SmartWatches Blog, News and Reviews UK

Apple watchOS 7 vs Apple watchOS 6 – What’s new? How to get & install it? And compatible watches – FAQ

by James Smythe | Jun 23, 2020 | Apple, Fitness, News, SmartWatches, Wearables | 0

Following my previous posts about Apple iOS 14 for the iPhone and iPadOS 14, let's look at what's new with Apple watchOS 7 Apple watchOS 7 vs watchOS 6 what is new? Watch Faces and Sharing – Step counting finally on the home screen? Lots of new watch faces are coming with new ways to share unique combinations to completely configure the watch face to suit any activity or lifestyle, from the new parent to the surfing aficionado, tennis player, or photographer. These will be indefinitely customisable, and you can then share them through messages, or find new ones...

Mobvoi TicWatch S2 Review – Is this a cheap Garmin Fenix alternative?

by James Smythe | Feb 1, 2019 | Fitness, Reviews, SmartWatches, Wearables | 0

Mobvoi is originally an AI company but has made waves in the smartwatch industry the past few years for their affordable and excellent TicWatch Wear OS watches. Following the success of the original TicWatch S and E they have now been following up with a second generation featuring the more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 chipset. While this is an improvement, the 2100 chipset is quite old now and watches with the new Snapdragon 3100 are coming out this year. This is my first foray into Wear OS watches, as a fitness fantastic I am a Garmin convert and currently...

Huawei Watch GT Announced – Could this be an affordable Garmin competitor?

by James Smythe | Oct 17, 2018 | News, SmartWatches, Wearables | 0

During the Mate 20 announcement, Huawei also announced the new Watch GT and I found it almost as exciting as the phone release. As much as I love my Garmin Fenix 5 it cost me £350, and the plus models are about £600 and while they are technically smartwatches, they lack a lot of smartwatch features. The problem with smartwatches is the shocking battery life and poor sports tracking performance. The Watch GT claims to eliminate the battery performance and even besting Garmin with a 14-day battery and 22 hour GPS battery while offering some excellent fitness tracking features and coming...

Apple Watch Series 4 launched with custom processor and improved HRM with ECG functions

by James Smythe | Sep 13, 2018 | Apple, Fitness, News, SmartWatches, Wearables | 0

The new iPhone may get all the attention and they look beautiful but let's face it, its just the same old with some insane price options (£1400+!). I am a little more excited about the Apple Watch 4. The smartwatch scene has stagnated a little especially with Wear OS, this will hopefully improve with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100 but in the meantime, Apple is the ones pushing ahead with smartwatch innovation. Inside the new Apple Watch 4, we see Apple transition to a new SiP (Silicon in Package) design with a new S4 SoC containing for the first time a custom...

Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 Smartwatch SoC Launched claims week-long battery life & 15 hours GPS sports battery life

by James Smythe | Sep 10, 2018 | News, SmartWatches, Wearables | 0

The Android-based Wear OS platform has been getting a little long in the tooth with the platform struggling to gain traction, this has partly been down to no new system on chip being launched for it in the past 3 years. The Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 is the first new chip to land for the wearables platform and many people hoped to see watches based on it at IFA this year but were sadly disappointed. Finally, Qualcomm has gone official with the new platform and parts of the chip have been developed from the ground up specifically for wearables, whereas the...

Letsfit Smart Band Review – Smart Fitness Tracker

by James Smythe | Dec 6, 2017 | Fitness, Reviews, SmartWatches | 0

**Update on Instructions** I have had a few enquiries on how to use the Letsfit Smart Band, therefore in a recent review of a fitness tracker that is essentially the same I have gone into much more detail on how to set up and use these budget fitness trackers, and the guide will work for this particular device too. Click here for the fitness tracker instructions ** After my disappointing experience with the Fatmoon DM58 I decided to give another cheap fitness tracker a go. This time around it is the Letsfit Smart Band which is priced at just...

Fatmoon DM58 Fitness Tracker with Heart Rate Monitor

by James Smythe | Nov 28, 2017 | SmartWatches, Fitness, Reviews | 0

This year Amazon has been flooded with fitness trackers offering wrist-based heart rate monitoring. While I like the Fitbit ecosystem they are a lot of money for what they are, and it is a high price to pay if you are just getting into fitness. I bought this particular tracker is the design is nice and it is considerably cheaper than the Fitbit HR2 at a bargain price of just £33.99. It also has some additional functions such as blood pressure (which I was sceptical of). On my wrist it is quite a nice size, I have slim wrists,...

FitBit Launches Ionic Smartwatch

by James Smythe | Aug 30, 2017 | Android, Fitness, News, SmartWatches | 0

We have been expecting Fitbit to launch their first smartwatch for a while now. They bought up the IP from Pebble late last year, at the same time fitness tracker sales have been declining for Fitbit. So releasing a smartwatch was an inevitable move. This week Fitbit finally announced their entry into the smartwatch market with the Fitbit Ionic. With the smartwatch market, itself not performing as well as some companies would have hoped it will be interesting to see if Fitbit can shake things up. The Ionic is built out of a lightweight aluminium case and boasts a...

Garmin Fenix3 HR Review – Sports watch & Activity Tracker

by James Smythe | Sep 29, 2016 | Fitness, Reviews, SmartWatches | 0

Over the past 5 years I have become a bit of a fitness geek, which in turn has meant I have spent hundreds, if not thousands on fitness-related equipment and technology. One of the main areas I have been interested in is tracking my performance, I first dabbled with Bluetooth heart rate straps by Polar, with terrible results, Wahoo with better results, then Garmin sports watches such as the clunky but great Garmin Forerunner 310XT. Recently I have just settled with the Fitbit Charge HR and occasionally use my Wahoo Bluetooth chest strap. They are both small, and cheap-ish....

Apple Watch Series 2: Waterproof and with GPS

by James Smythe | Sep 8, 2016 | Apple, iPhone, SmartWatches | 0

It has been 2 years since Apple released the original Apple Watch, and many competitors have entered the market since, so it is about time the Watch received a decent upgrade. Appearance wise it is very similar to the original but inside the watch, it has been entirely redesigned. It now has a new S2 dual-core processor and better graphics that are twice as fast as the original. The display can handle over 1,000 nits and is the brightest display Apple has ever shipped. It is now waterproof up to 50 meters and is even focussing on swimmers with...

Google is building two Android Wear smartwatches with Google Assistant integration

by James Smythe | Jul 7, 2016 | Google, Android, SmartWatches | 1

Android Police is reporting that they have a very reliable source claiming that Google is currently building two Android Wear devices – possibly Nexus-branded – for release sometime after the latest Nexus phones are announced. One watch will be larger, sportier, and more fully-featured (LTE, GPS, heart rate), the other will be smaller and lack the aforementioned mobile data and GPS. It is believed that both watches will be circular and have the codenames of Angelfish and Swordfish. Angelfish will have GPS, LTE, and a heart-rate monitor, giving it the ability to be a true “standalone” Android Wear device....

Tag Heuer Connected Smart Watch Announced

by James Smythe | Nov 11, 2015 | Android, News, SmartWatches | 0

Swiss luxury watch-marker Tag Heuer has finally launched their long anticipated smartwatch. The Connected is an Android Wear smart watch and will retail for £1100. The watch is made from lightweight titanium materials and features a large round face, 3D bezel and button to give it a traditional look despite being smart. There is also a brushed titanium button on the side for some control without constantly needing to smudge the screen with fingers. The strap is vulcanised an is available in 7 different colours. The watch is also IP67 splash resistant. The specification of the watch is a 1.6GHz dual-core processor,...

Category: SmartWatches