As expected, Sony has announced the SmartWatch 2 at the Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai. Taking over from the last SmartWatch that Sony released last year, the SmartWatch 2 is shown as being a well crafted device with what appear to be some design cues taken from the Xperia Z.
Hardware wise, the SmartWatch 2 is constructed with an Aluminium body and comes with a 1.6″ 220 x 176 resolution touch enabled, Transflective LCD screen, which Sony advise is designed to be easy to read in sunlight. The device is charged via a microUSB port and on a full charge, the battery should last between 5-6 days for low usage and 3-4 days on ‘typical usage.
Wireless wise, the watch contains Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC is included to make pairing that much easier to the entire range of Sony devices and accessories which include wireless headsets, portable speakers, TVs and SmartTags.
While Sony advise that the SmartWatch2 is IP57 certified, they then go straight on to advise that the watch is not suitable for showering, bathing, swimming, diving, snorkeling, water related work and fishing. Even the band included is neither water or splashproof although the SmartWatch2 is compatible with any 24mm watch strap.
The SmartWatch2 is aiming to fulfill the role of being a second screen for your Android smartphone, with the accessory being billed as the most advanced smartwatch available with more dedicated apps than any other smartwatch the complete range of functions will require additional apps installed on your phone, however the possibilities with the SmartWatch 2 will allow you to use it to :
- Handle your calls by a simple touch of your wrist.
- Take a photo remotely from your SmartWatch, using a smart camera app.
- Control your presentations remotely using Presentation Pal.
- Taking a run or on the bike? Select a mapping app on SmartWatch to check your route with a quick glance at your wrist.
- Read previously downloaded e-mails when not connected to your phone.
- Use lifestyle apps like Runtastic to map and instantly track your fitness activities on the go.
- Quickly and easily adjust the tracks and volume on your music player, without ever taking your phone from your pocket.
Sony does seem to have a pedigree in the wearable computing market, specifically in the SmartWatch category. While Pebble does seem to be getting all the glory at this stage from the mass market, Pebble is at heart a very new startup and it remains to be seen what will happen once a major corporation gets involved and puts the entire weight of their R&D department behind the development of apps for these devices.
Sony has advised that the SmartWatch 2 will be available worldwide in September this year, so look out for pricing to be announced locally as we get closer to the launch date.
Supposed to be released in July, then was told 9 September, but now told it won’t be released until the end of September due to firmware issues.
Next thing we know, we’ll have a smart ring that controls our smart watch that controls our smart phone.
Looking forward to be able to get a smart watch that has BTLE and is waterPROOF.
Looks interesting. Shame about the lack of BLE support
“remains to be seen what will happen once a major corporation gets
involved and puts the entire weight of their R&D department behind
the development of apps for these devices.”
You are kidding right?
This is the third iteration of this device and Sony still havn’t even gotten around to including BTLE to drastically improve battery life.
On the bright side, Sony is becoming a much better open source community member and has recently release some specs for the previous model to help build alternate firmware: http://developer.sonymobile.com/services/open-smartwatch-project/smartwatch-hacker-guide/
Sony can’t include BLE because Android itself doesn’t include BLE support, it’s supposed to be coming with the next iteration of Android. So far Samsung, HTC, Sony et al have had to include their own implementations of the Bluetooth 4 Low Energy software and even then not all of the OHA members making phones include BLE Support so including it and aiming it as a second screen device for all Android phones would mean that some would be excluded. What I was intending to get across with that line is that up until now, the smart watches seem to have… Read more »
Yes I’m hoping that they do devote more resources to it, their initial efforts especially on the app side of the Liveview (which I actually have) and the smart watch have been very subpar. I’d politely disagree with you on them not being able to ship BTLE support, its more a case of them choosing not to. Of course it would have been more effort on the app development side to support each manufacturers existing BTLE APIs, but hardly insurmountable given their significant resources (as you point out) and equally would have been far more forward looking, as it is,… Read more »
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Who cares? It’s not like you’re going to be watching movies on it!
176ppi when put into pdc. Not very high
Who cares? It’s not like you’re going to be watching movies on it!