My expectations of this watch were a bit low to start with, so it’s hard to be disappointed, I was surprised at how many features this watch has and well it works, but still see some downsides as well.
Firstly, it’s easy to use, the instruction booklet is a mere 3 pages (small pages at that) with instructions, but all that is really required is download the app and it pretty much walks you through app install on your phone (iPhone in my case).
Once downloaded, you’ll need to register, input some personal details and then link to an Amazon account if desired (I chose to, so that I could use with Alexa). After going through the menu and windows, I could see all the fitness/health tracking functions, some are more important to me than others. I plan mainly to use this watch for tracking steps and overall exercise goals and sleep. I don’t have any reason to doubt how well the other trackers/sensors work (heart rate, calorie consumption, spO2, vO2 max, etc…) but for some reason I probably don’t have a lot of confidence in any fitness tracker’s ability to measure those things accurately. I don’t know that I care too much about accuracy, I think just wearing and checking the tracker in general brings more consciousness and encourages more effort towards physical activity. Any extra activity I do because of that awareness will be helpful.
There seems to be a point system that allows you to “purchase” skin themes, (I’m guessing points are earned through activity). There’s also a “Watch face market” with many screen faces to choose from, some for a small fee, but many many free ones. Some are more for aesthetics and smoky are variations on formatting activity information on the opening watch face screen.
One of the things that attracted me to this watch was the Alexa voice feature, I really like Alexa and thought an Alexa-linked watch would be great. It does work, but the response time is a little slower than on my echo devices and it doesn’t support music playback – not the end of the world.
Some features I like are that the ease of access of menus just by swiping up, down, left and right on the watch face and you push the watch crown button for another menu. Many features are similar to an Apple Watch, for example you can wave your wrist to activate the screen, the flashlight (but is fairly dim), water draining, DND mode, etc, It also has the Find Phone feature – but unfortunately just vibrates the phone instead of an audible notification (I would never be able to find my phone that way!)
A possible downside to this watch would be the charger, it’s unique/rare, although it’s good that it’s magnetic and doesn’t have a visible charging port on the phone, it’s the first time I’ve seen one like it, which means if you lose it, you’ll have to go to some effort to get a replacement. So try not to lose it!!
The only other downside I felt was concern about how my personal information would be used – when you stick to Apple products, you’re familiar with Apple and have a certain amount of trust, but this is not iOS and has collected a certain amount of personal information and linked to my Amazon account (with my consent of course), I’m usually wary of these things.
I think this could be a great watch, it’s easy to use, it could be good for kids and teens because it
has limited access to other apps or internet (if you’re helping them to control unnecessary screen time) , for elderly people that get overwhelmed with new technology and anyone who wants to track their fitness and a few other things.
Genie - Research Bot
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