Two months with Android Wear: the best smartwatches yet

A deluge of smartwatches is expected at the IFA electronics trade show in Berlin this week so three Guardian writers put the best of Google’s Android Wear to the test

Google’s software for smartwatches, Android Wear, will start appearing on a range of devices from various manufacturers this autumn, and this year’s IFA electronics trade show, which starts on Wednesday, is expected to be packed with rival models.

Wear is a new platform, an overhaul of Google’s Android smartwatch software, which simplifies the user experience by cutting out all but the essential features.

The LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live were the first Android Wear smartwatches, but they are expected to be joined by models from Sony, Asus, HTC, Motorola, as well as more from Samsung and LG soon.

Wearing Android Wear

For users, the pertinent question is whether Android Wear is worth investing in, and ditching a perfectly adequate watch for.

To answer that question, I was joined by Tom Grinsted, the Guardian’s group product manager for mobile and devices, and Subhajit Banerjee, the Guardian’s mobile editor – and we all tested Android Wear watches for two months to find out.

Grinsted wore the Samsung Gear Live. He didn’t find shifting notifications from a phone to his wrist intrusive.

I’ve been genuinely surprised by how quickly the Samsung Gear Live I’ve been wearing for the past couple of months has replaced the many, many times I get my phone out for tiny interactions.

That was the premise of Android Wear, but after using it I’ve really felt like a wearable was offering me something useful for the first time – a quicker, less intrusive and less arduous way to manage the micro-interactions that make up much of my digital life. It’s become a habit, and very quickly.

That’s not to say it’s perfect. The Gear Live lasts for two days of reasonably heavy use but it’s another gadget inevitably leading to charging anxiety (if that’s a thing).

For small actions it’s great but as soon as I want to do anything more I reach for my phone because a screen on your wrist is too small for anything heavy. But I also reach for the phone because there are some things you simply can’t do on a watch. It’s considered odd to talk to non-phone technology in public.

Android Wear’s voice recognition is really very good: easily accurate enough to reply quickly to text messages or ask for directions. But using it means that you’re talking to your wrist in public. It’s less stare-inducing than wearing Google Glass but not by much.

Am I still wearing Wear after two months? Yes. I really like not getting my phone out all the time. It makes my technology quicker and less obvious in public. Unless I start talking to it … I don’t think we’re all quite ready for that. Yet.”

Banerjee also wore the Gear Live but struggled with the battery life.

For me, it’s really convenient to be able to look at all the notifications and act only on those that need urgent attention, especially the work related stuff (meeting reminders, breaking news alerts, Google chats, Twitter interactions, etc).

The Gear Live also looks like a watch, and the ability to change clock faces is great – a new watch everyday. Having the ability to ask your watch to look up stuff and measure your heart rate? Who wouldn’t want that.

But it’s not perfect. Having to remember to charge a watch as well as a phone each night is a drag. I get 36 hours of out of the Gear Live before needing to charge it, and I would prefer to charge it via microUSB without the charging attachment.

I also wish it had connectivity of its own, and wasn’t simply a companion device. App selection is weak – I want a Spotify app to control what I’m listening to, for instance.

Having notifications on my wrist means that if I want a break from alerts, taking off the watch is much easier and practical than ditching the phone or going through loads of app settings.

Overall, it still feels like a product in development offering a glimpse into the potentials of wearables, very much like the early days of the mobile phone. But it is functional enough for me to continue to wear for over two months instead of a watch.”

In my view, having worn the LG G Watch for just under two months there are two things I’ve noticed. The first is that Android Wear watches with their screens on all the time are the best for telling the time. Other smartwatches that rely on the wrist’s movement to light the screen are great in theory, but fail in practice.

The second is that having notifications vibrate and display on the wrist has saved me hours. I don’t need to constantly get my phone out of my pocket, unlock it, swipe down on the notification shade then then dismiss it every time it vibrates.

Now I turn off all phone alerts and rely on the watch, swiping them away when I don’t care, which is most of the time, or tapping through them and pulling them up on the phone when something important arrives.

There is something very satisfying about junking an email on my wrist and when I don’t want to be notified I can just mute the watch or turn it off.

The G Watch lasted about two days on a charge, had minimal impact on my smartphone’s battery life and was comfortable to wear, easily fitting under a shirt cuff. It was the best smartwatch I’ve used and it proved to me that Android Wear was something worth having; it added to my smartphone experience rather than just being another gimmick.

Google should be applauded for taking a less-is-more approach to the smartwatch, thinking about what people actually want to do with a screen on the wrist. I’d still like a keyboard and more apps, but Wear works as it is now and is quickly becoming something I don’t want to live without.

Appealing to the mass market

Wear has yet to appeal to the mass market, to prove that having notifications on the wrist instead of the smartphone (or not at all) is worth spending £150-200 on.

For those not inundated with email, messages and social media there is still little in the way of a convincing use case – but like the first iPad, it’s something that you find uses for once you have it.

It will be exciting to see how smartwatches develop, with more phone-independent functionality expected, as well as what the round watches from LG and Motorola look like at IFA.

LG’s G Watch R: the smartwatch that looks like a watch

Google smartwatches review: LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live and Android Wear

Contributors

Samuel Gibbs, Tom Grinsted and Subhajit Banerjee

The GuardianTramp

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