Smartwatch - Page 4 of 14

Fitbit Charge 4 vs Charge 3 vs Charge 2: What’s the difference?

(Pocket-lint) – Fitbit offers numerous devices in the activity tracking market, from the plain and simple Inspire 2 to its top-of-the-range smartwatch Sense.

The Charge 4 is an activity tracker that sits in between the Fitbit Inspire range and the Fitbit Versa range.

We’ve compared it to its predecessor – the Charge 3 – as well as the older Charge 2 to see how the Charge devices differ and help you work out if you should upgrade.

Which Fitbit is right for me?

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Design

Charge 2: OLED tap display, buckle, stainless steel, interchangeable straps
Charge 3: OLED touchscreen, buckle, aluminium, interchangeable straps, water resistant
Charge 4: OLED touchscreen, buckle, aluminium, interchangeable straps, water resistant

The Fitbit Charge 3 and Charge 4 are virtually identical in design on the surface, but they offer a number of refinements compared to the Charge 2. Not only do they add water resistance up to 50-metres, making them both swim proof, but they also trade the stainless steel body of the Charge 2 for aluminium, resulting in 20 per cent lighter devices.

The Charge 3 and Charge 4 have smoother, sleeker finishes overall compared to the Charge 2, and they also have a more refined mechanism for changing the straps. Additionally, the Charge 3 and Charge 4 trade the physical button found on the left of the Charge 2’s display for a neater inductive button.

The Fitbit Charge 2, Charge 3 and Charge 4 all have OLED displays, but the Charge 2 is just a tap display, while the Charge 3 and Charge 4 both have touchscreen displays. The Charge 3 and Charge 4 also have 40 per cent larger displays than the Charge 2.

The three devices all have buckle fastenings and they all feature a PurePulse heart rate monitor that sits on the underside of their main bodies – more on that next.

Fitbit Charge 3 review

Specs and sensors

Charge 2: PurePulse HR monitor, connected GPS
Charge 3: PurePulse HR, SpO2 monitor, connected GPS, NFC in some models
Charge 4: PurePulse HR, SpO2 monitor, built-in GPS, NFC

All three Fitbit Charge devices being compared here have a PurePulse optical heart rate monitor, offering automatic and continuous heart rate tracking. They also all have an accelerometer, altimeter and vibration motor.

The Charge 3 and Charge 4 both have relative SpO2 sensors too, allowing users to view a graph in the Fitbit app to see an estimate of the oxygen level variability in your bloodstream, which is designed to help show variations in your breathing during sleep.

In terms of GPS, the Charge 2 and Charge 3 both offer connected GPS, using your smartphone for the GPS signal meaning you’ll need to bring it with you when you go for a run or walk if you want detailed map data. The Charge 4 however, offers built-in GPS. There are seven GPS-enabled exercise modes to choose from.

The Charge 3 and Charge 4 also both have NFC on board, allowing you to pay with your activity tracker at contactless terminals through Fitbit Pay. While the NFC chip comes as standard on the Charge 4 however, it’s only available in the Special Edition models of the Charge 3.

Features

Charge 2: Activity and sleep monitoring, auto exercise recognition, multi-sport tracking, smartphone alerts
Charge 3: Adds swim tracking, goal-based exercise, run detect with auto stop, accept/reject calls, quick replies, NFC (Special Edition), Active Zone Minutes
Charge 4: Adds Spotify support, Smart Wake

The Fitbit Charge 2, 3 and 4 all feature all-day activity tracking (steps, distance, calories, floors climbed, activity minutes, hourly activity, stationary time) and sleep monitoring with sleep stages and sleep score. They also all allow you to see daily stats on their displays, along with smartphone notifications – the latter of which are more advanced on the Charge 3 and 4.

Other features found on all three devices include SmartTrack, which automatically recognises when you exercise, Multi-Sport tracking, Cardio Fitness Level, which allows users to see a personalised Cardio score and Guided Breathing, which offers personalised breathing sessions based on your heart rate.

In addition to all the features offered on the Charge 2, the Charge 3 and Charge 4 also both have swim tracking on board, Goal-Based Exercise, Run Detect with auto stop, a timer option and weather information. It’s also possible to accept or reject calls and send Quick Replies if you are an Android user.

There’s also a feature called Active Zone Minutes. This feature uses your personalised heart rate zones to track your effort for any energising activity, allowing you to earn credit towards the recommended 150-minute weekly goal for each minute of moderate activity in the fat burn zone and double the credit for vigorous activity in cardio and peak zones.

Adding to the Charge 3’s features, the Charge 4 offers Spotify support for control of Spotify on your phone, as well as Smart Wake, which uses machine learning to wake you at the optimal time – a feature that was previously only available on Fitbit smartwatches.

Price and conclusion

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The Fitbit Charge 2 and Special Edition models aren’t available through Fitbit anymore, but you can still get hold of it online at retailers like Amazon. We’d recommend looking at the Charge 3 before you do though as that is the superior device in many ways and there might not be much difference in price.

The Fitbit Charge 3 could be a good option for some, especially given the design is the same as the Charge 4. It has a great feature set and you might find it at a decent price compared to the Charge 4.

With built-in GPS on the Charge 4 however, and the extra additional features like Spotify control, that’s the model to go for if your budget allows. The built-in GPS means it also makes for a decent upgrade, to both the Charge 3 and 2 but you’ll see an even bigger difference if you have the Charge 2.

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Writing by Britta O’Boyle.

The next Moto 360 may have a Snapdragon 4100

A planned Motorola-branded Wear OS smartwatch with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor may have leaked (via 9to5Google). If the photos are real and not just renders, it could be a sign that the next Moto 360 (or whatever it’s called) could perform significantly better than the last, and may reap some of the efficiency gains brought by the jump from a 28nm process to a 12nm one.

The 2019 Moto 360 used a Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, which was only a minor update to 2016’s 2100. Despite Qualcomm’s claims that the new(ish) 4100 has an 85 percent faster CPU, two-and-a-half times faster GPU, and 25 percent more battery life, it seems like there’s only one watch on the market that actually has the chip.

The image that shows the potential watch (and which also seems to show a wireless charging coil) was found in an investor presentation alongside three other smartwatches. The unnamed watch has some text on the back, and when Reddit user TheMacJezza zoomed and enhanced, they saw that it appeared to say “Snapdragon Wear 4100.” I’m no logician, but that would seem to imply that this Mystery Moto has a Snapdragon Wear 4100 in it (especially considering that the current Moto 360 has its processor name printed on the back as well).

The unnamed Motorola watch, with some contrast tweaks.

Image: u/ThemacJezza

Motorola doesn’t actually make Moto-branded smartwatches itself. The name was licensed to a company called eBuyNow, which released the third-generation Moto 360 in 2019. eBuyNow later merged with another company called CE Brands, according to 9to5Google, which earlier reported on an investor presentation containing details of the Moto-branded hardware roadmap for 2021.

Correction: This article previously implied Moto-branded smartwatches were still made by Motorola; it has been updated to reflect that the brand is licensed out. The Verge regrets the error.

