Sony SmartWatch Review

An area which interests me greatly is wearable technology. It’s no secret to those that know me that I am an absolute sucker for these sorts of accessories. On a recent visit to Hong Kong I picked up one such item – the Sony SmartWatch. Having used the SmartWatch now for almost two weeks it is now time to review my newest gadget.

The Sony SmartWatch is a device which connects to your Android phone via Bluetooth. It does this via a free app downloadable from the Play Store – Smart Connect. Once you install and pair the watch you can download a series of other apps which enable it to ‘talk’ to your phone applications such as Messages, Email, Music Player, Weather etc. The process is a little tedious as you must do it one at a time. It would have been better if Sony bundled all these applications into a single app then the user could enable/disable the ones they which wish to use (or not use). There are some third party applications on the Play Store also for the watch such as a Calculator. The watch also gets the time and date from the phone so if you go into a different timezone with your phone and it updates it will update on the watch also.

The Smart Connect application on the phone allows the user customise where each app on the watch is located and also set up the applications (e.g. location for the weather app, facebook/twitter sign in). Not all devices are supported so if you’re unsure if your phone is, check the compatibility list on the Sony website. It seems HTCs in particular don’t play nice.

Sony SmartWatch

Navigation on the phone is simple enough. You can double tap the screen to turn it on or press the button on the side. Then tap on the application you want to use. To go back to the previous screen use the pinch gesture usually associated with zooming out. I find there is a little bit of lag going back as you can see refresh icons for a split second upon doing so. Swiping down brings the widget view and down is the watch’s “app drawer”. Occasionally I find the touch panel to be unresponsive so you have to give it a firmer tap compared to one required on say a phone or tablet.

The one particular feature I love this device for is being able to reject or silence a call from the watch. It works like a charm and saves me taking out the phone from my pocket in meetings. There is no speaker on the device however it vibrates so you can always feel when a call or message is received. In a noisy environment this is great as you can always feel when a call comes in when you might otherwise not hear the phone ring. Unfortunately you cannot talk into the watch like it were a phone, so this might crush your dream of becoming more like James Bond by using this gadget.

For a Bluetooth connected device I was surprised to see it did not drain too much battery on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S3). The watch itself runs down in a few days so keeping the special charging cable handy is a must. It does not use a standard micro usb cable. I’d also like to point out that the charging unit is really sensitive. It may just be my particular watch, but I find the connection very temperamental and often have to use an elastic band to keep the contacts in the right position otherwise it will not charge.

Externally the Sony SmartWatch is 36mm x 36mm and 8mm thick and it clips on to the rubber watch band (not unlike what people were doing with those iPod nanos). The SmartWatch comes with a black band but you can buy different colours. I find the band to be cheap looking but it is comfortable enough to wear. In direct sunlight there is no chance of being able to see whats on the screen without shielding it from the light with your other hand.

The Sony SmartWatch is a great idea however the build quality dampens the experience. I will continue using it as my everyday watch but hopefully now with more reports of flexible displays a superior smart watch won’t be too far away.

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