Anyone have one ..?
Are they any good ..?
Any deals about

I ordered one of Amazon a couple of days ago, should be here wed. O2 is selling em for £89.

O2 …? They’re not linked to a contract then ?

Keep an eye on Amazon – the price regularly flucuates and was down to £89 last week. I nearly bough one but went for the Vivoactive for a bit more.

I’m a fan of my Sony Z3 but that

looks bloody awful, cheap and nasty IMHO.

I almost hit the button on one of these as it seems to do what I want, plus I own a Sony phone. However after seeing the “fun” with the SW2 I ordered a Pebble at £49 instead 😀

Man’s first day of wearing Apple Watch to work not going as hoped

I got one a couple of months back.

They are quite bulky – not a very thin profile at least.

At best ‘Smartwatches’ can currently only be described as remote controls for your phone, they allow you to check notifications without the hassle of getting your phone out of your pocket. If that is something that you fancy then it might be the gadget for you.

I got one to use as a sports tracker. There are issues with this though. I can’t find a way to turn the screen off completely – it wakes when you touch the screen. This might be fine when you are in a warm climate wearing short sleeved clothes but in wet Wales long sleeves will constantly reactivate your watch and then input random things while you are moving. It frequently manages to turn off my sports tracker and having the screen on constantly means that it will run out of battery within an hour or two.

For some reason it also tries to tell me what the weather currently is. It is far easier and more reliable to look out of the window. I have tried everything to prevent weather notifications appearing but they still pop up.

I think things should improve as Google bring out new versions of Android Wear but I think Smartwatches won’t really be worth it for another generation or two yet.

For now my Sony Smartwatch 3 resides in my bedside draw.

Oh, but on the plus side there is an Android app called Whoopee Wear that turns your phone into a Whoopee cushion which you can control remotely with you watch. It is by far the best use of a Smartwatch that I have come across 😉

Interesting jam1e
I want it for a sports tracker as well …and it can double as a watch

One other thing – the clasp on the strap that comes with the Sony SmartWatch isn’t the best and it has come undone whilst I have been flying downhill which is quite disconcerting!

I have however just found out that you can turn the screen off and disable ‘touch to wake’ by double pressing the side button. I will try this next time I’m out.

I have one. Not the best looking watch, very much function over form. It is waterproof which is handy. I like being able to see notifications read and dismiss or delete them (no need to read all the emails Planet X send) plus navigation via google maps or viewranger can stick instructions on my wrist. I can send texts, play music, etc without getting my phone out.

I bought it because I thought it would be handy and at about £100 not unreasonably priced. I am totally converted to smart watches.

It has GPS built in but drains the battery fast. Fine for a run but isn’t going to last a full day and since I always have my phone with me I let that do the GPS work.

Can you get a mini map from viewranger or similar on the screen. I’d rather see a picture of where I am than direction arrows, is that possible?

I don’t think viewranger can stick a little map on the watch, I’d have a look but I’m at work. I find the instructions at waymarkers and a direction arrow enough for me with the phone coming out if I need more.

Google maps does put a little map on screen.

I’ve had an sw3 for about a year. It’s not a daily wearer, but overall, I do like it. Some thoughts on it:

GPS drains the battery fairly hard . . . Maybe about 5hrs tops on mine, and it takes a fair while to lock on from cold. Phone is much better accuracy, but for simple exercise stuff, it’s fine. I.e. Short run , short ride, but no it a full day epic.
Charges quickly and under average use, will last the day fine.
Integration with Google is good, and using it for directions is handy when driving as the watch will buzz and show you a direction change as you approach junctions, so you just need to tilt your wrist and have a quick glance.
The display when off is a great feature. You can genuinely glance at the watch and tell the time without it having to light up. Even the navigation stuff displays with the back light off.

It’s best to think of it as an extension of the phone, rather than a device in its own right. With th ephone paired you can genuinely get a text message and speak your reply back to it, or ok Google stuff and have the results display on the watch. Without the phone attached, it’s pretty basic.

I think at the moment the Sony with its gps built in is better than the likes of Apple watch. But the whole genre still needs a few revisions yet.

I bought one a couple of months back through bespoke offers for about £85. Finding it very useful on multiple fronts, key ones that spring to mind are:

Use it with Backcountry navigator to show OS maps on watch face when out biking. This is a very cool feature. If you are recording a route it shows the trace. Likewise if you have loaded in a route to follow, it shows that too. Means the phone can stay away most of the time…

Alarm clock function means the wife gets to stay asleep at 5.45… It just vibrates on my wrist rather than making a noise.

Nice to have a silent phone, but still be aware of notifications coming in.

Phone doesn’t need unlock code when paired – less faffing when you do pick the phone up

Notifications come through even if phone is not with you, so long as connected via WiFi – handy.

Replying to texts by voice is pretty cool, but not when out in public 😉