Tick-tick: the time of smart watches is gone, but now bracelets are pretending to be them
Let's talk about smart watches. I wrote several topics about smart watches on Habré ( one and two times ), then the market died a little, and now it is in such an interesting position - thanks to the ability of fitness bracelets to pretend to be full-fledged watches - that I want to talk again in the comments. What is the trick: in 2018 it became very clearly that the nafig users did not give up the functionality of the smart phone, especially if it leads to a battery burner. C Apple Watch everything is clear - there is its own atmosphere and they are bought for a variety of reasons, often not directly related to functionality. With the Samsung Galaxy, the situation is similar. But here and there complain about a weak battery.
And here it becomes especially interesting, because one of the important usage scenarios is sleep monitoring and a smart alarm clock. And what kind of monitoring can we talk about, if you need to charge the watch every other day and is it best to do it at night? And it turns out, with the sales of Xiaomi Amazfit Bip, it is well confirmed that users will prefer to hammer on rarely used chips exactly smart watches for the sake of long battery life.
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It is interesting that large manufacturers began to catch this trend and now I have Huawei Watch GT in my hands with a 10-day period of operation, by the example of which I propose to see what will entice us in the near future.
Lyrical digression:
If I may, I will repeat once again from the post of 2016, what opportunities, in my humble opinion, are the smart watches. If you focus on basic, they allow you to:
As you can see, fitness bracelets do a great job with everything but the first and last item. Moreover, I think Xiaomi Amazfit Bip is the best fitness bracelet in terms of price and quality and I have been wearing it for more than a year now. The bracelet, even if it pretends to be a smart watch, weighs little, lives on a battery for 3 weeks, is waterproof, clearly vibrates and in general, purely from a functional point of view, it works, sorry for the pun like a watch. However, alas, he looks like Montana from childhood (the ones with 16 melodies). And I would have sacrificed one week of life for a better display.
And here at the end of last year, Huawei launches a beautiful Watch Gt watch with an Amoled-display and which should live on battery for 2 weeks. The axis, of course, own, because Android eats the battery as not in itself. In this case, the basic functionality, judging by the description, is preserved.
So, the watch is on the hand and now, after a month of working with them, let me tell you how, apparently, premium fitness bracelets will look like with smart watches. Why premium? Because these watches in retail cost 12-15 thousand and this is the price for a quality display and an “adult” appearance.
So, we again have a fitness bracelet, only now with a good screen. Really, with a very good screen. But in order to survive 2 weeks (in reality, with a constant pulse measurement, it is about 10 days), the charge has to be saved in everything. First, there is no Always on mode, characteristic of the Amoled-display. Secondly, it is ridiculous: the clock vibrates from the incoming message, but the screen does not light up - the clock is waiting for you to lift / turn your wrist and only then turn on the screen.
In general, the general feeling is that the functionality of the watch is still damp. Those. Everything related to fitness is excellent. It is clear that this direction was honed when working with Honor Band bracelets - by the way, I consider them more pleasant than the same Xiaomi Mi Band. However, as soon as you switch to the functionality of the watch, Sparta begins.
For example, the watch has very few dials. Only 11. Yes, each new firmware (they often come out - a month has already flown three pieces) adds on the dial. But most of them are useless and useless, and it is impossible to adjust the appearance with the indicators. In addition, there is no access to third-party dials either, which is very sad.
Interestingly, the easy change of dials was originally incorporated into the system - keeping your finger on the main screen allows you to change them very quickly. But, I repeat, there is nothing much to change.
But let's go back to the functionality of the fitness tracker. Since that time, while smart watches trampled on the spot, manufacturers have honed their applications. And everything related to sports and the monitoring of basic parameters are doing quite well. It is curious that the app “Huawei Health” is responsible for the relationship with the watch, which again functions in conjunction with the bracelets. Below is a video with switching on fitness modes and an illustration of the application. This is faster and clearer than taking photos of the interface.
Is such a device worth 12 thousand: an interesting question.
Pros : excellent display, good fitness functionality, long battery life.
Against : few dials, the lack of Always On mode, notifications are shown only when you turn the watch to yourself.
Conclusions : One gets the feeling that for Huawei this watch is a trial ball. A sort of sensing of the market and the mood of users. If sales go - the firmware will be sawn, there will be new devices. Moreover, not one Huawei, because the market of smart watches, although it is promising, clearly got up.
Judging by what I see, many are ready to buy the device, provided they charge at least once a week and have beautiful / functional displays. And manufacturers are actively groping for both beautiful and long-lived devices. But the functionality of smart watches, with its own applications and other blackjack, remains on the sidelines.
