I will not burden you with the pros and cons listed elsewhere, but Sony is an unsung contender in the smart watch arena. And unlike Pebble and Samsung, this is Sony's third edition in this category and they have had time to refine and improve upon their previous iterations.
A little back history on myself. As far as watches are concerned, I have owned many of the Casio data watches and even Microsoft's bulky attempt to create a data watch so I have plenty of experience of using watches for more than just reading the time. I purchased the previous version of the Sony Smart Watch after waiting for an opportunity to own a Pebble watch, even pre-ordering it. I canceled my order when they emailed me and just said to go pick it up at Best Buy. This left a bad taste in my mouth and decided to give the far cheaper Sony Smart Watch a try. Surprisingly, even with its deficiencies, I found it very useful and many people liked the charming little square on my wrist. Yes, you could not read it in direct sunlight, yes it disconnected and could be difficult re-pair, but all-in-all I really liked it.
Then six months back when Sony announced the Smart Watch 2, and how they had addressed all the cons of the previous version, it was a no-brainer and immediately ordered one from a non-prime seller two weeks ago. Last week it arrived and my feelings are that Sony has addressed many, if not all of the weaknesses in the previous version and if it hasn't made clear, the trans-reflective LCD panel actually becomes more readable with more direct light. And this is not only with the clock face, but any message that appears on the face. If you don't realize the potential of just this option alone, imagine being outdoors working on something and just rotating your wrist slightly to see very clear text message, email, whatever. This alone was worth the $130 upgrade price over the previous model.
Power for me has been a mixed. I receive notifications for six email accounts, as well as SMS, CIDs, task and calendar events, so my watch is constantly going off. If you keep the standard brightness level and change the watch face to white, I could not last out the day. I have since reversed the watch face and lowered the brightness and when I charge at night, I am still at 70-80%. On that note, the power level indicator is true battery level similar to your phone, so it is easy to see at what level your battery is. It also alerts you to a low battery level, maybe to an annoying amount, so you can't blame Sony if you don't charge it. Finally, I give credit to the genius engineer who decided to put a micro-USB connector. Now I can charge it anywhere and no longer have to play the charger contact point game as I did in the previous version to make sure it is charging.
Okay, now for the quarks. It still disconnects and reconnects, but all my BT devices do, and this is the case with many of my Android devices so I won't blame Sony for this one. For the person who felt the BT interfered with their BT speakerphone, I have had no problem with the five speaker/ear piece type devices, so it maybe just his BT device. I use Samsung and Jawbones and few unknown brands without a problem other than a quick disconnect or two. One other quark and that is with the watch face. For some reason the time will freeze, or more likely the watch face is not updating and the time will be few minutes to a half hour off. This is caused some strange looks from others who think I have lost it or my watch is broken. If I press the status button and the home button I can see the true time in the top right hand corner, which is correct -- strange. One other thing, you know longer lose the ability to tell time if you lose or turn of your phones BT so it still functions as, who would have guessed an actual time telling watch.
Good job Sony. I had faith in your ability to still crank out great tech and finally get it that you can make more money opening devices to a common standard so that I could use it with my Samsung S4 -- something that the Samsung Gear can't do.
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This Item  Sony Smart Watch SW2 for Android Phones |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | Currently unavailable. | $23.99 | $23.99 | -12% $14.99 Typical: $16.99 | $24.99 |
| Delivery | — | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 |
| Customer Ratings | |||||
| Battery life | |||||
| Sold By | — | ZXW-US | ZXW-US | Leeann-US | Edward CJ STORE |
| operating system | Android, Android | Android and iOS | Android and iOS | Android and iOS | — |
| display size | 1.6 inches | 1.9 inches | — | 1.9 inches | 1.32 inches |
| connectivity tech | Bluetooth | Bluetooth | Bluetooth | Bluetooth | Bluetooth |
| supported applications | Calendar, Music Player, Phone, text messaging | Reminders, Camera, Pedo, Email | Sleep Monitor | Multisport Tracker, Reminders, Phone | Social Media |
| input interface | touch screen | dial | touch screen | touch screen | touch screen |
| wireless standard | bluetooth | bluetooth | bluetooth | bluetooth | — |
| water resistance | water resistant | waterproof | waterproof | waterproof | waterproof |
| battery power | — | 230 milliamp hours | 230 milliamp hours | 230 milliamp hours | — |
| gps navigation | — | GPS Via Smartphone | Built-in GPS | GPS Via Smartphone | — |
| band color | black | — | blue | — | pink |
Reviews with images
Pebble, Galaxy Gear, Sony Smart Watch 2, or wait till 3?