Raspberry Pi Uses Siri to Operate a Garage Door

(Image credit: Steve Does Stuff!)

Building the smart home of your dreams? You may want to check out Steve’s Siri-controlled garage door management system from Steve Does Stuff on YouTube. It uses a Raspberry Pi integrated with Siri support to check the status of and control up to three individual garage doors.

Users can interact with a custom interface hosted on a Flask-based web server. The dashboard offers various control options as well as log information with usage history for each door.

You’ll need a Raspberry Pi Zero W for this project as Wi-Fi support is absolutely critical to the system design. All of the information needs to be accessible through a network connection to provide the web-based support. It also uses a 4-channel relay, magnetic reed switch, and a hammer header for the Pi.

(Image credit: Steve Does Stuff!)

Because the dashboard runs on a Flask server, it can be accessed from a computer, smartphone, tablet or even a smartwatch. The system can accept input from and output data using Siri as an interface.

Visit the project Github page for detailed steps on how the project works and be sure to check out our list of best Raspberry Pi projects for more awesome creations from the Pi community.

OnePlus teases ‘moonshot’ announcement for March 8th

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau is teasing a “moonshot” announcement on March 8th, when the company expected to reveal details about its next flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 9. “Something new is on the horizon” a teaser site reads, alongside a photograph that looks an awful lot like the famous “Earthrise” photograph from the Apollo 8 mission. That photo was taken with a Hasselblad camera, the 180-year-old Swedish company rumored to be partnering with OnePlus on its upcoming phones.

In the past, manufacturers have also used photographs of the Moon to advertise the capabilities of their phones’ zoom cameras for astrophotography, indicating that this could be a key feature of the OnePlus 9 lineup.

The tease comes days after tipster Ishan Agarwal told 91Mobiles that the company would be announcing three new smartphones — the OnePlus 9, 9 Pro, and 9R — and a smartwatch in mid-March. According to tipster Max Jambor, the company will announce the launch date of the OnePlus 9 series on March 8th.

Other rumors about the upcoming OnePlus 9 Pro include wireless fast charging at 45W. The step-down OnePlus 9 is expected to have a flat 6.55-inch 120Hz 1080p display, according to Android Authority, while the 9 Pro will reportedly have a 6.78-inch 120Hz 1440p display. Both phones are expected to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 processor. A third phone, rumored to be called either the OnePlus 9R or OnePlus 9 Lite, could also be announced with an older Snapdragon 865 processor, Android Central reports.

OnePlus 9 flagship smartphone series coming “very soon” says tipster

(Image credit: OnLeaks / Voice.com)

The OnePlus 9 5G smartphone is due to launch in March alongside the OnePlus 9 Pro and the OnePlus 9R. That’s a lot of OnePlus – but there’s more. The flagship Android phones will be joined by the company’s first-ever smartwatch, the OnePlus Watch.

Tech watcher Ishan Argawal tips the grand unveiling for mid-March (via 91mobiles), while known tipster Mukul Sharma (@StuffListings) says 23rd March could be the big day. Argawal also claims that OnePlus will tease the event “very soon”, so expect a trailer video any day now.

We brought you the first leaked images of the OnePlus 9 a couple of months ago. The next-gen device seems to match the OnePlus 8T with ultra-slim bezels and a pinhole selfie-cam. It’s also tipped for a 6.55-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR support.

The beefier OnePlus 9 Pro model is said to feature a 6.7-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 888 processor with 8GB of RAM and quad-lens camera. Storage will start at 128GB (via OnLeaks).

The budget OnePlus 9R handset is something of a mystery. It was originally tipped to be called the OnePlus 9 “Lite” but has apparently morphed into the OnePlus “9R” in recent days. Either way, it might feature a 1080p HD display and a mid-range Snapdragon 865 processor.

(Image credit: OnePlus)

All three OnePus 9 handsets are expected to come running Android 11 with the company’s redesigned OxygenOS 11 running on top. An OxygenUpdater leak suggests the OnePlus 9 will come in Astral Black, Arctic Sky, and Winter Mist colour options while the 9 Pro is reported to come in Forest Green, Morning Mist, and Stellar Black.

As for the company’s first-ever smartwatch, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has already confirmed the existence of the device. It’s expected to be called the OnePlus Watch and sketches show it with a circular dial.

There’s no word on pricing yet, but we’d expect the OnePlus 9 5G to debut in a similar ballpark to the 8T – £549 ($649, AU$1099). In the market for a new smartphone? It’s set to be a bumper year for smartphone launches, what with the upcoming launch of the Apple iPhone 13.

MORE:

A full rundown of the best Android smartphones available now

Read our verdict on the OnePlus 8 Pro

The best wireless headphones for your smartphone.

Google says it’s working to get ‘Hey Google’ working on Wear OS again

Activating the Google Assistant by saying “Hey Google” has been broken for months, according to a report from 9to5Google. Google tells The Verge it’s now working on a fix, saying that it’s “aware of the issues some users have been encountering” and will help its partners “address these and improve the overall experience.”

There are a good number of users reporting the issue — a post on Google’s Issue Tracker has almost a thousand stars. Reading through the thread, it’s clear that many users with different smartwatch models are all reporting the same issue going back to November 2020. They say the assistant isn’t completely unusable, as users are still able to trigger it with a long button-press, but if the voice-activation feature hasn’t been working for that long, it likely doesn’t help the perception that Google doesn’t care about Wear OS.

Google’s statement doesn’t make it clear how long it’ll be until the issue is fixed, but hopefully it’s getting attention now. While Wear OS may not be core to Google’s strategy, the Assistant seems to be, and it’d be nice for people who have chosen to put Google’s OS on their wrists to have easy access to it.

Fitbit’s Mindful Method is an exclusive wellness program for Premium subscribers

Fitbit is launching an exclusive wellness program for Fitbit Premium subscribers called Mindful Method. The program is created by alternative medicine specialist Deepak Chopra and builds on the company’s focus on stress management that started with the Sense smartwatch.

Mindful Method encompasses over 30 audio and video sessions on topics like mindfulness, sleep, stress management, wellness, and the mind-body connection, Fitbit says. The program is taught by Chopra, a renowned author and wellness expert, with more sessions from Chopra planned to be released over the coming months.

In a press presentation of the new program, Chopra led attendees through a sample meditation from Mindful Method. Overall, the experience was not that different from what I’ve done in other meditation apps like Calm or Headspace, though Mindful Method aims to differentiate itself by featuring more of Chopra’s philosophy of wellness combined with the data provided by Fitbit’s watches and Premium service.

Fitbit says Premium already features over 100 mindfulness audio tracks, but adding new ones from a recognizable name could make a difference for the Fitbit owner who hasn’t decided to pay $9.99 a month for Premium yet. Mindful Method also builds on Fitbit’s strategy of not just collecting and displaying a variety of data, but making it actionable, what Chopra summarized in his presentation as the move from “biofeedback” to “bioregulation.”

