How to Pick a Good Smartwatch?

19 Oct.,2022

 

Smartwatch With ECG And Blood Pressure

The days had passed when people wore watches that ran on a battery and provided the users with the benefit of keeping track of the current time. The word ‘smartwatch‘ has gained popularity over the past few years. That’s why in this article we will talk about how to pick a good smartwatch. When one company tried to bring revolution in the world of technology, it did not want to miss out on the thought of bringing the same to its watches. And with this, perhaps the idea emerged, ‘who says only the phones can be smart?’ 

Whether it is having multiple fitness features, health-related features, or just being a style statement in the new fashion world, smartwatches have always been able to gather the buyers’ focus on them. And undoubtedly, it has been increasing whenever a tech giant like Apple, Samsung, Oppo, or any traditional watch-making company like Fossil, Garmin, etc., comes up with a crazy idea to add another new feature to their watch.

It is indeed true that many companies like Samsung, Realme, Oppo, LG, Apple, Fossil, Movado, Tag Heuer, Emporio Armani are focused on building the best smartphones possible. Though every smartwatch these companies bring to the market is excellent in their own way, let’s say it, every smartwatch cannot be a good fit for everyone. So, it is a reality that buying a smartwatch can be a bit tricky and confusing. That’s why in this article we have mentioned some points which will allow you to know more about how to pick a good smartwatch. Apple, Samsung, and traditional watch-making companies like Fitbit, focus on delivering the users all the notifications and apps to your hand. Having said that, With Apple’s and Samsung’s newly- launched models have tried to push the capability even further.

In the past few years, the smartwatch’s design has changed so did its features. The change and addition in the fitness trackers are noteworthy. While most smartwatches have built-in fitness metrics, such as GPS and heart rate monitor and SpO4, some also give the benefit of working as an all-time companion to your phone. Apple Watch SE is one of the smartwatches that can work independently as well. However, if you are on a budget and thinking about what to go for while you are all set to buy yourself or someone else a new smartwatch, here is a guide that can help you clear your head and work according to your priorities. It will, of course, save you from wasting money unreasonably.

ALSO READ: In 2024, The Apple Watch May Include A Blood-pressure Measuring Feature | OyPrice

Quick tips about how to pick a good smartwatch

  • Fitness Features: with technological advancement, every company has been eager to provide the best technology to the consumers, and it has a consequence, and that is the desire to have more. Now, every smartwatch can provide you with a step tracker or a heart rate sensor, but if you are ready to pay some extra amount to buy a good smartwatch, it is always better to observe whether the watch has a SpO2 sensor, sleeping tracker, etc. 
  • Compatibility to your phone: Don’t buy a smartwatch that is not compatible with your phone. Before buying your smartwatch, always check whether it is going to work with your smartphone or not. For example, Apple smartwatches only work with iPhones, whereas the smartwatches that Android runs always work best with Google, Samsung, or other smartphones. But if you look at the smartwatches of Fitbit, they can be compatible with the iPhones and Android phones.
  • Battery Life: If you are going to buy a smartwatch, fix your focus on its battery life. Usually, a smartwatch’s battery life is better than smartphones, but it is good to point out that the smartwatches that have the shape of an analogue timepiece are likely to have a better battery life than the others.
  • App Availability: It is one of the most important things to notice while buying a smartwatch. The selection of an app is one of the fundamental differences between Wear OS and WatchOS. The watch you are spending your money on needs to provide you with ample apps according to your requirement. But it is needless to say that compatibility, design, and battery life are as important as this one.
  • A Good Watch Band: If you are going to wear your newly-bought smartwatch on your wrist, it is important that it provides you comfort and does not irritate you with its presence. That’s why do read out that which kind of straps are used in a particular smartwtach. Also, before you go for a smartwatch, always get to know if any replacement for the watch band is available or not.

