- First Impression
- Apps
- Hardware (Use)
- Other post reviews in this tread
(Mine is black)
The day I got my Sony LiveView, I had one problem: The screen wasn't working.
But this was only 2 months ago, so I got a discount coupon from the store and bought the SmartWatch as it just arrived in store.
1. FIRST IMPRESSION
As usual, the design caught my eye, it looked even nicer then the pictures google image gave me.
As every geeky person would do is to try turning it on
but that didn't quite happen as I thought it would, you had to charge it 2 hours before you can start playing it. That of course you had to find out yourself as the paper guide told you nothing about waiting.Charging it is taking the device of the wristband, opening the clip and placing the L shaped cable between the clip and... god this is hard to explain.
It's like clipping it to your belt, but the belt is the cable. There!
2. APPS
Anyways, Once I installed the necessarily software to connect the phone, the first thing you notice is that you get a menu with all Sony apps designed for the SmartWatch. Quite handy as you don't need to start searching for them on the app store. It even has a predefined shortcut to search for apps with "SmartWatch" so you don't have to start typing it (Yey for the 2.3Seconds win!)
Installing an app is as easy as agreeing with the terms and downloading it. Once installed, the app is active on your mobile AND watch.
You can select any installed app such as Twitter or Facebook, even Find Phone tool (VERY handy for girls and there maze purses between tampax and rocks...) with various settings. Some apps can be defined as gadget on your home screen.
Some apps are being created by cool nerds to enhance the flexibility of your watch. One of my favorite is the VFinder, an app who can take pictures with your phone camera, you see the camera on your watch with around 1-2FPS. (Yes you that lives next door a pretty girl, no more peaking, use your phone and watch!) Or the GPS tool, see how fast your driving, how high your climbing and where the hell on this planet your standing.
Maybe a Maps app? There are two who are being worked on, but you can test it already. They both are really bad for now, the one using google maps is the worst. But it's still in early stage... right?
3. HARDWARE
Now, to how handy this tool really is...
First of all, it reacts as it should with your finger(s), but then again, some buttons are to small.
When you double tab the watch, you have a 70% chance it will turn on.
You are also able to shake the device to wake it, but only a 10-20% chance, and not just a little shake, more like shacking a cocktail!
As alternative, you have a ON button on the side.
So, when you manage to turn on the watch, you get the digital clock, with the day (Mo, Tu,We,Th,Fr,Sa,Su) and the day of the month. You don't get to see the month and year.
Once you tab on it, you get the homescreen. On the homescreen you got the gadgets. Wiping your finger on the screen to the left and right, you get to slide between gadgets. I got mine defined on Twitter, Facebook and Events (missed calls, SMS, MMS, etc). The Gadgets are fullscreen buttons, clicking on them will give you more info. When reading your incoming SMS, you can slide up and down to read the whole thing.
Using two fingers and tabbing them both together on the screen makes you go back, I would have preferred a double tab, as sometimes you just can't tab with 2 fingers when smoking a sigaret (Or something else.)
Once back on the homescreen, you can slide down to get the menu. On the menu you find your installed apps. Sliding left and right again you get to find more of your apps.
I happen to have noticed, some apps freeze the watch (Or phone, still sorting it out) till you reboot the watch or force close the app on your phone. Restarting the app will make it work again.
Quite disappointing tbh.
Now about the device main app. It's missing some things we could all use...
For instance, I'd love to change the Screen Timeout time to 10 seconds, as for now it turns off to fast.
Having a function to turn off or dim vibrate would be amazing so i don't have to take off my watch when sleeping.
Changing the screen brightness would be handy for certain things.
Having an option to add a background, change UI colors and styles would be amazing to have, as it's your special watch, you want it to be yours only.
PROS & CONS
Pro's
- Design
- Multi-touch screen
- Size
- Respounds Time
- Very cool apps
Con's
- Can't see screen well in sun
- Music Player volume buttons to small to touch on screen
- Menu should be fullscreen menu buttons like Live View (It's to small to work with when driving/biking)
- Some apps could use more options
- Sometimes screen doesn't show image, but still reacts to touching
- Should have WAY more settings. (eg. Screen Timeout, Customizations, Vibration strenght, Brightness, etc)
- Shaking it to wake up works 1 out of 10 times only
4. Other post reviews in this tread:
First-time-use-charging is pain in the ass. I connected it to the charging cable, but wasn't sure if it's charging or not... no LED light, no response from watch... nothing. In begining I thought I recevied defective one, that is not charging. Also using custom (too) short USB cable instead of micro USB cable is simply dumb. I think charging is the main failure of this watch.
Watch battery indicator is also not use accurate. It was showing about 50%, but next hour it shut itself down.
Apps are not to good, but they are getting better and better. Unfortunately Facebook and Twitter apps are realy bad. Almost just plain text with no forming. Mail notifications are currently bad.
Weather app is very good, but it needs option for current location not just predefined location.
Find phone, Messaging, Missed call, ModeChanger, TicTacToe, StatusView, Counter, GPS Viewer, GPS Map, Slideshow and Battery Level apps are useful and good working!
Music player needs bigger buttons!
I would prefer bigger screen, but i got big hands, so this is not for everybody. Also pixel densiti and screen brightnes is too low.
Also it would be cool it it would have mic and speaker, so I could answer phone calls from the watch.
And one more tip: the easiest way to check your watch is double tap on the alu ring/band. It apparently uses accelerometer to wake up.
I will update this post once in a while, but not very much.
Thanks for reading. I respect each one of you, so please respect my thread.
PVTD
Oh and You might have noticed my bad wordplay, I ain't native English speaking.
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