When Brent Rose reviewed the Fitbit Sense for The Verge, he found the device’s electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor to provide a generally accurate view of when he was stressed, displayed in the Fitbit app’s Stress Management Score. The existing meditations in Premium where a good way to see how that score could change with some controlled breathing and mindfulness, but now Mindful Method might provide an even more comprehensive way to learn about why you’re stressed and what to do about it.

The first 10 sessions of Mindful Method with Deepak Chopra are available now for Premium subscribers in Fitbit’s app.

Fitbit Inspire 2 review: Still inspiring for fitness goals?

(Pocket-lint) – The Inspire 2 is the cheapest member of the Fitbit family – and effectively replaces the Inspire HR that launched in 2019 – aimed at those wanting to keep to the tracking basics.

The Inspire 2 sticks largely to the same formula as the Inspire HR, making welcome improvements to the design, bolstering battery life to make it last longer than any other Fitbit device, and giving you a tracking experience that just feels very easy to get to grips with.

With the likes of Samsung, Huawei, Amazfit and Xiaomi also making the budget tracker space a more competitive place, does the Fitbit Inspire 2 do enough to pull away from its more affordable rivals?

Design

Large and small wristband options
Water resistant to 50 metres (5ATM)
Finishes: Black, Lunar White, Desert Rose

With the Inspire 2, Fitbit isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Put one side-by-side with an Inspire HR and you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two. The colour silicone bands can be removed and come in small and large size options.

Best Fitbit fitness tracker 2021: Which Fitbit is right for you?

By Britta O’Boyle
·
23 February 2021

Pocket-lint

The greyscale touchscreen display – which has a slightly curvier edged look – is now 20 per cent brighter than the previous Inspire, which is definitely a positive move. There’s now a dim mode when you don’t need that extra hit of brightness, which can be disabled when you do. It certainly offers an improvement for visibility out in bright outdoor light, but it feels like it might be time to ditch the greyscale OLED screen and go colour like a lot its competitors have done – Xiaomi, Amazfit and Samsung each offer great colour display options for less money.

To give the Inspire 2 a much cleaner look than its predecessor, it’s also removed the physical button for a setup where you can squeeze the sides of the device to do things like turn on the display or get into the band’s settings. Overall, it works well and that button isn’t hugely missed.

Around the back is where you’ll find the PurePulse heart rate sensor, which means you have the ability to continuously monitor heart rate, exercise in personalised heart rate zones, and unlock new features like Active Zone Minutes.

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The big appeal of wearing the Inspire 2 is that it’s a slim, light and comfortable band to wear all the time. As it’s water resistant up to 50 metres, it’s safe to swim and shower with.

Features

24/7 tracking
Connected GPS
Guided breathing
20+ exercise modes
Additional health insights in Fitbit Premium

Fitness tracking is what Fitbit does best – so it’s no surprise that’s where the Inspire 2’s key features lie.

The sensors making that happen haven’t changed from the last Inspire models. There’s an accelerometer to track steps and enable automatic sleep monitoring. You also have that optical heart rate monitor, which unlocks a range of features and is still best suited to daily monitoring as opposed to putting it to work during exercise. You still don’t get an altimeter to track elevation like floor climbs, which you also get on the Fitbit’s flagship Charge 4.

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For daily tracking, you can monitor daily steps, distance covered, calories burned, and get reminders to keep moving during the day. Fitbit has also added additional reminders to wash your hands, get your heart pumping, or to stay hydrated.

When it’s time to go to bed, you’ll be able to capture the duration of sleep and get a breakdown of sleep stages. That includes the all-important REM sleep, which is a window into the type of sleep tied to memory and learning. You’ll also get a Sleep Score to give you a clear idea if you’ve had a good night’s sleep.

When you switch to exercise tracking, there are over 20 goal-based modes with core exercises like walking, running and pool swimming. There’s also Fitbit’s SmartTrack tech to automatically recognise when you start moving and working out.

There’s connected GPS support, which means you can lean on your phone’s GPS signal to more accurately track outdoor activities. That GPS support is also useful for the Workout Intensity Maps feature, which along with monitoring your heart rate can show you where you worked hardest during a session.

With that onboard heart rate monitor you’re getting to continuously monitor and capture resting heart rate – day and night. It’s also going to let you train in heart rate zones and generate a Cardio Fitness Score to give you a better sense of your current state of fitness based on your VO2 Max (blood oxygen). Fitbit is also introducing its new Active Zone Minutes feature, which will buzz you when you hit your personalised target heart rate zones. It’s a move to get users to think more about regularly raising heart rate as well as nailing those big daily step counts.

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For that time outside of getting sweaty, the Inspire 2 will perform some useful more smartwatch-like duties. There’s notification support for both Google Android and Apple iOS devices, letting you see native and third-party app notifications. There’s a dedicated notifications menu where you can find your latest incoming messages. In addition to notifications, there’s also a collection of different watch faces to choose from.

Beyond the basics, there’s also guided breathing exercises, menstrual health tracking, and app-based features like manually tracking your food intake. You also have access to Premium, Fitbit’s subscription service, which you’ll get a year to trial before deciding whether to continue at your own cost.

What is Fitbit Premium, what does it offer and how much does it cost?

Performance and battery life

Continuous heart rate monitoring
Up to 10 days battery life
Sleep tracking

Those core fitness tracking features is what the Inspire 2 does best. Step counts are largely in line with the fitness tracking features on a Garmin Fenix 6 Pro, also offering similar distance covered and calories data. While those inactivity alerts aren’t groundbreaking, it’s a small way to make sure you keep moving during the day.

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When you switch to sleep, the slim, light design of the Inspire 2 makes it a comfortable tracker to take to bed first and foremost. Fitbit offers some of the best sleep tracking features in the business. Compared to the Fitbit Sense and the Withings Sleep Analyzer, we were pretty satisfied with the kind of data Fitbit gave us.

For exercise tracking – as long as you’re not hoping to run for miles on a regular basis and up the intensity in general – the Inspire 2 should just about cut it. The heart rate monitor is better suited to continuous monitoring than it is for strenuous workout time based on our experience. For running, and cardio blasting HIIT sessions on the Fiit home workout app, average readings could be as much as 10bpm out (compared to a Garmin HRM Pro chest strap monitor).

The connected GPS support is also better suited to shorter runs, which brings useful features like those Workout Intensity Maps into the mix.

As for battery life, the Inspire 2 offers the best battery numbers Fitbit has ever offered. It’s promising up to 10 days, which is double that of the Inspire HR. It lives up to that claim, too, as long as you’re not going too bright with that screen and not tracking exercise every day with it. The good news is that things like all-day heart rate monitoring don’t seem to have a tremendous drain, which isn’t the case on all fitness trackers.

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When you do need to charge there’s one of Fitbit’s proprietary charging cables, which clips into the charging points on the back and the top and bottom of the rear case. That ensures it stays put and doesn’t budge when you stick the Inspire 2 onto charge.