ALSO READ: Snapchat Introduces Dynamic Stories To Showcase News Updates In Stories | OyPrice

OS and Phone Compatibility

All the smartwatches are designed to be the best companion to smartphones. So, it is essential that the operating system of your smartwatch and smartphone are similar. Even if they are not, it is important that your smartwatch can work with your smartphone’s operating system. For instance, a smartwatch of Apple can only work with the iPhones. The smartwatches of Samsung can work with any phone that Android runs. But smatwatches that comes from brands like Fitbits such as its Fitbit Versa 2 and Fitbit Versa 3 can work with Android and iPhones. But here is one thing to share: Android phone users get extra benefits like answering their phone and replying to incoming text messages which iPhone users don’t.

The new Google Wear OS is currently running on Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, but it has been announced that it will soon be available to all the smartwatches powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100. Although the arrival of Fossil Gen 6 is happening very soon, it is not yet associated itself with the latest Wear OS version.

For all the Apple lovers, it is very well known that the Apple smartwatch can only work with the iPhones. So if you have the preinstalled Apple Watch app on your iPhone, here you will find the WatchOS App Store. You can install the app versions of your favourite iOS apps or find the new ones if you prefer. Install fitness-tracking apps, productivity apps, or whatever you like. You can also install games from the store if you wish.

ALSO READ: Amazfit Launches Its New & Improved GTS 2 Mini Smartwatch Priced At Rs 6,000 | OyPrice

Touchscreen or Touchless

Photo Credit: Amazon, Samsung

While you are searching for a good smartwatch, you can go for both, touchscreen or touchless. But it is indeed difficult to select items or work on the apps on such a small screen. So, there are ways the companies have found that can solve this problem of the users. The Samsung Galaxy Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 seem to fall into the category that provides their users with a very easy way to handle their screen. They have a bezel that you can use to scroll through menus. Apart from having a touch screen, the presence of the bezel makes the work easier.

While the Samsung smartwatch has offered a bezel to its users, Wear OS has done an excellent job by presenting card-based notifications that you can easily dismiss with a swipe. But how much can you swipe? Because in this way, you have to keep swiping continuously. However, Apple has found a very impressive way to avoid that much swiping. Users can switch between cards with a flick of their wrist. Apart from that Apple has also opened itself to have a combo approach for the Apple watch. It has offered a touch display along with both side buttons and a digital crown. All these serve different purposes, thus making it simpler to use. If you press the side button, it brings you to your doc of the most-used apps. The purpose of the crown button is to zoom in on content or to scroll. The screen uses Force Touch to decipher the difference between a tap and a long press.

Keep Your Eyes on the Design

Photo Credit: Apple

Design is an essential thing when selecting a perfect smartwatch for yourself. Most smartwatches have a round shape. But as the days pass, the design of the smartwatches is becoming slimmer and smaller. The Garmin produced the best watch, and the Garmin Lily is especially suitable for people with a smaller wrist. Similarly, other companies and, most importantly, the traditional watchmakers have also shifted their focus to the design. They are also joining the fray with Wear OS devices that offer a combination of the style of analogue watch along with Google’s watch operating system. Companies like Tag Hwuer, Luis Vuitton, and Emperio Armani have also started to shift their focus to making their smartwatch’s design more attractive than before.

ALSO READ: Fossil Introduces The Skagen Falster Gen 6 Smartwatch In India For Rs 21,995 | OyPrice

Proper Selection of Fitness-Tracking Features like ECG, SpO2, GPS, and Step Counting

Photo Credit: Amazon, boAt

Who doesn’t want to keep track of health? In fact, it is one of the most important things to do, considering the stress and work that people need to put up with. So, fitness trackers always attract attention. The smartwatch makers have perhaps known this for a while now. Therefore, they are very keen to get as many fitness tracking features as they can in their device. And so is the desire of the buyers. Some smartwatches have to depend on smartphones for tracking activity, but a step counting tracker and heart rate monitor are the two most common things that are featured in a smartwatch. But when you have decided to spend quite a handsome amount of money on buying a good smart smartwatch, why not go for something that offers a little extra? If you are a fitness buff, you might like Fitbit Charge 5 or Garmin Forerunner 245, considering their extremely good health-tracking facility. Both of them help the users to read the notifications. It is good for females too, as it has the ability to record the symptoms of periods and compare the cycle against health stats like sleep and activity.

