What To Look For In A Smartwatch

If you are on the market for a new smartwatch, there are a few things you may want to consider. From display to watchstrap, make sure you get exactly what you are looking for, both in style and features. Here are a few things to consider.

Buttons or Touch?

As most of your other devices are sporting touchscreens, it would only seem logical to opt for the same option on your smartwatch. Touch screens are quicker and easier to navigate and will probably take over when it comes to most hand-held devices in the nearest future. However, there may be a few things left to say for the classical look.With a more compact screen, comes the difficulty of targeting smaller menu items and you may want to use real buttons for scrolling. Additionally, smartwatches with physical buttons tend to come with a lower price tag. So if you appreciate tradition when it comes to watchware – you may cash in on it as well.

Black&White Or Colour?

Blck and white screen – E-Link – offers your smartwatch paper-like display (think Amazon’s Kindle), giving it a cool retro look. In addition to aesthetics, E-link has some serious practical benefits. One of the key benefits of a black and white screen is battery life. E-paper will keep your watch running for 5 days or more, compared to only half of that for colour screens. With E-Link, you will also have no problems looking at your screen in the bright sun. On the other hand, colour screens do allow you to enjoy lots of media options, like viewing photos, playing around with apps and viewing all your content in full colour.

So the decision would probably centre around a tradeoff consideration: longer battery life or brighter media capabilities.

Check out Chinavasion’s E-Link Zebble Smartwatch.

The Strap Issue

From the personalization standpoint, you should choose a smartwatch that offers a choice of straps or is friendly to a third party option, allowing you to follow recent fashion trends or just make a personal style statement. Samsung, for instance, caught on to the idea with Gear 2, by moving the camera from the strap (Galaxy Gear) to the watch itself, so that the strap is now replaceable by any 22 mm one. And some smartwatches come with a selection of straps (like Pebble) or changeable ones (like Sony Smartwatch 2).

Notifications and Alerts

You can reasonably expect your smartwatch to alert you to incoming calls, emails, texts in with a subtle buzz on the wrist, making sure you are aware of the news, and yet have the option of deciding when to handle it.

And if you are a big on social media, you should also look into the models that integrate notifications from Facebook or Twitter. An important feature to have is the ability to check all your notifications even after they come in. For instance, Pebble allows you to view up to 50 of your latest alerts,while Samsung goes even further with Smart Relay – just pick up your watch and you and the corresponding app will open on the larger screen.

Special Features

Fitness is becoming a big topic in the smartwatch world and some models are starting to integrate activity-monitoring functions. Devices, like Gear 2 and Gear Fit include a pedometer and a heart rate monitor. Same goes for Neptune Pine, which also comes with built-in apps that can track your steps, pace, calories and more.

If your active lifestyle takes you past the gym and right into the great outdoors, you may also look into “rugged” models (like Sony SmartWatch 3), which come with waterproof and shock-proof features.

Check Out Chinavasion’s E-Ceros Smart Nano Waterproof Watch