Software

Fitbit’s companion app, which is available for Android, iOS and Windows 10 devices, remains one of its key strengths – and a strong reason you’d grab one of its trackers over cheaper alternatives.

It’s easy to use and if you want some added motivation to keep you on top of your goals, that’s available too. The main Today screen will give you a snapshot of your daily data and can be edited to show the data you actually care about.

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Discover is where you’ll find guided programmes, challenges, virtual adventures and workouts to accompany daily and nightly tracking. If you’ve signed up to Fitbit Premium, you’ll have a dedicated tab for that too. You still have all your device settings hidden away whether you need to adjust step goals, heart rate zones or how you keep closer tabs on your nutrition and weight management.

The Inspire 2 experience is similar to owning a Fitbit Versa 3, a Charge 4, or a Sense. Which is key: that consistent feeling across all devices makes it a good place if you know other Fitbit-owning people. You can delve deeper into data if you want to, but for most, what’s there when you first download it and login will be more than enough to get a sense of your progress.

Best Fitbit fitness tracker: Which Fitbit is right for you?

Verdict

The Fitbit Inspire 2 sticks to a known formula, covering tracking basics, while wrapping it up in a design that’s comfortable to wear all of the time.

The screen changes for this model are welcomed – extra brightness, yay – and if you care about steps, sleep and monitoring heart rate during the day and night, it will serve you well.

All that’s supported by an app that’s one of the most user-friendly if you’re starting to think about monitoring your health and fitness for the first time.

The level of smartwatch features are dictated by the slenderness of the device and while you can get more in the way of these features elsewhere for less money, what the Inspire 2 offers should be good enough for most. It’s still not quite the ready-made sportswatch replacement though.

Cheaper fitness trackers are now offering more features, arguably better displays and battery life. But if you’re looking for a fitness tracker that puts your health and tracking front and centre, then Fitbit is still one of the best.

Also consider

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Fitbit Inspire HR

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If you can live without that brighter display and some of the software extras, the Inspire HR will still offer a solid tracking experience for less cash.

Read our review

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Huawei Band 3 Pro

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Huawei’s fitness band offers one big feature you won’t find on the Inspire 2: built-in GPS. If you like the idea of a tracker a bit better built for sports, this is one worth looking at.

Read our review

Writing by Michael Sawh. Editing by Mike Lowe.

Best Samsung Galaxy Watch: Galaxy Watch 3 vs Active 2 vs Galaxy Watch

(Pocket-lint) – Samsung announced the next generation of its Galaxy Watch in the form of the Galaxy Watch 3 in August 2020.

The smartwatch sits alongside the sleeker, bezel-free Samsung Galaxy Active 2 and replaces the original Galaxy Watch from 2018, but how does it compare?

Here is how the Galaxy Watch 3 compares to the Active 2 and original Galaxy Watch.

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Design

Galaxy Watch: 46 x 49 x 13mm / 41.9 x 45.7 x 12.7 mm
Galaxy Watch Active 2: 44 x 44 x 10.9mm / 40 x 40 x 10.9mm
Galaxy Watch 3: 45 x 46.2 x 11.1mm / 41 x 42.5 x 11.3mm

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and the Galaxy Watch adopt a similar design to each other, with a rotating bezel sitting on the top of the display and two function buttons on the right, though the Galaxy Watch 3 is a little more refined and the bezel has been improved.

The Galaxy Watch Active 2 meanwhile, has a sleeker finish than both with a touch bezel around the face instead of the rotating bezel and two more streamlined function buttons on the right.

The Galaxy Watch comes in 46mm and 42mm size options and all models have a reasonably chunky, textured silicone strap.

The Galaxy Watch Active 2 comes in 42mm and 40mm size options and there are a couple of strap options, inlcuding leather, as well as a couple of different models, such as an Under Armour edition and a Golf edition.

The Galaxy Watch 3 comes in a three different finishes – Mystic Black, Mystic Silver and Mystic Bronze, and there is also a titanium option. Sizes are 45mm and 41mm and there are a number of strap options available, including a link bracelet.

All Galaxy Watches are IP68 water and dust resistant, MIL-STD-810G compliant and waterproof up to 5ATM.

Best smartwatch 2020

Display

Galaxy Watch: 1.3-inch/1.2-inch, 360 x 360 pixels, AMOLED
Galaxy Watch Active 2: 1.4-inch/1.2-inch, 360 x 360 pixels, AMOLED
Galaxy Watch 3: 1.4-inch/1.2-inch, 360 x 360 pixels, AMOLED

All three Samsung Galaxy Watch models being compared here have Super AMOLED round screens protected by Corning Gorilla Glass DX and they all have 360 x 360 pixel resolutions.

The 46mm original Samsung Galaxy Watch has a 1.3-inch display, while the 42mm model has a 1.2-inch display.

The 42mm Galaxy Watch Active 2 has a 1.4-inch display, while the 40mm model has a 1.2-inch display.

The 45mm Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 comes with a 1.4-inch display, while the 41mm model has a 1.2-inch display.

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Hardware and specs

Galaxy Watch: Exynos 9110, 768MB/1.5GB RAM, 4GB storage
Galaxy Watch Active 2: Exynos 9110, 768MB/1.5GB RAM, 4GB storage
Galaxy Watch 3: Exynos 9110, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage

All Samsung Galaxy Watch models being compared here run on the Exynos 9110 dual core processor.

The original Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Watch Active 2 are both available in LTE and Bluetooth models with the LTE models offering 1.5GB of RAM and 4GB of storage and the Bluetooth models offering 768MB of RAM and 4GB of storage.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 comes in LTE and Bluetooth models. There is 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage.

Battery

Galaxy Watch: 46mm – 472mAh / 42mm – 270mAh
Galaxy Watch Active 2: 42mm – 340mAh / 40mm – 247mAh
Galaxy Watch 3: 45mm – 340mAh / 41mm – 247mAh

The larger model of the original Samsung Galaxy Watch has a 472mAh battery and the smaller model has a 270mAh battery.

The larger model of the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 has a 340mAh battery, while the smaller model has a 247mAh battery, which is the same as the respective larger and smaller models of the Galaxy Watch 3.

Features

Galaxy Watch: Heart rate monitoring, sports tracking, smartphone notifications, Tizen OS
Galaxy Watch Active 2: HR, sports tracking, smartphone notifications, running coach, stress feature
Galaxy Watch 3: Sleep tracking with REM stages, fall detection, 39 sports modes, ECG, blood pressure, blood oxygen

All Samsung Galaxy Watches being compared here are compatible with Android and iOS devices and run Tizen OS.

They also have heart rate monitoring, smartphone notifications and sports tracking, as you would expect. The Galaxy Watch Active 2 has a running coach too, as well as a stress feature.

The Galaxy Watch 3 has the most features, with the ability to take an ECG as well as your blood pressure and your blood oxygen level, fall detection, run analysis and 39 sports modes.

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Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 offers a very similar design to the original Galaxy Watch but with a few welcomed refinements and several extra features, including ECG, blood pressure, blood oxygen fall detection and more sports modes.

