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Smartwatches Have Arrived: Sony’s SmartWatch 2 Is Put To The Test

SmartWatches are the new “It” thing. Of course, wristbands that functioned as more than just a watch is not really new—we’ve all seen one or two timepieces not only fully capable of telling time in maybe twelve different countries, capable of being set to alarm, measure our walking distance, heart-rates, number of steps taken, and so on into infinity. These are usually the kinds of things bought by the truly wealthy or health buffs who want to know what their pulse rate is with every exercise they do.

Sony-SmartWatch-2-pair

All the rest of the more complex processes and features are usually done and found in our smartphones that not only lets us communicate through cell but also through VoIP (get more information about VOIP). It does other things like convert currency, identify a song just by listening to it, and take photos. As they are, they are pretty sufficient and we’re all just started getting used to them, but now there’s a new “smart” product: manufacturers decided to go full sci-fi and imbue wristwatches with the same “smart” capabilities as a smartphone does.

Sony’s SmartWatch to take on Pebble and Metawatch

Recently, the crowdsourced smartwatch Kickstarter called Pebble had received a great deal of acclaim and funding, and was generally considered a success. Pebble had presented itself as a stylish, customizable watch which had a digital touch screen that worked the same way as a smartphone’s touchscreen would. You would be able to customize the watch’s display and watchface, and use apps through it. Apps could be fitness apps, sports apps, and even get social media or email notifications.

Other smartwatches started cropping up (the first of them was actually found as a potential design from Apple’s line of products), and now Sony has decided to not be left out of the SmartWatch 2 is being taken to new heights.

How It Stacks up to the Competition

Now that reviewers have gotten their hands on it, it looks like the Sony SmartWatch has its own pros and cons. For example, the SmartWatch 2 runs on an Android platform. This would be expected, after all—most Sony products do this—but it’s a bit of a disadvantage since the two other well-known SmartWatch names, Pebble and MetaWatch, are capable of handling not just Android apps but iOS apps as well. And since iOS apps are traditionally more superior to their Android counterparts, this could well be a disadvantage for Sony’s new product.

Another big question is battery life. Everyone is used to having a watch that really only gets a battery installed once and it’ll run on without a problem. But those had been ordinary clockwork watches or even digital watches that wouldn’t be demanding so much energy because it lacks complex processes. If smartwatches are to really make a footing in the market, they would have to have impressive battery times that won’t require users perpetually having to charge them. We usually already have enough to charge, what with smartphones, tablets, and laptops everywhere.

smartwatches

According to the specifications of the highest-ranked smartwatches right now, Pebble and MetaWatch have multi-day lifespans, which is really very impressive (even Apple products don’t last for days on end if you have apps running on them nearly full time). Pebble lasts for over a whole week, and MetaWatch lasts for nearly an entire week for a single charge.  Sony’s claim on the SmartWatch 2 is that it has even longer battery times than any other smartwatch in the market. However, from the specs they released, Sony’s watch can only last 5-6 days with low usage, and even less (at 3-4 days) with typical use of apps.

Overall, would you want a watch that does things your smartphone already does? Will the small screen not hinder you from having the rather sci-fi-esque feel of having a computer on your wrist?

Written By

The author juggles being a wife to an engineer and a mother to a witty toddler. In her spare time, she involves herself in getting the word out about the RingCentral office phone system. Find Monique on Google+.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. raj

    August 20, 2013 at 9:37 am

    That is a great news if we can get all these features on a single smartwatch. I am really looking forward to it.

  2. myles

    August 20, 2013 at 3:56 pm

    Yeah smartwatches is the new future. They would be developing soon into more functoins like caling etc.

  3. Simran

    August 21, 2013 at 4:03 am

    Well, Good luck Sony!! It seems like smartwatch war ready to begin as Samsung is also rumored to bring its galaxy gear smartwatch next month.

  4. Erwin

    August 27, 2013 at 7:33 am

    I now know there are so many sophisticated watches almost like a computer. Honestly I want one for myself, but the problem is that most watches products claim that they are the best of the others.

  5. Ansh Yadav

    August 29, 2013 at 6:07 pm

    According to me Pebble and Metawatch is much better than sony smartwatch 2. As Pebble has Operating system on which you can run both android and ios app. But sony watch is build on android latest jelly bean version. But seriously these app soon grab the huge market and try to reduce the impact of smartphone. Because after pebble and meta watch, sony is going to launch the smartwatch. On the other side apple and samsung is preparing for the smart watch. I think samsung watch will be much better. thanks!

  6. Grace

    November 21, 2013 at 4:00 am

    I’ve read an article about Samsung Galaxy gear and I think that would be better than this Sony Smartwatch.

  7. Grace

    November 21, 2013 at 4:01 am

    I’ve read an article about Samsung Galaxy gear and I think that would be better than this Sony Smartwatch..

  8. Quentin

    July 31, 2014 at 5:19 am

    Almost a year later and we still don’t have a good smartwatch available. Limited functionality and poor battery life. Hopefully the iWatch will be better.

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