I’ve Upgraded……..but which bit of tech?

boxed smart watch

I’ve upgraded

Christmas time always brings me some form of new tech, or at least I hope it does. Last year, yes it was last year already, I decided to put a money present to use by upgrading my Android wear. Now there is a lot of speculation about wearable and the lack of uptake etc. so read on and get my views on it and why I have stayed with it.

How it all began?

Well, I have covered this really in my blog about getting the LG G watch and using it to see if it could better my work and life tech experience. You can check it out here. This was always a first generation watch and was expensive when it first came out, but also rather limited in what it could do, still as per my blogs on the usage of it I found that it became part of my everyday activities and it was now something that when my watch strap broke on one occasion I felt I couldn’t function as well without it. So it became a part of how I handled my daily tech and all the emails and social media I deal with.

So why Upgrade?

I did, however, realise that it was limited and the next generation of devices was out there and when funding permitted I would upgrade to a more recent version of Android Wear and see what the new features would offer me. My son had told me he had researched and ordered the Huawei W1 watch. I had known about this watch but the price was very high when launched and not something I would invest in. However checking the deals around Christmas I found it at a reasonable price and purchased it. To the chants of you copied me, dad. (OH, well)

December excitement

I was lucky enough that the supplier delivered before Christmas and I have been using it for around 3 weeks now. I opened and set it up quickly and hence no unboxing video, but the photos show the impressive box and the kit inside. It felt like quality indeed.

Specifications

Here are the specs for the watch: –

Body 42x42x11.3mm
Build Stainless Steel (Cold forged 316L)

IP67 certified – dust and water resistant

Water-resistant up to 1 metre and 30 minutes

18mm straps

Display AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours

1.4inch

400×400 pixels (286 ppi density)

Multitouch: -Yes

Sapphire crystal glass

Always on screen

Platform Android Wear OS
Chipset Qualcomm MSM8926 Snapdragon 400
CPU Quad Core 1.2Ghz Cortex – A7
GPU Adreno 305
Memory 4Gb internal, 512Mb RAM
Sound Vibration, MP3, WAV Ringtones

Loudspeaker: – Yes

COMMS WLAN 802.11 b/g

Bluetooth V4.1, LE

Features Accelerometer, gyro, heart rate, barometer

Messaging: – SMS, Email, IM

Fast Charging

MP3 Player

Photo Viewer

Voice dial/ Commands

Battery Li-Ion 300 mAh battery

Talk Time: – 48 hours (mixed usage)

Misc. Various strap options available on purchase.

 

These knock the first generation LG G watch into a cocked hat so my excitement is beyond bounds. I know I am a GEEK.

What do you get?

The box as you can see is amazing and reflects the top end price.

smart watch opened up 1

smart watch opened up 2Inside this nice looking package was the following: –

  • Outer shell box with all the labels and tech details
  • Inner box with spring loaded flip open lid
  • “Timeless design, smart within”, as the tagline in the lid.
  • Top watch mounting padded shelf, Watch was fastened to this with cover on screen for protection, this was in the removable inner section and had two metal pins to remove shelf from box
  • Inner section now has a tab the lifts the small container holding the handbook and manual
  • Under this is the charger and charging cable and base, all in white.
  • The whole package felt of quality and the weight was quite substantial, even when empty.

smart watch unboxed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ordered the leather strap and wore this until my metal replacement arrived after Christmas. So now have two straps that are very easily changeable due to the small pins with pull sections allowing quick strap changes. Even this is a clever idea.

strap removal pins

Easy strap removal pins

Usage

The watch had to be charged and, I have, to be honest, the claim of fast charging is amazing, it charges in no time at all. I then went through connecting it to my phone via Android Wear and this was painless and happened easily. I had disconnected my old LG G watch and asked it to forget it. Then paired up the new watch. All went well. The watch itself comes with 48 watch faces to choose from so no hunting initially for a new watch face, my LG had a rectangular face so now needed circular one. Some lovely build in options….

watch face

It works a treat and gives me the extra options of heart rate monitor and answering phones calls on the watch not even needing to remove my phone from my pocket. To be honest, I have only done this once so far at home, but it went well and I could hear the caller and they could hear me. Useful indeed. I and my phone were in different rooms.

The other thing is that this particular model is one that Android Wear have been using to create Android Wear 2 that is due to launch this year. The rumours say this will create much more functionality and allow you to do even more things. I am now a convert to using a smart watch and think that I will always use one unless the whole project gets dropped. I now glance at it every time an email or post comes in and can vet if it needs an instant response or can be dealt with later. I can mute my phone from my watch and even locate my phone from my watch. Open the camera on my phone and see it on my watch for photos etc. I am still finding all the things I can do but I feel this has been a great investment and look forward to the things I will find over the coming months and the upgrade to Android Wear 2 when it comes out.

Wearable tech what are your thoughts?