Guy's talking to his wristwatch

LOADS OF FUN and always ready with online alerts and other useful information, the Sony SmartWatch 3 SWR50 with audio command looks sharp with its 1.6-inch trans-flective display of 320x320 pixels in 16-bit colour. 

You get ample power from the quad-core ARM A7 processor running at 1.2GHz and you have 512 megabytes of memory and four gigabytes of eMMC internal storage. The weight is only 45 grams.

The watch runs on the Android Wear operating system and offers several standalone functions even when not linked to a smartphone. And you have Google Now audio command as well, so you can tell it verbally what to do instead of using your finger – or use the gesture control.

With a built-in accelerometer, compass, gyro and GPS, the SWR50 is dust- and waterproof, meeting IP68 standards.

NFC (near-field communication) lets you easily link the watch to any smartphone that has the same capability. Using a Sony Xperia Z3 phone, I simply tapped the “N” (NFC) mark at the back against the SWR50 and the Z3 was prompted to download the Android Wear app. With that installed, it could link via Bluetooth to the watch.

The Android Wear app can then be used to customise the watch – maybe give it a fresh new face or some new apps of its own – and to upgrade its software. 

There are 17 different watch faces to choose among, previewing them on your phone. And among the apps available for download is Google Fit, a dandy fitness tracker. You sign up for Google Fit and enter your age, weight, gender and planned activities – walking, running, biking, aerobics, dancing and/or skating. 

Input your goals, like how many hours you want to stay active each day, and Google Fit will track you. It sends alerts to your watch about your progress (the Google Fit watch face itself is best for this), such as the number of calories burned and the number of paces recorded.

The watch delivers this information and other notifications from your connected phone in the form of virtual “cards” that are swiped up or down, left or right.

Among other things, you can read your email on the watch, marking what you’ve seen and telling the phone to open specific mail, and check your Facebook messages, replying verbally (in English) or by drawing a quick sketch or selecting an emoticon to respond.

The voice command can control several functions on the phone. You just say, “Okay Google” and the watch will display the message “Speak now”. Next say “text” or “call” and name the contact you want to reach.

You can also get the smart watch to guide you to any destination just by saying, “Navigate to the nearest hotel” or wherever. It will fetch the Google Map data from the phone to display.

Then there are the controls for whatever music app you have on your phone, such as the Walkman app on my Z3.

Among the stand-alone functions when disconnected from your smartphone, the watch can be your wake-up alarm, keep track of your daily to-do list, and play any music files it has stored via Bluetooth-linked headphones. It doesn’t need the phone app to count your steps and track other physical activities, either.

The watch can be recharged with a micro USB cable for about an hour at a time.

The Sony SmartWatch 3 SWR50 retails for Bt8,490. For Bt28,690 you can buy it together with a Sony Xperia Z3 (usual price Bt21,900 on its own). There are several different colours available for the wrist strap.

 

Key Specs

 

- Platform: Google Wear

- CPU: Quad ARM A 7 1.2GHz

- Memory: 512MB

- Storage: 4GB

- Display: 1.6-inch trans-flective, 16-bit colour, 320x320 pixels

- Connectivity: |Bluetooth 4.0, NFC

- Water resistance: IP68

- Battery: Lithium Polymer 420mAh, two-day use, one-hour recharging

- Dimensions: 36x51x10mm |(core unit)

- Weight: 45g (core unit)