The Top 5 best smartwatches 2014 list
1. PEBBLE
Pebble is one of the most popular smartwatch and sold, with distinctive characteristics that make it unique and different from other smartwatch. The first screen that instead of adopting the traditional LCD technology, opts for an e-ink screen, the same used by the e-book reader, where visibility is at the highest level even under sunlight. Don't miss the back-lighting, which is activated by a brightness sensor if the ambient light is not sufficient to provide good visibility and only if we rotate your wrist towards your eyes, thanks to the accelerometer recognizes the user's movements.
The use of e-ink technology in 1.26 inches display with resolution 114 x 168 pixels is also the result of an autonomy at the highest levels, between 5 and 7 days depending on usage. This is not, however, touch screen, not essential and often difficult interaction on a small screen like a smartwatch. The interaction occurs instead through four side buttons, one on the left, to go back, and three on the right ("up", "Down", "confirmation").
The other distinctive feature of Pebble is waterproof (up to 5 atmospheres). No problem to use it in the rain, or if we were to turn our water Pebble. In order to ensure impermeability recharge occurs through magnetic connection through a particular offered connector supplied.
The hardware sector revolves around the processor ARM Cortex-M3 to 80 MHz, while the operating system is proprietary. Unlike other known smartwatch, as the Galaxy Gear or Sony Inpulse (both generations), is compatible with both Android and iPhone, with which you can connect through Bluetooth. The operating system is simple and intuitive, with a main screen, called the Watchface, freely customizable. Through the Musicsection, you can use the Bluetooth remote control for smartwatch as control music playback on your smartphone.
There are any other options that you expect from a smartphone, like display of notices, such as a private message on Facebook, or a text message, or a message on Whatsapp, or a missed call: all simple actions for which there is no need to remove your smartphone from your pocket.
Pebble is available in 5 different colors (black, white, gray, Orange, and red). Is it possible to buy the Pebble comes direct from the manufacturer's website, the attractive price of $ 150. Alternatively, you can purchase it on Amazon or eBay.
Look at the offers of: Amazon.com
2 PEBBLE STEEL
1. PEBBLE
Pebble is one of the most popular smartwatch and sold, with distinctive characteristics that make it unique and different from other smartwatch. The first screen that instead of adopting the traditional LCD technology, opts for an e-ink screen, the same used by the e-book reader, where visibility is at the highest level even under sunlight. Don't miss the back-lighting, which is activated by a brightness sensor if the ambient light is not sufficient to provide good visibility and only if we rotate your wrist towards your eyes, thanks to the accelerometer recognizes the user's movements.
The use of e-ink technology in 1.26 inches display with resolution 114 x 168 pixels is also the result of an autonomy at the highest levels, between 5 and 7 days depending on usage. This is not, however, touch screen, not essential and often difficult interaction on a small screen like a smartwatch. The interaction occurs instead through four side buttons, one on the left, to go back, and three on the right ("up", "Down", "confirmation").
The other distinctive feature of Pebble is waterproof (up to 5 atmospheres). No problem to use it in the rain, or if we were to turn our water Pebble. In order to ensure impermeability recharge occurs through magnetic connection through a particular offered connector supplied.
The hardware sector revolves around the processor ARM Cortex-M3 to 80 MHz, while the operating system is proprietary. Unlike other known smartwatch, as the Galaxy Gear or Sony Inpulse (both generations), is compatible with both Android and iPhone, with which you can connect through Bluetooth. The operating system is simple and intuitive, with a main screen, called the Watchface, freely customizable. Through the Musicsection, you can use the Bluetooth remote control for smartwatch as control music playback on your smartphone.
There are any other options that you expect from a smartphone, like display of notices, such as a private message on Facebook, or a text message, or a message on Whatsapp, or a missed call: all simple actions for which there is no need to remove your smartphone from your pocket.