The Galaxy Active 2 meanwhile, continues to be a smaller, more stylish smartwatch offering, whilst also offering a number of extra features over the original Galaxy Watch but not quite as many as the Galaxy Watch 3.

You can read our Galaxy Watch Active 2 review and our Galaxy Watch 3 review to see what we thought of the devices.

Writing by Britta O’Boyle.

Samsung imagines how its first AR glasses might look in these leaked concept videos

Samsung has been toying with AR glasses for years, most recently trotting out an extremely basic set of image-projecting goggles on the CES 2020 stage, but I’ve never seen the company suggest it might like to build an actually ambitious augmented reality wearable computing device — until perhaps today.

WalkingCat, a fairly reliable source of gadget leaks, has published two new concept videos that show off some of the fun things a pair of “Samsung Glasses Lite” could do, like projecting a giant virtual screen where you can play your games, letting you kick back in your private movie theater, give you a giant virtual computer monitor, fire up an auto-dimming “sunglasses mode,” or act as an instant first-person-view screen for your DJI drone, complete with telemetry.

The second video shows off the very similar “Samsung AR Glasses” concept, though this time it’s letting the user “see” 3D digital objects appear in the real world, a visual that should be instantly familiar to you if you’ve ever seen any of Microsoft’s HoloLens marketing.

If you’ve never tried a Microsoft HoloLens or Magic Leap, though, you should know that reality is a long ways away from the visualizations you see here. Today’s waveguides, lasers, projectors and micromirror combinations usually give you a pretty small field of view with see-through AR glasses like these. If you’re standing right next to a virtual computer monitor, you’d only be able to see part of it at a time — the rest would be out of your field of view.

To me, the most interesting part of these videos is how Samsung imagines you’ll be using a smartwatch to navigate the interfaces. Short-term, that might be more realistic than trying to tap on things that don’t actually exist or make midair gestures with your hands, and smartwatch control is a paradigm that other companies working on AR headsets are no doubt considering. Apple has both a smartwatch and an AR headset in development, of course, and the Facebook hardware division that’s building AR glasses is reportedly now working on a smartwatch, too.

Speaking of Samsung and smartwatches, two known leakers are now saying Samsung may go back to Android for its next smartwatch, instead of its own Tizen platform it’s used for watches for years now.

Facebook is secretly building a smartwatch and planning to sell it next year

Facebook is building a smartwatch as part of its ongoing hardware efforts, according to a new report from The Information. The device is said to be an Android-based smartwatch, though the report does not say Facebook intends for the device to run Google’s Wear OS. It also says Facebook is working on building its own operating system for hardware devices and that future iterations of the wearable may run that software instead.

The smartwatch would have messaging, health, and fitness features, the report says, and would join Facebook’s Oculus virtual reality headsets and Portal video chat devices as part of the social network’s growing hardware ecosystem. Facebook is also working on branded Ray-Ban smart glasses to come out later this year as part of its ongoing Project Aria initiative, an augmented reality project the company has been working on for some time now. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The social networking giant’s hardware ambitions are no secret. The company has more than 6,000 employees working on various augmented and virtual reality projects and as part of existing hardware divisions like Oculus and Portal, as well as on experimental initiatives under its Facebook Reality Labs division, Bloomberg reported last month. And although Facebook has not expressed a strong interest in health and fitness devices in the past, the company does have a track record in wearables with its Oculus headsets and its forthcoming smart glasses.

Facebook also acquired the neural interface startup CTRL-Labs in 2019. CTRL-Labs specialized in building wireless input mechanisms, including devices that could transmit electrical signals from the brain to computing devices without the need for traditional touchscreen or physical button inputs. The startup’s intellectual property and ongoing research may factor into whatever wearables Facebook builds in the future — including a smartwatch, smart glasses, or future Oculus headsets.

Amazfit GTS 2 review: Amazing or overpriced?

(Pocket-lint) – Huami has been turning out various smartwatches that sit under its Amazfit brand, with the square-shape GTS 2 sitting at the top of its fashion watch category.

That GTS family also includes the cheaper GTS 2e and the GTS 2 Mini. If you want the best in terms of features and a stylish design then the GTS 2 is the one to look at.

Along with making some welcome changes in the design department, the GTS 2 also performs more like a smartwatch than the original GTS did, bringing smart assistants and a music player into the mix. But that’s also seen the price creep up, so does it warrant its worth?

Design & Display

Display: 1.65-inch, 348 x 442 resolution
Measures 42.8 x 35.6 x 9.7mm
Size options: 42mm only
5ATM waterproofing

Like the original GTS, the GTS 2 goes square – much like an Apple Watch – but you certainly wouldn’t mistake if for a Series 6 or an SE.

That doesn’t mean you don’t get an attractive smartwatch for your money, though. There are notable improvements with the materials used and the design of the display that gives the GTS 2 a more stylish look compared to its predecessor.

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You’re getting a 42mm watch case with a matte titanium alloy used around the display, with plastic on the back where the sensors and charging points lie. That’s paired up with a removable 20mm silicone strap.

There’s the pick of black, grey or gold looks, which does mean you have fewer colour options to pick from than the first GTS, but you do still have that option to switch up things in the strap department if you prefer to go for an overall more formal watch look.

What has really elevated the look of the GTS 2 is its display, which is made from 3D curved glass that creates a more unified look with the watch case. Overall it just makes it feel like a much nicer watch to wear.

That screen measures in with the same 1.65-inches and offers the same resolution as the GTS and, again, it’s a really good quality display. It’s nice and responsive to swipes and taps, isn’t a fingerprint magnet, and offers great sharpness and colours. The viewing angles are strong too, plus there’s an always-on display mode option if you want that screen on full-time.

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Away from using the touchscreen, there’s a solitary button that sits closer to the watch body to help create that more streamlined look. As a package it’s got the same 5ATM water resistant rating, which means it’s safe to swim and shower with it (as that rating is good for 50 metres depth).

While the first GTS definitely had a more sporty look and feel to it, that curved screen and titanium addition certainly makes the GTS 2 a more attractive proposition. It’s no Apple Watch, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction for the GTS range.

Software & Performance

Customizable watch faces
Works with Android and iOS

Once again, Huami is using its own operating system to run the software and doesn’t divulge details of the processor or components. The performance is satisfying on the whole, whether that’s getting around menu screens or putting its key features to work.

Pocket-lint

The software experience hasn’t dramatically changed over the first GTS. The selection of customisable watch faces have certainly been better optimised for that curved display and getting to menu screens or your notifications are done in the same manner. There’s widgets to show off elements like your daily activity stats and weather forecasts.

Best Garmin watch 2021: Fenix, Forerunner and Vivo compared

By Chris Hall
·
4 February 2021

Huami’s smartwatches are generally very easy to get to grips with and that doesn’t really change with the GTS 2.

