Shane
Sony have bought the Smartwatch to the masses, with their very stylish Smartwatch 3.
While other players in the market are producing device specific Smartwatches and other wearable tech, Sony have decided, wisely, to drop the proprietary and allowing their Swmartwatch 3 to connect to ANY Android based smartphone.
Not only does this widen their consumer market, it also means that you can enjoy the personal assistant service that Smartwatches have to offer. And Sony’s Smartwatch 3 has alot to offer.
Using Android (Google) ‘Android Wear’ App which once installed and paired via Bluetooth with your phone the App will detect what Smartwatch you have and either by using their tutorial or getting straight into it, you can begin to personalise the watch to your liking.
Setting up notifications is a cinch and within only a few minutes from taking the watch out of it’s box, it’s a fully working P.A.
As this is an open source platform within Android, there is a multitude of third party Apps and games readily available for the device.
The Smartwatch 3 has not specifically been designed as an accessory to your Android smartphone. You can leave home with just the watch as you would a normal wristwatch – it will continue to count your steps (for the fitness freaks) and you can pair it up to bluetooth headphones to listen to music on the go. The Smartwatch 3 has an internal 4GB flash storage.
The Smartwatch 3 will also connect to Wifi so you do not need to be in close proximity to your phone to receive notifications and such the like.
Under the hood of the watch everything is powered by a 1.2 GHz Quad ARM A7 chipset complimented with 512MB of RAM.
While 512MB seems to be a bit on the low side in this age of technology, we have to remember that it is a watch with additional functionality and my time with the device saw no issues or lag.
The Smartwatch 3 comes with an industrial looking matte silver strap, but you are not stuck with this. The straps are completely interchangeable.
Swiping Up and Down on the watch face will allow you to scroll through any recent notifications and get to the watches’ Settings Menu’s.
Settings is pretty much a stock standard affair, whereby you can opt to change the clock face and so on. There is also a Theater Mode, whereby you can put it to sleep.
Read full messages on the screen, and reply to them. The typing is a bit fiddly due to the 1.6″ Display, so you are better off to talk to the watch in order to reply.
Infact you can use Google’s Voice service to control anything and everything on the device.
As with all Smartwatches on the market, you can also use the device to make or answer calls.
I had no issue whatsoever in using this hands free function while in traffic. The internal speaker on the Smartwatch 3 was clear and peaked at the right volume, enough to hear the caller over any road or traffic noise.
The small side button to the right of the watch acts as a Sleep or Power button or a short press of it will bring up your Apps Menu on to the screen. Extremely handy if you are needing to use Google Maps while driving.
Also, while being water resistant, the Smartwatch 3 is NOT waterproof.
The watch is also a bit weighty with the factory silver linked strap on it, but it also gives that sense of solidness.
The design and build quality is truly excellent and even if you opt for the metallic strap that comes with it, it looks killer.
The battery was also a surprising performer too. While this will depend on your usage, we found that we could get around two and a half days out of it before it went totally flat, with moderate use.
The watch also charges from the device itself, there is no need, at all to use a cradle or anyother accessory. Just plug it in and let it soak up the juice for a couple of hours and you’re good to go again.
Sony have done things right with the Smartwatch 3. Whilst it is not the only wearable tech device on the market, it is one of the smartwatches that is not reliant on pairing with it’s own brand. It is high quality and designed for ease and optimal use.
Sony Smartwatch 3, designed and built by Sony, powered and platformed by Google.