Pebble is available in 5 different colors (black, white, gray, Orange, and red). Is it possible to buy the Pebble comes direct from the manufacturer's website, the attractive price of $ 150. Alternatively, you can purchase it on Amazon or eBay.
Look at the offers of: Amazon.com
2 PEBBLE STEEL
At CES 2014 introduces a new model of successful Pebble: Pebble Steel. As the name suggests the difference is mainly in materials used as Pebble Steel looks like a sleek steel smartwatch (with stainless steel or leather, depending on the version), rather than in plastic materials as the traditional version.
Aesthetic differences are in weight, which inevitably becomes larger due to the use of metallic materials, despite the smaller dimensions. The display is now protected by Gorilla Glass and there is also an LED that indicates the battery charge level.
The introductory price is $ 249 (about 180 dollars) and shipments will begin at the end of the month (January 2014). Pebble Steel is available in two colors: Brushed Stainless and Black Matte, both with double stainless steel option/leather.
Look at the offers of: Amazon.com
3. GALAXY GEAR
Among all the smartwatch currently on the market, Galaxy Gear is certainly the most publicized, thanks to the aggressive marketing campaign of Korean House, attempting to conquer significant market shares even in fields other than telephony.
Galaxy Gear, the smartwatch by Samsung presented in the magnificent showcase of the IFA Berlin 2013, has a touch-screen display from 1.63 inches technology -based Super AMOLED 320 × 320 pixels, offering a density of pixels per inch ppi 277well, definitely superior to any other smartphone on the market, as well as hardware, based on an 800 Mhz processor and 512 MB RAM, does not fear comparison with the models proposed by the competition. Internal memory for data storage is 4 GB.
On the contrary we strap a 1.9 Megapixel camera capable of 720 p video recording, but limited to 10 seconds. The dotzione of a camera may appear redundant. While it is true that the time required to take a picture with the smartwatch (just a simple swipe down and a tap on the screen), is definitely less than what it take to pull the phone out of your pocket, unlock it and enable the camera to quickly point the wrist towards the object to capture little action seems "natural". The photo quality cannot be compared to that of any smartphone on the market, and it is clear that it is preferable to use your smartphone to snap pictures. Despite this it is a feature that distinguishes the Galaxy Gear from the competition.
Do not miss the opportunity to receive and make calls (also without headset) through a double microphone and a speaker. Coupling with a smartphone via the Bluetooth (version 4.0) that includes support for BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).
The sensors side Gear comes with Accelerometer and gyroscope. Instead, the battery is 315mAh that according to estimates of the Korean House should allow an autonomy of about 24 hours but that in practice manage to exceed expectations, providing two days of use on a single charge.
The rich functional sector is one of the main advantages offered by Galaxy Gear. The classic one smartwatch features, such as receiving notifications, you add S-Voice to interact vocally with the smartwatch, or Smart Relay that allows you to view your smartphone the same content watched on Galaxy Gear at that time, or Voice Memo, to record conversations or voice messages directly from your wrist and turn them into clipboard visible GALAXY family devices. Don't miss Pedometer, pedometer that tracks not only the number of steps and distance travelled, but also the calories burned, or Find My Device to always know where is your smartphone, revealing the location by acoustic signal or through the lighting of the screen.
To these are added specially: applications like Evernote Watch, Ebay, RunKeeper, Path, Pocket...etc etc. installation once installed Gear Manager, for managing applications.
The compatibility of Galaxy Gear unfortunately limited to next-generation devices that have Android 4.3 as BLE Protocol requires only the latest version of Android.
The Galaxy Gear came out in Italy in October 2013 at a starting price of 299 euro, 100 euro higher than the rival Sony. It is available in 6 different colors: Jet Black, Mocha Gray, Wild Orange, Oatmeal Beige, Gold and Lime Green, combined with 10 different themes available for the time display.
Look at the offers of: Amazon.com
4. SONY INPULSE 2
If there is limited to manufacturers of smartphones that are launched in the production of smartwatch, Sony Inpulse 2 is the main antagonist of the Galaxy Gear, at a price much lower, however, amounting to about 150 euros and with a broad spectrum compatibility, including most devices with Android OS 4.0 or higher.