When you need to sync your data or tinker with settings you can’t access on the watch, you’ll now have to head to the Zepp companion app, which is a rebranded Amazfit app. Huami now owns Zepp, the sports tech brand that made its name using sports tracking sensors for baseball and golf.

Getting setup is pretty straightforward, especially if you take the QR code scanning route to pairing it with your phone. We used it with Oppo and Realme Android phones and didn’t have issues with syncing or pairing. While it’s a device you can use with iPhone too, pairing with an Android device will give you the optimal experience.

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The two most important area of the app is the main Homepage where you can delve deeper into your health, fitness and exercise stats. The dedicated devices page is where you can adjust settings, such as notification support, set health monitoring modes, and get hold of more watch faces.

Sports & Fitness Tracking

GPS and Glonass satellite systems
Automatic exercise recognition
Built-in heart rate monitor
24/7 fitness tracking
Blood oxygen read

Like the GTS, the GTS 2 is well equipped as far as tracking your health, fitness and exercise. It has added a new improved heart rate sensor – BioTracker 2 PPG – and ramped up the number of sports with exercise recognition support also in tow.

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On the sensor count, there’s GPS and GLONASS to accurately track outdoor activities, and the same motion sensors as included in the GTS. Huami’s new sensor can read blood oxygen (SpO2) levels – but that blood oxygen sensor, much like the one on Huawei, Garmin, Fitbit and Apple’s smartwatches, is not designed for medical purposes.

That sensor delivers resting heart rate, continuous monitoring, and heart rate during exercise. It also powers its PAI Health Assessment, which shifts the emphasis on raising your heart rate regularly as opposed to focusing on nailing your daily step counts.

There’s no 90 sports modes, which is significantly up from the 12 included on the GTS. That includes core sports like running, cycling and swimming (pool and open water), along with tracking support for skiing and climbing.

In terms of that tracking performance indoors and outdoors, accuracy definitely feels better suited to someone who has a more casual approach to fitness. Accuracy for things like GPS and heart rate feel better suited to steady paced workouts. As soon as you up the intensity, whether that’s running or riding for longer distances, those key sensors do have a tendency to falter. Heart rate testing against a Garmin HRM Pro heart rate chest strap monitor showed that the GTS 2’s sensor struggles to handle the sudden spikes and drops in heart rate with high intensity training.

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It definitely does a better impression as a daily fitness tracker if you care mainly about steps, continuous heart rate monitoring and tracking sleep. Daily step counts were in the ballpark of the step counts we tracked on a Fitbit Sense and you’ll still get those inactivity alerts buzzing you to keep moving during the day.

For sleep, the GTS 2 posted similar sleep duration periods as the Sense and similar breakdowns of sleep stages, including REM sleep. There’s some nice additional insights and tips to improve sleep quality and is definitely one of the GTS 2’s strengths.

Smartwatch features

View notifications
Built-in music player
Offline voice assistant
Microphone and speaker
Phone calls over Bluetooth

The GTS was pretty light on smartwatch features, so thankfully that’s changed with the GTS 2.

Pocket-lint

You still have notifications that are still not actionable while multiple notifications from the same app can still bunch up as was the case on the GTS. There’s also weather forecasts, the ability to set alarms and access to music controls, with the latter accessible during workouts.

Huami has added in a microphone and speaker, which brings a collection of new features into the mix. It means you can now take phone calls when connected to your phone via Bluetooth. More interestingly is the introduction of a smart assistant that works without a data connection.

The new offline voice assistant will give you control of core watch features like turning settings on and off or to start a workout. The commands supported are all listed on the watch and the assistant can be woken up in a variety of ways including turning it on as soon as you raise your wrist. It’s an assistant that works well and is responsive to commands, making it a useful feature to have when you’ve got your hands full.

Pocket-lint

The other big feature is the built-in music player, giving you 3GB of storage to fit in roughly 300-600 songs. To get that music onto the watch, you’ll need to sync it over from the Zepp companion app. Currently, it only supports music you own and doesn’t work with any music streaming services. If you own a lot of music and it’s already piled onto your phone, then you’ll no doubt appreciate its inclusion as a feature. Hopefully though, Huami will add some streaming service support as well to make it even more useful.

Battery Life

Up to 20 days in basic watch mode
Up to 7 days in smartwatch mode
3.5 days in heavy usage

Huami has included a bigger 246mAh battery on the GTS 2, which is capable of giving you around a week of use in typical scenarios – and up to 20 days when you disable features like Bluetooth and heart rate monitoring. If you put features into play like the always-on display mode, that battery is likely to drop to around three days or so.

Pocket-lint

Based on our experience, you can get that week of use, but if you’re making use of all of those new features, it’s more likely to be a few days shorter than that. Features like continuous heart rate monitoring, advanced sleep monitoring, keeping the screen bright and having a steady stream of notifications, will see it fall short of that seven days. If you’re willing to compromise on what features are enabled, you can go further.

GPS tracking battery life is an impressive 25 hours, which betters a lot of more expensive GPS-packing smartwatches and sports watches. Putting that GPS to good use doesn’t horribly drain the battery either.

When you do hit zero there’s an identical charger to the one used on the GTS to get things powered back up. It takes 2.5 hours to get to 100 per cent, though, which certainly doesn’t make it the snappiest of chargers.

Verdict

While the first GTS offered great value for money at a price point where it stood up well against the competition, the GTS 2 is promising to be a better smartwatch – but a pricier one too.

It certainly steps things up in the looks department, while features such as the offline voice assistant is a great new addition. However, the music player is going to have limited appeal until it can partner up with some streaming services. And while fitness tracking is once again solid, you won’t get high-end accuracy for tracking sports and active heart rate.

All in all, the GTS 2 is a transformation for the series – and a decent one at that. But at the now elevated price point you’ll be able to find a more complete smartwatch experience elsewhere, which is why the original GTS scored better than this follow-up.

Also consider

Fitbit Versa 2

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While not its latest product, this watch offers richer music and notification features, plus all the great fitness tracking and health features you would expect from a Fitbit watch.

Read our review

Huawei Watch GT 2e

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Huawei offers a step up in sports tracking features and is capable of giving you weeks of battery life with its full gamut of features in play.

Read our review

Writing by Michael Sawh. Editing by Mike Lowe.

H. Moser’s latest Apple Watch troll is a next-level $30,800 Vantablack loading wheel

Swiss watchmaker H. Moser has returned with another cheeky spin on the iconic Apple Watch design with the Swiss Alp Watch Final Upgrade. It’s a $30,800 Vantablack-infused creation that mocks not just Apple’s design but the loading wheel found on Apple’s macOS, iOS, and watchOS products, via Hodinkee.

“No updates required, no lousy autonomy, no unnecessary features, no annoying notifications, just the only reminder you ever really need: To disconnect from all the noise and cherish each and every moment,” Moser boasts.

Moser has been making its Alp Watch series of Apple Watch-esque timepieces for years, going back to the original model (which launched a few months after Apple’s original smartwatch). The company is known for its edgy design choices in the watchmaking world: at one point, it created a watch made of actual Swiss cheese in protest of watchmaking standards, for instance.

