Smartwatch Thread (news/apps/updates)

deuse said:
I wear my watch on my left wrist. As said, never had your problem. The screen to me is great. I use watchmaker\Mylondon for watch faces
and they look great(so people have told me).
I have Google assistant activation on the top button. I've had most of the smart watches and I like the LG watch sport the best.
When the new watches come out I hope they have GPS\Sim card space\Android Pay\NFC ect.
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That's because you've swapped the buttons around then. Either way, the crown shouldn't be activated by simple wrist movements like typing on a computer keyboard.

I bought the LG Watch Sport for everything you've listed, although I don't think it utilises most of those features as well as it could have.

GPS - Not very accurate, a 5K run on the exact same course can differ by over 200m at times. That's a big error rate and as I pointed out, there's no software for wear that provides features I would expect at this price point. Garmin watches offer said features at this price point and that's not forgivable considering this is marketed as a sports watch.

NFC - the watch is so slow it takes an unacceptable time to load Android Pay. I find myself having to load it as the person before me is finishing being served, otherwise I look like a right burke trying to pay with my watch when I could get my contactless debitcard out quicker.

I've lost count of the amount of times I've tapped something on the UI, only for the spinning blue circle to come up for so long that the watch goes back to sleep.

It might be the best smart watch you've had but that's not exactly an accolade. Everything has been running on old silicon, made on an old manufacturing process. No wonder WearOS is struggling when it's flagship product (designed in partnership with Google too) is this bad. I think I paid £280 end of August last year as it wasn't officially available in the UK and I can't say it was money well spent.
 
Mekrel said:
That's because you've swapped the buttons around then. Either way, the crown shouldn't be activated by simple wrist movements like typing on a computer keyboard.

I bought the LG Watch Sport for everything you've listed, although I don't think it utilises most of those features as well as it could have.

GPS - Not very accurate, a 5K run on the exact same course can differ by over 200m at times. That's a big error rate and as I pointed out, there's no software for wear that provides features I would expect at this price point. Garmin watches offer said features at this price point and that's not forgivable considering this is marketed as a sports watch.

NFC - the watch is so slow it takes an unacceptable time to load Android Pay. I find myself having to load it as the person before me is finishing being served, otherwise I look like a right burke trying to pay with my watch when I could get my contactless debitcard out quicker.

I've lost count of the amount of times I've tapped something on the UI, only for the spinning blue circle to come up for so long that the watch goes back to sleep.

It might be the best smart watch you've had but that's not exactly an accolade. Everything has been running on old silicon, made on an old manufacturing process. No wonder WearOS is struggling when it's flagship product (designed in partnership with Google too) is this bad. I think I paid £280 end of August last year as it wasn't officially available in the UK and I can't say it was money well spent.
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As said I don't have your problems.
I always do a factory reset when I get a new update. We should be getting Wear OS Android P soon.
 
@Iron-man
@MarcLister
@David Flett
I know you guys were interested in this watch and asked for feedback.

Shot write-up after a week of the Amazfit Bip

Look & Feel
It's very light. I haven't worn (or owned) a watch in over a decade because I never got on with the weight of a watch and wearing one whilst at a desk. However, with the Amazfit Bip, I forget i'm wearing it sometimes.
Despite the fact it's light, it feels good and strong. The body is polycarbonate and zirconium ceramic alloy and the screen is that super-duper corning gorilla glass everyone's using. I've wanged it on a few things already (as I said, forget i'm wearing it sometimes) and there isn't a single mark.

The strap is just your run-of-the-mill silicone sports strap but the watch takes standard 20mm straps if you choose to replace it.

The display and GUI is as expected for such a cheap smartwatch, simple, a bit laggy and you have to get used to how you need to swipe as the watch has a bezel so the touch is not edge-to-edge. However, it's clear and has backlight-on-lift.

You can change the watchface, never really liked any of the default ones but you can download and install hundreds (using an Android phone).
Watchfaces:https://amazfitwatchfaces.com/bip/
Guides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC1Qt1nP0NM & https://gadoga.com/en/how-to-install-change-amazfit-bip-watch-face-xiaomi-huami.html

Battery
Good lord. After a week of playing with the watch and having steps and HR on all the time it was down to 72%. So you should be able to get 3 weeks out of it or 2 weeks of using the GPS frequently.

Functionality
  • Date & Time (derr)
  • HR monitor
  • Step Counter
  • Weather (sync from phone)

You can start a few activities from the watch
  • Outdoor Running
  • Treadmill (disables GPS I assume)
  • Cycling
  • Walking
Some additional functions
  • Sleep Analysis via HR and the Mi-Fit app and/or Apple Health
  • Alarm
  • timer
  • Compass (inc elevation and barometer etc)
This is a lot for a very cheap smartwatch, especially when you consider it has GPS built-in, GLONASS None the less!

Regarding HR, Steps and GPS accuracy. To be honest, these seem just as accurate as a fitbit, comparing to my friends. So nothing to worry about there.

