Lets WATCH…Sony Smartwatch

If you thought Android was meant only for smart phones or tablets, think again. It’s open source nature has helped it transcend a variety of devices, small or big. The latest addition to the list being  Sony’s nifty Smart Watch which is supposed to be the perfect companion to your existing Sony Xperia device. It has Android on top of it but is merely a smartphone remote.

This smart watch has touch screen with a 1.3 inch, 139ppi OLED display and a clip which you can place on a largely comfortable silicone wrist band. It connects to the smartphone via bluetooth. This smart watch is capable of retrieving all emails, SMS’s, Facebook and Twitter updates from certain apps on your Android 2.1 to 2.3 phone. ICS users have reported patchy functionality.

Design

It measures 1.42 x 1.42 inches with a weight of about half an ounce.  It also has a large, sturdy looking clip to assist in attaching the watch to any apparel or belts. I have to admit, it does resemble the 6th generation Apple iPod Nano. The device comes with one strap and you can get more straps at an eye-watering $20.

As A Watch

A watch is meant to tell you time whenever you look at it and this one fails miserably at that part. You have to unlock the device like you would any Android device, just to get the time. But this is what is necessary to conserve battery and make the device functional.

As a smartphone assistant

The smart watch vibrates and posts updates on screen according to the events or incoming texts or calls as and when received. This smart watch is like a mini remote of your Smartphone and when connected via Bluetooth can help you regulate your basic phone activities when you’re at a go and cannot access the phone directly. The vibrate feature of the phone is particularly useful in tending to the calls you’d have otherwise missed out.

But for anything significant, you will have to reach out for your smartphone.

Applications

Sony has developed a LiveWire app framework that communicates with external devices and not just watches. It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of this. The device is compatible with certain music, social networking and fitness apps. There are apps that display particular events in order of their occurrence, for messaging, Gmail, set reminders, tracing your Smartphone and battery power. For Sony smart phones, there is an app available to connect onto the corporate e-mail and also for diverse call handling functions.

There is one “prime app” which commands over a set of application programs, which controls what function the watch is supposed to carry. Like for example, in order to access the weather updates you need to put in a weather application programme. The Vfinder app allows you to use the camera of the smartphone as a live video feed. The twitter app is not much of a use and can be quite distracting as it sends an alert of all updates including those minute ones which are not of importance. The confusing gesture system will definitely enable an accident tweet atleast once before you get used to it.

PROS

Slick design

Decent Social Integration

Comfortable

Decent Battery Life

CONS

Limited Apps

Average Display

Bad Watch

BOTTOMLINE

Though the information from your Smartphone is at an arm’s distance but the versatility of the device is questionable. It’s useless without a Smartphone and until you synchronize your phone with the device it is not capable of even stating the time. This Smart Watch is not even that smart, the thickness of the gadget is more than those of your normal wrist watches. The good news lies here that the phone makes it lucid and user friendly to use this watch and they synchronize their data to the phone freely. 

Overall this touch friendly Smart Watch is a pretty decent buy for all those who have to have the latest technology. This is a good to have product, definitely not a must have.

This is a guest post by Alia Haley who is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and autos. Beside this, she is fond of cars and fancy accessories.