Nowadays, every smartwatch usually has a heart rate monitor and step tracker, but those are good that have GPS. It is, of course, attractive to the people who are intensely engaged in outdoor sports like cycling, hiking, etc. But to keep in mind, GPS will have a big impact on your smartwatch’s battery life. 

As long as the Heart rate monitor is concerned, it is good to mention that Fitbit Inspire 2 has proved to be very good at it. But the Apple watch’s heart rate sensor is famous for showing accurate results. Other features like ECG and SpO2 monitoring are also very important to have in a smartwatch. The ECG monitor should always be FDA-approved. Why ECG monitor is important and perhaps the most desirable feature of a smartwatch? Well, simply because it can detect the signs of atrial fibrillation. SpO2 monitoring, on the other hand, keeps track of the oxygen level in your blood to check whether you have any sign of sleep apnoea or any other respiratory condition.

ALSO READ: BoAt Wave Lite Smartwatch Launched In India With The 1.69-inch Display And SpO2 Sensor At Rs. 1999 | OyPrice

Perfect App Selection

Smartwatches are growing with every new innovation. Any smartwatch is always incomplete with apps that make the device smarter. Some models offer hundred or even thousands of apps now. The Apple Watch has more than twenty thousand apps. They are MapMyRun, ESPN, Uber, etc. Using these apps, you can basically do anything. You can download the apps from the Apple Watch App Store. Apart from that, Google’s Wear OS has thousands of apps that can be downloaded without the help of any smartphone. You can also use WhatsApp on the smartwatch and send voice messages if you want to send a quick reply to someone.

OLED Display or LED Display?

Most smartwatches offer colorful LCD and OLED display, which helps users see photos and notifications even under the bright sun. But to do that, smartwatches have been losing their battery life quite early. That’s why companies are trying to work on this problem and will solve it very soon. But until then we advise you to use a black-and-white display if you want to have the most extended stamina. Now, all the expensive smartwatches offer OLED displays and slimmer designs. Among all the players Samsung was the one who first brought a smartwatch that had an OLED display in 2014.

Calling and Payments

If you are one of those users who want to have proper utilization of their smartwatch, then there is a strong chance that you might be interested in being able to make calls from your smartwatch. It does not matter whether you have your phone with you or not. Whether you have turned it on or off, you can also use the numbers in your smartwatch to make calls. All you need to do is just pay a little extra money for separate data if you want to take advantage of cellular connectivity on your smartphone.

ALSO READ: The New OnePlus Nord Smartwatch Under Rs. 10,000 Might Get Launched In India Soon | OyPrice

Battery Life

Photo Credit: Amazon, boAt

Usually, a smartwatch’s battery life is better than a smartphone. But most of the time, it happens that if you have a colourful screen, your battery life is likely to end sooner. Likewise, if your smartwatch has voice capability, it will lose battery quite faster than the other ones of its species. Mostly an Apple smartwatch’s battery life lasts eighteen hours on a single charge. Most smartwatches possess wireless charging, and in order to get it fully charged, you need to lay it flat on a charging puck.

Pricing is Very Important

There is a various range of smartphones available in the market. But based on the price, the features vary. You will get a smartwatch at each and every price point starting from Rs. 2500 which can go all the way up to Rs. 50,000 or sometimes even above that. For example, Apple Watch Series 7 costs Rs. 45,000 and comes with a basic aluminum case, silicon band, and a built-in GPS. At the same time, some premium smartwatches from Garmin can cost Rs. 1,50,000. That’s why you will have to decide which one is best for you according to your budget and preferences.  

ALSO READ: Facebook’s Meta Smartwatch Might Be Coming Soon | Oyprice

Join us on Telegram, Facebook, or Twitter and stay up to date with the latest happenings in the tech industry.