Aesthetically relies on a squared design by good materials, solid and well assembled, you can match a strap, leather, silicone or aluminium depending on the model). The dimensions are 41.6 x 41.1 x 9 mm thick, and a total weight of only 123 g. As usual, Sony Sony Inpulse 2 has certified IP57, offering a chance to soak it in water up to 1 m deep (for a maximum time of 30 minutes) and the good resistance to dust.
The 1.6-inch LCD screen (resolution of 220 x 176 pixels) is placed above the three capacitive Android buttons (Back, Home and Menu). The Transflective technology enhances the visibility of the smartwatch under sunlight, the main defect that had characterized the first version. The brightness sensor enables the back-lighting in unlit areas.
Autonomy declared, up to 4 days, is reduced to about 3 days with constant synchronization applications. smartwatch 2 can be paired to the Android smartphone via Bluetooth (offered in version 4.0), NFC. Before use it is necessary to install an application owner: Smart Connect. Once installed you can install all commonly used applications like Gmail, Twitter or Facebook via the Play Store, as well as the app for the running or the music player. Once installed will be accessible in the home screens. The display of the interface now has 10 different options of choice.
The hardware is based on a Qualcomm processor M3 from 200 MHz, less performant compared to Exynos from 800 MHz Samsung Galaxy Gear but sufficient to guarantee a good fluidity.
Sony Inpulse 2 has an introductory price of 189 euros for the version with silicone strap and 199 euros for the version with aluminium strap.
Look at the offers of: Amazon.com
5 I'M WATCH
Few people know that I'm Watch, smartwatch best available on the market, is the result of an Italian company, I'm Spa, based in Dubai, in the province of Vicenza. I'm Watch is a smartwatch with Android 2.1, which proposes a smartwatch ideal for notifications such as emails or updates to social networks like Facebook or Twitter.
Difficult, indeed impossible not to notice it, given the extensive 1.54-inch LCD display with 240 x 240 pixels, which stands on a sturdy aluminum body. The dimensions are 52 mm high, 40 mm wide and 10 mm thick, for a total weight of approximately 100 grams, considerably higher than the Sony Inpulse or Pebble, given the use of metallic materials coupled with generous dimensions.
The design is quite sophisticated, look due perhaps to the presence of two showy logos "i'm watch" posts on the plastic strap wide almost comparable to that of the smartwatch. On the sides of the body of the smartwach, there is a circular button on the right side and an audio jack on the left used to recharge (there is a proprietary charging cable), and the audio output.
The hardware includes a IMX233 processor with 128 MB of RAM, while the internal memory for data storage is 4 GB.
I'm Watch is able to interface with an iPhone, and has a number of applications, to check on the status of social (Facebook and Twitter), e-mails, the trend on the stock market, the weather, pictures of Instagram, besides a news aggregator that interfaces with Google News. There are other basic applications for using the smartwatch as the agenda along with a digital compass and a calculator.
To distinguish it from other smartwatch is the connection with the I'm Cloud service, which is used as the setting of nearly all of the features associated with smartwatch (e.g. app synchronization frequency, or duration of connection via Bluetooth), and within which, in the section I'm market, find a good number of applications to install, most of which are available free of charge.
Use as a watch is limited to choosing between the time displayed on the home screen of Android, an analog clock with the logo "i'm watch" prominently displayed, and an application dedicated "I'm Time".
The non-removable battery 450 mAh charging through your PC or a wall charger, but it is not included in this package (as well as earphones, purchased separately). The autonomy is one of the weaknesses I'm Watch, given that the already meagre 18 hours of battery life in normal operation conditions, greatly reducing when calling or listening to MP3s.
The selling price of I'm Watch is for 299 euro, in line with the brand's flagship smartwatch, as the Galaxy Gear.
Look at the offers of: Amazon.com