Image: H. Moser

Since 2016, Moser has released several variants on its Alp Watch in a variety of colors and materials. But the Swiss Alp Watch Final Upgrade model (as the name implies) is apparently the final time the company will be poking fun at the folks in Cupertino.

The Final Upgrade model might be the most entertaining of all the pastiches, though, with a Vantablack face (which absorbs 99.965 percent of visible light) that promises to be an even darker black than even the “true blacks” of Apple’s OLED panels. The hands of the watch are actually also black; they just don’t look it in comparison.

But the cleverest aspect is the “loading wheel” at the 6 o’clock position that apes Apple’s boot indicator. The wheel is actually a fully functional mechanical second hand indicator. It’s comprised of cutouts in the Vantablack face, behind which the rotating gradient second hand wheel creates the loading effect.

For all the lightheartedness, though, the Swiss Alp Watch Final Upgrade is a serious piece of hardware: Moser is still a top-tier watchmaking company, and the hand-wound HMC 324 Manufacture movement inside is an incredible piece of machinery.

The H. Moser Swiss Alp Watch Final Upgrade is a limited edition model, with just 50 pieces planned — if you can afford the $30,800 price tag.

Oppo Watch review: More than just an Apple Watch clone?

(Pocket-lint) – For years Google Wear OS watches have been round in shape. That traditional watch look has been a big draw for smartwatch buyers, particularly with fashion watch brands (mostly from Fossil Group) building watches that look and feel just like watches should.

Despite that, round screens don’t necessarily make the best platform for apps and text fields that appear on screen. After all, it’s harder to get a lot of information on a display that gets narrower at the top and bottom, and so a square screen actually makes a lot more sense from that point of view.

The Oppo Watch is one such square-screened device. The question, then, is whether being this different shape acts as enough of a draw?

Familiar looks

Dimensions (46mm model): 46 x 39 x 11.35mm
Weighs 40g minus the strap
Ceramic & plastic underside
Aluminium alloy case
Fluororubber strap

Getting the elephant out of the room as quickly as possible: yes, the Oppo Watch looks a lot like a certain Apple-branded series of smart wrist wear. Of course, it’s not exactly the same, but if you glance at the Oppo from a distance then you’d likely assume it was an Apple Watch. Even some of the watchfaces are strikingly similar.

There are of course differences to point out. For instance, the glass on the front of the Oppo slopes down towards the left and right edges more noticeably – so it doesn’t have the completely even rounding around all four sides. It’s quite a long/tall display too, which means this 46mm model is going to be too big for smaller wrists.

Just like an Oppo phone the Watch also has very slim and long buttons on the side – with one of these featuring the company’s trademark green accent. These buttons are housed in the side of a very glossy metal case, which in this instance is a midnight blue colour, complimenting the black glass on the front and the matte black silicone strap.

The top button launches your apps screen when on the watch face – press it anywhere else in navigation and it’s a ‘back to watch face’ button. Or press-and-hold it to launch Google Assistant. The bottom button launches an activity by default – or, rather, launches the screen that lets you choose to start a workout. Press-and-hold it and you’ll launch the power/shutdown menu.

The watch itself is comfortable to wear for long periods, thanks to being quite lightweight, and the silicone band has just the right amount of stretch and grip to keep it in place without needing to be over tightened.

On the underside you’ll find Oppo’s take on heart rate monitoring. It’s an attractive setup, with five sensors/LEDs arranged symmetrically inside a glossy dome, with four contact points for the charging base underneath that. You also get a pill-shaped button on the top and bottom sides for releasing the strap.

It’s a little fiddly to get the strap halves removed, but it’s a method that makes a lot of sense from a visual perspective. It gives the strap the look of being a deliberate, seamless part of the watch’s design. With the button pressed in, you simply pull the corresponding strap half off the case to conveniently reveal the two catches that hold it in place.

But it’s also hugely inconvenient, purely because actually getting hold of additional band styles or new straps with this proprietary connection point is not the easiest of tasks. Oppo’s UK store doesn’t even seem to have additional first-party bands to choose from. And looking for third-party options usually leads to inexpensive unofficial ones from stores that we don’t necessarily have huge confidence in.

We think if Oppo is has gone to the trouble of creating this strap removal system, which is quick and easy, then the company also needs to give an appealing reason for customers to want to do that. And the only way to do it is to offer multiple materials and finishes of bands to go with the watch, which in the Western market don’t seem to exist.

Wear OS, but with Oppo flavour

Wear OS platform
Additional Oppo layers

With its own take on Google’s Wear OS platform, Oppo has full taken advantage of the additional screen space offered by its square panel. For instance, launching the apps screen reveals a 3×3 grid of small round icons, which you can scroll up and down through. That means nine app icons fit in one screen at a time without the awkward, curved list of maybe three or four that you get on round screens.

Similarly, dropping down the settings tiles from the top of the screen gives you nine easy icons with tap-to-activate features such as torch, do not disturb mode, Google Pay, find my phone, or access to other everyday settings.

Of course, it’s still very much Wear OS platform, so swiping left on the home watch face goes to your full screen widgets for tracking things like your heart rate, daily activity, or sleep. Swiping right goes to your Google Home Screen with useful shortcuts and updates. Swiping up goes to your notification – and, again, because it’s a square screen, you can see more text and more notifications clearly.

Want to install wearable apps? Easy. Just tap the Google Play Store icon in the apps list and you can find anything in there. Which – when it comes to fitness and health (which we’ll get to it in a bit) – is kind of necessary. There’s even NFC and support for Google Pay, which is accepted in a lot of retail locations and supported by a good number of banks these days.

All of this is displayed on a 1.9-inch curved AMOLED panel which is bright and vivid. It’s worth noting that the smaller 41mm model has a flat 1.6-inch display. Either choice is easy to see outdoors in daylight, while the always-on feature means you can glance and see the time whenever you like. The always-on display option does drain more battery, and switches off your tilt-to-wake functionality, but it gives a more natural watch-like experience.

Fitness and health

Oppo HeyTap Health + Google Fit installed
All day heart rate and sleep tracking
Step counter + GPS

Modern smartwatches are essentially fitness trackers with fancy screens, in the form of a watch. It’s the fitness and daily activity tracking element that makes one a worthwhile investment. It’s where a number of Wear OS manufacturers fall down, though, and why having an ecosystem of third-party apps is needed.

Oppo has built its own fitness tracking platform, however, which does offer all the essentials. It’s called HeyTap Health and it collects information from you including daily steps, estimated calories burned, your daily heart rate averages, and can show you how you slept the night before (providing you wore the watch to bed).

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It’s quite basic in terms of how it displays the data though. There’s not a lot you can dive into, although if you’re tracking a run with it, you do get to see useful metrics like distance, pace, heart rate, elevation and cadence. And it does seem pretty much on par with our other trackers in terms of location and data consistency.

If you’re into anything other than running, walking, cycling or swimming, you’ll not be served at all by Oppo’s fitness tracking options. Those are the only four workouts you can utilise, and so you’ll need to look at a different watch if that’s what you need.

