2014 is the year of the smartwatch. These wearable accessories offer notifications, fitness tracking and even the time, all on your wrist. In this article, we’ll share our recommendations for the five best smartwatches on the market.
5. Sony SmartWatch 2
Sony were one of the first mobile companies to create a smartwatch, letting them hit a second generation before most companies had come out with their first. The SmartWatch 2 is a solid choice, with a transflective display that’s easy to read in sunlight, decent battery life and a reasonable amount of apps. The price is right too, usually coming in a fair bit under £100. Unfortunately for Sony, Google’s new Android Wear OS is gaining speed fast, and the SmartWatch 2 is far less attractive as a development target – meaning we’ll see less apps in the future.
4. Samsung Gear 2
The Samsung Gear 2 is another watch to be released just before Android Wear, so it too will have to fight for developers to create apps for it, despite quite strong sales. The Gear 2 is the ultimate do-everything watch, with tons of functionality you won’t find anywhere else – including a built-in camera and speaker, so you can take phone calls and photos from your wrist. It’s all very futuristic, but poor battery life, medicore interface and relatively high price point make the Gear 2 a poor choice if you’re not interested in its additional functions and/or you don’t have a Samsung phone to use it with.
3. LG G Watch
The LG G Watch is one of two Android Wear smartwatches to be released this month, giving the watch a clean touch and voice interface and a rapidly growing stable of apps. The watch’s square design isn’t ground-breaking, but it does the job, and its 400 mAh battery and Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor provide lasting performance. At £150, the G Watch is decently priced too.
2. Pebble
The Pebble is the first popular smartwatch, the result of a record-breaking crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter. Unlike the other watches on this list, the Pebble opts for a Kindle-style e-ink display, allowing it to last much longer – you can get about a week from a Pebble, compared to a day or two from LCD/AMOLED screens. The black-and-white display has a low refresh rate though, limited the kind of apps that can run on it.
In terms of style, the Pebble is a mixed bag. The original, cheaper model is plasticky and hobbyist in looks, although the later Pebble Steel improves on this front considerably. Another plus point is that the Pebble works with iOS and Android equally well, making it one of the few good cross-platform options. The final consideration, apps, goes the Pebble’s favour as well, thanks to a hearty developer community that has been working for a long time now.
- Pebble Smartwatch – Jet Black
- Pebble Smartwatch – Orange
- Pebble Smartwatch – Cherry Red
- Pebble Smartwatch – Grey
- Pebble Smartwatch – Arctic White
- Pebble Steel Smartwatch – Brushed Stainless
1. Samsung Gear Live
The Gear Live is the other Android Wear smartwatch to debut this month. Compared to the G Watch, the Gear Live has a cleaner look with a more form-fitting shape, a neater watch-band and a higher-resolution Super AMOLED display. The G Watch does compare favourably on some points though, as the Gear Live has a 25% smaller battery and fewer watch-faces pre-installed. On balance, the Gear Live is probably the better option of the two, and that’s enough to give it the first place ranking this time around.
Conclusion
While the G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live are two great additions to the smartwatch ecosystem, there’s still much more to come that’ll certainly shake up the rankings. The Moto 360 from Motorola launches this fall and has a beautiful circular dial, and runs the same excellent Android Wear OS as the G Watch and Gear Live. Apple’s rumoured iWatch is another big contender, although we don’t yet know what exactly what it will look like. Knowing Apple though, it could be a blockbuster.
It looks like it’ll be an exciting few months. Stay tuned for the latest smartwatch news right here at Mobile Fun, and be sure to let us know what you thought of the ranking in our comments below! You can also reach us on Twitter @mobilefun.