Bought my first smartwatch. Now what?
I have been a tech enthusiast since the beginning of my life(I guess?). I love technology. There was a time when technology growth was stalled. Nothing new would come out for years with only minor refinements. However today the growth in technology innovation is exponential. Today we have companies that build rockets that launch the payload and come back to their base all by themself, we have AI and robots that can talk their own languages(kind of creepy).
Anyways, this post is regarding a smartwatch, a technology innovation that a few years ago may have not been considered so practical for the everyday user.
Who would have thought of calling their partner via a wristwatch!? huh. That was possible only in science fiction movies.
However, the smartwatch concept itself is not very new. The first digital watch was produced as back as 1972. So that asks us a question, how smart is really smart? There have been previous incarnations of watches that had the smart features to start a phone call, SMS, remind you to poop? So why all the new buzz about the “smart” watches and wearable devices. A smartwatch today is basically an extension to the smartphone. rarely a smartwatch is really smart without the companion smartphone. Of course the watches today are also designed to have most of the functionalities and have it less dependent on the phone but with all the features and the watch real estate being very small it just inst a practical replacement for the smartphone. Especially when it comes to battery life and performance.
I decided to buy a smartwatch a couple of months back and I spent a fair amount of time researching the options. The most important things I was looking for:
- Good battery life: A watch that will last longer than a day.
- Smartphone compatibility: Should be compatible with my android phone.
- Smart features, Notifications: This is important! I need to have notifications!
- Sports activity tracker: I am not a runner, but more on that later.
I bought a Samsung Gear Sport. a pretty decent smartwatch in my opinion. This is not my first smart wearable, a couple of years back I bought the Xiaomi Mi Band 1. This smart device tracked my daily activities and also alerted me with smartphone notifications. It has an excellent battery life of nearly a month and gave excellent performance and accuracy when it comes to tracking. However, it had a shitty companion smartphone app.
Coming back to the Gear Sport, what can it do?
It tells me time: The watch has a decent collection of watch faces. The companion app that runs on my smartphone doesn’t let me create one myself, however, there are third-party watch faces I can download from the store. I can add multiple timezone clocks (I work with clients who are in different timezone, so that helps). Calendar, Reminders and Events so I don't miss any birthdays!
It notifies me: The watch syncs with my smartphone to send me notifications, almost all the apps work and I can even filter out the app list to choose which notification I would like to receive. I can also snooze the notifications. I can read my emails and reply to text messages much quicker.
The Battery is “Good”: The watch runs Tizen, an open-source operating system mainly running on Samsung devices (Samsung is also a major contributor to the project). The watch has good battery backup with the following setup
The “watch always on” feature is turned off: meaning the watch screen is turned off by default and the watch wakes up when I raise my wrist(gesture to see time). I have not yet tested the always-on feature as I did not find the need for it, yet.
- I connect the watch with my phone via Bluetooth.
- The WiFi is turned off.
- The GPS is turned off.
- The screen brightness is set to minimum.
- The heart rate monitor (HRM) is turned off and I use it to measure my heart rate on need.
- The sport activity tracker is turned on.
- The notifications are turned on.
With these settings, The watch gives me a decent battery life, it is used for more than 2 days without requiring a recharge.
The watch tracks my activities: I am not a runner. However, this watch has motivated me to walk. The watch constantly keeps a track of my activities the steps I have taken, the distance I have walked, the floors I have taken, the calories I have burnt.
It also reminds me to stay active if I do not move for long. It will have me perform some stretching exercises, motivates me to walk and also pats my back that I did a good job when I do get out of my workplace. Hurrah!
I have now planned on running every day just to make my watch happy :)
So what next? There are a lot of things this smartwatch can do for me that will increase my productivity(hopefully). With the most important thing being the workout and exercise tracking, I plan on being much fitter and follow a healthier lifestyle. I can reply to my text messages much faster with quick notes if I am really into something. Check my emails faster. I do not have to take out my phone to make a phone call. I can also carry music on my watch! how cool is that? I also get alerted on news and important broadcasts via Twitter and social networks.
Overall, it is not necessary to have a smart wearable device to tell you to get out of your place and walk! unless you are a tech enthusiast and would really like to have it as an excuse to buy one. But saying that, I would also like to add that having a smart device with you does help. I have been really enjoying all the motivation the watch gives me, and would really recommend anyone who is thinking of buying one to go buy one!
Thank you for reading :)
