by Julie
The i’m Watch from Italian based i’m is not only a wrist
watch that will display the time of day, it’s actually an Android smartwatch
companion for your Bluetooth enabled iPhone or Android based smartphone. In
addition to performing as a speakerphone, it can even run its own apps. Let’s
give it a spin. Note: Images can be clicked to view a larger size.
First of all, this watch is not dainty by any stretch of the imagination. It’s pretty large and chunky. As you can see it swallows my wrist. It was a little too bulky and uncomfortable to wear for me.
The i’m Watch is available in several versions. The one you
see above is offered with a choice of 7 different colored bands. You can also
buy the i’m Watch in Titanium and jeweled versions. The prices for the Titanium
and Gold versions are insane though – they range from $1049 for Titanium up to
a jaw dropping $19990 for the White Gold and Diamond version.
This watch reminds me of the previous version of the Apple
iPod nano and one of the many watch bands that were created for it. Even the
interface and icons look similar.
The case of the i’m Watch is made of aluminum with a smooth
brushed finish. On the left side you’ll find a standard headphone jack /
charger port and a speaker. The watch comes with a special USB cable that has a
3.5mm jack on one end and a USB connector on the other. You use this cable to
charge the watch and also transfer files with your computer.
The 1.54” 240×240 pixel color touch display is clear
and bright. To wake it up you have to press the command button on the right
side. Continuously pressing the button will take you back through the screens
like a back button. When you get to the screen above on the left, you can then
swipe the screen left or right with your finger to show the scrolling apps
lists. The touch display is capacitive, so you’ll not be able to use it with
gloves.
The i’m Watch has 128mb of RAM and 4GB of flash. The operating
system is a customized version of Android that includes a core set of apps:
Appointments, Contacts, Calculator, Compass, Facebook, picture gallery,
Twitter, email, MP3 player, Instagram, News, Stocks and Weather. You can also
install additional apps from the i’m Market. Right now there are only 27 apps
available. Most are free but some have a price.
I was really excited to try this watch because I thought it
would be great to be able to leave my phone in my bag or jacket pocket while I
drive and be able to see text messages as they come in or even answer/make
calls right from my wrist. Unfortunately the i’m Watch experience has not been
as good as I hoped. The watch looks better than it performs. Having the
ability to see Facebook, Twitter, SMS and email on your wrist sounds great. But
everything left me disappointed. Facebook and the news app just show headlines.
You can’t tap a headline to see the full story or Facebook post, so what real
good is that? Email will allow you to tap a subject line and read the full
message, but the screen is so tiny that it’s tough to read it in a
240×240 pixel window.
Then there’s the features I really cared about most: SMS and
making/receiving calls…
The SMS/text message feature just flat out doesn’t work. At
all. Bummer… The speakerphone feature doesn’t work either. At least not enough
to be useful. The watch will come on when a call comes in (image above on the
right), but the audio is very choppy or just drops out completely to where you
think the phone call was dropped. But if you look at your actual phone, you’ll
see that you’re still connected. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to make or
receive a call, it just doesn’t work. And forget about trying to scroll
through your address book to call someone. Again, the display is too small.
What the i’m Watch really needs are voice commands…
I have to complain about one more thing and then I’ll be
done… Battery life… The web site says that the
watch uses “smart tethering” to save power and that you should be able to get
up to 2 days of use per charge. I barely did anything with this watch and
didn’t even get 12hrs…
I came into this review hoping that the i’m Watch smartwatch
would be great, but am leaving disappointed. The problem is that this is
actually an updated version of their original watch…
What do you guys think? Would you wear a smartwatch?
Product Information
Price: $389.00
- $19990 depending on style
Manufacturer: i'm
Requirements: Bluetooth enabled smartphone: Android 4.0 and
higher, iOS 4 and higher
Pros: Can
install apps that show data
Cons: Speakerphone
feature doesn't work, choppy audio
SMS app doesn't
work
Short battery life
Too expensive for
what it can do
Source : http://the-gadgeteer.com
Here are 21 century watchfaces apps for I'm Watch device www.genuse.eu
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing, Albert
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