You cannot control (or at least I can't) music with the Amazfit Bip. I use an iPhone. Not sure on Android, there may be a way.

Notifications
I use it with an iPhone and get notifications from:
  • Phone calls (+ option to reject call)
  • Messages
  • What's App
  • Facebook Messenger
  • BBC News
  • Other Apps*

There's an option to get notifications from other apps. This is rather vague, but basically anything that shows on my phone as a banner or on lock screen, will show on the Amazfit Bip. Apart from the iPhone's Mail app for some annoying reason..

You cannot respond/reply to messages. But you can view a history of recent by swiping down on the watch.


My Pros & Cons
+ Cheap!
+ No worries about damage as it was cheap but is also quite robust
+ Looks smart despite it's price
+ It's got all the standard essential functions
+ Readings are generally as accurate as some more expensive competitors
+ Loads of Watch faces
+ Battery Life
+ Community

- Bezel, would be nice to have a bigger screen
- No Apple Mail notification, for some reason
- Cannot respond to messages
- No music control, at least with iPhone
- Not really much else at this price.

I really liked the look of the pebble and wanted one but it was too late. This is a good alternative, especially given the community surrounding it.

Would I pay the full £60 for it? Maybe, but an absolute steal £50 and stupid not to at the £38.99 I got it at.
 
Do any waterproof smart watches allow touch screen operation under the water ? or is that an anathema. (the capacitative or resistiive techs don't work)
EDIT seems not
why - I am looking for manually counting swimming lengths (same as running splits), so either need a physical button or a touch screen working under water,
just tapping a touch screen with a finger would be great.
I was considering an older style less smart casio watch with physical button, but maybe smart can work.
 
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Im looking at picking up my first smart watch at the moment and wanted a bit of advice. Im looking ~£200 maximum and think im set on Wear OS as I have a oneplus 3 phone.

Main things im looking for is notifications from all my apps and the health and fitness side, such as step counter and heart rate monitor would be handy too. NFC for google pay and GPS. I don't have the biggest wrists so not too big.

After much reading up online in a bit torn between the Ticwatch pro and the Huawei watch 2 what do you think? I want it to look like "normal watch" so nothing like a fitbit please.
 
peter212693 said:
Thanks ahar, I read a couple of reviews about it being slow sometimes, shame because that looked the nicer watch.
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it is slow and frustrating.

it's a nice watch dont get me wrong but something like galaxy s3 frontier or classic with tizen os run a million times better and actually work really well(had my s3 frontier for a year so now)

I've got a huawei watch 2 now and it's not bad but as per my previous comments I think Wear OS has nothing on samsungs tizen OS which is just smoother and more polished.

works fine with my google pixel too, you don't need a samsung phone.
 
I liked the idea of the more "open" aspect of wear OS then tizan but I dont really know.

Does samsung pay work as well as Google Pay? I do like the rotating bezel of the samsungs though.
 
peter212693 said:
I liked the idea of the more "open" aspect of wear OS then tizan but I dont really know.

Does samsung pay work as well as Google Pay? I do like the rotating bezel of the samsungs though.
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haven't really used it much but the principle is the same as google pay, just check that the banks you use support it.

wear os might be open but its a very crap experience. Tizen just seems to work better overall.

things that totally drive me nuts about WEAR OS -;

Can't change alarm sound
fitness sync between "insert watch makes health app" and google fit is not existent
watch faces are usually gimmicky and dont work well as far as fitness/hr etc data works
laggy in certain scenarios
not as polished/user friendly/UX feels non existent.

things I like about wear OS -;

more choice in app store if that's what you want but Tizen covers the watch face choice really well, not so much external fitness apps, mapping etc but I have never needed to use any of that.
 
peter212693 said:
Im looking at picking up my first smart watch at the moment and wanted a bit of advice. Im looking ~£200 maximum and think im set on Wear OS as I have a oneplus 3 phone.

Main things im looking for is notifications from all my apps and the health and fitness side, such as step counter and heart rate monitor would be handy too. NFC for google pay and GPS. I don't have the biggest wrists so not too big.

After much reading up online in a bit torn between the Ticwatch pro and the Huawei watch 2 what do you think? I want it to look like "normal watch" so nothing like a fitbit please.
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I would go with the huawei watch 2 out of them. You can get the huawei watch 2 when they have the offers for about £170.
Also huawei watch 2 is getting Android wear P.
 
Thanks guys, I had ruled out Samsung but something in the back of my mind was telling me it looks more refined and a slightly better experience. I don't want loads of apps on it to be honest just a bit of fitness, ability to pay and notifications I might out Samsung back in the running.
 
peter212693 said:
Thanks guys, I had ruled out Samsung but something in the back of my mind was telling me it looks more refined and a slightly better experience. I don't want loads of apps on it to be honest just a bit of fitness, ability to pay and notifications I might out Samsung back in the running.
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I think you will have to use Samsung pay.
I had a S3 and the OS was great. But the apps for it are crap. That's why I got a LG watch sport.
 
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