TL;DR Unlike Glass/phones/tablets, it’s not so much another device as it is an extension of a phone. Life’s more convinient now, but if you’re not someone who’s ‘on the go’ a lot it’s probably not worth currently. Definitely has potential.
###Initial Impressions
It’s suprising uninteresting at first. After a relatively easy set-up process. It just turns on and tell you the time. With new gadgets, I’m always excited to play around with it, but it doesn’t do much. If you have no cards or notifcations, it’s basically just a watch that you can order around via “OK google”. This isn’t necesarily a bad thing - it follows Google’s mantra that wearables should be “glancable” - not distracting. There’s no app drawer with games to distract you. The interface is different, but simple.
I usually don’t wear anything on my wrist, so at first it felt like I just strapped on a clunkly phone. Unlike the samsung, which fits flush along the wrist, the LG G watch’s back is awkwardly flat. However, I do like the buckle strap which allows it to sit securely and comfortably.
Now that a few days have passed, I’ve gotten to use more features, and I’ve gotten a better idea of how things work.
###Features
I decided to test out and review many of the features of the demo. Here’s what I think:
####Messaging
Hallelujah! (Literally) say goodbye to fumbling out your phone on your morning commute after a “ping!” only to see that it’s just a text saying “k”. No more pausing along the sidewalk to hastily text a “I’m on my way”.
With a smartwatch, you can look down after a light vibration to see incoming messages and respond to them via voice. It’s extremely handy when I’m walking (which is pretty often - check out that pedometer). Voice recognition is wonderful (but isn’t always accurate), and the watch gives you a grace period of ~3 seconds to tap ‘cancel’ before automatically sending without any more effort on your part.
For me this is one of the biggest benefits of having a smartwatch.
####Pedometer
I promise I walk more than 0 steps a day
A pedometer’s built into the watch. Right now it simply keeps track of how many steps are taken and vibrates when your daily step goal is reached. (You can bring it up at any time by asking “Okay Google - show me my steps”.) Swiping to the right displays the week’s history, and swiping again brings up settings.
It’s simple and clean, and I except it’ll be pretty handy for Google fit purposes. Thus far, I’ve been using Acupedo on my phone. I think the pedometer on the watch is nice, but could use a few more features. It follows Google’s philosophy that wearables should be ‘glancable’, but tt’d be nice to connect the pedometer to the phone to display more robust analytics. For example, the history for the past month, and exact step counts. I’m also a little skeptical on it’s accuracy since a particularly bumpy car ride triggered a count increase. Perhaps a pause button?
####Notifications
As I said before, in some ways the watch is just like a large notifications bar (with a few extra features) strapped onto your wrist. It’s definitely nice not having to pull out your phone to check each vibrate/noise. For exmaple, when a new email comes, I can scan the first few lines and even archive them with a flick of my wrist without getting my phone out or opening a new tab on my laptop.
When you need to focus however, the mute mode comes in handy. Just swipe down on the main screen to activate it.
####Navigation
Navigation is pretty easy with the watch. Just ask google to “Navigate me to ….” and it’ll use your phone to pull up google maps. The watch simply displays the next instruction and vibrates occasionally to prompt you. It’s pretty handy when walking, though you’ll need GPS signal throughout your walk (which has been a problem for me).
####Reminders
During the keynote demo, someone asked the smart watch to “Remind me to pick up package when I get home.” The watch/phone would supposedly use GPS data to trigger a reminder. I tried something similar, and while Google seemed to understand the request “Reminder: Write blog post, When: At Home” - it never happened.
However, I had better luck with a more typical reminder using time. Ex. “In 5 minutes”, “At 4:30” etc.
####Google Now Cards Another fun feature of the watch is displaying google now cards. It’s more subtle than the other features. I find Google Now cards usually helpful (if mildly creepy), though I rarely see them on my phone. These bite-size cards of information shine on the watch. For example, waking up to find weather information, and commute times already on my watch is very pleasant. In addition, it picks up on little habits - my watch displayed the time to the Ferry Building today since I’ve been going to the farmer’s market the past three Saturdays.
###Final Thoughts
I think Android Wear adheres to Google’s goal of making wearables glancable. Dispite the current lack of capatible apps, it still makes day to day life more convinient by letting me spend less time fumbling with tech and more time actually doing things.
However, smartwatches’ main value right now comes from letting you do things without getting your phone out. Honestly, that’s the main value you gain by buying a watch - at least in my opinion. Even the apps that were at the demo - duolingo, allthecooks, lyft etc - did nothing on the smartwatch that couldn’t be done on your phone. I feel like life with a smartphone and life without smartphone is dramatically different, but life with a smart watch is only marginally more convinent than life without.
Of course, I say this only days after it’s release. I’m sure I’ll change my mind once new innovative apps take advantage of this new category of devices.