Smartwatches have been around for quite a time now, but 2016 marked the beginning of another era in the smartwatch technology. The fashion of wearable technology has advanced with the advent of the smartwatch top brands like the Fossil, Casio, Apple, Samsung, Nixon, Tag Heuer offer their models; all of these adding to their fashion gear with the wearable technology.

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What is a smartwatch?

In simple words, a smartwatch is a wristwatch which has additional features of displaying certain options on a screen. It is much more than just a watch that is telling the user the correct time. The smartwatch can be used to accept or decline calls, read or send messages, e-mails and notify you about certain events.

How do smartwatches work?

For an enhanced functioning, a smartwatch must be connected to a smartphone usually via the Bluetooth. Some specialized devices can be paired with the smartphone using the NFC chips as well. Once the smartwatch is connected to the smartphone, the user can enable the different types of notifications which he/she would want to be displayed on the watch like the calls, messages, e-mails and so more. There are many smartwatches which are equipped to do special tasks like playing music, keeping a fitness status, and some allow us to play games.

Which smartwatch to buy?

With the development of the smartwatch technology, many leading technology brands have made themselves busy in developing and marketing the best and the most reliable range of smartwatch for the users. With the myriad of smartwatch brands like Sony, Samsung, Apple, Fossil and more, the users can count on the effective features and optimize their decision of smartwatch buying. One can also consider the budget set for oneself before buying smartwatch of a particular brand.

 

Tips for buying a smartwatch

There are several reasons to buy a smartwatch. For instance, a technology-efficient smartwatch can allow the notifications for calls, messages, e-mails and so more along with offering fitness and gaming options. If you are planning to buy a smartwatch, there are several things to consider. Have a read:

 

Make Selection of the Right Device

The smartwatch that you will buy would need to be connected to the smartphone to function properly. Hence, the efficient functioning of the smartwatch would greatly depend on the kind of smartphone that you are currently using. For instance, the wearable technology from Apple, the Apple smartwatch, can be connected only to iPhones. But in the vice versa case, the Apple smartphones, iPhones, can support a wide range of smartwatches like the Pebble watches as well.

Samsung has its own Tizen OS to run and implement the Samsung smartwatches. Many of the older versions of Samsung smartwatches including the Gear 2 Neo have been designed to function on a limited number of Samsung smartphones only. The newer versions of the Samsung smartwatches including the Gear S2 and Gear S3 models are highly compatible with several ranges of Android smartphones.

Hence, it is essential to give proper attention to the model of the smartphone that is being used to establish the connection with the wearable technology. It is imperative to ensure that the smartphone is compatible with the operating system of the smartwatch to avoid any hassle in operations and functioning.

 

The apps that can run

The basic function of the use of the smartwatch technology by an individual is to enable the apps on it. As in most cases, the smartwatch is paired to a particular smartphone, most wearable technologies still have their inbuilt set of apps in the App store. These enhance the feature list and the functioning of any wearable technology device. For instance, Apple many apps which are made compatible in its default store, with the smartwatch of Apple offering many as well. Then, there is Samsung Tizen which is catching up with Apple’s smartwatch by offering more than thousand inbuilt apps in its store. There is, however, no beating the Pebble smartwatch brand which offers as many as 13,000 inbuilt apps in its smartwatch app store.

 

The right features

While buying smartwatch of a particular brand, it is essential to ensure that you are provided with the right amount of features you desire. For most of the smartwatches, they speak of an elegant digital display which reflects the time, date and notifications along with the presence of specialised apps. In addition to the special requirement of the apps, you must also consider the battery life of the smartwatch. Both, the battery and the display must go hand in hand by offering maximum durability and longevity. However, there are times when both of these are offered as the vice-versa case by the manufacturers. For instance, if you wish to have a smartwatch with longer battery life, then you must compromise on the screen quality as the manufacturers would need to employ the use of low energy-consuming e-paper or low energy LCD screens like in the cases of Garmin Vivoactive, Pebble, and Vector Luna.

However, if you wish to have splendid smartwatch display like in the case of Apple smartwatch, you will have to compromise with the battery life.

The additional features offered by the wearable technology should include the notification of the messages. They must be configured to notify the user about the calls, messages, E-mails and several other notifications. There are several smartwatches supported by the Android Operating System, which gets connected to the Wi-Fi to provide ease of use. For many fitness addicts, some smartwatch brands also offer fitness wearable technology which monitors your fitness status. Some Android smartwatches like the Sony SmartWatch 3, the Polar M600 and the Moto 360 Sport are all enabled to track the sports activities like running, jogging, swimming and more.

Pebble has its fitness features enabled by Misfit which is used to track and keep a record of the sleeping hours and the working hours as well.

 

Customization

If you want to carry your wearable technology with style, you can even have the smartwatch customized for yourself as per your requirement. Several smartwatch brands like the Fossil Q Wander, LG Watch Urbane, Pebble Time Steel and more, have introduced the wearable technology with much style and swagger. The designer smartwatches are offered by the brands like Michael Kors and Tag Heuer which aim at offering technology with aesthetic style to it. The Apple smartwatches come with a range of stylish and modish straps for the band of the watch which has several fitting options ranging from 16mm, 20mm, and 22mm as per your wrist setting.

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