I just picked up the Sony Smartwatch 3 over the weekend, and I'm loving it so far. I anticipated finding Wear useful, but it's been more useful than I thought. I'm stilling getting used to it, but it's been great over the first few days.
There doesn't seem to be much love for the Smartwatch 3 around these parts, but for anyone who is looking for an Android Wear device to use in more of an active manner, it's the best one out there. There are a variety of reasons why I went with it over any of the others.
There doesn't seem to be much love for the Smartwatch 3 around these parts, but for anyone who is looking for an Android Wear device to use in more of an active manner, it's the best one out there. There are a variety of reasons why I went with it over any of the others.
- Transflective display: When indoors, the display on the Smartwatch 3 doesn't pop quite as much as the display on many other Wear devices. But that's because of the handy transflective display. Not only does it emit light, but it also reflects light. Why is this important? Outdoor visibility. The screen is perfectly readable in bright, direct sunlight and at almost any angle. I didn't want to ever have to worry about having to cup my hand over the screen just to see it outside at times, especially when working or running. This also makes the "always on" feature for the screen far more battery efficient. This was a huge selling point to me as I've loved the transflective display on my MotoACTV for years.
- Battery life: The Smartwatch 3 is rated as one of the best Wear devices for battery life. This is due to having a slightly larger battery and the transflective display.
- On-board GPS: It's great to not have to worry about taking my phone with me when I'm going for a run.
- On-board WiFi and NFC: These don't matter right now, but it's nice to know that the watch is a little more future proof than some others.
- Size: It's not huge. The Sony Smartwatch 3 doesn't look like a big brick or hockey puck on my wrist. I don't have the largest wrists, so I was a little worried about how a smartwatch would look on my wrist. The Sony Smartwatch easily looked the best to me when I tried on all of the big players.
- Band: The band is incredibly comfortable. I know you can more easily switch bands on other devices due to the proprietary bands on the SW3, but I wanted one that was comfortable right out of the box. I'm hoping Sony releases the standalone steel band soon for when I want to class things up. They're also supposed to be releasing a housing for the watch that will allow you to use any standard watch bands with it.