Smartwatches

Things to Consider While Buying the Best Smartwatches

Smartwatches are all the rage – and it’s all because they reinforce a minimalist lifestyle. Their easy-to-use interfaces clubbed with key tracking metrics such as step, sleep, and calories, give them more capabilities. They have advanced a great deal – from the contemporary extension of your smartphone to standalone wearable technology. 

It’s an arms race between some of the big companies that you know – with companies such as Samsung, Apple, and Google working to not only outperform their earlier iterations but also to beat the latest releases of their rivals. 

And the happiest people in this tug of war are smartwatch shoppers. It’s a thriving marketplace – not only for those shopping for a generalist smartwatch such as Samsung Galaxy and Apple 5 but also for those looking for sport-specific smartwatches such as FitBit Ionic and Mobvoi TicWatch.

It’s unfortunate that with so many options in our consumerist economy, comes the issue of analysis paralysis and choice overload. Here, we offer you the best smartwatch brands to make an informed decision. 

Different Types of Smartwatches

Before you decide on anything, first think about the following three basic forms of smartwatches and choose one that best fits your needs.

Smartwatches

Smartwatches that act like the notification centers for your smartphone. They’re the crude definition of what most people know about smartwatches. They come in different high-tech designs, with some looking like the traditional analog watches, but with a display screen for serving you with messages from your mobile.

Hybrid Smartwatches

As the name suggests, a hybrid smartwatch tries to combine analog designs with high-tech sophistication. Hybrid smartwatches look an awful lot like the traditional analog watches but with a twist. They don’t feature a screen but can be connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth.

They can receive phone alerts and notify you by vibrating. You can program them and assign numbers to individual contacts to identify those texting or calling you by just looking at your smartwatch.

Fitness Trackers

Fitness trackers flaunt the functionality of smartwatches. They can tell the time, and even be linked with your phone to send you alerts. However, they’re primarily designed to track your health activities and motivate you enough to achieve your goals.

What to Look for In A Smartwatch While Shopping Online

Choosing a smartphone from a market filled with different brands and models isn’t easy. You have a plethora of options that you can afford to breakdown and sample through. Before you get all excited and hop into the tech train, here’re the factors to consider when choosing a smartwatch gadget:

Compatibility With Your Smartphone

Is the smartwatch you’re about to buy compatible with your smartphone? The last thing you want is to head home with a wearable device that can’t be synced with your smartphone. It starts by looking at the phone’s operating system. You must choose a smartwatch software that’s compatible with your software. The next thing you want to do is make sure your phone’s software is updated and can connect with the kit’s software.

Check The Battery Life

How long does the battery life smartwatch hold on to its battery juice? Remember, a smartwatch has a long list of invaluable functions that drain batteries much faster compared to a standard wristwatch. That’s particularly the case for a smartwatch with an LCD. The more you view photos, respond to notifications, and read messages, the more the smartwatch runs out of juice. You want to make sure the smartwatch can retain charge for long under heavy usage before you can go ahead and invest your hard-earned cash in one.

Shop For Specific Features And Functionalities

Smartwatches aren’t designed with the same features. But there are basic ones that are present in nearly all smartwatches.

For instance, nearly all smartwatches will alert you whenever you receive a message or call, or when you have a diary appointment and so forth. They’ll inform you by either vibrating or making a small noise.

That means you can read your messages discreetly without checking your phone openly. Other smartwatches are more specific. For instance, there are smartphones for fitness freaks, smartphones for BP monitoring, and so on. For this, you want to look past the basic features and be more specific with what you want.

Pick A Smartwatch That Matches Your Style

Smartwatches aren’t just designed for their functionalities and features. They’re stylish and appealing to the eye. The smartwatch you buy should complement your style. You have to make sure the style, color, and design of the smartwatch you choose matches your mode of dressing to a T.