And here it becomes especially interesting, because one of the important usage scenarios is sleep monitoring and a smart alarm clock. And what kind of monitoring can we talk about, if you need to charge the watch every other day and is it best to do it at night? And it turns out, with the sales of Xiaomi Amazfit Bip, it is well confirmed that users will prefer to hammer on rarely used chips exactly smart watches for the sake of long battery life.
')
It is interesting that large manufacturers began to catch this trend and now I have Huawei Watch GT in my hands with a 10-day period of operation, by the example of which I propose to see what will entice us in the near future.
Lyrical digression:
If I may, I will repeat once again from the post of 2016, what opportunities, in my humble opinion, are the smart watches. If you focus on basic, they allow you to:
- Watch time on beautiful and easily replaceable watch faces. This, whatever marketers and application designers say, remains the most important thing. The watch is a piece and a pleasing and status one. Accordingly, attracting attention. Especially smart watches.
- They will allow you not to miss calls and be able to drop them with one button.
- Receive notifications from instant messengers, including messages on two-factor authentication. In addition to jokes, having a watch makes it comfortable and almost non-disturbing.
- Save battery power on the phone due to less frequent switching.
- Work as a sleep tracker and wake up with a smart alarm clock.
- Be a fitness tracker with the ability to export information to other applications.
- Manage the player.
As you can see, fitness bracelets do a great job with everything but the first and last item. Moreover, I think Xiaomi Amazfit Bip is the best fitness bracelet in terms of price and quality and I have been wearing it for more than a year now. The bracelet, even if it pretends to be a smart watch, weighs little, lives on a battery for 3 weeks, is waterproof, clearly vibrates and in general, purely from a functional point of view, it works, sorry for the pun like a watch. However, alas, he looks like Montana from childhood (the ones with 16 melodies). And I would have sacrificed one week of life for a better display.
And here at the end of last year, Huawei launches a beautiful Watch Gt watch with an Amoled-display and which should live on battery for 2 weeks. The axis, of course, own, because Android eats the battery as not in itself. In this case, the basic functionality, judging by the description, is preserved.
So, the watch is on the hand and now, after a month of working with them, let me tell you how, apparently, premium fitness bracelets will look like with smart watches. Why premium? Because these watches in retail cost 12-15 thousand and this is the price for a quality display and an “adult” appearance.
So, we again have a fitness bracelet, only now with a good screen. Really, with a very good screen. But in order to survive 2 weeks (in reality, with a constant pulse measurement, it is about 10 days), the charge has to be saved in everything. First, there is no Always on mode, characteristic of the Amoled-display. Secondly, it is ridiculous: the clock vibrates from the incoming message, but the screen does not light up - the clock is waiting for you to lift / turn your wrist and only then turn on the screen.
In general, the general feeling is that the functionality of the watch is still damp. Those. Everything related to fitness is excellent. It is clear that this direction was honed when working with Honor Band bracelets - by the way, I consider them more pleasant than the same Xiaomi Mi Band. However, as soon as you switch to the functionality of the watch, Sparta begins.
For example, the watch has very few dials. Only 11. Yes, each new firmware (they often come out - a month has already flown three pieces) adds on the dial. But most of them are useless and useless, and it is impossible to adjust the appearance with the indicators. In addition, there is no access to third-party dials either, which is very sad.
Interestingly, the easy change of dials was originally incorporated into the system - keeping your finger on the main screen allows you to change them very quickly. But, I repeat, there is nothing much to change.
But let's go back to the functionality of the fitness tracker. Since that time, while smart watches trampled on the spot, manufacturers have honed their applications. And everything related to sports and the monitoring of basic parameters are doing quite well. It is curious that the app “Huawei Health” is responsible for the relationship with the watch, which again functions in conjunction with the bracelets. Below is a video with switching on fitness modes and an illustration of the application. This is faster and clearer than taking photos of the interface.
Is such a device worth 12 thousand: an interesting question.
Pros : excellent display, good fitness functionality, long battery life.
Against : few dials, the lack of Always On mode, notifications are shown only when you turn the watch to yourself.
Conclusions : One gets the feeling that for Huawei this watch is a trial ball. A sort of sensing of the market and the mood of users. If sales go - the firmware will be sawn, there will be new devices. Moreover, not one Huawei, because the market of smart watches, although it is promising, clearly got up.
Judging by what I see, many are ready to buy the device, provided they charge at least once a week and have beautiful / functional displays. And manufacturers are actively groping for both beautiful and long-lived devices. But the functionality of smart watches, with its own applications and other blackjack, remains on the sidelines.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/445662/
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