One would think that deciding which smartwatch to get would be rather similar to smartphones: as in out of three things – low price, features, and battery life – but you can only have two of these three. But there are two key differences at least: firstly, most smartphones today have got decent to superb display screens, but smartwatches, even the very expensive ones, can still be using pretty bad screens. Secondly, we keep our phones in our bags, pockets when it’s not in use. Smartwatches should be on our wrists all the time, battery recharging notwithstanding – which in turn runs up the need for the smartwatch to look good.
I’ve been using the Samsung Gear Sport for 10 months now. Aside from a couple of dings and nicks from wear and tear on the watch’s bezel, the watch is still a stunning looker and the rotating bezel and Amoled screen remain two of the watch’s key highlights.
If there’s anything to complain about the Gear Sport, it’s the battery life. To be fair, the (Android) Wear OS and Apple Watch offerings are no better, and for the most part, even worse with most barely eking out just a day before needing a recharge. The Gear Sport can still reliably run up to 1.5 days in normal use. But I’ve been wanting to try a smartwatch where I don’t have to worry about charging so much, but don’t have to spend a lot of money either on it.
So, some notes leading up to a decision:
As it is, the Android Wear watches are just absolutely rotten in battery life. Honestly: having to recharge the watch every day is no fun: it basically, at some subconscious level at least, reminds that you’re wearing something extraneous that needs to be taken off your wrist everyday. I’ve had two Android Wear watches so far – the LG G Watch R that Ling bought me for my birthday + the Huawei Watch – and I’m extremely cautious about ever returning to Android Wear watches now. The new Android Wear OS 3 looks promising, but we’ll have to wait for the next wave of watches that is native to this OS version and also an upcoming next gen processor to see if the new OS brings about desperately needed improvements to battery life. Sadly, it seems that the Huawei Watch is not in the line for an upgrade to Wear OS .
The Apple Watch series has pretty slick UI and is also full-featured, like Android Wear – but also pretty bad in battery life. Besides, those devices are best coupled with iPhones, and I’m not a fruit-phone user. Finally, I also prefer round-face watches than square ones, which Apple exclusively uses. So there LOL.
I’ve been taking a close look at the Fitbits and Garmin, but they don’t appeal for one reason or another. The Fitbit Versa made the short-list, but what finally held me back from it was its price – though there was a fantastic bargain on Qoo10 that saw the watch listed for around SGD250 compared to the usual SGD308. The Garmin high-ends – e.g. Garmin Fenix watches – offer fantastic battery, but their display screens are just awful.
I also took a close look at the offerings from No. 1, the Chinese manufacturer of budget-friendly and feature-heavy smartwatches. The prices on their huge range of watches are really attractive, but the screens on the ones listed for consideration were invariably bad too.
And finally, the newly released Samsung Galaxy Watch improves on the Series 3 and Sport’s battery life: the 46mm version of the Watch now runs at least 2-3 days on normal use. It’s an improvement, but not enough since I intend the second watch to be used alongside my Gear Sport.
So, all said and done: I decided on a cheapo Amazfit Bip. More to come on it when it gets delivered!
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