Published on June 25th, 2020 | by Sunit Nandi

The Perfect Smartwatch: What Do You Have To Look For?

Smartwatches may not garner as much admiration for craftsmanship as classic watches, but by no means should you settle for second best. In fact, smartwatches are developing so quickly that they require even greater inspection upon buying.

Knowing what to expect from the perfect smartwatch requires staying on top of current news, developments, and the market at large. This article is designed as a quick catch up on what you should be looking for when buying one, and how to get the most functionality out of such a small device.

Health

The reason why smartwatches are such a game-changer is their ability to monitor and guide you on a healthy lifestyle. Mostly, these functions are centered around movement (are you getting enough steps per day?) and heart rate.

There are some extra things they can calculate using both of these in combination with each other, though. For example, if it can sense you jogging (i.e the pedometer sees an increase in the speed of steps) and it can measure your heart rate, then it knows how many calories you’re roughly burning. This is a great tool for calorie-counters out there who are staying healthy.

The above features are absolutely essential when getting a smartwatch – there’s no reason to miss out on them. What you may need to know though, is which watches are more accurate in their sensors and measurement techniques. For this, it’s best to view reviews that compare smartwatches.

GPS is also a hugely important feature that not all smartwatches have, but can really help track your cycling, running, and so on without needing to take your phone with you. A top quality smartwatch should also be able to measure your sleeping patterns.

Communication

Having a heartbeat, pedometer, and so on may be a literal life-saver for some – but others may not use them as much as they thought. Arguably the most important thing in life is our connection to others, and this is where smartwatches are truly revolutionary. The perfect watch should allow you to communicate via SMS, phone calls, and/or social media with your friends and family. Whether this is internally, or merely as a proxy for your phone Via Bluetooth.

Another feature that heavily affects the commutation experience is whether or not it’s touchscreen. Being a touchscreen is vastly superior for scrolling through messages, social media, and replying to messages compared to physical buttons.

Media

The perfect smartwatch isn’t just for connecting to others and monitoring your health, though. It’s also about entertainment and convenience. A top quality smartwatch should be able to control your media on your phone with ease, such as pausing or skipping songs on Spotify.

Battery life

A hugely important factor in finding the ultimate smartwatch is how often it needs charging. The issue here is that the more powerful a smartwatch is, the more power it uses, and thus the faster the battery depletes. So don’t assume the 30-day smartwatch is better than one that only lasted 5 days – but also, you shouldn’t assume the 5-day on is better either, as it might just have a cheap battery. Ultimately, it depends on your needs. Most people will charge their watch at night, but if sleep tracking is important to you, find one with at least a week-long battery so you can miss out on sleep tracking only on the weekend when it’s perhaps less important.

Design

Watches were, of course, made in order to tell the time wherever you are. But they quickly become something very different: a statement of fashion, affluence, and style. We seem to have devolved back to the original emphasis on functionality as you can see in this article. There’s absolutely no reason for a watch to be unpleasant to look at. Watches from the big brands like Samsung and Apple are actually some of the nicest designs on the market, but of course, you pay a premium for that. It tends to be the copycat marketplace ones that lack branding, and thus lack elegance.

Longevity and display

The perfect smartwatch should last you years. This isn’t always easy to tell, but here are some factors at play. The watch should be 5 ATM water-resistant at the very, meaning it can withstand splashes and rain. Even better though, it should be fully waterproof up to 50 meters, like a handful of smartwatches are. The display should also be not only AMOLED but have strong gorilla glass so it doesn’t crack easily. Being easily viewable in the sun is perhaps more important than it’s a dynamic color range, seeing watches are still not used much as visual media outlets (i.e. photos and video) due to being small.

Picking a smartwatch is a lot of fun, especially if you’re into gadgets and functionality. Cybersecurity is still important to (which you can learn about here), as, after all, smartwatches have connections that can put you at risk.

Tags: look for, perfect, smartwatch, wearable

About the Author

Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.