Smartwatch Thread (news/apps/updates)

BYTEr said:
Hi all,

Can anyone recommend my wife a smartwatch, I haven't got a clue as I've never researched them as I've never felt I needed one, but she's been impressed with some of her work colleagues smartwatches and now wants one for her birthday.

All she has said to me is she wants notifications and the ability to reply/answer texts and phonecalls and that's pretty much it, she's also mentioned being able to use it as a contactless payment method if that's possible.

Budget is around £250 max. If it matters, her current phone is a Samsung S6 Edge and is likely to stick with Samsung phones.

Thanks in advance.
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First of all what phone she got??
 
Thought I'll have a go making my own watch face on Samsung gear S3..

Ended up with :

hCs.jpg


Did submit it to the Samsung shop as a free face but not sure if they'll approve it.. that is if anyone wants it haha :) it's very basic, the orange bars are hour and minute handles.
 
partycan said:
What do you think of your S3 Grudas I've got that and the Huawei Watch 2 on my wishlist to buy one day.

Currently use a Garmin Vivoactive HR but wanting something I interact with a little more.
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It's pretty decent, I'm very happy with it.

I'd say plus points over other watches

Build quality
Rotating bezel is epic
Oled display is great
Samsung pay is useful

Cons mainly

Not android wear so not as much support from app developers, some things are lacking
Not as many quality watch faces compared to android wear
Advertised battery life is not true, even without always on display I get 2.5-3 days. Nowhere near the 4 that's advertised.
 
Since support for my Pebble Steel has been waning and the rebble.io project is taking a while, I looked around at current smart watches.

After searching, and realising you always have to compromise on something, such as features, looks or size, I saw the Huawei W1 is still popular, with a large screen but small dimensions and only really lacks an ambient light sensor and nfc, with possible average battery life being a snapdragon 400, but it has at least been updated to AW2.0.

With it being on offer (effectively £155) I thought I'd give it a go.

First Impressions 7/10
Positives:
- great looking watch
- Amoled screen is lovely
- AW2.0 is surprisingly good
- nice apps
- good untethered functionality, works well with WiFi.
- speaker is very good for ringtones, and even call's / music
- love the choice of watchfaces, I bought M&E and Pujie Black watchfaces creators and tweaked things how I like
- once tweaked, battery life is actually passable (easily over a day)
- It's an even better companion device than my pebble.
- love the array of watch faces and creators
- easy to develop for

Negatives
- you have to put effort in to get over a days battery life
- slight lack of apps still
- Lack of NFC is about all its missing HW wise
- would be nice if Huawei do this with updated hardware in the same form factor
- still some small sw issues during setup (eg using the wrong play store account)


I wish Huawei just kept the form factor but added NFC, ambient light sensor and snapdragon 2100, that would sell by the bucket load IMO.. but for the money, this is great, at close to £150 it's easy to justify.
 
So how often is Android Wear updated in comparison to Android? With O being released, will Wear be based on that sooner or later (as W2.0 is based on Android 7.1.1)?

I bought the LG Watch Sport this week but have disappointing discovered that Android prior to 8.0 does not support Aptx.
 
The Fitbit ionic looks interesting, but it'll come down to how good the app store is, which I'm betting will be pretty much non existent. Be interesting to get more details when it's released in October. Wonder how much of the pebbel is in the OS.
 
Mekrel said:
So how often is Android Wear updated in comparison to Android? With O being released, will Wear be based on that sooner or later (as W2.0 is based on Android 7.1.1)?

I bought the LG Watch Sport this week but have disappointing discovered that Android prior to 8.0 does not support Aptx.
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As wear 2.0 has been out for 6 months and still hasn't had any bug fixes I'd not hold your breath.......
 
The new Gear Sport looks pretty nice, especially for those with small wrists: https://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-gear-sport

Compared to the S3 it lacks LTE and for Samsung Pay only has NFC and no MST (which really doesn't affect the UK). Looks like a good watch for those who wants a cheaper Tizen option.

I'm actually playing with the idea to move to Tizen, seeing as none of the recent AW has made me interested. And AW 2.0 still feels like a mess...
 
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Orcvader said:
The new Gear Sport looks pretty nice, especially for those with small wrists: https://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-gear-sport

Compared to the S3 it lacks LTE and for Samsung Pay only has NFC and no MST (which really doesn't affect the UK). Looks like a good watch for those who wants a cheaper Tizen option.

I'm actually playing with the idea to move to Tizen, seeing as none of the recent AW has made me interested. And AW 2.0 still feels like a mess...
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If this came with a decent Strava APP, I'd buy it. Alas it doesn't, so I'm out.
 
Picked up the new Fossil Gen 3 whilst in the USA. Its missing NFC and a heartrate monitor. But now has a full screen and looks nice.

Very happy with the price I paid. (£147.99 according to my Halifax Card)

20170911_134240.jpg
 
Charlie Bravo said:
Let me know your thoughts on it once you've gotten used to it :)
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Love the display, overall look is very nice much more watch like then some.

Niggles are the charging speed is a bit slow but it lasts the day so that is minor.

Also the crown is the power button / Google assistant button which I keep knocking when moving. But can be solved by securing the watch properly so its a little further up my arm.

Calls on my watch is my favourite :)
 
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