty awesome, I suspect I'll continue to use this for another week tops before losing interest altogether. Stupid crappy attention span.