There’s also Google’s own fitness tracking, Google Fit, which can also track the basics throughout the day. It’s neatly organised to show you how you’re doing versus your heart points and steps goals, while also showing easy-to-understand graphics for any workouts you’ve done. Run sessions, as an example, show up in the smartphone companion app as a neat map graphic with the route lined in blue. You also get to see your heart rate, weight and sleep duration in compact cards.

Performance and battery

430mAh battery – up to 30 hours smartwatch mode
Snapdragon Wear 3100 + 4G LTE
Ambiq Apollo3 Wireless SoC
Magnetic charging

On the whole, the Oppo Watch is a strong performer. We weren’t left waiting for ages for apps to download from the Play Store. Animations are relatively smooth and fluid, and apps load quickly enough.

The one area where improvements are needed – as with many smartwatches – is battery life. In our testing, with the always-on display switched on (showing a low power black and white watch face), and with the ’tilt-to-wake’ feature enabled (so we didn’t have to keep tapping the screen to wake it up properly), the watch gets through a full charge in less than two days. Realistically, then, that means charging it every night, which isn’t great – but then the Apple Watch is much the same.

It’s worth noting, this is without the 4G/LTE connection enabled, just using it as a regular smartwatch connected to our phone for notifications. Even on days where we didn’t do any workout tracking, it didn’t have enough juice left to make it through a full second day, which means sleep tracking being a feature is approaching pointless.

What is the Pocket-lint daily and how do you get it for free?

By Stuart Miles
·
3 February 2021

To charge it Oppo has designed a magnetic snap-on cradle which uses those four contact points for charging and not a wireless charging method. That’s both good and bad, like a few of Oppo’s choices on this watch. It’s good, because it’s quicker than typical wireless standards. It’s bad because the charging cradly is quite clunky and can be a inconvenient, if only because the plastic build is quite light and the magnets aren’t especially strong.

Practically speaking that sometimes means it’s tricky to get the watch lying on the cradle completely flat, but also that if it gets knocked it can detach quite easily. On the plus side, it does have some quite grippy silicon padding around the hole in the centre to help it not slip quite as easily once you do get it resting completely flat on a surface. But we often found ourselves double and triple checking it was stable and in position before leaving it to charge.

Verdict

With a few refinements and additional features the Oppo Watch could be a genuinely great smartwatch. It’s just a few tweaks short of getting it absolutely right. The lack of customisation choices from Oppo and the fitness features being a little light on data depth and quantity of workout types are the main downsides.

But it’s a good first go with a lot to like. Despite it’s Apple-a-like looks, there aren’t many other square Wear OS watches out there, and this does get all the basics right in terms of smartphone notifications and replying to messates on the fly. It also has Google Pay support and that display is bright and colourful. All for a fair price point indeed.

Also consider

Fossil Gen 5 Garrett

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For a classic watch look, full Wear OS feature list, and easy-swappable bands, there are few watches like the Gen 5 Garret. It looks like a watch should and offers pretty much anything you could need from a Wear OS smartwatch.

Read our review

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3

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Samsung went all-out on fitness with the Watch 3 and now offers some pretty impressive running data and a bunch of other fitness-focused features without losing any of the smartwatch features we’ve come to expect in this day and age.

Read our review

Writing by Cam Bunton.

OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei’s next company is literally called Nothing

Carl Pei, the OnePlus co-founder who parted ways with the company last year, has announced the name of his next venture: Nothing. It describes itself as a “London based consumer technology company” and counts the likes of iPod inventor Tony Fadell, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and YouTuber Casey Neistat as investors. It plans to release its first “smart devices” in the first half of this year.

“Nothing’s mission is to remove barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future,” says Pei, Nothing’s founder and CEO, in a press release. “We believe that the best technology is beautiful, yet natural and intuitive to use. When sufficiently advanced, it should fade into the background and feel like nothing.”

Carl Pei, who previously co-founded the smartphone brand OnePlus.

Image: Nothing

What’s unclear at the moment is exactly what products Nothing plans to release. In an interview with The Verge ahead of today’s announcement, Pei declined to offer specific details on what form Nothing’s first “smart devices” will take. He also declined to say which companies Nothing plans to compete with.

Pei does confirm, however, that Nothing plans to release products across multiple categories, with the eventual aim of building up an ecosystem of devices.

“Right now… the team is being built, so we want to focus on simpler categories,” Pei says, “but as our team gains capabilities and skills we want to start moving up. The ultimate vision of having everything connected in a seamless way, that can only happen when you have multiple categories of products that are connected.”

During Pei’s tenure at OnePlus, the company released everything from smartphones to headphones and even TVs. Last year, Wired reported that Pei’s new company could focus on music and might include manufacturing headphones. When asked, Pei declined to confirm whether headphones would be among Nothing’s early products. When asked by Wired, he said the company’s plans were “so much more than that.”

While there’s been speculation that this could point toward Nothing developing an accompanying music service, Pei tells The Verge that Nothing plans to make most of its money by selling hardware rather than software subscriptions, at least initially. “We haven’t spent too much time thinking about the software portion of it,” Pei says. “It definitely needs to be a good user experience if you are to generate revenue from software.” In the long term, however, he admits that a “healthy business” requires both good hardware and good software.

Pei’s new company plans to differentiate itself by using “custom made” components in its products right from the start. Pei suggests this will stop Nothing’s products from looking too much like its competitors. “There’s a reason why a lot of products on the market look quite similar,” Pei observes. “It’s because they share a lot of the same components and the same building blocks.”

In contrast, OnePlus’ phones have faced frequent criticism over the years for the similarities they’ve shared with Oppo’s phones. In a recent video, Marques Brownlee outlined a series of Oppo and OnePlus devices with strikingly similar hardware, like the OnePlus 5 and Oppo R11, the OnePlus 6T and Oppo R17, and the OnePlus Nord N100 and Oppo A53. The two brands even use similar fast-charging technologies. OnePlus has Dash Charge, and Oppo has VOOC.

While OnePlus and Oppo are widely reported to exist under the same Chinese corporate giant BBK Electronics, Pei says Nothing is unencumbered by such an arrangement. “[Nothing is] a completely independent company owned by our founding team and our investors,” says Pei, with its own R&D department. And despite using contract manufacturers to build its devices, Pei says Nothing won’t just “relabel somebody else’s products.”

But while Pei hopes Nothing’s early products will feature “differentiated” designs without feeling “different for the sake of being different,” the eventual hope is for them to fade into the background.

“I kind of envision a grass field with people having a picnic and there’s no screen, there’s no laptop screen, there’s no phone screen, there’s no smartwatch screen, there’s no billboard screen,” Pei muses. “That’s kind of the end state.”

Verge columnist Walt Mossberg referred this future state as ambient computing in 2017. Pei admits that it may take 20 or 30 years to arrive, but he says the future his company is aiming for is one where its technology resembles… well, nothing.