What I Liked:-Lightweight-Stylish and doesn't scream "IM A SMARTWATCH"-Always on low-powered display that tells you the time and date-Changeable watch face designs, provided by Sony-Long lasting battery-IP57 Weather & Dust ResistantWhat I didn't like:-Cheap factory watch strap that attracts lint and dust-Low Resolution Screen-Clunky Apps and App installation methods-Loud Vibrating alert mechanism that has no sensitivity control-No Speaker-No MicrophoneMy Thoughts:Like anything 'new-tech', at the time for those who will be buying smart watches in the next few months, are early adopters.There will be bugs, there will be defects and there will be something better around the corner in the following months that will do it better, faster and last longer.That being said, the Sony Smart Watch 2 is a neat device that gives you an extension of notifications from your Smart Phone to your wrist.It is packaged with an awful, cheap, and dust/dirt attracting watch band that fellow reviewers complain about breaking easily after use. I agree, it does seem very fragile. Quit being cheap Sony and bundle this baby with a decent watch strap!Why did I choose this watch over its competitors?Unlike the Galaxy Gear by Samsung, the Sony Smart Watch 2 battery lasts longer, about 4 days per charge of average use versus 48 hours as many report with the Galaxy Gear. The Sony is weather/water/dust resistant according to IP57 standards. So I could get away with wearing this watch in the shower, outdoors in crazy weather, and the occasional splash of water whilst the washing of my hands.Additionally, the Sony Smart Watch 2 has a 'Low-Power' reflective display that enables the device to always show the current time and day-date on the watch face at a glance whether on your wrist or the table. The Galaxy Gear has to powered on by a defined motion or the pressing of the watches button.I honestly like being able to glance down quickly at my wrist and see the time versus doing anything else to produce the display to show me what day and time it is. This feature of the Sony is simply genius and executed beautifully and legible even in the lowest of ambient light. When it gets pitch black dark, simply press the button on the Sony's side and the display is illuminated.Water & weather resistance, a longer battery life, and the ability read the watch face at a glance without needing any additional input is why I chose the SW2 over Galaxy Gear. Albeit Sony's watch has a lower-res display and you cannot place or take calls via the watch itself. I found myself entering predefined text message replies so I could at least respond to incoming texts. There is no on-screen keyboard provided by Sony's apps. There are some that you can purchase by developers in the Google Play market.Pebble smart watch just looks like an etch-a-sketch with an ugly and bulky fascia. Perhaps the Pebble Steel will fancy it up a notch, well the fascia anyway. I like a screen, a coloured screen. I am biased as I purely discredited the Pebble for it's e-paper ink display type. The cool feature I like of the new Pebble Steel is a built in status LED that can notify you of missed calls, emails, and messages.I use this watch with my Samsung Note 3. It is awkward because you have to download apps within the app for apps on the watch. You download an app that is made by Sony that syncs the Apps to your watch via bluetooth and also handles any firmware updates to the watch itself. The Gmail app keeps crashing on my Galaxy Note 3 and tends to bug out on the phone as well.Sony just pushed it's Smart Watch 3 blueprints through to the FCC. Expect a new Sony Smart Watch 3 in the coming weeks or months. Additionally the new Galaxy Gear 2 will be out. Here we go again!Personally, I am going to wait and see what else is brought to the table, that is unless I can score the Sony, Pebble, or Galaxy older models at a price under $100.Any questions or comments, post away I'll be more than happy to help.
Top reviews from other countries
Sam
Great watch Links easily with mu Sony Phone
Reviewed in Canada on February 12, 2016
