Tuesday, August 26, 2014

SMARTWATCHES - ONLY BUY IF YOU WANT A SECOND SCREEN AND NOT A SECOND PHONE

Having spent several weeks with the Samsung Gear Live Smartwatch, I have been asked several times now about it. The first question is, predictably, along the lines of "is that one of those smart watches?" The second is usually, "do you like it?" After some back and forth about why I like it, the big one comes: "Should I get one?"

Early on I would deflect and tell people that I hadn't had it long enough to really come up with an answer. Lately, I've been answering directly. And to most people, the answer I give is an unqualified no.
This isn't because I don't think it is a great product. Instead, I think a smartwatch, at least right now, is not what most of the people asking me for my advice really want. A lot of people asking me about it want the watch to be another smaller version of their phone. But it is definitely not that.

Yes, I send and respond to text messages, keep tabs on my email, follow recipes, manage Google Keep, and a whole host of things from my watch. I've even tried using a web browser from my watch. Yet, whenever I need to do something more detailed like replying to a text message with more than one line, I break out the phone.

I think the Samsung Gear Live is a fantastic product and would highly recommend it to anyone that understands what it is - a second screen, not a second phone. If you're picturing having a miniature phone on your wrist, then I would shy away from smartwatches for now at least.

No comments:

Post a Comment