You have the option to choose between a standard smartwatch that looks a lot like the traditional analog watch or to go a little over the top by going with an ultra-modern digital smartwatch with rugged leather or sleek metal veneer.

Button vs. Touch

Many smartwatch brands and fitness trackers are designed with touch screens that you can swipe and tap to navigate around features and apps. Many of them are also trying to combine touchscreen and button options. Buttons are a preferred choice for most people because they provide shortcuts to most of the features your smartwatch arrives with.

Dropping the Need for Phone Pairing

Smartwatches have advanced a great deal. Some of them even feature mobile network chips, which allow you to plug in a SIM card and proceed to make calls, send texts, and do almost everything a phone does as a standalone wearable device.

In other words, you’re not restricted to pairing one with a smartphone. It’s to be however, noted that smartwatches aren’t that well-endowed with a big battery. They tend to quickly run out of juice, which makes them unreliable when used for communication.

Standalone smartwatches work perfectly for fitness buffs that want their freedom. It allows them to exercise without getting weighed down by their phones.

Messaging and Alert Capabilities

A smartwatch is more than a wearable device. It’s a productivity tool with so much to offer. For instance, you don’t have to keep on checking your phone when you’re in a meeting – not when you can discreetly look at your wrist to read texts, see incoming calls, and receive meeting reminders.

These alerts will be pushed to your smartwatch via Bluetooth, so you don’t have to check your phone physically.

You have smartwatch devices such as FitBit that will alert you when you have an incoming call or when you’ve received a new text or email. You also have fully-featured, standalone smartwatch devices such as Galaxy Watch and Apple Watch that allows you to receive the call and respond to the messages and emails that people send.

Smartwatches running on the Wear OS have Google Assistant and voice commands that allow you to control them or pull information by word of mouth. With this functionality, smartwatches can pack even more features and functionalities, given they’ll no longer be limited by size.

Apple has Siri, which does pretty much the same for smartwatches running on iOS.

Waterproof Smartwatches

Wearing a smartwatch isn’t any different from wearing a traditional analog watch. You’ll be wearing it most of the time, and even forgetting that you have one on your wrist.

You’ll be rained on or at times hop into the shower without remembering to get it off. It’s important that you get a smartwatch that’s at least splash-proof, if not water-proof.

As the name suggests, they are designed to resist water splashes, but not too much of it. You submerge it underwater, and what remains is a dud of a smartwatch. However, for some smartwatches, they’re completely water-resistant. You can submit it underwater (up to a specific depth), and they’ll still work.

Smartwatches For Fitness Freaks

Are you a sports person or do you enjoy working out? One of the core features of a smartwatch is the fitness tracker, which basically helps you to keep track of your fitness goals.

You don’t need a pedometer or fitness tracker. Not when there are smartwatches that are specifically designed to offer the same functionality, and so much more on top. Here’s what a smartwatch can do: it can count steps, pulse rate, calories, sleep duration, and even go a step further by calculating some other vital metrics.

Entertainment On Your Wrist

A smartwatch allows you to watch videos and listen to music straight from your wrist. Their screen might be a little small compared to that of a smartphone, but they’re unbeatable for convenience.

They’re even better when you’re working out and want to listen to music while at it. The last thing you want is to throw an extra load in the name of a smartphone in your pocket, and that’s exactly where smartwatches rise to the occasion to save the day once again.

Pricing 

Except for budget-friendly smartwatches, most smartwatches tend to cost between $100 for older models. However, the standard price range for most smartwatches is $200 to $500, depending on the model, features, and accessories.

Final Thoughts - Which Smartwatch Brand Should I Prefer?

Smartwatches aren’t just for telling you time or serving you with phone notifications. There’s more to them than most people are brought to understand. They’re suitable for fitness tracking, health monitoring, and so on. They have their share of pros and cons. But overall, their pros outweigh their cons by far. To conclude, apple smartwatches series5 are well worth every penny you spend on one, especially to those concerned about their health and fitness goals.