Just for a bit of amusement

[Suff]

I got my watch last weekend. It had been delivered a week before but I was in Brussels.

It looks OK at first look, but is basically plastic sprayed with a gold effect paint. First hurdle I failed at was getting the application (.apk file), installed on the phone. I didn't have a QR code reader on the phone and so I tired to use the url provided in the documentation.

After several attempts to get the whole thing installed, I downloaded a free QR reader and scanned the QR barcode.

Next issue is the strap. Sadly my wrists are more porky than they should be, but, however, the strap is more woman sized than man sized. I took the back off and found the replaceable battery inside whilst looking to see if I could get at the strap pins. It is not very easy to get at them, worst case I may cut the strap off and buy one which just feds round the pins.

AS for the apps? Well when I connected the phone it set the time and date. The contacts synched and I could take remote pictures with the camera on the phone. The music app does not control the music player but the audio is replicated to the phone. I haven't yet tried to use the distance alarm as I don't have a working strap to put it on my wrist, so it's off and in the apartment right now.

The main thing I want it for is notifications and as I had none of those last night, I could not see how it was going to work for me. Will I dial the phone from the watch? Unlikely. Will I use the address book? Almost certainly not as it duplicates every entry which has more than one number, it generates 270 contacts and there is no quick way to skip down them and no way to search them. Will I take photo's with it? Maybe. I probably would have used the music control program, but I would certainly not want the music blaring out of my wrist and it doesn't work anyway. I might use the pedometer and that's about it.

So was it worth £29? For the notifications . Probably, it's a watch, we'll see how long it lasts on standby and the notifications are useful. Perhaps it will grow in time.. If not, it is not much to lose to play with it. Certainly it's worth more to me than the £300 things from the main providers.

[Workingman]

I read a whole host of reviews about many different smart watches and the general view was that you get what you pay for...... except for the iBrand where you get ripped off for a lot more money.

[Suff]

Or in my case I got what I paid for and everyone else gets ripped off....

Just looking at the watch, it has

Watch function
Camera
Alarm
Stopwatch
Notifier
Music
Messaging
Anti lost
Pedometer
Dialer
Phonebook

Of course, of all that, the only things worth it for me are the Notifier, possibly the alarm and the stopwatch, possibly the pedometer. Oh and of course the watch function. Perhaps reading old messages but, in that case, I'd probably get the phone out. Such a small display is pants.

I paid a price equivalent to my wristwatch I normally wear. I got more than a watch with the date and time. So long as it works for a few years can't be all bad????

[Suff]

Final note.

So it works. I get notifications. The music works, the phone works, I see my meetings and get mail notifications, can read my text messages and it tells the time and displays the day/date in a legible format.

So far so good.

The one downside? The only way to have data connected to the phone is to have phone audio redirected to the watch. Which means the only way to have a private phone call is to disconnect the phone from the watch. Given how temperamental the software is to connect to the phone and have it update correctly, it is going to become a £29 wall monument fairly shortly.

But then that was the whole point of this. At least half a dozen people have taken it for an Apple watch, but that was only the tongue in cheek part. The real part was to find out how it might work and what I wanted out of a smart watch and to do it without spending a fortune. I know have a very clear idea of what I want in a smart watch and what I certainly do not. So it's saved me spending hundreds of £ on watches which do not live up to my requirements in some way or other.

I'd say the failure is not unexpected but the success is worth the price.

Now all I need to do is focus on getting my new Microsoft Lumia 640 phone set up and ready to go.